LITERAL , TRANSLATION FIRST THREE BOOKS FRENDEVILLE'S LIVY. GRADUATE-SCHOLAR OF THE UNIVERSITY. DUBLIN: PRINTED FOR JOHN GUMMING, 16, LOWER ORMOND QUAY. MDCCCXXX. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY THOMAS i. WHITE, 140, ABBEY STREET. LIVY'S PREFACE. WHETHER, in tracing the series of the Roman History, from the foundation of the city, I shall employ my time to good purpose, is a question which I cannot positively determine; nor, were it possible, would I venture to pronounce such determination; for I am aware that the matter is of high antiquity, and has been already treated by many others ; the latest writers always sup- posing themselves capable, either of throwing some new light on the subject, or, by the supe- riority of their talents for composition, of excelr ling the more inelegant writers who preceded them. However that may be, I shall, at all events, derive no small satisfaction from the reflection that my best endeavours have been exerted in transmitting to posterity the achievements of the greatest people in the world; and if, amidst such a multitude of writers, my name should not emerge from obscurity, I shall console myself by attributing it to the eminent merit of those who stand in my way in the pursuit of fame. It may be further observed, that such a subject ^50426 ii PREFACE. must require a work of immense extent, as our researches must be carried back through a space of more than seven hundred years; that the state has, from very small beginnings, gradually in- creased to such a magnitude, that it is now dis- tressed by its own bulk; and that there is every reason to apprehend that the generality of read- ers will receive but little pleasure from the ac- counts of its first origin, or of the times immedi- ately succeeding, but will be impatient to arrive at that period, in which the powers of this over- grown state have been long employed in work- ing their own destruction. On the other hand, this much will be derived from my labour, that, so long at least as I shall have my thoughts to- tally occupied in investigating the transactions of such distant ages, without being embarrassed by any of those unpleasing considerations, in res- pect of later days, which, though they might not have power to warp a writer's mind from the truth, would yet be sufficient to create uneasi- ness, I shall withdraw myself from the sight of the many evils to which our eyes have been so long accustomed J As to the relations which have been handed down of events prior to the found- ing of the city, or to the circumstances that gave occasion to its being founded, and which bear the semblance rather of poetic fictions, than of authentic records of history these, I have no intention either to maintain or refute. Antiquity PREFACE. iii is always indulged with the privilege of rendering the origin of cities more venerable, by intermix- ing divine with human agency; and if any nation may claim the privilege of being allowed to con- sider its original as sacred, and to attribute it to the operations of the gods, surely the Roman people, who rank so high in military fame, may well expect, that, while they choose to repre- sent Mars as their own parent, and that of their founder, the other nations of the world may ac- quiesce in this, with the same deference with which they acknowledge their sovereignty. But what degree of attention or credit may be given to these and such-like matters I shall not consi- der as very material. To the following consider- ations, I wish every one seriously and earnestly to attend; by what kind of men, and by what sort of conduct, in peace and war, the empire has been both acquired and extended : then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts the structure of ancient morals, at first, as it were, leaning aside, then sinking far- ther and farther, then beginning to fall precipi- tate, until he arrives at the present times, when our vices have attained to such a height of enor- mity, that we can no longer endure either the burden of them, or the sharpness of the neces- sary remedies. This is the great advantage to be derived from the study of history; indeed the only one which can make it answer any profitable iv PREFACE. and salutary purpose ; for, being abundantly fur- nished with clear and distinct examples of every kind of conduct, we may select for ourselves, and for the state to which we belong, such as are worthy of imitation ; and, carefully noting such, as, being dishonourable in their principles, are equally so in their effects, learn to avoid them. Now, either partiality to the subject of my in- tended work mislaeds me, or there never was any state either greater, or of purer morals, or richer in good examples, than this of Rome ; nor was there ever any city into which avarice and luxury made their entrance so late, or where poverty and frugality were so highly and so long held in honour ; men contracting their desires in proportion to the narrowness of their circum- stances. Of late years, indeed, opulance has introduced a greediness for gain, and the bound- less variety of dissolute pleasures has created, in many, a passion for ruining themselves, and all around them. But let us, in the first stage at least of this undertaking, avoid gloomy reflec- tions, which, when perhaps unavoidable, will not, even then, be agreeable. If it were cus- tomary with us, as it is with poets, we would more willingly begin with good omens, and vows, and prayers to the gods and goddesses, that they would propitiously grant success to our endea- vours, in prosecution of so arduous a task. PREFACE. THE following translation of the first three Books of Livy, has been undertaken from a con- viction, that no version of that writer has yet ap- peared in this country, which was at all calculated to meet the exigencies of public schools, or private students : that by Gordon being hitherto (at least in the country parts of Ireland,) generally, if not exclusively, adopted. Of that work, it will at present be sufficient to observe, that neither closeness, nor even accuracy, can be j ustly counted amongst its characteristics. Nor are those defects redeemed by that purity of style, and classical energy of diction, which so strongly recommend the pages ofJBaker to the gentleman, and the scho- lar. But, independently of its high price, which must always render it inaccessible to the generality of young readers, Baker's work is not, nor indeed does it profess to be, a literal translation. To the advanced student, who has already mastered the difficulties, and been acquainted with the frame of the Latin language, it affords an excellent and iv PREFACE. useful model of liberal translation ; but school-boy, whose attainment in the fieh sical labour has not extended beyond tl acquirement of words, and these too in a limited acceptation, it yields no relief whatsoever from the drudgery of study, and but little incentive to its vigorous prosecution. For though, with very few exceptions indeed, it presents a true image of the author's meaning, yet from its ambitious love of ornament, it too often conceals beneath the rich- ness of the drapery, that particular expression, and those natural features of the original, from a minute observance of which, the genuine beauties of Livy can alone be traced and appreciated. To deprive him, however, of even the decent simpli- city of an English dress, and to submit him to an English eye, in all the nakedness of uncouth bar- barism, is an error of an opposite kind, and one which, by presenting one of the most elegant his- torians of antiquity in so repulsive a form, is no less repugnant to good taste, than subversive of that respect for the writer himself, without which we approach him with reluctance or disgust. Any endeavour to torture the stubbornness of our own language into a pliant adhesion to the idioms and forms of any of the ancient tongues, must only produce such a violent dislocation of all its members, as shall destroy the entire strength and grace of the one, without giving the slightest impress of the character of the other, the attempt, however, has in the case of the author before us, PREFACE. v been not long since actually made but it is not too much to say, that the experiment has not been such as to justify its repetition. Indeed, to pur- sue any of the Roman writers, and Livy in parti- cular, through the complicated, and often rugged intricacies of phrase and construction, with which the Latin language abounds, is a task utterly in- compatible with the free current and easy flow of English composition ; and the question only is, Iww far we are justified in departing from the strict letter of the original, without however trans- gressing the limits of a literal translation. The following attempt at an approximation to the just line of boundary, and of affording a version at once faithful and intelligible, is submitted to the public, with the sole view of diminishing the toil of the young student, in preparing so important a part of the entrance course, as Livy has been, more especially during the last few years, admitted to constitute. With the exception of a few explanatory words, which have been occasionally added, wherever the curtness or obscurity of the original rendered it absolutely necessary, the translation has not been permitted to deviate from the strictest conformity with the measure of the Latin text ; and the turn and structure of the sentences have been carefully observed, as far as could be effected without vio- lation of grammatical propriety. Very many pas- sages in the original have, from the uncertainty of the text, divided the opinions of the best commen- vi PREFACE. tators, and several are also susceptible of more than one explanation. These diversities of senti- ments or meanings, though they have exercised the best attention and judgment of the translator, are wholly inadmissible in this work, as being quite out of the scope of the present undertaking. These will be found discussed at large, and with much ability, in the modern editions of Walker and Prendeville. The latter, perhaps, as being sup- plied with English notes, will be found the more convenient book of reference. Should the following sheets possess the merit of being in any respect auxiliary to the labours of teachers, the Publisher will feel highly gratified, in being so far instrumental in rendering service to a class of individuals, to whom the cause of classical literature is so much indebted for its ad- vancement. LIVY. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Now, first of all, it is sufficiently agreed on, that, after the taking of Troy, great cruelty was used towards the rest of the Trojans ; that the Greeks refrained from exercising the full right of war against two, -<33neas and Antenor, both on account of a tie of old hospitality between them, and because these had been always advocates for peace, and giving back Helen ; that after- wards Antenor, after various adventures, with a large body of Henetians, who, in an insurrection driven out of Paphlagonia, were in search of a settlement and a leader, having lost at Troy their king Pylcemenes, arrived at the innermost bay of the Adriatic Sea ; and that both Henetians and Trojans, having expelled the Euganeans, who dwelt between the sea and the Alps, retained possession of those districts. The place where they first landed is called Troy, and hence the Trojan canton derives its name : the entire nation is called Venetians. That -5neas, driven from home by a simi- lar calamity, but conducted by the fates to originate more important events, first came to Macedonia ; thence, in search of a settlement, arrived at Sicily ; from Sicily sailed to the land of Laurentum : this place, too, gets the name of Troy. There when the Trojans disem- barked, and, as having nothing left after their almost boundless wandering besides their arms and vessels, began to drive off plunder from the country, Latinus, the king, and the Aborigines who at that time occupied these places, flock in arms, from the city and country, LIVY. BOOK I. to repel the outrage of the strangers. Of the subse- quent event there are two reports. Some hand down to us that Latinus, being defeated in battle, established a peace, then a matrimonial alliance with .ZEneas : others assert, that when the two armies stood ranged in order of battle, before the signal was sounded, Latinus, attended by his nobles, came forward, and called out the leader of the strangers to a conference that then, on inquiring what people they were, w r hence they came, or through what casualty did tliey leave their home, or in search of what did they land on the coast of Lauren- turn, when he heard that the people were Trojans, that their leader was u33neas, the son of Anchises and Venus, that ; as their country and home were reduced to ashes, they were wandering exiles in search of a settlement, and a place on which to build a city ; struck with admi- ration at the noble character of the nation and their chief, and at the spirit that was ready either for peace or war, he ratified a solemn pledge of future friendship by giving him his right hand. Then that a league was struck between the leaders greetings passed between the armies. That J^neas became the guest of Latinus ; that on this occasion Latinus, in presence of his house- hold gods, superadded a family alliance to the public one, by giving .ZEneas his daughter in marriage. This event, in particular, confirms the Trojans in the hope of ending their wandering by a permanent and fixed abode. They build a city. JEneas calls it Lavinium, after his wife's name. In a short time, too, a son was the issue of the new marriage, to whom his parents gave the name of Ascanius. CHAP. II. THEN the Aborigines and Trojans conjointly were attacked by war. Turnus, king of the Rutuli, to whom Lavinia had been betrothed before the arrival of JSneas, dissatisfied that a stranger should have been preferred to bimself, waged war on ./Eneas and Latinus together. Neither army came off from that conflict with joy. The Rutuli were defeated. The victorious Trojans and Aborigines lost their chief Latinus. Then Turnus and the Rutuli, despairing of their affairs, fly for sue- CHAP. 3. LIVY. 3 cour to the flourishing state of the Etrurians and their king Mezentius, who, reigning at Caere, a powerful city in those days, and from the very commencement not at all pleased at the foundation of the new city, and at this time thinking that the Trojan power was increas- ing to a much higher degree than was consistent with the security of the neighbouring states, united without reluctance his confederate arms with the Rutuli. -^Eneas, in order to conciliate to him the affections of the Abo- rigines, for the purpose of meeting the terrors of so great a war, called both nations Latins ; so that they should all not only have the same laws, but the same name too : nor did the Aborigines from that time yield to the Trojans, in zeal and fidelity towards their king -^Eneas. Relying on these feelings of the two nations, which were becoming more and more united every day, notwithstanding that Etruria was so powerful, that it had filled with the fame of its name not only the land, but even the sea, throughout the whole length of Italy, from the Alps to the Straits of Sicily, ^Eneas, how- ever, though he might by his fortifications ward off attack, led out his troops to battle. On this the Latins fought a second battle, which was also the last of the earthly achievements of ^neas. He lies buried on the bank of the river Numicus, whatever designation the laws of god and man require he should get. They call him Jupiter Indiges. CHAP. III. ASCANIUS, the son of ^Eneas, was not yet of age to assume the sovereign power : that power, however, remained secure for him until he arrived at the age of manhood. In the interim (so great was Lavinia's ta- lent), the Latin States and his grandfather and father's kingdom stood firm in their allegiance to the boy. I cannot but doubt (for who can affirm as true a matter fair such high, antiquity?) whether this was the Asca- Jiius, or one older than he, born of Creiisa while Troy still flourished, and who afterwards was his father's ^companion in his flight, the same whom, under the name .of lulus, the Julian family represent as the founder of Their name. This Ascanius, wheresoever and of what- 4 LIVY. BOOK I. soever mother lie was born (that he was the son of ^Sneas is clearly agreed on), in consequence of the superabundant population of Lavinium, left his mother, or step-mother, the city now flourishing and wealthy, considering the state of things at that time ; and founded himself, at the Alban mount, another new one, which from its situation, lying along the ridge of a hill, was called Alba Longa. Between the building of Lavinium and the colonization of Alba Longa there intervened nearly thirty years ; yet so much had its power in- creased, especially after the defeat of the Tuscans, that not even on the death of 2Eneas, or afterwards, during the regency of a woman and the first trial of a boy's reign, did Mezentius and the Tuscans, or any other neighbouring state, dare to attempt hostilities against it. Peace was agreed on, on these terms : that the river Albula, which they now call the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Tuscans and Latins. Sil- vius, Ascanius' son, who was born by some accident in the woods, succeeds to the throne ; he begets JEneas Silvius ; then he Latinus Silvius : by this king there were some colonies planted, who were called the an- cient Latins. The name of Silvius was ever after con- tinued to all who reigned at Alba. From Latinus was born Alba ; from Alba Atys ; from Atys Capys ; from Capys Capetus ; from Capetus Tiberinus, who, being drowned in crossing the river Albula, gave the stream a name celebrated among posterity. After him Agrippa, the son of Tiberinus, reigns ; after Agrippa, Romulus Silvius, receiving the government from his father ; and being himself struck with lightning, transmitted the government to Aventinus, in regular order of succes- sion : he, being buried on that hill, which is now part of the Roman city, gave the hill its name. After him reigns Proca ; he begets Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, who was the eldest born, he bequeaths the ancient Idngdom of the Silvian family. However, force had more weight than a father's wilL or tho n rence due to seniority. Amulius deposes his brothJj and ascends the throne. Hesuperadds crime to crime. He murders his brother's male issue, and, under the shew of conferring an honour, deprives Rhea Silvia, his \ other's daughter, whom he made a vestal, by obliging" ^nAnnl of all hopes of issue. CHAP. 4. LIVY. CHAP. IV. BUT, as I think, the origin of so great a city, and the foundation of an empire which was next to the power of the gods, was an event that was due to the decrees of heaven. The virgin, heing forcibly deflow- ered, declares, after she gave birth to twins, Mars to be the father of her bastard offspring ; whether it was that she fancied it, or that a divinity was a more credita- ble cause of her misconduct. But neither god nor man rescue herself or her offspring from the king's cruelty. The priestess is bound, and put into custody : the boys he orders to be thrown into the current of the river. By some providential accident, the Tiber, having overflowed its banks in stagnant sheets of water, could not be ap- proached at its proper channel, and this gave those who carried the infants hope that they could be drowned in water however still : accordingly, as if they executed the king's order, they leave the children exposed in the next pool, just where the 7?W7rtw*o/ fig-tree stands at pre- sent : they say it was then called the Romular. These places, at that time, were a wild wilderness. There prevails a tradition, that, when the water left on the dry ground the floating basket in which the children were left exposed, a she ivolfi driven by thirst from the mountains that were all round, turned her course to the cries of the children ; that she so gently held her sub- missive paps under the infants, that the keeper of the king's flocks found her licking the boys with her tongue : his name, they say, was Faustulus ; that by him they .were brought to the hut, to be reared by his wife Lau- rentia. There are some who say that Laurentia was called the she wolf among the shepherds, from her pub- lic prostitution ; that from this the marvellous story derives its source. Though born and reared in this way, they did not, when they first grew up to maturity, remain in indolence, within their folds or with their flocks, but in hunting-parties traversed the woods that were about them. Hence acquiring vigour of body and mind, they not only began to withstand the wild beasts, but attack robbers loaded with plunder, and divide the spoil among their fellow-shepherds ; and with B 3 6 LIVY. BOOK I. these, as the number of the young men grew every day more numerous, they pursued their serious occupations and amusements. CHAP. V. THEY say that, even at that time, this festival of ours, the Lupercalia, was solemnized on the Pala- tine mount, and that the mountain was called Pallan- tium from Palanteum, a city of Arcadia, and afterwards Palatium ; that there Evander, who, belonging to that tribe of Arcadians, occupied the place many years before, instituted this anniversary game introduced from Arcadia, in which young men were to run about naked, in frolic and wantonness, in worship of Ly- csean Pan, the protector of their flocks, whom the Ro- mans afterwards called Inuus ; that, while they were engaged in this amusement, some robbers, in resent- ment for the loss of some plunder, attacked them by surprise, and, as Romulus saved himself by a vigorous defence, captured Remus, and gave him up a prisoner to Amulius the king, having lodged the first accusation against him. They made it particularly a charge, that those made an attack on the king's territories, and then, having collected a body of young men, were driving off booty in a hostile manner. So Remus is handed over to Numitor for punishment. Now Faustulus enter- tained, from the very commencement, a hope that chil- dren of the royal family were reared at his house ; for he knew that the infants were exposed by the king's order, and that the time when he had taken them up corresponded with that very event : but he was unwil- ling that the matter should be prematurely disclosed, except through some opportunity or necessity. Neces- sity occurred first : therefore, compelled by his appre- hension, he discovers the thing to Romulus. It hap- pened, too, that the recollection of his grandchildren struck the mind of Numitor (as he held Remus in cus- tody, and had heard that they were twin brothers), from comparing their age, and their turn of mind, which was by no means servile ; and by repeated inqui- ries he came to the same conclusion, so that he was near acknowledging Remus. Accordingly, a plot is formed CHAP. 6. LIVY. 7 on every side against the king. Romulus, not at- tended by a body of young" men, but ordering the shepherds to arrive at a certain time, by different roads, at the palace, makes an attack on the king; and Remus, having procured another band from Numi- tor's house, supports him : so they murder the king. CHAP. VI. WHEN Numitor, after having, on the commencement of the alarm, called away the Alban youth to take possession of the citadel by an armed guard, asserting that an enemy had entered the city and attacked the palace, saw the young men, after having committed the murder, advancing towards him, and congratulating him, at once he summoned a public meeting, and exposes his brother's atrocities towards himself, the birth of his grandchildren, how they were born, how brought up, how recognized ; then he avows the murder of the tyrant, and that he himself was the abettor of it. After the young princes came hi, attended by the body of their follow- ers, through the middle of the assembly, and saluted their grandfather as king, a shout of acclamation fol- lowed from the whole multitude, and ratified for him the name and title of sovereign. The government of Alba being thus .committed to Numitor, Romulus and Remus felt a desire of building a city in those places where they were exposed and educated. There was both a superabundance of the population of Al- ba and Latium, and for that purpose there was an accession of shepherds too ; all of whom easily enter- tained a hope, that Alba would be insignificant, Lavi- nium insignificant, in comparison to that city which was to be built. The hereditary curse, the desire of kingly power, interrupted these reflections. Then a bloody dispute arose from a harmless origin enough, which was, that, as they were twins, and respect for seniority could establish no distinction, the gods, under whose protection these places were, should choose by omens, which of them should give the new city a name, and should govern it, when built, with sovereign power. Romulus selects the Palatium, Remus the Aventine, as their consecrated stations to take the omens. It is 8 LIVY. Book I. reported that the first omen," six vultures, canle to Re- mus. When this omen was announced, atici dotihje' the number presented itself to Romulus, each^as- now saluted king by his own partisans. One pAr-tyvclainied the sovereign power from priority of time, the ether from the superior number of the birds. - Then com- mencing with bickering, in the conflict of aitgry. pas- sions they turn to murder. There, in the riot, Remus fell by a blow. The more common report is, that Remus leaped over the new walls, in derision of his brother ; and that thereupon Romulus, fired with Anger, killed him, and tauntingly added, " So be it hencefor- ward the lot of any other that shall leap over my walls." CHAP. VII. THUS Romulus alone obtained possession of the sovereign power. The city that was built, was called from its founder's name. He fortified the Palatine' hill first, where he was reared : he institutes, in honour of the other gods, religious worship according to the rites of Alba, but in honour of Hercules according to those of Greece, just as they were introduced by Evander. They report that Hercules, after having killed Geryon, drove off to these places his oxen, which were of sur- prising beauty ; and near the river Tiber laid him down, wearied from his journey, in a spot of rich herbage, to which he swam over, driving his herd before him, in order to refresh his cattle with rest and good pasture. There when sleep overpowered him, loaded with wine and food, a shepherd, named Cacus, a resident of that place, full of daring confidence in his strength, caught by the beauty of the cattle, wished to carry them off as booty : but, because, if he drove the herd straight for- ward into his den, their very tracks would lead thither their owner, when in search of them, he dragged back into his den, by the tail, every one of the oxen that was most remarkable for beauty. Hercules, rising from his sleep at the first dawn, on glancing his eyes over his herd, and discovering that some were missing from the number, proceeds to the next cave, to know if their tracks should happen to lead in that direction ; but, CHAP. 7. LIVY. 9 when he saw them all pointing outwards, and not lead- ing, to any other direction, then, perplexed and unde- cided, he began to drive off his herd from that unfriendly spot. Then, when some of the oxen, as they were driven off, lowed, as is usual, for want of those that were left behind ; the sound of those that were shut up, re-echoed frorn the cave, brought Hercules back. As Cacus with all his might endeavoured to prevent him from going to the cave, he was struck with the club, and stretched dead, as he shouted in vain for the friendly assistance of the other shepherds. Evander, a fugitive from the Peloponnessus, at that time governed these places, more through the influence of his character than any absolute power ; a man held in great veneration for the miraculous introduction of letters, a thing quite new among men utterly ignorant of the arts, and in still higher veneration for the supposed divinity of his mother Carmenta, whom these nations held in high admiration, as a prophetess, before the arrival of the Sybil in Italy. On this occasion, this Evander, being summoned out by the flocking together of the shepherds, that crowded tumult uoiisly about the stranger, who was impeached of palpable murder, on hearing the deed and- the cause of the deed, and eyeing his port and figure, that were somewhat larger and more dignified than those of man, inquires who he is. When he learned his name, his father, and his country, he exclaims, " Hail, Hercules, son of Jove ! my mother, the unerring inter- preter of the gods, declared to me that you would in- crease the number of the celestials, and that to you an altar would be here dedicated, which in after times the mightiest nation on earth will call the greatest, and honour with your worship." Hercules, giving him his right hand, says, " That he takes the omen, and will fulfil the fates, by building and dedicating an altar." There then, for the first time, a choice heifer being taken from the herd, a sacrifice is offered to Hercules. The Potitii and Pinarii, which were the most distin- guished families that then inhabited these places, are appointed to minister at the ceremony, and partake of the feast. It so turned out by chance, that the Potitii were present in time, and to these the entrails were served up ; the Pinarii came in, after the entrails were 10 LIVY. BOOK I. eaten, for the rest of the feast. It ever after remained a fixed rule, as long as the Pinarian family existed, that they should not eat of the entrails of this anniversary sacrifice. The Potitii, instructed by Evander, con- tinued for many ages the priests of that sacred rite ; until the whole clan of the Potitii perished, in conse- quence of having delegated to public slaves the solemn ministry of the family. These were the only foreign rites of religion that Romulus then adopted out of all others ; being, even at that early period, a respecter of that immortality gained by merit, to which his own destiny was conducting him. CHAP. VIII. HAVING thus regularly performed the duties of reli- gion, and summoned to a public assembly the multitude, which could not become united into a corporation of one people by any thing more than by laws, he laid down some principles of legislation ; and thinking that these, if he made himself venerable by the ensigns of power, would be proportionally respected by a rude class of peasants, he assumed a more majestic appear- ance in all his conduct, and especially by taking twelve attendants. Some imagine that he adopted that num- ber, from the number of the birds which announced to him the sovereign power by the omen ; but I am not loth to be of their opinion, who maintain that both this kind of public servants, and the number of them too, was derived from the neighbouring Tuscans, from whom the curule chair and the bordered gown were derived ; and that the Tuscans used this number, because, as the king was elected conjointly by the twelve states, each single state gave a single lictor. Meantime the city began to extend, by their taking in one place and another within its fortifications, since they fortified it more in the hopes of future inhabitants, than for the number of persons that were then in it. Then, that it may not be an empty sort of greatness, he opens for an asylum the place called " between the two groves," which is now enclosed, and on one's way as he goes down the hill, for the purpose of increasing the population, ac- cording to an old plan of the founders of cities, who, CHAP. 9. LIVY. 11 when they attracted to them an obscure and low rabble, pretended that a body of citizens grew to them out of the earth. Thither flocked, from the neighbour- ing states, a throng of all sorts without distinction, whether freeman or slave, who were fond of change ; and this was the first accession of strength to its infant greatness. When he was now satisfied with his power, he provides a system of government for this power. He creates a hundred senators, either because that number was sufficient, or because there were only one hundred who could tell their fathers. They were stiled fathers, from their honourable station no doubt, and their descendants patricians. CHAP. IX. THE Roman state was now so strong, that it was a match for any of the neighbouring nations in war. But, from a scarcity of women, its greatness was likely to last only for the present generation ; as the inhabitants had no hope of issue at home, or the privilege of inter- marriage with the neighbouring states. Then Romulus, out of the council of his senators, sent ambassadors round the neighbouring nations, to solicit alliance and the privilege of intermarriage, and say: "That cities too, like every thing else, rose from a very low beginning; and afterwards, as far as their own valour and the gods assist them, secure for themselves great power and a great name. That they well knew both that the gods favoured the origin of the Romans, and that their own valour would not be found wanting. Wherefore should they be reluctant, as men, to mingle blood and kindred with men ?" The embassy was no where kindly received; so much did they both despise and dread, for themselves and their posterity, so mighty a power growing up among them. By most states, they were contumeliously dismissed, who asked them, " If he had opened a place of refuge for women too ? for that such characters were the only suitable match for them." This the Roman youth ill brooked, and the thing began decidedly to assume an aspect of violence ; and, in order to afford this a fit time and place, Romulus, concealing his mortification of mind, intentionally prepares solemn 12 LIVY. BOOK I. games in honour of equestrian Neptune. He calls them Consualia. Then he orders a proclamation of the spec- tacle to be made among the neighbouring states. They all prepare to celebrate them with all the pomp of pre- paration they were then acquainted with, or were capable of, in order to render the exhibition splendid and calculated to raise expectation. Great numbers assembled, even from a desire to see the new city, par- ticularly all the next states, the Cceninenses, Crustu- mini, and Antemnates. All the population of the Sa- bines arrived, with their wives and children. Being hospitably invited to the several houses, on beholding the situation and the fortifications, and the city itself crowded with dwellings, they are astonished that the Roman power should have grown up in such a short time. When the time of the exhibition arrived, and the minds and eyes of all were engaged in it, then, by a preconcerted plan, the work of violence com- menced ; and, on a signal given, the Roman youth rush in various directions to carry off the young women. A great number were carried off at random, according as each of them fell in each man's way ; but some of them of superior beauty, who were intended for the chiefs of the patricians, a few of the plebeians, to whom this task was delegated, carry off to their houses. One distinguished beyond the rest for her figure and beauty, they report, was carried away by a body headed by one Talasius; and when many repeatedly asked for whom they were carrying her, they continually ex- claimed she was carried for Talasius, lest any one should offer her violence ; hence this expression became adopted in marriage ceremonies. The sport being in- terrupted by this consternation, the parents of the young women fled in affliction, inveighing against this breach of the laws of hospitality, and calling on the divinity to whose solemn festival and games they had come, betrayed under the semblance of religion and honour. Nor did the ravished women entertain better hopes of themselves, or feel less indignation. But Ro- mulus went round among them, and told them, " That such an event occurred in consequence of the haughti- ness of their fathers, who declined an intermarriage with their neighbours ; that notwithstanding they should CHAP. 10. LIVY. 13 enjoy the privileges of matrimony, and a partnership of all property and of the rights of the state, and of children, a tie than which there is none more dear to mankind : let them but soften down their anger, and bestow their affections on those on whom accident be- stowed their persons ; that attachment often grew out of injury ; and that they would find them on this account better husbands ; that every one would to the utmost of his individual power endeavour, by discharging his duty as far as his part was concerned, to make amends for the loss of their parents and their country." To this address were added the blandishments of their hus- bands, pleading in vindication of their conduct the feel- ings of desire and love, which are the strongest appeals that can be made to the heart of woman. CHAP. X. THE angry passions of the ravished women were now very much mitigated, but their parents proceeded then more than ever, in the garb of affliction, to rouse up the neighbouring states by their tears and lamenta- tions. Nor did they confine their indignant complaints to their own country, but flocked from all quarters to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines; to him, because his name was the most powerful in these countries, the embassies all came. The Cceninenses, Crustumini, and Antemnates were those to whom the greatest share of the injury was offered. To these Tatius and the Sabines appeared to act dilatorily : so the three states, forming a confederacy, prepare conjointly for war. Even the Crustumini and Antemnates do not bestir themselves with sufficient activity for the ardour and fury of the Cceninenses ; accordingly the whole Ccenin- ensian nation, by itself, attacks the Roman territory. But while they ravage the country in scattered parties, Romulus meets them with his army, arid by a slight rencounter teaches them that fury without power is ineffectual. He defeats and puts to flight their army pursues it after its defeat kills their king in single combat, and strips him of his arms. As the enemies' general was slain, he takes their city at the first assault. Having then ted back his victorious army, and being c 14 LIVY. BOOK I. not only distinguished for his deeds, but anxious to display these deeds, he goes up to the Capitol, car- rying the spoils of the enemies' general, whom he slew, supported on a frame properly constructed for that purpose ; and after laying them down there, before an oak-tree that was held sacred among the shepherds, he sketched out, together with offering tl;e gift, the limits of a temple to Jupiter, and gave the god a new epitheK/ " O Jupiter Feretrius /" says he, " to thee I the v^tonbus king Romulus offer these royal arms ; and in this place, that I have just now measured in my mind, dedicate a temple, as a reposi- tory for those grand spoils that generals in future times, folio wing me as their precedent, shall offer, on slaying the kings or generals of their enemies.'' This is the origin of the temple, which was the very first that was con- secrated at Rome. Accordingly, it thenceforward seemed proper to the gods, that that declaration of the founder of the temple, in which he asserted that future generals should offer such spoils, should not be false -; and that the glory of offering such a gift should not be be made common, by the number of those who were to enjoy it. There were only two of these spoils gained ever after, during so many years so many wars ; so rare was the good fortune of obtaining that honour. CHAP. XI. WHILE the Romans are engaged in these events, the army of the Antemnates, availing themselves of an opportunity and the deserted state of the country, makes an incursion in hostile array on the Roman ter- ritories. The Roman legion, hastily led out against these too, surprised them, as they were scattered about the country. Accordingly, at the very first charge and shout, the enemy were routed ; their town was taken. While Romulus was elated at this double victory, his wife Hersilia, importuned by the prayers of the ravished women, implores him to pardon their parents, and admit them to the privileges of the state, as in this way their interest could become consolidated by union. This request was easily obtained. He then set out against the Crustumini, who were carrying on hostili- CHAP. 12. LIVY. 15 ties. With these he had ev r en less struggle, because their courage was lost at the defeat of the others. Colonies were sent to both places. A greater number were found to enrol their names for Crustuminum, on account of the fertility of the land, and because great numbers, particularly of the parents and relations of the ravished women, emigrated from that place to Rome. The last war was waged by the Sabines, and that was by far the most important ; for none of their operations was prompted by rage or avarice, and they did not evince a hostile intention until they ex- ecuted it. They added stratagem too to their plan of operation. Sp. Tarpeius had the command of the Roman citadel. Tatius bribes his daughter, with a sum of gold, to admit some armed men into the cita- del. She happened at that time to be fetching water, from outside the walls, for sacrifice. When admitted, they overwhelmed her with their arms, and killed her ; either in order that it should appear that the citadel was rather taken by force ; or for the purpose of shew- ing an example that no faith ought to be kept with a traitor. This circumstance is added to the story? that, as the Sabines wore golden bracelets of great weight on the left arm, and rings set with jewels of great beauty, she bargained for what they wore on their left hands ; and that, accordingly, in place of the golden ornaments, they thre\v their shields in a heap upon her. There are some who say, that she expressly demanded their arms, according to the agreement of delivering her what was on their left hands ; and that, as she appeared to act with treachery, she was destroyed by the remuneration she required. CHAP. XII. HOWEVER, the Sabines occupied the citadel ; and on the following day, though the Roman army drawn up in order of battle filled the whole plain that lies between the Palatine and Capitol, they did not come down from that position to the level ground, until the Romans, goaded by rage and a desire to recover the citadel, advanced up against them. The battle is commenced by principal officers on both sides : Mettus Curtius on 16 LIVY. BOOK I. the side of the Sabines, and Hostus Hostilius on that of the Romans. This man, in front of the battle, upheld the Roman cause, in their unfavourable position, by his courage and boldness. When Hostus fell, the Roman army at once gives way, and is routed as far as the old gate of the Palatine. Romulus, who was him- self too hurried along in the throng of the fugitives, lifting up his hands towards heaven, exclaims, " O Jupiter, it was by direction of thy omens, I laid here on the Palatine the first foundation of this city. Now the Sabines possess the citadel, purchased by vil- lany. From thence they proceed hither in arms, after passing the middle of the valley. But do thou, O father of gods and men, from this place at least repel the enemy. Remove this panic from the Romans, and stop their shameful flight. I here vow to thee, as Jupi- ter Stator, a temple which will be a memorial to poste- rity, that the city was saved by thy immediate aid." Having uttered this prayer, as if he felt that his prayers were heard, he cries, " From this spot, O Romans, the good, great Jove bids you stand and renew the fight." The Romans stood, as if commanded by a voice from heaven. Romulus himself flies forward to the front. Mettus Curtius, a principal officer on the side of the Sabines, had sallied down from the citadel, and chased the routed Romans over the whole space that the Forum now occupies, and was already near the gate of the Palatine, crying aloud, " We have con- quered these perfidious hosts, this cowardly enemy. Now they are aware that it is a far different thing to force away young girls, and to fight with men." While vaunting in this strain, Romulus makes a charge on him with a body of his bravest youths. Mettus at that time happened to fight on horseback, and conse- quently could be the more easily repulsed. He is re- pulsed, and pursued by the Romans. Another Roman battalion too, fired by the daring conduct of their king, routs the Sabines. Mettus plunged into a marsh, as his horse took fright at the uproar of the pursuers ; and that circumstance directed the attention, even of the Sabines, to the danger of so distinguished a per- sonage. Having got additional courage from the friendly disposition of the multitude, for his own CHAP. 13. LIVY. 17 party began to beckon and call to him, he makes his escape. The Romans and Sabines renew the battle in the centre of the valley between the two mountains ; but the Roman cause was more successful. CHAP. XIII. THEN the Sabine women, on account of whose wrongs the war originated, with dissheveled hair and torn garments, their female timidity being overcome by the sense of their calamity, rushing across the combatants, had the fearlessness to present themselves among the flying weapons, to check the hostile armies check their fury, imploring their fathers on one side, their husbands on the other, " Not to imbrue their hands, as fathers-in-law and sons-in-law, in unnatural blood, nor stain their own offspring, the one their grandchildren, the other their children, with the guilt of murder. If you are mutually dissatisfied with this alliance and this intermarriage, turn your fury on us : we are the cause of this war, we the cause of wounds and bloodshed to our husbands and fathers. It is better that we should perish, than live without either of you, as orphans or widows." This scene moves both the army and the leaders. A calm and sudden cessation ensues. Then the leaders step forward to ratify a treaty ; and they not only make peace, but make one state of the two. They form a united kingdom, and transfer the whole government to Rome. The city being thus doubled, in order, however, that some privilege may be con- ferred on the Sabines, the citizens were called Quirites from Cures. As a monument of that battle, they called the place where his horse, after rising from the deep marsh, set Curtius on firm ground, the Curtian lake. The joyful peace that suddenly succeeded so deplorable a war, rendered the Sabine women dearer to their hus- bands and parents, and above all to Romulus himself: and therefore, when he divided the people into thirty Curiae, he gave their names to the Curise. As the number of women was undoubtedly somewhat greater than this of the Curise, it is not recorded whether they who gave their names to the Curise were chosen on account of their age, or their own rank or that of their c 3 18 LIVY. BOOK I. husbands, or by lot. At the same time, there were three centuries of horse also enrolled, the Ramnenses, so called from Romulus the Titienses, from Titus Ta- tius. The reason of the name and origin of the Luceres is uncertain. From that time the kingdom was governed by the two kings, not only in common, but with una- nimity. CHAP. XIV. AFTER the expiration of some years, the relations of king Tatius assault ambassadors of the Laurentines ; and when the Laurentines claimed the right of the law of nations, the interest and intreaties of his friends had greater weight with Tatius. Accordingly, he brought their punishment on himself ; for, on going to Lavinium to an anniversary sacrifice, he is killed there by the people, who crowded together against him. They say that Romulus bore that circumstance with less concern than he ought, either on account of the insincerity of their union in the kingdom, or because he believed him to be justly murdered. Therefore he refrained, indeed, from hostilities ; however, that the outrage offered to the ambassadors and the king's mur- der may be atoned for, the league was renewed between the cities of Rome and Lavinium. With these there was peace, which was indeed unexpected ; but another war broke out much nearer, and almost at their very gates. The Fidenates, thinking that a power was growing into vigour too close to them, are before-hand in waging Avar upon it, before it could acquire that degree of strength which it was evident it would acquire: A body of armed men being sent into the country, all the land that lies between the city and Fidense is laid waste. Then turning to the left, because the Tiber kept them off on the right, they continue their devastations, to the great consternation of the peasants ; and the sudden alarm that was brought from the country to the city was the courier of the event. Roused by this (for so near a war could not brook delay), Romulus leads out his army. He pitches his camp one mile from Fidena?. Leaving a small guard there, and setting out with all his forces, he bids a party of his infantry lie in ambush, in CHAP. 15. LIVY. 19 places that were shaded on account of the thick brush- wood that grew about. Proceeding on with the main body, and all his cavalry, by riding up almost to the very gates, in a disorderly and menacing sort of hosti- lity, he drew out the enemy, the very thing that he wanted. This mode of attack on the part of the cavalry rendered the reason of the flight too, which was to be pretended, less surprising: and, when the foot also, while the horse wavered as if between the resolution of fighting or flying, began to retreat, the enemy, sud- denly rushing out of the gates in crowds, force the Ro- man lines, and are drawn, in the ardour of pressing on and pursuing them, to the place of ambush. Then the Romans quickly start up, and attack the enemies' line in flank : the colours of those who had been left as a guard, being brought forth from the camp, increase their dismay. The Fidenates, being thus confounded by their manifold terrors, turn their backs, before Ro- mulus and those who rode with him could rein round their horses ; and they, who a little before pursued those who pretended flight, retreated back to the town in much greater disorder, as it was now a real flight. However, they did not save themselves from the enemy. Romulus, hanging on their rear, rushes in along with them, as if they all formed one body, before the gates could be shut against him. CHAP. XV. IN the spreading infection of the Fidenatian war, the minds of the Veientes were exasperated, both on account of their proximity of blood (for the Fidenates too were Etrurians), and because the very contiguity of their situation, in case the Roman arms were to become hostile to all their neighbours, urged them on. They made an incursion into the Roman territories, rather as marauders, than in a stile of regular warfare. Accordingly, without pitching a camp, or waiting for the enemies' army, they returned to Veii, carrying with them the booty that they plundered from the country. The Roman, on the contrary, on not finding the enemy in the country, crossed the Tiber, prepared and resolved for a final conflict. When the Veientes 20 LIVY. BOOK I. heard that he was pitching his camp, and about to march to the city, they went out to meet him, in order to decide the matter by a pitched battle, rather than be blocked up and fight for their very dwellings and walls. On this occasion, the Roman king, without aiding his power with any stratagem, gained the victory merely by the strength of his old army ; and having pursued the routed enemy to their fortifications, he refrained from attacking a strong city, fortified by its walls and situation. On his return, he lays waste the country, more from a desire of revenge than of plunder. The Veientes, humbled by this calamity, no less than by the disastrous battle, send ambassadors to Rome to ask for peace. Being deprived of a part of their territory, a truce was granted them for one hundred years. These were nearly all the occurrences that happened during the reign of Romulus, at home and in war ; not one of which, neither his spirit in recovering his grand- father's kingdom, nor his wisdom in founding the city, and securing it in peace and war, did not harmonize with the belief of his divine origin, and his supposed divinity after his death. For, after that progress, it was so powerful by the strength that he gave it, that for forty years it enjoyed unmolested peace. However, he was a greater favourite with the multitude than with the patricians ; but, above all, he was dear to the hearts of the soldiers. He kept three hundred armed men, whom he called Celeres, to guard his person, not only in war, but also in peace. CHAP. XVI. HAVING achieved these immortal deeds, while he held a public assembly in the plain at the goat's pond^ for the purpose of reviewing his army, a tempest rising on a sudden, with loud rattling and thunder, enveloped the king in so thick a mist, as to deprive the assembly of a view of him ; and Romulus never appeared on earth after. The Roman youth, when their fears were at length quieted, on the return of calm, clear sunshine after such a stormy day, on seeing the king's seat empty, though they implicitly believed the declaration of the patricians, that he was carried up in the hurricane, '. 