The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
preserved, whatever sentiments ye shall entertain towards me. It has
been so ordained by nature, that he who addresses a multitude for his
own private interest, is more pleasing than the man whose mind has
nothing in view but the public interest. Unless perhaps you suppose that
those public sycophants, those flatterers of the commons, who neither
suffer you to take up arms nor to live in peace, incite and work you up
for your own interests. When excited, you are to them sources either of
honour or of profit: and because, during concord between the several
orders, they see that themselves are of no importance on any side, they
wish to be leaders of a bad cause rather than of no cause whatever, of
tumults, and of sedition. Of which state of things, if a tedium can at
length enter your minds, and if ye are willing to resume the modes of
acting practised by your forefathers, and formerly by yourselves, I
submit to any punishment, if I do not rout and put to flight, and strip
of their camp, those ravagers of our lands, and transfer from our gates
and walls to their cities this terror of war, by which you are now
thrown into consternation."
69. Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more acceptable to
the commons, than was this of a most strict consul on that occasion. The
young men also, who during such alarming emergencies had been accustomed
to employ the refusal to enlist as the sharpest weapon against the
patricians, began to direct their thoughts to war and arms: and the
flight of the rustics, and those who had been robbed on the lands and
wounded, announcing matters more revolting even than what was exhibited
to view, filled the whole city with a spirit of vengeance. When the
senate assembled, these all turning to Quintius, looked on him as the
only champion of Roman majesty; and the leading senators declared "his
harangue to be worthy of the consular authority, worthy of so many
consulships formerly borne by him, worthy of his whole life, which was
full of honours frequently enjoyed, more frequently deserved. That
other consuls had either flattered the commons by betraying the dignity
of the patricians, or by harshly maintaining the rights of their order,
had rendered the multitude more difficult to subdue: that Titus Quintius
had delivered a speech mindful of the dignity of the patricians, of the
concord of the different orders, and above all, of the times. They
entreated him and his colleague to take up the interest of the
commonwealth; they entreated the tribunes, that by acting in concert
with the consuls they would join in repelling the war from the city and
the walls, and that they would induce the commons to be obedient to the
senate in so perilous a conjuncture: that, their lands being devastated,
and their city in a manner besieged, their common country appealed to
them as tribunes, and implored their aid." By universal consent the levy
is decreed and held. When the consuls gave public notice "that there was
no time for examining into excuses, that all the young men should attend
on the following morning at the first dawn in the Campus Martius; that
when the war was over, they should afford time for inquiring into the
excuses of those who had not given in their names; that the man should
be held as a deserter, with whose excuse they might not be satisfied;"
the entire youth attended on the following day. The cohorts chose each
their centurions: two senators were placed at the head of each cohort.
We have heard that all these measures were perfected with such
expedition, that the standards, having been brought forth from the
treasury on that very day by the quæstors and conveyed to the Campus,
began to move from thence at the fourth hour; and the newly raised army
halted at the tenth stone, followed by a few cohorts of veteran soldiers
as volunteers. The following day brought the enemy within view, and camp
was joined to camp near Corbio. On the third day, when resentment urged
on the Romans, a consciousness of guilt for having so often rebelled,
and despair (of pardon) urged them on the other side, there was no delay
made in coming to an engagement.
70. In the Roman army, though the two consuls were invested with equal
authority, the supreme command was by the concession of Agrippa resigned
to his colleague, a thing which is most salutary in the management of
matters of great importance; and he who was preferred politely
responded to the ready condescension of him who lowered himself, by
communicating to him all his measures and sharing with him his honours,
and by equalizing himself to him no longer his equal. On the field of
battle Quintius commanded the right, Agrippa the left wing; the command
of the central line is intrusted to Spurius Postumius Albus, as
lieutenant-general. Servius Sulpicius, the other lieutenant-general,
they place over the cavalry. The infantry on the right wing fought with
distinguished valour, with stout resistance from the Volscians. Servius
Sulpicius broke with his cavalry through the centre of the enemy's line;
whence though he might have returned in the same way to his own party,
before the enemy could have restored their broken ranks, it seemed more
advisable to attack the enemy's rear, and by attacking the rear he would
in a moment have dispersed the enemy by the twofold attack, had not the
cavalry of the Volscians and Æquans intercepted him and kept him engaged
by a mode of fighting similar to his own. Then indeed Sulpicius asserted
that "there was no time for delaying," crying out that "they were
surrounded and cut off from their own friends, unless they united all
their efforts and despatched the engagement with the cavalry. Nor was it
enough to rout the enemy without disabling them; that they should slay
horses and men, lest any might return to the fight or renew the battle;
that they could not resist them, before whom a compact body of infantry
had given way." His orders were addressed to by no means deaf ears; by
one charge they routed the entire cavalry, dismounted great numbers, and
killed with their javelins both the men and the horses. This put a
termination to the battle with the cavalry. Then attacking the enemy's
line, they send an account to the consuls of what they had done, where
the enemy's line was now giving way. The news both gave new spirits to
the Romans who were now conquering, and dismayed the Æquans as they were
beginning to give way. They first began to be beaten in the centre,
where the charge of the cavalry had broken their ranks. Then the left
wing began to lose ground before the consul Quintius; there was most
difficulty on the right. Then Agrippa, buoyed up by youth and vigour, on
seeing matters going more favourably in every part of the battle than in
his own quarter, took some of the standards from the standard-bearers
and carried them on himself, some even he began to throw into the thick
of the enemy. The soldiers, urged on by the fear of this disgrace,
attacked the enemy; thus the victory was equalized in every quarter.
