The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08

THE HISTORY OF ROME. BY TITUS LIVIUS. THE FIRST EIGHT BOOKS. LITERALLY TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY D. SPILLAN, A.M. M.D. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLIII. JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY PREFACE. In this new English version of the most elegant of the Roman historians, the object of the translator has been, to adhere as closely to the original text as is consistent with the idioms of the respective languages. But while thus providing more especially for the wants of the classical student, he has not been unmindful of the neatness and perspicuity required to satisfy the English reader. There have been several previous translations of our author, but the only one now before the public, or deserving of particular mention, is that by Baker, which is undoubtedly a very able performance, and had it been more faithful, would have rendered any other unnecessary. The edition used for the present translation is that published at Oxford under the superintendence of Travers Twiss, whose carefully revised text is by far the best extant. The few notes and illustrations which the limits of an edition in this popular form permit, are chiefly confined to the explanation of grammatical difficulties. Historical and antiquarian illustration is now so abundantly supplied by excellent Manuals and Dictionaries, that it has been deemed unnecessary to swell the present volumes by additions in that department. Among the manuals of Roman History which may most advantageously be used by the student, is Twiss's Epitome of Niebuhr, 2 vols. 8vo, a work frequently referred to in these pages. THE HISTORY OF ROME. BOOK I. _The coming of Æneas into Italy, and his achievements there; the reign of Ascanius in Alba, and of the other Sylvian kings. Romulus and Remus born. Amulius killed. Romulus builds Rome; forms a senate; makes war upon the Sabines; presents the_ opima spolia _to Jupiter Feretrius; divides the people into_ curiæ; _his victories; is deified. Numa institutes the rites of religious worship; builds a temple to Janus; and having made peace with all his neighbours, closes it for the first time; enjoys a peaceful reign, and is succeeded by Tullus Hostilius. War with the Albans; combat of the Horatii and Curiatii. Alba demolished, and the Albans made citizens of Rome. War declared against the Sabines; Tullus killed by lightning. Ancus Marcius renews the religious institutions of Numa; conquers the Latins, confers on them the right of citizenship, and assigns them the Aventine hill to dwell on; adds the hill Janiculum to the city; enlarges the bounds of the empire. In his reign Lucumo comes to Rome; assumes the name of Tarquinius; and, after the death of Ancus, is raised to the throne. He increases the senate, by adding to it a hundred new senators; defeats the Latins and Sabines; augments the centuries of knights; builds a wall round the city; makes the common sewers; is slain by the sons of Ancus after a reign of thirty-eight years; and is succeeded by Servius Tullius. He institutes the census; closes the lustrum, in which eighty thousand citizens are said to have been enrolled; divides the people into classes and centuries; enlarges the Pomœrium, and adds the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline hills to the city; after a reign of forty years, is murdered by L. Tarquin, afterwards surnamed Superbus. He usurps the crown. Tarquin makes war on the Volsci, and, with the plunder taken from them, builds a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. By a stratagem of his son, Sextus Tarquin, he reduces the city of Gabii; after a reign of twenty-five years is dethroned and banished, in consequence of the forcible violation of the person of Lucretia by his son Sextus. L. Junius Brutus and L. Tarquinius Collatinus first created consuls._ PREFACE. Whether in tracing the history of the Roman people, from the foundation of the city, I shall employ myself to a useful purpose,[1] I am neither very certain, nor, if I were, dare I say: inasmuch as I observe, that it is both an old and hackneyed practice,[2] later authors always supposing that they will either adduce something more authentic in the facts, or, that they will excel the less polished ancients in their style of writing. Be that as it may, it will, at all events, be a satisfaction to me, that I too have contributed my share[3] to perpetuate the achievements of a people, the lords of the world; and if, amidst so great a number of historians,[4] my reputation should remain in obscurity, I may console myself with the celebrity and lustre of those who shall stand in the way of my fame. Moreover, the subject is both of immense labour, as being one which must be traced back for more than seven hundred years, and which, having set out from small beginnings, has increased to such a degree that it is now distressed by its own magnitude. And, to most readers, I doubt not but that the first origin and the events immediately succeeding, will afford but little pleasure, while they will be hastening to these later times,[5] in which the strength of this overgrown people has for a long period been working its own destruction. I, on the contrary, shall seek this, as a reward of my labour, viz. to withdraw myself from the view of the calamities, which our age has witnessed for so many years, so long as I am reviewing with my whole attention these ancient times, being free from every care[6] that may distract a writer's mind, though it cannot warp it from the truth. The traditions which have come down to us of what happened before the building of the city, or before its building was contemplated, as being suitable rather to the fictions of poetry than to the genuine records of history, I have no intention either to affirm or refute. This indulgence is conceded to antiquity, that by blending things human with divine, it may make the origin of cities appear more venerable: and if any people might be allowed to consecrate their origin, and to ascribe it to the gods as its authors, such is the renown of the Roman people in war, that when they represent Mars, in particular, as their own parent and that of their founder, the nations of the world may submit to this as patiently as they submit to their sovereignty.