17. LIVY. 21 yet, as if struck with consternation at the loss of a parent, kept for some time a melancholy silence. At length, a few of them beginning-, they all toge- ther bid Romulus, " a god, the son of a god, the king and father of the Roman city," hail. They implore his favours, in prayers " that he may willingly, propi- tiously guard his own offspring." I believe there were some, even then, who were silently convinced that he was torn in pieces by the hands of the patricians ; for this rumour too was circulated, but very secretly. Ad- miration for the man, and the present panic, gave gene- ral currency to the other. It is said that, by the stra- tagem too of one man, additional credit was stamped on the event ; for, while the citizens were in affliction for the loss of the king, and full of animosity against the patricians, Proculus Julius, grave authority, as it is recorded, for any fact however important, comes for- ward to a public assembly, and says, " Romans, this day at the first light, Romulus the father of this city, descending suddenly from heaven, presented himself before me. When I stood by, filled with horror, and in an attitude of adoration, beseeching him in prayer that I may be allowed to look him in the face. < Go,' he says, ' tell the Romans that the powers of heaven will it so, that my Rome be the capital of the earthly globe. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war ; and let them know, and let them in the same way transmit the fact to their posterity, that no human power can with- stand the Roman arms.' Having spoken thus," he says, " he went off on high." It is astonishing what credit was attached to this man, when announcing this, and how much the regret for Romulus was diminished among the populace and the army, when the belief of his immortality was established. CHAP. XVII. IN the mean time, a contest for the sovereign power, and ambition began to distract the minds of the patri- cians. These had not as yet been confined to indivi- duals ; for, as the state was but newly formed, no one person possessed great pre-eminence. The struggle was carried on between the parties of the two orders. 22 LIV^. BOOK I. The descendants of the Sabines were anxious that a king should he elected out of their body, lest, as there was no king of their party after the death of Tatius, they may lose the possession of the sovereign power, though entitled to an equal share of it. The old Romans spurned the idea of a foreign king. However, all, notwithstanding their diversity of choice, wished that a king should he appointed, the sweets of liberty being yet untried. Then the patricians were filled with apprehension, lest, as the minds of many states around were exasperated against them, some foreign power should attack the state while destitute of a government, and the army while destitude of a leader. Therefore it was their wish that there should be some head, yet no party thought of yielding to the other. Accordingly the hundred senators share the administration between them, having formed ten decuries, and appointed an in- dividual for each decury, who was to preside over the chief management of affairs. There were ten in power, and one with the ensigns of power and the lictors. Their power was limited to the space of ten days, and went through all in rotation. This vacancy of kingly power lasted one year, and from its nature was called interreign, a name that continues even now. Then the populace began to murmur, that their slavery was mul- tiplied on them ; that there were a hundred masters set over them, in place of one ; and they seemed resolved to endure no longer any but a king, and a king ap- pointed by themselves. When the patricians saw that these measures were in agitation, thinking that what they were likely to lose should be voluntarily surren- dered, they oblige the people in such a way, by resign- ing to them the supreme power, as not to give up more privilege than they kept ; for they decreed that, when the people would have appointed a king, this appoint- ment should be so ratified, if the fathers gave it their sanction. And to this day, in the making of laws and magistrates, the same form is used, though its efficacy is lost : the fathers at present, before the people com- mence voting, give their sanction, even where the event of the election is doubtful. Then the interrex, having summoned a public assembly, said, " Romans, and may the event be good, auspicious, and fortunate, elect a CHAP. 18. LIVY. 23 king ; so it lias seemed proper to the fathers. Then, if you shall have elected one worthy to he counted suc- cessor to Romulus, the fathers will give him their sanction." This was so agreeahle to the people, that, not to appear surpassed in generosity, they only enacted and ordered that the senate should decide who should reign at Rome. CHAP. XVIII. THE justice and religious character of Numa Pom- pilius were famous at that time. He lived at Cures, a :o\vn of the Sabines, a man profoundly skilled, as much so as any man could be in that age, in all divine and mman law. They falsely give out, that the author of lis learning, because there is no record of any other, was Pythagoras of Samos ; a person who, it is univer- sally allowed, kept schools of young men who adopted liis doctrines, about Metapontum, Heraclea, and Cro- ton, in the extreme part of Italy, more than a hundred years after this period, when Servius Tullius reigned at Rome. From places so remote, what report about him could have been brought to the Sabines, or through what intercourse of language, that would draw any one from home with a desire of learning ? or under what protection could a person travel alone through so many nations, differing in language and customs? Therefore I rather think that his mind was attempered with virtuous qualities, from its own genius, and that he was not so much instructed in foreign arts, as in the rude and austere discipline of the Sabines, than whom there was no race of men at one time more pure. The Roman fathers, on hearing of Numa's name, though it appeared that power would lean to the old Sabines, if the king were taken from among them, yet, as no one dared to prefer himself, or any one else of his own party, or any one of the fathers or citizens, to that man, all to a man decide that the sovereign power should be conferred on Numa Pompilius. When in- vited, just as Romulus, on the building of the city, obtained the kingdom by an omen, he commanded that the gods should be consulted about himself too. Then, being led to the citadel by an augur (on whom, as a 24 LIVY. BOOK I- mark of honour, that sacred office was thenceforward per- petually conferred), sat down on a stone, with his face to the south. The augur took his seat at his left, with his head covered, holding in his right hand a crooked staff without knots, which they called lituus. Then, having taken a view towards the city and country, and offered a prayer to the gods, he marked out the quar- ters of the heavens from east to west : the right, he said, was to the south, the left to the north. He marked out in his mind a sign opposite him, at the utmost extent to which his sight reached. Then, re- moving the lituus to his left hand, his right being laid on Numa's head, he prayed in this manner : " Father Jove, if it be the divine will that this Numa, whose head I now hold, should be king of Rome, I beseech thee, display to us sure signs within these limits that I have fixed." Then he stated in express words the omens that he wished should be sent ; and these being sent, Numa is declared king, and comes down from the consecrated stand. CHAP. XIX. HAVING thus got possession of the kingdom, he pre- pares to establish afresh, by a system of jurisprudence, by laws and moral institutions, the new city, originally established by violence and arms. And as he saw that the minds of the people, as being brutalized by a military life, could not become habituated to these during the occupations of war, he thought that the savage popula- tion should be civilized by a disuse of arms : and built a temple of Janus at the foot of Argiletus, as a sign of peace and war ; to signify, when open, that the state was in arms, and, when shut, that all the nations around were at peace with it. From that period, it has been twice shut since Numa's reign : once in the consulship of T. Manlius, after the conclusion of the first Punic war ; a second time by the emperor Caesar Augustus, after the battle of Actium, when peace was established by sea and land ; a blessing which the gods have granted our age to witness. This temple being shut ; after having secured by alliance and leagues the affections of all the nearest states around, lest men's HAP. 20. LTVY. minds, which the dread of an enemy and military disci- pline had kept in subjection, may become licentious by idleness, now that the anxiety about external danger was removed, he thought that a fear of the gods should be inspired into them, a thing of the utmost efficacy for an ignorant and uncultivated multitude in those times. As he saw that this could not be impressed on their minds without some marvellous fiction, he pre- tends that he held nocturnal interviews with the goddess Egeria ; that by her advice he instituted the religious rites that were most acceptable to the gods, and ap- pointed their respective priests for each divinity. And, first of all, he divides the year, according to the course of the moon, into twelve months ; this year (because the moon does not complete the number of thirty days in each month, and there are some days wanting to make up the full year which is brought round by the sun's revolution) he so regulated, by inserting inter- calary months, that every four-and twentieth year, the space of all the intermediate years being then filled up, the days would coincide with that position of the sun from which they began. He also appointed days of rest, and days of business, because it was sometimes useful that no public business should be transacted with the people. CHAP. XX. HE then turned his mind to the creation of priests, although he performed most of the sacred duties himself, particularly those that now appertain to the office of the priest of Jupiter. But because he thought that in a warlike state more kings would resemble Romu- lus rather than Numa, and would march in person to battle ; in order that the sacred rites of the king's office should not be left neglected, he created a fiamen, a constant priest for Jupiter, and decorated him with a distinguished robe and a royal curule chair. In addi- tion to him, he made two other flamens, one for Mars, another for Romulus ; and appointed virgins for Vesta, a sacerdotal order derived from Alba, and not uncon- nected with the family of the founder of the city. To these he gave a salary out of the public fund, in order 26 LIVY. BOOK I. that they may be constant attendants on the temple ; and by an obligation of chastity, and other ceremonies, rendered them venerable and sacred. He likewise appointed twelve Salii for Mars Gradivus, and gave them the distinguishing badge of an embroidered gown, and over the gown a brazen breast-piece ; and ordered them to carry the arms sent from heaven, that are called ancilia, and go through the city cliaunting hymns, with jumping and solemn dancing. He then chose from the fathers Numa Marcius, the son of Marcus, as chief pontiff, and delivered up to him all the religious insti- tutions, written out and sealed ; with what victims, on what days, and at what temples sacrifices should be offered, and from what source money should be collected to defray these expenses. He also subjected all other religious rites, public and private, to the decrees of the pontiff, in order that there may be a proper authority, to which the people should come for advice (lest, by the neglect of the national rites, and the adoption of foreign ones, any irregularity might be introduced into the laws of religion) ; and that the same pontiff should instruct them, not only in the forms of worshipping the powers of heaven, but also in funeral solemnities, and the mode of appeasing the spirits below ; and what prodigies, whether sent by lightning or any other phe- nomenon, should be attended to and expiated. In order to elicit this knowledge from the divine wisdom, he dedicated an altar on the Aventine to Jupiter Eli- cius ; and consulted the god, by augury, about what prodigies should be attended to. CHAP. XXI. THE entire multitude being diverted from violence and arms to the deliberation of these things and the ceremonies of expiation, their minds were both occu- pied with some pursuit, and a constant awe of the gods engrossing their thoughts (since it appeared that the divinity of heaven interfered in human affairs), imbued their hearts with so much piety, that good faith and respect for an oath governed the conduct of the citizens, the dread of punishment and the laws becoming a subor- dinate motive. And while men formed themselves by AP. 22. LIVY. 27 the manners of the king as their chief precedent, theu even the neighbouring states, that before believed it was a camp, riot a city, that was established among them, to disturb the peace of all, were brought to feel such respect for it, as to deem it impiety to offer vio- lence to a state that became wholly devoted to the worship of the gods. There was a grove, the middle of which a fountain, issuing from a dark grotto, watered with a perpetual stream ; and, as Numa often repaired thither without witnesses, as if to an interview with the goddess, he consecrated that grove to the muses, because there their conferences with his spouse Egeria were held. And he instituted, in honour of faith alone, an annual festival : to that solemnity he commanded that the priests should be carried in a roofed chariot, and should perform divine worship with the hand muf- fled up to the fingers, to signify that faith should be defended, and that even its seat in the right hand was made sacred. He instituted many other sacrifices, and places for the performance of sacrifices, which the pon- tiffs call argei. However, the greatest of all his works was his preservation, no less of peace, than of his king- dom, during the whole time of his reign. Thus two kings in succession, each in a different way, enlarged the state, one by war, the other by peace. Romulus reigned thirty-seven years, Numa forty-three. At this time the state was both powerful, and attempered by the arts of war and peace. CHAP. XXII. ON the death of Numa, the administration again returned to an interreign. Then the people elected Tullus Hostilius king, the grandson of that Hostilius whose fight with the Sabines, at the foot of the citadel, was so distinguished. The fathers gave their sanction. This man was not only unlike the former king, but was even more violent than Romulus. His youth, his vigour, and besides hereditary glory, urged him on. There- fore, imagining that the state was lapsing into decay from idleness, he sought every where for materials for exciting war. It accidentally came to pass, that some Roman peasants drove off booty from the Alban terri- 28 LIVY. BOOK I. tory, and Albans from the Roman territory by way of reprisal. C. Cluilius at that time ruled over Alba. Ambassadors were sent from both states, about the same time, to demand restitution. Tullus had directed his own not to mind any thing before his orders. He knew well that the Alban would refuse ; consequently that war could be proclaimed, consistently with the dictates of religion. The business was managed more carelessly by the Albans. Being courteously and gene- rously received as guests by Tullus, they politely par- take of his entertainment. In the mean time, the Ro- mans made the first demand of restitution, and pro- claimed war within thirty days on the Alban, who refused. They bring back these tidings to Tullus. Then Tullus gives the ambassadors an opportunity of stating what they came to demand. They, ignorant of all that occurred, waste time in first apologising, " That they would unwillingly say any thing that would dis- please Tullus; but that they were forced by their orders ; that they came to demand restitution. If this were not made, that they were commanded to proclaim war." To this Tullas replies, " Tell your king, that the Roman king calls the gods to witness, which nation first dismissed with scorn the ambassadors who demanded restitution, in order that all the calamities of this war may light upon it." CHAP. XXIII. THE Albans carry home these tidings ; and both sides began with vigour to prepare for a war which bore the closest resemblance to a civil war, one almost between parents and children ; Trojan descendants both ; since Lavinium owed its origin to Troy, Alba to Lavi- nium, and the Romans to the stock of the Alban kings. However, the event of the war rendered the conflict less disastrous ; because the dispute was not decided by a pitched battle, and the two nations were amalgamated into one, by merely demolishing the houses of one of the cities. The Albans first made an attack on the Roman territory, with a large army, pitch their camp not more than five miles from the city, surround it with a foss. This was called, from their leader's name, CHAP. 23. LIVY. 29 tke Cluilian foss, for many ages after, until the name, together with the work, perished by time. In this camp, Cluilius, the Alban king, dies. The Albans create Mettus Fuffetius dictator. In the mean time, Tullus, full of courage, particularly after the king's death, and frequently asserting that the great power of the gods, which had already begun with the head, would take vengeance on the whole Alban nation for this impious war, passes the enemies' camp by night, and proceeds with his army, that was burning with rage, into the Alban territory. This circumstance drew Mettus from his stationary camp. He leads his forces as near the enemy as he can, and then bids an ambassador, whom he dispatched, to tell Tullus that he wanted a conference with him ; that lie well knew, if he met him, that he would make such proposals as would concern the Roman interest, not less than the Alban. Tullus, though he supposed that it was an idle proposal that was to be made, did not decline ; and he leads out his troops to the field. The Albans too, on the other side, march out. When they stood ranged in order of battle on both sides, the leaders, with a few of their chief officers, advance forward into the centre. Then the Alban begins. " I think I heard our king Cluilius declare that injuries, and a refusal to make the restitution that was required according to the terms of our league, have been the cause of this war ; and I doubt not that you declare the same. But if the truth, rather than plausible assertions, must be stated, it is a love of power that goads on to arms these kindred and neighbouring states : whether well or ill, I do not decide ; let this consideration rest with him who commenced this war. The Albans have chosen me their leader, to conduct the war. Of this, Tullus, I wish to warn you : how powerful is the Etrurian state about us, and especially about you, you know better, since ye are nearer them. They possess vast power by land, vast power by sea. Remember, that, when you giv T 8 the signal for batfle, these two armies will be an amusing spectacle to them, in order that they may attack the conqueror and the conquered together, when tired and exhausted. Therefore, since, not content with the sure enjoyment of liberty, we are going to D 3 30 LIVY. BOOK I. cast the doubtful die of empire or slavery, let us, if we enjoy the favour of heaven, adopt some course by which it may be determined which is to rule over the other, without much slaughter or much bloodshed of either nation." The proposal is not disliked by Tullus, though he was more inclined to violent measures, as well from his natural temper of mind, as from his hopes of victory. Both, searching out for a plan, adopt one, for which even fortune herself afforded materials. CHAP. XXIV. THERE happened to be at that time in each army three brothers, born at one birth, well matched in point of age and strength. That they were called the Hora- tii and Curatii, is agreed on well enough, nor is there scarcely any fact of antiquity more celebrated ; how- ever, in a fact so famous, there remains some doubt about the names, to which nation the Horatii, and to which the Curatii belonged. Authors variously lean to each of them : however, I find a greater number to call the Horatii Romans. My mind is inclined to follow these. The kings manage with the brothers to fight in arms, each for his country, " That dominion would be on that side, by which victory would be gained." No refusal is given. Time and place are agreed on. Before they fought, a league was struck up between the Ro- mans and Latins on these conditions, that whichever nation's citizens should have conquered in that combat, that nation should rule over the othert Different leagues are ratified, on different conditions, but all in the same form. This, we understand, was at that time ratified in this way, and of none there is more ancient record. The herald of the ceremonies thus asked king Tullus, " Do you command me, O king, to strike up a league with the ministering functionary of the Alban people ?" The king commanding him, he says, " I demand vervain of thee, O king." The king replies, " Take a pure blade." The herald brought a pure blade of grass from the citadel ; then he thus addressed the king, " Do you, () king, authorize me as the royal delegate of the Roman people the Quirites; my vessels and attendants ?" The king replies, " So far as it may CHAP. 25. LIVY. 31 be done without injury to myself, and the Roman people the Quirites, I do." The herald was M. Valerius. He appointed Sp.Fusius the ministering functionary, touch- ing his head and hair with the vervain. The ministering functionary is appointed to administer the oath, that is, to ratify the league ; and this he does in a great many words, which, being expressed in a long set form, it is not worth while to repeat. Then, the conditions being read over, he says, " Hear, O Jupiter ; hear, O minis- tering functionary of the Alban people ; hear, O people of Alba : according as these conditions have been pub- licly read from first to last, out of these tablets or that wax, without evil guile, and according as they have been here this day most correctly understood, from these conditions the Roman people shall not first swerve. If they shall first swerve from them, with evil guile, by public authority, do thou, O Jupiter, on that day smite the Roman people thus, as I shall this day here smite this swine ; and smite them the more, in propor- tion as thou art the more powerful and potent." When he said this, he struck a sow with a large flint-stone. In the same way the Albans went through their forms and oath, by their dictator and priests. CHAP. XXV. THE league being struck, the three brothers on either side, as had been agreed on, take their arms. When their friends exhorted them to recollect, " That their national gods, their country, and their parents, all their fellow-citizens, at home and in the army, were at that moment spectators of their arms of their might of hand ;" they advance into the centre of the two armies, both fierce by nature, and animated by the shouts of tJfctataLorthig friends. The two armies on each side had already sat down before their camps, free rather from immediate danger, than anxiety ; since dominion was at stake, risked on the valour and fortune of so few. So then, wound up to excitement and in suspense, /, their souls on this spectacle, which was far from pli i^inp The signal is given ; and the three combat- ks on either side, inspired with the courage of mighty , rush with deadly arms, like marshalled legions, 32 LIVY. BOOK I. to the shock. Not their own danger, but public domi- nion and slavery, and such a future condition of their country as they should have gained for it, are present to the minds of the one side and the other. The very moment their arms clashed in the first encounter, and their glittering sabres flashed, big horror thrills through the spectators ; and, as hope leaned to neither side, every voice and breath was hushed. Then mingling hands in the thick of battle, when not only the motions of their bodies, and the rapid quiverings of their wea- pons and arms, but their wounds, also, and blood, were the objects of anxious gaze ; the two Romans sunk down gasping one upon the other, while the three Albans were wounded. On their fall, the Alban army raised a shout of joy ; while all hope, though not anx- iety as yet, had left the Romans, who were breathless with alarm at the situation of the single combatant, whom the Curatii had surrounded. He was happily unhurt. As he was, alone, not at all a match for them collectively, so he was boldly confident against them individually. In order, then, to divide their joint attack, he takes to flight, supposing they would follow him, according as his disabled body would suffer each of them. He had now fled a little way from that place where they fought, when, looking back, he sees them following him at considerable distances asunder, and one of them not far off from him. On him he returns with great fury ; and while the Alban army cries out to the Curatii to assist their brother, Horatius, having slain his enemy, was now sallying to a second encoun- ter. Then the Romans with a shout of acclamation, such as raised by men expressing unexpected joy, cheer on their champion ; and he hastens to get rid of this combat. So, before the other, who was not far fF, could overtake him, he dispatches the other Cwatiu* too. The chance of war thus rendered equal, there now remained two single combatants, but not matched in hope and strength. A body unhurt by a weapon, and a double victory, sent one with bold confidence to a third conflict : the other, dragging along a lody en- feebled by wounds, enfeebled by running, is ^^HH| to a victorious foe. Neither was there a combat. The Roman with exultation exclaims, " I have ottered two CHAP. 26. LIVY. 33 to the manes of my brothers. The third I will offer to the cause of this war, in order that the Roman may rule the Alban." While his adversary could scarcely support his arms, he plunges his sword down his throat. He strips him as he lay prostate. The Romans receive Horatius with triumph and congratulations, with the greater joy in proportion as the event followed so closely after fear. Then both parties apply themselves to the burying of their dead, with very different emo- tions : since one was exalted by the acquisition of do- minion, and the other was brought under foreign sub- jection. Their tombs are still extant, in the place where each of them fell : those of the two Romans almost in one place, nearer Alba ; those of the three Albans towards Rome, but in separate places, and according as they fought. CHAP. XXVI. BEFORE they parted from that ground, Tullus com- mands M ettus, who asked him what he would command him to do in virtue of the league struck up between them, to keep his troops under arms ; that he would use his services, if there were a war with the Veientes. So the armies were led off to their homes. Horatius marched at the head of the Romans, carrying before him the triple spoils. His sister, a maiden who had been betrothed to one of the Curatii, met him before the gate Capena ; and recognizing on her brother's shoulders her spouse's military cloak, which she herself had made, she tears her hair, and with mournful cries calls on her dead spouse by his name. The lamenta- tion of a sister, in the midst of his victory and the great public joy, rouses the passion of the fierce young war- rior ; so, drawing his sword, he stabs the young girl through, at the same time reproaching her in these words : " Begone," he cries, " to your spouse, with your ill-timed affection, you who have forgotten your dead brothers and your living one have forgotten your country : so perish every woman that will bewail a Roman foe." This appeared to the senate and the peo- ple an atrocious deed, but his recent merit outweighed the act. However, he was dragged to justice before 34 LIVY. BOOK I. | the king. The king, in order not to be the author of a ! sentence so melancholy and disagreeable to the popu- i lace, or of his punishment according to that sentence, summons an assembly of the people, and says, " I ap- I point, according to law, two commissioners, to pass sentence on Horatius for murder." The law was one of horrible form " Let two commissioners pass sen- tence for murder. If the accused shall have appealed from the commissioners, try the case by appeal. If they shall succeed, cover his head ; hang him with a rope from the gallows-tree ; flog him within the pomae- rium, or outside the pomcerium" By this law were the two commissioners appointed, who thought they could not under this law acquit even an innocent person, after they had found him guilty. Then says one of them, " I pass judgment on you for murder. Go, lie- tor, bind his hands." The lictor had advanced, and began to tie on the cord. Then Horatius, by the ad- vice of Tullus, who wished to give a mild construction to the law, says, " I appeal." So the case was at last tried by appeal before the people. During that trial people were much aifected, particularly by P. Horatius, his father, who declared that his daughter was deserv- edly put to death ; for, if it were not so, that he him- self would by his own authority as a father punish his son. Then he implored them not to render him, whom they saw a short time before with a noble family, now utterly childless. Amid these supplications, the old ' man, embracing the youth, and pointing to the spoils of the Curatii, hung up in the place that is now called the Horatian arms, exclaimed, " Romans ! can you see this man, whom you have just now seen decked out with victory and marching in triumph, bound to the stake, amidst stripes and torture ? a sight so hideous, that the eyes even of the Alban could scarcely bear ! Go, lictor, bind those hands, that a little before armed gained dominion for the Roman people. Go, muffle the head of the liberator of this city ; hang him from the gallows-tree ; flog him either inside the pomaerium, provided it be amid those arms and spoils of the enemy ; or outside the pomaerium, provided it be among the tombs of the Curatii. For whither can you lead this youth, where his glories will not save him from the CHAP. 27. LIVY. 35 foul stain of such a punishment ?" The people could not withstand either the tears of the father, or his own spirit always the same under every danger ; and they acquitted him, more from admiration of his hravery, than the justice of his cause. Therefore, that the mani- fest murder may be atoned for by some expiation, the father was ordered to make expiation for his son out of the public money. So, having offered certain expiatory sacrifices, which were ever after transmitted down through the Horatian family, he laid a beam across the road, and, muffling the young man's head, sent him as it were under the yoke. That remains even to this day, being always kept repaired at the public expense. They call it the sisters beam. A tomb was erected of square stone to Horatia, in the place where she sunk by the blow. CHAP. XXVII. THE peace with Alba did not continue long. The dissatisfaction of the rabble, that the public fortune was made depend on three soldiers, perverted the natu- rally fickle disposition of the dictator; and as straight- forward measures had not succeeded well, he set about recovering the affection of his countrymen by dishonest ones. Accordingly, as he before in war was anxious for peace, so now in peace he was anxious for war. And since he saw that his own state possessed more spirit than power, he incites other nations to wage war pub- licly and by regular proclamation. To his own people he reserves the work of treachery, under the mask of alliance. The Fidenates, a Roman colony, taking the Veientes as accomplices in the plot, are excited, by an agreement that the Albans would desert to them, to war and arms. When the Fidenates openly revolted, Tul- lus, having summoned Mettus and his army from Alba, leads out against the enemy. When he crossed the Anio, he pitches his camp at the conflux of that and the Tiber. Between that place and Fidense the army of the Veientes had crossed the Tiber. These occupied the right wing in the battle too. The Fidenates are posted on the left, nearer the mountains. Tullus draws out his own forces opposite the Fidenates. He stations 36 LIVY. BOOK I. the Albans over against the Veientes. The Alban had no more courage than he had honesty : therefore, not having the spirit either to keep his ground, or openly desert, he retires gradually towards the mountains. Then, when he imagined he withdrew far enough, he makes his whole army halt ; and still irresolute, he be- gins to draw out his lines, in order to waste time. His design was, to lean with all his force to the side that fortune would favour At first it appeared surprising to the Romans, who were posted next them, when they perceived their flank exposed by the departure of their allies ; then a horseman, riding at full gallop, announces to the king that the Albans were going off. Tullus, in this alarming situation, vowed twelve Salii and shrines to Paleness and Terror. Rebuking the horseman with a loud voice, so that the enemy may overhear him, he bids him return to the attack ; " That there was no occasion for alarm ; that the Alban army was wheel- ing round by his orders, in order to fall on the defence- less rear of the Fidenates." He also commands him to bid the cavalry hold their spears erect. This expedient intercepted, from a great part of the Roman infantry, the sight of the Alban army retiring; and those wfro saw it, thinking it to be as they heard from the king, fight with the greater ardour. The terror is transferred to the enemy. The Fidenates both heard what was spo- ken in such a loud voice, and many of them understood Latin, as they were intermixed with Romans in the colony. Therefore, for fear they may be cut off from the town by the sudden descent of the Albans from the hills, they take to flight. Tullus presses on them ; and, having routed the Fidenatian wing, returns on the Ve- ientians, who were confounded at the dismay of the others. Neither did they withstand the charge ; but the river, which lay on their rear, prevented them from flying in disorder. When they reached it in their flight, some, shamefully throwing away their arms, rushed blindly into the water. Others, while they are hesitating on the bank, between the resolution of fight- ing or flying, are overwhelmed. The Romans were never before engaged in a more bloody % CHAP. 28. IE IVY. 37 CHAP. XXVIII. THEN the Alban army, which remained spectator of the action, was led down into the plain. Mettus con- gratulates Tullus on the defeat of the enemy : Tullus, in answer, addresses Mettus civilly. He commands the Albans to join their camp to the Roman, in the name of good fortune ; he makes preparation for a purificatory sacrifice on the following day. As soon as it dawned, all things being prepared in the usual way, he commands both armies to be convoked to an assem- bly. The heralds, beginning at the outside, summoned the Albans first. These, actuated also by the novelty of the thing, to hear a Roman king deliver a harangue, stood next him. By a previous arrangement, the Ro- man forces under arms are drawn round them ; the centurions get a charge to execute their orders without delay. Then Tullus begins thus, " Romans, if there was ever at any other time before, in any war, an occasion that you should thank first the immortal gods, and secondly your own valour, it was that of yesterday's battle. For we fought not more against the enemy, but what was a greater and more dangerous fight, against the treason and treachery of our allies. For let no false notion possess you ; it was without my direc- tions the Albans withdrew to the mountains ; nor was that a command of mine, but a stratagem, and the pre- tence of issuing a command, in order that, while you remained ignorant that you were deserted, your thoughts should not be diverted from the combat ; and that the enemy may be struck with terror and dismay, while they thought that they were surrounded on the rear. Nor does this wickedness, that I arraign, rest with all the Albans they followed their leader, just as you would have done, if I chose to wheel off my army to ^any position from that ground. That Mettus is the director of that rout ; the same Mettus is the contriver of this war, Mettus the violator of the Roman and Alban league. May another attempt the same atroci- ties hereafter, if I do not now make of him a signal ex- ample to mankind." The centurions stand armed round Mettus. The king proceeds, as he began, with the 1 dress " So may it be good, auspicious, E ' 38 LIVY.' BOOK I. and fortunate for the Romans and myself, and you, O Albans ; I have it in contemplation to remove all the Alban people to Rome to give the commons the privileges of the state to elect the nobles into the senate to make one city, one commonwealth. As the Alban state was formerly divided into two nations, so now let it again become one." At these words, the Alban youth unarmed, hemmed round by armed troops, though actuated by different emotions, yet, being com- pelled by one common fear, maintained a silence. Then Tullus says, " Mettus Fuffetius, if you were ca- pable of keeping faith and treaties, I would suffer you to live, and would afford you instruction in that. Now, since your natural principle is irreclaimable, teach man- kind, at least by your punishment, to consider as sacred those things that you have violated. As you did then, a little before, bear a mind divided between the interest of the Romans and Fidenatians, so shall you now give your body to be torn in pieces." Then two teams of four horses being brought up, he ties to their chariots Mettus stretched at full length; then the horses, being driven furiously in different directions, carried off the body on either chariot, torn asunder where the limbs had been fastened by the cords. All turned away their eyes from such a hideous spectacle. That was the first and last punishment, among the Romans, that shewed an instance of disregard to the laws of humanity. In other cases they may boast, that no nation was satisfied with milder punishments. CHAP. XXIX. DURING these proceedings, the cavalry had been already dispatched to Alba, to remove the population to Rome. Then the legions were led forth to demolish the city. When they entered the gates, there was not that tumult or consternation that is usual in captured cities, when, the gates being broken open, or the walls laid level with the battering-ram^/ or the citadel taken by storm, the cries of the enemy, and the running of armed troops through the city, renders all a mingled scene of havoc and conflagration. But a sullen silence and mute affliction so rivetted the souls of all that, for CHAP. 30. LIVY. getting in their trepidation what they were leaving behind what they were carrying with them all re- flection lost, and asking one another incessant questions, they would at one time stand on their thresholds, at another run wandering up and down through their houses, to look at them for that last time. When the shouts of the horsemen, ordering them to march out, now became urgent, and the crashing of the houses that were demolished in the skirts of the city was overheard, and the dust rising from these distant quarters filled all places, as if a cloud were spread over them. Carrying off in a hurry whatever each person could, they marched out, leaving their domestic and tutelar gods behind them. One continued band of emigrants now filled all the roads ; and the sight of others renewed their tears, while they condoled with one another. And heart- rending cries were heard, particularly from the women, as they passed by their venerable temples, now blocked up by armed troops, and were leaving their gods behind them, as it were captives of war. When the Albans left the city, the Roman army lays all their buildings, public and private, in every quarter, level with the ground : and one hour consigned to destruction and ruin the work of four hundred years, during which Alba stood. However, they spared the temples of the gods, for it was so ordered by the king. CHAP. XXX, IN the mean time, Rome rises into power on the ruins of Alba. The number of the citizens is doubled. Mount Caelius is added to the city ; and, in order that it may be more thickly inhabited, Tullus selects it as the seat of his palace, and resides there. He elects the chiefs of the Albans, the Tullii, the Servilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii, and Cla3lii, into the number of the patricians, so that that part too of the state may be increased : and built a senate-house, as a consecrated place of meeting for the order thus augmented by him, which was called Hostilius's senate-house up to the time of our fathers. And, in order that the strength of all the orders may derive some accession from the new people, he chose ten troops of horse from the Albans : 40 LIVY. BOOK I. he filled up the old legions with the same reinforcement, and enrolled new ones. Tullus, in this confidence in his power, proclaims war on the Sabines, at that time the most powerful nation, next to the Etrurians, in men and arms. Outrages were committed on both sides, and restitution demanded in vain. Tullus com- plained that some Roman traders had been seized in an open market, at the temple of Feronia. The Sabines, that prior to that, their countrymen had fled to the asylum for refuge, and were detained at Rome : these were alleged as the causes of the war. The Sabines, fully recollecting that a portion of their own strength had been located at Rome by Tatius, and that the Ro- man power had also been recently increased by the accession of the population of Alba, looked round them- selves too for foreign aid. Etruria was in their neigh- bourhood, and of the Etrurians the Veientians were the nearest. From these they brought over some volun- teers, principally on account of the surviving animosity of war, their feelings being excited to revolt; and, with some vagrants of the indigent populace, pay had its effect also. They were aided by no national assis- tance ; and with the Veientians (for, with regard to the other states of Etruria, it is less surprising), the faith of treaties stipulated with Romulus prevailed. As they were making preparations for war at both sides with the utmost vigour, and success seemed to hinge on this point, which of the two should be the aggressors, Tul- lus is first to pass over into the Sabine territory. A furious battle was fought at the wood called Mcditiosa, where the Roman army was victorious, both indeed by the strength of their infantry, but most particularly by their cavalry, which had been lately augmented. The Sabine ranks were disordered by a sudden charge of the cavalry ; nor could a battle be afterwards maintained by them, nor a retreat facilitated without great slaughter. CHAP. XXXI. THE Sabines being subdued, when the government of Tullus, and the Roman state in general, were in high renown and great power, it was announced to the king and the senators, that it had rained stones on the Alban CHAP. 31. LIVY. 41 mount. As this could scarcely be credited, some per- sons were sent to witness the prodigy, in whose view there fell from heaven showers of stones, in the same manner as when the winds sweep to the earth a dense shower of hail. They also fancied that they heard, from a grove on the highest summit of the mount, a loud voice, directing that the Albans should perform religious rites according to the solemn custom of their country, which, as if they had abandoned their gods also along with their native home, they had consigned to oblivion ; and had either adopted the Roman religion, or, incensed, as it generally happens, with fortune, had renounced the worship of the gods. In consequence of the same prodigy, a nine-day festival was also, with the sanction of government, instituted by the Romans, in obedience either to a celestial mandate issued from the Alban mount (for that too is mentioned), or to the advice of the augurs. Certain however it is, it con- tinued a solemn custom, that, whenever a similar pro- digy was announced, festivals should be held for nine days. In no very considerable time after, they were afflicted with a pestilence, from which though a disin- clination to military service arose, yet no respite from arms was granted by the warlike monarch, who even believed that the bodies of the young men were in a more healthful state in war than at home ; until he was himself also seized with a tedious distemper. Then so much were his haughty spirits broken down with his body, that he, who before deemed nothing less befitting a king than to apply his mind to religious matters, sud- denly became a slave to all superstitions, great and small; and even filled the people with religious feelings. People now in general, desiderating that state of affairs which had existed under king Numa, believed that the only relief which remained to their sick bodies was to be had, if favour and forgiveness were obtained from the gods. They report, that the king himself turning over the commentaries of Numa, when he had there found that certain solemn sacrifices had been performed to Jupiter Elicius, shut himself up for the ministration of these solemnities ; but that the rite was neither duly commenced nor solemnized, and that not only was. no- celestial appearance offered to his view, but, through E 3 42 LIVY. BOOK I. the anger of Jupiter invoked in an irregular form of religion, lie was struck with lightning, and burned to ashes with his house. Tullus reigned thirty-two years, with great military glory. CHAP. XXXII. ON the death of Tullus, the government, as it had been already ordained from the commencement, de- volved on the senators ; and they nominated an inter- rex, who presiding at the election, the people created Ancus Martius king, and the senators sanctioned the choice. Ancus Martius was the grandson of king Numa Pompilius, being born of his daughter. As soon as he began to reign, holding in remembrance his grand- father's glory, and because the late