The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
superior numbers, they draw off their reserve and send them to storm the
camp. This being assaulted without much resistance, whilst they lose
time in attending to plunder rather than to fighting, the Roman
triarii,[96] who had not been able to sustain the first shock, having
sent an account to the consuls of the present position of affairs,
return in a compact body to the Prætorium, and of themselves renew the
battle. The consul Manlius also having returned to the camp, and posted
soldiers at all the gates, had blocked up every passage against the
enemy. This desperate situation aroused the fury rather than the bravery
of the Etrurians; for when rushing on wherever hope held out the
prospect of escape, they had frequently advanced with fruitless efforts;
one body of young men makes an attack on the consul himself, conspicuous
from his arms. The first weapons were intercepted by those who stood
around him; afterwards their force could not be sustained. The consul
falls, having received a mortal wound, and all around him are dispersed.
The courage of the Etrurians rises. Terror drives the Romans in dismay
through the entire camp; and matters would have come to extremities, had
not the lieutenant-generals, hastily seizing the body of the consul,
opened a passage for the enemy at one gate. Through this they rush out;
and going away in the utmost disorder, they fall in with the other
consul who had been victorious; there again they are slain and routed in
every direction. A glorious victory was obtained, saddened however by
two so illustrious deaths. The consul, therefore, on the senate voting
him a triumph, replied, that "if the army could triumph without their
general, he would readily accede to it in consideration of their
distinguished behaviour in that war: that for his own part, his family
being plunged in grief in consequence of the death of his brother Q.
Fabius, and the commonwealth being in some degree bereaved by the loss
of one of her consuls, he would not accept the laurel blasted by public
and private grief." The triumph thus resigned was more distinguished
than any triumph actually enjoyed; so true it is, that glory refused in
due season sometimes returns with accumulated lustre. He next celebrates
the two funerals of his colleague and brother, one after the other, he
himself acting as panegyrist in the case of both, when by ascribing to
them his own deserts, he himself obtained the greatest share of them.
And not unmindful of that which he had conceived at the commencement of
his consulate, namely, the regaining the affection of the people, he
distributes the wounded soldiers among the patricians to be cured. Most
of them were given to the Fabii: nor were they treated with greater
attention in any other place. From this time the Fabii began to be
popular, and that not by any practices except such as were beneficial to
the state.
[Footnote 96: The triarii were veteran soldiers of approved valour: they
formed the third line, whence their name.]
48. Accordingly Kæso Fabius, having been elected consul with T.
Virginius not more with the zealous wishes of the senators than of the
commons, attended neither to wars, nor levies, nor any other object,
until the hope of concord being now in some measure commenced, the
feelings of the commons might be consolidated with those of the senators
as soon as possible. Wherefore at the commencement of the year he
proposed: "that before any tribune should stand forth as an abettor of
the agrarian law, the patricians themselves should be beforehand with
them in performing their duty; that they should distribute among the
commons the land taken from the enemy in as equal a proportion as
possible; that it was but just that those should obtain it, by whose
blood and sweat it was obtained." The patricians rejected the proposal
with scorn; some even complained that the once brilliant talents of Kæso
were now becoming wanton, and were waning through excess of glory. There
were afterwards no factions in the city. The Latins were harassed by the
incursions of the Æqui. Kæso being sent thither with an army, passes
into the very territory of the Æqui to depopulate it. The Æqui retired
into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that account no
battle worth mentioning was fought. But a blow was received from the
Veientian foe through the temerity of the other consul; and the army
would have been all cut off, had not Kæso Fabius come to their
assistance in time. From that time there was neither peace nor war with
the Veientians; their proceedings had now come very near to the form of
that of brigands. They retired from the Roman troops into the city; when
they perceived that the troops were drawn off, they made incursions into
the country, alternately evading war by quiet, quiet by war. Thus the
matter could neither be dropped altogether, nor brought to a conclusion;
and other wars were impending either at the moment, as from the Æqui and
Volsci, who remained inactive no longer than until the recent smart of
their late disaster should pass away; or it was evident that the
Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria would put themselves in motion:
but the Veientians, a constant rather than a formidable enemy, kept
their minds in constant uneasiness by their insults more frequently than
by any danger apprehended from them; a matter which could at no time be
neglected, and which suffered them not to direct their attention to any
other object. Then the Fabian family addressed the senate; the consul
speaks in the name of the family: "Conscript fathers, the Veientian war
requires, as you know, a constant rather than a strong force. Do you
attend to other wars: assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientians. We
pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in
that quarter. That war, as the property of our family, it is our
determination to conduct at our own private expense. Let the republic be
spared the expense of soldiers and money there." The warmest thanks were
returned to them. The consul, leaving the senate-house, accompanied by
the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in the porch of the
senate-house, returned home. Being ordered to attend on the following
day in arms at the consul's gate, they retire to their homes.