News then came from Quintius that he, being now victorious, was about to
attack the enemy's camp; that he was unwilling to break into it before
he learned that they were beaten in the left wing also. If he had routed
the enemy, that he should now join him, that all the army together might
take possession of the booty. Agrippa being victorious came with mutual
congratulations to his victorious colleague and to the enemy's camp.
There being but few to defend it, and these being routed in a moment,
they break into the fortifications without a struggle; and they march
back the army after it obtained a large share of spoil, having recovered
also their own effects, which had been lost by the devastation of the
lands. I have not ascertained that either they themselves demanded a
triumph, nor that such was conferred on them by the senate; nor is any
cause assigned for the honour being either overlooked or not hoped for.
As far as I can conjecture at so great a distance of time, when a
triumph had been refused to the consuls Horatius and Valerius, who, in
addition to the Æquans and Volscians, had gained the glory of finishing
the Sabine war, the consuls were ashamed to demand a triumph for one
half of the services done by them; lest if they even should obtain it,
regard of persons rather than of merit might appear to have been
entertained.
71. A disgraceful decision of the people regarding the boundaries of
their allies disgraced the honourable victory obtained over their
enemies. The states of Aricia and of Ardea, having frequently contended
in arms concerning a disputed piece of land, and being wearied out by
many mutual losses, appointed the Roman people as arbitrators. When they
came to support their claims, an assembly of the people being granted
them by the magistrates, a debate ensued conducted with great warmth.
And the witnesses being now produced, when the tribes were to be called,
and the people were to give their votes, Publius Scaptius, a plebeian
advanced in years, rises up and says; "Consuls, if it is permitted me to
speak on the public interest, I will not suffer the people to be led
into a mistake in this matter." When the consuls said that he, as
unworthy of attention, was not to be heard and, on his exclaiming "that
the public interest was being betrayed," ordered him to be put aside, he
appeals to the tribunes. The tribunes, as they are always directed by
the multitude, rather than they direct them, indulged the people, who
were anxious to hear him, in granting Scaptius leave to say what he
pleased. He then commences: "That he was in his eighty-third year, and
that he had served in that district which was now in dispute, not even
then a young man as he was serving his twentieth campaign, when
operations were going on at Corioli. He therefore adduced a fact
forgotten by length of time, but one deeply fixed in his own memory: the
district now in dispute had belonged to the territory of Corioli, and
after the taking of Corioli, it became by right of war the public
property of the Roman people. That he was surprised how the states of
Ardea and Aricia should hope to intercept from the Roman people, whom
from being the right owners they made arbitrators, a district the right
to which they never claimed whilst the state of Corioli subsisted. That
he for his part had but a short time to live; he could not however bring
himself, old as he now was, to decline claiming by his voice, the only
means he now had, a district which, as a soldier, he had contributed to
acquire, as far as an individual could. That he strenuously advised the
people not to damn their own interest by an improper feeling of
delicacy."
72. The consuls, when they perceived that Scaptius was listened to not
only in silence, but even with approbation, appealing to gods and men,
that an enormous and disgraceful act was being committed, send for the
principal senators: with these they went around to the tribunes;
entreated, "that, as judges, they would not be guilty of a most heinous
crime, with a still worse precedent, by converting the dispute to their
own interest, more especially when, even though it may be lawful for a
judge to protect his own emolument, so much would by no means be
acquired by keeping the land, as would be lost by alienating the
affections of their allies by injustice; for that the losses of
character and of reputation were greater than could be estimated. Were
the ambassadors to carry home this answer; was this to go out to the
world; were their allies to hear this; were their enemies to hear
it--with what sorrow the one--with what joy the other party? Could they
suppose, that the neighbouring states would impute this proceeding to