The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
11. Porsena being repulsed in his first attempt, having changed his
plans from a siege to a blockade, after he had placed a garrison in
Janiculum, pitched his camp in the plain and on the banks of the Tiber.
Then sending for boats from all parts, both to guard the river, so as
not to suffer any provision to be conveyed to Rome, and also to
transport his soldiers across the river, to plunder different places as
occasion required; in a short time he so harassed the entire country
round Rome, that not only every thing else from the country, but even
their cattle, was driven into the city, and nobody durst venture thence
without the gates. This liberty of action was granted to the Etrurians,
not more through fear than from policy; for Valerius, intent on an
opportunity of falling unawares upon a number of them, and when
straggling, a remiss avenger in trifling matters, reserved the weight of
his vengeance for more important occasions. Wherefore, to decoy the
pillagers, he ordered his men to drive their cattle the next day out at
the Esquiline gate, which was farthest from the enemy, presuming that
they would get intelligence of it, because during the blockade and
famine some slaves would turn traitors and desert. Accordingly they were
informed of it by a deserter, and parties more numerous than usual, in
hopes of seizing the entire body, crossed the river. Then P. Valerius
commanded T. Herminius, with a small body of men, to lie concealed two
miles from the city, on the Gabian road, and Sp. Lartius, with a party
of light-armed troops, to post himself at the Colline gate till the
enemy should pass by, and then to throw himself in their way so that
there may be no return to the river. The other consul, T. Lucretius,
marched out of the Nævian gate with some companies of soldiers; Valerius
himself led some chosen cohorts down from the Cœlian mount, and they
were first descried by the enemy. Herminius, when he perceived the
alarm, rose out of the ambush and fell upon the rear of the Tuscans, who
had charged Valerius. The shout was returned on the right and left, from
the Colline gate on the one hand, and the Nævian on the other. By this
stratagem the plunderers were put to the sword between both, they not
being a match in strength for fighting, and all the ways being blocked
up to prevent escape: this put an end to the Etrurians strolling about
in so disorderly a manner.
12. Nevertheless the blockade continued, and there was a scarcity of
corn, with a very high price. Porsena entertained a hope that by
continuing the siege he should take the city, when C. Mucius, a young
nobleman, to whom it seemed a disgrace that the Roman people, when
enslaved under kings, had never been confined within their walls in any
war, nor by any enemy, should now when a free people be blocked up by
these very Etrurians whose armies they had often routed, thinking that
such indignity should be avenged by some great and daring effort, at
first designed of his own accord to penetrate into the enemy's camp.
Then, being afraid if he went without the permission of the consuls, or
the knowledge of any one, he might be seized by the Roman guards and
brought back as a deserter, the circumstances of the city at the time
justifying the charge, he went to the senate: "Fathers," says he, "I
intend to cross the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if I can; not as
a plunderer, or as an avenger in our turn of their devastations. A
greater deed is in in my mind, if the gods assist." The senate approved
his design. He set out with a sword concealed under his garment. When he
came thither, he stationed himself among the thickest of the crowd, near
the king's tribunal. There, when the soldiers were receiving their pay,
and the king's secretary sitting by him, dressed nearly in the same
style, was busily engaged, and to him they commonly addressed
themselves, being afraid to ask which of them was Porsena, lest by not
knowing the king he should discover on himself, as fortune blindly
directed the blow, he killed the secretary instead of the king. When, as
he was going off thence where with his bloody dagger he had made his way
through the dismayed multitude, a concourse being attracted at the
noise, the king's guards immediately seized and brought him back
standing alone before the king's tribunal; even then, amid such menaces
of fortune, more capable of inspiring dread than of feeling it, "I am,"
says he, "a Roman citizen, my name is Caius Mucius; an enemy, I wished
to slay an enemy, nor have I less of resolution to suffer death than I
had to inflict it. Both to act and to suffer with fortitude is a Roman's
part. Nor have I alone harboured such feelings towards you; there is
after me a long train of persons aspiring to the same honour. Therefore,
if you choose it, prepare yourself for this peril, to contend for your
life every hour; to have the sword and the enemy in the very entrance of
your pavilion; this is the war which we the Roman youth declare against
you; dread not an army in array, nor a battle; the affair will be to
yourself alone and with each of us singly." When the king, highly
incensed, and at the same time terrified at the danger, in a menacing
manner, commanded fires to be kindled about him, if he did not speedily
explain the plots, which, by his threats, he had darkly insinuated
against him; Mucius said, "Behold me, that you may be sensible of how
little account the body is to those who have great glory in view;" and
immediately he thrusts his right hand into the fire that was lighted for
the sacrifice. When he continued to broil it as if he had been quite
insensible, the king, astonished at this surprising sight, after he had
leaped from his throne and commanded the young man to be removed from
the altar, says, "Be gone, having acted more like an enemy towards
thyself than me. I would encourage thee to persevere in thy valour, if
that valour stood on the side of my country. I now dismiss you untouched
and unhurt, exempted from the right of war." Then Mucius, as if making a
return for the kindness, says, "Since bravery is honoured by you, so
that you have obtained by kindness that which you could not by threats,
three hundred of us, the chief of the Roman youth, have conspired to
attack you in this manner. It was my lot first. The rest will follow,
each in his turn, according as the lot shall set him forward, unless
fortune shall afford an opportunity of you."
