Читать книгу The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 - Livy - Страница 14

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T. Geganius and P. Minutius were next elected consuls. In this year, when every thing was quiet from war abroad, and the dissensions were healed at home, another much more serious evil fell upon the state; first a scarcity of provisions, in consequence of the lands lying untilled during the secession of the commons; then a famine such as befals those who are besieged. And it would have ended in the destruction of the slaves at least, and indeed some of the commons also, had not the consuls adopted precautionary measures, by sending persons in every direction to buy up corn, not only into Etruria on the coast to the right of Ostia, and through the Volscians along the coast on the left as far as Cumas, but into Sicily also, in quest of it. So far had the hatred of their neighbours obliged them to stand in need of aid from distant countries. When corn had been bought up at Cumæ, the ships were detained in lieu of the property of the Tarquinii by the tyrant Aristodemus, who was their heir. Among the Volsci and in the Pomptine territory it could not even be purchased. The corn dealers themselves incurred danger from the violence of the inhabitants. Corn came from Etruria by the Tiber: by means of this the people were supported. Amid this distressing scarcity they would have been harassed by a very inconvenient war, had not a dreadful pestilence attacked the Volsci when about to commence hostilities. The minds of the enemy being alarmed by this calamity, so that they were influenced by some terror, even after it had abated, the Romans both augmented the number of their colonists at Velitræ, and despatched a new colony to the mountains of Norba, to serve as a barrier in the Pomptine district. Then in the consulship of M. Minucius, and A. Sempronius, a great quantity of corn was imported from Sicily, and it was debated in the senate at what rate it should be given to the commons. Many were of opinion, that the time was come for putting down the commons, and for recovering those rights which had been wrested from the senators by secession and violence. In particular, Marcius Coriolanus, an enemy to tribunitian power, says, "If they desire the former rate of provisions, let them restore to the senators their former rights. Why do I, after being sent under the yoke, after being, as it were, ransomed from robbers, behold plebeian magistrates, and Sicinius invested with power? Shall I submit to these indignities longer than is necessary? Shall I, who would not have endured King Tarquin, tolerate Sicinius. Let him now secede, let him call away the commons. The road lies open to the sacred mount and to other hills. Let them carry off the corn from our lands, as they did three years since. Let them have the benefit of that scarcity which in their frenzy they have occasioned. I will venture to say, that, brought to their senses by these sufferings, they will themselves become tillers of the lands, rather than, taking up arms and seceding, they would prevent them from being tilled." It is not so easy to say whether it should have been done, as I think that it might have been practicable for the senators, on the condition of lowering the price of provisions, to have rid themselves of both the tribunitian power, and all the restraints imposed on them against their will.[89]

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This proposal both appeared to the senate too harsh, and from exasperation well nigh drove the people to arms: "that they were now assailed with famine, as if enemies, that they were defrauded of food and sustenance, that the foreign corn, the only support which fortune unexpectedly furnished to them, was being snatched from their mouth, unless the tribunes were given up in chains to C. Marcius, unless he glut his rage on the backs of the commons of Rome. That in him a new executioner had started up, who ordered them to die or be slaves." An assault would have been made on him as he left the senate-house, had not the tribunes very opportunely appointed him a day for trial; by this their rage was suppressed, every one saw himself become the judge, the arbiter of the life and death of his foe. At first Marcius heard the threats of the tribunes with contempt.—"That the right to afford aid, not to inflict punishment, had been granted to that office; that they were tribunes of the commons and not of the senators." But the commons had risen with such violent determination, that the senators were obliged to extricate themselves from danger by the punishment of one.[90] They resisted however, in spite of popular odium, and employed, each individual his own powers, and all those of the entire order. And first, the trial was made whether they could upset the affair, by posting their clients (in several places), by deterring individuals from attending meetings and cabals. Then they all proceeded in a body (you would suppose that all the senators were on their trial) earnestly entreating the commons, that if they would not acquit as innocent, they would at least pardon as guilty, one citizen, one senator. As he did not attend on the day appointed, they persevered in their resentment. Being condemned in his absence, he went into exile to the Volsci, threatening his country, and even then breathing all the resentment of an enemy. The Volsci received him kindly on his arrival, and treated him still more kindly every day in proportion as his resentful feelings towards his countrymen became more striking, and one time frequent complaints, another time threats were heard. He lodged with Attius Tullus. He was then the chief man of the Volscian people, and always a determined enemy of the Romans. Thus, when old animosity stimulated the one, recent resentment the other, they concert schemes for (bringing about) a war with Rome. They did not at once believe that their people could be persuaded to take up arms, so often unsuccessfully tried. That by the many frequent wars, and lastly, by the loss of their youth in the pestilence, their spirits were now broken; that they must have recourse to art, in a case where animosity had become blunted from length of time, that their feelings might become exasperated by some fresh cause of resentment.

