The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
triumph, Vitruvius, with his accomplices, having been put to death, the
consul thought that all being now fully gratified by the sufferings of
the guilty, allusion might be safely made to the business of the
Privernians, he spoke in the following manner: "Conscript fathers, since
the authors of the revolt have received, both from the immortal gods and
from you, the punishment so well merited, what do ye judge proper to be
done with respect to the guiltless multitude? For my part, although my
duty consists rather in collecting the opinions of others than in
offering my own, yet, when I reflect that the Privernians are situated
in the neighbourhood of the Samnites, our peace with whom is exceedingly
uncertain, I should wish, that as little ground of animosity as possible
may be left between them and us."
21. The affair naturally admitted of a diversity of opinions, each,
agreeably to his particular temper, recommending either severity or
lenity; matters were still further perplexed by one of the Privernian
ambassadors, more mindful of the prospects to which he had been born,
than to the exigency of the present juncture: who being asked by one of
the advocates for severity, "What punishment he thought the Privernians
deserved?" answered, "Such as those deserve who deem themselves worthy
of liberty." The consul observing, that, by this stubborn answer, those
who were adverse to the cause of the Privernians were the more
exasperated against them, and wishing, by a question of favourable
import, to draw from him a more conciliating reply, said to him, "What
if we remit the punishment, in what manner may we expect that ye will
observe the peace which shall be established between us?" He replied,
"If the peace which ye grant us be a good one, both inviolable and
eternal; if bad, of no long continuance." Then indeed some exclaimed,
that the Privernian menaced them, and not in ambiguous terms; and that
by such expressions peaceable states were incited to rebellion. But the
more reasonable part of the senate interpreted his answers more
favourably, and said, that "the words they had heard were those of a
man, and of a free-man. Could it be believed that any people, or even
any individual, would remain, longer than necessity constrained, in a
situation which he felt painful? That peace was faithfully observed,
only when those at peace were voluntarily so; but that fidelity was not
to be expected where they wished to establish slavery." In this opinion
they were led to concur, principally, by the consul himself, who
frequently observed to the consulars, who had proposed the different
resolutions, in such a manner as to be heard by several, that "surely
those men only who thought of nothing but liberty, were worthy of being
made Romans." They consequently both carried their cause in the senate;
and, moreover, by direction of that body, a proposal was laid before the
people, that the freedom of the state should be granted to the
Privernians. The same year a colony of three hundred was sent to Anxur,
and received two acres of land each.
22. The year following, in which the consuls were Publius Plautius
Proculus and Publius Cornelius Scapula, was remarkable for no one
transaction, civil or military, except the sending of a colony to
Fregellæ, a district which had belonged to the Sidicinians, and
afterwards to the Volscians; and a distribution of meat to the people,
made by Marcus Flavius, on occasion of the funeral of his mother. There
were many who represented, that, under the appearance of doing honour to
his parent, a deserved recompence was made to the people, for having
acquitted him, when prosecuted by the ædiles on a charge of having
debauched a married woman. This distribution of meat intended as a
return for favours shown on the trial, proved also the means of
procuring him the honour of a public office; for, at the next election,
though absent, he was preferred before the candidates who solicited in
person the tribuneship of the commons. The city of Palæpolis was
situated at no great distance from the spot where Neapolis now stands.
The two cities were inhabited by one people: these came from Cumæ, and
the Cumans derive their origin from Chalcis in Eubœa. By means of
the fleet in which they had been conveyed hither, they possessed great
power on the coast of the sea, near which they dwelt. Having first
landed on the islands of Ænaria, and the Pithecusæ, they afterwards
ventured to transfer their settlement to the continent. This state,
relying both on their own strength, as well as on the treacherous nature
of the alliance of the Samnites with the Romans; or, encouraged by the
report of a pestilence having attacked the city of Rome, committed
various acts of hostility against the Romans settled in the Campanian
and Falernian territories. Wherefore, in the succeeding consulate of
Lucius Cornelius, and Quintus Publilius Philo a second time, heralds
being sent to Palæpolis to demand satisfaction, when a haughty answer
was returned by these Greeks, a race more magnanimous in words than in
action, the people, in pursuance of the direction of the senate, ordered
war to be declared against the Palæpolitans. On settling the provinces
between the consuls, the war against the Greeks fell to Publilius.
Cornelius, with another army, was appointed to watch the Samnites if
they should attempt any movement; but a report prevailed that they,
anxiously expecting a revolt in Campania, intended to march their troops
thither; that was judged by Cornelius the properest station for him.
