Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
danger and were conscious of no fault. Which arts, though they could
not dispossess Camillus of the conviction he had of their treason, yet
induced some compassion for their repentance; he commanded them to go to
the senate and deprecate their anger, and joined himself as an
intercessor in their behalf, so that their city was acquitted of all
guilt and admitted to Roman citizenship, These were the most memorable
actions of his sixth tribuneship.
After these things, Licinius Stolo raised a great sedition in the city,
and brought the people to dissension with the senate, contending, that
of two consuls one should be chosen out of the commons, and not both out
of the patricians. Tribunes of the people were chosen, but the election
of consuls was interrupted and prevented by the people. And as this
absence of any supreme magistrate was leading to yet further confusion,
Camillus was the fourth time created dictator by the senate, sorely
against the people's will, and not altogether in accordance with his
own; he had little desire for a conflict with men whose past services
entitled them to tell him that he had achieved far greater actions in
war along with them than in politics with the patricians, who, indeed,
had only put him forward now out of envy; that, if successful, he might
crush the people, or, failing, be crushed himself. However, to provide
as good a remedy as he could for the present, knowing the day on which
the tribunes of the people intended to prefer the law, he appointed it
by proclamation for a general muster, and called the people from the
forum into the Campus, threatening to set heavy fines upon such as
should not obey. On the other side, the tribunes of the people met his
threats by solemnly protesting they would fine him in fifty thousand
drachmas of silver, if he persisted in obstructing the people from
giving their suffrages for the law. Whether it were, then, that he
feared another banishment or condemnation which would ill become his age
and past great actions, or found himself unable to stem the current of
the multitude, which ran strong and violent, he betook himself, for the
present, to his house, and afterwards, for some days together,
professing sickness, finally laid down his dictatorship. The senate
created another dictator; who, choosing Stolo, leader of the sedition,
to be his general of horse, suffered that law to be enacted and
ratified, which was most grievous to the patricians, namely, that no
person whatsoever should possess above five hundred acres of land.
Stolo was much distinguished by the victory he had gained; but, not long
after, was found himself to possess more than he had allowed to others,
and suffered the penalties of his own law.
And now the contention about election of consuls coming on (which was
the main point and original cause of the dissension, and had throughtout
furnished most matter of division between the senate and the people),
certain intelligence arrived, that the Gauls again, proceeding from the
Adriatic Sea, were marching in vast numbers upon Rome. On the very
heels of the report followed manifest acts also of hostility; the
country through which they marched was all wasted, and such as by flight
could not make their escape to Rome were dispersing and scattering among
the mountains. The terror of this war quieted the sedition; nobles and
commons, senate and people together, unanimously chose Camillus the
fifth time dictator; who, though very aged, not wanting much of
fourscore years, yet, considering the danger and necessity of his
country, did not, as before, pretend sickness, or depreciate his own
capacity, but at once undertook the charge, and enrolled soldiers. And,
knowing that the great force of the barbarians lay chiefly in their
swords, with which they laid about them in a rude and inartificial
manner, hacking and hewing the head and shoulders, he caused head-pieces
entire of iron to be made for most of his men, smoothing and polishing
the outside, that the enemy's swords, lighting upon them, might either
slide off or be broken; and fitted also their shields with a little rim
of brass, the wood itself not being sufficient to bear off the blows.
Besides, he taught his soldiers to use their long javelins in close
encounter, and, by bringing them under their enemy's swords, to receive
their strokes upon them.
