The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
that they would not allow that vote."
22. The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a third time, and
Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was performed that year; it
was a matter of religious scruple that the lustrum should be closed, on
account of the Capitol having been taken and the consul slain. In the
consulate of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius, disturbances broke out
immediately at the commencement of the year. The tribunes were urging on
the commons. The Latins and Hernici brought word that a formidable war
was in preparation on the part of the Volscians and Æqui; that the
troops of the Volscians were now at Antium. Great apprehension was also
entertained, that the colony itself would revolt: and with difficulty
were the tribunes prevailed on to allow the war to take precedence. The
consuls then divided the provinces between them. It was assigned to
Fabius to march the legions to Antium; to Cornelius, to protect the
city; lest any part of the enemy, as was the practice of the Æqui,
should come to commit depredations. The Hernici and Latins were ordered
to supply soldiers in conformity to the treaty; and in the army two
parts consisted of allies, one part of natives. When the allies came to
the day already appointed, the consul pitches his camp outside the
Capuan gate. Then, after the army was purified, he set out for Antium,
and encamped not far from the town, and standing camp of the enemy.
Where, when the Volscians, not venturing to risk an engagement, were
preparing to protect themselves quietly within their ramparts, on the
following day Fabius drew up not one mixed army of allies and citizens,
but three separate bodies of the three states around the enemy's works.
He himself was in the centre with the Roman legions. He ordered them to
watch for the signal from thence, so that the allies might both commence
the action together, and retire together, if he should sound a retreat.
He placed their cavalry in the rear of each division. Having thus
assailed the camp in three different points, he surrounds it; and when
he pressed on from every side, he dislodges from the rampart the
Volscians, not able to sustain his attack. Having then crossed the
fortifications, he expels from the camp the crowd who were dismayed and
inclining towards one direction. Upon this the cavalry, who could not
easily pass over the rampart, having stood by up to that period mere
spectators of the fight, having come up with them whilst flying in
disorder on the open plain, enjoys a share of the victory, by cutting
down the affrighted troops. The slaughter of them as they fled was
great, both in the camp and outside the lines; but the booty was still
greater, because the enemy were scarcely able to carry off their arms
with them; and their entire army would have been destroyed, had not the
woods covered them in their flight.
23. Whilst these transactions are taking place at Antium, the Æqui, in
the mean while, sending forward the main strength of their youth,
surprise the citadel of Tusculum by night, and with the rest of their
army they sit down at no great distance from the walls of Tusculum, so
as to divide the forces of the enemy. This account being quickly brought
to Rome, and from Rome to Antium, affect the Romans not less than if it
was told them that the Capitol was taken; so recent were both the
services of the Tusculans, and the very similitude of the danger seemed
to require a return of the aid that had been afforded. Fabius, giving up
every other object, removes the booty hastily from the camp to Antium.
Having a small garrison there, he hurries on his army by forced marches
to Tusculum. The soldiers were allowed to carry nothing but their arms,
and whatever dressed provision was at hand. The consul Cornelius sends
provisions from Rome. The war was carried on at Tusculum for several
months. With one part of his army the consul assailed the camp of the
Æqui; a part he had given to the Tusculans to recover their citadel.
They never could have made their way to it by force. Famine at length
withdrew the enemy from it. And when they came to this at last, they
were all sent under the yoke by the Tusculans, unarmed and naked. These,
when betaking themselves home by an ignominious flight, were overtaken
by the Roman consul on Algidum and cut off to a man. After this victory,
having marched back[127] his army to Columen, (that is the name of the
place,) he pitches his camp. The other consul also, as soon as the Roman
walls ceased to be in danger, the enemy being defeated, set out from
Rome. Thus the consuls, having entered the territories of the enemies on
two different sides, strenuously vie with each other in depopulating the
Volscians on the one hand, the Æqui on the other. I find in some writers
that the people of Antium revolted[128] the same year. That Lucius
Cornelius, the consul, conducted that war and took the town, I would not
venture to affirm for certain, because no mention is made of the matter
among the older writers.
[Footnote 127: _Exercitu relicto_ is the ordinary reading. Crevier
observes that _reducto_ is the more correct.]
[Footnote 128: This account does not seem to be correct. See Niebuhr ii.
p. 254.]