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It happened that preparations were being made at Rome for a repetition of the[91]great games; the cause of repeating them was this: on the morning of the games, the show not yet being commenced, a master of a family, after flogging his slave loaded with a neck-yoke, had driven him through the middle of the circus; after this the games were commenced, as if that circumstance bore no relation to religion. Not long after it. Atinius, a plebeian, had a dream. Jupiter seemed to him to say; "that the person who danced previous to the games had displeased him; unless these games were renewed on a splendid scale, that the city would be in danger; that he should go and announce these things to the consuls." Though his mind was not altogether free from superstitious feelings, his respectful awe of the dignity of the magistrates overcame his religious fear, lest he might pass into the mouths of people as a laughing-stock. This delay cost him dear; for he lost his son within a few days; and lest the cause of this sudden calamity should be doubtful, that same phantom, presenting itself to him sorrowful in mind, seemed to ask him, whether he had received a sufficient requital for his contempt of the deity; that a still heavier one awaited him, unless he went immediately and delivered the message to the consuls. The matter was now still more pressing. Hesitating, however, and delaying he was at length overtaken by a severe stroke of disease, a sudden paralysis. Then indeed the anger of the gods aroused him. Wearied out therefore by his past sufferings and by those threatening him, having convened a meeting of his friends, after he had detailed to them all he had seen and heard, and Jupiter's having so often presented himself to him in his sleep, the threats and anger of heaven realized[92] in his own calamities, by the unhesitating assent of all who were present he is conveyed in a litter into the forum to the consuls; from thence being conveyed into the senate-house, after he had stated those same particulars to the senators, to the great surprise of all, behold another miracle: he who had been conveyed into the senate-house deprived of the use of all his limbs, is recorded to have returned home on his own feet after he discharged his duty.

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The senate decreed that the games should be celebrated on as grand a scale as possible. To these games a great number of Volscians came by the advice of Attius Tullus. Before the games were commenced, Tullus, as had been concerted at home with Marcius, comes to the consuls. He tells them that there were matters on which he wished to treat with them in private concerning the commonwealth. All witnesses being removed, he says, "With reluctance I say that of my countrymen which is rather disparaging.[93] I do not however come to allege against them any thing as having been committed by them, but to guard against their committing any thing. The minds of our people are far more fickle than I could wish. We have felt that by many disasters; seeing that we are still preserved, not through our own deserts, but through your forbearance. There is now here a great multitude of Volscians. The games are going on; the city will be intent on the exhibition. I remember what has been committed in this city on a similar occasion by the youth of the Sabines. My mind shudders lest any thing should be committed inconsiderately and rashly. I considered, that these matters should be mentioned before-hand to you, consuls. With regard to myself, it is my determination to depart hence home immediately, lest, if present, I may be affected by the contagion of any word or deed." Having said this, he departed. When the consuls laid before the senate the matter, doubtful with respect to proof, though from credible authority, the authority more than the thing itself, as usually happens, urged them to adopt even needless precautions; and a decree of the senate being passed, that the Volscians should quit the city, criers are sent in different directions to order them all to depart before night. A great panic struck them at first as they ran about to their lodgings to carry away their effects. Afterwards, when setting out, indignation arose in their breasts: "that they, as if polluted with crime and contaminated, were driven away from the games, on festival days, from the converse in a manner of men and gods."