When the Gauls drew near, about the river Anio, dragging a heavy camp
after them, and loaded with infinite spoil, Camillus drew forth his
forces, and planted himself upon a hill of easy ascent, and which had
many dips in it, with the object that the greatest part of his army
might lie concealed, and those who appeared might be thought to have
betaken themselves, through fear, to those upper grounds. And the more
to increase this opinion in them, he suffered them, without any
disturbance, to spoil and pillage even to his very trenches, keeping
himself quiet within his works, which were well fortified; till, at
last, perceiving that part of the enemy were scattered about the country
foraging, and that those that were in the camp did nothing day and night
but drink and revel, in the nighttime he drew up his lightest-armed
men, and sent them out before to impede the enemy while forming into
order, and to harass them when they should first issue out of their
camp; and early in the morning brought down his main body, and set them
in battle array in the lower grounds, a numerous and courageous army,
not, as the barbarians had supposed, an inconsiderable and fearful
division. The first thing that shook the courage of the Gauls was, that
their enemies had, contrary to their expectation, the honor of being
aggressors. In the next place, the light-armed men, falling upon them
before they could get into their usual order or range themselves in
their proper squadrons, so disturbed and pressed upon them, that they
were obliged to fight at random, without any order at all. But at last,
when Camillus brought on his heavy-armed legions, the barbarians, with
their swords drawn, went vigorously to engage them; the Romans, however,
opposing their javelins and receiving the force of their blows on those
parts of their defenses which were well guarded with steel, turned the
edge of their weapons, being made of a soft and ill-tempered metal, so
that their swords bent and doubled up in their hands; and their shields
were pierced through and through, and grew heavy with the javelins that
stuck upon them. And thus forced to quit their own weapons, they
endeavored to take advantage of those of their enemies, laid hold of the
javelins with their hands, and tried to pluck them away. But the
Romans, perceiving them now naked and defenseless, betook themselves to
their swords, which they so well used, that in a little time great
slaughter was made in the foremost ranks, while the rest fled over all
parts of the level country; the hills and upper grounds Camillus had
secured beforehand, and their camp they knew it would not be difficult
for the enemy to take, as, through confidence of victory, they had left
it unguarded. This fight, it is stated, was thirteen years after the
sacking of Rome; and from henceforward the Romans took courage, and
surmounted the apprehensions they had hitherto entertained of the
barbarians, whose previous defeat they had attributed rather to
pestilence and a concurrence of mischances than to their own superior
valor. And, indeed, this fear had been formerly so great, that they
made a law, that priests should be excused from service in war, unless
in an invasion from the Gauls.
This was the last military action that ever Camillus performed; for the
voluntary surrender of the city of the Velitrani was but a mere
accessory to it. But the greatest of all civil contests, and the
hardest to be managed, was still to be fought out against the people;
who, returning home full of victory and success, insisted, contrary to
established law, to have one of the consuls chosen out of their own
body. The senate strongly opposed it, and would not suffer Camillus to
lay down his dictatorship, thinking, that, under the shelter of his
great name and authority, they should be better able to contend for the
power of the aristocracy. But when Camillus was sitting upon the
tribunal, dispatching public affairs, an officer, sent by the tribunes
of the people, commanded him to rise and follow him, laying his hand
upon him, as ready to seize and carry him away; upon which, such a noise
and tumult as was never heard before, filled the whole forum; some that
were about Camillus thrusting the officer from the bench, and the
multitude below calling out to him to bring Camillus down. Being at a
loss what to do in these difficulties, he yet laid not down his
authority, but, taking the senators along with him, he went to the
senate-house; but before he entered, besought the gods that they would
bring these troubles to a happy conclusion, solemnly vowing, when the
tumult was ended, to build a temple to Concord. A great conflict of
opposite opinions arose in the senate; but, at last, the most moderate
and most acceptable to the people prevailed, and consent was given, that
of two consuls, one should be chosen from the commonalty. When the
dictator proclaimed this determination of the senate to the people, at
the moment, pleased and reconciled with the senate, as indeed could not
otherwise be, they accompanied Camillus home, with all expressions and
acclamations of joy; and the next day, assembling together, they voted a
temple of Concord to be built, according to Camillus's vow, facing the
assembly and the forum; and to the feasts, called the Latin holidays,
they added one day more, making four in all; and ordained that, on the
present occasion, the whole people of Rome should sacrifice with
garlands on their heads.
In the election of consuls held by Camillus, Marcus Aemilius was chosen
of the patricians, and Lucius Sextius the first of the commonalty; and
this was the last of all Camillus's actions. In the year following, a
pestilential sickness infected Rome, which, besides an infinite number
of the common people, swept away most of the magistrates, among whom was
Camillus; whose death cannot be called immature, if we consider his
great age, or greater actions, yet was he more lamented than all the
rest put together that then died of that distemper.
PERICLES
Caesar once, seeing some wealthy strangers at Rome, carrying up and
down with them in their arms and bosoms young puppy-dogs and monkeys,
embracing and making much of them, took occasion not unnaturally to ask
whether the women in their country were not used to bear children; by
that prince-like reprimand gravely reflecting upon persons who spend and
lavish upon brute beasts that affection and kindness which nature has
implanted in us to be bestowed on those of our own kind. With like
reason may we blame those who misuse that love of inquiry and
observation which nature has implanted in our souls, by expending it on
objects unworthy of the attention either of their eyes or their ears,
while they disregard such as are excellent in themselves, and would do
them good.
The mere outward sense, being passive in responding to the impression of
the objects that come in its way and strike upon it, perhaps cannot help
entertaining and taking notice of everything that addresses it, be it
what it will, useful or unuseful; but, in the exercise of his mental
perception, every man, if he chooses, has a natural power to turn
himself upon all occasions, and to change and shift with the greatest
ease to what he shall himself judge desirable. So that it becomes a
man's duty to pursue and make after the best and choicest of everything,