The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
blunted their spears, and were, however, beating back their adversaries,
thinking that the battle was now nearly decided, and that they had come
to the last line; then the consul calls to the Triarii, "Arise now,
fresh as ye are, against men now wearied, mindful of your country and
parents, your wives and children; mindful of your consul who has
submitted to death to insure your victory." When the Triarii arose,
fresh as they were, with their arms glittering, a new line which
appeared unexpectedly, receiving the antepilani into the intervals
between the ranks, raised a shout, and broke through the first line of
the Latins; and goading their faces, after cutting down those who
constituted their principal strength, they passed almost intact through
the other companies, with such slaughter that they scarcely left one
fourth of the enemy. The Samnites also, drawn up at a distance at the
foot of the mountain, struck terror into the Latins. But of all, whether
citizens or allies, the principal praise for that action was due to the
consuls; the one of whom turned on himself alone all the threats and
dangers (denounced) by the divinities of heaven and hell; the other
evinced such valour and such judgment in the battle, that it was
universally agreed among both the Romans and Latins who have transmitted
to posterity an account of the battle, that, on whichever side Titus
Manlius held the command, the victory must belong to that. The Latins in
their flight betook themselves to Minturnæ. Immediately after the battle
the camp was taken, and great numbers still alive were surprised
therein, chiefly Campanians. Night surprised them in their search, and
prevented the body of Decius from being discovered on that day. On the
day after it was found amid vast heaps of slaughtered enemies, pierced
with a great number of darts, and his funeral was solemnized under the
direction of his colleague, in a manner suited to his death. It seems
right to add here, that it is lawful for a consul, a dictator, and a
prætor, when he devotes the legions of the enemy, to devote not himself
particularly, but whatever citizen he may choose out of a Roman legion
regularly enrolled: if the person who has been devoted die, the matter
is duly performed; if he do not perish, then an image, seven feet high
or more, must be buried in the ground, and a victim slain, as an
expiation. Where that image shall be buried, there it is not lawful that
a Roman magistrate should pass. But if he wish to devote himself, as
Decius did, unless he who has devoted himself die, he shall not with
propriety perform any act of religion regarding either himself or the
public. Should he wish to devote his arms to Vulcan or to any other god,
he has a right, whether he shall please, by a victim, or in any other
manner. It is not proper that the enemy should get possession of the
weapon, on which the consul, standing, pronounced the imprecation: if
they should get possession of it, then an expiation must be made to Mars
by the sacrifices called the Suove-taurilia. Although the memory of
every divine and human custom has been obliterated, in consequence of
preferring what is modern and foreign to that which is ancient and
belonging to our own country, I deemed it not irrelevant to relate the
particulars even in the very terms used, as they have been handed down
and expressed.
11. I find it stated in some writers, that the Samnites, having awaited
the issue of the battle, came at length with support to the Romans after
the battle was over. Also aid from Lavinium, whilst they wasted time in
deliberating, was at length sent to the Latins after they had been
vanquished. And when the first standards and part of the army just
issued from the gates, news being brought of the defeat of the Latins,
they faced about and returned back to the city; on which occasion they
say that their prætor, Milionius, observed, that "for so very short a
journey a high price must be paid to the Romans." Such of the Latins as
survived the battle, after being scattered over many roads, collected
themselves into a body, and found refuge in the city of Vescia. There
their general, Numisius, insisted in their counsels, that "the truly
common fortune of war had prostrated both armies by equal losses, and
that only the name of victory rested with the Romans; that in other
respects they too shared the lot of defeated persons; the two pavilions
of the consuls were polluted; one by the murder committed on a son, the
other by the blood of a devoted consul; that their army was cut down in
every direction; their spearmen and principes were cut down; great havoc
was made before the standards and behind them; the Triarii at length
restored their cause. Though the forces of the Latins were cut down in
an equal proportion, yet for reinforcements, Latium or the Volscians
were nearer than Rome. Wherefore, if they thought well of it, he would
speedily call out the youth from the Latin and Volscian states, and
would return to Capua with a determined army, and by his unexpected
arrival strike dismay among the Romans, who were expecting nothing less
than battle." Deceptive letters being sent around Latium and the
Volscian nation, a tumultuary army, hastily raised from all quarters,
was assembled, for as they had not been present at the battle, they were
more disposed to believe on slight grounds. This army the consul
Torquatus met at Trisanum, a place between Sinuessa and Minturnæ. Before
a place was selected for a camp, the baggage on both sides being piled
up in a heap, they fought and terminated the war; for so impaired was
their strength, that all the Latins surrendered themselves to the
consul, who was leading his victorious army to lay waste their lands,
and the Campanians followed the example of this surrender. Latium and
Capua were fined some land. The Latin with the addition of the
Privernian land; and the Falernian land, which had belonged to the
people of Campania, as far as the river Vulturnus, is all distributed to
the commons of Rome. In the Latin land two acres a man were assigned, so
that they should receive an additional three-fourths of an acre from the
Privernian land; in the Falernian land three acres were assigned, one
fourth of an acre being further added, in consideration of the distance.