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As they went along in an almost continuous body, Tullus having preceded them to the fountain of Ferentina, accosting the chiefs among them according as each arrived, by asking questions and expressing indignation, he led both themselves, who greedily listened to language congenial[94] to their angry feelings, and through them the rest of the multitude, into a plain adjoining to the road. There having commenced an address after the manner of a public harangue, he says, "Though you were to forget the former ill treatment of the Roman people and the calamities of the nation of the Volsci, and all other such matters, with what feelings do you bear this outrage offered you to-day, whereon they have commenced their games by insulting us? Have you not felt that a triumph has been had over you this day? that you, when departing, were a spectacle to all, citizens, foreigners, so many neighbouring states? that your wives, your children were exhibited before the eyes of men? What do you suppose to have been the sentiments of those who heard the voice of the crier? what of those who saw you departing? what of those who met this ignominious cavalcade? what, except that we are identified with some enormous guilt by which we should profane the games, and render an expiation necessary; that for this reason we are driven away from the residences of these pious people, from their converse and meeting? what, does it not strike you that we still live because we hastened our departure? if this is a departure and not a flight. And do you not consider this to be the city of enemies, where if you had delayed a single day, you must have all died? War has been declared against you; to the heavy injury of those who declared it, if you are men." Thus, being both already charged with resentment, and incited (by this harangue) they went severally to their homes, and by instigating each his own state, they succeeded in making the entire Volscian nation revolt.

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The generals selected for that war by the unanimous choice of all the states were Attius Tullus and Caius Marcius; in the latter of whom their chief hope was reposed. And this hope he by no means disappointed: so that it clearly appeared that the Roman commonwealth was more powerful by reason of its generals than its army. Having marched to Circeii, he expelled from thence the Roman colonists, and delivered that city in a state of freedom to the Volscians. From thence passing across the country through by-roads into the Latin way, he deprived the Romans of their recently acquired towns, Satricum, Longula, Polusca, Corioli. He next retook Lavinium: he then took in succession Corbio, Vitellia, Trebia, Lavici, and Pedum: Lastly he marches from Pedum to the city,[95] and having pitched his camp at the Cluilian trenches five miles from the city, he from thence ravages the Roman territory, guards being sent among the devastators to preserve the lands of the patricians intact; whether as being incensed chiefly against the plebeians, or in order that dissension might arise between the senators and the people. And this certainly would have arisen, so powerfully did the tribunes, by inveighing against the leading men of the state, incite the plebeians, already sufficiently violent of themselves; but their apprehensions of the foe, the strongest bond of concord, united their minds, distrustful and rancorous though they were. The only matter not agreed on was this, that the senate and consuls rested their hopes on nothing else than on arms; the plebeians preferred any thing to war. Sp. Nautius and Sex. Furius were now consuls. Whilst they were reviewing the legions, posting guards along the walls and other places where they had determined that there should be posts and watches, a vast multitude of persons demanding peace terrified them first by their seditious clamour; then compelled them to convene the senate, to consider the question of sending ambassadors to C. Marcius. The senate entertained the question, when it became evident that the spirits of the plebeians were giving way, and ambassadors being sent to Marcius concerning peace, brought back a harsh answer: "If their lands were restored to the Volscians, that they might then consider the question of peace; if they were disposed to enjoy the plunder of war at their ease, that he, mindful both of the injurious treatment of his countrymen, as well as of the kindness of strangers, would do his utmost to make it appear that his spirit was irritated by exile, not crushed." When the same persons are sent back a second time, they are not admitted into the camp. It is recorded that the priests also, arrayed in their insignia, went as suppliants to the enemy's camp; and that they did not influence his mind more than the ambassadors.