13. Mucius being dismissed, to whom the cognomen of Scævola was
afterwards given, from the loss of his right hand, ambassadors from
Porsena followed him to Rome. The risk of the first attempt, from which
nothing had saved him but the mistake of the assailant, and the risk to
be encountered so often in proportion to the number of conspirators,
made so strong an impression upon him, that of his own accord he made
propositions of peace to the Romans. Mention was made to no purpose
regarding the restoration of the Tarquinii to the throne, rather because
he had been unable to refuse that to the Tarquinii, than from not
knowing that it would be refused to him by the Romans. The condition of
restoring their territory to the Veientians was obtained by him, and the
necessity of giving hostages in case they wished the garrison to be
withdrawn from the Janiculum was extorted from the Romans. Peace being
concluded on these terms, Porsena drew his troops out of the Janiculum,
and marched out of the Roman territories. The fathers gave Mucius, as a
reward of his valour, lands on the other side of the Tiber, which were
afterwards called the Mucian meadows. By this honour paid to valour the
women were excited to merit public distinctions. As the camp of the
Etrurians had been pitched not far from the banks of the Tiber, a young
lady named Clælia, one of the hostages, deceiving her keepers, swam over
the river, amidst the darts of the enemy, at the head of a troop of
virgins, and brought them all safe to their relations. When the king was
informed of this, at first highly incensed, he sent deputies to Rome to
demand the hostage Clælia; that he did not regard the others; and
afterwards, being changed into admiration of her courage, he said, "that
this action surpassed those of Cocles and Mucius," and declared, "as he
would consider the treaty as broken if the hostage were not delivered
up, so, if given up, he would send her back safe to her friends." Both
sides kept their faith: the Romans restored their pledge of peace
according to treaty; and with the king of Etruria merit found not only
security, but honour; and, after making encomiums on the young lady,
promised to give her, as a present, half of the hostages, and that she
should choose whom she pleased. When they were all brought out, she is
said to have pitched upon the young boys below puberty, which was both
consonant to maiden delicacy, and by consent of the hostages themselves
it was deemed reasonable, that that age which was most exposed to injury
should be freed from the enemy's hand. The peace being re-established,
the Romans marked the uncommon instance of bravery in the woman, by an
uncommon kind of honour, an equestrian statue; (the statue representing)
a lady sitting on horseback was placed at the top of the Via Sacra.
14. Inconsistent with this so peaceful a departure of the Etrurian king
from the city, is the custom handed down from the ancients, and which
continues down to our times among other usages at public sales, (I mean)
that of selling the goods of king Porsena; the origin[78] of which
custom must either have occurred during the war, and was not
relinquished in peace, or it must have increased from a milder source
than the form of expression imports, of selling the goods in a hostile
manner. Of the accounts handed down, the most probable is, that Porsena,
on retiring from the Janiculum, made a present to the Romans of his camp
well stored with provisions conveyed from the neighbouring and fertile
fields of Etruria, the city being then exhausted by the long siege; that
this, lest it should be carried away in a hostile manner, by the people
being admitted in, was then sold, and called the goods of Porsena, the
expression rather importing gratitude for the gift, than an auction of
the king's property, which never even was in the power of the Roman
people. Porsena, after ending the Roman war, that his army might not
seem to have been led into these parts without effecting any thing, sent
his son Aruns with a part of his forces to besiege Aricia. The matter
not being expected, the Aricians were at first terrified; afterwards
assistance, which was sent for from the people of Latium and Cumæ,
inspired so much hope, that they ventured to meet them in the field. At
the commencement of the battle the Etrurians attacked the Aricians so
furiously, that they routed them at the first onset. But the Cuman
cohorts, opposing stratagem to force, moved off a little to one side,
and when the enemy were carried beyond them in great disorder, they
faced about and charged them in the rear. By this means the Etrurians,
when they had almost got the victory, were enclosed and cut to
pieces.[79] A very small part of them, having lost their general,
because they had no nearer refuge, came to Rome without their arms, in
the condition and with the air of suppliants. There they were kindly
received and provided with lodgings. When their wounds were cured, many
of them went home and told the kind hospitality they had met with.
Affection for their hosts and for the city detained many at Rome; a
place was assigned them to dwell in, which they have ever since called
the Tuscan Street.
[Footnote 78: _The origin_. Niebuhr mentions a more probable one. See
Nieb. i. p. 541; ii. p. 204.]