reign, in other re- spects highly distinguished, had not been sufficiently fortunate in one particular, either from the neglect or undue observance of religious rites, he deemed it a matter of by far the most important concern to perform the sacrifices, as they had been ordained by Numa. He orders the pontifex to set up to public view all the ceremonies, transcribed on white tablets, from the commentaries of that king. From these proceedings, his own subjects, who were desirous of peace, and the neighbouring states, were inspired with a belief that the monarch would conform to the manners and institutions of his grandfather. Accordingly the Latins, with whom a treaty had been concluded in the reign of Tul- lus, assumed haughty airs ; and having made an incur- sion into the Roman territory, return a contemptuous answer to the Romans demanding restitution, imagining that the king of Rome would spend his reign in indo- lence, amidst shrines . and altars. Ancus possessed an intermediate disposition, participating both in that of Numa and Romulus; and besides his believing that peace had been more necessary to his grandfather's reign, amongst a people both newly incorporated and savage, it was also his conviction that he could not him- self, without submitting to insult, easily enjoy that peace which had fallen to the lot of the other ; that his patience was tried, and after trial despised ; and that the times were more suited for a king like Tullus than CHAP. 32. LIVY. 43 Numa. That, however, as Numa had instituted reli- gious rites to be observed in time of peace, ceremonials of war should be ordained by himself; and that wars should not only be conducted, but also proclaimed with some formality ; he copied from the ^Kquicolae, an an- cient people, that form of demanding* restitution which the heralds observe at this day. The ambassador, when he reaches the frontiers of that people from whom the satisfaction is required, having his head covered with a list (the covering is of wool), says, " Hear me, Jupiter, hear, ye frontiers" (to whatsoever state they belong, he names that), " let divine justice hear. 1 am the public messenger of the Roman people. I 'come duly and solemnly an ambassador, and let credit attach to my words." He then recites his demands. Afterwards he calls Jupiter to witness " If I claim those men and those effects to be delivered up to me, the messenger of the Roman people, contrary to j ustice and religion ; then mayest thou suffer me never to enjoy my native country." This he repeats, when he crosses the frontiers ; the same, to the first man who meets him; the same, on entering the gate; the same, on having entered the Forum; having changed a few words in framing the form of demand and imprecation. If those which he claims be not delivered up at the expiration of three-and-thirty days (for such is the established num- ber), he declares war in the following form. " Hear, O Jupiter, and thou, Juno, Quirinus, and all you celestial, and you terrestrial, and you infernal gods, hear me. I call you to witness that this people (whoever they are, he names them,) are unjust, and do not discharge the claims of equity. But on these matters we will consult the elders in our own country, by what means we may obtain our right." With this information the messenger returns to Rome, to consult the senate. The king immediately consulted the senators, nearly in these words : " Touching those matters, controversies, and questions, on which the Pater Patratus of the Roman people, Quirites, has I conferred with the Pater Patratus of the ancient Latins, I and the ancient Latin men ; which matters ought to have been granted, performed, and discharged, but which matters they have neither granted, performed, nor discharged, declare," says he to him whose vote he 44 LIVY. BOOK!. first asked, " what is your opinion." Then the other replied, "I am of opinion that they should be sought in a fair and righteous war ; and accordingly I consent and unite in a vote to that effect." The rest were then asked in rotation ; and when the majority of the mem- bers who were present, declared themselves of the same opinion, the war was undertaken by common consent. It was a usual practice, that the herald should carry to the frontiers of the people in question a blood-stained spear, pointed with iron or burned at the top, and, in the presence of not less than three grown persons, say, Whereas the people of the ancient Latins and the ancient Latin inhabitants against the Roman people of the Quirites have acted and transgressed, and whereas the Roman people of the Quirites have ordered that there should be a war with the ancient Latins ; and the senate of the Roman people of the Quirites have de- clared, consented, and united in voting that war should be made with the ancient Latins : for this reason, I and the Roman people do declare and make war against the people of the ancient Latins and the ancient Latin in- habitants." Whenjie had thus spoken, he discharged the spear into their territories. In this manner was restitution sought from the Latins at that time, and war declared : after ages adopted the same custom. CHAP. XXXIII. ANGUS having delegated the care of religious affairs to the flamens and other priests, and having levied a new army, set out to the war, and took by storm Poli- torium, a city of the Latins; and in accordance with the custom of former kings, who had augmented the Ro- man power by the admission of the enemy into the city, he transferred the entire population to Rome ; and as the Sabines had entirely occupied the Capitol and the citadel ; and the Albans mount Cselius, being the places round the Palatium, the residence of the old Romans; mount Aventine was assigned to the new inhabitants. There was, not long afterwards, additionally settled in the same place a new body of citizens, on the capture of Tellense and Ficana. Politorium was afterwards a second time attacked by war, which city being deserted, CHAP. 34. LIVY. 45 was occupied by the ancient Latins; and this furnished the Romans with a reason for demolishing that city, that it should not always serve for a receptacle for the enemy. At length the entire weight of the Latin war being concentrated at Medullia, they fought there for a considerable time with various success, and alternate victory, for the city was defended by fortifications, and strengthened with a powerful garrison; and their camp being pitched in the open plain, the Latin army some- times engaged the Romans in close combat. Ultimately, Ancus having made an effort with all his forces, con- quers for the first time in a pitched battle ; then having made himself master of a great booty, he returns to Rome, having then also admitted into the city many thousands of the Latins, to whom a residence was assigned near the temple of Venus, in order that mount Aven- tine should be united to the Palatium. The Janiculum was also annexed, not from scarcity of space, but lest it may serve at any time, as a fortress for the enemy. It was resolved that it should be united to the city not only by a wall, but also, for the convenience of passage, by a wooden bridge, then for the first time constructed over the Tiber. The Quiritian fosse also, no incon- siderable defence to those places which were more level of approach, is the work of king Ancus. The state having been augmented by a vast accession, since in so numerous a population many clandestine outrages were committed, the distinction of right and wrong being confounded, a prison is built in the centre of the city, adjoining the Forum, to check by its terror the in- creasing audacity. Nor was the city alone extended under this monarch, but the lands and boundaries also. The Msesian forest was taken from the Veientians, the Roman dominion was extended to the sea, and a city called Ostia, built at the mouth of the Tiber; around this, salt works were established; and in consequence of the distinguished successes in war, the temple of Jupiter Feretrius was enlarged. CHAP. XXXIV. DURING the reign of Ancus, Lucumo, an enterprising man, and powerful in riches, transferred his residence \ 46 LIVY. BOOK I. to Rome, principally from a desire and expectation of exalted honour, for the attainment of which he had no facility at Tarquinii, for there too he was descended of an alien family. He was the son of Demaratus a Co- rinthian, who being obliged to quit his home on ac- count of an insurrectionary tumult, happening to settle at Tarquinii, he there married, and had two sons. Their names were Lucumo and Aruns. Lucumo sur- vived his father, the heir of all his fortune: Aruns dies before his father, leaving his wife pregnant. Nor does the father long survive his son, who as he had died with remembering his grandson in his will, not being aware that his daughter-in-law was with child, the boy being born after his grandfather's death to no share in the inheritance, had the name Egerius given him from his poverty. On the other hand, when riches inspired Lucumo, who was heir to all the fortune, with high notions ; Tanaquil whom he married, a woman of the highest family, and a person who could not easily brook a rank beneath that in which she was born, raised these notions still higher. When this lady had married him, as the Etrurians scorned Lucumo as the offspring of a foreign exile, she could not endure the indignity? and forgetful of her natural love of country, provided only she could see her husband raised to honour, she formed the design of emigrating from Tarquinii. Rome appeared particularly adapted for her purpose; observing, "that in a new state, where all nobility was of sudden growth, and the reward of merit, there would be room, for a spirited and active man: that Tatius, a Sabine, had ascended the throne; that Numa was invited from Cures to assume the crown ; and that Ancus was of Sabine descent by the mother, and was ennobled by the single image of Numa." She easily prevails on him, being a man ambitious of honours and to whom Tarqui- nii was only his mother's native home. Having there- fore packed up their effects, they remove to Rome. They happened to have arrived at the Janiculum; there as he was seated in a chariot with his wife, an eagle gently descending on poised wiigs, takes off his bonnet, and fluttering above the chariot with loud screaming, as if sent from heaven for the performance of the office, replaces it in due form on IMS head: and CHAP. 35. LIVY. 47 then soaring aloft disappeared. Tanaquil is said to have received the omen with joy, being a lady, as the Etrurians are in general, well skilled in celestial pro- digies. Embracing her husband, she bids him enter- tain sublime and exalted hopes, for that such was the bird, that appeared in such a region of the air too, and the messenger of such a deity ; that it exhibited the omen upon the most elevated point of the human per- son ; that it lifted off the ornament placed upon the human head, in order to replace it there by divine com- mission. Bringing with them these hopes and notions, they entered the city ; and having purchased a house, there they announced his name L. Tarquinius (Priscus.) The fact of his being a stranger, and his riches made him a conspicuous character to the Romans, and he him. self assisted his good fortune by gaining over to his inte- rest whomsoever he could by his courteous address, po- liteness of invitations, and acts of kindness; until his re- putation had reached even the palace: and that acquain- ;ance he advanced in a short time to the privilege of an intimate friendship, by a polite and dexterous perform- ance of his duty about the king's person, so that he took a part as well in public as in private deliberations on foreign and domestic subjects ; and having proved himself faithful in all, was, in the end, even appointed guardian by will to the king's children. CHAP. XXXV. ANGUS reigned twenty-four years, equal to any of the former kings in the arts and glory of peace and war. His sons were now approaching the age of man- hood; for which reason, Tarquin the more eagerly urged that the election for creating a king should be held as soon as possible. This being announced by proclamation, at the approach of the time he sent away the boys to hunt; and he is said to be the first to have canvassed for the throne, and to have made a speech to win over the affections of the populace, observing, " that he did not seek a thing unprecedented, as he was not the first, (a circumstance which any person might regard with indignation and surprise) but the third foreigner who aspired to the throne of Rome ; 48 LIVY. BOOK I. and that Tatius was made king from being not only a foreigner, but an enemy ; that Numa, a stranger to the city, was, without soliciting it, invited to the kingdom by their own free will; that he had himself, as soon as he became his own master, removed to Rome, with his wife arid all his fortunes; that he had lived a greater part of that time of life, during which men discharge civil duties, at Rome than in his origi- nal country ; that he had learned the Roman laws, and Roman customs, at home, and abroad, under a master of whom he need not be ashamed, king Ancus himself; that in dutiful submission and respect towards the king he had contended with all men, in kindness towards others with the king himself." Whilst recounting those, by no means false statements, the Roman people with great unanimity appointed him to reign. For this reason, the same love of popularity which he had evinced in seeking the kingdom, followed even to the throne, this man in every other respect of distinguished merit. Nor less attentive to the strengthening of his own power than the encreasing of the commonwealth, he raises a hundred to the rank of senators, who were afterwards called, " minorum gentium" i. e. of the les- ser families, the undoubted party of the king by whose kindness they had got into the senate. His first war he waged with the Latins, and took by storm Apiolse, a town in their country ; and having brought home from thence a booty greater than had been the charac- ter of the war, he celebrated the games in a more ex- pensive and elegant style than the former kings. Then a site was first marked out for the circus, which is now called, " maximus ;" places were distributed to the senators and knights, where each was to build seats for himself; these were called benches. They wit- nessed the games by means of props supporting the seats, which were each twelve feet high from the ground. The entertainment consisted in horses and pugilists, brought principally from Etruria. The games from that time continued regularly annual, they were indiscriminately called "the Roman," and "the great." By the same monarch building lots were also parcelled out to private persons round the Forum, porticoes and shops were erected. CHAP. 36. LIVY. 49 CHAP. XXXVI. HE also designed to surround the city with a stone wall, when the Sabine war interrupted the undertak- ing. And so very sudden was that event, that the enemy were crossing the Anio before the Roman army could march out, and check them. Rome was conse- quently in alarm, and in the first battle, they fought with great slaughter on both sides, the victory being undecided. The enemy's troops being then marched back to their camp, and time given to the Romans to prepare anew for the war, Tarquin, being of opinion that his forces were principally deficient in cavalry, re- solved to add other centuries to the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres which Romulus had created, and to leave them distinguished by his own name. As Romulus had executed that measure in obedience to augury, Attus Navius, an eminent augur, at that time, denied that any change could be made, or any thing new in- stituted, unless the birds had permitted it. By this, this king's anger was excited, and ridiculing, as they report, the science, "come, you diviner," says he. "de- clare by your augury if what I now contemplate in my mind can be accomplished." When the other, having tried the matter by the test of augury, replied, that it certainly might. " But," says he, " I have been re- volving this in my mind, if you could cut a whet- stone in two with a razor; take these, and perform what your birds portend to be possible." Thereupon, they say, that he unhesitatingly cut the whetstone in two. There was a statue of Attus with his head veiled in the comitium, in which place the deed was performed, just on the steps, at the left of the senate- house. They report also that the whetstone was de- posited in the same place, to serve as a monument of that miracle to posterity. Certain it is, so great an accession of honor was accorded to auguries, arid the sacred office of augurs, that thenceforward nothing was done in war or peace, unless by the sanction of aus- pices ; the assemblies of the people, the embodying of armies, the highest concerns of the state were put off when the birds had not permitted them. Nor did Tarquin then make any change in respect to the cen- F 50 LIVY. BOOK I. turies of the knights, the number he doubled, so that there should be 1800 knights in the three centuries. Only those who were added were called juniors, but still under the same original name, and these they now call, because they have been doubled, the six centuries. CHAP. XXXVII. THIS branch of his forces being augmented, he has a second engagement with the Sabines. But, besides that the Roman army had ericreased in strength, a stratagem is also clandestinely added, persons being sent to throw into the river a great quantity of timber when set on fire, which lay on the bank of the Anio, and the wind favouring the burning of the timber, when a great part of it driven against the piles, attached itself to the planks, it burns down the bridge. That circumstance also struck terror into the Sabines during the engage- ment ; and when they were routed, the same impeded their flight; and many persons after having escaped from the enemy, perished in the river itself, whose arms floating on the Tiber, being recognized at the city, made the victory known almost before it would be announced by a messenger. In that battle the cav- alry gained a principal share of the glory. It is said, that being stationed on both wings, when the centre of their own infantry was now forced, they charged so effectively on the flanks, as not only to check the Sa- bine legions, who were furiously pressing the troops that gave way, but put them immediately to flight. The Sabines sought the mountains in a disordered flight, and few of them gained them ; the greatest por- tion, as has been before stated, were driven by the cavalry into the river.. Tarquin judging it proper to pursue them during their consternation, having sent the plunder and prisoners to Rome, and burned the enemy's spoil in a great heap (that had been devoted to Neptune), he proceeds to lead his army further on into the Sabine territory ; and though the Sabines had been defeated and could not hope for better success, yet, as the business did not allow them time for delibe- ration, they went forward to meet them with an army collected in a hurry, and being on that occasion routed CHAP. 38. LIVY. 51 a second time, their affairs being now almost ruined, they sued for peace. CHAP. XXXVIII. COLL ATI A, and whatever land was around Collatia, was taken from the Sabines. Egerius (he was son to the king's brother) was left in garrison at Collatia. I am informed that the people were thus surrendered up, and that the following is the form of the surrender : " Are you commissioners and ambassadors sent by the people of Collatia, to surrender yourselves and the peo- ple of Collatia?" "We are." "Are the people of Collatia at their own disposal ?" " They are." " Do you surren- der yourselves, the people of Collatia, your city, lands, water, boundaries, temples, utensils, every thing, di- vine and human, into my dominion and that of the Ro- man people ?" " We surrender them." " Then I receive them." The Sabine war being concluded, Tarquin returns in triumph to Rome. He next made war on the ancient Latins, in which they never came to a gene- ral engagement : by leading about his army to the re- spective towns, he brought the whole Latin race under subjection. Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crus- tumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Momentum all these towns belonging to the ancient Latins, or such as had revolted to the Latins, were taken. The works of peace were then commenced, with spirit greater than the exertion with which he had conducted the wars, in order that his people should not enjoy more rest at home than in foreign service. For he prepares to en- close the city, where he had not yet fortified it, with a stone wall, the commencement of which work had been interrupted by the Sabine war ; and he dries the low parts of the city round the Forum, and the other vallies that were situated between the hills, by sewers con- tinued into the Tiber from the elevated grounds, be- cause they did not easily drain off the water from the flats ; and by laying foundations he secures a site for a temple to Jupiter in the Capitol, which he had vowed in the Sabine war, his mind already presaging the future magnificence of the place. 52 LIVY. BOOK I. CHAP. XXXIX. AT that time there was seen in the palace a prodigy, wonderful in its appearance and its event. It is related that the head of a boy, whose name was Servius Tul- lius, blazed with fire, in the sight of many, as he lay asleep ; that the royal pair were in consequence alarmed, by the exceedingly great cries which were raised at the miraculous nature of such an appearance ; and that, when one of the domestics was fetching water to extin- guish it, he was prevented by the queen ; and that, when the tumult had subsided, she would not allow the boy to be disturbed until he should awake of his own accord. Then Tanaquil, having called her husband aside to a private room, says, " Do you see this boy, whom we are educating in such humble style ? You may be assured that he will hereafter be a light to our emergencies, and a support to the court in distress. Let us therefore with all our indulgence rear him up, who is the source of great honour to the state and to ourselves." That the boy from that time began to be treated as one of their own children, and to be instructed in the accomplishments by which minds are elevated to the dignity of high fortune. Whatever is the pleasure of the gods is easily brought to pass. He turned out a yoi*th of a truly royal disposition ; nor, when a son- in-law was sought for Tarquin, could any one of the Roman youth compete with him in any accomplishment, and to him the king betrothed his daughter. This so high an honour, for whatever cause granted him, pre- cludes us from believing that he was the son of a bond- woman, and that he had himself been a slave when young. I am rather of opinion with those who assert, that on the taking of Corniculum, the wife of Ser. Tullius, who had .been the principal man in that city, being pregnant when her husband was slain, was, when she had been discovered among the other female cap- tives, exempted from slavery by the Roman queen, on account of her distinguished rank, and was delivered of a son at Rome, in the family of Tarquinius Priscus. That in consequence of such great kindness the inti- macy between the ladies eiicreased, and the boy, as being educated in the house from his infancy, was held CHAP. 40. LiVY. S'l in affection and honour ; and that his mother's misfor- tune, because on the taking of her native city, she fell into the enemy's hands, had caused him to be believed the son of a slave. CHAP. XL. IN about the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Tar- quin, Ser. Tullius was in by far the highest estimation not only with the king, but with the senators and the commons. At that time, although the two sons of Ancus had before always held it as the highest indig- nity, that they should be excluded from their father's throne, by the perfidy of their guardian; that an alien, not only not of a citizen family, but not even of Ita- lian origin should reign at Rome : yet then their indig- nation encr eased more vehemently, if the throne was not even to revert to themselves after Tarquin, but was after him to sink headlong in succession to slaves ; so, that within about a hundred years after Romulus, descended from a deity, himself a deity, occupied the throne, a slave, and the son of a slave, should in the same state get possession of it ; that it would be both the national disgrace of the Roman name, and of their own family in particular, if, while the male issue of king Ancus was living, the crown of Rome should be open not only to strangers, but to slaves. They re- solve therefore to avert that ignominy by the sword. But their resentment of the injury stimulated them against the king himself more than against Servius ; both because the king, if he survived, was likely to be a heavier avenger of the murder, and besides, if Servius were put to death, whatever other man he would chose to be his son-in-law, the same individual he appeared likely to make heir to the crown. For these reasons the plot is formed against the king him- self. Two of the most determined of the shepherds being chosen for the purpose, each with the rustic im- plements of iron which they had been accustomed to carry, by the most outrageous conduct of which they were capable, at the porch of the palace, turn upon themselves the attention of all the king's attendants, under pretence of a quarrel. As both appealed to the F 3 54 LIVY. BOOK I. king, and their vociferations had penetrated even to the palace, being summoned they proceed from thence to the royal presence. At first they both began to be obstreporous, and mutually to cry out against each other. Being checked by the lictor, and ordered to speak in their turn, they at length desist from their abuse. One by a previous arrangement opens the case. Whilst the king was entirely turned away in attention to him, the other struck his uplifted axe into his head, and leaving the weapon in the wound, they both rush out of the house. CHAP. XLI. WHILST those who were in attendance support the expiring Tarquin, the lictors apprehend the murderers in their flight ; then arose an uproar and a gathering of the people, wondering what could be the matter. Dur- ing the tumult, Tanaquil orders the palace to be closed turns out the strangers, and at the same time, as if hope remained, industriously procures whatever is necessary for dressing the wound ; at the same time, in case her expectation should disappoint her, she provides other safeguards. After having pointed out her almost lifeless husband to Tullus who was hastily summoned, holding his right hand she beseeches him not to suffer his father-in-law's murder to pass unrevenged, nor his mother-in-law to become a laughing-stock to her ene- mies. " Servius," says she, " if you be a man, the kingdom is yours, and not theirs who have perpetrated the most wicked deed by the hands of others. Arouse yourself, and follow the guidance of the gods who foretold, by the divine light that was formerly shed round it, that this head would be illustrious. Now let that celestial flame excite you; now aw^\ when he could not employ them, and wished that the frontiers of the empire should be more widely occupied by sending colonies, he sent colo- 74 LIVY. BOOK I. nists to Signia and Circeii, to serve as defences to the city by land and sea. CHAP. LVI. AN awful prodigy appeared to him, meditating these works. A snake sliding from a wooden pillar, after having caused terror and a flight into the palace, struck the heart of the king himself not so much with sudden trepidation, as it filled it with anxious concern. Ac- cordingly, though the Etrurian soothsayers alone were applied to on public prodigies, being terrified with this, as if it were a domestic apparition, he resolved to send to Delphi, to the most celebrated oracle in the world ; and not venturing to entrust the answer of the oracle to any other person, he sent his two sons into Greece, through lands at that time unknown, and seas still more unknown. Titus and Aruns set out as their companion was added, L. Junius Brutus, the son of Tarquinia the king's sister, a young man far dif- ferent from that character of which he had assumed the disguise. He, on having heard that the principal men of the state, and amongst them his own brother, had been put to death by his uncle, resolved to leave nothing either to be dreaded by the king in his talents, or coveted in his fortunes ; and to seek safety in con- tempt, since there was little security in justice. Hav- ing therefore designedly fashioned himself to the repre- sentation of folly, as he permitted himself and his for- tune to become a prey to the king, he did not even decline the surname of Brutus, that, concealing itself under the disguise of that surname, that spirit which achieved the liberty of the Roman people should wait for its own opportunity. This person being then taken by the Tarquinii to Delphi, more properly as a sport than a companion, is reported to have carried, as a gift to Apollo, a wand of gold enclosed in a cornel cane, hollowed for the purpose, being mystically the emblem of his own mind. Whither when they had arrived, after executing their father's commands, a curiosity seized the minds of the young men, of inquiring to which of them the kingdom of Rome was to descend. It is reported that an answer was sent forth from the CHAP. 57. LIVY. 75 bottom of the cave, " O young men, whichever of you shall have first kissed his mother, he shall enjoy the sovereign authority at Rome." The Tarquins, in order that Sextus, who had been left behind at Rome, might remain ignorant of the answer, and without a chance of the sovereignty, direct the matter to be kept secret with the utmost attention ; between themselves they leave it to be decided by lot which of them, on their return to Rome, should first kiss his mother. Brutus, judging that the Pythian response had a different tendency, as if he had stumbled and fallen, touched the earth with his lips, undoubtedly because she was the common mother of all mankind. They then returned to Rome, where they were preparing for war against the Rutuli with the greatest vigour. CHAP. LVII. THE Rutuli, a nation eminently powerful in wealth, considering that country and that age, were in posses- sion of Ardea ; and that circumstance was the very cause of the war, because the Roman king, exhausted by the magnificence of the public works, was anxious both to be enriched himself, and also to soothe down the minds of his subjects, exasperated also with his government, independently of his other tyrannical con- duct, because they were indignant they were so long kept by the king in the occupation of mechanics, and in servile labour. The experiment was made, if Ardea could be taken in the first assault ; when that did not succeed, the enemy were began to be distressed with a siege and circumvallations. In these quarters furloughs were, as is usual in a war rather tedious than vigorous, granted with sufficient liberality, more so, however, to the principal officers than to the soldiers. The youths of the royal family, especially, used to spend their leisure hours in f eastings and convivial parties amongst themselves. It happened, as they were drinking with Sex. Tarquinius, where also Collatinus Tarquinius, the son of Egerius, was supping, that mention was made of their wives; each praised his own to a surprising degree ; the dispute then growing warm, Collatinus says, " That there was no need of words that it could indeed 76 LIVY. BOOK I. be easily ascertained how much his Lucretia excelled the rest. Why do we not, as we possess the vigour of youth, mount our horses, and inspect in person the disposition of our wives ? That that must be the strongest proof to each which shall meet his eyes, when the husband's arrival is unexpected." They were heated with wine. " Come then," say they all. They fly off to Rome, with their horses at full speed. Whi- ther when they arrived, as the first shades of night were overspreading the earth, they proceed forthwith to Collatia ; where they find Lucretia, not like the king's daughters-in-law, whom they had seen wasting their time in banquetting and luxurious indulgence with those of their own class, but sitting in the middle of her house, at that late hour of night, attentive to her wool, amidst her maids, who were working by candle-light. The honour of this female competition was awarded to Lucretia. Her consort, on his arrival, and the Tarquins were courteously received the suc- cessful husband politely invites the royal youths. There a criminal passion of violating Lucretia by force takes possession of Sex. Tarquin ; her beauty, as well as approved chastity, incite him to the act. And for that time indeed they return to the camp, after this noctur- nal frolic of youth. CHAP. LVIII. AFTER the lapse of a few days, Sex. Tarquinius, unknown to Collatinus, came to Collatia with a single attendant ; where being kindly received by those who were ignorant of his design, when he had been shewn in after supper to the strangers' apartment, being fired with passion, when every thing around seemed secure and all buried in sleep, he approached Lucretia with a drawn sword, as she lay asleep ; and, having pressed the lady's bosom with his left hand, said, " Hush, Lucretia, I am Sextus Tarquinius ; my sword is in my hand ; you shall die if you utter a word." When the female, being affrighted out of her sleep, saw no suc- cour nigh, and death immediately threatening her ; then Tarquin declared his love, intreated, mingled threats with prayers, and worked upon her female CHAP. 58. LIVY. 77 feelings on every side ; when he saw her inflexible, and not yielding even from the dread of death, he adds dis- honour to fear he declares he will place his murdered slave naked by her dead body, that she might be said to have been slain in base adultery. By which terror when his lust, as it were triumphant, had overcome her obstinate chastity, and Tarquin departed from thence, elated at having overpowered a female's honour, Lucretia, distressed at so heavy a misfortune, dispatches one and the same messenger to Rome to her father, and to Ardea to her husband, with directions to come each with one trusty friend ; that such was the occasion of action and expedition, that an atrocious deed had happened. Sp. Lucretius came with P. Vale- rius, the son of Volesus Collatinus, with L. Junius Brutus, with whom as he happened to be on his return to Rome, he was met by his wife's messenger. They find Lucretia sitting disconsolate in her chamber ; on the arrival of her friends, a flood of tears burst forth ; and on her husband inquiring, " Is all well ?" " Far from it," she replies ; " for what can be well with a woman, when she has lost her chastity ? Collatinus, the traces of another man are in your bed. But my person alone is violated, my heart is pure death shall be witness. But give me your right hands and faith, that the adulterer shall not go unpunished. Sextus Tarquinius is the man who, an enemy in the disguise of a guest, has last night in arms obtained hence by force a triumph fatal to me, and, if you be men, to himself." They all pledge their honour in succession. They console her sick at heart, by turning the culpa- bility from her, who suffered by compulsion, to the perpetrator of the oifence ; that it is the mind that transgresses, not the body ; arid that guilt is wanting, where intention is wanting. " You," said she, " will look to what is due to him ; but I, though I acquit my- self of the offence, do not release myself from the punishment ; nor shall any woman hereafter live with sullied chastity by the example of Lucretia." She plunges into her heart a knife, which she kept con- cealed under her garment ; and falling forward on the wound, she dropped down lifeless. Her husband and father shriek out together. H 3 78 LIVY. BOOK I. CHAP. LIX. BRUTUS, whilst the others were occupied in mourn- ing, holding up the knife, drawn out of Lucretia's wound, reeking with blood, says, " I swear by this blood most chaste, before the commission of this royal outrage ; and you, gods, I call to witness, that I will pursue L. Tarquinius Saperbus, with his accursed wife, and the entire family of children, with sword, fire, and with whatever further violence I may be able ; and that I will neither suffer him, nor any one else, to reign at Rome." He then hands the knife to Collati- nus, after him to Lucretius' and Valerius, lost in amaze- ment at the miraculous circumstance, how there came a new spirit in the breast of Brutus. They swear as they were directed, and having turned all their thoughts from sorrow to resentment, they follow Brutus as their leader, calling upon them instantly to annihilate mon- archy. They convey into the Forum the dead body of Lucretia, removed from the house, and collect the peo- ple together by reason of their astonishment, as is usual, at so strange a business, and their indignation ; they complain, each respectively, of the royal villany and outrage. As well the grief of her father affects them, as Brutus, the reprover of their tears and idle complaints, and the adviser of the measure of taking up arms, as it became men and Romans, against those who audaciously commenced hostilities. Every most spirited of the young men appears in arms as a volun- teer, and the rest of the youth follow the example. Then, having left an equally strong garrison at Colla- tia, to guard the gates, and guards being placed, that no person should give intel]igence of that commotion to the royal faction ; the rest, under the conduct of Brutus, set out for Rome. When they arrived there, the armed youth, wherever they proceed, cause terror and confusion ; on the other hand, when they see the chief men of the state marching at their head, they judge, whatever it be, that it was no rash undertaking. Nor does so atrocious an act produce a less agitation of the public mind at Rome, than it had done at Colla- tia. Wherefore, they flock into the Forum from all parts of the city. Whither, as soon as they arrived, a CHAP. 60. LIVY. 79 crier summoned the people to the tribune of the Cele- res ; which office Brutus, at that time, happened to fill. There a speech was delivered, by no means in unison with that spirit and genius which had been as- sumed up to that day, on the subject of the violence and lust of Sex. Tarquin, the shocking violation of Lucretia, and her lamentable death ; on the childless condition of Tricipitinus, to whom the cause of his daughter's death must be a source of greater indigna- tion and misery, than the death itself: the haughtiness of the king himself was added, and the miseries and sufferings of the commons, who were buried under ground, in sinking ditches and sewers. " That Roman citizens, the conquerors of all the nations around, were become workmen, and hewers of stones, instead of warriors." The unnatural murder of king Ser. Tullius was mentioned, and a daughter's driving in her cursed carriage over the dead body of her father ; and the gods, the avengers of parents were invoked. By re- counting these things and others, I suppose, still more atrocious, which present indignation of feeling sug- gests, though by no means easy to be recorded by historians, he prevailed on the incensed multitude to depose the king from his sovereignty, and to decree the banishment of L. Tarquin, with his wife and children. He set out himself to the camp at Ardea, to excite the army there against the king, after having collected and armed the younger men, who voluntarily gave in their names. The command in the city he leaves to Lucre- tius, who had been already appointed prefect of the city, by the king. During this commotion Tullia flies from home, both men and women execrating her where- ver she passed, and invoking the furies, the avengers of parents' injuries. CHAP. LX. NEWS of these proceedings having been conveyed to the camp, when the king, alarmed by the strange event, was proceeding to Rome to suppress the com- motion, Brutus (for he had been apprized of his ap- proach) changed his route, that he should not meet him; and almost at one and the same time, they arrived by 80 LIVY. BOOK I. different roads, Brutus at Ardea, and Tarquiri at Rome. The gates were closed against Tarquin, and a sentence of banishment pixmounced against him ; the overjoyed camp received the liberator of the city, and the king's children were thence driven out. Two of them fol- lowed their father, who went into exile to Csere, amongst the Etrurians. Sex. Tarquinius having re- tired to Gabii, as if to his own kingdom, was slain by the avengers of some old animosities, which he had provoked against himself by his own murders and ra- pines. L. Tarquinius Superbus reigned five-and-twenty years. The regal form of government continued at Rome, from the foundation to the liberation of the city, 244 years. After that, two consuls, L. Junius Brutus, and L. Tarquinius Collatinus, were created in the comitia centuriata, (election by centuries,) by the prefect of the city, conformably to the commentaries of Ser. Tullius. CHAP. 1. LIVY. 81 BOOK II. CHAP. I. I SHALL now treat of the civil and military transac- tions of the Romans, henceforward a free people ; their annual magistrates, and the dominion of the laws more powerful than that of men. Which liberty the inso- lence of the late king had made more welcome; for the former kings governed in such a manner, that they were all deservedly accounted the successive founders of those parts, at least, of the city, which they added to it as a residence for the population encreased by them- selves. Nor is it questioned, but that the same Brutus, who earned so much glory by the expulsion of king Superbus, would have accomplished that, to the preju- dice of the public weal, if through a passion for pre- mature liberty, he had wrested the government from any of the former sovereigns. For what must have been the consequence, if that mob of shepherds and emigrants, deserters from their own countries, hav- ing, under the protection of an inviolable sanctuary, obtained either liberty, or at least impunity, and freed from the terrors of a king, had begun to be agitated by tribunic storms, and in a strange city to generate contentions with the patricians, before the pledges of wives and children, and an affection for the soil itself, to which one is familiarized only after a long time, had harmonized their minds? The elements of power, not yet matured, would be frittered away by disunion, which tranquil moderation of government cherished, and by fostering them brought to such perfection that they were able, their strength being now ripened, to pro- duce a good harvest of liberty. But you may date the rise of their liberty rather from this circumstance, that the consular government was made annual, than that any thing had been curtailed from the regal power. 82 LIVY. BOOK II. The first consuls possessed all the privileges, all the ensigns of kingly authority. Precaution only was ta- ken, that, by both having the fasces, the terror should not be doubled. Brutus obtained the fasces first with the concession of his colleague, who (Brutus) had not been a more spirited assertor of liberty, than he was afterwards its guardian. First of all, in order that they could not hereafter be influenced by royal entreaties or gifts, he bound by oath the people, passionately fond of their infant liberty, that they should suffer no per- son to reign at Rome. Next, that the fulness too of the order should create more strength in the senate, he filled up the number of patricians which was dimin- ished by the late king's murders, by electing the heads of the equestrian order, to the full total of 300 : and hence, is said to have been handed down the practice of summoning to the senate those who were "patres" and those who were " conscripti :" those, no doubt, who were elected into the new senate, they termed " conscripti." It is surprising how much that contribu- ted to the harmony of the state, and to uniting the minds of the commons to the patricians. CHAP. II. REGARD was then had to matters of religion, and as some public rites were habitually performed by the kings in person, and lest in any particular whatsoever there should be a want of kings, they create a king of the sacrifices. That sacred office they made subordi- nate to the pontiff, lest the honour attached to the title should prove any detriment to their liberty, which was then their principal concern; and I am not sure, but they transgressed the proper limit, by fencing it round too much, even in the smallest matters. For when nothing else could give them offence, the very name of one of the consuls was displeasing to the state, arguing, " That the Tarquinii had been too much habituated to power ; that a commencement was made by Priscus ; that then, it was true, Ser. Tullius reigned ; that, not- withstanding that interruption, Tarquinius Superb us did not lose sight of the kingdom (as he ought to do), > being the property of another ; that he recovered it, as CHAP. 2. LIVY. 83 if the inheritance of his family, by guilt and violence. That, on the expulsion of Superbus, the chief power fell into the hands of Collatinus. That the Tarquins knew not how to live in a private station ; that the name was displeasing ; that it was dangerous to li- berty." This language, proceeding from persons first gradually sounding the people's inclinations, was spread throughout the entire community, and the commons being agitated by suspicion, Brutus summons them to an assembly. There first of all he recites the oath of the people: "That they would allow no one to reign, nor any person to remain at Rome, from whom liberty might be in jeopardy; that that resolution must be supported with their utmost efforts, and that no cir- cumstance which had a tendency to that subject should be overlooked. That he was himself unwilling to speak, from his regard for the individual ; nor would he speak, did not his love for the republic predominate, That the Roman people did not think their entire liberty recovered. That the regal family, the regal name con- tinued, not only in the state, but in authority also : that this circumstance counteracted this stood in the way of liberty. Remove," says he, " this apprehen- sion, L. Tarquin, of your own free will. We have it in recollection we acknowledge you have expelled kings. Crown your kindness: remove hence the regal name. Your fellow citizens shall not only give you up your property, by my recommendation ; but if any thing more be wanting, will make a liberal augmenta- tion to it ; depart as a friend ; relieve the state from, perhaps, a groundless apprehension. They are im- pressed with this conviction, that the regal power will depart hence only with the Tarquinian family." At first, astonishment at so strange and unexpected a circum- stance had stopped up the consul's utterance, afterwards when he began to speak, the principal men of the state stand around him, and make the same request, with many entreaties. And indeed others affected him less; but when S. Lucretius, more respectable in point of years and dignity, his own father-in-law besides, began to resort to various arguments, by alternately beseech- ing and admonishing him to allow himself to be pre- vailed upon by the unanimous wish of the state ; then 84 LIVY. BOOK II. the consul, fearing lest the same fate should hereafter befal him in a private station, with the loss of his pro- perty, together with the addition of some further dis- grace, resigned the consulship ; and having removed all his effects to Lavinium, withdrew from the state. Brutus, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, moved the people that all of the Tarquinian family should be exiled ; he elected as colleague to himself, in the as- sembly of centuries, P. Valerius, by whose co-operation he had expelled the royal family. CHAP. III. THOUGH it was a matter of doubt to no person, that a war originating with the Tarquins was impending*, that event was indeed more distant than the general expectation ; but, a circumstance of which they enter- tained no apprehension, liberty was nearly lost by fraud and treachery. There were amongst the Roman youth some young men, and those descended of no humble family, whose passions were more unrestrained during the monarchical government, being accustomed to live in kingly style, as the equals and companions of the young Tarquins. Being then, that the privileges of all were on an equality, at a loss for that licentiousness, they united in complaints amongst themselves, that the liberty of others became their own slavery : " That a king was a human being, from whom you could obtain a favour, where justice, where injustice may be re- quired ; that with him there was room for interces- sion, room for kindness ; that he could be angry, and pardon ; that he knew the distinction between a friend and an enemy. That law is a deaf, inexorable thing, more salutary and better for the poor man than the rich ; that it admitted of no relaxation nor indul- gence, if you transgress its limits ; that it was dange- rous, amidst so many human errors, to live on the security of innocence alone." In this state, their minds being of themselves discontented, ambassadors oppor- tunely arrive from the Tarquins, claiming their effects only, without mention of a return. When their pro- posal was heard in the senate, the deliberation on tha subject engaged them for several days, considering CHAP. 4. LIVY. 85 lest, if not restored, they might be the cause of war, if restored, the materials and sinews of war. In the mean time, the ambassadors were severally pursuing other measures ; avowedly demanding a restoration of goods, they were secretly contriving plans for recover- ing the throne ; and canvassing them, as if for the business which seemed to be under consideration, they sound the dispositions -of the young noblemen ; by whom when their proposal was favourably received, they deliver their letters from the Tarquins, and con- fer with them on the subject of secretly admitting the kings into the city by night. CHAP. IV. THE business was first entrusted to the brothers Vitellii and Aquilii. The sister of the Vitellii had been married to the consul Brutus, and the children of that marriage, Titus and Tiberius, were now young men ; these also their uncles admit into a participation of the design ; and many young noblemen besides were taken in as confederates, the recollection of whose names has been lost by length of time. XMeanwhile, when the opinion which recommended the restoration of the property preponderated in the senate, and the ambassadors made that very circumstance a pretext for delaying in the city, because they had obtained time from the consuls for procuring vehicles, in which to carry away the effects of the royal family ; they spend all that time in deliberating with the conspirators ; and, by urgently persevering, they succeed in a request that a letter should be given them directed to the Tarquins ; for how otherwise could they (the Tarquins) believe that false reports might not have been conveyed to them by the ambassadors on matters so important ? The letter, which was given as a pledge of sincerity, detected the plot ; for on the day before the ambas- sadors were to set out to the Tarquins, when they happened to have dined with the Vitellii, and the con- spirators, in the absence of strangers, had many dis- cussions, as is usual, relative to their new enterprise, one of the slaves, who had already perceived that such a business was in contemplation, overheard the con- i 86 LIVY. BOOK II. versation ; but he waited for that opportunity, that a letter might be given to the ambassadors, the seizure of which should prove the fact to conviction. After he found that it had been delivered, he gave information of the business to the consuls. The consuls, setting out from home for the purpose of apprehending the ambassadors and conspirators, extinguish the entire affair without any tumult. Attention was in the first place paid to the letter, that it should not slip through their hands. The traitors being forthwith thrown into chains, they hesitate for some time with regard to the ambassadors ; and although they were considered to have furnished grounds for being treated as enemies, still the law of nations prevailed. CHAP. V. WITH respect to the goods of the king, for the restoration of which they had previously voted, the question is referred anew to tbe fathers, who, over- come by resentment, forbade them to be restored forbade them to be converted to public use. They are given up to the commons, to be plundered ; that, being infected with a share of the royal booty, they should give up for ever the hope of a reconciliation with those persons. The land of the Tarquins, which lay between the city and th.e Tiber, being consecrated to Mars, became afterwards the " Campus Martins." It is said that there happened to have been there at that time a crop of corn ripe for mowing, which produce of the field as a scruple of religion did not allow them to use, a great number of persons let into it at once cut it down, ears as well as straw, and threw it with baskets into the Tiber, flow- ing in a shallow current, as is usual in the middle of the warm season ; and that thus heaps of the corn stick- ing in the shallows, being covered over with mud, became fixed : that from this an island was formed by degrees, other materials also, which the river com- monly bears with it, being conveyed to the same spot. I believe that mounds were afterwards added, and manual aid employed, that it should become a founda- tion so elevated and strong, for supporting temples also and porticoes. The goods of the royal family being CHAP. 6. LIVY. 87 plundered, the traitors Were condemned, and punish- ment inflicted ; the more conspicuous on this account, because the consulship imposed upon the father the official duty of executing the penalty of justice on his children ; and fortune appointed him in particular to exact the punishment, who should be removed from being a spec- tator of it. The young men of the most noble rank stood bound to a stake, but the consul's sons had turned away the attention of all from the rest, as from unknown persons, upon themselves ; and people pitied their punishment, not less than the crime for which they deserved it : lamenting that such men, and in that year in particular, should have entertained the design of betraying, to a person once a tyrannical king, but now an enraged exile, their liberated country, their father its liberator, the consulship originating in the Junian family, the patricians, the commons, whatever of Roman gods and men there existed. The consuls moved forward to their proper place, and the lictors, being sent to execute the punishment, scourge them naked with rods and behead them ; whilst, during all the time, the father, and his looks, and features, afforded a spectacle, the affection of a parent shining out amidst the execution of public punishment. Next to the punishment of the guilty, a sum of money from the treasury, freedom, and the privilege of citizenship were granted to the informer, in order that there may be a signal example both ways for the prevention of crimes. He is said to have been the first person made free by the " vindicta" (i. e. the wand) ; some also sup- pose that the term " vindicta' was derived from him, and that his own name was Vindicius. After him, it was observed as a rule, that such as were liberated in this manner were considered as admitted to citizenship. CHAP. VI. THESE proceedings being reported as they occurred, Tarquin, fired not only with grief at so great a hope ending in disappointment, but also with hatred and rage ; as soon as he saw the avenue closed up against secret plots, judging it necessary to prepare for open war, went round the cities of Etruria as a suppliant. 