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Then the matrons assemble in a body around Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether that was the result of public counsel, or of the women's fear, I cannot ascertain. They certainly carried their point that Veturia, a lady advanced in years, and Volumnia, leading her two sons by Marcius, should go into the camp of the enemy, and that women should defend by entreaties and tears a city which men were unable to defend by arms. When they reached the camp, and it was announced to Coriolanus, that a great body of women were approaching, he, who had been moved neither by the majesty of the state in its ambassadors, nor by the sanctity of religion so strikingly addressed to his eyes and understanding in its priests, was much more obdurate against the women's tears. Then one of his acquaintances, who recognised Veturia, distinguished from all the others by her sadness, standing between her daughter-in-law and grand-children, says, "Unless my eyes deceive me, your mother, children, and wife, are approaching." When Coriolanus, almost like one bewildered, rushing in consternation from his seat, offered to embrace his mother as she met him, the lady, turning from entreaties to angry rebuke, says, "Before I receive your embrace, let me know whether I have come to an enemy or to a son; whether I am in your camp a captive or a mother? Has length of life and a hapless old age reserved me for this—to behold you an exile, then an enemy? Could you lay waste this land, which gave you birth and nurtured you? Though you had come with an incensed and vengeful mind, did not your resentment subside when you entered its frontiers? When Rome came within view, did it not occur to you, within these walls my house and guardian gods are, my mother, wife, and children? So then, had I not been a mother, Rome would not be besieged: had I not a son, I might have died free in a free country. But I can now suffer nothing that is not more discreditable to you than distressing to me; nor however wretched I may be, shall I be so long. Look to these, whom, if you persist, either an untimely death or lengthened slavery awaits." Then his wife and children embraced him: and the lamentation proceeding from the entire crowd of women, and their bemoaning themselves and their country, at length overcame the man; then, after embracing his family, he sends them away; he moved his camp farther back from the city. Then, after he had drawn off his troops from the Roman territory, they say that he lost his life, overwhelmed by the odium of the proceeding: different writers say by different modes of death: I find in Fabius, far the most ancient writer, that he lived even to old age; he states positively, that advanced in years he made use of this phrase, "That exile bore much heavier on the old man." The men of Rome were not remiss in awarding their praises to the women, so truly did they live without detracting from the merit of others; a temple was built also and dedicated to female Fortune, to serve as a monument. The Volscians afterwards returned in conjunction with the Æqui into the Roman territory: but the Æqui would no longer have Attius Tullus as their leader; hence from dispute, whether the Volscians or the Æqui should give a general to the allied army, a sedition, and afterwards a furious battle arose. There the good fortune of the Roman people destroyed the two armies of the enemy, by a contest no less bloody than obstinate. T. Sicinius and C. Aquillius were made consuls. The Volsci fell as a province to Sicinius; the Hernici (for they too were in arms) to Aquillius. That year the Hernici were defeated; they came off with respect to the Volscians on equal terms.

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Sp. Cassius and Proculus Virginius were next made consuls; a treaty was struck with the Hernici; two-thirds of their land were taken from them: of this the consul Cassius was about to distribute one half among the Latins, the other half among the commons. To this donation he was adding a considerable portion of land, which, though public property, he alleged was possessed by private individuals. This proceeding alarmed several of the senators, the actual possessors, at the danger of their property; the senators felt, moreover, a solicitude on public grounds, that the consul by his donation was establishing an influence dangerous to liberty. Then, for the first time, the Agrarian law was proposed, which even down to our own recollection was never agitated without the greatest commotions in the state. The other consul resisted the donation, the senators seconding him, nor were all the commons opposed to him; they had at first begun to despise a gift which was extended from citizens to allies: in the next place they frequently heard the consul Virginius in the assemblies as it were prophesying—"that the gift of his colleague was pestilential—that those lands were sure to bring slavery to those who should receive them; that the way was paving to a throne." For why was it that the allies were included, and the Latin nation? What was the object of a third of the land that had been taken being given back to the Hernici so lately our enemies, except that instead of Coriolanus being their leader they may have Cassius? The dissuader and opposer of the agrarian law now began to be popular. Both consuls then vied with each other in humouring the commons. Virginius said that he would suffer the lands to be assigned, provided they were assigned to no one but to a Roman citizen. Cassius, because in the agrarian donation he sought popularity among the allies, and was therefore lowered in the estimation of his countrymen, in order that by another donation he might conciliate their affections, ordered that the money received for the Sicilian corn should be refunded to the people. That indeed the people rejected as nothing else than a present bribe for regal authority: so strongly were his gifts spurned in the minds of men, as if they possessed every thing in abundance, in consequence of their inveterate suspicions of his aiming at sovereign power. As soon as he went out of office, it is certain that he was condemned and put to death. There are some who represent his father as the person who inflicted the punishment: that he, having tried him at home, scourged him and put him to death, and consecrated his son's private property to Ceres; that out of this a statue was set up and inscribed, "given from the Cassian family." In some authors I find it stated, and that is more probable, that a day of trial was assigned him for high treason, by the questors, Kæso Fabius and Lucius Valerius; and that he was condemned by the decision of the people; that his house was demolished by a public decree: this is the area before the temple of Tellus. But whether that trial was private or public, he was condemned in the consulship of Ser. Cornelius and Q. Fabius.

