The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
unwilling that their camp should be taken; some of them gloried in their
own defeat and disgrace. When the determined spirit of Appius, undaunted
by these things, wished to exercise severity still further, and he
summoned a meeting, the lieutenant-generals and tribunes flock around
him, advising him "that he would not determine on venturing a trial of
an authority, the entire strength of which lay in the acquiescence of
those who were to obey. That the soldiers generally refused to come to
the assembly, and that their clamours were heard in every direction
demanding that the camp should be removed from the Volscian territory.
That the victorious enemy were but a little time ago almost at the very
gates and rampart; and that not merely a suspicion, but a manifest
indication of a grievous disaster presented itself to their eyes."
Yielding at length, (since they would gain nothing save a delay of
punishment,) having prorogued the assembly, after he had given orders
that their march should be proclaimed for the following day, he, at the
first dawn, gave the signal for departure by sound of trumpet. When the
army, having just got clear of the camp, were forming themselves, the
Volscians, as being aroused by the same signal, fall upon those in the
rear; from whom the alarm spreading to the van, confounded both the
battalions and ranks with such consternation, that neither the generals'
orders could be distinctly heard, nor the lines be drawn up, no one
thinking of any thing but flight. In such confusion did they make their
way through heaps of dead bodies and of arms, that the enemy ceased to
pursue sooner than the Romans to fly. The soldiers being at length
collected from their scattered rout, the consul, after he had in vain
followed his men for the purpose of rallying them, pitched his camp in a
peaceful part of the country; and an assembly being convened, after
inveighing not without good reason against the army, as traitors to
military discipline, deserters of their posts, frequently asking them,
one by one, where were their standards, where their arms; he first beat
with rods and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown down their
arms, the standard-bearers who had lost their standards, and moreover
the centurions, and those with the double allowance, who had left their
ranks. With respect to the rest of the multitude, every tenth man was
drawn by lot for punishment.
60. In a contrary manner to this, the consul and soldiers in the country
of the Æquans vied with each other in courtesy and acts of kindness:
both Quintius was naturally milder in disposition, and the ill-fated
severity of his colleague caused him to indulge more in his own good
temper. This, such great cordiality between the general and his army,
the Æquans did not venture to meet; they suffered the enemy to go
through their lands committing devastations in every direction. Nor were
depredations committed more extensively in that quarter in any preceding
war. Praises were also added, in which the minds of soldiers find no
less pleasure than in rewards. The army returned more reconciled both to
their general, and also on account of the general to the patricians;
stating that a parent was assigned to them, a master to the other army
by the senate. The year now passed, with varied success in war, and
furious dissensions at home and abroad, was rendered memorable chiefly
by the elections by tribes; the matter was more important from the
victory in the contest entered into, than from any real advantage; for
there was more of dignity abstracted from the elections themselves by
the exclusion of the patricians, than there was influence either added
to the commons or taken from the patricians.
61. A more turbulent year[99] next followed, Lucius Valerius, Tiberius
Æmilius being consuls, both by reason of the struggles between the
different orders concerning the agrarian law, as well as on account of
the trial of Appius Claudius; for whom, as a most active opposer of the
law, and as one who supported the cause of the possessors of the public
land, as if a third consul, Marcus Duilius and Caius Sicinius appointed
a day of trial.[100] Never before was an accused person so hateful to
the commons brought to trial before the people; overwhelmed with their
resentment on his own account,[101] and also on account of his father.
The patricians too seldom made equal exertions in behalf of any one:
"that the champion of the senate, and the assertor of their dignity,
opposed to all the storms of the tribunes and commons, was exposed to
the resentment of the commons, merely for having exceeded bounds in the
contest." Appius Claudius himself was the only one of the patricians who
made light both of the tribunes and commons and his own trial. Neither
the threats of the commons, nor the entreaties of the senate, could ever
persuade him not only to change his garb, or address persons as a
suppliant, but not even so far as to soften or relax any thing from the
usual asperity of his style, when his cause was to be pleaded before the
people. The expression of his countenance was the same; the same
stubbornness in his looks, the same spirit of pride in his language; so
that a great part of the commons felt no less awe of Appius when
arraigned, than they had felt of him when consul. He pleaded his cause
once, and with the same spirit of an accuser which he had been
accustomed to adopt on all occasions: and he so far astounded both the
tribunes and the commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own accord,
they postponed the day of trial; then they allowed the matter to be
protracted. Nor was the time now very distant; before, however, the
appointed day came, he dies of some disease; and when the tribunes of
the people endeavoured to impede his funeral panegyric,[102] the commons
would not allow that the last day of so great a man should be defrauded
of the usual honours; and they listened to the panegyric of him when
dead with as patient ears, as they had listened to the charges brought
against him when living, and attended his funeral in vast numbers.
