The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
of a contest, at such an age, and after passing through such honours,
stimulated the exertions of Appius Claudius. You would not know whether
to reckon him among the decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled more
closely one canvassing for the office than one invested with it; he
aspersed the nobility, extolled every most insignificant and humble
candidate; surrounded by the Duilii and Icilii who had been tribunes, he
bustled about the forum, through their means he recommended himself to
the commons; until his colleagues even, who till then had been extremely
devoted to him, turned their eyes on him, wondering what he meant. It
was evident to them, that there was no sincerity in it; "that certainly
such affability amid such pride would not be for nothing. That this
excessive lowering of himself, and putting himself on a level with
private citizens, was not so much the conduct to be expected from one
hastening to go out of office, as of one seeking the means of continuing
that office." Not daring openly to oppose his wishes, they set about
baffling his ardour by humouring it. They by common consent confer on
him, as being the youngest, the office of presiding at the elections.
This was an artifice, that he might not appoint himself; which no one
ever did, except the tribunes of the people, and that too with the very
worst precedent. He, however, declaring that with the favour of fortune
he would preside at the elections, seized on the (intended)
obstacle[134] as a happy occasion; and having by a coalition foiled the
two Quintii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his own uncle, Caius
Claudius, a man most stedfast in the interest of the nobility, and other
citizens of the same eminence, he appoints as decemvirs men by no means
equal in rank of life: himself in the first instance, which proceeding
honourable men disapproved so much the more, as no one had imagined that
he would have the daring to act so. With him were elected Marcus
Cornelius-Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minutius, Quintus Fabius
Vibulanus, Quintus Pœtelius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Cæso Duilius,
Spurius Oppius Cornicen, Manius Rabuleius.[135]
[Footnote 134: _Impedimentum_. The fact of his presiding at the meeting
should have been a bar to his being elected a decemvir.]
[Footnote 135: Niebuhr will have it that five of these were of plebeian
rank.]
36. This was the end of Appius's assumption of a character not his own.
Henceforward he began to live according to his own natural disposition,
and to mould to his own temper his new colleagues before they should
enter on their office. They held daily meetings remote from witnesses:
then, furnished with their schemes of tyranny,[136] which they digested
apart from others, no longer dissembling their arrogance, difficult of
access, morose to all who addressed them, they carried out the matter to
the ides of May. The ides of May were at that time the usual period for
commencing office. At the commencement then of their magistracy, they
rendered the first day of their office remarkable by making an
exhibition of great terror. For when the preceding decemvirs had
observed the rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that this
emblem of royalty should pass through all in rotation, to each in his
turn, they all suddenly came forth with the twelve fasces. One hundred
and twenty lictors filled the forum, and carried before them the axes
tied up with the fasces: and they explained that it was of no
consequence that the axe should be taken away, as they had been
appointed without the privilege of appeal.[137] There was the appearance
of ten kings, and terrors were multiplied not only in the humblest
individuals, but even in the principal men among the patricians, who
thought that a pretext and commencement of bloodshed were sought for; so
that if any one should utter a word favourable to liberty, either in the
senate or in a meeting of the people, the rods and axes would be
instantly brought forward, even to intimidate the rest. For besides that
there was no protection in the people, the right of appeal being done
away with, they had also by mutual consent prohibited interference with
each other:[138] whereas the preceding decemvirs had allowed the points
of law decided by themselves to be amended by appeal to a colleague, and
had referred to the people some points which might seem to come within
their own jurisdiction. For a considerable time the terror seemed
equalized among all ranks; gradually it began to turn entirely on the
commons. They spared the patricians; arbitrary and cruel treatment was
shown to the humbler classes: they were wholly respective of the person,
not of the cause: as being persons with whom interest usurped the force
of justice. Their decisions they concerted at home, and pronounced in
the forum. If any person appealed to a colleague, he left the one to
whom he had appealed in such a manner as to regret that he had not
abided by the sentence of the former. An opinion also had gone abroad
without an authority, that they had conspired in their tyranny not only
for the present time, but that a clandestine league had been struck
among them (accompanied) with an oath, that they would not hold the
comitia, and that by perpetuating the decemvirate they would retain the
power now in their possession.
[Footnote 136: _Impotentibus_, sc. immoderatis--_rari aditus_, the
genitive singular.--_Stroth._]
[Footnote 137: _Nec attinuisse demi securim, quum sine provocatione
creati essent, interpretabantur_. Valerius Publicola had introduced the
custom of not having the axes tied up with the fasces when carried
before the consuls in the city. But the decemvirs said that this was,
because an appeal from the consuls to the people was allowed. Whence,
since their jurisdiction allowed of no appeal, they _interpreted_, i. e.
by interpreting the meaning or intention of this custom, they concluded
that they were not bound by it, and that there was no reason why they
should remove the axes from the fasces.--_Crev._]
[Footnote 138: _Provocatione_--intercessionem. The _provocatio_ was to
the people, whilst the _intercessio_ referred to the decemvirs against a
colleague.]