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The resentment of the people against Cassius was not of long duration. The allurements of the agrarian law, now that its proposer was gone, were of themselves gaining ground in their minds; and this feeling was further heightened by the parsimonious conduct of the senators, who, the Volsci and Æqui having been defeated that year, defrauded the soldiers of the booty; whatever was taken from the enemy, the consul Fabius sold, and lodged the proceeds in the treasury. The Fabian name was odious to the commons on account of the last consul: the senate however succeeded in having Kæso Fabius elected consul with L. Æmilius. The commons, still further incensed at this, stirred up foreign war by exciting disturbance at home; civil dissensions were then interrupted by war. The senators and commons uniting, under the conduct of Æmilius, conquered in battle the Volsci and Æqui who renewed hostilities. The retreat, however, destroyed more of the enemy than the battle; so perseveringly did the horse pursue them when routed. During the same year, on the ides of July, the temple of Castor was dedicated: it had been vowed during the Latin war in the dictatorship of Posthumius: his son, who was elected duumvir for that special purpose, dedicated it. In that year also the minds of the people were excited by the charms of the agrarian law. The tribunes of the people were for enhancing the popular power (vested in them) by promoting the popular law. The senators, considering that there was enough and more than enough of frenzy in the multitude without any additional incitement, viewed with horror largesses and all inducements to temerity: the senators found in the consuls most energetic abettors in making resistance. That portion of the commonwealth therefore prevailed; and not for the present only, but for the forthcoming year they succeeded in bringing in M. Fabius, Kæso's brother, as consul, and one still more detested by the commons for his persecution of Sp. Cassius, L. Valerius. In that year also there was a contest with the tribunes. The law proved to be a vain project, and the abettors of the law mere boasters, by their holding out a gift that was not realized. The Fabian name was from thence held in high repute, after three successive consulates, and all as it were uniformly exercised in contending with the tribunes; accordingly, the honour remained for a considerable time in that family, as being right well placed. A Veientian war was then commenced; the Volscians, too, renewed hostilities; but for foreign wars their strength was almost more than sufficient, and they abused it by contending among themselves. To the distracted state of the public mind were added prodigies from heaven, exhibiting almost daily threats in the city and in the country, and the soothsayers, consulted by the state and by private individuals, one while by means of entrails, another by birds, declared that there was no other cause for the divine anger, but that the ceremonies of religion were not duly attended to. These terrors, however, terminated in this, that Oppia, a vestal virgin, being found guilty of a breach of chastity, was made to suffer punishment.

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Quintus Fabius and C. Julius were then made consuls. During this year the dissension at home was not abated, and the war abroad was more desperate. Arms were taken up by the Æquans; the Veientes also entered the territory of the Romans committing devastations; the solicitude about which wars increasing, Kæso Fabius and Sp. Fusius are created consuls. The Æqui were laying siege to Ortona, a Latin city. The Veientes, now satiated with plunder, threatened that they would besiege Rome itself. Which terrors, when they ought to assuage, increased still further the bad feelings of the commons: and the custom of declining the military service was now returning, not of their own accord; but Sp. Licinius, a tribune of the people, thinking that the time was come for forcing the agrarian law on the patricians by extreme necessity, had taken on him the task of obstructing the military preparations. But all the odium of the tribunitian power was turned on the author; nor did the consuls rise up against him more zealously than his own colleagues; and by their assistance the consuls hold the levy. An army is raised for the two wars at the same time; one is given to Fabius to be led against the Æqui, the other to Furius against the Veientians. And with respect to the Veientians, nothing was done worthy of mention. Fabius had much more trouble with his countrymen than with the enemy: that one man himself, as consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was betraying, far as in them lay, through their hatred of the consul. For when the consul, in addition to his other military talents, which he exhibited amply in his preparations for and conduct of war, had so drawn up his line that he routed the enemy's army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue them when routed: and though the exhortation of their general, whom they hated, could not move them, neither could even their own infamy, and the present public disgrace and subsequent danger, if the enemy should recover courage, oblige them to quicken their pace, or even to stand in order of battle, if nothing else. Without orders they face about, and with a sorrowful air (you would suppose them beaten) they return to the camp, execrating at one time their general, at another time the services rendered by the cavalry. Nor were any remedies sought by the general for this so pestilent an example; so true is it that the most distinguished talents are more likely to be deficient in the tact of managing their countrymen than in that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to Rome, not having so much increased his military glory as irritated and exasperated the hatred of his soldiers towards him. The patricians, however, succeeded in having the consulship remain in the Fabian family. They elect M. Fabius consul: Cn. Manlius is assigned as a colleague to Fabius.