24. This war being concluded, a tribunitian war at home alarms the
senate. They exclaim, "that the detaining the army abroad was done for a
fraudulent motive: that such frustration was for the purpose of doing
away with the law; that they, however, would go through with the matter
undertaken by them." Publius Lucretius, however, the præfect of the
city, so far prevailed that the proceedings of the tribunes were
postponed till the arrival of the consuls. A new cause of disturbance
also arose. Aulus Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, quæstors, appoint a
day of trial for Marcus Volscius, because he had come forward as a
manifestly false witness against Cæso. For it appeared by many proofs,
that the brother of Volscius, from the time he first became ill, not
only never appeared in public, but that he had not even arisen from his
sick bed, and that he died of an illness of several months' standing;
and that at the time to which the witness had referred the commission of
the crime, Cæso had not been seen at Rome: those who served in the army
with him, positively stating that at that time he had constantly
attended at his post with them without any leave of absence. Many
persons proposed on their own private responsibility to Volscius to have
a judicial decision on the matter.[129] As he would not venture to go to
trial, all these matters coinciding rendered the condemnation of
Volscius no less certain than that of Cæso had been on the testimony of
Volscius. The tribunes occasioned a delay, who said that they would not
suffer the quæstors to hold the assembly[130] concerning the accused,
unless it was first held concerning the law. Thus both matters were spun
out till the arrival of the consuls. When they entered the city in
triumph with their victorious army, because silence was (observed) with
regard to the law, many thought that the tribunes were struck with
dismay. But they, (for it was now the close of the year,) desirous of
obtaining a fourth tribuneship, had turned away their efforts from the
law to canvassing for the elections; and when the consuls strove with no
less strenuousness than if the law in question were proposed for the
purpose of lessening their own dignity, the victory in the contest was
on the side of the tribunes. On the same year peace was granted to the
Æqui on their suing for it. The census, a matter commenced on the
preceding year, is completed. The number of citizens rated were one
hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred and nineteen. The consuls
obtained great glory this year both at home and in war, because they
both re-established peace abroad and at home; though the state was not
in a state of absolute concord, yet it was less disturbed than at other
times.
[Footnote 129: _Ni ita esset_, a legal form of expression, amounting in
this place to "if Volscius attempted to deny it." _Privatim_. Besides
the quæstors who by virtue of their office were to prosecute Volscius,
many persons on their own account, and on their private responsibility,
cited him into court, and challenged him to discuss the case before a
judge. A prosecutor was said _ferre judicem res_, when he proposed to
the accused person some one out of the _judices selecti_, before whom
the case might be tried; if the accused person consented to the person
named by prosecutor, then the judge was said _convenisse_, to have been
agreed on. Sometimes the accused was allowed to select his own judge,
_judicem dicere_. When both the prosecutor and the accused agreed as to
the judge, they presented a joint petition to the prætor that he would
appoint (_ut daret_) that person to try the cause; at the same time they
both bound themselves to pay a certain sum, the one if he did not
establish his charge, _ni ita esset_; the other if he did not prove his
innocence.]
[Footnote 130: _Comitia_, i. e. _curiata_, which exercised authority in
the cases of persons accused of inflicting injuries on the patricians.]
25. Lucius Minucius and Caius Nautius being next elected consuls, took
up the two causes which lay over since the preceding year. The consuls
obstructed the law, the tribunes the trial of Volscius in the same
manner: but in the new quæstors there was greater power, and greater
influence. With Marcus Valerius, son of Valerius and grandson of
Volesus, Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was
appointed quæstor. Since Cæso could neither be restored to the Quintian
family, nor could he, though a most promising young man, be restored to
the state, he justly, and as in duty bound, prosecuted the false witness
who had deprived an innocent person of the power of pleading his cause.
When Virginius in particular and the (other) tribunes were promoting the
passing of the law, the space of two months was allowed to the consuls
to examine into the law: so that, when they had satisfied the people, as
to what secret designs were concealed under it, they should then allow
them to give their votes. The granting this respite established
tranquillity in the city. The Æqui however did not allow them long rest;
who, in violation of the treaty which had been made with the Romans the
year before, confer the chief command on Gracchus Clælius. He was then
the leading man amongst the Æqui. Under the command of Gracchus they
carry hostile depredations into the district of Lavici, from thence into
that of Tusculum, and laden with booty they pitch their camp at Algidum.
To that camp Quintus Fabius, Publius Volumnius, Aulus Posthumius, come
to complain of the wrongs committed, and to demand restitution in
accordance with the treaty. The general of the Æqui commands them "to
deliver to the oak whatever instructions they brought from the Roman
senate; that he in the mean time should attend to other matters." A
large oak tree hung over the prætorium, the shade of which constituted a
pleasant seat. Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, says, "Let
both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear the treaty violated by
you, and favour both our complaints now, and our arms presently, when we
shall simultaneously avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by
you." As soon as the ambassadors returned to Rome, the senate ordered
one of the consuls to lead his army against Gracchus at Algidum, to the
other they assigned as his province the laying waste of the country of
the Æqui. The tribunes, according to their practice, attempted to
obstruct the levy; and probably would have eventually prevented it, but
a new cause of alarm was suddenly added.