88 L1VY. BOOK II, He besought the Veientians and Tarquinienses prin- cipally, " That they would not allow him, a man sprung from themselves, of the same blood, a destitute exile from a kingdom lately so powerful, to perish before their eyes with his children now approaching maturity. That others were invited from foreign countries to the throne of Rome ; that he, a reigning king, extending in war the Roman empire, was expelled by his intimate friends, in consequence of a villanous conspiracy ; that those, because no one person was deemed worthy of the crown, had partitioned among them the several portions of the government, and had given away his own property to the populace to be plundered, in order that no one should be free from guilt. That he now wished to recover his native country and his crown, and to be avenged on his ungrateful subjects. That they ought to give him support and assist him avenge their own ancient injuries also their legions so often slain, their lands taken from them." These arguments moved the Veientians, and they menacingly exclaim, each with all his earnestness, that their disgraces should be wiped away, and their losses in war repaired, at least under a Roman commander. The name and rela- tionship influence the Tarquinienses ; it was regarded as honourable that their kindred should reign at Rome. Thus two armies, belonging to two different states, followed Tarquin to recover his throne and prosecute the Romans in war. As soon as they penetrated into the Roman territory, the consuls go forth to meet the enemy. Valerius leads the infantry in a square body. Brutus advanced before him with the cavalry to recon- noitre. In the same manner, the cavalry formed the van of the enemy's army ; A runs Tarquinius, the king's son, had the command ; the king himself followed with the legions. Aruns perceiving at a distance, by the lictors, that it was the consul ; when afterwards, at a nearer and more certain view, he recognized Brutus by his face also, burning with rage, " This is the man," said he, " who has driven us out as exiles from our country ; behold, this same pompously moves on, deco- rated with our ensigns ! You gods, the avengers of kings, second me." He spurs on his horse, and drives furiously against the consul himself. Brutus perceived CHAP. 7. LIVY. 89 he was advancing against him. It was then honou- rable in the generals themselves to engage in action : each therefore eagerly presents himself to the combat ; and they charged each other with such fury (neither thinking of protecting himself, provided he could wound his adversary), that transfixed each through the buckler by an adverse stroke, they fell down lifeless from their horses, entangled together by the two spears; at the same time, the rest of the cavalry began to en- gage ; and in no long time after, the infantry also came up. There they fought with alternate victory, and, as it were, with equal success ; the right wings of both armies were victorious, the left were worsted. The Veientians, accustomed to be vanquished by the Roman soldiers, were routed and put to flight. The Tarqui- nierisian, a new enemy, not only kept his ground, but on his side even repulsed the Romans. CHAP. VII. THOUGH the battle had been thus fought, such great terror seized Tarquin and the Etrurians, that, having given up the attempt as impracticable, both armies, the Veientian and Tarquiniensian, retired in the night each to its respective home. They add miracles to this battle ; saying, that during the silence of the following- night, a loud voice was sent forth from the Arsiau wood ; it was believed the voice of Silvanus ; the fol- lowing were the words, " That more of the Etrurians by one had fallen in the engagement, that the Romans were conquerors in the war." It is certain that the Romans departed from thence as victors ; the Etruri- ans as vanquished. For when the daylight dawned, and none of the enemy appeared in sight, P. Valerius the consul collects the spoils, and returns thence in triumph to Rome. The funeral obsequies of his col- league, he performed with as much magnificence as in those days he was able. But a far higher honour to his death, was the public sorrow, distinguished on this account, above all others, that the matrons mourned for him a year, as for a parent, because he had been so vigorous an avenger of violated chastity. After that, not only did jealousy succeeding to populai'ity, but i 3 90 LIVY. BOOK II. suspicion also attended with a heinous accusation, arise against the consul who had survived, so fickle are the minds of the populace. Report circulated that he was aspiring to sovereign power, because he had not sub- stituted a colleague in the place of Brutus ; and he was building a house on the summit of mount Velia, that there he might have an impregnable fortress in that high and fortified situation. As these reports com- monly circulated and credited, were torturing the con- sul's mind with indignation, having summoned the peo- ple to an assembly, he goes up to the meeting with the fasces lowered. It was a gratifying sight to the peo- ple, that the ensigns of sovereign power were humbled before them, and an admission made that the majesty and power of the people were paramount to those of the consul. When they were ordered to pay attention, the consul extolled the good fortune of his colleague, because he had met his death, after having liberated his country, filling the highest honour, fighting for the re- public, his glory being fully matured, and not yet turn- ing into jealousy; that himself surviving his own glory outlived him to be the object of accusation and envy, and from being the deliverer of his country, had sunk to the level of the Aquillii and Vitellii. " Shall then," said he, "no merit be ever so much approved by you, as to be incapable of being sullied by suspicion ? Could I appreheiul that myself, the most determined enemy of kings, should incur the charge of wishing for kingly power? Could I suppose, even if I dwelt in the very citadel and Capitol, that I could be dreaded by my fel- low citizens ? Does my reputation with you depend on a matter of such light moment ? Is your confidence in me so slightly founded, that it becomes a matter of higher concern, where I may dwell, than who I am ? The habitation of P. Valerius, Romans, shall be no ob- stacle to your liberties ; Velia shall be secured to you. I shall not only remove my house to a plain, but even place it at the foot of a hill, that you may reside above me, your suspected countryman. Let those build on Velia to whom your liberties are more safely entrusted than to P. Valerius." All the materials were immedi- ately removed below Velia ; and the house was built at the foot of the hill, where now stands the temple of victory. CHAP. 8. LIVY. 91 CHAP. VIII. LAWS were then proposed, which not only acquitted the consul of the suspicion of aspiring to sovereign * power, but gave matters so much a contrary turn, as even to make him popular : hence the surname of " Publicola" was given him. Above all others, the laws respecting an appeal to the people against the magistrates, arid for devoting the life and property of him who should enter into any designs for assuming regal power, were grateful to the populace ; which laws, when he had singly carried, in order that the merit arising from them should be exclusively his own, he then afterwards held an assembly for the election of a colleague. Sp. Lucretius was created consul, who, being of great age, and of strength no longer sufficient for the discharge of the consular duties, dies within a few days after. M. Horatius Pulvillus was substituted in the place of Horatius. In some authors I do not find Lucretius a consul ; they place Horatius immedi- ately after Brutus. I suppose that, as no achievement signalized his consulate, it faded away from recollec- tion. The temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, was not yet consecrated ; the consuls, Valerius and Horatius, cast lots who should dedicate it : it fell to Horatius by lot. Publicola set out to the Veientian war. The friends of Valerius shewed more dissatisfaction than they ought, that the dedication of so renowned a temple was given to Horatius. This they endeavoured to prevent by all means ; when other expedients were tried in vain, as the consul was already holding the door-post, during his prayer to the gods, they announce the melancholy tidings, " that his son was dead, and that he could not dedicate the temple while his family was thus defiled." Whither he discredited the fact, or that his strength of mind was so great, is not handed down to us as certain, nor is it an easy conjecture. Turning away his attention to that message, from his purpose, no farther than to order the dead body to be buried, still holding the door-post, he concludes the prayer, and dedicates the temple. These were the transactions at home and abroad, in the first year after the expulsion of the 92 LIVY. BOOK II. royal family* The consuls who were next appointed, were P Valerius, a second time, and Lucretius. CHAP. IX. THE Tarquins had already fled for succour to Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium : there mingling advice and entreaties, at one time they besought him " not to suf- fer them, who were descended from the Etrurians, of the same blood and name, to remain destitute exiles ;" at another time they also warned him, " not to allow this rising custom of expelling kings to pass unpun- ished: that liberty had sufficient charms of itself; that if kings did not defend regal power with the same vi- gour as states asserted it (liberty), the highest rank would be brought to the same level with the lowest ; that there would be nothing elevated in states nothing which would be pre-eminent above the rest : that there would be an end to kingly government, an institution the most beautiful amongst gods and men." Porsenna judging it honourable to the Etrurians, that there should both be a king at Rome, and also a prince of Etrurian family, marches to Rome with a hostile army. Never before, on any other occasion, did such terror pervade the senate: so powerful at that time was the state of Clusium, and so formidable the name of Porsenna. Nor was it the enemy alone they dreaded, but their own fellow-citizens themselves, lest the commons of Rome, struck with dismay, by admitting the royalists into the city, should accept peace even accompanied with servitude. Many blandishments therefore were heaped on the commons by the senate during that sea- son ; attention was first paid to the price of provisions, and persons sent to procure corn, some amongst the Volscians, others to Cuma3. The exclusive privilege of selling salt, because it was sold at an exorbitant price, being taken away from individuals, was put entirely under government controul. The commons were ex- empted from port-duties and taxes, that the rich who were able to bear the burden, should defray them by contribution, it being held, that the poor paid tax enough, if they brought up their children. Accord- ingly this indulgence of the patricians, on a subsequent CHAP. 10. LIVY. 93 occasion, in circumstances of distress, during a siege and famine, preserved the state in such harmony, that the highest, not more than the lowest, abhorred the name of king ; nor was any single individual in after times so popular by bad practices, as the entire senate then was by governing well. CHAP. X. WHEN the enemy were approaching, they remove with all expedition, from the country into the city ; the city itself they enclose with fortifications ; some parts seemed secure by walls, others by the Tiber, which was interposed. The wooden bridge nearly furnished the enemy with a passage ; had there not been one man, Horatius Codes (such a defence the good for- tune of the Roman people possessed on that day), who happening to be stationed on guard at the bridge, when he beheld the Janiculum taken by a sudden assault, and the enemy running from thence with rapidity, and the affrighted crowd of his countrymen quitting their arms and ranks, pulling them back individually ; throwing himself in their way, and appealing to the faith of gods and men, he called them to witness, " that it was in vain for them to run away after deserting the post of strength ; if they passed the bridge, and left it behind them, there would be presently more of the enemy in the Palatium and Capitol, than in the Janiculum. That therefore he advised and warned them, to break down the bridge by the sword, fire, or by whatever means they could. That he would himself sustain the enemy's shock, as far as it could be withstood by a single per- son." He then advances to the head of the entrance to the bridge, and being conspicuous amongst the backs of those that were seen as they retreated from the fight, with his arms opposed to engage in close action, he astonished the enemy by the mere prodigy of his cour- age. Shame however kept two others w^ith him, Sp. Lartius and T. Heraiinius, both of them illustrious by birth and actions. With these he sustained for a time the first storm of the danger, and the most tumultuous part of the fight ; he then obliged even those two to make a secure retreat, a small part of the bridge still 94 LIVY. BOOK II. remaining, and those who were cutting it down calling them back. Then rolling his fierce eyes in a menacing manner round the leaders of the Etrurians, he now challenged them singly, now rebuked them collectively, " that slaves to tyrannical kings, regardless of their own liberty, they were come to attack that of others." They hesitated for some time, while each looked round to the other to commence the combat ; then shame ex- cited the troops, and having raised a shout they show- ered their weapons from all sides against their single adversary ; all which sticking in the shield opposed to them, and he with no less obstinacy keeping possession of the bridge with spacious stride, they now endea- voured by their onset to shove off the man ; while at one and the same time the crash of the broken bridge, and the shout of the Romans which was raised with joy for having finished the work, checked their assault by the sudden consternation. Then says Codes, " Holy father Tiberinus, I beseech thee that thou re- ceive these arms and this soldier in thy propitious stream." Thus, armed as he was, he plunged off into the Tiber ; and amidst the many darts which were de- scending around him, he swam safe across to his coun- trymen, having attempted an enterprise which was to obtain more celebrity than credit with after ages. The state proved grateful towards such distinguished merit: a statue was erected to him in the Comitium, and as much land given him as he enclosed with a plough in one day. The zeal of private persons too was conspi- cuous amidst the national honours. For in a time of great scarcity every one contributed something to him, in proportion to his domestic store, defrauding himself of his own proper sustenance. CHAP. XL PORSENNA being repulsed in his first attempt, chang- ing his plan from storming to besieging the city, and having stationed a garrison in the Janiculum, pitched his camp himself in the plain and the banks of the Tiber : having collected ships from all quarters both as a coast-guard, not to allow any corn to be imported to Rome, and that he might send his soldiers across the CHAP. 11. LIVY. 95 Tiber in various and different places, as occasion may require, to carry off plunder : and in a short time he so harassed the entire Roman territory, that not only were all other moveables, but the entire of their cattle also crowded tog-ether from the lands into the city, nor could any one venture to drive them outside the gates. This so great a licence was allowed the Etrurians, not more from fear than from policy ; for Valerius the consul, intent on an opportunity of making an unexpec- pected attack on them, numerous as they were, and in dispersed bodies ; being in small matters a careless avenger, reserved his weighty vengeance for greater occasions. In order, therefore, to allure the depreda- tors, he issues orders to his men to drive out their cat- tle in great numbers on the following day by the Esqui- line gate, which was at the side completely opposite from the enemy ; judging that the enemy would obtain intelligence of it, because in time of siege and famine traitorous slaves were deserting. And they were made acquainted with it by the information of a deserter, and they cross the river in far greater numbers, as in ex- pectation of the entire booty. P. Valerius then orders T. Hermiriius to sit down in ambush with a few troops at the second mile-stone on the Gabinian road ; and Sp. Lartius to take his stand with the light-armed youth at the Colline gate until the enemy should pass by, then to place himself in their rear to intercept their return to the river. The other consul, T. Lucretius, marched out with some companies of soldiers by the Nsevian gate. Valerius himself leads down his chosen cohorts from mount Cselius, and these were the first that were seen by the enemy : Herminius, as soon as he perceives the enemy's confusion, rushes from his ambush, and falls upon the rear of the Etrurians, who were turned against Valerius ; the shout was returned from the right and left, from the Colline gate on one side, from the Nsevian on the other. The plunderers were thus cut to pieces between them, being not adequate in strength for combat, and all the avenues for flight being closed against them : and this put an end to the Etru- rians straggling so extensively. 96 LIVY. BOOK II. CHAP. XII. THE siege continued notwithstanding, and the scar- city of corn, attended with exceedingly high prices ; and Porsenna entertained a hope that he should take the city by sitting down before it : when C. Mucius, a noble youth, to whom it appeared disgraceful, that while the Roman people in a state of slavery, during their living under a kingly government, had been be- sieged in no war, nor by any enemy ; the same people, now in the enjoyment of freedom, should be besieged by the same Etrurians whose armies they had so often routed : accordingly, judging that such an indignity should be wiped away by some great and bold enter- prise, he first resolved to penetrate of his own accord into the camp of the enemy, afterwards, being apprehensive lest perhaps, if he went without the order of the con- suls, and unknown to x all, he should, if detected by the Roman centinels, be dragged back as a deserter, the present circumstances of the city strengthening the ac- cusation, he waits upon the senate " Fathers," said he, " I mean to cross over the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if 1 am able, not as a plunderer, nor to revenge their depredations in my turn. I have in contempla- tion, if the gods assist, a greater enterprise." The senators give their approbation. Having concealed a dagger under his garment, he sets forward. When he reached the place, he takes his stand in the very thick of the crowd, near the king's tribunal. As it then happened that pay was being distributed to the soldiers, and a secretary sitting beside the king, nearly in the same dress, was much employed, and the soldiers gene- rally addressing themselves to him ; Mucius fearing to enquire which was Porsena, lest by his ignorance of the king's person he should himself betray who he was, slays the secretary instead of the king, to whom (the secretary) chance blindly directed the stroke. Making his escape then, where he had opened a way for him- self through the crowd with his bloody poignard, when, a concourse having taken place at the noise, the king's life-guards had apprehended and brought him back, standing alone before the king's tribunal, then too, amidst such severe menaces of fortune, more to be CHAP. 12. LIVY. 97 dreaded than dreading, he says, " I am a Roman citi- zen ; my name is C. Mucius ; as an enemy I intended to slay an enemy ; nor do I possess less resolution to meet death, than to inflict it. Both to act and to suf- fer bravely is the character of a Roman. Nor is it I alone who have harboured those feelings against you : there is after me a long list of persons aspiring to the same honour. Be prepared therefore, if it so please you, for this emergency, that you are every single hour to run the risk of your life, and to have a sword and enemy in the porch of your pavilion. This is the war we, the Roman youth, declare against you. You shall fear no regular army,- no war. The contest shall be for you alone, and with us individually." When the king, at once fired with rage, and terrified at the danger, ordered with a menacing air that fires should be placed round him, unless he quickly discovered what threats of plots he threw out against him by those mysterious hints. " Behold," said he, " that you may perceive how worthless the body is to those who look forward to great glory ;" and thrusts his right hand into a chafing-dish made red hot for a sacrifice, which when he was burning with a resolution as it were remote from the sense of pain, the king almost thunderstruck at the miracle, after leaping forward from his seat, and ordering the young man to be removed from the altars, says, " Do thou then begone, having dared hostilities against yourself rather than me. I would bid you prosper in valour, if such valour were exerted for my own country. I now dismiss you hence released from the law of war, unmolested and uninjured." Then Mucius, as if remunerating the good office, says, " In as much as merit has its honour with you, that you may obtain from me by kindness, what you have not been able to do by threats, three hundred of us, the principal youths of Rome, have bound ourselves by oath to proceed against you in this manner; my lot was first, the rest, as it shall fall to the lot of each before the other, will be here, every one in his proper time, until fortune shall give you up an easy victim." K 98 UVY. BOOK II. CHAP. XIII. AMBASSADORS from Porsenna followed to Rome Mucius, thus dismissed, to whom the surname " Scse- vola" was afterwards given, from the loss of his right hand. So much had the fortuitous nature of the first danger, from which nothing but the mistake of the as- sailant could have saved him, and the certainty of un* dergoing the same risk as often as there remained con- spirators, affected him, that he proposed terms of peace of his own accord to the Romans. Amongst the terms, a proposition was in vain made for the restoration of the Tarquins to the throne, more because he could not himself deny that favour to the Tarquins, than that he was ignorant of the probability of its being denied him by the Romans. With respect to restoring their lands to the Veientians, that point was conceded ; and the unavoidable condition of giving hostages was wrested from the Romans, if they would have the garrison withdrawn from the Janiculum. Peace having been concluded upon these terms, Porsenna marched off his army from the Janiculum, and evacuated the Roman territory. In compliment to his valour, the senators gave C. Mucius, as a gift, a tract of land beyond the Tiber, which was afterwards called the Mucian mea- dows. Courage having been thus honoured, the fe- males were in consequence excited to merit public dis- tinctions ; and the virgin Cloelia, one of the hostages, when it happened that the camp of the Etrurians was not situated far from the bank of the Tiber, having eluded her guards, swam across the Tiber at the head of a band of virgins, and restored all her followers safe to their relations at Rome. When this was told to the king, at first inflamed with anger, he sent envoys to Rome to claim back the hostage Cloalia ; the others he did not value much. Afterwards converted into admi- ration, he pronounced " that enterprise to be superior to the Cocleses and Mucii ; and openly declared that. as he would hold the treaty as violated if the hostage were not given up, so he would, if she were surren- dered, return her uninjured to her friends." Faith was maintained on both sides, and the Romans restored the guarantee of peace, pursuant to the treaty ; and CHAP. 14. LIVY. 99 with the Etrurian monarch merit was not only safe but honoured ; and having commended the virgin, he de- clared that he would make her a present of half the hostages ; that she might choose whom she pleased her- self. When they were all brought forward, she is said to have chosen those under the age of puberty, a selection which was both honourable to her virgin de- licacy, and in the unanimous opinion of the hostages themselves, likely to be approved, that that age in particular should be delivered from an enemy which was most liable to injury. Peace being re-established, the Romans rewarded this new species of merit in a female with a new kind of honour, an equestrian statue. A virgin on horseback was erected at the head of the " via sacra" CHAP. XIV. A CUSTOM, inconsistent with such a peaceful depar- ture of the Etrurian king from the city, transmitted Tom ancient times, continues up to our own age among the other usages established in selling property, i. e. that of selling the property of king Porsenria. The origin of which custom must have either grown up during war, and not discontinued in peace, or have sprung from a precedent more pacific than this title of selling an enemy's goods imports. Of those accounts which are handed down to us, the nearest to truth is, that Porsenna on his departure from the Janiculum, liad made the Romans a present of his camp, rich in provisions conveyed from the adjacent and fertile fields of Etruria, the city being then poorly supplied, in con- sequence of the long siege ; that this camp, to prevent its being plundered in a hostile manner by the people let loose upon it, was sold, and called the property of Porsenna, the title indicating rather gratitude for the gift, than a sale of the royal property which had not been even under the power of the Roman people. The Roman war having been given up, Porsenna, that his army should not appear to have been led into those countries without effecting something, detached his son Aruns, with a part of his forces, to lay siege to Aricia. This unexpected measure had at first struck 100 LIVY. BOOK II terror into the Aricians. Afterwards the auxiliaries, which were sent for from the Latin states, and from Cumse, inspired them with such hope that they ven- tured to engage in the field. In the beginning of the battle, the Etrurians charged with such furious impe- tuosity, that they routed the Aricians at the very first onset. The cohorts of Cunise, employing art against force, gave way a little, and having wheeled about, at- tacked on the rear the enemy who had advanced beyond them in disorder. Thus the Etrurians, already nearly victorious, were cut to pieces in the midst. A very small portion of them, after losing their general, as no other place of refuge was nearer, reached Rome with- out arms, in the condition and appearance of suppliants. There they were kindly received and distributed in lodgings. Their wounds being healed, some returned home, proclaiming the hospitable kindnesses they expe- rienced. An affection for their guests and for the city retained many at Rome ; to these a place was assigned for their habitation, which people afterwards called " the Tuscan street." CHAP. XV. P. LUCRETIUS and P. Valerius Publicola were next created consuls. In this year, ambassadors came for the last time, about the restoring of Tarquin to the throne ; to whom when it had been answered that the senate would send ambasssadors to the king, all of the highest dignity among the senators were immediately deputed to say, " It was not because an answer, that the royal family could not be re-admitted, might not be briefly returned, that the select deputation of the senators was sent to him, rather than the same answer given to his ambassadors at Rome, but that all mention of the thing should be for ever at an end, and that in the interchange of such great mutual favours, their minds should not be disturbed ; as the king should re- quest what would be contrary to the liberty of the Ro- man people, and the Romans should, unless they would be compliant to their own ruin, refuse a man to whom they would wish to refuse nothing. That the Roman people did not exist under a monarchy, but in a free CHAP. 16. LIViT. tOT government. That they had come to the resolution of opening their gates to an enemy, rather than to kings : that the determination of all was this, that the end of liberty in that city should be the end of the city itself. That they therefore requested him, if he wished the existence of Rome, to allow it to be free." The king, overcome by his respect for them, replies, " Since that is your fixed and unalterable resolution, I will neither teaze you, by repeatedly introducing the same subject to no purpose, nor delude the Tarquins with the hope of assistance, none of which is in my power. Let them, whether they need war or repose, seek some other place of exile than this, in order that nothing should sever my pacific relations with you." To these ex- pressions he added acts more friendly still ; he sent back the hostages that remained; and restored the Veientian land of which they were deprived by the treaty concluded at the Janiculum. Tarquin, all hope of his restoration being cut off, departed into exile to Tusculum to his son-in-law, Mamilius Octavius. Thus the Romans enjoyed a sincere peace with Porsenna< CHAP. XVI. THE next consuls were M. Valerius and P. Postu- ius. In that year they fought successfully with the Sabines ; the consuls had the honour of a triumph. The Sabines then prepared for war with greater exer- tion. To meet those, and at the same time, lest any sudden danger might arise from Tusculum (from whence a war, though not openly declared, was yet ap- prehended), P. Valerius, a fourth, and T. Lucretius, a second time, were elected consuls. A sedition which arose amongst the Sabines, between the advocates of war and those of peace, transferred a portion of the strength of that people to the Romans ; for Attus Clausus, who was afterwards called A p. Claudius, at Rome, when, being himself an adviser of peace, he was overpowered by the agitators of war, and unable to make head against that faction, came over from Regil- lum to Rome, accompanied by a numerous body of his adherents. To those the freedom of the city was given, together with land beyond the Anio. They were K 3 10:> LIVY. BOOK II. called the old Claudian tribe, some new members who eame from the same country being afterwards added. Appius being elected into the senate, not long after attained to the dignity of the first men in the state. The consuls having marched into the Sabine territory with a formidable army, after having reduced the power of the enemy so much by devastations, and afterwards by battle, that they could dread no renewal of hostilities from that quarter for a long time, returned in triumph to Rome. The year after, in the consulship of A. Menenius and P. Postumius, P. Valerius, who was first, with general consent, in the attainments of war and peace, dies, with glory immense, but domestic circumstances so slender, that the expense of his fune- ral was wanting : he was buried at the public charge. The matrons mourned for him as for Brutus. During the same year two Latin colonies, Pometia and Cora, revolt to the Aurunci ; war was undertaken against the Aurunci ; and a great army of theirs, which had coura- geously opposed itself to the consuls entering their frontiers, being routed, the entire Auruncian war was concentrated at Pometia; nor did they refrain from carnage more after, than during the battle ; and some- what a greater number was slain than taken prisoners : and the prisoners they every where put to death ; the enemy did riot withhold the fury of war even from the hostages, who had been received to the number of threfc hundred. This year also there was a triumph at Rome. CHAP. XVII. THE succeeding consuls, Opiter Virginius and Sp. Cassius, attacked Pometia, first by storm, then by en- gines and other operations. Against these, the Aurunci rising up, more from an irreconcilable animosity than any hope or favourable opportunity, (as they sallied forth more of them armed with fire than the sword), fill every place with slaughter and conflagration ; and having burned the engines, and wounded and slain se- veral of their enemies, they also dismounted with a severe wound, and nearly slew one of the consuls, but which, authors do not authenticate. The troops, after this defeat, return to Rome ; the consul was left behind CHAP. 18. LIVY. 103 with a faint hope of life amongst the multitude of the wounded. After a short interval, which was merely sufficient for healing the wounds and recruiting the army, their arms were directed against Pometia, as well with great fury of war, as also with augmented forces ; and, having repaired the vinece and the other engines of war, when the soldiers were just on the point of scaling the walls, a capitulation took place. But the Auruncian chiefs were every where beheaded, with no less ferocity, notwithstanding the surrender of the city, than if it had been taken by assault : the rest being colonists were sold by public auction ; the town was razed to the ground the land was sold. The consuls obtained a triumph, more on account of the sanguinary gratification of the people's resentment, than the magnitude of the terminated war. CHAP. XVIII. THE following year had Postumius Cominius and T. Lartius, as consuls. In that year, at Rome, when some courtezans were wantonly carried off by the Sa- bine youth, during the games, a riot, and nearly a battle took place in consequence of the great concourse of persons, and from a trifling incident the affair seemed to tend to a renewal of hostilities. Along with the terror of the Latin war, this too had been added, that it was sufficiently known that thirty states had already formed a confederacy, at the instigation of Octavius Mamilius. In this apprehension of such important events, the community being perplexed, mention first arose of creating a dictator. But it is not sufficiently agreed, either in what year, or what consuls were dis- trusted, because they were of the Tarquinian party, (for that too is handed down) or who it was that was first created dictator. In the most ancient authors, however, I find T. Lartius created first dictator, and Sp. Cassius, master of the horse. Men of consular dignity elected him, for so the law, passed for creating a dictator, directed. For this reason I am the more inclined to believe that Lartius, who was of consular dignity, rather than Manius Valerius, the son of Mar- cus, and grandson of Volesus, who had not yet been 104 LIVY, BOOK II. consul, was appointed as director and master over the consuls, who, if they wished that a dictator should he chosen from that family in particular, would have much rather made choice of M. Valerius the father, a man of approved merit and consular dignity. A dictator hav- ing heen for the first time created at Rome, when they saw the axes carried before him, a great dread per- vaded the populace, so that they were more attentive to yield ohedience ; for there neither was, as in the case of the consuls, who were invested with equal power, the aid of one of the two, nor an appeal ; nor was there any where a resource, except in promptitude of obedience. The creation of a dictator at Rome struck terror even into the Sabines, more especially as they believed that he had been created to oppose them- selves ; accordingly they send ambassadors to treat of peace ; to whom imploring the dictator and senate to grant pardon of an error to young persons, answer was made, " That pardon might be granted to young men, but could not to their seniors, who were sowing the seed of wars after wars." They treated however of peace, and it would have been obtained, if the Sabines could have brought themselves to defray what costs had been expended on the war, for that was the de- mand made. War was declared ; a tacit truce kept the year tranquil. CHAP. XIX. THE consuls were Ser. Sulpicius and Manius Tul- lius ; nothing was done worthy of being mentioned : after them came T. -^Ebutius and C. Vetusius. In their consulate Fidense was besieged, Crustumeria taken, and Prseneste revolted from the Latins to the Romans, nor was the Latin war, which had been kindling now for several years, longer deferred. A. Postumius, the dic- tator, and T. JEbutius, master of horse, setting out with great forces of infantry and cavalry, met the troops of the enemy at lake Regillus, in the territory of Tuscu- lum ; and as it was reported that the Tarquins were in the army of the Latins, their rage could not be re- strained from engaging immediately Wherefore, also this battle was somewhat more obstinate and bloody 20. LIVY. 105 than the others ; for the generals were present, not only to direct the affair by their prudence, but risking their own individual persons, they joined in the con- flict ; nor did scarcely any of the commanders escape either from the one army or the other without a wound, except the Roman dictator. Tarquinius Superbus, though now more enfeebled in age and strength, furi- ously spurred his horse against Postumius, encourag- ing and marshalling his troops in the first line, and being wounded by a side blow, was carried off into a place of security by the interposition of his own troops ; and on the other wing, ^Ebutius, master of horse, had directed an attack against Octavius Mamilius, nor did he advance unperceived by the Tusculan chief, against whom the latter too spurs on his horse, and so great was the shock of them charging with hostile spears, that the arm of ^Ebutius was pierced through, and the breast of Mamilius wounded. The Latins indeed bear him safely off to the second line ; ^Ebutius, disabled from holding his spear, by the wound in his arm, with- drew from the fight. The Latin commander, in no re- spect daunted by his wound, excites the battle, and as he saw his own countrymen dispirited, brings up the cohort of Roman exiles, which L. Tarquin's son headed ; this battalion, as it fought with greater animosity, on account of the privation of their property, and the loss of their native home, restored the battle for a short time. CHAP. XX. As the Romans were now giving way on that side, M. Valerius, the brother of Publicola, having espied the young and resolute Tarquin, displaying his prowess in the front of the exiles, and being fired even with do- mestic glory, that the destruction of kings might be an honour to the same family, to which their expulsion had been so also, sets spurs to his horse, and with his javelin presented, charges Tarquin. Tarquin fell back into the ranks of his friends from his furious adversary. As Valerius rashly rode into the line of the exiles, some person attacking him. by a side charge, ran him through, and his horse being nothing checked by the 106 LIVY. BOOK II. wound of its rider, the expiring Roman sunk to the ground, his arms falling over his body. The dictator, Postumius, when he sees so distinguished a man fallen the exiles furiously rushing on in an impetuous charge, and his own troops giving way in consterna- tion, gives the signal to his own cohort, which chosen hand he kept as a guard round his person, to treat as an enemy whomsoever of their own troops they should see flying ; thus the Romans were turned against the enemy by a twofold terror, and the battle was restored. The dictator's cohort then, for the first time, engaged, attacking with unbroken spirits and strength the wea- ried exiles, they slaughter them. On this occasion another engagement takes place between the chieftains. The Latin general, when he sees the battalion of the exiles nearly surrounded by the Roman dictator, ra- pidly brings up with him to the front some companies of the reserve. T. Herminius, the lieutenant-general, perceiving those advancing in a body, and amongst them, recognizing Mamilius, conspicuous by his dress and arms, joined battle with the general of the enemy with a strength so much greater than did the master of horse a little before, that he slew Mamilius, transfixed by a single blow through the side, and being himself, while stripping the enemy's body, struck with a jave- lin, as soon as he had been brought back victorious to the camp, he expired during the first dressing of his wound. Then the dictator flies up to the cavalry, im- ploring them, as the infantry were now fatigued, to dismount and share the combat. They obeyed the order ; they leaped from their horses, fly forward to the van, and oppose their bucklers as a front line. The infantry immediately resume courage, when they see the young men of the first families sustaining half the danger with them, the manner of fighting being brought to an equality. Then at length the Latins were forced, and their terrified lines gave way. Their horses were brought up to the cavalry, that they might pursue the enemy, and the infantry also followed. On this occa- sion, the dictator, omitting nothing either of divine or human aid, is reported to have vowed a temple to Cas- tor, and to have proclaimed rewards to that soldier who should be first or second to enter the enemy's camp ; CHAP. 21. LIVY. 107 and so great was their impetuosity, that the Romans took the camp by the same charge whereby they had routed the enemy. In this manner they fought at lake Regillus. The dictator and master of horse returned in triumph to the city. CHAP. XXI. DURING the space of three years after, there was neither certain peace nor war. The consuls were Q. Ckelius and T. Lartius; after them, A. Sempronius and M. Minucius : in the consulate of the latter, the temple of Saturn was dedicated ; and a festival day called " Saturnalia' instituted. A. Postnmius and T. Virgi- nius were then made consuls. I find in some writers, that it was only in this year the battle at lake Regillus was fought ; that A. Postumius resigned the consul- ship, because his colleague appeared to be a man of questionable fidelity, and that he was then created dic- tator. Such great mistakes of dates perplex one, the magistrates being placed in different order, by different persons, that you cannot, in such an antiquity not only of facts, but even of writers, either arrange what con- suls came after certain others, or what transactions took place in each successive year. Ap. Claudius and P. Servilius were next made consuls. This year is re- markable by the intelligence of the death of Tarquin ; he died at Cumse, whither he had retired to the tyrant Aristodemus, after the reduction of the power of the Latins. By this news the patricians were elated, the commons elated; but that joy of the patricians was too intemperate : insults began to be offered by the nobi- lity to the commons, whom, up to that day, they had courted with the utmost assiduity. In the same year, the colony of Signia, which king Tarquin had planted, was a second time established, the number of the colo- nists being filled up. On e-and- twenty tribes were in- corporated at Rome ; and the temple of Mercury dedi- cated on the 15th of May. CHAP. XXII. DURING the Latin war, there had been neither peace 108 LIVY. BOOK II. nor war with the nation of the Volsci for the Volsci had collected reinforcements which they would send the Latins, had not expedition been used by the Roman dictator, and the Roman did employ expedition, that he should not have to contend in one battle with the Latin and Volscian. Under the influence of this re- sentment, the consuls led their troops into the Volscian territory. This unexpected measure struck with dis- may the Volsci, who did not apprehend punishment for what was merely a design. Giving