The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
year,[71] as a parent, because he had been so vigorous an avenger of
violated chastity. Afterwards the consul who survived, so changeable are
the minds of the people, from great popularity, encountered not only
jealousy, but suspicion, originating in an atrocious charge. Report
represented that he aspired to the crown, because he had not substituted
a colleague in the room of Brutus, and was building a house on the
summit of Mount Velia, that there would be there an impregnable fortress
on an elevated and well-fortified place. When these things, thus
circulated and believed, affected the consul's mind with indignation,
having summoned the people to an assembly, he mounts the rostrum, after
lowering the fasces. It was a grateful sight to the multitude that the
insignia of authority were lowered to them, and that an acknowledgment
was made, that the majesty and power of the people were greater than
that of the consul. When they were called to silence, Valerius highly
extolled the good fortune of his colleague, "who after delivering his
country had died vested with the supreme power, fighting bravely in
defence of the commonwealth, when his glory was in its maturity, and not
yet converted into jealousy. That he himself, having survived his glory,
now remained as an object of accusation and calumny; that from the
liberator of his country he had fallen to the level of the Aquilii and
Vitellii. Will no merit then, says he, ever be so tried and approved by
you, as to be exempted from the attacks of suspicion. Could I apprehend
that myself, the bitterest enemy of kings, should fall under the charge
of a desire of royalty? Could I believe that, even though I dwelt in the
very citadel and the Capitol, that I could be dreaded by my fellow
citizens? Does my character among you depend on so mere a trifle? Is my
integrity so slightly founded, that it makes more matter where I may be,
than what I may be. The house of Publius Valerius shall not stand in the
way of your liberty, Romans; the Velian mount shall be secure to you. I
will not only bring down my house into the plain, but I will build it
beneath the hill, that you may dwell above me a suspected citizen. Let
those build on the Velian mount to whom liberty is more securely
intrusted than to P. Valerius." Immediately all the materials were
brought down to the foot of the Velian mount, and the house was built at
the foot of the hill where the temple of Victory now stands.
[Footnote 70: _Uno plus Tuscorum._ ?? ??? p?e???? ?? t? µ??? te????as?
???????? ? ??µa???.]
[Footnote 71: _A year_, scil. of ten months.]
8. After this laws were passed, which not only cleared him of all
suspicions of aiming at the regal power, but had so contrary a tendency,
that they made him popular. From thence he was surnamed Poplicola. Above
all, the laws regarding an appeal to the people against the magistrates,
and that devoting the life and property of any one who should form a
design of assuming regal authority, were grateful to the people. And
after he had passed these while sole consul, so that the merit in them
was exclusively his own, he then held an assembly for the election of a
new colleague. Sp. Lucretius was elected consul, who being very old, and
his strength being inadequate to discharge the consular duties, dies in
a few days. M. Horatius Pulvillus was substituted in the room of
Lucretius. In some old writers I find no mention of Lucretius as consul;
they place Horatius immediately after Brutus. I believe that, because no
important event signalized his consulate, it has been unnoticed.
Jupiter's temple in the Capitol had not yet been dedicated; the consuls
Valerius and Horatius cast lots which should dedicate it. It fell by lot
to Horatius. Publicola departed to the war of the Veientians. The
friends of Valerius were more annoyed than they should have been, that
the dedication of so celebrated a temple should be given to
Horatius.[72] Having endeavoured by every means to prevent that, when
all other attempts had been tried in vain, when the consul was now
holding the door-post during his offering of prayer to the gods, they
suddenly announce to him the shocking intelligence that his son was
dead, and that his family being defiled[73] he could not dedicate the
temple. Whether he did not believe the fact, or possessed such great
firmness of mind, is neither handed down for certain, nor is a
conjecture easy. Diverted from his purpose at this intelligence in no
other way than to order that the body should be buried,[74] he goes
through the prayer, and dedicates the temple. These were the
transactions at home and abroad the first year after the expulsion of
the kings. After this P. Valerius, a second time, and Titus Lucretius,
were elected consuls.
[Footnote 72: The Horatii being of the _minores patres_. Nieb. i. p.
533.]
[Footnote 73: _Funesta familia_, as having in it an unburied corpse.
Thus Misenus, whilst unburied, _incestat funere classem_. Virg. Æn. vi.
150.]
[Footnote 74: He here rejected the omen. Cic. i. 7, 14.; auguria aut
_oblativa_ sunt, quæ non poscuntur, aut _impetrativa_, quæ optata
veniunt. The latter could not be rejected.]