49. The rumour spreads through the entire city; they extol the Fabii to
the skies by their encomiums. "That a single family had taken on them
the burden of the state: that the Veientian war had now become a private
concern, a private quarrel. If there were two families of the same
strength in the city, let them demand, the one the Volsci for itself,
the other the Æqui; that all the neighbouring states might be subdued,
the Roman people all the time enjoying profound peace." The day
following, the Fabii take up arms; they assemble where they had been
ordered. The consul coming forth in his paludamentum,[97] beholds his
entire family in the porch drawn up in order of march; being received
into the centre, he orders the standards to be carried forward. Never
did an army march through the city, either smaller in number, or more
distinguished in fame and in the admiration of all men. Three hundred
and six soldiers, all patricians, all of the one stock, not one of whom
the senate would reject as a leader in its palmiest days, proceeded on
their march, menacing destruction to the Veientian state by the prowess
of a single family. A crowd followed, partly belonging to their kinsmen
and friends, who contemplated in mind no moderation either as to their
hopes or anxiety, but every thing on the highest scale; partly
consisting of individuals not connected with their family, aroused by
solicitude for the public weal, all enraptured with esteem and
admiration. They bid them "proceed in the brave resolve, proceed with
happy omens, bring back results proportioned to their undertaking:
thence to expect consulships and triumphs, all rewards, all honours from
them." As they passed the Capitol and the citadel, and the other sacred
edifices, they offer up prayers to all the gods that presented
themselves to their sight, or to their mind: that "they would send
forward that band with prosperity and success, and soon send them back
safe into their country to their parents." In vain were these prayers
sent up. Having set out on their luckless road by the right-hand postern
of the Carmental gate, they arrive at the river Cremera: this appeared
a favourable situation for fortifying a post. L. Æmilius and C.
Servilius were then created consuls. And as long as there was nothing
else to occupy them but mutual devastations, the Fabii were not only
sufficiently able to protect their garrison, but through the entire
tract, as far as the Etrurian joins the Roman territory, they protected
all their own districts and ravaged those of the enemy, spreading their
forces along both frontiers. There was afterwards an intermission,
though not of long duration, to these depredations: whilst both the
Veientians, having sent for an army from Etruria, assault the post at
the Cremera, and the Roman troops, led thither by L. Æmilius the consul,
come to a close engagement in the field with the Etrurians; although the
Veientians had scarcely time to draw up their line: for during the first
alarm, whilst the ranks are posting themselves behind their respective
banners and they are stationing their reserves, a brigade of Roman
cavalry charging them suddenly in flank, took away all opportunity not
only of commencing the fight, but even of standing their ground. Thus
being driven back to the Red Rocks, (there they pitched their camp,)
they suppliantly sue for peace; for the obtaining of which they were
sorry, from the natural inconsistency of their minds, before the Roman
garrison was drawn off from the Cremera.
[Footnote 97: Before a consul set out on any expedition, he offered
sacrifices and prayers in the Capitol; and then, laying aside his
consular gown, marched out of the city, dressed in a military robe of
state, called Paludamentum.]
50. Again the Veientian state had to contend with the Fabii without any
additional military armament [on either side]; and there were not merely
incursions into each other's territories, or sudden attacks on those
making the incursions, but they fought repeatedly in the open field, and
in pitched battles: and one family of the Roman people oftentimes gained
the victory over an entire Etrurian state, one of the most powerful at
that time. This at first appeared mortifying and humiliating to the
Veientians: then (they formed) a design, suggested by the circumstance,
of surprising their daring enemy by an ambuscade; they were even glad
that the confidence of the Fabii was increasing by their great success.
Wherefore cattle were frequently driven in the way of the plundering
parties, as if they had come there by mere accident, and tracts of land
were abandoned by the flight of the peasants; and troops of armed men
sent to prevent the devastations retreated more frequently from
pretended than from real fear. And now the Fabii had such a contempt for
the enemy, as to believe that their invincible arms could not be
withstood either in any place or on any occasion: this presumption
carried them so far, that at the sight of some cattle at a distance from
Cremera, with an extensive plain lying between, they ran down to it
(although few troops of the enemy were observed); and when incautious
and in disorderly haste they had passed the ambuscade placed on either
side of the very road; and when dispersed in different directions they
began to carry off the cattle straying about, as is usual when they are
frightened, the Veientians rise up suddenly from their ambuscade, and
the enemy were in front and on every side. At first the shout that was