up all thoughts of arms, they give three hundred hostages, the children of the principal men from Cora and Pometia : thus the troops were brought off from thence without an en- gagement. In no long time after, their natural disposi- tion returned to the Volsci, being now relieved from apprehension ; a second time they make preparations for secret war, having associated to them the Hernici in a confederacy of arms. They also send ambassadors in every direction to solicit the aid of Latium ; but the recent disaster which they sustained at lake Regil- lus, caused the Latins not to refrain even from the violation of the ambassadors, from their rage and de- testation of any person who should recommend hostili- ties. They seized the Volscians, and conducted them to Rome, there they were given up to the consuls ; and information communicated that the Volsci and Hernici were preparing war against the Romans. The subject being referred to the senate, their conduct was so ac- ceptable to the patricians, that they restored six thou- sand of their prisoners to the Latins, and submitted to the new magistrates the question of a treaty which had been refused them almost for ever. Then indeed did the Latins exult in their conduct ; the advisers of peace were in high reputation. They send to the Capitol a golden crown as a present to Jupiter ; a vast congre- gated multitude, consisting of those prisoners who had been sent back to their friends, arrived in company with the ambassadors and the present ; they return thanks for having been generously received and treated in their distress ; they then unite in ties of hospitality. Never on any other occasion was the Latin state more closely connected by public and private relations with the Roman government. CHAP. 23. LIVY. 109 CHAP. XXIII. BUT the Sabine war was still impending, and the state disunited within itself, was inflamed with intes- tine animosity between the patricians and commons, principally on account of those confined for debt. They murmured that, " fighting for liberty and dominion abroad, they were themselves enslaved and oppressed by their fellow- citizens at home, and that the liberty of the commons was more secure in war than in peace, amongst their enemies than their own countrymen." And this jealousy kindling of its own accord, the sin- gular misfortune of one individual blew up into a blaze. A certain man advanced in years threw himself into the Forum with the marks of all his sufferings ; his raiment was covered over with squalid poverty, more shocking still the condition of his person, which was wasted with paleness and emaciation, along with this, a long beard and hair had given a savage appearance to his features. Amidst so much wretchedness, however, lie was known, and people said that he had been a centurion, and com- passionating him, they mentioned generally his other military distinctions ; he himself was displaying the scars on his breast, as witnesses of honourable engage- ments in several places. To those inquiring how came that appearance, that wretchedness, whilst a crowd col- lected round him, nearly in the manner of an assembly, he said, " That while serving in the Sabine war he had got into debt, because, by reason of-the depopulations, he not only lost the produce of his land, but his house was also burned, all his goods plundered, his cattle driven away, and a tax imposed on him in the season of his distress ; that this debt, accumulating by usury, first stripped him of his farm, derived from his father and grandfather, and next, of all his other substance : that in the end, like a contagion, it reached his person: that he was dragged by his creditor, not into servitude, but to a work-house and place of execution." He then exhi- bited his back disfigured with the recent mai'ks of stripes. On seeing and hearing this, a great uproar ensues. The tumult no longer confines itself to the Forum, but pervades the whole city in every direction. The con- fined and discharged debtors burst forward from all 110 LIVY. BOOK II. quarters into the public streets, and implore the pro- tection of Romans. In no place is wanting a volunteer associate of sedition : they rush in many bodies through all the streets with shouts into the Forum. Such of the patricians as happened to be in the Forum, fell in with that mob, to their great personal hazard ; nor would they refrain from acts of violence, had not the consuls, P. Servilius and Ap. Claudius, speedily come up to quell the insurrection. The multitude turning to them r exhibited their chains and other marks of wretchedness. This they declared they merited, reproaching them each with his own military service in the respective wars. They demanded, with a far greater air of me- nace than of supplication, that they should summon the senate ; and they surround the senate-house themselves, determined to be the arbiters and regulators of the public counsels. A very small number of the patri- cians, whom chance had thrown in the way, were brought together to meet the consuls ; fear kept the rest not only from the senate-house, but also from the Forum ; and no business could be done by reason of the thinness of the senate. Then particularly the popu- lace believed that they were deceived and put off, and that such of the patricians as did not attend, were ab- sent not from chance nor fear, but with a view of ob- structing the business ; and that the consuls themselves were tergiversating; and their own sufferings were, beyond doubt, a mockery. The matter now went so far, that even the majesty of the consuls could not con- troul the rage of the people, when the members, un- certain whether they should incur more danger by staying away or attending, at length came to the senate, and the house being at length full, there was not only not sufficient unanimity amongst the senators, but not even between the consuls themselves. Appius, a man of violent character, was of opinion that the point should bo carried by the consular authority, and that if one or two were arrested, the rest would remain quiet. Ser- vilius, more adapted for gentle remedies, thought it both safer and easier that their excited spirits should be bent than broken. CHAP. 24. LIVY. Ill CHAP. XXIV. DURING these perplexities, another and greater ap- prehension arose. Some Latin horsemen fly to Rome, with the alarming intelligence, " That the Volsci were approaching with a formidable army to lay siege to the city;" the news of which (so much had disunion made two cities out of one) affected the patricians and com- mons in a far different way. The commons exulted with joy, said, " the gods, the avengers of the arrogance of the senators, were coming." They exhorted each other not to give in their names, saying, " that they should perish rather in the general ruin, than by themselves. That the patricians should serve, the patricians take up arms, in order that they should sustain the perils of war, who enjoyed its rewards." But on the other hand, the senate, sad and in consternation at the double danger, proceeding both from fellow-citizens and ene- mies, entreated the consul, Servilius, who had a dispo- sition more popular, to extricate the republic environed, as it was, by such great apprehensions. Thereupon the consul, having dismissed the senate, goes forth to a public assembly, and gives them to understand " That the patricians were solicitous to consult the interests of the commons, but that their anxiety for the entire re- public had interrupted their deliberation, for that cer- tainly most respectable portion, but still a portion of the community ; neither could any subject take prece- dence of war, when the enemy was present at the gates : nor, if there were any respite, was it either creditable to the commons, not to have taken up arms in defence of their country, unless on the condition of first receiving pay, nor sufficiently honourable to the senators themselves to have redressed the afflicted situ- ation of their countrymen from fear, rather than after- wards from inclination." To this harangue he then at- tached a reliance by an edict, by which he proclaimed, " that no one should keep a Roman citizen in chains or confinement, whereby he could not have an opportu- nity of enrolling his name with the consuls ; that no person should seize or sell the goods of a soldier as long as he should be in camp ; or detain his children or grand-children." This edict being published, such of 112 LIVY. BOOK II trie debtors as were present immediately gave in their names, and there ensued a concourse into the Forum, for the purpose of taking the military oath, of the rest rushing out of their secret confinement on all sides of the entire city, as now the creditors had not a right of detaining them. That constituted a powerful body, nor did the valour and exertions of any other class shine out more conspicuous in the Volscian war. The consul leads out his forces against the enemy ; he pitches his camp, a small interval separating him from the foe. CHAP. XXV. ON the ensuing night after, the Volsci, relying on the dissension of the Romans, make an attempt on the camp, to try if any desertion or treachery might take place. The centinels perceived them ; the army was called up ; on a signal given, they ran to arms. Thus the Volsci were frustrated in that attempt; the re- mainder of the night was devoted by both armies to repose. On the following day, at the first dawn, the Volsci having filled up the trenches, assault the ram- part ; and now the fortifications were being torn down on every side, when the consul, although they were all on every side, but particularly the debtors, calling out to him to give the signal, delayed for some time in order to sound the feelings of his men, and when their great ardour was sufficiently apparent, giving them at length the signal to rush forth, he lets out his army, panting for the engagement. Immediately on the first charge, the'enemy were routed, the rear of the fugitives was put to the sword, as far as the infantry were able to continue the pursuit : the cavalry drove them panic- struck as far as their camp ; shortly after the camp itself, the troops being drawn round it, when conster- nation drove the Volsci even from thence, was taken and pillaged. On the following day, the legions being inarched to Suessa Pometia, whither the enemy had fled for safety, the town is taken in the space of a few days: being taken, it is given up for pillage, the needy soldiers were by that means somewhat relieved. The consul, with the greatest glory, brings back to Rome his CHAP. 26. LIVY. 1 13 victorious army. As he was departing for Rome, am- bassadors wait upon him from the Volsci of Ecetra, who, after the capture of Pometia, were apprehensive for their safety. Peace was granted them pursuant to a decree of the senate ; their lands were taken from them. CHAP. XXVI. IMMEDIATELY after, the Sahines also gave some alarm to the Romans, for it was more properly an in- surrection than a war. News was conveyed by night into the city, that a Sabine army had reached the river Anio in a predatory manner, and that the farm-houses were there in all directions pillaged and set on fire. A. Postumius, who had been dictator in the Latin war, was immediately dispatched thither with the whole strength of the cavalry ; Servilius, the consul, followed with a select body of infantry. The cavalry surrounded most of them straggling ; neither did the Sabine legion resist the approaching body of the infantry. Being fatigued both by their march, and also by their nightly depredations, a great number being sated with meat and wine, they had scarcely strength sufficient for flight. The Sabine war being announced and termina- ted in one and the same night, on the next day Aurun- cian ambassadors, in full expectation of peace, which was now on all sides procured, wait upon the senate ; declaring war if the Volscian territory were not eva- cuated. At the same time with the ambassadors, the army of the Aurunci had set out from home ; the intel- ligence of which being now seen not far from Aricia, agitated the Romans with so great alarm, that the se- nate could neither be regularly consulted, nor could they taking up arms themselves, give a pacific answer to those who were committing hostilities. They pro- ceed to Aricia in a hostile body, and not far from thence a general engagement was fought with the Aurunci ; and the war terminated in a single battle. CHAP. XXVII. THE Aurunci having been defeated, the Roman L 3 114 LIVY. BOOK II. people, victorious in so many wars within a few days, were expecting the promises of the consul and the faith of the senate to he redeemed ; when Appius, from the pride inherent in his heart, and also in order to render null his colleague's credit, administered the law on the subject of debts with the utmost rigour possible. Thenceforward those who had been previously in con- finement, were given up to their creditors, and others were imprisoned. When this had happened to any soldier, he used to appeal to Appius' colleague ; they crowded to Servilius, they repeated his promises, they reproached him, each with his own services in war, and the scars he received ; they required that he would either refer the matter to the senate, or support his fellow-citizens as consul, or his soldiers as general. These appeals had an effect on the consul, but the situation of affairs obliged him to temporize ; so much had not only his colleague, but the whole party of the nobility, gone headlong the other way. Thus by tak- ing a middle course, he neither escaped the displeasure of the commons, nor obtained favour with the patri- cians. The senators deemed him a consul weak and fond of popularity the commons, a deceiver ; and it shortly appeared that he equalled Appius in unpopu- larity. A dispute had occurred between the consuls, which should dedicate the temple of Mercury. The senate threw the question from themselves upon the people ; and ordained that to whichever of them the dedication should be granted by order of the people, he should preside over the market, institute a guild of merchants, and undertake the performance of the usual ceremonies in the presence of the pontiff. The people confer the dedication of the temple on M. Lsetorius, a centurion of the first rank ; which easily appeared to have been done, not so much for his honour, on whom a superintendence above his rank was conferred, as for the degradation of the consuls, Then particularly one of the consuls and the patricians raged ; but the spirit of the commons increased, and they proceeded by a far different course from what they at first intended. For having despaired of any aid from the consuls and senate, they rushed together from all quarters whenever they saw a debtor led to justice ; and neither could the deci- CHAP. 28. LIVY. 115 sion of the consul be heard, on account of the bustle and clamour, nor, when he did decide, did any one obey him. They were proceeding by force ; and all the apprehension and danger respecting liberty, were trans- ferred from the debtors to the creditors, when in view of the consul they were individually assaulted by num- bers. In addition to this, the fear of a Sabine war pervaded them ; and a levy of troops being held, not one gave in his name Appius storming and inveighing against his colleague's love of popularity, who, to please the people, was betraying the commonwealth by his silence ; and to his culpability in not administering justice, was adding that of not even holding the levy, in obedience to the senate's decree. " That, however, the commonwealth was not entirely deserted, and the consular authority prostituted. That he would himself singly become the assertor of his own and the patri- cian's dignity." When the daily mob, furious by licen- tiousness, surrounded him, he caused one distinguished leader of the insurrection to be arrested. The latter, when he was being dragged off by the lictors, appealed : nor would the consul have yielded to the appeal, be- cause the decision of the people was not doubtful, had not his pertinacity been reluctantly overcome, more by the advice and authority of the nobility, than by the clamours of the people ; so redundant were his spirits to sustain popular indignation. The mischief hence- forward increased every day, not only by open cla- mours, but, what was far more pernicious, by seces- sion and secret conferences. At length those consuls, odious to the people, go out of office ; Appius, a won- derful favourite with the patricians Servilius, with neither party. CHAP. XXVIII. A. VIRGINIUS and T. Vetusius next enter on the consulship. Then the commons, uncertain what sort of consuls they were now to have, hold nightly meetings, some on Esquilise, others on Aventine ; lest in the Forum they might be confused by hurried coun- sels, and do every thing rashly and fortuitously. The consuls, judging such a proceeding pernicious, as it 116 L1YY. BOOK II. really was, submit it to the senate : but, when sub- mitted, they \vere not allowed to take their opinions re- gularly, so tumultuously was it received every where by the clamours and indignation of the patricians, that the consuls should throw on the senate the odium of an act which ought to have been executed by the consular authority. " That really, if there were magistrates in the state, there would be no council at Rome but the public one. That at present the commonwealth was divided, and dispersed into a thousand senate-houses and assemblies ; some councils being held on Esquiliae, others on Aventine. That, by Hercules, one man of spirit (for that was more than a consul), such as Ap- pius Claudius was, would in one moment of time dis- perse those meetings." When the rebuked consuls inquired, what then they would have them do (for they would do nothing more remissly or indulgently than pleased the patricians), the senate decree, that they should proceed with the levy in the strictest man- ner ; that the commons were become licentious through want of employment. The senate being dismissed, the consuls mount the tribunal ; they call over the juniors by name ; when none answered to his name, the popu- lace, which thronged round in the manner of an assem- bly, denied, " That the commons could be any longer deceived : that they should never have a single soldier, unless the public engagement was fulfilled ; that liberty should be restored to every single individual before arms were given him, so that they might fight for their country and fellow-citizens, not for their masters." The consuls saw what had been commanded them to do by the senate ; but that not one of those, who talked so daringly within the walls of the senate-house, was present to share the odium with themselves, and a desperate struggle w r ith the commons w r as contemplated. They agree, therefore, before they should resort to extremities, to consult the senate a second time. Then particularly every younger patrician flew almost in a body to the seats of the consuls, ordering them to abdicate the consulship, and divest themselves of an authority which they wanted spirit to maintain. CHAP. 29. LIVY. 117 CHAP. XXIX. THE consuls, having sufficiently tried the disposition of each party, now at length exclaim, " Conscript fa- thers, lest you should deny that you were previously warned, we now tell you, a dangerous sedition is at hand. We request that those who most loudly censure our inactivity, should attend us while we hold the levy. We will execute the task according to the pleasure of the most rigorous individual, since such is your plea- sure." They return to the tribunal ; they intentionally order one of those who were within sight to be cited by name. When he stood mute, and around him w r as collected a circle of several persons, lest perhaps he might be forced, the consuls send a lictor to him ; and on his being beaten back, then particularly such of the patricians as were attending the consuls, exclaiming that it was shocking conduct, fly down from the tri- bunal to support the lictor. But when the popular fury was directed against the patricians from the lictor, who was hindered from .arresting him and no further, the riot was quelled by the intervention of the consuls ; a riot in which, however, without stone or weapon, there had been more clamour and rage than mischief. The senate, tumultuously convened, is still more tumul- tuously consulted, those who had been maltreated de- manding an investigation ; all the most violent of them supporting it not more by their votes, than by clamour and confusion. At length, when their rage subsided, the consuls alleging by way of reproach, that there was no more good sense in the senate-house than in the Forum, they (the senate) began to be consulted regu- larly. There were three opinions. P. Virginius would not make it a general question, and moved, " That they should deliberate only with respect to those who, relying on the engagement of the consul, P. Ser- vilius, had served in the Volscian, Auruncian, and Sabine wars." T. Lartius, " That this was not the time when services alone should be requited ; that the entire body of the commons was overwlielmed with debt ; and that the evil could not be arrested, if they did not consult for the relief of all ; nay more, if the condition of some were different from that of others, that the dissension 118 LIVY. BOOK II. would be enflamed rather than allayed." Ap. Clau- dius, naturally harsh, and rendered furious on one side by the hatred of the commons, on the other by the commendations of the patricians, says, " That so much disturbance was not excited by distress, but by licen- tiousness ; and that the commons were more wanton than enraged ; that, moreover, that evil arose from the right of appeal, since menaces, not authority, belonged to the consuls, when it was permitted to appeal to those who were fellow-offenders. Come," said he, " let us create a dictator, from whom there is no appeal ; immediately this fury, by which all things are in a blaze, will subside. Let me then see the man who shall assault a lictor, when he must know that the power over his back and life is solely in the hands of that individual whose majesty he shall have insulted." CHAP. XXX. THE proposal of Appius appeared to many, as in truth it was, barbarous and sanguinary ; on the other hand, those of Virginius and Lartius not safe as a pre- cedent: Lartius' opinion they considered particularly so, which would abolish all credit. The counsel of Virginius was deemed most moderate, and happily compounded of the other two. But Appius prevailed through the spirit of faction, and regard to private in- terests, motives which ever have obstructed, and will obstruct public councils ; and he was himself near being created dictator, which circumstance would have par- ticularly alienated the commons at this most perilous juncture, when the Volsci, and ^Bqui, and Sabines, happened to be all at once inarms. But the consuls and the senior part of the patricians were solicitous, that a power, arbitrary of itself, should be entrusted to a person of mild disposition. They create Manius Valerius, the son of Volesus, dictator. The commons, although they perceived that the dictator was created in opposition to themselves, yet as it was by his bro* ther's law that they enjoyed the right of appeal, appre- hended nothing either harsh or oppressive from that family. Afterwards, an edict issued by the dictator, coinciding almost with the edict of Servilius, confirmed CHAP. 30. LIVY. 119 their minds : but judging that both the individual and the power were more safely relied on in the present instance, having given up the controversy, they en- rolled their names. Ten legions were embodied, such an army as had never before been raised ; of these, three were assigned to each of the two consuls, the dictator commanded four. Nor could war be longer deferred. The ^Bqui had invaded the Latin territory ; the deputies of the Latins requested of the senate, that they would either send them relief, or allow themselves to take up arms for the purpose of defending their ter- ritories. It appeared more advisable, that the Latins should be defended unarmed, than to allow them to take up arms once more. The consul, Vetusius, was sent thither; that put an end to the depredations. The ^Equi retired from the plains, and relying more on the nature of the ground than on their arms, were securing themselves within the highest ridges of the mountains. The other consul having marched against the Volsci, that he should not himself also waste time, provoked the enemy, particularly by laying waste their iands, to encamp nearer, and come to a regular engage- ment. They halted in a hostile attitude in the inter- mediate plain, each army before its own rampart. The Volsci were somewhat superior in numbers. Accord- ngly they advanced to battle in a loose and contemp- tuous manner. The Roman consul neither moved for- ward his line, nor suffered the shout to be returned ; ordered his troops to stand still, with their javelins ixed in the ground, and as soon as the enemy should lave come to close action, to spring forward with their utmost might, and engage with their swords. The Volsci, fatigued with running and shouting, when they bore down on the Romans, as if paralyzed with fear, as soon as they perceived an impression made from the enemy's side, and the swords glittering before their ?yes, turn their backs in confusion, just as if they had "alien into an ambuscade ; and they had not strength enough, even for flight, as they had advanced to battle u a running pace. The Romans, on the contrary, as hey had stood quiet in the commencement of the ac- ton, being vigorous in their bodies, having easily over- aken the wearied fugitives, took the camp by assault, 120 LIVY. BOOK II. and pursuing as far as Velitrse the enemy, dispossessed of their camp, they rushed into the city, victors and vanquished, almost in one continued body: and more blood was spilled there, in the indiscriminate slaughter of all ranks, than in the engagement itself. Pardon Was granted to a few, who surrendered themselves unarmed. CHAP. XXXI. WHILST these things are going on in the country of the Volsci, the dictator routs, puts to flight, and strips of their camp the Sabines, with whom there lay by far the weightiest part of the war. Having charged with his cavalry, he had thrown into disorder the centre of the enemy's line, where, whilst the wings extend them- selves too widely, they had not adequately strength- ened it by files internally : the infantry fell upon them in their disorder : and by the same onset the camp was taken, and the war ended. Since the battle at lake Regillus, no other engagement during those years was more glorious. The dictator rides triumphant into the city. In addition to the usual honours, a place was assigned to him and his posterity in the circus, to view the games, and in that place a curule chair was fixed. The lands of Velitrse were taken from the subjugated Volsci ; colonists were sent to Velitrse from the city, and a colony established. In some time after, a battle was fought with the^Equi, not certainly with the consul's will, for they had to advance up to the enemy through disadvantageous ground ; but the soldiers complaining that the business was protracted, in order that the dic- tator might go out of office, before they could them- selves return, and his promises, like those of the consul before, prove ineffectual, prevailed on him to march up his army, at all hazards, against the opposite moun- tains. That rash undertaking turned out successful, through the cowardice of the enemy, who, before they came within a javelin's throw, being panic-struck at the boldness of the Romans, and deserting their camp, which they had occupied in the most secure position, leaped down into the vallies behind them, on which occasion there was abundance of booty, and an unbloody victory. CHAP. 32. LIVY. 121 Matters being thus successful in war in three different places ; the anxiety for the event of domestic affairs had departed neither from the patricians nor commons ; with so much influence, as well as dexterity, had the usurers concerted measures, which should disappoint, not only the commons, hut also the dictator himself. For Valerius, after the return of the consul Vetusius, introduced, first of all other measures in the senate, that relating to the victorious people, and proposed what they would be pleased to have done respecting the condemned debtors ; which proposition being re- jected, " I do not please you," he says, " by being the adviser of concord ; by Hercules, you shall shortly wish that the commons of Rome had patrons like me. As to what regards myself, I will neither delude my fellow-citizens longer, nor will I be myself a dictator to no effect. Internal dissensions and foreign war have caused the commonwealth to require this magis- trate ; peace has been procured abroad, at home it is obstructed : I shall witness sedition as a private man, rather than as dictator." Thus, having retired from the senate-house, he abdicated the dictatorship. It appeared a clear case to the commons, that he resigned office, indignant at their own condition. Wherefore, as if he had fully discharged his engagement, since it had not been his fault that it was not fulfilled, they ac- companied him home with approbation and applause. CHAP. XXXII. AN apprehension then seized the patricians, that, if the army were disbanded, secret meetings and conspira- cies would be again held ; for which reason, though the levies had been made by the dictator, still judging that the soldiers had been bound by their oath, as they had sworn obedience to the consuls, they ordered the legions to be marched out of the city, under a pretext of the war being renewed by the ^Bqui, by which proceeding the sedition was brought to maturity. And at first, it is said, they entertained the subject of murdering the consuls, that they might be released from their solemn oath ; but being afterwards informed that no religious obligation could be discharged by guilt, they seceded, M 122 LIVY. BOOK II. by the advice of one Sicinius, without the order of the consuls, to mount Sacer (it lies beyond the Anio), three miles from the city. This account is more gene- rally received than that of which Piso is the author, that the secession was made to mount Aventine. There, having fortified their camp with a rampart and trench, they kept themselves quiet for several days, without any leader, by taking nothing, except what was neces- sary for their sustenance, neither provoked, nor pro- voking. There was great consternation in the city, and all things were suspended through mutual fear. The commons, who were left behind by their friends, dreaded the violence of the patricians ; the patricians dreaded the commons who remained in the city ; un- certain whether they should allow them to remain or depart : but how long would the multitude who de- parted, remain tranquil? and what then would be the consequence, if in the meantime any foreign war should arise ? they really considered no hope left, unless in the unanimity of citizens ; that this should be restored to the state by fair or foul means. They resolved there- fore, that Menenius Agrippa should be sent as com- missioner to the commons ; an eloquent man, and a fa- vourite with the commons, because he had been de- scended from that class. He, being introduced into the camp, is reported, in that antiquated and unpolished style of speech, to have said no more than this ; " At a time when all parts in the human body did not harmo- nize, as at present, but every individual member had had its own policy, its own language, the other parts felt indignant that every thing was procured for the belly by their own care, their own toil, and ministry ; that the belly, at its ease in the midst of them, did no- thing else than enjoy the provided pleasures. They therefore conspired that the hands should not convey food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it if offered, nor the teeth chew it. Under the influence of this an- ger, whilst they would subdue the belly by hunger, the members themselves along with it, and the entire body, had sunk to the last stage of consumption. From whence it appeared, that the service of the belly too, was not one of sloth ; and that it was not more nour- ished, than it supplied nourishment; conveying to all CHAP. 33. LlVY. 123 parts of the body that blood by which we have life and vigour, distributed equally through the veins in its matured state, after the digestion of the food." And that, by instituting a comparison from this example, how very like the intestine sedition of the body was to the fury of the commons against the patricians, he had changed the people's minds. CHAP. XXXIII. THEY then began to treat of a reconciliation; and it was conceded among the terms, that the commons should have magistrates of their own, of inviolable persons, who should have the power of affording assis- tance against the consuls ; and that it should not be lawful for any patrician to hold that office. Thus two tribunes of the commons were created, C. Licinius and L. Albinus : these elected three colleagues to them- selves ; amongst these was Sicinius, the author of the sedition : with respect to the other two, it is not so well agreed who they were. There are some who say that two tribunes only were created on mount Sacer, and that there the law of inviolability was passed. During the secession of the commons, Sp. Cassius and Postumius Cominius entered on the consulship ; in their consulate a treaty was concluded with the Latins ; for the ratification of this, one consul remained at Rome ; the other, being sent to the Volscian war, routs and puts to flight the Volscians of Antium ; and having pursued them, in their retreat, into the town of Lon- gula, he makes himself master of the town. He next took Polusca, another town of the Volsci ; he then assaulted Corioli with great fury. There was then in the camp, among the young men of the first rank, C. Marcius, a youth prompt in counsel and action, who afterwards obtained the surname Coriolanus. When the Volscian legions, having marched from Antium, had suddenly attacked the Roman army, besieging Co- rioli, and having their attention fixed on the townsmen, whom they kept shut up inside, without any apprehen- sion of an attack impending from without; and at the same time the garrison sallied forth from the town C. Marcius happened to be then on guard. He with a 124 LIVY. BOOK II. chosen body of troops, not only repelled the attack of the sallying party, but furiously dashed in through the open gate ; and having made a slaughter in the adjacent parts of the city, he seized some fire at random, and threw it into the buildings adjoining the wall : then the cries of the townsmen, mingling with the shrieks of women and boys, arising, as is usual, at the first alarm, added courage to the Romans, and dispirited the Volsci, in as much as the city was now taken, to the relief of which they had come. Thus the Volsci from Antium were defeated, and the town of Corioli taken ; and so much did Marcius by his own merit eclipse the fame pf the consul, that had not the treaty with the Latins, engraven on a brazen pillar, served as a testi- monial that it was concluded by Sp. Cassius alone, because his colleague had been absent ; it would have ceased to be remembered that Postumius Cominius had conducted a war with the Volsci. In the same year, Agrippa Menenius dies ; a man throughout his whole life equally beloved by the patricians and commons, but who after the secession, became still more endeared to the plebeians. To this umpire and mediator of the harmony amongst his fellow-citizens, this ambassador of the senate to the plebeians, this bringer-back of the commons into the city, the expenses of a funeral were wanting ; the commons buried him, having contributed a sextans (the sixth part of an ass) a head. CHAP. XXXIV. T. GEGANIUS and P. Minucius were then elected consuls. In that year, when all was undisturbed by war abroad, and dissension healed at home, another much more weighty calamity invaded the state first, a scarcity of provisions, arising from the uncultivated state of the lands during the secession of the commons, and then a famine, such as generally awaits a besieged people ; and matters would have proceeded to the de- struction of the slaves in particular, and of the plebe- ians, had not the consuls provided against it, by send- ing out persons in all directions to purchase up corn, not only into Etruria, along the shores to the right of Ostia, and by the sea on the left, through the country CHAP. 34. LIVY. 125 of the Volsci, as far as Cumae, but also into Sicily, to procure it : so much had the hatred entertained by their neighbours obliged tbem to require the aid of remote people. When the corn had been purchased up at Cumae, the ships were detained in lieu of the effects of the Tarquins, by the tyrant Aristodemus, who was their heir. Among the Volsci and in the Pomptine district, it could not be bought at all. The corn-com- missioners themselves were also in danger, from the violence of the inhabitants. Corn arrived by the Tiber from the Etrurians ; by this the people were supported. They would be harassed by a war, unseasonable during such a restricted supply of provisions, had not a great pestilence attacked the Volsci just taking up arms. The spirits of the enemy being afflicted by this cala- mity, that they might also, when that abated, be re- strained by some terror, the Romans augmented the number of colonists at Velitrse, and sent a new colony to the mountains of Norba, to serve as a garrison in the Pomptine territory. > In the succeeding consulate of M. Minucius and A. Sempronius, a great quantity of corn was imported from Sicily ; and it was discussed in the senate, at what price it should be given to the commons. Many were of opinion that the time had now arrived for crushing the plebeians, and recovering those privileges which had been extorted from the patricians by the secession and violence. Marcius Co- riolanus amongst the foremost, an enemy of the tri- bunic power, says, " If they wish to have provisions at the old price, let them restore their former rights to the patricians. Why do I, sent under the yoke, ransomed as it were from robbers, behold plebeian magistrates ? why, Sicinius in authority ? Shall I sub- mit to these indignities longer than is necessary ? Shall I, who could not endure Tarquin on the throne, endure Sicinius ? Let him now secede, let him call off the commons ; the way is open to mount Sacer and other hills. Let them carry off the corn from our lands, as they did three years ago. Let them enjoy that state of the market which they have caused by their own fury. I venture to affirm that, humbled by this privation, they will become themselves tillers of the lands, rather than, with arms in their hands, hinder them from being M 3 126 LIVY. BOOK II. cultivated by a secession." It is not so easy to say whether it ought to be done, as that, in my opinion, it was practicable, that the patricians, on condition of lowering the price of provisions, might get rid of the tribunic power and all the laws imposed upon them against their will. CHAP. XXXV. THAT proposition appeared too harsh even to the senate, and rage almost drove the commons to arms ; complaining, " That they were now assailed by famine, as if they were public enemies ; that they were de- frauded of food and sustenance ; that the foreign corn, which was the only sustenance that fortune gave them, and that unexpectedly, was to be snatched from their mouths, unless the tribunes were given up in chains to C. Marcius, unless he were appeased at the expense of the backs of the Roman commons. That he started up to them a new executioner, who commanded them either to die or be slaves." An assault would have been made on him as he came out of the senate-house, had not the tribunes very opportunely appointed him a day to stand his trial. Thereupon their rage was sup- pressed : each of them saw himself appointed judge, and master of the life and death of his personal enemy. At first Marcius heard the threats of the tribunes with contempt, alleging, " That the right of protection, not of punishment, was granted to that office ; and they were tribunes of the commons, and not of the patri- cians." But the commons rose up in a body with such animosity, that the patricians were obliged to avert the danger by the punishment of one. They made a stand, however, though the public odium was against them, and exerted, as well each his own power as that of the entire order. And first an attempt was tried, if, by a judicious disposition of their clients, they could quash the business, by deterring individuals from meet- ings and cabals. They then went forward in a body (you would say that all the patricians were arraigned), requesting of the commons with intreaties, " That they would grant them, as a favour, the pardon of one citi- zen, one senator, supposing him guilty, if they were CHAP. 36. LIVY. 127 unwilling to acquit him as innocent." When he him- self did riot appear on the day appointed, they perse- vered in their resentment. Being condemned in his absence, he went off into exile into the country of the Volsci, threatening his native country, and even then breathing a hostile spirit. The Volsci kindly received him on his arrival, and treated him every day more kindly, the more his resentment against his country- men became prominent, and occasionally his complaints, occasionally his menaces were perceived. He lodged in the house of Attius Tullus. The latter was, at that time, by far the first man of the Volscian state, and always an inveterate enemy to the Romans. Thus when an old animosity stimulated the one, and recent anger the other, they concert plans relative to a Roman war. They did not believe that their own people could be easily prevailed upon to take up arms, which were so often unsuccessfully tried ; that their spirits were broken down by many wars on frequent occasions, and lastly, by the loss of their young men in the pestilence ; that, as their hatred was now forgotten by length of time, they should proceed by artifice, in order that their feelings might be exasperated by some fresh resentment. CHAP. XXXVI. IT happened that they were making preparations at Rome for the great games, owing to their renewal ; the cause of renewing them was this on the morning of the games, the entertainment having not yet com- menced, a certain master of a family had driven his slave flogged in a neck-yoke through the middle of the circus. The games were afterwards begun, as if that affair had had no relation to religion. In no long time after, T. Autinius, a plebeian, had a dream : Jupiter seemed to say, " That the dancer who ushered in the games did not please him; that, unless these games were magnificently renewed, the city would be in dan- ger ; that he should go immediately, and report this to the consuls." Although the man's mind was certainly not free from superstition, respect, however, for the dignity of the magistrates, lest he might get into the 128 LIVY. BOOK II. mouths of all as a subject for ridicule, overcame his religious fears. That delay cost him dearly ; for he lost his son within a few days after ; of which sudden affliction that the cause might not be doubtful, that self-same phantom, appearing to him in his sleep, as he was troubled in mind, seemed to ask him, " Whether he got a sufficiently high reward for his contempt of the deity ? that a greater awaited him soon, if he did not quickly go and tell the consuls." The matter was now more manifest : a great violence of distemper at- tacked him with sudden debility, as he was still delay- ing and procrastinating. Then indeed the anger of the gods awoke his attention. Being therefore oppressed by past and approaching calamities, when, after calling a council of his near relatives, he had stated what he had seen and heard, and the fact of Jupiter's appearing to him so often in his sleep, and the menaces and dis- pleasure of the deity exemplified in his own sufferings ; he was then, with the undoubted consent of all who were present, conveyed in a litter into the Forum to the consuls. Being from thence carried by order of the consuls into the senate-house, after he had minutely related the same accounts to the patricians, to the great astonishment of every one ; behold another miracle ! it is handed down on record that he, who had been carried into the senate-house, impotent in all his limbs, had, after discharging his duty, returned home on his own feet. CHAP. XXXVII. THE senate decreed that the games should be cele- brated in the most splendid manner possible. To those games a great number of the Volsci resorted, by the advice of Attius Tullus. Before the entertainments commenced, Tullus, as had been concerted at home with Marcius, waited upon the consuls, and tells them, that there were some matters , respecting the common- wealth, on which he would confer with them in private; strangers having withdrawn ; " It is with reluctance," says he, " I speak any thing discreditable of my coun- trymen. I came not, however, to charge them with the actual commission of any thing, but to take pre- CHAP. 38. LIVY. caution that they do not commit it. The dispositions of my countrymen are much more fickle than I could wish ; we have been made sensible of that by many disasters ; as being persons who exist not by any merit of our own, but by your forbearance. There is here at present, a vast number of the Volsci ; the games are going on ; the people will be intent on the exhibition. I remember what has been committed in this city by the Sabine youth, on a similar occasion : my mind shudders, lest any thing be done inconsiderately and rashly. I have judged it proper, consuls, for our own sake and yours, that these things should be communi- cated to you before-hand. As to what regards myself, I am resolved to return home immediately from this place, lest by being present, I might be tainted with ihe contagion of any act or word." Having thus spo- ken, he took his leave. When the consuls had re- ported to the senate a doubtful matter on an unques- tionable authority, the author, rather than the statement itself, induced them to take precaution, even though unnecessarily ; and a decree having been passed that the Volsci should retire out of the city, criers are sent round in every direction, to order them all to set out before night. At first, a great panic seized them, as they ran up and down to their lodgings, to carry off their effects ; afterwards, as they were setting out, a feeling of indignation rose up, " that they should have been driven away from the games, like iniquitous and contaminated wretches, on festival days, out of an as- semblage, as it were, of men and gods." CHAP. XXXVIII. As they proceeded almost in a continuous body, Tullus, who went before them to the fountain of Fe- rentina, accosting the chief men amongst them, accord- ing as each arrived, by complaining, and testifying his indignation, brought off both those persons themselves, who anxiously listened to language that favoured their resentment, and through them, the rest of the multi- tude, into a plain that lay adjoining the road. There, having commenced an address in the manner of a public harangue, " Though," says he, " you should forget the 130 LIVY BOOK II. former wrongs inflicted by the Roman people, and the calamities of the Volscian nation, and all other offences, with what feelings, pray, do you bear this insult of to- day, with which they have opened the games, to our ignominy ? Have you not felt, that you have this day been triumphed over? that, at your departure, you have been a spectacle to all ; citizens, foreigners, and so many neighbouring states? that your wives, your children, have been degradingly exhibited before the eyes of the public. What do you suppose those to have thought, who heard the voice of the crier? what, who saw you departing ? what, those who met this ignominious procession? except, that there was cer- tainly something impious about us, by which, if we were to be present at the exhibition, we should conta- minate the games, and deserve an expiation ; and, that therefore, we were driven out from the habitations, society, and assemblage of pious men. What next? does not this strike you, that we are alive, because we have expedited our departure ; if this be a depar- ture, and not a flight ? And do you not look upon this as an enemy's city, in which, if you had tarried a single day, you should have all perished? War has been declared against you, to the great detriment of those who have declared it, if you be men." Thus, being of themselves fraught with resentment, and moreover incited, they thence separated to their homes, and, by instigating, each his respective community, they caused the entire Volscian nation to revolt. CHAP. XXXIX. THE commanders chosen, for that war, by the vote of all the states, were Attius Tullus, and C. Marcius, the Roman exile, in whom somewhat greater hope was reposed : which expectation, he, by no means dis- appointed, so that, it easily appeared, that the Roman commonwealth was more powerful in its generals, than its army. Having marched to Circeii, he first expelled from thence the Roman colonists, and delivered it up independent, to the Volsci. Then crossing over, by indirect paths, to the Latin road, he recovered from the Romans Sabricum, Longula, Polusca, Corioli ; these CHAP. 39. LIVY. 131 were towns which they lately acquired. He then re- ceived the submission of Lavinium, and afterwards took Corbio, Vitellia, Trebia, Lavici, Pedum, in succession. Lastly, he leads his army from Pedum to the city, and having encamped at the Cluilian trenches, five miles from the city, he from thence lays waste the Roman territory ; having sent out guards among the depreda- tors, who were to preserve unmolested the lands of the patricians; whether it was, that he was more enraged with the commons, or in order that from that source a dissension might arise between the patricians and ple- beians : which certainly would have arisen, so much did the tribunes by their accusations excite the commons, already sufficiently violent of themselves, against the principal men of the state ; but a foreign dread, the strongest bond of concord, united their minds, how- ever mutually suspected and enraged. This point only was not agreed on ; that the senate and consuls placed their hope in nothing else than in arms; the commons preferred every thing to a war. Sp. Nantius and Sex. Furius were now consuls. These, whilst reviewing the legions, and stationing guards along the walls, arid in other places, where they agreed that posts and watches should be established, an immmense multitude of per- sons clamouring for peace, at first affrighted by their insurrectionary cries, and afterwards obliged them to convene the senate, and propose a motion for sending ambassadors to C. Marcius. The senators entertained the question, after it became manifest that the minds of the commons were disaffected ; and a deputation being sent to Marcius to treat of peace, brought back this haughty answer, " That, if the land were restored to the Volsci, they might then treat of peace ; but if they wished to enjoy in tranquillity the plunder of war, that he, mindful of the injustice of his own country- men, and of the kindness of his hosts, should endea- vour to make it appear, that his own spirit was irrita- ted, not broken, by exile." The same persons being afterwards sent a second time, are not admitted into his camp. It is recorded, that the priests also, dressed out in their sacerdotal robes, went as suppliants to the ene- my's camp : and that they made no more impression on his mind than the ambassadors. 