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This year also had a tribune as a proposer of the agrarian law. It was Titus Pontificius: he pursuing the same course, as if it had succeeded with Sp. Licinius, obstructed the levy for a little time. The patricians being once more perplexed, Appius Claudius asserts "that the tribunitian power was put down last year: for the present by the very act, for the future by the precedent established, and since it was found that it could be rendered ineffective by its own strength; for that there never would be wanting a tribune who would both be willing to obtain a victory for himself over his colleague, and the favour of the better party by advancing the public weal. That both a plurality of tribunes, if there were need of such plurality, would be ready to assist the consuls; and that even one would be sufficient against all. Only let the consuls and leading members of the senate take care to gain over, if not all, at least some of the tribunes, to the commonwealth and the senate." The senators, convinced by the counsels of Appius, both collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and civility, and the men of consular rank, according as each possessed personal influence over them individually, partly by conciliation, partly by authority, prevailed so far as to make them consent that the powers of the tribunitian office should be beneficial to the state; and by the aid of four tribunes against one obstructor of the public good, the consuls complete the levy. They then set out to the Veientian war, to which auxiliaries had flocked from all parts of Etruria, collected not so much for the sake of the Veientians, as because they had formed a hope that the Roman state might be destroyed by internal discord. And in the councils of all the states of Etruria the leading men openly stated, "that the Roman power was eternal, unless they were distracted by disturbances among themselves. That this was the only poison, this the bane discovered for powerful states, to render great empires mortal. That this evil, a long time retarded, partly by the wise measures of the patricians, partly by the forbearance of the commons, had now proceeded to extremities. That two states were now formed out of one: that each party had its own magistrates, its own laws. That though at first they were accustomed to be turbulent during the levies, still that these same individuals had ever been obedient to their commanders during war; that military discipline being still retained, no matter what might be the state of the city, it had been possible to withstand the evil; that now the custom of not obeying their superior followed the Roman soldier even to the camp. That in the last war in the very field, in the very heat of battle, by consent of the army the victory was voluntarily surrendered to the vanquished Æqui: that the standards were deserted, the general abandoned on the field, and that the army had returned to the camp without orders. That without doubt, if perseverance were used, Rome might be conquered by her own soldiery. That nothing else was necessary than to declare and make a show of war: that the fates and the gods would of themselves manage the rest." These hopes had armed the Etrurians, who in many vicissitudes had been vanquished and victors.

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The Roman consuls also dreaded nothing else, than their own strength, and their own arms. The recollection of the destructive precedent set in the last war, deterred them from bringing matters to such a pass as that they should have to fear two armies at the same time. Accordingly they kept within their camp, avoiding this double danger: "that delay and time itself would soften down resentment, and bring a right way of thinking to their minds." The Veientian enemy and the Etrurians proceeded with so much the greater precipitation; they provoked them to battle, first riding up to the camp and challenging them; at length, when they produced no effect by reviling as well the consuls themselves as the army, they stated, "that the pretence of internal dissension was assumed as a cloak for this cowardice; and that the consuls distrusted as much the courage as the obedience of their soldiers. That silence and inaction among men in arms were a novel form of sedition." Besides this they threw out reproaches, both true as well as false, on the upstart quality of their race and origin. Whilst they vociferated these reproaches beneath the very rampart and gates, the consuls bore them without impatience: but at one time indignation, at another time shame, distracted the breasts of the ignorant multitude, and diverted their attention from intestine evils; they were unwilling that the enemy should come off unpunished; they were unwilling that success should accrue to the patricians or the consuls; foreign and domestic hatred struggled for mastery in their breasts; at length the former prevail, so haughtily and insolently did the enemy revile them; they crowd in a body to the general's tent; they demand battle, they require that the signal be given. The consuls confer together as if to deliberate; they continue the conference for a long time; they were desirous of fighting, but that desire must be checked and concealed, that by opposition and delay they might increase the ardour of the soldiery once roused. An answer is returned, "that the matter in question was premature, that it was not yet time for fighting: that they should keep within their camp." They then issue a proclamation, "that they should abstain from fighting; that if any one fought without orders, they should punish him as an enemy." When they were thus dismissed, their eagerness for fighting increases in proportion as they think that the consuls were less disposed for it; the enemies moreover come up much more insolently, as soon as it was known that the consuls had determined not to fight. For they supposed "that they might insult them with impunity; that their arms were not intrusted to the soldiery. That the matter would explode in a violent mutiny; that a termination had come to the Roman empire." Relying on these hopes, they run up to the gates, heap reproaches on them, with difficulty refrain from assaulting the camp. Now indeed the Romans could no longer endure these insults; they crowd from every quarter of the camp to the consuls: they no longer, as formerly, make their demand with reserve, through the mediation of the centurions of the first rank; but all proceed indiscriminately with loud clamours. The affair was now ripe; still they put it off. Fabius then, his colleague giving way in consequence of his dread of mutiny being now augmented by the uproar, after he had commanded silence by sound of trumpet, says, "that these men are able to conquer, Cneius Manlius, I know; that they are willing they themselves have prevented me from knowing. It is therefore resolved and determined not to give the signal, unless they swear that they will return victorious from this battle. The soldier has once deceived the Roman consul in the field, the gods he never will deceive." There was a centurion, Marcus Flavoleius, one of the foremost in demanding battle; he says, "M. Fabius, I will return victorious from the field." If he deceived, he invokes the anger of father Jove, Mars Gradivus, and of the other gods. After him the entire army severally take the same oath. The signal is given to them when sworn; they take up arms, go into battle, full of rage and of hope. They bid the Etrurians now to cast their reproaches; they severally require that the enemy, once so ready with the tongue, should now stand before them armed as they were. On that day the bravery of all, both commons and patricians, was extraordinary: the Fabian name, the Fabian race shone forth most conspicuous: they are determined to recover in that battle the affections of the commons, which during many civil contests had been alienated from them. The line of battle is formed; nor do the Veientian foe and the Etrurian legions decline the contest.