Of the Latins the Laurentians were exempted from punishment, as also the
horsemen of the Campanians, because they had not revolted. An order was
issued that the treaty should be renewed with the Laurentians; and it is
renewed every year since, on the tenth day after the Latin festival. The
rights of citizenship were granted to the Campanian horsemen; and that
it might serve as a memorial, they hung up a brazen tablet in the temple
of Castor at Rome. The Campanian state was also enjoined to pay them a
yearly stipend of four hundred and fifty denarii each; their number
amounted to one thousand six hundred.
12. The war being thus concluded, after rewards and punishment were
distributed according to the deserts of each, Titus Manlius returned to
Rome: on his approach it appears that the aged only went forth to meet
him; and that the young men, both then, and all his life after, detested
and cursed him. The Antians made incursions on the territories of Ostia,
Ardea, and Solonia. The consul Manlius, because he was unable by reason
of his health to conduct that war, nominated as dictator Lucius Papirius
Crassus, who then happened to be prætor; by him Lucius Papirius Cursor
was appointed master of the horse. Nothing worthy of mention was
performed against the Antians by the dictator, although he had kept a
standing camp for several months in the Antian territory. To a year
signalized by a victory over so many and such powerful states, further
by the illustrious death of one of the consuls, as well as by the
unrelenting, though memorable, severity of command in the other, there
succeeded as consuls Titus Æmilius Mamercinus and Quintus Publilius
Philo; neither to a similar opportunity of exploits, and they themselves
being mindful rather of their own interests as well as of those of the
parties in the state, than of the interests of their country. They
routed on the plains of Ferentinum, and stripped of their camp, the
Latins, who, in resentment of the land they had lost, took up arms
again. Publilius, under whose guidance and auspices the action had been
fought, receiving the submission of the Latin states, who had lost a
great many of their young men there, Æmilius marched the army to Pedum.
The people of Pedum were supported by the states of Tibur, Præneste, and
Velitræ; auxiliaries had also come from Lanuvium and Antium. Where,
though the Romans had the advantage in several engagements, still the
entire labour remained at the city of Pedum itself and at the camp of
the allied states, which was adjoining the city: suddenly leaving the
war unfinished, because he heard that a triumph was decreed to his
colleague, he himself also returned to Rome to demand a triumph before a
victory had been obtained. The senate displeased by this ambitious
conduct, and refusing a triumph unless Pedum was either taken or should
surrender, Æmilius, alienated from the senate in consequence of this
act, administered the remainder of the consulship like to a seditious
tribuneship. For, as long as he was consul, he neither ceased to
criminate the patricians to the people, his colleague by no means
interfering, because he himself also was a plebeian; (the scanty
distribution of the land among the commons in the Latin and Falernian
territory afforded the groundwork of the criminations;) and when the
senate, wishing to put an end to the administration of the consuls,
ordered a dictator to be nominated against the Latins, who were again in
arms, Æmilius, to whom the fasces then belonged, nominated his colleague
dictator; by him Junius Brutus was constituted master of the horse. The
dictatorship was popular, both in consequence of his discourses
containing invectives against the patricians, and because he passed
three laws, most advantageous to the commons, and injurious to the
nobility; one, that the orders of the commons should be binding on all
the Romans; another, that the patricians should, before the suffrages
commenced, declare their approbation of the laws which should be passed
in the assemblies of the centuries; the third, that one at least of the
censors should be elected from the commons, as they had already gone so
far as that it was lawful that both the consuls should be plebeians. The
patricians considered that more of detriment had been sustained on that
year from the consuls and dictator than was counterbalanced by their
success and achievements abroad.
13. On the following year, Lucius Furius Camillus and Caius Mænius were
consuls, in order that the neglect of his duty by Æmilius, the consul of
the preceding year, might be rendered more markedly reproachful, the
senate loudly urge that Pedum should be assailed with arms, men, and
every kind of force, and be demolished; and the new consuls, being
forced to give that matter the precedence of all others, set out on that
expedition. The state of affairs was now such in Latium, that they could
no longer submit to either war or peace. For war they were deficient in
resources; they spurned at peace through resentment for the loss of
their land. It seemed necessary therefore to steer a middle course, to
keep within their towns, so that the Romans by being provoked might have
no pretext for hostilities; and that if the siege of any town should be
announced to them, aid should be sent from every quarter from all the
states. And still the people of Pedum were aided by only a very few
states. The Tiburtians and Prænestines, whose territory lay nearest,