[Footnote 99: Niebuhr, ii. p. 231, thinks that it was in this year the
Icilian law was passed, according to which, any person interrupting the
proceedings of the tribunes, rendered himself liable to capital
punishment.--_Twiss._]
[Footnote 100: Several charges were brought against Appius, according to
Dion. ix. 54, who also states that he did not die of any disease, but
that he laid violent hands on himself.--_Ruperti._]
[Footnote 101: The original has _plenus suarum_--_irarum_,--that is, the
anger not of Appius against the commons, but of the commons against
him.]
[Footnote 102: Conf. Nieb. ii. n. 754. It may be well to mention that
Niebuhr considered that this account regarding the death of Appius was
all fictitious. The Greek writers, scil. Dion. ix. 54, Zonar. vii. 17,
state that he laid violent hands on himself.]
62. In the same year the consul Valerius, having marched an army against
the Æquans, when he could not entice the enemy to an engagement, set
about assaulting their camp. A violent storm sent down from heaven with
thunder and hail prevented him. Then, on a signal for a retreat being
given, their surprise was excited by the return of such fair weather,
that they felt a scruple a second time to attack a camp which was
defended as it were by some divine power; all the rage of war was turned
on the devastation of the land. The other consul, Æmilius, conducted the
war against the Sabines. There also, because the enemy confined
themselves within their walls, the lands were laid waste. Then, by the
burning not only of the country-houses, but of the villages also, which
were thickly inhabited, the Sabines being aroused, after they met the
depredators, on retreating from an engagement left undecided, on the
following day removed their camp into a safer situation. This seemed a
sufficient reason to the consul why he should leave the enemy as
conquered, departing thence the war being still unfinished.
63. During these wars, whilst dissensions still continued at home, Titus
Numicius Priscus, Aulus Virginius, were elected consuls. The commons
appeared determined no longer to brook a delay of the agrarian law, and
extreme violence was on the eve of being resorted to, when it was
ascertained from the burning of the country-houses and the flight of the
peasants that the Volscians were at hand: this circumstance checked the
sedition that was now ripe and almost breaking out. The consuls, having
been instantly forced to the war by the senate,[103] after leading forth
the youth from the city, rendered the rest of the commons more quiet.
And the enemy indeed, having done nothing else except alarming the
Romans by groundless fear, depart with great precipitation. Numicius
marched to Antium against the Volscians, Virginius against the Æquans.
Here a signal overthrow being well nigh received from an ambuscade, the
bravery of the soldiers restored (the Roman) superiority, which had been
endangered through the carelessness of the consul. The general conducted
affairs better against the Volscians. The enemy were routed in the first
engagement, and forced to fly into the city of Antium, a very wealthy
place considering those times; the consul, not venturing to attack it,
took from the people of Antium another town, Ceno, which was by no means
so wealthy. Whilst the Æquans and Volscians engage the attention of the
Roman armies, the Sabines advanced in their devastations even to the
gates of the city: then they themselves, a few days after, received from
the two armies heavier losses than they had occasioned, the two consuls
having entered their territories under exasperated feelings.
[Footnote 103: In the original we read _coacti extemplo ab senatu_.
Niebuhr considers this reading to be corrupt, and is satisfied that the
correct reading is _coacto extemplo senatu_. See ii. n. 555.]
64. Towards the close of the year there was some peace, but, as
frequently at other times, disturbed by contests between the patricians
and commons. The exasperated commons refused to attend the consular
elections: Titus Quintius, Quintus Servilius, were elected consuls by
the patricians and their dependents: the consuls have a year similar to
the preceding, the commencement embroiled, and afterwards tranquil by
external war. The Sabines marching across the plains of Crustuminum with
great rapidity, after carrying fire and sword along the banks of the
Anio, being repulsed when they had come up nearly to the Colline gate
and the walls, drove off however great booty of men and cattle: the
consul Servilius, having pursued them with a determined army, was unable
to come up with the main body itself on the campaign country; he carried
his devastation however so extensively, that he left nothing unmolested
by war, and returned after obtaining plunder much exceeding that carried
off by the enemy. The public interest was supported extremely well
against the Volscians also by the exertions as well of the general as of
the soldiers. First they fought a pitched battle, on equal ground, with
great slaughter and much bloodshed on both sides: and the Romans,
because the fewness of their numbers was more likely to make the loss
felt, would have given way, had not the consul, by a well-timed fiction,
re-animated the army, crying out that the enemy were flying on the other
wing; making a charge, they, by supposing that they were victorious,
became so. The consul, fearing lest by pressing too far he might renew
the contest, gave the signal for a retreat. A few days intervened; rest
being taken on both sides as if by a tacit suspension of arms; during
these days a vast number of persons from all the states of the Volscians