The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
26. A large body of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation, approached
very close to the walls of the city. The fields were laid waste, the
city was struck with terror. Then the commons cheerfully took up arms;
two large armies were raised, the tribunes remonstrating to no purpose.
Nautius led the one against the Sabines; and having pitched his camp at
Eretum, by small detachments, generally by nightly incursions, he
effected such desolation in the Sabine land, that, when compared to it,
the Roman territories seemed intact by an enemy. Minucius had neither
the same success nor the same energy of mind in conducting his business;
for after he had pitched his camp at no great distance from the enemy,
without having experienced any considerable loss, he kept himself
through fear within the camp. When the enemy perceived this, their
boldness increased, as sometimes happens, from others' fears; and having
attacked his camp by night, when open force did not succeed well, they
on the following day drew lines of circumvallation around it. Before
these could close up all the passes, by a vallum being thrown up on all
sides, five horsemen being despatched between the enemies' posts,
brought the account to Rome, that the consul and his army were besieged.
Nothing could have happened so unexpected, nor so unlooked-for.
Accordingly the panic and the alarm was as great as if the enemy
besieged the city, not the camp. They send for the consul Nautius; in
whom when there seemed to be but insufficient protection, and they were
determined that a dictator should be appointed to retrieve their
embarrassed affairs, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus is appointed by
universal consent. It is worth those persons' while to listen, who
despise all things human in comparison with riches, and who suppose
"that there is no room for exalted honour, nor for virtue, unless where
riches abound in great profusion." Lucius Quintius, the sole hope of the
Roman people, cultivated a farm of four acres, at the other side of the
Tiber, which are called the Quintian meadows, opposite to the very place
where the dock-yard now is. There, whether leaning on a stake in a ditch
which he was digging, or in the employment of ploughing, engaged at
least on some rural work, as is certain, after mutual salutations had
passed, being requested by the ambassadors to put on his gown, and
listen to the commands of the senate, (with wishes) that it might be
happy both to him and to the commonwealth, being astonished, and asking
frequently "whether all was safe," he bids his wife Racilia immediately
to bring his toga from his hut. As soon as he put this on and came
forward, after first wiping off the dust and sweat, the ambassadors,
congratulating him, unite in saluting him as dictator: they call him
into the city; explain to him what terror now exists in the army. A
vessel was prepared for Quintius by order of government, and his three
sons having come out to meet him, receive him on his landing at the
other side; then his other relatives and friends; then the greater part
of the patricians. Accompanied by this numerous attendance, and the
lictors going before him, he was conducted to his residence. There was a
numerous concourse of the commons also; but they by no means looked on
Quintius with equal pleasure, considering both the extent of his
authority as too great, and the man vested with such authority rather
arbitrary. And during that night indeed nothing was done in the city
besides posting guards.
27. On the next day the dictator, after he had come into the forum
before day-light, names a master of the horse, Lucius Tarquitius, a man
of patrician family, but one who, though he had served his campaigns
among the foot by reason of his scanty means, was yet considered by many
degrees the first in military skill among the Roman youth. With his
master of the horse he came into the assembly, proclaims a suspension of
civil business, orders the shops to be closed throughout the city, and
forbids any one to attend to any private affairs. Then he commands that
all, whoever were of the military age, should attend under arms, in the
Campus Martius, before sun-set, with dressed provisions for five days
and twelve palisades, and he commanded that whose age was too far
advanced for military service, should dress their victuals for the
soldiers in their vicinity, whilst the latter were preparing arms, and
procuring the palisade. Accordingly, the young men run in different
directions to procure the palisades; they took them wherever they were
nearest to them; no one was prevented, and they all attended punctually
according to the dictator's order. Then the troops being formed, not
more fitted for the march than for an engagement, should the occasion
require it, the dictator himself marches at the head of the legions, the
master of the horse at the head of his cavalry. In both bodies there
were such exhortations as the juncture itself required; that "they
should quicken their pace; that there was need of expedition, that they
might reach the enemy by night; that the consul and the Romans were
besieged; that they had been shut up now three days: that it was
uncertain what each day or night might bring with it; that the issue of
the most important affairs often depended on a moment of time." They, to
please their leaders, exclaimed among themselves, "Standard-bearer,
hasten on; follow, soldier." At midnight they reach Algidum: and, as
soon as they perceived that they were near the enemy, they halted.