--But in whatever way these and such like matters shall be attended to, or judged of, I shall not deem of great importance. I would have every man apply his mind seriously to consider these points, viz. what their life and what their manners were; through what men and by what measures, both in peace and in war, their empire was acquired[7] and extended; then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies. This it is which is particularly salutary and profitable in the study of history, that you behold instances of every variety of conduct displayed on a conspicuous monument; that from thence you may select for yourself and for your country that which you may imitate; thence _note_ what is shameful in the undertaking, and shameful in the result, which you may avoid. But either a fond partiality for the task I have undertaken deceives me, or there never was any state either greater, or more moral, or richer in good examples, nor one into which luxury and avarice made their entrance so late, and where poverty and frugality were so much and so long honoured; so that the less wealth there was, the less desire was there. Of late, riches have introduced avarice, and excessive pleasures a longing for them, amidst luxury and a passion for ruining ourselves and destroying every thing else. But let complaints, which will not be agreeable even then, when perhaps they will be also necessary, be kept aloof at least from the first stage of commencing so great a work. We should rather, if it was usual with us (historians) as it is with poets, begin with good omens, vows and prayers to the gods and goddesses to vouchsafe good success to our efforts in so arduous an undertaking. [Footnote 1: "Employ myself to a useful purpose,"--_facere operæ pretium_, "to do a thing that is worth the trouble,"--"to employ oneself to a good purpose."--See Scheller's Lat. Lexicon.] [Footnote 2: "A practice,"--_rem_.--Some, as Baker, refer it to _res populi R._ Others, as Stroth, to _res pop. Rom. perscribere_.] [Footnote 3: "My share,"--_pro virili parte_, or, "to the best of my ability."] [Footnote 4: "Historians."--Those mentioned by Livy himself are Q. Fabius Pictor, Valerius Antias, L. Piso, Q. Ælius Tubero, C. Licinius Macer, Cœlius, Polybius, etc.] [Footnote 5: "Hastening to these later times."--The history of the recent civil wars would possess a more intense interest for the Romans of the Augustan age.] [Footnote 6: "From every care,"--the fear of giving offence by expressing his opinions freely, and the sorrow, which, as a patriot, he could not but feel in recording the civil wars of his countrymen.] [Footnote 7: "Acquired."--This refers to the whole period antecedent to the time when Ap. Claudius carried the Roman arms beyond Italy against the Carthaginians; (2) _extended_, from that time till the fall of Carthage; (3) _sinking_, the times of the Gracchi; (4) _gave way more and more_, those of Sulla; (5) _precipitate_, those of Cæsar; (6) _the present times_, those of Augustus after the battle of Actium.--_Stocker._] CHAPTER I. Now first of all it is sufficiently established that, Troy having been taken, the utmost severity was shown to all the other Trojans; but that towards two, Æneas and Antenor, the Greeks forbore all the rights of war, both in accordance with an ancient tie of hospitality, and because they had ever been the advisers of peace, and of the restoration of Helen--then that Antenor after various vicissitudes came into the innermost bay of the Adriatic Sea, with a body of the Heneti, who having been driven from Paphlagonia in consequence of a civil commotion, were in quest both of a settlement and a leader, their king Pylæmenes having been lost at Troy; and that the Heneti and Trojans, having expelled the Euganei, who dwelt between the sea and the Alps, took possession of the country; and the place where they first landed is called Troy; from whence also the name of Trojan is given to the canton; but the nation in general is called Veneti: that Æneas was driven from home by a similar calamity, but the fates leading him to the founding of a greater empire, he came first to Macedonia: that he sailed from thence to Sicily in quest of a settlement: that from Sicily he made for the Laurentine territory; this place also has the name of Troy. When the Trojans, having disembarked there, were driving plunder from the lands,--as being persons to whom, after their almost immeasurable wandering, nothing was left but their arms and ships,--Latinus the king, and the Aborigines, who then occupied those places, assembled in arms from the city and country to repel the violence of the new-comers. On this point the tradition is two-fold: some say, that Latinus, after being overcome in battle, made first a peace, and then an alliance with Æneas: others, that when the armies were drawn out in battle-array, before the signals were sounded, Latinus advanced to the front of the troops and invited the leader of the adventurers to a conference. That he then inquired who