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An almost certain hope was entertained that they would no more fight with them than they had done with the Æqui; that even some more serious attempt was not to be despaired of, considering the irritated state of their feelings, and the very critical occasion. The affair turned out altogether differently; for never before in any other war did the Roman soldiers enter the field with more determined minds (so much had the enemy exasperated them by taunts on the one hand, and the consuls by delay on the other). The Etrurians had scarcely time to form their ranks, when the javelins having been thrown away at random, in the first hurry, rather than discharged with aim, the battle had now come to close fighting, even to swords, where the fury of war is most desperate. Among the foremost the Fabian family was distinguished for the sight it afforded and the example it presented to their fellow citizens; one of these, Q. Fabius, (he had been consul two years before,) as he was advancing at the head of his men against a dense body of Veientians, and whilst engaged amid numerous parties of the enemy, and therefore not prepared for it, was transfixed with a sword through the breast by a Tuscan who presumed on his bodily strength and skill in arms: on the weapon being extracted, Fabius fell forward on the wound. Both armies felt the fall of this one man, and the Roman began in consequence to give way, when the consul Marcus Fabius leaped over the body as it lay, and holding up his buckler, said, "Is this what you swore, soldiers, that you would return to the camp in flight? are you thus more afraid of your most dastardly enemies, than of Jupiter and Mars, by whom you have sworn? But I who have not sworn will either return victorious, or will fall fighting here beside thee, Q. Fabius." Then Kæso Fabius, the consul of the preceding year, says to the consul, "Brother, is it by these words you think you will prevail on them to fight? the gods by whom they have sworn will prevail on them. Let us also, as men of noble birth, as is worthy of the Fabian name, enkindle the courage of the soldiers by fighting rather than by exhorting." Thus the two Fabii rush forward to the front with presented spears, and brought on with them the whole line.