132 LIVY. BOOK II. CHAP. XL. THEN the matrons come together in a hody to Vetu- ria, the mother of Coriolanus, and Volumnia his wife : whether this was a government measure or the effect of female apprehension, I do not discover with certainty. It is certain they so far carried their point, that Veturia, a woman of advanced age, and Volumnia, carrying with her her two young sons by Marcius, should go with them into the camp of the enemy ; and, women as they were, defend by supplications and tears that city which men were not able to defend by arms. When they arrived at the camp, and it was told to Coriolanus that a great train of females was approaching ; at first (as he was a person who had been moved neither by the pub- lic majesty, in the persons of the ambassadors, nor by such great religious reverence as overspread his eyes and mind in those of the priests), he was much more inflexible against the tears of the women. Afterwards one of his intimate friends, who recognized Veturia, who was distinguished amongst the rest by her sorrow, standing between her daughter-in-law and grandchil- dren, observed, " If my eyes do not deceive me, here are your mother, wife, and children." When Coriola- nus, confounded almost like a man distracted, quitting his seat, offered to embrace his mother, who approached, the woman, turning from prayers to anger, says, " Let me know, before I accept your embrace, whether I have come to an enemy or to a son whether I am a captive or a mother in your camp. Has a long and unfortunate old age brought me to this, that I should see you first an exile, then an enemy ? Could you lay waste this land, which gave you birth and nurtured you? However vindictive and menacing the disposi- tion with which you had approached, did not your rage subside on entering the borders ? Did it not, when Rome was in sight, suggest itself to you * Within those walls are my house and domestic gods, my mother, my wife, and my children ?' Then, if I had not been a mother, Rome would not be besieged if I had not a son, I might have died free in a free country. But I can now suffer nothing which is not more disgraceful to you than miserable to myself; nor, though I am SAP. 41. LIVY. 133 wretched to the highest degree, am I likely to be long so. You will now look to these, whom, if you persist, either premature death or a long servitude awaits.*' Then his wife and children embraced him ; and the la- mentation set up by the whole group of females, and their wailing for themselves and native country, at length broke down the man's resolution : then embrac- ing his relatives, he dismisses them ; he himself re- moves back his camp from the city. His legions being afterwards withdrawn from the Roman territory, they report that lie perished, having sunk beneath the resent- ment excited by his conduct ; different writers say, by a different death. I find in Fabius, by far the most ancient writer, that he lived to an old age : he certainly mentions that, at an advanced period of life, he fre- quently repeated this saying, " That exile was much more distressing to an old man." The men of Rome did not envy the women their honours, so free did they live from the practice of detracting from the glory of others. To serve also as a memorial of their grati- tude, a temple was built and dedicated to female For- tune. After this the Volsci, in conjunction with the qui, returned into the Roman territory ; but the qui no longer endured Attius Tullus as their com- mander. Hence, from a dispute whether the Volsci or ^Equi should give a general to the combined army, a disunion arose, and afterwards a bloody battle. On that occasion, the good fortune of the Roman people destroyed two hostile armies by a contest no less fatal than obstinate. T. Sicinius and C. Aquilius were created consuls. To Sicinius the Volsci were allotted as his province ; to Aquilius the Hernici, for the latter too were up in arms. In that year the Hernici were thoroughly subdued ; with the Volsci they came off with equal advantage on both sides. CHAP. XLI. SP. CASSIUS and Proculus Virginius were then made consuls. A treaty was concluded with the Hernici ; two-thirds of their lands were taken from them ; of this the consul Cassius was about to distribute one moiety to the Latins, the other moiety to the commons. 134 LIVY. BOOK II, To this gift lie would add a considerable tract of land, which being public property, he complained of as being possessed by private persons. This measure alarmed many of the patricians, the actual possessors, by the danger in which it placed their properties ; but the patricians felt also an apprehension on public grounds, that the consul was, by that donation, erecting for him- self a power hazardous to liberty. Then for the first time the agrarian law was proposed, which was never agitated, even up to our own times, without the great- est commotions in the state. The other consul resisted the donative, supported by the patricians, and not opposed by the entire body of the commons, who first began to be disgusted that a gift, being thus rendered common, should pass from citizens to allies ; often afterwards too they used to hear the consul Virginius in the public assemblies, as it were prophesying, " That the gift of his colleague was pestilential. That the lands in question would entail slavery on those who should accept them that a way was being paved to despotism. For why were the allies and the Latin nation included ? to what purpose could it serve, that a third part of the land taken in war should be restored to the Hernici, who were shortly before their enemies, unless that these nations should have Cassius, instead of Coriolanus, their leader?" The enemy and opposer of the agrarian law now began to be popular ; afterwards each of the consuls humoured the commons. Virginius declared, that he would allow the lands to be assigned, provided they were assigned to none but a Roman citi- zen. Cassius, because by the agrarian donative he was courting popularity with the allies, and on that account of less repute amongst his fellow-citizens ; in order that he might once more gain over to himself the affec- tions of his countrymen by another gift, proposed, that the money received for the Sicilian corn should be re- funded to the people. This, however, the commons re- jected with scorn, as the immediate price of arbitrary powe?; so thoroughly, on account of their inveterate jealousy of single government, were his donations spurned in the hearts of the people, as if they enjoyed every thing in abundance. It is universally agreed that, as soon as he went out of office, he was condemned c. AP. 42. LIVY. 135 and put to death. There are some who state that his father was the author of that punishment ; and that, having tried him at home, he scourged him and put him to death, and consecrated his son's private property to Ceres ; that out of this a statue was erected, and inscribed with these words, " Presented from the Cas- sian property." I find in some writers, and that is the more credible, that an impeachment for treason was instituted against him by the quaestors, R. Fabius and L. Valerius, and that he was condemned by the judg- ment of the people ; that his house was demolished by public authority : that is now the space in front of the bemple of Tellus. But whether that was a domestic or public sentence, he was condemned in the consulate of Ser. Cornelius and Q. Fabius. CHAP. XLII. THE anger of the people against Cassius was not of long continuance. The charms of the agrarian law of themselves, its author being put out of the way, were taking possession of their minds ; and that eagerness was enflamed by the parsimony of the patricians, who, the Volsci and ^Equi being subdued that year, de- frauded the soldiers of the plunder. Whatever was taken from the enemy, the consul Fabius sold and reduced to public property. The name of Fabius was odious to the commons, on account of the late consul ; the patricians however succeeded, that R. Fabius should be created consul with L. ^Bmilius. By this the com- mons being more incensed, encouraged a foreign war by their domestic sedition ; again their civil dissensions were discontinued during the war. The patricians and commons with united accord, under the command of ^Emilius, overthrew in a successful battle, the Volsci and ^35qui who renewed hostilities. Retreat however destroyed more of the enemy than battle, so persever- ingly did the cavalry pursue them when routed. The temple of Castor was dedicated in the same year, on the 13th of July. It had been vowed during the Latin war, by Postumius the dictator ; his son, being created decemvir for that purpose, dedicated it. In this year, also, the minds of the commons were solicited by the 136 LIVY. BOOK II. sweets of the agrarian law. The tribunes of the com- mons were recommending a power already popular, by a popular law. The patricians, believing that there was more than enough of spontaneous violence in the multitude, regarded with horror those donatives and allurements of temerity. The consuls were to the pa- tricians, the most determined leaders, in resisting the measure. Consequently, that portion of the common- wealth prevailed, and not for the present only ; but for the following year also, it furnished as consuls, M. Fabius, the brother of Kseso, and a second, L. Valerius, still more odious to the commons, by the prosecution of Sp. Cassius. In that year too, there was a struggle with the tribunes. The law fell into discredit, and the proposers of the law into discredit, by holding out an impracticable donation. The name of Fabius was then held in high estimation, after three successive consul- ships, and all of them, as if in one uniform tenour, proved in tribunic contests : wherefore, the dignity, as if placed in good hands, continued for a considerable time in that family. Soon after, a Veientian war was undertaken, and the Volsci renewed hostilities : but they had almost a superabundance of strength for fo- reign wars, and that strength they abused, by contend- ing with each other. In addition to the present dis- quietude of all men's minds, there appeared celestial prodigies, exhibiting menacing portents, almost every day, in the city and country. And the soothsayers having informed themselves, in public and private sa- crifices, now by entrails, now by birds, declared the cause of the divinity's being moved by anger, to be no other than, that the rites were not duly solemnized. Which terrors, however, ended in this, that Oppia, a vestal virgin, being convicted of a violation of chastity, suffered punishment. CHAP. XLIII. Q. FABIUS and C. Julius were then created consuls. In this year, the dissensions at home were not more languid, and there was a more furious war abroad. Arms were taken up by the .^Equi ; the Veientians also inva4ed the territory of the Romans in a predatory CHAP. 43. LIVY. 137 manner ; their solicitude for these wars encreasing, K. Fabius and Sp. Furius are created consuls. The /Equi were laying siege to Ortona, a Latin city. The Veien- tians, now sated with depredations, were threatening that they would besiege Rome itself. Which alarms, when they ought to check, only encreased the passions of the commons still more, and the habit of declining military service returned upon the plebeians, not of their own accord ; but Sp. Licinius, a tribune of the commons, judging that the time had now come, of forcing the agrarian law on the patricians, by the last- degree of necessity, had undertaken the task of imped- ing the military preparations. But the whole odium of the tribunic power was turned against the author : nor did the consuls stand up to oppose him with more vi- gour, than did his own very colleagues : and by their support, the consuls finish the levy. An army is raised, to meet these two simultaneous wars : that one to be headed against the JEqui, is given to Fabius ; that against the Veientians, to Furius. Against the Veien- tians, indeed, nothing worthy of being mentioned was achieved. Fabius had somewhat more trouble with his countrymen, than with the enemy : that very indi- vidual consul sustained the republic, which his army, J through hatred of the consul, was betraying, as far as Jin it lay. For when this consul, in addition to the Jother abilities of a commander, very many of which he displayed, in making preparations for, and conducting the war, had disposed his army in such a manner, that lie put the enemy to rout by a charge of his cavalry alone, the infantry refused to pursue them when routed; nor could, if not the exhortation of a commander whom they hated, their own infamy even, and the public dis- grace, at the present, and danger hereafter, should the courage of the enemy revive, prevail upon them to ac- celerate their pace, or, if nothing else, to stand in order of battle. They face round their colours without orders, ind return to their camp dejected (you would believe them to have been conquered), and execrating, now, ;heir general, now, the exertion made by the cavalry. Neither were any remedies sought by the general, for ;o pestilential an example, so much sooner do transcen- lent characters fail in the art of governing a fellow- N 3 138 LIVY. BOOK II. citizen, than in that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to - Rome, his military renown being not so much encreased, as was the hatred of the soldiers to himself inflamed and exasperated. The patricians, however, gained their point, that the consulship should continue in the Fabian family. They create M. Fabius consul ; Cn. Manlius is assigned as colleague to Fabius. CHAP. XLIV. THIS year also had a tribune, the supporter of the agrarian law. This was Ti. Pontificius ; he having en- tered upon the same course, as if it had succeeded with Sp. Licinius, for a short time obstructed the levy. The patricians being once more perplexed, Ap. Claudius asserted, " that the tribunic power was subdued the year before, for that present time by the fact itself, and for the future by the precedent established; since it was discovered, that it might be paralyzed by its own strength : for that there never would be wanted a per- son, who would desire to procure for himself a victory over his colleague, and the gratitude of the more re- spectable class, by promoting the public good : and that more tribunes than one, if there were occasion for more, would be prepared to assist the consuls: and that one was quite sufficient, even against all the others. Only, let the consuls, and the principal patricians, ex- ert themselves to gain over to the side of the common- wealth and senate, if not all, at least some of the tri- bunes." The patricians, advised by the instructions of Appius, addressed the tribunes courteously and kindly, both in their aggregate capacity, and those of consular dignity amongst them, according as each had personally any influence with individuals, succeeded partly by fa- vour, partly by the respect due to their rank, in re- questing, that they (the tribunes) would be pleased, that the strength of the tribunic power should be ex- erted for the safety of the commonwealth : and, by the aid of four tribunes, against one opposer of the public interest, the consuls complete the levy. They then set out to the Veientian war, whither auxiliaries had collected from all parts of Etruria, incited not so much by affection for the Veientians, as because they had CHAP. 45. LIVY. 139 been led into a hope, that the power of Rome might he destroyed by intestine dissensions. And the chiefs, in the councils of all the states of Etruria, were exclaim- ing*, " that the Roman power was everlasting, unless they raged against each other in civil dissensions ; that that was discovered, as the only poison for opulent states, the only infection, whereby mighty empires were rendered perishable. That this evil, so long sustained, partly by the wisdom of the patricians, partly by the patience of the commons, had now pro- ceeded to its extreme height. That two states were made out of one ; that each party had its own magis- trates, its own laws. At first they were wont to in- dulge their fury only during the levies ; yet the very same men obeyed their commanders in war: that in any state whatsoever of the city, matters might be supported, if military discipline continued ; but that now, the habit of disobeying his magistrates followed the Roman soldier, even into the camp. That during the last war, in the very battle, in the moment of ac- tion, victory was, with the consent of the army, volun- tarily surrendered to the vanquished ^Equi; that their standards were deserted, their general abandoned in the field, and a retreat made, without orders, to the camp. Assuredly, if exertions were continued, Rome might be conquered by its own soldiers; nothing more was necessary, than that a declaration and show of war should be made ; the fates and gods would of them- selves accomplish the rest." This expectation had armed the Etrurians, who were, by many vicissitudes, vanquished and victors in turn. CHAP. XLV. THE Roman consuls, also, were in dread of nothing besides their own forces, their own arms ; the recollec- tion of the very bad precedent in the late war terri- fied them, lest they should bring the matter to this situ- ation, in which two armies should be dreaded by them at the same time. Accordingly, they confined them- selves to their camp, averse from such a double danger, hoping that time and circumstances would, perhaps of themselves, allay their resentment, and bring back to 140 LIVY. BOOK II. their minds a wholesome mode of thinking. The Vei- entian enemy, and the Etrurians, acted with the more precipitancy, on this account, and were provoking them to an engagement, first, hy riding up to their camp, and challenging them ; lastly, when they were produc- ing no effect, by taunting as well the consuls them- selves, as the army, " That the pretence of internal discord, was a contrivance to conceal their cowardice, and that the consuls rather distrusted the valour, than disbelieved the fidelity of their soldiers ; that silence and tranquillity among armed men, was a novel kind of sedition ;" in addition to this, they threw out re- proaches, as well false as true, against the newness of their family and origin. The consuls patiently bore these invectives, though they were uttering them at the very rampart and gates ; but, at one time, indignation, at another time shame, agitated the breasts of the un- informed multitude, and diverted their attention from intestine evils ; they wished not the enemy to go unre- venged ; they wished not success, either to the consuls or the patricians ; external and domestic animosities struggled in their minds. At length the external ani- mosity prevails, so haughtily and insolently did the enemy scoff them. They collect in crowds to the gene- ral's tent ; they demand a battle, they require the sig- nal to be given. The consuls, as if to deliberate, hold a consultation, and confer with each other for a long time ; they were eager to fight, but that eagerness was to be restrained and disguised ; that, by opposing and retarding, they might give additional impulse to the soldiery once excited. An answer is returned, that the measure in contemplation was premature ; that it was not yet the season for battle; that they should confine themselves to their camp. They then issue orders, that they should abstain from battle ; that if any should fight without orders, they would punish him as an enemy. Being thus dismissed, their ardour for engaging increases in proportion as they believe the consuls to be less inclined to it. To add to their impatience, the enemy approach much more daringly, when it was ascertained that the consuls had resolved not to give battle. They argued, forsooth, " That they might insult them with impunity; that arms JAP. 45. LIVY. 141 would not be entrusted to the soldiers ; that the matter would burst out into the last stage of sedition ; and that a period had arrived to the Roman empire." Re- lying on these hopes, they press forward to the gates,' heap reproaches, and hardly refrain from assaulting the camp. Now indeed the Roman army could no longer endure the insult ; they rush from all parts throughout the entire camp to the consuls ; they no longer, as before, make their demand successively through the principals of the centurions, but they all urge it in every quarter with clamours. The matter was now ripe for execution, yet still they shew a back- wardness. Then Fabius, his colleague yielding on account of the fear of a mutiny, now increasing with the tumult, when he had caused silence by sound of trumpet, says, " I am convinced, Cneius Manlius, those fellows can conquer ; they themselves have caused me not to be certain that they wish to do so. I am there- fore fixed and resolved not to give the signal, unless they swear that they will return victorious from this battle. This army has once deceived in the field a Roman consul : the gods they will deceive never." There was a centurion, named M. Flavelejus, a cla- mourer for battle amongst the foremost ; he says, " M. Fabius, I will return victorious from battle." If he should deceive, he imprecates on himself the anger of Jove, Mars Gradivus, and the other gods. The entire army takes the same oath in succession, each severally. The signal is given to them being sworn ; they take up arms, they go into battle full of rage and confidence. They bid the Etrurians now utter reproaches ; they bid the enemy, prompt at the tongue, now meet them in arms man for man. On that day the valour of all, as well commoners as patricians, was distinguished. The Fabian name, the Fabian family shone out with bright- est lustre. They are resolved to conciliate to them- selves, in that battle, the minds of the commons, which were incensed by many civil conflicts. The line of battle is formed, nor do the Veientian enemy or Etrurian legions decline the engagement. 142 LIVY. BOOK II. CHAP. XLVI. THEY had almost a certain expectation that they would no more fight with themselves, than they had fought with the Mqm : even some event still more extraordinary was not to be despaired of, considering that their minds were so much incensed, and the occa- sion so doubtful. The thing turned out far otherwise ; for in no other previous war (so much had the enemy exasperated them by their insults on one side, the consuls by their delaying, on the other.,) did the Ro- man engage with more fury. Scarcely was time given the Etrurians for forming their ranks; when, their javelins in the first hurry having been carelessly thrown away rather than discharged, the affair was imme- diately brought to close action, immediately to the sword, where Mars is most sanguinary. The Fabian family, distinguished amongst the nobility, served as a spectacle and model to their fellow-citizens. Of these, as Q. Fabius was rushing before the rest into the thick of the Veientians, (he had been consul three years before), a Tuscan, confident in his strength and skill in arms, transfixes him with his sword through the breast, incautiously engaged amidst several battalions of the enemy ; the weapon having been extracted, Fabius sunk forward on the wound. Each army felt the fall of a single man, and from that moment, the Roman was giving way ; when M. Fabius leaped across his body as he lay, and opposing his buckler, exclaims, " Is this what you have sworn, soldiers ; to return as fugitives to your camp ? Are you so much more in dread of a most dastardly enemy, than of Jove arid Mars, by whom you have sworn ? But I, who have not sworn, will either return victorious, or will here fall, Quintus Fabius, fighting by your side." Then says K. Fabius, the consul of the preceding year, to the consul, " Do you suppose, brother, that you will by such words prevail upon them to fight ? The gods, by whom they have sworn, will prevail upon them. And let us, as becomes chieftains, as is worthy of the Fabian name, animate the spirits of the soldiers by fighting rather than by exhorting." Thus the two CHAP. 47. LIVY. 143 Fabii fly forward to the front with their spears pre- sented, and with them put the whole line into motion. CHAP. XLVII. THE engagement being restored on one side, Cn. Manlius the consul was exciting the battle, with no less intrepidity, on the other wing, where nearly a similar train of events was going forward : for as on one wing, the soldiers with alacrity followed Q. Fabius, so on this also did they follow Manlius the consul him- self, who was now pursuing the enemy as if routed ; and when the latter, wounded by a severe blow, re- tired from the field, they measured back their steps, thinking him slain. And they would have retreated from their ground, had not the other consul, riding up at full speed to that quarter with some troops of horse, exclaiming that his colleague was living, and that him- self was come victorious after routing the other wing, supported their declining fortune. Manlius also pre- sents himself before them, to restore the fight. The features of the two consuls, being known, kindle the spirits of the soldiers ; at the same time also the enemy's line was now too thin, while, relying on their superiority of numbers, they send some detached re- inforcements to storm the camp. On which having made an assault without much opposition, whilst they waste their time, more attentive to plunder than battle ; the Roman triarii (the third line), who had not been able to sustain the first shock, having sent messengers to the consul, informing him in w r hat situation aifairs were, return in a compact body to the quarter in which was the general's tent ( 'prcetorium ) ', and renew the fight themselves, without orders ; and the consul Man- lius, having rode back into the camp, had blocked up the enemy's retreat, by posting troops in opposition at all the gates. This their desperate situation inspired the Etrurians with rage more than courage ; for when they had several times advanced with unavailing impe- tuosity, rushing forward wherever hope pointed out a passage, one body of their young men attacks the con- sul himself, conspicuous by his arms. The first dis- charge of weapons was received by those who stood 144 LIVY. BOOK II. round him ; afterwards the shock could not be resisted* The consul, wounded by a mortal blow, falls, and all about him were thrown into disorder. The spirit of the Etrurians increases : terror drives the Romans in dismay throughout the entire camp, and matters would have ended in utter ruin, had not the lieutenants, hastily carrying off the consul's body, opened a way for the enemy through one of the gates. Through this they burst forth, and retreating in a disordered body, fall in with the other consul, who was victorious : there again they were cut down and put to rout. A splendid victory was gained, saddened, however, by two such illustrious deaths. The consul, therefore, when the senate was decreeing a triumph, replied, " If an army could triumph without its general, that he would wil- lingly consent to it, in consideration of their eminent service in that war ; but that himself, while his family was in mourning for the death of his brother, Q. Fa- bius, and the state reduced to partial orphanage by the loss of one of its consuls, could not, disfigured as he was with public and private sorrow, accept the laurel." This triumph declined conferred more lustre than any triumph enjoyed, so much does glory, seasonably re- jected, return occasionally with accumulated splendour. He then celebrates the two funerals, those of his col- league and brother, in succession. He also pronounced the funeral oration over both ; whilst, by conceding to them their respective honours, he bore away the great- est share of them himself. And not losing sight of the determination, which he impressed on his mind, in the commencement of his consulate, of gaining over the affections of the commons, he distributes the wounded soldiers among the patricians, to be taken care of. The greatest number was quartered on the Fabii ; nor were they treated any where else with more attention. Henceforward the Fabii became popular ; and this by no art that was not salutary to the commonwealth. CHAP. XL VIII. THEREFORE, K. Fabius, who was elected consul with T. Virginius, not more by the favour of the patricians, than of the commons, would attend neither to wars, CHAP. 48. LIVY. 145 nor levies, nor to any other concern preferably to this, viz. that, as now the hope of concord had in some de- gree commenced, the minds of the commons should, on the very earliest opportunity, be perfectly united with the patricians. Accordingly, in the beginning of the year, before any tribune should stand forward as the mover of the agrarian law, he proposed that the sena- tors should, by anticipating the measure, make the boon their own, and divide the conquered land among the commons as fairly as possible ; " As it was just that those should occupy it, by whose blood and labour it had been won." The patricians rejected the proposal with disdain ; they also complained somewhat, that the once ardent spirit of Kaeso was becoming indolent, and sinking into decay by an excess of glory. After this, there were no city factions. The Latins were harassed by the inroads of the ^Equi; Ka?so, being sent thither with an army, crossed over into the lands of the ^Kqui themselves, to commit depredations. The ^Equi re- treated into their towns, and confined themselves within their walls ; for which reason there was no battle worth mentioning. J}ut from the Veientian enemy a defeat was sustained, by the rashness of the other con- sul; and the army should have been totally destroyed, had not K. Fabius seasonably arrived to its support. From that time, there was neither peace nor war with the Veientians ; the thing had approximated very closely to the form of a predatory attack. They used to retreat before the Roman legions into the city ; when they had perceived the legions drawn oif, they made incursions into the country ; alternately evading war by repose, and repose again by war. Thus the business could neither be wholly laid aside, nor yet concluded ; and other wars were either immediately pressing on them, such as from the JEqui and Volsci, who remained no longer quiet, than until the recent smart of their late overthrow should pass away ; or it was evident that the Sabines, who were ever hostile, and all Etruria, would presently put themselves in mo- tion. But the Veientian foe, more persevering than formidable, was annoying their minds, more generally by insults than by danger ; which at no time could be overlooked, or allow them to turn their attention to o 146 LIVY. BOOK II. any other subject. Then the Fabian family waited upon the senate ; the consul, in the name of the entire family, thus addresses them : " Conscript fathers, the Veientian war, as you know, requires rather a perma- nent, than a strong defensive force. Do you attend to the other wars leave the Fabii as opponents to the A r eientians ; we are guarantees that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in that quarter. It is our intention to conduct that, to us, as it were, a family war, at our own proper expense. In that war let the com- monwealth be relieved from soldiers and money." Un- bounded thanks were given to them. The consul, having come out of the senate, returns home, attended by a body of the Fabii, who had been standing in the porch of the senate-house, waiting the decree. Being commanded to attend at the consul's door on the fol- lowing day, in arms, they then depart to their homes. CHAP. XLIX. THE report spreads over the entire city; they extol the Fabii, in their praises, to the skies. " That a sin- gle family had undertaken the burden of the whole state ; that the Veientian war had changed to a private concern, a private hostility. If there were in. the city two families of the same strength, they might claim for their own management, the one the Volsci, the other the J3qui ; and thus all the neighbouring nations could be subdued, while the Roman people were in the en- joyment of undisturbed peace." On the ensuing day the Fabii take up arms, and assemble where they were ordered. The consul, coming forth in his military robe, sees his entire family at his porch, drawn up in marching order ; being received into the centre, he orders the standards to be moved forward. Never did an army march through the city, either inferior in numbers, or more illustrious in fame and the admira-. tion of all people. Three hundred and six soldiers, all patricians, all of one clan, not one of whom an honourable senate at any period could reject as a gene- ral, were proceeding onward, threatening destruction to the Veientian nation from the prowess of a single family. A crowd followed them, one portion consisting CHAP. 49. LIVY. 147 exclusively of their own relatives and acquaintances, revolving in their thoughts nothing moderate, neither hope nor anxiety, but every thing transcendant, the other portion, an indiscriminate body, excited by their solicitude, and lost in esteem and admiration. They bi(T them " proceed with fortitude, proceed with good fortune, and exhibit results commensurate with their undertaking ; and afterwards to expect from themselves consulships, triumphs, all rewards, all honours." As. they passed by the Capitol, the citadel, and other tem- ples, whatever gods present themselves to their eyes, whatever, to their imagination, to them they pray? that they would send out that band happy and prosperous, and bring them back soon in safety into their country, to their parents. These prayers were sent up in vain.. Setting out by an unlucky road, through the right arch of the gate Carmentalis, they arrive at the river Cre- mera ; this appeared a favourable situation for fortify- ing a garrison. L. ^Emilius and C. Servilius were soon after made consuls ; and as long as the affair con- sisted in nothing else than predatory attacks, the Fabii were not only equal to the defence of the garrison, but throughout that entire district, where the Etrurian ad- joins the Roman land, making excursions along both frontiers, they secured all their own possessions, and annoyed those of the enemy. Afterwards there was a short interruption to the depredations, whilst the Vei- entians, having collected an army out of Etruria, attack the fortress at the Cremera; and the Roman legions, brought up by L. JEmilius, the consul, engage in close action with the Etrurians in the field ; although the Veientians had scarcely time for forming their line, so completely, during the first consternation (whilst the files are marching to their ground behind the colours, and they are stationing the reserve), did a Roman squadron of cavalry, suddenly charging them on the flank, deprive them of the means, not only of com- mencing battle, but even of standing their ground. Thus, being beaten back to the Red Rocks, where they had their camp, they sue for peace as suppliants ; for the attainment of which, from the levity inherent in their dispositions, they felt sorry, before the garrison was withdrawn from the Cremera. 148 LIA^Y. BOOK II. CHAP. L. THE Veientian state had again a contest with the Fabii, without any greater preparations of war; nor was it incursions only into the lands, or sudden attacks of the invading parties, that took place, but they some- times fought in the open field, and in pitched battles ; and a single family of the Roman people often obtained the victory over an Etrurian state, a most opulent one as affairs then were. At first, that was regarded with sorrow and indignation by the Veientians ; afterwards they formed a plan, suggested by the occasion, of en- trapping their fierce enemy by stratagem : they even rejoiced that the confidence of the Fabii was increasing by their frequent success. Accordingly, their cattle were occasionally driven out to meet the marauders, as if it had occurred by chance ; their lands were left deso- late, by the flight of the peasants ; and armed succours sent to repel the depredations retreated, oftener with pretended, than real fear. And now the Fabii had so thoroughly despised the enemy, that they thought their own invincible arms could be withstood neither in any place, nor on any occasion. This confidence carried them so far, that upon seeing some herds of cattle at a distance from the Cremera, a large tract of country in- tervening, they ran down, although some scattered bodies of the enemy made their appearance ; and when, in their disordered course, they had incautiously passed ' the ambush which was placed near the very road, and in straggling parties were carrying off the cattle, which ran up and down, as is usual, upon being affrighted ; the Veientians suddenly start up from the place of am- buscade, and the enemy were at once in their front and at every side of them. At first the shouts raised all round, terrified them, immediately after, weapons were showering down upon them from every quarter; and now, as the Etrurians were closing upon them, being hemmed in by one unbroken line of armed troops, the more the enemy was pressing forward, they were them- selves obliged also to contract their circle within a nar- rower space : which circumstance made the paucity of their own numbers apparent, as also the great numeri- CHAP. 51. LIVY. UV cal superiority of the Etrurians, their lines being mul- tiplied in the close compass. Then, giving up the resis- tance which they had directed against all sides alike, they all bend their force to one point ; in this direction, exerting themselves with their bodies and arms, they burst their way in the form of a wedge. Their course led to a hill of gentle ascent ; there they first made a halt ; presently after, when the more elevated ground gave them time for breathing and recovering their spi- rits after so great a consternation, they even repulsed the enemy advancing up hill ; and this handful of men would, with the aid of the ground, have been victorious, had not the Veientian, sent round the ridge of the hill, made his way to the very summit : thus the enemy be- came once more superior. All the Fabii were cut off to a man, and their fortress taken by assault. It is quite agreed, that the three hundred and six perished ; and that one only, who was approaching the years of puberty, remained, as a stock for the propagation of the Fabian family, and, in after times, to become even the greatest support, in the many emergencies of the Roman people, at home arid in war. CHAP. LL WHEN this disaster was sustained, C. Horatius and P. Menenius were then consuls. Menenius was sent 'orthwith against the Etrurians elated with victory. Then also they fought without success, and the enemy ook possession of the Janiculum ; and the city should lave been besieged, a scarcity of provisions distressing hem in addition to the war (for the Etrurians had crossed the Tiber), had not the consul Horatius been ^ecalled from the country of the Volsci ; and so closely lid this war press on the very walls, that they first ought at the temple of Hope with doubtful success, and secondly, at the Colline gate. In that engagement, hough the Romans had the superiority only by a slight idvantage, that contest, however, rendered the soldiers, tvho now recovered their former spirit, better for fu- ure battles. A. Virginias and Sp. Servius then be- iame consuls. The Veientians, after their loss in the ate encounter, refrained from a general engagement ; o 3 150 LIVY. BOOK II. depredations were committed, and they were making incursions every where into the Roman lands from the Janiculum, as if it were a fortress. In no place were the cattle secure, nor the peasantry. They were after- wards entrapped by the same stratagem by which they entrapped the Fabii: pursuing the cattle, which were designedly driven out in all directions as a lure, they fell headlong into an ambuscade. The more numerous were they than the Fabii, the greater was the slaugh- ter. Their furious resentment, consequent upon this overthrow, became the cause and origin of a greater : for having crossed the Tiber by night, they attempted to storm the camp of the consul Servilius; being routed from this with great slaughter, they retreated with difficulty to the Janiculum. The consul himself, also, immediately crosses the Tiber, and fortifies a camp at the foot of the Janiculum. The following day, at sun- rise, partly being elated by the success of the former day's battle, chiefly, however, because the scarcity of corn drove him upon plans, no matter how hazardous, provided they were expeditious, he inconsiderately marched his army up the Janiculum to the enemy's camp, and being thence repulsed more disgracefully than he had repulsed them the day before, he was saved, himself and his army, by the intervention of his col- league. The Etrurians, between the two armies, as they turned their backs upon the one and the other al- ternately, were cut down with great slaughter. Thus was the Veientian war put down, by a fortunate act of temerity. CHAP. LII. ALONG with peace, a more plentiful supply of pro- visions returned to the city ; corn having been impor- ted from Campania, and, after the apprehension of a future scarcity departed from each individual respec- tively, that which was concealed being brought into the market. From the effects of plenty and ease, men's minds became again licentious, and they sought at home their old evils, when they were wanting- abroad. The tribunes stimulated the commons with their usual poison, the agrarian laws ; excited them against the pa- CHAP. 53. LIVY. 151 tricians, who opposed it ; not only against them collec- tively, but individually also. Q. Considius and T. Ge- nucius, the proposers of the agrarian law, appoint a day for the impeachment of T. Menenius ; the subject of accusation was the loss of the fortress at the Cre- mera, whilst he, the consul, had his quarters stationary not far from that place. Him they ruined. As the patricians had exerted themselves not less than for Co- riolanus, and as his father Agrippa's popularity had not been yet forgotten, the tribunes acted with moderation, by only imposing a tine: though they prosecuted him for a capital offence, when found guilty, they fixed the fine at 2000 asses : that cost him his life. They say, that he could not support the ignominy and chagrin ; and that, from this cause, he was carried off by a dis- ease. After him, another man. Sp. Servius, being im- peached, as soon as he went out of the consulship, hav- ing had a day of trial named by the tribunes L. Codi- cius and T. Statins, during the consulate of C. Nantiua and P. Valerius, in the very commencement of the year, did not meet the tribunic attacks, like Menenius, with his own supplications, or those of the patricians, but with the utmost confidence in his innocence and popularity. The battle with the Etrurians at the Jani- culum, was the charge also against him ; but being a man of an ardent spirit, as well in the public peril be- fore, as now in his own, he dissipated the danger by his dauntless conduct ; by retorting in haughty lan- guage, not only upon the tribunes, but also on the commons, and upbraiding them with the condemnation and death of T. Menenius, by the kindness of whose father, on a former occasion, these very commons being redressed, were in the enjoyment of those self-same magistrates, by whom they were now actuated to rage, and of the present laws. His colleague, Virginius, being produced as a witness, aided him also, by sharing with him his own merits : the condemnation of Menenius, however, (so much had they changed their minds), proved the greatest service. CHAP. LIII. THE contests at home were ended. A war arose 152 LIVY. BOOK II. with the Veientians, with whom the Sahines had united their arms. P. Valerius, the consul, auxiliaries having been called in from the Latins and Hernici, being sent with an army to Veii, immediately attacks the Sabine camp, which had been pitched before the city of their allies ; and introduced so much consternation, that, whilst they run out in a scattered manner, by compa- nies, some by different ways, to repel the enemy's as- sault, that gate, against which he first advanced the standards, was taken, after that, it was rather a car- nage, within the rampart, than a battle : the confusion penetrates also from the camp to the city : the Veien- tians, as much panic-struck as if Veii had been taken, run to arms ; some go to the assistance of the Sabines; others fall upon the Romans, who were intent on the camp, with their whole fury. The Romans were for a little time turned from their purpose, and put into disorder; then they too make resistance by turning their standards both ways (i. e. by forming two fronts), and the cavalry sent in amongst them by the consul, routs and disperses the Etrurians ; and in one and the same hour, two neighbouring states, the greatest and most powerful, were overcome. Whilst these transac- tions are going forward at Veii, the Volsci and ^Equi had encamped in the Latin territory, and laid the coun- try waste. These, the Latins, having united with the Hernici, dislodged from their camp, by themselves, without either a Roman general or assistance. Besides the recovery of their own property, they made them- selves masters of a great booty ; the consul Nantius was, notwithstanding, sent from Rome against the Volsci. I suppose, they were not pleased with the custom, that the allies should conduct wars, by their own strength, and their own direction, without a Ro- man general and army. There was no species of in- jury and insult that was not practiced against the Volsci, nor still could they be driven to engage in the field. CHAP. L1V. L. FURIUS and C. Manlius were then created consuls. The Veientians fell to the lot of Manlius, as his pro- . 