Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
dressed, run about, playing and jesting upon all they meet, and amongst
themselves, also, use a kind of skirmishing, to show they helped in the
conflict against the Latins; and while eating and drinking, they sit
shaded over with boughs of wild fig-tree, and the day they call Nonae
Caprotinae, as some think from that wild fig-tree on which the maid-
servant held up her torch, the Roman name for a wild fig-tree being
caprificus. Others refer most of what is said or done at this feast to
the fate of Romulus, for, on this day, he vanished outside the gates in
a sudden darkness and storm (some think it an eclipse of the sun), and
from this, the day was called Nonae Caprotinae, the Latin for a goat
being capra, and the place where he disappeared having the name of
Goat's Marsh, as is stated in his life.
But the general stream of writers prefer the other account of this war,
which they thus relate. Camillus, being the third time chosen dictator,
and learning that the army under the tribunes was besieged by the Latins
and Volscians, was constrained to arm, not only those under, but also
those over, the age of service; and taking a large circuit round the
mountain Maecius, undiscovered by the enemy, lodged his army on their
rear, and then by many fires gave notice of his arrival. The besieged,
encouraged by this, prepared to sally forth and join battle; but the
Latins and Volscians, fearing this exposure to an enemy on both sides,
drew themselves within their works, and fortified their camp with a
strong palisade of trees on every side, resolving to wait for more
supplies from home, and expecting, also, the assistance of the Tuscans,
their confederates. Camillus, detecting their object, and fearing to be
reduced to the same position to which he had brought them, namely, to be
besieged himself, resolved to lose no time; and finding their rampart
was all of timber, and observing that a strong wind constantly at sun-
rising blew off from the mountains, after having prepared a quantity of
combustibles, about break of day he drew forth his forces, commanding a
part with their missiles to assault the enemy with noise and shouting on
the other quarter, whilst he, with those that were to fling in the fire,
went to that side of the enemy's camp to which the wind usually blew,
and there waited his opportunity. When the skirmish was begun, and the
sun risen, and a strong wind set in from the mountains, he gave the
signal of onset; and, heaping in an infinite quantity of fiery matter,
filled all their rampart with it, so that the flame being fed by the
close timber and wooden palisades, went on and spread into all quarters.
The Latins, having nothing ready to keep it off or extinguish it, when
the camp was now almost full of fire, were driven back within a very
small compass, and at last forced by necessity to come into their
enemy's hands, who stood before the works ready armed and prepared to
receive them; of these very few escaped, while those that stayed in the
camp were all a prey to the fire, until the Romans, to gain the pillage,
extinguished it.
These things performed, Camillus, leaving his son Lucius in the camp to
guard the prisoners and secure the booty, passed into the enemy's
country, where, having taken the city of the Aequians and reduced the
Volscians to obedience, he then immediately led his army to Sutrium, not
having heard what had befallen the Sutrians, but making haste to assist
them, as if they were still in danger and besieged by the Tuscans.
They, however, had already surrendered their city to their enemies, and
destitute of all things, with nothing left but their clothes, met
Camillus on the way, leading their wives and children, and bewailing
their misfortune. Camillus himself was struck with compassion, and
perceiving the soldiers weeping, and commiserating their case, while the
Sutrians hung about and clung to them, resolved not to defer revenge,
but that very day to lead his army to Sutrium; conjecturing that the
enemy, having just taken a rich and plentiful city, without an enemy
left within it, nor any from without to be expected, would be found
abandoned to enjoyment and unguarded. Neither did his opinion fail him;
he not only passed through their country without discovery, but came up
to their very gates and possessed himself of the walls, not a man being
left to guard them, but their whole army scattered about in the houses,
drinking and making merry. Nay, when at last they did perceive that the
enemy had seized the city, they were so overloaded with meat and wine,
that few were able so much as to endeavor to escape, but either waited
shamefully for their death within doors, or surrendered themselves to
the conqueror. Thus the city of the Sutrians was twice taken in one
day; and they who were in possession lost it, and they who had lost
regained it, alike by the means of Camillus. For all which actions he
received a triumph, which brought him no less honor and reputation than
the two former ones; for those citizens who before most regarded him
with an evil eye, and ascribed his successes to a certain luck rather
than real merit, were compelled by these last acts of his to allow the
whole honor to his great abilities and energy.