9. By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars[75] Porsena, king of
Clusium. There, mixing advice with their entreaties, "They sometimes
besought him not to suffer them, who were descended from the Etrurians,
and of the same blood and name, to live in exile and poverty; at other
times they advised him not to let this commencing practice of expelling
kings pass unpunished. That liberty has charms enough in itself; and
unless kings defend their crowns with as much vigour as the people
pursue their liberty, that the highest must be reduced to a level with
the lowest; there will be nothing exalted, nothing distinguished above
the rest; and hence there must be an end of regal government, the most
beautiful institution both among gods and men." Porsena, thinking that
it would be an honour to the Tuscans both that there should be a king at
Rome, and especially one of the Etrurian nation, marched towards Rome
with a hostile army. Never before on any other occasion did so great
terror seize the senate; so powerful was the state of Clusium at the
time, and so great the renown of Porsena. Nor did they only dread their
enemies, but even their own citizens, lest the common people, through
excess of fear, should, by receiving the Tarquins into the city, accept
peace even if purchased with slavery. Many conciliatory concessions were
therefore granted to the people by the senate during that period. Their
attention, in the first place, was directed to the markets, and persons
were sent, some to the Volscians, others to Cumæ, to buy up corn. The
privilege[76] of selling salt, also, because it was farmed at a high
rent, was all taken into the hands of government,[77] and withdrawn from
private individuals; and the people were freed from port-duties and
taxes; that the rich, who were adequate to bearing the burden, should
contribute; that the poor paid tax enough if they educated their
children. This indulgent care of the fathers accordingly kept the whole
state in such concord amid the subsequent severities in the siege and
famine, that the highest abhorred the name of king not more than the
lowest; nor was any single individual afterwards so popular by
intriguing practices, as the whole senate then was by their excellent
government.
[Footnote 75: _Lar_. This is generally understood to have been a title
of honour equivalent to our term _Lord_.]
[Footnote 76: _Arbitrium_ signifies not only the "privilege," but the
"rent" paid for such privilege, or right of monopoly.]
[Footnote 77: _Was all taken into the hands of government_. In my
version of this passage I have conformed to the emendation of the
original first proposed by Gronovius, and admitted by Stroth and Bekker;
scil. _in publicum omne sumptum_.--They did not let these salt-works by
auction, but took them into their own management, and carried them on by
means of persons employed to work on the public account. These
salt-works, first established at Ostia by Ancus, were, like other public
property, farmed out to the publicans. As they had a high rent to pay,
the price of salt was raised in proportion; but now the patricians, to
curry favour with the plebeians, did not let the salt-pits to private
tenants, but kept them in the hands of public labourers, to collect all
the salt for the public use; and appointed salesmen to retail it to the
people at a cheaper rate. See Stocker's ed.]
10. Some parts seemed secured by the walls, others by the interposition
of the Tiber. The Sublician bridge well nigh afforded a passage to the
enemy, had there not been one man, Horatius Cocles, (that defence the
fortune of Rome had on that day,) who, happening to be posted on guard
at the bridge, when he saw the Janiculum taken by a sudden assault, and
that the enemy were pouring down from thence in full speed, and that his
own party, in terror and confusion, were abandoning their arms and
ranks, laying hold of them one by one, standing in their way, and
appealing to the faith of gods and men, he declared, "That their flight
would avail them nothing if they deserted their post; if they passed the
bridge and left it behind them, there would soon be more of the enemy in
the Palatium and Capitol than in the Janiculum; for that reason he
advised and charged them to demolish the bridge, by their sword, by
fire, or by any means whatever; that he would stand the shock of the
enemy as far as could be done by one man." He then advances to the first
entrance of the bridge, and being easily distinguished among those who
showed their backs in retreating from the fight, facing about to engage
the foe hand to hand, by his surprising bravery he terrified the enemy.
Two indeed a sense of shame kept with him, Sp. Lartius and T. Herminius,
men eminent for their birth, and renowned for their gallant exploits.
With them he for a short time stood the first storm of the danger, and
the severest brunt of the battle. But as they who demolished the bridge
called upon them to retire, he obliged them also to withdraw to a place
of safety on a small portion of the bridge still left. Then casting his
stern eyes round all the officers of the Etrurians in a threatening
manner, he sometimes challenged them singly, sometimes reproached them
all; "the slaves of haughty tyrants, who, regardless of their own
freedom, came to oppress the liberty of others." They hesitated for a
considerable time, looking round one at the other, to commence the
fight; shame then put the army in motion, and a shout being raised, they
hurl their weapons from all sides on their single adversary; and when
they all stuck in the shield held before him, and he with no less
obstinacy kept possession of the bridge with firm step, they now
endeavoured to thrust him down from it by one push, when at once the
crash of the falling bridge, at the same time a shout of the Romans
raised for joy at having completed their purpose, checked their ardour
with sudden panic. Then Cocles says, "Holy father Tiberinus, I pray that
thou wouldst receive these arms, and this thy soldier, in thy propitious
stream." Armed as he was, he leaped into the Tiber, and amid showers of
darts hurled on him, swam across safe to his party, having dared an act
which is likely to obtain more fame than credit with posterity. The
state was grateful towards such valour; a statue was erected to him in
the comitium, and as much land was given to him as he ploughed around in
one day. The zeal of private individuals also was conspicuous among the
public honours. For, amid the great scarcity, each person contributed
something to him according to his supply at home, depriving himself of
his own support.