37. The plebeians then began to watch narrowly the countenances of the
patricians, and (hoped) to catch the breeze of liberty from that
quarter, by apprehending slavery from which, they had brought the
republic into its present condition. The leading members of the senate
detested the decemvirs, detested the commons; they neither approved of
what was going on, and they considered that what befell the latter was
not without their deserving it. They were unwilling to assist men who,
by rushing too eagerly towards liberty, had fallen into slavery: they
even heaped injuries on them, that, from their disgust at the present
state of things, two consuls and the former mode of government may at
length become desirable. The greater part of the year was now passed,
and two tables of laws had been added to the ten tables of the former
year; and if these laws also were once passed in an assembly of the
centuries, there now remained no reason why the republic should require
that form of government. They were anxiously waiting to see how soon
the assembly would be proclaimed for the election of consuls. The
commons were only devising by what means they should re-establish the
tribunitian power, that bulwark of their liberty, a thing now so long
discontinued. When in the mean time no mention was made of the
elections, and the decemvirs, who had at first exhibited themselves to
the people, surrounded by men of tribunitian rank, because that was
deemed popular, now guarded themselves by collecting young patricians;
troops of these beset the tribunals. These seized and drove about the
commons, and the effects of the commons; when success attended the more
powerful individual, as far as obtaining any thing he might covet.[139]
And now they spared not even their backs. Some were beaten with rods;
others had to submit to the axe; and lest such cruelty might go for
nothing, a grant of his effects followed the punishment of the owner.
Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobility not only made no opposition
to oppression, but openly avowed their preference of their own
gratification to the general liberty.
[Footnote 139: _Quum fortuna, qua quicquid cupitum foret, potentioris
esset_. Stroth considers this passage to be corrupt: he proposes to read
_cum fortuna_, so that _portentioris esset_ may refer to _quicquid
cupitum foret_, i. e. with such favourable success, that every thing
which the more powerful person might covet, became his.]
38. The ides of May came. No new election of magistrates having taken
place, private persons came forth as decemvirs, without any abatement
either in their determination to enforce their authority,[140] or any
diminution in the emblems employed to make a parade of their station.
This indeed seemed to be regal tyranny. Liberty is now deplored as lost
for ever; nor does any champion stand forth, or appear likely to do so.
And not only they themselves sunk into despondence, but they began to be
looked down upon by the neighbouring states; and they felt indignant
that dominion should exist where liberty was lost. The Sabines with a
numerous body of men made an incursion on the Roman territory; and
having committed extensive devastations, after they had driven with
impunity booty of men and cattle, they recalled their troops which had
been dispersed in different directions to Eretum, and pitch their camp
there, grounding their hopes on the dissensions at Rome; (and trusting)
that they would prove an obstruction to the levy. Not only the couriers,
but the flight of the country people through the city, occasioned alarm.
The decemvirs consult what should be done. Whilst they were thus left
destitute between the hatred of the patricians and people, fortune
added, moreover, another cause of alarm. The Æquans on the opposite side
pitch their camp at Algidum; and ambassadors from Tusculum, imploring
relief, bring accounts that the Tusculan land was ravaged by detachments
from thence. The panic occasioned hereby urged the decemvirs to consult
the senate, two wars at the same time surrounding the city. They order
the patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well aware what a
storm of resentment was ready to break upon them; that all would heap on
them the causes of the land laid waste, and of the dangers which
threatened them; and that that would occasion an attempt to abolish
their office, if they did not unite in resisting, and by enforcing their
authority with severity on a few of an intractable spirit repress the
efforts of others. When the voice was heard in the forum of the crier
summoning the senators into the senate-house before the decemvirs; as a
matter altogether new, because they had long since laid aside the custom
of consulting the senate, it attracted the attention of the people, who
expressed their surprise: "What could have happened, that after so long
an interval they should revive a practice now discontinued. That they
had reason to return thanks to the enemy and to war, that any thing was
done that used to be done when their state was free." They looked around
for a senator through all parts of the forum, and seldom recognised one
any where: they then directed their attention to the senate-house, and
to the solitude around the decemvirs: whilst both they themselves
referred the non-assembling of the patricians to their own universally
detested government, and the commons (would have it, that the cause of
the non-assembling was) because, being but private citizens, they (the
decemvirs) had no right to convene the senate;[141] "that a head was