28. There the dictator, having rode about, and having observed, as far
as could be ascertained by night, what the situation of the camp was,
and what its form, commanded the tribunes of the soldiers to order the
baggage to be thrown into one place, and that the soldiers with their
arms and palisades should return to their ranks. What he commanded was
executed. Then, with the regularity which they had observed on the
march, he draws the entire army in a long column around the enemies'
camp, and directs that, when the signal was given, they should all raise
a shout; and that on the shout being raised, each man should throw up a
trench before his post, and fix his palisade. The orders being issued,
the signal followed: the soldiers perform what they were commanded; the
shout resounds around the enemy: it then passes beyond the camp of the
enemy, and reaches the consul's camp: it occasions panic in one place,
great joy in another. The Romans, observing to each other with
exultation, "that this was the shout of their countrymen, and that aid
was at hand," from their watch-guards and out-posts intimidate the enemy
on their part. The consul says, that there must be no delay: "that by
that shout not only their arrival was intimated, but that proceedings
were already commenced by their friends; and that it would be a wonder
if the enemies' camp were not attacked on the outside." He therefore
orders his men to take up arms and follow him. The battle was commenced
by the legions during the night: they give notice to the dictator by a
shout, that on that side also the action was commenced. The Æquans were
now preparing to prevent the works from being brought around them,[131]
when, the battle being commenced by the enemy from within, turning their
attention from those employed on the fortifications to those who were
fighting on the inside, lest a sally should be made through the centre
of their camp, they left the night to remain without interruption for
the finishing of the work; and they continued the fight with the consul
till daylight. At the break of day they were now encompassed by the
dictator's works, and were scarcely able to maintain the fight against
one army. Then their lines were attacked by Quintius's army, who
immediately after completing their work returned to their arms. Here a
new fight pressed on them: the former one had suffered no relaxation.
Then the twofold peril pressing hard on them, turning from fighting to
entreaties, they implored the dictator on the one hand, the consul on
the other, not to make the victory consist in their general slaughter,
that they would suffer them to depart without arms. When they were bid
by the consul to go to the dictator, he, incensed against them, added
ignominy (to defeat). He orders Gracchus Cloelius, their general, and
other leaders to be brought to him in chains, and that they should
evacuate the town of Corbio; "that he wanted not the blood of the
Æquans: that they were allowed to depart; but that the confession may be
at length extorted, that their nation was defeated and subdued, that
they should pass under the yoke." The yoke is formed with three spears,
two fixed in the ground, and one tied across between the upper ends of
them. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.
[Footnote 131: _Ad prohibenda circumdari opera_. Stroth observes that it
should be more properly _ad prohibenda circumdanda opera_, i. e. ad
prohibendum, ne opera circumdarentur.]
29. The enemy's camp being taken, which was full of every thing, (for he
had sent them away naked,) he distributed all the booty among his own
soldiers only: chiding the consul's army and the consul himself, he
says, "Soldiers, ye shall do without any portion of the spoil taken from
that enemy to which you were well nigh becoming a spoil: and you, Lucius
Minutius, until you begin to assume the spirit of a consul, shall
command these legions as lieutenant-general." Minutius accordingly
resigns his office of consul, and remains with the army, as he had been
commanded. But so meekly obedient were the minds of men at that time to
authority combined with superior merit, that this army, mindful of the
kindness (conferred) rather than of the slur (cast on them), both voted
a golden crown of a pound weight to the dictator, and saluted him as
their patron when setting out. The senate at Rome, being convened by
Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered Quintius to enter the city
in triumph, in the order of march in which he was coming. The leaders of
the enemy were led before his car: the military standards were carried
before him: his army followed laden with spoil. Tables with provisions
are said to have been laid out before the houses of all, and (the
soldiers) partaking of the entertainment, followed the car with the
triumphal hymn and the usual jests, after the manner of revellers. On
that day the freedom of the state was granted to Lucius Mamilius of
Tusculum, with universal approbation. The dictator would have laid down
his office, had not the assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the
false witness, detained him; the fear of the dictator prevented the
tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius was condemned and went into exile
to Lanuvium. Quintius laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day,
having received it for six months. During those days the consul Nautius
engages the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the
devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell the
Sabines. Fabius Quintus was sent to Algidum as successor to Minucius.
Towards the end of the year the tribunes began to agitate the question
of the law; but because two armies were abroad, the patricians carried
the point, that no business should be proposed to the people. The
commons succeeded in electing the same tribunes for the fifth time.
They report that wolves seen in the Capitol were driven away by dogs;
that on account of that prodigy the Capitol was purified. Such were the
transactions in that year.
30. Quintus Minucius and Caius Horatius Pulvillus follow as the next
consuls. At the commencement of this year, when there was peace abroad,
the same tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and