54. LIVY. 153 vince: there was no fighting however: a truce was granted them for forty years, at their request; corn and pay being imposed upon them as a tribute. Dis- cord at home follows external peace, in uninterrupted succession. The commons were goaded to fury by the tribunic stimulants of the agrarian law. The consuls, daunted in nought, by the condemnation of Menenius, in nought, by the danger of Servilius, oppose it with all their might : on their going out of office, Cn. Genu- cius, a tribune of the commons, arraigned them with- out notice. L. ^Emilius and Opiter Virginius enter on the consulship. In some annals, instead of Virgi- nius, I find \ r opiscus Julius to be consul." In this year (whoever were the consuls it had), Furius and Manlius being indicted before the people, solicit, in the garb of suppliants, not more the commons, than the younger patricians ; they recommend and warn them, " to ab- stain from the honours and administration of the state; and, moreover, look on the consular fasces, the prse- texta, and curule chair, as nothing more than the pomp of a funeral : for that those who were adorned with these splendid decorations, as it were, with fillets, were doomed to death. But, if the charms of the consul- ship be so great, let them now be convinced, that the consulship was held in captivity, and overpowered by the tribunic power : that every thing must be done by the consul, as if he were a tribunic beadle, at the nod and mandate of a tribune. If he should exert himself, if he should pay any regard to the patricians, if he should suppose that there was in the commonwealth any other body but the commons, let him set before his eyes, the exile of C. Marcius, the condemnation and death of Menenius." Fired by these addresses, the patricians henceforward held deliberations, not public, but in private, and remote from the knowledge of many persons ; there, when the only thing agreed on was, that the accused should be saved, by right, or by wrong; each most violent proposition was the most acceptable : nor was there wanting an author for any enterprise, however daring. Accordingly, on the day of trial, when the commons were standing in the Forum on the tiptoe of expectation, they were first surprised that the tribune did not come down ; afterwards, when 154 LIVY. BOOK II. the delay became now more suspicious, they believed that he was deterred by the nobles, and complained that the public cause was deserted and betrayed. At length, those who appeared at the entrance to the tribune's door, bring intelligence that he was found dead in his house : which news when report had con- veyed through the entire assembly, as an army is dis- persed on the death of its leader, so they separated every where, each in a different direction. A parti- cular panic had seized the tribunes, being taught by the death of their colleague, what little security the laws of personal inviolability possessed. Neither did the patricians bear their joy with sufficient moderation; and so far was any of them from feeling sorrow for the crime, that even those who were innocent, wished to be considered as having perpetrated it; and it was openly declared by them, that the tribunic power must be subdued, even by criminal means. CHAP. LV. IMMEDIATELY after this victory, which afforded the very worst precedent, a levy of soldiers is announced by proclamation ; and the tribunes being panic-struck, the consuls go through the business without any inter- ruption. < Then the commons were particularly enraged, more on account of the sikince of the tribunes, than the mandate of the consuls, and asserted " that their liberty was at an end ; that matters again reverted to their former condition ; that the tribunic power had expired, and was buried, with Genucius ; that some other expe- dient must be considered and devised, whereby the patricians should be opposed : that this was the only method, that the commons, since they had no other support, should defend themselves. That four-and- twenty lictors only, attended on the consuls, and these same, plebeians ; that there was nothing more contemp- tible, or more feeble, if there were those who would despise it : that every one made that power great and formidable to himself." When they had excited each other by those discourses, a lictor was sent by the con- suls to arrest Volero Publius, a plebeian, because, as he had been a centurion, he denied that he ought ta I CHAP. 56. LIVY. 155 I enlist as a soldier. Volero appeals to the tribunes. As none of them came to his aid, the consuls order the I man to be stript, and rods to be got ready: " I appeal," I says Volero, " to the people, since the tribunes choose I rather that a Roman citizen should be flogged with I rods in their view, than that themselves should be I murdered by you in their beds." The more vehemently lie exclaimed, the more furiously was the lictor tearing off his clothes, and stripping him. Then Volero, being himself of powerful strength, and those whom he ap- pealed to, giving their assistance, having repulsed the lictor, retires thither into the thickest throng, where the outcry of those, who were indignant in his own behalf, was most violent ; exclaiming, " I appeal, and implore the protection of the commons : support me, fellow-citizens! support me, fellow-soldiers! there is no reason that you should wait for the aid of the tri- bunes, who themselves stand in need of your assist- ance." The people being inflamed, prepare themselves, as, if for a regular battle; and it was obvious, that a complete crisis was at hand ; that nothing, either of public or private right, would be held sacred by any person. When the consuls had opposed themselves to this, so violent a storm, they soon found by experience, that dignity is but little secure, when unsupported by strength. The lictors being maltreated, and the fasces broken, they are driven from the Forum into the .senate-house ; not knowing how far Volero might use his victory. Afterwards, the tumult subsiding, when they ordered the fathers to be summoned to the senate, they complain of their own injuries, the violence of the commons, and Volero's audacity. Many opinions of a violent nature being expressed, the elders prevailed, who were not satisfied, that they should struggle against the temerity of the commons, by the rage of the pa- tricians. CHAP. LVI. THE commons embracing with zeal the interest of Volero, create him, at the election, tribune of the peo- ple, for that year which had L. Pinarius and P. Furius consuls : and contrary to the opinion of all, who sup- 156 LIVY. BOOK II. posed that he would give loose rein to his tribuneship, in harassing the consuls of the preceding year, having postponed his personal resentment to the public cause, and without having injured the consuls even in word, he proposed a bill to the people, that plebeian magis- trates should be chosen in elections by tribes. Under a designation, at first view, by no means formidable, was proposed this measure, not at all unimportant, but such as would strip the patricians of all power of elect- ing, by means of the votes of their dependents, what- ever tribunes they pleased. As the fathers were op- posing with their utmost might this bill, which was most acceptable to the commons ; nor could any of his colleagues (which was the only power that could resist it) be prevailed on, by the influence either of the con- suls, or the nobles, to protest against it; yet being by its own very magnitude a weighty affair, it was protracted by contentions for a year. The commons re-elect Volero, tribune. The patricians, judging that the matter would proceed to a desperate contest, create as consul Ap. Claudius, the son of Appius, already odious to, and enraged against the commons on ac- count of his father's contentions. T. Quinctius is given to him as a colleague. In the immediate commence- ment of the year, no other measure was agitated prior to the law ; but as Volero was the originator of the law, so was his colleague, Lsetorius, its more recent as well as more vigorous promoter; his great military re- nown rendered him proud, for there was no one of that age more prompt in personal valour. This man, as Volero spoke nothing except on the subject of the law, abstaining from any invectives against tbe consuls, broke out himself into an accusation of Appius, and bis family, the most arrogant and cruel to the commons of Rome ; whilst he contended that he was created by the patricians, not as a consul, but as an executioner, to torment and torture the people : the power of speech being rude in a military man, was not adequate to his freedom of thought and spirit. Therefore, language failing him, he says, " Since, Romans, I do not speak with the same facility, as 1 engage to perform what I have spoken ; attend here to-morrow ; I shall either die here in your presence, or I shall carry the law." LIVY. 157 On the following day, the tribunes pre-occupy the place of meeting ; the consuls and the nobility stand together in the assembly to obstruct the bill. Laeto- rius orders all to be removed, except those who were to vote. The young men of the nobility were keeping their places, not submitting to the officer ; then Lseto- rius commands some of them to be apprehended. The consul, Appius, denied that a tribune had authority over any person, except a plebeian, for that he was riot a magistrate of the people at large, but of the commons ; nor could he himself, according to the usage of their ancestors, remove a person by virtue of his authority, because, it is thus expressed, " If you think fit, Ro- mans, retire." By arguing flippantly and disdainfully about his authority, he was able to disconcert Lseto- rius. The tribune, therefore, burning with rage, sends his officer to the consul ; the consul sends his lictor to the tribune, exclaiming, that he was a private person, without authority, without civil office ; and the tribune should have been abused, had not the whole assembly rose up furious, in behalf of the tribune, and against the consul; and a concourse of persons, consisting of the excited multitude, was rushing from all parts of the city to the Forum. Appius, notwithstanding, was sustaining this great storm with obstinacy ; and they would have contended in a battle not Avithout bloodshed, had not Quinctius, the other consul, having given charge to those of consular dignity to remove his col- league from the Forum, by force, if they could not do it otherwise, himself now soothed with entreaties the enraged commons, now besought the tribunes to dis- miss the assembly : " That they should give their anger time to cool ; that delay would not deprive them of their power, but add wisdom to their strength ; and that the patricians would be still subject to the authority of the people, and the consul to that of the patricians." CHAP. LVIL THE commons were with difficulty appeased by Quinctius ; the other consul, with much more difficulty, by the patricians. The assembly of the people being at length dismissed, the consuls convene a meeting of p 158 LIVY BOOK II. the senate ; where, when fear and anger alternately had produced a variety of opinions, the more their minds, during the interval that elapsed, were called off from violence to deliberation, the more they were averse from contention : so much so, that they returned thanks to Quinctius, because the dissension was softened down by his exertion. From Appius it is requested, " that he would permit the consular dignity to be only so great, as could exist compatibly with the harmony of the state. Whilst the tribunes and consuls were respectively drawing all power to themselves, no strength was left in the body of the community. That the question was more, in whose disposal the dis- tracted and mangled commonwealth should be placed, than that it should be safe." Appius, on the other hand, appealed to gods and men, " that the republic- was betrayed through cowardice, and deserted : that it was not a consul that was wanting to the senate, but a senate to the consul : that more oppressive laws were now being accepted, that had been accepted on mount Sacer." Being, however, overcome by the unanimous feeling of the senators, he desisted : the ]aw is carried through in silence. CHAP. LVIII. THEN the tribunes were created, for the first time, in the assemblies by tribes. Piso is an authority, that three were also added to the number, as if there were only two before. He even names the tribunes, viz. C. Sicmius, L. Numitorius, M. Duilius, Sp. Icilius, L. Msecilius During the Roman dissension, a war arose with the Volsci and JEqui ; they laid waste the lands, in order, that if any secession took place on the part of the commons, they might have a place of retreat with themselves. Matters being afterwards adjusted, they moved back their camp. Ap. Claudius was sent against the Volsci. The JEqui fell to Quinctius, as his pro- vince. Appius' severity, the same which he exercised at home, was more uncontrolled in war, because it was free from the tribunic restrictions. He hated the com- mons, with more than his father's animosity ; " that by them he was conquered, that though he was him- CHAP. 59. LIVY. 159 self set up a special consul, to oppose the tribunic power, yet the law was carried, which the former con- suls had impeded, with less exertions, the confidence of the patricians being by no means so high." This resentment and indignation stimulated his haughty spirit to harass the army, by a rigorous exercise of his authority : nor yet could it (the army), be subdued, so determined an opposition had they imbibed into their minds. They performed every thing with indo- lence, carelessness, negligence, and stubbornness ; nei- ther shame nor dread restrained them. If he wished the march of the army to be expedited, they took care to march more slowly : if he were present, exhorting them in their work, they all relaxed the diligence ex- ercised of their own accord ; they cast down their countenance, if he were present ; they silently execra- ted him, as he passed them by ; so that his spirit, un- subdued by plebeian animosity, was occasionally moved* Every kind of severity being in vain resorted to, he now held no intercourse with the soldiers ; he declared, that the army was corrupted by the centurions ; these, he used sometimes, in a gibing manner, to call tribunes of the commons, and Voleroes, CHAP. LIX. THE Volsci were ignorant of none of these proceed- ings, and urged on their operations the more, on that account, hoping, that the Roman army would maintain the same conflict of passion against Appius, that they had maintained against Fabius, when consul. But, in truth, it was much more violent against Appius, than Fabius. For it was not only unwilling to conquer, as Fabius's army, but it wished to be conquered. Being brought into the field, it sought its camp in disgraceful flight, nor made any resistance, until it beheld the Volscians advancing to the fortifications, and the shame- ful slaughter of its own rear. Then was an effort to fight wrung from them by necessity, that the victorious enemy should now be repelled from the rampart, in such a manner, however, that it should sufficiently appear, that, as Roman soldiers, they were only un- willing that their camp should be taken ; some even 160 LIVY. BOOK II. rejoiced in their own disaster and ignominy. By which, the stubborn spirit of Appius, being in no re- spect broken, when he would indulge his fury still fur- ther, and called an assembly, the lieutenant-generals and tribunes gather round him in a body, advising him, that he should not, above all things, make trial of an authority, the entire efficacy of which depended on the consent of those who obeyed it : saying, " that the sol- diers, in general, declared they would not go to the assembly, and that there were heard in all directions, the voices of those demanding, that the camp should be removed from the Volscian country ; that a victori- ous army had been, very lately, almost at the gates and rampart, and that, not merely the apprehension, but the manifest features of a great calamity, were pre- sent to their view." Being at length prevailed upon, (since they could gain nothing but a respite of their punishment), and having prorogued the assembly, after he had commanded the order of march to be announced for the ensuing clay, at the first dawn, he gave the signal for departure, by sound of trumpet. At that particular time, when the army were getting clear of the camp, the Volsci, as if roused by the same signal, attack their rear. The alarm being conveyed from these to the front, disordered the battalions and com- panies with such a consternation, that neither could orders be heard, nor the lines formed ; no one thought of any thing but flight. They retreated in so confused a body, through the mingled heaps of dead bodies and arms, that the enemy ceased to pursue sooner than the Romans to fly. The soldiers being at length collected together from their dispersed flight, the consul, after he had in vain persisted in calling back his men, en- camped in a peaceful part of the country ; and having called together an assembly, and inveighed with truth against the army, as the betrayer of military discipline, the deserter of its colours ; frequently asking individu- als of them, where were their standards ? where were their arms ? he scourged with rods, and beheaded the soldiers who had not retained their arms, the standard- bearers who had lost their colours, besides the centu- rions, and privates, (those who received double ra- tions) who had quitted their ranks ; of the rest of the CHAP. 60. LIVY. 161 multitude, every tenth man was singled out by lot for punishment. CHAP. LX. CONTRARY to this, in the country of the ^Equi, the consul and soldiers vied with each other in civility and acts of kindness : besides, Quinctius was naturally the milder man, and the unfortunate severity of his col- league, had caused him to indulge the more readily his native disposition. The ^Equi, not daring to meet this so great harmony between the commander and his army, suffered the enemy to spread themselves in pre- datory bodies over the country. Nor in any former war, was plunder carried on from that country to a greater extent ; it was all given to the soldiers. Praises were also added, in which, no less than booty, the minds of soldiers exult. The army returns home more reconciled as well to their general, as also, on their general's account, to the patricians ; declaring that to themselves was given, by the senate, a parent, to the other army, a master. This year, which was spent with varied success in war, and in violent dissen- sions at home, the elections by tribes rendered parti- cularly remarkable : a matter more important from the victory of the undertaken contest, than from any prac- tical advantage : for there was more dignity taken away from the assemblies themselves, by excluding the patricians from the councils, than real strength either added to the plebeians, or taken from the senators. CHAP. LXI. AFTER this a more turbulent year succeeded, in the consulate of L. Valerius and Ti. ^Emilius, both on ac- count of the contests of the two orders, on the subject of the agrarian law, and also on account of the trial of Ap. Claudius : against whom, being a most vigorous opposer of the law, and supporting, as if he were a third consul, the cause of the possessors of the public land, M. Duilius and C. Sicinius instituted a prosecu- tion. Never before was a defendant so hostile to the commons, called before the tribunal of the people; p 3 162 LIVY. BOOK II. being full of resentment for his own and lik father's account. The patricians also rarely exerted themselves so strenuously, in hehalf of any one, seeing that this champion of the senate, the assertor of their own dig- nity, who opposed himself to all the tumults of the tribunes and plebeians, was exposed to an enraged po- pulace, for having only a little outstepped the bounds of moderation in the contest. Ap. Claudius himself was the only one of the patricians who disregarded both tribunes, and commons, and his own trial. Nei- ther the menaces of the commons, nor the prayers of the patricians could ever prevail upon him, not only to change his attire, or, as a suppliant, to court the favour of the people, but not even to soften any thing, and descend from the wonted harshness of his language ; though he had to plead his cause before the people. The expression of his countenance was the same, the same stubbornness was in his looks, the same spirit in his address ; so much so, that a great portion of the commons dreaded Appius no less, as defendant, than they had dreaded him as consul. He pleaded his cause once, in that spirit of accusation, in which he had been accustomed to do every thing ; and so astounded the tribunes and commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own free will, they prolonged the day of trial ; and afterwards, were disposed to suffer the matter to die away. The interval of time was not long : before, however, the adjourned day arrived, he dies of a dis- temper: whose funeral oration, when the tribunes of the commons were endeavouring to prevent, the com- mons themselves would not allow the last day of so great a man, to be defrauded of the customary honours; and they listened with as much attention to his pane- gyric when dead, as they did to his prosecution while alive ; and in great numbers attended his obsequies. CHAP. LX1I. IN the same year, the consul, Valerius, having set out with an army against the ^Equi, when he could not draw out the enemy to an engagement, attempted to storm their camp. A frightful tempest, which poured down from the firmament, accompanied by hail and CHAP. ( AP. 63. LIVY. 163 thunder, prevented its execution. The return of calm serenity, on the signal for retreat being given, increased their astonishment so much, that they felt a religious scruple to attack the camp a second time, as if it were defended by some divinity. The entire fury of the war was turned to the desolation of their lands. -^Emilius, the other consul, conducted the war in the country of the Sabines ; and there also, as the enemy kept himself within his walls, the lands were laid waste. The Sa- bines, being afterwards provoked by the burning, not only of their country-houses, but also of their villages, in which they dwelt in great numbers, when they had met the marauders, and came off from the battle with doubtful success, on the following day removed their camp to a more secure position. This was looked upon by the consul as a sufficient reason, why he should give up the enemy as conquered ; departing from thence, though the war was in its original state. CHAP. LXIII. DURING these wars, the dissensions at home still continuing : T. Numicius Priscus and A. Virginius were elected consuls. The commons did not appear likely to endure any longer the deferring of the agrarian law, and the last degree of violence was intended, when it was discovered, by the smoke from the burning of the farm-houses, and the flight of the peasants, that the Volsci were approaching ; that event checked the sedi- tion now matured, and on the point of breaking out. The consuls, being immediately ordered out to the war by the senate, having led the young men out of the city, made the rest of the commons more quiet ; and indeed the enemy, without doing any more than filling the Romans with groundless apprehension, depart in a precipitate march. Numicius set forward to Antium against the Volsci ; Virginius against the ^Equi. Here, a great disaster being nearly sustained in consequence of an ambuscade, the valour of the soldiers restored the affair, which was nearly ruined by the neglect of the consul. The duties of commander were more judiciously fulfilled in the country of the Volsci. The enemy were routed in the first engagement, and driven by flight 164 LIVY. BOOK II. into Antium, a most opulent city, considering the then state of affairs ; which the consul not daring to attempt by assault, he took from the Antians, Ceno, another town, but by no means so rich. Whilst the JBqui and Volsci engage the attention of the Roman armies, the Sabines advanced up to the gates of the city, commit- ting depredations ; they themselves, in a few days after, suffered from the two armies a greater loss than they inflicted, both the consuls having penetrated into their territories, under the influence of resentment. CHAP. LXIV. AT the close of the year there was some peace, but disturbed, as was always the case before, by the con- tentions of the patricians and commons. The commons, being enraged, would not attend the consular elections. T. Quinctius and Q. Servilius were created consuls, by the patricians and the dependents of the patricians. These consuls experienced a year similar to the preced- ing one ; the commencement turbulent, afterwards re- duced to tranquillity by external war. The Sabines, having traversed the plains of Crustuminum in a rapid march, after they caused slaughter and conflagration on both sides of the river Anio, were repulsed from near the Colline gate and the walls of Rome ; yet they carried off a vast booty of men and cattle. Servilius, pursuing them with a hostile army, was not indeed able to overtake the main body in the level country ; but he committed devastations so extensively, that he left nothing unmolested by the war, and returned home, after gaining a booty several times greater than what the enemy had carried off. In the country of the Volsci, also, the business of the state was remarkably well conducted, by the exertion as well of the comman- der as of the soldiers. They first fought in the level plain, in a pitched battle, with great slaughter on both sides, and much effusion of blood ; and the Romans, because the paucity of their numbers was nearer feeling the loss (i. e. made them feel the loss more sensibly), would have retreated, had not the consul, calling out, that the enemy were flying on the other wing, animated the troops by the salutary falsehood : having made a CHAP. 65. LIVY. 165 charge, while they fancy themselves to be victorious, they became victors. The consul, apprehensive lest, by pressing them too much, he might only renew the engagement, gave the signal for retreat. A few days elapsed, repose being taken on both sides, as if from a tacit cessation of arms, during which a vast number of men, from all the states of the Volsci and ^Equi, came into the camp, not doubting that the Romans, if they discovered it, would retire by night. Nearly at the third watch, therefore, they come to assault the camp : Quinctius, having appeased the tumult, which the sud- den alarm had excited, when he had ordered the sol- diers to remain quiet in their tents, leads out a cohort of the Hernici to form an out-post ; he commands the horn-blowers and trumpeters, mounted on horseback, to sound their instruments before the rampart, and to keep the enemy in suspense till day-break. During the remainder of the night, every thing was so very tranquil in the camp, that the Romans had even an opportunity for repose. The appearance of the armed infantry, whom they believed to be more numerous than they really were, and also Romans, and the snort- ing and neighing of the horses, which were intractable, both on account of the strange riders that sat them, and moreover the sound annoying their ears, engaged the attention of the Volsci. CHAP. LXV. WHEN day dawned, the Roman, being brought into the field, fresh and quite satisfied with sleep, over- powered at the first onset the Volscian, fatigued from standing and want of rest ; though the enemy rather retired than were routed, because there were in their rear some acclivities, to which there was a secure re- treat for the unbroken ranks behind the first line. The consul, when he came to the unfavourable ground, halts his army ; the soldiers were with difficulty restrained ; they called out, and demanded that they might be allowed to press home upon them in their dismay. The cavalry behave themselves with more forwardness ; crowding round their general, they declare that they would advance before the front line themselves. 166 LIVY. BOOK II. While the consul hesitates, confident in the valour of his soldiers, but distrusting the ground, they cry out simultaneously, that they will proceed ; and the act fol- lowed the words. Having struck their javelins in the ground, that they might be the lighter to get up to the heights, they ascend in a running pace. The Volscians, having, at the first onset, showered down their missive weapons, poured upon them in heaps, as they ascend, the rocks that lay at their feet, and urge them from the higher ground, when disordered by the frequent blows ; the left wing of the Romans was thus nearly overpow- ered, had not the consul, as they were just giving ground, by reproaching them at the same time with rashness, and also with inactivity, displaced their fear by shame. At first, they stood their ground with ob- stinate resolution ; afterwards, when their strength supported them against those who were in possession of the vantage ground, they venture to advance on the offensive, and the war-shout being renewed, they put the whole line into motion ; then again, the impetuosity being communicated, they force their way up, and overcome the disadvantage of situation. They were now on the point of getting up to the highest ridge of the hill, when the enemy turned their backs, and in a disordered course, the fugitives and pursuers entered the camp, almost in a continuous body. In this con- sternation, the camp is taken ; such of the Volsci as were able to escape, seek their way to Antium. The Roman army too was led to Antium. Being besieged for a few days, it is surrendered, not because of any new attack of the besiegers, but because their spirits had drooped, from the very time of the unsuccessful battle and the loss of their carnp.. CHAP. L LIVY. 167 BOOK III. CHAP. I. AFTER the taking of Antium, Ti. ^Emilius and Q. Fabius are made consuls. This was Quintus Fabius, who alone survived his family, that was extinguished at the Cremera. ^Emilius already, in his former con- sulship, had been the proposer of giving the lands to the commons. Therefore, in his second consulate also, the agrarian advocates had buoyed themselves up with the hope of obtaining the law ; and the tribunes, judg- ing that the measure often attempted in opposition to the consuls could be gained, especially when a consul was its supporter, bring the matter forward ; and the consul continued in his former sentiments. The owners, and a great portion of the patricians, complaining that the first man of the state was advancing himself into favour by tribunic measures, and was becoming popular by being liberal of the property of others, had trans- ferred the odium of the entire business from the tri- bunes to the consul. A furious contest awaited them, had not Fabius facilitated the matter, by a plan which was disagreeable to neither party, saying, " That a considerable tract of land was taken from the Volsci in the preceding year, under the conduct and auspices of T. Quinctius ; that a colony might be established at Antium, a neighbouring, convenient, and maritime city ; that by these means the commons would come into possession of lands, without the complaints of the present occupiers, and the state be continued in har- mony." This proposal is accepted ; he procures the appointment of T. Quinctius, A. Virginius, and P. Furius, as triumvirs for distributing the land. Those who chose to accept the grant were ordered to give in their names. Abundance, as is always the case begot 168 LIVY. BOOK III. fastidiousness, and so very few sent in their names, that some Volscian settlers were added to complete the number ; ^the rest of the multitude chose rather to claim lands in Rome, than to accept them elsewhere. The Jqui sued for peace from Q. Fabius, for he had marched thither with an army ; and they themselves rendered it of no effect, by a sudden excursion into the Latin territory. CHAP. II. IN the following year, Q. Servilius (for he was con- sul with Sp. Postumius), being sent against the ^Equi, took up his quarters in the Latin territory : an unavoid- able inactivity detained the army, seized with disease, within their camp. The war was protracted to the third year ; Q. Fabius and T. Quinctius being consuls. That province was given to Fabius by special appoint- ment, because, by being victorious, he had given peace to the ^Bqui. This general, setting out with a certain hope that the renown of his name would bring the ^qui to peace, orders the ambassadors, whom he sent to the diet of that nation, to announce, " That Q. Fa- bius the consul declared, that he had brought peace to Rome from the JEqui, and was now bringing war to the ^Equi from Rome, the same right hand being now armed, which he had formerly held out to them in peace ; and that by w r hose perfidy and perjury that was caused, the gods were now witnesses, and would pre- sently be avengers. That, however, be that as it may, he himself rather wished, even now, that the ^Equi should repent of their own accord, than suffer the rigours of war. If they repented, they should find a secure refuge in that clemency which they had already experienced ; but if they exulted in their perjury, they should carry on the w r ar, more under the resentment of the gods, than of mortal enemies." These words were so far from having had an effect on any of them, that the ambassadors were almost insulted, and an army was sent to Algidum against the Romans. When these things were reported at Rome, indignation at such con- duct, rather than a sense of danger, called out the other consul from the city : thus two consular armies CHAP. 3. LIVY. 169 approached the enemy, in order of battle, that they might engage immediately. But, as it happened that only a small portion of the day remained, a person calls out from the enemy's out-posts, " Romans, this is to make a display of, and not to wage, war ; when the night is at hand, you draw up your army; we have need of a greater length of day-light for the contest which is approaching ; to-morrow, with the rising sun, return into the field ; you shall have an opportunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers, incensed at those expressions, are brought back into their camp till the ensuing day ; deeming that a tedious night was coming on, as it would cause a delay to the combat. Then indeed they refresh their bodies with food and sleep. As soon as it dawned, on the following day, the Ro- man army took its ground somewhat before the Mqui ; at length, the ^Bqui also came forward. The battle was furious on both sides ; for the Roman fought under the influence of anger and hatred ; and a consciousness of the danger's being incurred by their own fault, and despair of any confidence being placed in them hereaf- ter, impelled the ^Equi to dare and try the last exer- tions. The jEqui, however, did not withstand the Roman troops ; and when, after being routed, they retired to their own territories, the furious multitude, with minds in no respect more disposed to peace, re- proached their leaders, because their fortune was com- mitted to a pitched battle, in which the Roman, from his military science, had the advantage. They say, " That the ^Equi were superior in predatory attacks and incursions ; and that many dispersed bodies waged wars with more success, than the vast mass of a single army." CHAP. III. HAVING therefore left a guard for the camp, they marched out, and invaded the Roman territories with such fury, that they carried terror even as far as the city ; the unexpected nature of the enterprise also caused the more alarm, because nothing could be less apprehended, than that an enemy who were vanquished, Q 170 LIVY. BOOK III. and almost besieged in their camp, could think of depre- dations ; and the peasants, pouring into the gates in a panic, cried out that it was not a marauding party, nor small bands of pillagers, but (exaggerating every thing in their groundless terror,) armies and legions of ene- mies that were approaching, and rushing in a furious body to the city. Such as were nearest conveyed from those alarmists to others these reports, which were un- certain, as being only heard, and therefore more ground- less : the hurry and clamour of those summoning to arms, was not much short of the consternation of a cap- tured city. It happened that the consul, Quinctius, had returned to Rome from Algidum (this proved a remedy for their fear), and having calmed the tumult, telling them by way of reproach, that an enemy whom they conquered were become an object of terror, stationed a guard at the gates. Having then convened the senate, and a suspension of civil business being announced by proclamation, pursuant to the directions of the senate; when he set out to defend the frontiers, leaving Q. Ser- vilius governor of the city, he did not find the enemy in the country. Matters were nobly conducted by the other consul, who having attacked the enemy, on the road where he knew they were to come, being laden with plunder, and therefore moving on in a more em- barrassed march, he made that a calamitous depreda- tion to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the am- buscade ; all the booty was recovered ; thus the return of the consul, Quinctius, to the city, put an end to the suspension of civil business, which lasted four days. A census was then taken, and the lustrum closed^ by Quinctius. The number of citizens rated, is said to have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand, two hundred and fourteen, besides male and female orphans. Nothing memorable was after done in the country of the ^Equi ; they retired within their towns, suffering their properties to be burned and plundered. The consul, after he had frequently traversed the entire of the enemy's country, laying it waste in his hostile ca- reer, returned to Rome with vast glory and plunder. CHA HAP. 4. LIVY. 171 CHAP. IV. A. POSTUMIUS ALBUS and Sp. Furius Fusius were made consuls. The Furii, some writers have Fusii : This I mention, lest any should think that to be a dif- ference in the men themselves, which is only in the names. There was no doubt) that one of the consuls would carry on war with the ^Equi. Accordingly the JEqui sought protection from the Volsci of Ecetra ; which being eagerly offered (so much did these states vie with each other in interminable hatred towards the Romans), preparations were made for war with the utmost vigour. The Hernici understand, and give no- tice to the Romans, that the inhabitants of Ecetra had revolted to the ^Bqui: the colony at Antium was also suspected, because a great number of persons, when the town had been taken, had fled thence for protec- tion to the ^Equi ; and these were even the most deter- mined soldiers during the war with the ^Equi. The ^Equi being afterwards forced into their towns, when that multitude, dropping oif, had returned to Antium, they detached from tfie interest of the Romans the set- tlers, who were already faithless of themselves. The business being not yet ripe, when it was reported to the senate that a defection was intended, instructions were given to the consuls, that, summoning oif the chiefs of the colony to Rome, they should inquire what was the matter ; who, after having come without reluc- tance, being introduced into the senate by the consuls, replied to the questions put to them, in such a manner, that they were sent away more suspected than they had come. War was then deemed inevitable. Sp. Furius, one of the consuls, to whose lot that province had fal- len, having marched against the JBqui, found the enemy committing depredations in the country of the Hernici ; and being ignorant of their numbers, because they were never seen in one entire body, he rashly committed his army, which was unequal to their forces, to the chance of a battle. Being routed at the first onset, he re- treated to his camp ; nor was that the termination of the danger ; for on the ensuing night and following day, the camp was surrounded and assaulted with so 172 LIVY. BOOK III. much vigour, that not even could a messenger he sent thence to Rome. The Hernici brought intelligence, both that they were defeated, and that the consul and his army were besieged ; and struck such terror into the patricians, that charge was given to the other con- sul, Postumius, " To see that the commonwealth should receive no detriment :" which form of decree was always reserved for the last necessity. It appeared most ad- visable that the consul himself should remain at Rome, to enlist all who were capable of bearing arms ; and that T. Quinctius should be sent as pro-consul, with the allied army, to the relief of the camp ; and to complete this army, the Latins, and Hernici, and the colony at Antium were ordered to supply Quinctius with subitary soldiers ; by this name they then called auxiliaries raised on an emergency. CHAP. V. DURING those days, there were many movements and many attacks made on one side and the other, be- cause the enemy, having a superiority of numbers, en- deavoured to weaken, by multifarious attacks, the strength of the Romans, as not likely to be sufficient for resistance every where ; at the same time the camp was attacked, and a detachment of the army also sent to lay waste the Roman lands, and, if any favourable opportunity offered, to make an attempt on the city itself. L. Valerius was left for the defence of the city; the consul, Postuniius, was sent to repel the depreda- tions of the frontiers. No attention or labour was omitted on the part of either. Watches were sta- tioned in the city, out-posts before the gates, and guards along the walls ; and, as was necessary in so great an alarm, a suspension of civil business was ob- served for some days. In the meantime, at the camp, the consul, Furius, though at first he quietly endured the siege, burst out through the Decuman gate on the unguarded enemy, and though he might have pursued them, he stopped short through fear, lest any attack might be made on the camp from the opposite side. Furius, the lieutenant-general (the same was brother to the consul), the fury of his charge carried away too CHAP. 5. LIVY. 173 far ; nor, in the ardour of his pursuit, did he either observe his own friends returning, nor a charge of the enemy in his rear ; being thus intercepted, after fre- quently making many efforts in vain to force his way to the camp, he ft 11 fighting with bravery. And the consul, on the news of his brother being surrounded, turning back to the engagement, whilst he rushes into the centre of the fight, with more of rashness than due caution, having received a wound, and being with dif- ficulty rescued by his attendants, both dispirited the hearts of his own men, and rendered the enemy more furious ; who elated by the death of the lieutenant- general, and the consul's wound, could no longer be resisted by any effort ; whilst the Romans, forced back* into their camp, were again besieged, being equal to what they were before, neither in confidence nor strength ; and their very existence would have been in jeopardy, had not T. Quinctius come up to their relief, with the foreign troops, consisting of the Latin and Hernician army. He attacked the Mqui on the rear, as they were intent on the Roman camp, and insultingly exhi- biting the lieutenant-general's head, and, at the same time, a sally being made from the camp, on a signal held up by him from a distance, he surrounded a great number of the enemy. The slaughter of the Mqui in the Roman territory was less, their flight more disor- derly ; on whom, divided into straggling parties, and carrying off plunder, Postumius had made attacks in several places, where he had established strong posts ; these, wandering up and down, and flying in a dispersed body, fell in with the victorious Quinctius, returning with the wounded consul. Then did the consular army avenge, by a splendid battle, the wound of the consul, and the loss of the lieutenant-general, and the cohorts. Great overthrows were, during those days, both given and received, on one side and the other. It is difficult, in so remote a matter, to affirm in precise numbers, to a certainty, how many either fought or fell: yet Valerius of Antium ventures to calculate the sum total. He states that five thousand three hundred of the Romans fell in the Hernician country ; that of the plundering parties of the ^Equi, who were spread over the Roman territories, committing depredations, two Q 3 174 LIVY. BOOK III. thousand four hundred were cut off by A. Postumins, the consul ; that the other body of them, who, as they were driving off plunder, fell in with Quinctius, by no means escaped with the same loss ; for of them were slain four thousand, (and by following up the calcula- tion with precise exactness) two hundred and thirty. After they returned to Rome, and the suspension of civil business had ceased, the sky appeared to blaze with a vast profusion of fire, and other portents either presented themselves to people's eyes, or exhibited their ideal forms to their affrighted imaginations. To avert these terrific forebodings, holidays to continue three days were proclaimed, during which, all the tem- ples were filled with crowds of men and women, im- ploring the favour of the gods. The Latin and Her- nician cohorts were then dismissed to their homes by the senate, thanks having been given them for their active military exertions. A thousand soldiers from Antium, who had come a late reinforcement after the battle was over, were sent away almost with ignominy. CHAP. VI. THE elections were then held ; L. ^Ebutius and P. Servilius, being created consuls, enter on their office, as it was then the beginning of the consular year. The season itself was unwholesome, and the year happened to be pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men than to cattle ; and they encreased the malig- nity of the disease, by having admitted the cattle and peasants into the city, through a fear of the depreda- tion. Such a collection of animals of every kind mixed up together, was tormenting both the townsmen, by the unusual stench, and the peasants, who were cooped up in narrow apartments, by the heat and want of rest; and the mutual attendance on each other, and their contact itself, were spreading the infection. While they were sustaining with difficulty their pressing cala- mities, the ambassadors of the Hernici suddenly bring intelligence, that the ^Equi and Volsci, with their com- bined forces, had encamped in their territory, and from thence were ravaging their country with a numerous army. Besides, that the thinness of the senate served CHAP. 7. LIVY. 175 as an indication to the allies, that the state was afflicted by the pestilence, they also received a sorrowful answer, " that the Hernici themselves, in conjunction with the Latins, should defend their own possessions ; that the city of Rome was, through the sudden anger of the gods, depopulated by disease. If any respite from that calamity should arrive, that then they would give as- sistance to their allies, as they had done in the year before, and on every other occasion." The allied am- bassadors took their departure, and carry back to their home, in return for their melancholy intelligence, tidings still more melancholy ; in as much as they had to sus- tain of themselves a war, which they had scarcely sus- tained, when supported by the Roman power. The enemy no longer confined himself to the Hernician territory, he proceeds from thence, with hostile pur- pose, into the Roman country, which was desolated, even without the ravages of war. Where, when no one, not even unarmed, met them, and they passed through every place, not only destitute of garrisons, but even of rural culture, they reached the third mile- stone on the Gabinian road. ^Ebutius, the Roman consul, was dead : his colleague, Servilius, was lingering out life, with slender hope of recovery. Most of the leading men, the greater part of the senators, and nearly all the military age were affected ; so that they were not only not sufficient in strength for the expe- ditions, which, in a case of so much alarm, the occa- sion required, but scarcely even for the quiet duty of out-posts. The senators, such of them as were capable by age and health to do so, performed of themselves the duty of the watches. The visiting and taking care of these, was the province of the sediles of 'the com- mons : on them had devolved the chief administration and the dignity of the consular authority. CHAP. VII. THE tutelary gods, and the fortune of the city, saved every thing thus deserted, without a head, without strength; which (fortune) inspired the Volsci and ^Equi with the spirit of robbers, rather than of enemies. For so far was any hope, not only of possessing, but even 176 LIVY. BOOK III. of approaching the Roman walls, from entering their minds, and so much did the houses and overhanging hills, seen from afar, divert their thoughts ; that, a mur- mur arising in all quarters of the camp, "why they should throw away their time, inactive, without any booty, in a waste and desolate country, amidst an infection of cattle and men, when they might repair to places yet undamaged, to the land of Tusculum, which abounded in opulence ;" they suddenly plucked up their colours, and passed over to the Tusculan hills, by cross marches, through the lands of the Lavici : thither is directed the whole fury and storm of war. In the mean time, the Hernici and Latins, moved even by shame, and not merely by compassion ; if they should neither have op- posed the common enemy advancing in a hostile body to the Roman city, nor borne any succour to their be- sieged allies, proceed towards Rome with their com- bined army. Where, when they had not found the enemy, having followed them where their intelligence and tracks conducted, they met them as they were de- scending from the Tusculan heights into the Alban valley. There a battle was fought with success by no means equal, and their fidelity proved unfortunate to the Roman allies for the present. No less havock was made at Rome by the distemper, than had been made amongst the allies by the sword. The only surviving consul dies, other illustrious men also died, namely, M. Valerius, and T. Virginius Rutilus, augurs ; Ser. Sulpicius, principal curio (priest) ; the virulence of the disease spread widely amongst obscure individuals, and the senate, destitute of human- aid, turned the atten- tion of the people to the gods and to vows ; they were ordered to go with their wives and children to offer up supplications, and implore the favour of heaven. In addition to what his own private calamities urged each to do, being now called out by public authority, they fill all the temples. Matrons every where prostrate, sweeping the places of worship with their hair, implore a remission of the celestial displeasure, and a termina- tion to the pestilence. CHAP. 8. LIVY. 177 CHAP. VIII. FROM that time forward, whether it was that the favour of the gods was obtained, or that the more un- healthy season of the year had passed over, their bodies being relieved from the distempers, gradually began to be in a more healthful condition ; and their minds being now turned to matters of public concern, after several interregna had expired, P. Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on the office of interrex, creates L. Lucretius Tricipitinus and T. Veturius Ge- minus (or if he was called Vetusius,) consuls. They enter on the consulship on the third day of the ides of August (11 August,) the state being now sufficiently strong, not only to repel war, but even to wage it offensively. Accordingly to the Hernici, bringing in- telligence that the enemy had crossed over into their frontiers, aid was promptly promised, and two consu- lar armies were levied. Veturius was sent into the Volscian country, to carry on an offensive war. Trici- pitinus, being stationed to repel the ravaging incursions from the territory of the allies, does not proceed be- yond the country of the Hernici. Veturius routs and disperses the enemy in the first engagement ; a body of plunderers, being led over the mountains of Prse- neste, and thence sent down into the plains, escaped the observation of Lucretius, whilst he sat down in the territory of the Hernici. They laid waste the lands of Praaneste and Gabii ; from those of Gabii they turned off towards the Tusculan hills ; great alarm was also given to the city of Rome, more on account of the sud- denness of the thing, than that there was not strength enough to repel the attack. Q. Fabius was gover- nor of the city : he, by arming the young men, and stationing guards, made every thing secure and tran- quil. The enemy, therefore, having hastily carried off plunder from the nearest places, and not daring to ap- proach the city, when they were returning by a circui- Jous rout, and with the more remiss attention, the far- ther they were removing from an enemy's city, fall in with the consul Lucretius, who, having already ex- plored their marches, was in battle array, and intent on 178 LIVY. BOOK III. an engagement. Having therefore, their minds being prepared, attacked those who were struck with a sud- den dismay, though somewhat fewer in number, they rout and disperse the vast multitude of the enemy, and after driving them into the deep vallies, when an escape was not easy, they surround them. In that place the Volscian name was almost annihilated. In some annals I find that there fell in the field and in the pursuit, thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy; that one thousand two hundred and fifty were taken alive, arid that twenty-seven military standards were brought home ; in those accounts, though there be something added to the real number, the slaughter was certainly great. The victorious consul, having made himself master of a great booty, returned to the same station- ary camp. Both consuls then unite their camps ; and the Volsci and ^Equi also brought their shattered forces into one body. This was the third battle in that year; the same good fortune gave them the victory ; the enemies being routed, their camp was even taken. CHAP. IX. THUS the Roman affairs returned to their ancient state ; and success in war immediately led to city com- motions. C/ Terentillus Arsa was tribune of the com- mons in that year ; this man judging that, in the ab- sence of the consuls, an opportunity was given for tri- bunic prosecutions, in censuring for several days before the commons the arrogance of the patricians, he in- veighed principally against the consular authority as being too arbitrary, and not to be endured by a free state. " For it was less odious in name only, but in reality almost more oppressive than that of a king, as instead of one master, two were admitted, of immode- rate and unbounded power, who, being unrestrained and unchecked themselves, directed all the terrors, all the penalties of the laws against the commons. Which licence, that they should not perpetually enjoy, he would propose a bill, that five persons should be cho- sen for framing a code of laws regarding the consular authority. Whatever jurisdiction over themselves the people should entrust him with, such the consul should SHAP. 9. LIVY. 179 exercise; but that they (the consuls) should not hold their own pleasure and licentiousness as law." On the promulgation of which law, when the patricians were apprehensive, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should submit to the yoke ; the senate is sum- moned by Q. Fabius, governor of the city, who in- veighed so violently against the bill itself, and its mover, that no menace or terror was omitted, which could be employed, if both the consuls surrounded the tribune with an air of defiance. " That this man had lain in ambush, and, having seized his opportunity, had attacked the republic. If the gods, in their anger, had fiven any one tribune like him, in the preceding year, luring a period of sickness and war, their ruin could not be arrested. That whilst the two consuls were dead, and the state lying distempered in the confusion of all things, he would probably introduce laws to abolish the consular power from the constitution, and would become a leader to the Volsci and .^Equi, for attacking the city. And what, pray ! if the consuls had committed any act of oppression or cruelty against any citizen, was it not in their power to impeach him, to prosecute him ? those very persons being his judges, against any one of whom he might have committed the outrage. That was to render odious and intolerable, not the consular authority, but the tribunic power, which, after being restored to peace and favour with the patricians, was now to be brought back anew to its ancient vices ; and that he would not beseech the man not to proceed, as he commenced. You, the other tribunes," said Fabius, " we implore, that first of all you reflect, that that office was designed for the aid of individuals, not for universal destruction ; that you were created tribunes of the commons, not enemies to the patricians. To us it is melancholy, to yourselves reproachful, that the constitution should be attacked in its deserted state. You shall not diminish your own privileges, but the odium of the act. Prevail with your colleague, that he postpone the matter in its ori- ginal state, until the arrival of the consuls. Even the JEqui and Volsci, when last year the consuls were car- ried off by sickness, did not press upon us with an un- feeling and oppressive war." The tribunes expostulate 180 LIVY. BOOK IIL with Terentillus, and the measure being put off in ap- pearance, but in reality given up, the consuls were immediately called home. CHAP. X. LUCRETIUS returns home with a vast booty, and much greater renown ; and adds to his renown on his arrival, by exposing all the plunder in the Campus Martius, that each person, during three days, might carry away his own property, when recognized : the remainder, for which owners did not appear, was sold. A triumph was due to the consul, with universal consent ; but the matter was postponed, the tribune agitating the subject of the law : that was to the consul a matter of more importance. The subject was discussed for several days, both in the senate, and before the people ; the tribune at length gave way to the dignity of the consul, and desisted : then the due honour was paid to the general and the army. He triumphed for his victory over the Volsci and ^Equi; his own legions followed him in the triumphal procession : it was granted to the other con- sul, to enter the city in an ovation, without his sol- diers. In the year next ensuing, the law of Teren- tillus, supported by the whole body of tribunes, as- sailed the new consuls : the consuls were P. Volum- nius and Ser. Sulpicius. In that year the sky ap- peared to be in a blaze, the earth was moved by a great agitation ; and that a cow had spoken, a fact to which ' credit was not given in the preceding year, was be- lieved. Amongst other prodigies also, it rained flesh : which shower, a vast number of birds, by flying amidst it, is said to have carried away, and what escaped them, to have lain for several days scattered in such a man- ner, that its smell did not change. The Sibylline books were consulted by the decemviri of sacred rites ; dan- gers were predicted from a concourse of foreigners, lest any attacks should be made on the high places of the city, and bloodshed be the consequence : amongst other things, warning was given that they should re- frain from seditious tumults. The tribunes alleged as a charge, that that was done to impede the law, and a violent contest was approaching. Lo ! (that the same !HAP. 11. LIVY. 181 circle of events should revolve every year,) the Her- nici bring news that the Volsci and jEqui, though their strength was curtailed, were recruiting their ar- mies ; that their principal strength lay at Antium ; that the colonists of Antium were openly holding their councils at Ecetra ; that these were the head, these the support of the war. As soon as these things were de- clared in the senate, a levy of troops is ordered hy proclamation : the consuls were directed to divide the management of the war between themselves, so that the one might have the Volsci, the other the ^Bqui, as his province. The tribunes exclaimed in the Forum to their faces, " that the farce of the Volscian war was a made up one ; that the Hernici were instructed to act their parts ; that the liberty of the Roman people was now no longer overpowered by manly courage, but entrap- ped by stratagem ; that new enemies were sought for, as the belief was now vanished, that the Volsci, who were almost annihilated, and the ^Equi, could of them- selves take up arms; that a faithful and neighbouring colony was being branded with infamy ; that war was declared against the unoffending Antians, but actually waged against the commons of Rome, whom, loaded with arms, they were about to drive out of the city by a precipitate movement ; avenging themselves on the tribunes, by the banishment and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That thus (and let not people think that any thing else was contemplated) the law would be quashed, unless, while the matter was yet in its primary state, while they were at home, and in the garb of peace, they took care not to be expelled from the possession of the city, and not to submit to the yoke. That if they had spirit, they should not sup- port it; that all the tribunes were unanimous; that there was no external alarm, no danger. That the gods had, in the preceding year, taken providential care, that their liberty might be defended with safety." Thus spoke the tribunes. CHAP. XL BUT on the other side, the consuls, having fixed their chairs in their presence, were proceeding with R 182 LIVY. BOOK III. the levy ; thither the trihuiies run down, and draw the assembly with them ; a few w r ere cited to answer, as if for the purpose of making an experiment, and a general riot immediately arose. Whomsoever the lie- tor had arrested by order of the consul, him the tri- bune commanded to be released, nor did his respective jurisdiction set a limit to either party ; but whatever object one would arrive at, should be attained by a confidence in strength, and actual force. In the same manner as the tribunes had conducted themselves in obstructing the levy, so the patricians were behaving in impeding the law, which was brought forward during every assembly-day. The commencement of the riot was occasioned, as, when the tribunes had^ordered the people to retire to give their votes, the patricians would not suffer themselves to be removed ; nor did the elder citizens scarcely interfere in the business ; as being a matter which was not to be directed by prudence, but abandoned to rashness and audacity. The consuls, too, generally kept themselves clear of the business, lest in such a confusion of affairs, they should expose their dignity to any insult. There was one Kseso Quinctius, a young man, daring, both on account of the nobility of his family, and also his bodily size and strength; to these advantages given by the gods, he himself also united many distinctions in war, and eloquence in the Forum, so that no person in the state was looked upon to be more prompt in speech or action. This man, when he had taken his stand in the midst of the body of the patricians, being conspicuous amongst the rest, as if carrying in his own voice and prowess all dictator- ships and consulships, singly sustained the tribunic as- saults and popular tempests. By the exertions of this leader, the tribunes were frequently repulsed from thf Forum, and the commons routed and put to flight : whoever fell in his way came off with being drubbed and stripped : so that it was sufficiently manifest, if he were allowed to proceed thus, that the law was put down. Then A. Virginius, one of the society of tribunes, when the others were almost struck with dismay, indicts Kseso for a capital offence ; by this proceeding he had more exasperated than intimidated his impetuous dis- position : on this, he the more furiously opposed the 12. LIVY. 183 law, harassed the commons, and persecuted the tri- bunes, in a manner, by a regular war. The prosecu- tor allowed the defendant to rush to his own ruin, and to supply flame to the public jealousy, and materials for his own charges ; in the mean time he brought for- ward the law, not so much with the hope of carrying it, as to provoke the rashness of Kaeso. On that occa- sion, many things that were frequently said and done inconsiderately by the young men, are imputed to the unpopular temper of Kseso alone; the law 'however was opposed. In addition, A. Virginius occasionally observed to the commons, " Are you sensible, Ro- mans, that you cannot have, at the same time, Kseso your fellow-citizen, and the law which you desire ? Though, why do I speak of the law ? he opposes your liberties ; he transcends all the Tarquins in arrogance. Wait until he, whom you see, though a private man, tyrannizing by force and assurance, becomes a consul, or dictator." Many assented to his words, and com- plaining that they had been assaulted, wantonly stimu- lated the tribune to persevere in the prosecution. CHAP. XII. AND now the day of trial was at hand, and it was evident that men in general believed their liberty to be involved in the condemnation of Kseso. Being then at length compelled, with much indignation, he solicited the favour of each : his relations, the leading men of the state attended him. T. Quinctius Capitolinus, who had been three times consul, in recounting the many honourable deeds of himself and his family, declared, " that neither in the Quinctian family, nor in the Ro- man state, did there ever appear so powerful a talent for such early valour. That in his own army, he first became a soldier ; that he had often fought against the enemy in his sight." Sp. Furius, " that being sent by Quinctius Capitolinus, the defendant had come to his. own support, in his critical emergency ; and that there was no other individual, by whose exertion, he thought the fortune of the state more effectually restored." L. Lucretius, the consul of the preceding year, resplen- dent in his recent glory, shared his own merits with 184 LIVY. BOOK III. Kseso ; he recounted his battles, he related his distin- guished exploits, now in expeditions, now in the field ; he advised and warned them, " that they should pre- fer, that an extraordinary young 1 man, endowed with all the advantages of nature and fortune, the greatest acquisition to the interest of that state, to which he might happen to come, should he a citizen of their own, rather than one of a foreign state. That advancing age was every day removing what was offensive in his character, fervour and presumption; and that prudence, which was wanted, was every day on the increase. That, as his faults were declining, and his virtues ad- vancing to maturity, they should allow so great a man to grow old in the state." Amongst these, his father*, L. Quinctius, who was surnamed Cincinnatus, not by recapitulating his praises, lest he should heighten the public jealousy, but by entreating forgiveness for his errors and his youth, besought them " to pardon the son, in compliment to himself, who had not offended a single individual by word, or act." But some turned away from these entreaties, either from respect, or from fear ; others complaining that themselves and their friends were maltreated, gave a previous intimation of their sentence, by their stern answer. CHAP. XIII. BESIDES his notorious offensive conduct, one charge, in particular, bore heavily on the accused : since M. Volscius Fictor, who had been some years before a tribune of the commons, stood forth as a witness, " that not long after the pestilence had been in the city, he fell in with some young men rioting in the Subura ; that thereupon a scuffle ensued ; and that his brother, who was advanced in years, and not yet sufficiently re- covered from the disease, being struck by Kseso with his fist, fell neaily lifeless to the ground ; that he was carried home between hands, and that he believed he died from that blow; nor was. he himself allowed by the consuls of the preceding years, to prosecute so hei- nous an offence." Whilst Volscius was exclaiming in this language, the men were so much excited, that Keeso was near perishing by the fury of the people. CHAP. 14. LIVY* 185 Virginius orders the man to be arrested, and conducted to prison ; the patricians, on the other side, resist the attempt by force. T. Quinctius cries out, " that a man, for whom a day of trial for a capital offence was ap- pointed, and on whom, judicial sentence was shortly to be passed, ought not suffer violence, uncondemned, and without a hearing." The tribune denies "that he meant to inflict punishment on him before condemna- tion ; that he would, however, detain him in custody until the day of trial, that the Roman people might have an opportunity of taking vengeance on the man who had murdered a human creature." The tribunes being appealed to, compromise their right of protec- tion by an intermediate decree ; they forbid his being thrown into prison, they pronounce it to be their will, that the accused should be bound to appear, and that, unless he did make his appearance, a sum of money should be secured to the people. It became a question of doubt, in what amount of money it were proper that security should be given ; that question is referred to the senate. The accused, whilst the opinion of the se- nators is taken, is kept in public custody. It was agreed that he should give sureties ; each surety, they bound under an obligation of three thousand asses; the number to be given was left to the discretion of the tribunes : they limited it to ten ; on this number of sureties, the prosecutor admitted the accused to bail. This man was the first who entered into public recog- nizances ; being discharged from the Forum, on the following night he went into exile among the Etrurians. On the day of trial, when it was pleaded in mitigation that he quitted his native soil, for the purpose of exile, nevertheless, Virginius presiding at the assembly, his colleagues, on being appealed to, dismissed the meeting; and the penalty was so rigorously exacted from his fa- ther, that, after selling all his property, he lived for a long time, in a certain secluded cottage, beyond the Tiber, as if he were a banished man. CHAP. XIV. THIS trial, and the promulgated law, employed the state ; there was a repose from external wars. When R 3 186 LIVY. BOOK III. the tribunes, as it were victorious, the patricians being dismayed by the banishment of Kseso, believed that the law was carried, and when, as far as appertained to the elder senators, they had retired from the administra- tion of the commonwealth; the juniors of them (parti- cularly that portion of them that were Kseso's compa- nions,) increased their (own) resentment against the patricians ; and did not let their spirits sink ; but in this point they made the greatest proficiency, that they moderated, in some degree, their violence. When, for the first time, after Kseso's banishment, the law be- gan to be introduced ; being organised and prepared with a vast troop of their dependants, they so assailed the tribunes, as soon as the latter, by ordering them off, had furnished a pretext, that no one individual car- ried thence home any pre-eminent share of glory, or of ill-will ; the commons were complaining that a thou- sand Keesos had started up instead of one. During the intermediate days, on which the tribunes were not agitating the subject of the law, nothing was more mild or peaceable than these same persons ; they kindly sa- luted the commons, held conversations with them, in- vited them to their houses, became their advocates in the Forum, and allowed the tribunes themselves to hold their other meetings without interruption : they never behaved harshly to any one, either in public or private, unless when the subject of the law began to be agitated. On other occasions the young men were popular, and not only did the tribunes carry their other measures in quietness, but they were even re-elected for the ensuing year. Without even an offensive word, much less without any violence being offered, they (the young patricians,) had rendered the commons gradu- ally tractable, by soothing and managing them. By these contrivances, the law was evaded during the whole year. CHAP. XV. C. CLAUDIUS, the son of Appius, and P. Valerius Publicola, receive the government in a more tranquil state. The new year had brought with it no new mea- sure ; the anxiety for either proposing or receiving the CHAP. 15. LIVY. 187 law occupied the community. By how much the more the younger patricians were ingratiating themselves with the commons, by so much the more vigorously were the tribunes, on the other hand, exerting them- selves, to render them obnoxious to the commons by accusations ; alleging, " that a conspiracy had been formed ; that Kaeso was at Rome ; that schemes had been concerted for murdering the tribunes, and mas- sacreing the commons. That instructions had been given by the elder patricians to this effect, that the younger men should abolish the tribunic power from the state, and that the form of government should be the same, as existed before the occupation of mount Sacer." War also, which was now become stated, and almost perio- dical every year, was apprehended from the Volsci and JEiqui ; and another new evil, nearer home, unexpec- tedly started up. The exiles and slaves, to the num- ber of four thousand five hundred men, under the com- mand of A p. Herdonius, a Sabine, possessed themselves by night, of the Capitol and citadel. Immediately, a massacre took place in the citadel, of those who refused to join the conspiracy, and take up arms along with them ; others, during the tumult, running headlong, in their consternation, fly down into the Forum : the cries, " to arms," and, " the enemy are in the city," were alternately heard. The consuls were both afraid to arm the commons, and to leave them unarmed. Un- certain what unexpected danger had invaded the city, whether external or internal, proceeding from the re- sentment of the plebeians, or the treachery of the slaves, they were quelling the tumults, and by their attempts to quell, were sometimes exciting them ; for an affrighted and dismayed populace could not be directed by autho- rity. They give them arms however, but not indis- criminately; so far only, that, the enemy being un- known, there might be a secure defence against all emergencies. The remainder of the night they passed in stationing guards at the proper places over the entire city, uncertain who the persons were, or how great was the number of the enemy. The day-light afterwards discovered the war, and the leader of the war. Ap. Herdonius was inviting from the Capitol, the slaves to liberty : exclaiming, " that himself espoused the cause 188 LIVY. BOOK III. of every unfortunate person, that he might restore to their native country those exiles who were illegally banished, and remove an oppressive yoke from the slaves ; that he had rather this should be done by the original act of the Roman people ; but if there were no expectation of that, that he would have recourse to, and excite the Volsci and J3qui, and all extremities." CHAP. XVI. THE matter appeared now in a clear light to the patricians and consuls ; in addition, however, to what was openly announced, they dreaded lest that might be a scheme of the Veientians or Sabines, and lest, at a time when there were so many enemies in the city, the Sabine and Etrurian legions should presently make their appearance, by a concerted plan ; and then their eternal enemies, the Volsci and ^Equi, march, not, as before, to riivage their territory, but to the city itself, as being partially taken. Many and various were their apprehensions ; their dread of the slaves was conspicu- ous amongst the rest, lest each should have in his house an enemy of his own, whom it was neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor, by distrusting, to pronounce un- worthy of confidence, lest then he might become more irritated ; and the ruin of the state seemed scarcely possible to be arrested by unanimity : only, as other evils predominated and became prominent, no one dreaded the tribunes or the commons. That appeared a mild evil, and one always springing up during the repose of other evils, and then set to rest by the foreign alarm. But this, almost alone, leaned with the hea- viest pressure on their sinking affairs. For such phrenzy took possession of the tribunes, that they main- tained that it was not a war, but a false appearance of war, that had seized upon the Capitol, for the purpose of diverting the minds of the commons from attending to' the law ; that the guests and dependents of the pa- tricians, if they feel that they have been tumultuous to no purpose, by the law's being carried, will depart with more secrecy than they came. They then held an as- sembly for passing the law, having called off the people from their arms. In the mean time, the consuls hold IAP. 17. LIVY. 189 a meeting of the senate: another and a greater dread manifesting itself from the tribunes, than that which the nocturnal foe had inspired. CHAP. XVII. WHEN it was reported that their arms had been laid down, and that the men had deserted their posts ; P. Valerius, his colleague keeping the senate sitting, bursts forward from the senate-house, thence comes into the place of meeting to the tribunes, and says, " What affair is this, tribunes ? Are you about to overthrow the commonwealth, under the command and auspices of Ap. Herdonius ? Has he, who has not by his autho- rity influenced your slaves, been so successful in cor- rupting yourselves ? Are you determined that arms shall be laid aside, and laws introduced, when the enemy is over our heads ?" Then, directing his discourse to the multitude, " If, Romans, no concern for the city, none for yourselves moves you, respect at least your gods, which are taken captive by the enemy. Jupiter supremely good and great, Juno queen, Minerva, and the other gods and goddesses are besieged ; the camp of slaves holds in confinement your national tutelary gods. Does this appear to you to be the condition of a whole- some constitution? Such an immense force of the enemy is not only within your walls, but even in the citadel, above the Forum and senate-house ; and, in the mean time, assemblies are held in the Forum ; the senate is sitting ; and, just as if tranquillity abounded, the senator declares his opinion, the other Romans pro- ceed to the vote. Ought not every single patrician and commoner, the consuls, tribunes, gods, and men, all give their aid in arms, rush to the Capitol, bring deliverance and peace to that most august habitation of the supremely good and great Jupiter ? O father Ro- mulus, grant thou to thy descendants thy spirit, by which thou didst formerly recover the citadel, when taken by these self-same Sabines by gold ; bid them to pursue this course which thou, their leader, and thy army have pursued. Lo ! I, the consul, will be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as a mortal can a divinity." The conclusion of his speech was, 190 LIVY. BOOK III. "That he now took up arms, and summoned all Ro- mans to arms ; if any one should interfere to prevent it, that he at that moment, disregarding the extent of the consular authority, and also the tribunic power, and laws of personal inviolability, would treat that person as an enemy, whoever he may be, wherever he may appear, in the Capitol, or in the Forum. Let the tri- bunes order arms to be taken up against P.Valerius, the consul, since they had forbidden it against Ap. Herdo- riius ; and he would attempt against the tribunes, what the founder of his family had put into execution against kings." It was now evident that the last degree of vio- lence would be resorted to, and that the Roman dissen- sions would be an entertainment to the enemy. Yet neither could the law be carried, nor the consul proceed to the Capitol : night put a stop to the commencing contests ; the tribunes withdrew at the coming of night, fearing the arms of the consuls. The fomenters of the sedition having then retired, the patricians went round amongst the commons, and introducing themselves into their circles, they threw out conversational subjects adapted to the juncture ; they advised them " to look into what a jeopardy they were bringing the common- wealth ; that the contest was not between the patricians and commons, but that the patricians and commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods, the public and private tutelary deities were all surrendered up to the enemy." Whilst these proceed- ings are going forward in the Forum, for the purpose of appeasing the dissension, the consuls, in the mean time, had gone their rounds about the gates and walls, lest the Sabines, or the Veientian enemy, should put themselves into motion. CHAP. XVIII. THE same night, messengers arrive at Tuseulum, with accounts of the citadel being taken, the Capitol being seized, and the other circumstances of the alarmed city. L. Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tuseu- lum. He, having immediately convened the senate, and introduced the messengers, with great earnestness moves, " That they should not wait until ambassadors CHAP. 18. LIVY. 191 should come from Rome suing for aid ; that the danger itself and emergency, and the gods who witnessed their alliance, and the faith of treaties demanded it. That the gods might never again afford a like opportunity of laying so powerful and so neighbouring a state under obligation, by an act of kindness." It is agreed that assistance should be granted ; the young men are en- rolled, arms are given them. Coming to Rome at day-break, they exhibit at a distance the appearance of enemies. The /Equi or Volsci were thought to be approaching. Afterwards, when the groundless alarm passed away, being admitted into the city, they march down in a body into the Forum ; there P. Valerius was at that time forming his line of battle, having left his colleague for the defence of the gates. The respecta- bility of the man had influenced them, affirming, " That when the Capitol should have been recovered, and the city tranquillized, if they allowed themselves to be in- formed what secret deception was introduced in the law by the tribunes, he would not then obstruct the assemblage of the commons, being mindful of his ances- tors, mindful of his surname, by which the study of courting the favour of the people was transmitted to him as an inheritance by his ancestors." Following this man as their leader, they march up the Capitoline ascent, the tribunes protesting against it in vain ; the Tusculan legion, also, is united with them. The allies and citizens vied with each other, who should make the honour of recovering the citadel their own ; each com- mander exhorts his respective followers. The enemy were then alarmed, nor had they sufficient reliance on any thing, except the advantage of their position ; whilst they are disconcerted, the Romans and allies push forward their colours (advance to the assault). They had already burst into the porch of the temple, when P. Valerius, animating to combat amongst the foremost, is slain. P. Volumnius, a man of consular dignity, saw him fall : he, having given his own men charge to protect the body, flies forward himself to the post and duty of the consul. The perception of so great a loss did not reach the soldiers, such was their ardour and impetuosity ; and they conquered, before they perceived that they were fighting without their 192 LIVY. BOOK III. leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their own blood, many were taken alive ; Herdonius was slain. Thus was the Capitol recovered. Punishment was inflicted by them severally on the prisoners, suita- ble to their respective condition, according as each hap- pened to be a freeman or slave. Thanks were given to the Tusculans : the Capitol was cleansed and purified. The commons are reported to have thrown into the consul's house a qtfndrans each (the fourth part of an ass), that he might be buried with more splendid obsequies. CHAP. XIX. PEACE being attained, then the tribunes pressed the patricians to fulfil the engagement of Valerius ; they pressed Claudius, to acquit the sacred manes of his colleague of deceit, and suffer the law to be discussed. The consul denied that, until he had elected to himself a new colleague, he could allow the business of the law to be entertained. These disputes lasted up to the assembly which was held for substituting a consul. In the month of December, L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, Kseso's father, is created consul with the highest appro- bation of the patricians ; he entered forthwith on the duties of his magistracy. The commons were terrified, as they were to have a consul enraged with themselves, powerful in the favour of the patricians, his own merits, and his three sons, not one of whom was inferior to Kaeso in greatness of spirit ; and were his superiors in using prudence and moderation, when occasion required. This consul, as soon as he entered on his office, in his continual harangues before the tribunal, was not more vehement in curbing the commons, than in reproving the senate ; " By the indolence of which body, the tri- bunes, now become perpetual, were exercising sove- reign power by their language and prosecutions, not as in a republic of Roman people, but in a profligate fa- mily. That with Kseso, his own son, fortitude, firm- ness, and all the ornaments of a youth, in war and in peace, were expelled and put to flight from the city of Rome. That brawling and seditious men, the origina- ters of discords, having become tribunes for the second LIVY. 193 and third time by the worst practices, were living with all the licentiousness of kings. " Has that A. Virginius," said he, " because he was not in the Capitol, deserved less punishment than Ap. Herdonius? Considerably more, by Hercules, if one would judge fairly of the matter. Herdonius, if he had no other merit, by avow- ing himself an enemy, almost gave you notice to take up arms ; the other, by denying the existence of the war, took the arms out of your hands, and exposed you defenceless to your own slaves and to exiles. And have you (I will speak it without offence to C. Claudius and the deceased P. Valerius,) directed your attack against the Capitoline hill, before you dislodged those other enemies from the Forum ? I am ashamed of gods and men ; that, when an enemy was in the citadel -in the Capitol, the leader of exiles and slaves, after profaning every thing, should take up his residence in the chapel of the supremely good and great Jupiter, and that arms should be sooner taken up at Tusculuni than at Rome. It became a matter of doubt whether L. Marnilius, a Tusculan commander, or P. Valerius and C. Claudius, the consuls, should deliver the Roman citadel ; and we, who heretofore did not permit the Latins to lay a hand on arms, not even in their own defence, though they had the enemy within their terri- tories, would have now been made prisoners, and utterly destroyed, had not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes, is this affording aid to the commons, to expose them unarmed to the enemy to be butchered ? Assuredly, if any, even the humblest of your favourite commons (which class, as if severed from the rest of the community, you have made your country and your peculiar commonwealth), if any of these, I say, should report to you that his house was besieged by a band of armed slaves, you would think it proper that assistance should be afforded him ; and was the supremely good and great Jupiter, when en- compassed by the arms of exiles and slaves, worthy of no human aid ? And do those persons demand to be held sacred and inviolable, in whose eyes the gods themselves are neither sacred nor inviolable? But, really, overwhelmed as you are with crimes against gods and men, do you boast that you will carry the s 194 LIVY. BOOK III. law this year ? Then, by Hercules, on that day on which I have been created consul, the administration was badly provided for nay, much worse than when the consul, P. Valerius, perished, if you shall even have proposed it. Now then, first of all, Romans, it is my own and my colleague's intention to lead the legions against the Volsci and ^3Equi. We find the gods, I know not by what fatality, more propitious to us when we are at war, than in peace ; how great the danger would have been from those nations, if they had known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is better that we should conjecture from the past, than feel from experience." CHAP. XX. THE consul's speech had an effect on the commons ; the patricians, buoyed up with hope, deemed the com- monwealth re-established ; the second consul, more spi- rited as a follower than an original proposer, readily allowed his colleague to have undertaken the preli- minary management of so weighty an affair, but in the execution of it, he claimed to himself a share of the consular duty. Then the tribunes, mocking their words as if they were nugatory, persisted in inquiring, " By what means did the consuls intend to lead out an army, as no one would allow them to hold a levy ?" " But," says Quinctius, " we have no occasion for a levy ; since, at the time that P. Valerius gave arms to the commons, for the recovery of the Capitol, they all took the pre- scribed oath, that they would assemble by the consul's order, and would not depart without his permission. We therefore proclaim, that all of you, who have sworn the oath, do attend to-morrow in arms at the lake Re- gillus." The tribunes then were disposed to cavil, and to release the people from their solemn obligation ; al- leging, " That, at the time when they incurred the obligation of the military oath, Quinctius had been in a private station." But this disregard of the gods, which at present pervades the age, had not yet arrived ; nor did every person, by interpreting an oath his own way, make the laws to suit his conduct, but rather adapted his conduct to them. The tribunes, therefore, when there CHAP. 21. LIVY. 195 was no hope of impeding- the measure, exerted them- selves to delay the marching- of the army ; the more particularly for this reason, as a report had gone abroad, " That the augurs also were ordered to attend at the lake Regillus, and to consecrate a place, where business might be transacted with the people, under the sanction of auspices ; so that whatever was enacted at Rome, by the violence of the tribunes, the same might be repealed in. an assembly there. That all would ratify whatever the consuls pleased ; for neither did the right of appeal exist at a greater distance than one mile from the city ; and the tribunes, if they came there, would, amongst the crowd of other Romans, be subject to the consular authority." These accounts alarmed them ; but the greatest terror which agitated their minds was this, that Quinctius used frequently to say, " That he would not hold assemblies for the election of consuls ; that the state was not so slightly distempered, as to be capable of being recovered by the usual remedies ; that the commonwealth had need of a dictator, in order that he who would busy himself to disturb the existing- quiet of the government, should feel that the dictatorship was a jurisdiction from which there lay no appeal." CHAP. XXI. THE senate was in the Capitol ; thither the tribunes come, accompanied by the agitated commons ; the mul- titude, with great clamour, implores now the protection of the consuls, now of the patricians ; nor did they dis- lodge the consul from his resolution, until the tribunes promised that they would themselves be amenable to the authority of the senators. Then the consuls bring forward a motion, on the demands of the tribunes and commons decrees are passed; "that the tribunes should not in that year introduce the law, nor the consuls lead out the army from the city. That the senate pro- nounced it, henceforward, to be contrary to the interest of the commonwealth, that the magistrates should be continued in office, and the same tribunes re-elected." The consuls submitted to the authority of the patri- cians ; the tribunes were re-elected, the consuls pro- testing against the measure. The patricians too, that 196 LIVY. BOOK III. they should not submit in any respect to the commons, would re-appoint L. Quinctius, consul. No motion of the consul, during the whole year, was more strenu- ously advocated. " Can I he surprised," says he, " conscript fathers, if your authority be of no weight with the commons ? It is you who make light of it yourselves ; because, as the commons have violated the decree of the senate, in re-electing their magistrates, you also wish to violate it, that you should not yield to the populace in rashness ; as if to have more capricious- ness and licence, were to have the greater power in the state : for assuredly, it is an act of more capriciousness arid levity, to nullify one's own decrees, than those of others. Imitate, conscript fathers, the inconsiderate multitude, and do you, who ought to be an example to others, do wrong by their example, rather than that others should do right by yours : provided that I nei- ther imitate the tribunes, nor allow myself to be de- clared consul, contrary to the decree of the senate. And you, C. Claudius, I exhort, that you save the Roman people from this licentiousness ; and as far as I am concerned, be persuaded of this that I will so re- ceive it, as not to deem my promotion opposed by you, but the glory of rejecting the honour, augmented, and the weight of jealousy which should await me from its continuance lightened." They then issue their joint orders, " that no person should appoint L. Quinctius consul ; if any one should do so, that they would pay no regard to the vote." CHAP. XXII. THE consuls then created were, Q. Fabius Vibula- nus, for the third time, and L. Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was taken in that year ; there was a reli- gious scruple about closing the lustrum, on account of the taking of the Capitol, and the loss of the consul. In the consulship of Q. Fabius and L. Cornelius, and in the very commencement of the year, matters were in a state of disturbance. The tribunes were stimula- ting the commons ; the Latins and Hernici brought in- telligence of a great war proceeding from the Volsci and JSqui ; the troops of the Volsci were already at LIVY. 197 Antium, and there was a great apprehension that the colony itself would revolt ; and it was with difficulty, permission was obtained from the tribunes, to allow the war to take precedency. The consuls then divided the provinces between them. Orders were given to Fabius, to lead the legions to Antium ; and to Corne- lius, to remain at home for the defence of Rome, lest any portion of the enemy (which was a practice with the JEqui,) should come to ravage the country. The Hernici and Latins were ordered to supply soldiers, in conformity with the treaty ; arid, in the army, there were two-third parts consisting of allies, one-third of Roman citizens. When the allies arrived at the day appointed, the consul encamps outside the gate Capena, thence, after purifying his army, setting out to Antium, lie sat down not far from the town, and the enemy's quarters. Where, when the Volsci, not daring to risk an engagement, as the army had not yet arrived from the Alqui, were making preparations, whereby they might defend themselves, in quiet by their rampart'; Fabius, on the following day, drew up round the ene- my's trenches, not one commingled body of allies and citizens, but three bodies of the three nations sepa- rately. He was himself in the centre, with the Roman legions ; from this point he ordered them (the allies), to observe the signal, in order that they too should be- gin the engagement at the same time with the Romans, and retreat, if he should sound a retreat : he also posts its own cavalry behind the first line of each respective division. Thus attacking the camp in three different places, he surrounds it, and as he pressed them on. every side, he beats down from the rampart the Volsci not sustaining the assault. Having then crossed over the fortifications, he drives them out of their camp, in a dismayed body, and forced in their retreat towards one point. After this the cavalry, for whom it had been no easy matter to pass over the rampart, after having, up to that period, stood as spectators of the battle, coming up with them in their disordered flight in the open plain, enjoy a share in the victory, by cut- ting them down in their consternation. Great havoc was made of the fugitives, both in the camp, and out- side the fortifications : but the spoil was still greater, s 3 198 LIVY. BOOK III. because the enemy were scarce able to carry with them their arms ; and the army would have been annihilated, had not the woods sheltered them in their flight. CHAP. XXIII. WHILST these things are going forward at Antium, the JEqui, in the mean while, having sent forward the strength of their youth, take the fortress of Tusculum in the night by surprise ; they sit down with the rest of their army, not far from the walls of Tusculum, in order to divide the enemy's forces. These tidings being quickly conveyed to Rome, and from Rome to the camp at Antium, affect the Romans no less, than if it were reported that the Capitol was taken; so fresh in their minds was the service rendered by the Tusculans, and so much did the very similarity of the danger appear to claim from them a return of the aid which was given. Fabius, laying aside all other business, hastily conveys the plunder from the camp to Antium. Having left a small garrison there, he hurries his army by rapid inarches to Tusculum : the soldiers were allowed to take nothing but their arms, and whatever dressed food was ready at hand. The consul, Cornelius, conveys pro- visions to them from Rome, the war continued at Tus- culum for some months ; the consul, with part of his army, was besieging the camp of the -^Equi, part he had given to the Tusculans to recover possession of the fortress. They could never get into it by assault ; fa- ' mine at last forced the enemy away from it. To which extremity, when they were reduced at last, they were all sent unarmed, and naked, by the Tusculans, under the yoke : these, as they were retreating homeward in an ignominious flight, the Roman consul having over- taken in Algidum, slew them all to a man. The con- .queror, having led back his army to Columen, (for so the place was called,) pitches his camp there. The other consul too, when now all danger to the Roman city had ceased to exist, by the discomfiture of the enemy, set out himself also from Rome. The consuls having thus penetrated into the enemy's territories in two different places, commit depredations, the one on the Volsci ? the other on the ^Equi, in a spirit of vehe- LIVY. 199 jnent rivalry. In the same year, I find in most authors that the people of Antium revolted ; that the consul, L. Cornelius, conducted that war, and took their town. This I could not presume to affirm as an authentic fact, because there is no mention of such a transaction in the more ancient writers. CHAP. XXIV. THIS war being brought to a conclusion, a tribunic war at home alarms the patricians. The tribunes ex- claim, "that the army's being detained abroad was contrived by an artifice ; that that was a deception de- signed to get rid of the law ; that they would, notwith- standing, go through the business they had underta- ken." However, P. Lucretius, prsefect of the city, pre- vailed that the tribunic measures should be deferred until the arrival of the consuls. Then sprung up also a new cause of commotion. A. Cornelius and Q. Ser- vilius, quaestors, had impeached M. Volscius, for hav- ing appeared an undoubtedly false witness against Kseso. For it was notorious by many informations, that not only had not Volscius' brother been ever seen in public, since first he became ill, but that he had not even risen from his sick bed ; and that he died, after a wasting* distemper of many months : neither was Kseso seen at Rome, at the time at which the witness had alleged the commission of the crime : those who had served with him affirming, that then he had been with themselves, regularly attending at his post, without having obtained any leave of absence. Many in private stations, pro- posed to join issue with Volscius (offered Volscius judges, if the fact were not so,) in support of the fact. As he did not dare to go to trial, all these circumstan- ces concurring together, made the condemnation of Volscius no more uncertain, than Kseso's had been after the testimony of Volscius. The tribunes were retard- ing it, who affirmed they would not allow the quaestors to hold an assembly in the case of the defendant, unless it were first held on the subject of the law : thus both questions are protracted till the arrival of the consuls. When these entered the city in triumph with their vic- torious army, as silence was observed with respect to 200 LIVY. BOOK III. the law, great numbers believed that the tribunes were terrified. But the latter (for it was now the close of the year,) aspiring to a fourth tribuneship, had changed the subject of dispute from the law, to a discussion on the election ; and although the consuls had struggled against the continuation of the tribuneship (in the same hands) no less strenuously, than if the act proposed were introduced for the purpose of diminishing their own dignity, the victory in the contest was with the tribunes. 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