47

The battle being restored on one side, Cn. Manlius, the consul, with no less ardour, encouraged the fight on the other wing. Where an almost similar result took place; for as the soldiers undauntedly followed Q. Fabius on the one wing, so did they follow Manlius on this, as he was driving the enemy now nearly routed, and when he, having received a severe wound, retired from the battle, they fell back, supposing that he was slain, and would have given way, had not the other consul, galloping at full speed to that quarter with some troops of horse, supported their drooping energies, crying out that his colleague was still alive, that he himself was now come victorious, having routed the other wing. Manlius also shows himself to restore the battle. The well-known voices of the two consuls rekindle the courage of the soldiers; at the same time too the enemy's line was now weakened, whilst, relying on their superior numbers, they draw off their reserve and send them to storm the camp. This being assaulted without much resistance, whilst they lose time in attending to plunder rather than to fighting, the Roman triarii,[96] who had not been able to sustain the first shock, having sent an account to the consuls of the present position of affairs, return in a compact body to the Prætorium, and of themselves renew the battle. The consul Manlius also having returned to the camp, and posted soldiers at all the gates, had blocked up every passage against the enemy. This desperate situation aroused the fury rather than the bravery of the Etrurians; for when rushing on wherever hope held out the prospect of escape, they had frequently advanced with fruitless efforts; one body of young men makes an attack on the consul himself, conspicuous from his arms. The first weapons were intercepted by those who stood around him; afterwards their force could not be sustained. The consul falls, having received a mortal wound, and all around him are dispersed. The courage of the Etrurians rises. Terror drives the Romans in dismay through the entire camp; and matters would have come to extremities, had not the lieutenant-generals, hastily seizing the body of the consul, opened a passage for the enemy at one gate. Through this they rush out; and going away in the utmost disorder, they fall in with the other consul who had been victorious; there again they are slain and routed in every direction. A glorious victory was obtained, saddened however by two so illustrious deaths. The consul, therefore, on the senate voting him a triumph, replied, that "if the army could triumph without their general, he would readily accede to it in consideration of their distinguished behaviour in that war: that for his own part, his family being plunged in grief in consequence of the death of his brother Q. Fabius, and the commonwealth being in some degree bereaved by the loss of one of her consuls, he would not accept the laurel blasted by public and private grief." The triumph thus resigned was more distinguished than any triumph actually enjoyed; so true it is, that glory refused in due season sometimes returns with accumulated lustre. He next celebrates the two funerals of his colleague and brother, one after the other, he himself acting as panegyrist in the case of both, when by ascribing to them his own deserts, he himself obtained the greatest share of them. And not unmindful of that which he had conceived at the commencement of his consulate, namely, the regaining the affection of the people, he distributes the wounded soldiers among the patricians to be cured. Most of them were given to the Fabii: nor were they treated with greater attention in any other place. From this time the Fabii began to be popular, and that not by any practices except such as were beneficial to the state.

48

Accordingly Kæso Fabius, having been elected consul with T. Virginius not more with the zealous wishes of the senators than of the commons, attended neither to wars, nor levies, nor any other object, until the hope of concord being now in some measure commenced, the feelings of the commons might be consolidated with those of the senators as soon as possible. Wherefore at the commencement of the year he proposed: "that before any tribune should stand forth as an abettor of the agrarian law, the patricians themselves should be beforehand with them in performing their duty; that they should distribute among the commons the land taken from the enemy in as equal a proportion as possible; that it was but just that those should obtain it, by whose blood and sweat it was obtained." The patricians rejected the proposal with scorn; some even complained that the once brilliant talents of Kæso were now becoming wanton, and were waning through excess of glory. There were afterwards no factions in the city. The Latins were harassed by the incursions of the Æqui. Kæso being sent thither with an army, passes into the very territory of the Æqui to depopulate it. The Æqui retired into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that account no battle worth mentioning was fought. But a blow was received from the Veientian foe through the temerity of the other consul; and the army would have been all cut off, had not Kæso Fabius come to their assistance in time. From that time there was neither peace nor war with the Veientians; their proceedings had now come very near to the form of that of brigands. They retired from the Roman troops into the city; when they perceived that the troops were drawn off, they made incursions into the country, alternately evading war by quiet, quiet by war. Thus the matter could neither be dropped altogether, nor brought to a conclusion; and other wars were impending either at the moment, as from the Æqui and Volsci, who remained inactive no longer than until the recent smart of their late disaster should pass away; or it was evident that the Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria would put themselves in motion: but the Veientians, a constant rather than a formidable enemy, kept their minds in constant uneasiness by their insults more frequently than by any danger apprehended from them; a matter which could at no time be neglected, and which suffered them not to direct their attention to any other object. Then the Fabian family addressed the senate; the consul speaks in the name of the family: "Conscript fathers, the Veientian war requires, as you know, a constant rather than a strong force. Do you attend to other wars: assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientians. We pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in that quarter. That war, as the property of our family, it is our determination to conduct at our own private expense. Let the republic be spared the expense of soldiers and money there." The warmest thanks were returned to them. The consul, leaving the senate-house, accompanied by the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in the porch of the senate-house, returned home. Being ordered to attend on the following day in arms at the consul's gate, they retire to their homes.