Of all the adversaries and enviers of his glory, Marcus Manlius was the
most distinguished, he who first drove back the Gauls when they made
their night attack upon the Capitol, and who for that reason had been
named Capitolinus. This man, affecting the first place in the
commonwealth, and not able by noble ways to outdo Camillus's reputation,
took that ordinary course towards usurpation of absolute power, namely,
to gain the multitude, those of them especially that were in debt;
defending some by pleading their causes against their creditors,
rescuing others by force, and not suffering the law to proceed against
them; insomuch that in a short time he got great numbers of indigent
people about him, whose tumults and uproars in the forum struck terror
into the principal citizens. After that Quintius Capitolinus, who was
made dictator to suppress these disorders, had committed Manlius to
prison, the people immediately changed their apparel, a thing never done
but in great and public calamities, and the senate, fearing some tumult,
ordered him to be released. He, however, when set at liberty, changed
not his course, but was rather the more insolent in his proceedings,
filling the whole city with faction and sedition. They chose,
therefore, Camillus again military tribune; and a day being appointed
for Manlius to answer to his charge, the prospect from the place where
his trial was held proved a great impediment to his accusers; for the
very spot where Manlius by night fought with the Gauls overlooked the
forum from the Capitol, so that, stretching forth his hands that way,
and weeping, he called to their remembrance his past actions, raising
compassion in all that beheld him. Insomuch that the judges were at a
loss what to do, and several times adjourned the trial, unwilling to
acquit him of the crime, which was sufficiently proved, and yet unable
to execute the law while his noble action remained, as it were, before
their eyes. Camillus, considering this, transferred the court outside
the gates to the Peteline Grove, from whence there is no prospect of the
Capitol. Here his accuser went on with his charge, and his judges were
capable of remembering and duly resenting his guilty deeds. He was
convicted, carried to the Capitol, and flung headlong from the rock; so
that one and the same spot was thus the witness of his greatest glory,
and monument of his most unfortunate end. The Romans, besides, razed
his house, and built there a temple to the goddess they call Moneta,
ordaining for the future that none of the patrician order should ever
dwell on the Capitoline.
And now Camillus, being called to his sixth tribuneship, desired to be
excused, as being aged, and perhaps not unfearful of the malice of
fortune, and those reverses which seem to ensue upon great prosperity.
But the most apparent pretense was the weakness of his body, for he
happened at that time to be sick; the people, however, would admit of no
excuses, but, crying that they wanted not his strength for horse or for
foot service, but only his counsel and conduct, constrained him to
undertake the command, and with one of his fellow-tribunes to lead the
army immediately against the enemy. These were the Praenestines and
Volscians, who, with large forces, were laying waste the territory of
the Roman confederates. Having marched out with his army, he sat down
and encamped near the enemy, meaning himself to protract the war, or if
there should come any necessity or occasion of fighting, in the mean
time to regain his strength. But Lucius Furius, his colleague, carried
away with the desire of glory, was not to be held in, but, impatient to
give battle, inflamed the inferior officers of the army with the same
eagerness; so that Camillus, fearing he might seem out of envy to be
wishing to rob the young men of the glory of a noble exploit, consented,
though unwillingly, that he should draw out the forces, whilst himself,
by reason of weakness, stayed behind with a few in the camp. Lucius,
engaging rashly, was discomfited, when Camillus, perceiving the Romans
to give ground and fly, could not contain himself, but, leaping from his
bed, with those he had about him ran to meet them at the gates of the
camp, making his way through the flyers to oppose the pursuers; so that
those who had got within the camp turned back at once and followed him,
and those that came flying from without made head again and gathered
about him, exhorting one another not to forsake their general. Thus the
enemy for that time, was stopped in his pursuit. The next day Camillus
drawing out his forces and joining battle with them, overthrew them by
main force, and, following close upon them, entered pell-mell with them
into their camp and took it, slaying the greatest part of them.
Afterwards, having heard that the city Satricum was taken by the
Tuscans, and the inhabitants, all Romans, put to the sword, he sent home
to Rome the main body of his forces and heaviest-armed, and, taking
with him the lightest and most vigorous soldiers, set suddenly upon the
Tuscans, who were in the possession of the city, and mastered them,
slaying some and expelling the rest; and so, returning to Rome with
great spoils, gave signal evidence of their superior wisdom, who, not
mistrusting the weakness and age of a commander endued with courage and
conduct, had rather chosen him who was sickly and desirous to be
excused, than younger men who were forward and ambitious to command.
When, therefore, the revolt of the Tusculans was reported, they gave
Camillus the charge of reducing them, choosing one of his five
colleagues to go with him. And when every one was eager for the place,
contrary to the expectation of all, he passed by the rest and chose
Lucius Furius, the very same man who lately, against the judgment of
Camillus, had rashly hazarded and nearly lost a battle; willing, as it
should seem, to dissemble that miscarriage, and free him from the shame
of it. The Tusculans, hearing of Camillus's coming against them, made a
cunning attempt at revoking their act of revolt; their fields, as in
times of highest peace, were full of plowman and shepherds; their gates
stood wide open, and their children were being taught in the schools; of
the people, such as were tradesmen, he found in their workshops, busied
about their several employments, and the better sort of citizens walking
in the public places in their ordinary dress; the magistrates hurried
about to provide quarters for the Romans, as if they stood in fear of no