23. The senate received information, from both the consuls, that there
was very little hope of peace with the Samnites. Publilius informed
them, that two thousand soldiers from Nolæ, and four thousand of the
Samnites, had been received into Palæpolis, a measure rather forced on
the Greeks by the Nolans than agreeable to their inclination. Cornelius
wrote, that a levy of troops had been ordered, that all Samnium was in
motion, and that the neighbouring states of Privernum, Fundi, and
Formiæ, were openly solicited to join them. When in consequence it was
thought proper, that, before hostilities were commenced, ambassadors
should be sent to the Samnites, an insolent answer is returned by them;
they even went so far as to accuse the Romans of behaving injuriously
towards them; but, nevertheless, they took pains to clear themselves of
the charges made against them, asserting, that "the Greeks were not
assisted with either counsel or aid by their state, nor were the
Fundanians or Formians tampered with by them; for, if they were disposed
to war, they had not the least reason to be diffident of their own
strength. However, they could not dissemble, that it gave great offence
to the state of the Samnites, that Fregellæ, by them taken from the
Volscians and demolished, should have been rebuilt by the Romans; and
that they should have established a colony within the territory of the
Samnites, to which their colonists gave the name of Fregellæ. This
injury and affront, if not done away by the authors, they were
determined themselves to remove, by every means in their power." When
one of the Roman ambassadors proposed to discuss the matter before their
common allies and friends, their magistrate said, "Why do we disguise
our sentiments? Romans, no conferences of ambassadors, nor arbitration
of any person whatever, can terminate our differences; but the plains of
Campania, in which we must meet; our arms and the common fortune of war
will settle the point. Let our armies, therefore, meet between Capua and
Suessula; and there let us decide, whether the Samnite or the Roman
shall hold the sovereignty of Italy." To this the ambassadors of the
Romans replied, "that they would go, not whither their enemy called, but
whither their commanders should lead." In the mean time, Publilius, by
seizing an advantageous post between Palæpolis and Neapolis, had cut off
that interchange of mutual aid, which they had hitherto afforded each
other, according as either place was hard pressed. Accordingly, when
both the day of the elections approached, and as it was highly
inexpedient for the public interest that Publilius should be called away
when on the point of assailing the enemy's walls, and in daily
expectation of gaining possession of their city, application was made to
the tribunes, to recommend to the people the passing of an order, that
Publilius Philo, when his year of office should expire, might continue
in command, as pro-consul, until the war with the Greeks should be
finished. A letter was despatched to Lucius Cornelius, with orders to
name a dictator; for it was not thought proper that the consul should be
recalled from the vigorous prosecution of the war now that he had
entered into Samnium. He nominated Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who
appointed Spurius Postumius master of the horse. The elections, however,
were not held by the dictator, because it became a question whether he
had been appointed under an irregularity; and the augurs being
consulted, pronounced that it appeared that the dictator's appointment
was defective. The tribunes inveighed against this proceeding as
dangerous and dishonourable; "for it was not probable," they said, "that
such defect could have been discovered, as the consul, rising in the
night, had nominated the dictator while every thing was still;[172] nor
had the said consul in any of his letters, either public or private,
made any mention of such a thing to any one; nor did any person whatever
come forward who said that he saw or heard any thing which could vitiate
the auspices. Neither could the augurs sitting at Rome divine what
inauspicious circumstance had occurred to the consul in the camp. Who
did not plainly perceive, that the dictator's being a plebeian, was the
defect which the augurs had discovered?" These and other arguments were
urged in vain by the tribunes: the affair however ended in an
interregnum. At last, after the elections had been adjourned repeatedly
on one pretext or another, the fourteenth interrex, Lucius Æmilius,
elected consuls Caius Pætelius, and Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, or
Cursor, as I find him named in some annals.
[Footnote 172: Any noise happening during the taking of the auspices was
reckoned inauspicious; hence _silentium_ signified among the augurs,
every circumstance being favourable.]
24. It has been recorded, that in this year Alexandria in Egypt was
founded; and that Alexander, king of Epirus, being slain by a Lucanian
exile, verified in the circumstances of his death the prediction of
Jupiter of Dodona. At the time when he was invited into Italy by the
Tarentines, a caution had been given him, "to beware of the Acherusian
waters and the city Pandosia, for there were fixed the limits of his
destiny." For that reason he made the greater haste to pass over to
Italy, in order to be at as great a distance as possible from the city
Pandosia in Epirus, and the river Acheron, which, after flowing through
Molossis, runs into the lakes called Infernal, and is received into the
Thesprotian gulf. But, (as it frequently happens, that men, by
endeavouring to shun their fate, run directly upon it,) after having
often defeated the armies of Bruttium and Lucania, and taken Heraclea, a
colony of the Tarentines, Consentia and Metapontum from the Lucanians,
Terina from the Bruttians, and several other cities of the Messapians
and Lucanians; and having sent into Epirus three hundred illustrious
families, whom he intended to keep as hostages, he posted his troops on
three hills, which stood at a small distance from each other, not far
from the city Pandosia, and close to the frontiers of the Bruttians and
Lucanians, in order that he might thence make incursions into every part