The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
the injustice done to them, that the consequence would be that they
would rejoice for having moderated their resentment, and that they
should be convinced that the patricians were equally anxious that no
injustice should arise against them, and that any which may have arisen
should not be lasting." Thus the ambassadors, saying that they should
lay the whole matter anew before their friends, were dismissed
courteously. The patricians, now that the republic was without any
curule magistrate, assembled together and elected an interrex. The
contest whether consuls or military tribunes should be elected, kept the
matter for several days in a state of interregnum. The interrex and
senate strive that the elections of consuls be held; the tribunes of the
people, and the people themselves, that elections of the military
tribunes be held. The patricians succeeded, because both the commons,
sure to confer the one or the other honour on patricians, gave up a
needless contest, and the leaders of the commons preferred those
elections at which no account was to be taken of them (as candidates) to
those at which they should be passed by as unworthy. The tribunes of the
commons also gave up the contest without a decision, as a compliment to
the chiefs of the patricians. Titus Quintius Barbatus, the interrex,
elects consuls Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, Lucius Sempronius Atratinus.
During their consulship, the treaty was renewed with the Ardeans; and
that is a record to prove, that they were consuls in that year, though
they are not to be found among the ancient annals, nor in the books of
the magistrates. I suppose because military tribunes existed at the
commencement of the year, on that account, though these consuls were
substituted, the names of the consuls were left out, just as if the
military tribunes were the entire year in office. Licinius Macer states,
that they were found both in the Ardean treaty and in the linen books at
the temple of Moneta. There was tranquillity both at home and abroad,
though so many alarms were held out by the neighbouring states.
8. This year (whether it had tribunes only, or consuls substituted in
the room of tribunes) is followed by a year when there were undoubtedly
consuls, scil. Marcus Geganius Macerinus a second time, Titus Quintius
Capitolinus a fifth time. This same year was the commencement of the
censorship, a thing which arose from an humble origin, which afterwards
increased so much in importance, that in it was vested the regulation of
the morals and discipline of Rome, the senate and the centuries of the
knights, the distinction of honour and of ignominy were under the sway
of that office, the legal right to public and private places, the
revenues of the Roman people fell under their beck and jurisdiction. The
institution of the thing originated in this, that the people not having
been subjected to a survey for several years, the census could neither
be deferred, nor had the consuls leisure to discharge their duty, when
wars impended from so many states. An observation was made by the
senate, "that an office laborious in itself, and one little suited to
the consular office, required a magistrate for itself, to whose
authority should be submitted the duties of the several scribes, the
custody and care of the records, as well as the adjustment of the form
to be adopted in the census." And inconsiderable though the proposal
might be, still the senate received it with great pleasure, because it
increased the number of patrician magistrates in the state, judging also
that that would come to pass, which really did occur, viz. that the
influence of those who should preside, and the honour of the office
would derive on it additional authority and dignity. The tribunes also,
considering the discharge of the duty (as was really the case) as
necessary rather than the duty itself, as being attended with lustre,
did not indeed offer opposition, lest they should through perverseness
show a disposition to thwart them even in trifles. After the honour was
rejected by the leading men of the state, the people by their suffrages
appointed to the office of conducting the census Papirius and
Sempronius, concerning whose consulate doubts are entertained, that in
that magistracy they might have some recompence for the incompleteness
of their consulate. They were called censors from the nature of their
office.
9. Whilst these matters are transacting at Rome, ambassadors come from
Ardea, imploring aid for their city, which was nearly destroyed, in
consideration of their very ancient alliance, and of the treaty recently
renewed. For by intestine wars they were not allowed to enjoy the peace
with Rome, which they had by the soundest policy preserved; the cause
and origin of which is said to have arisen from a struggle between
factions; which have proved and ever will prove more a cause of
destruction to several states, than foreign wars, famine, or disease, or
any of the other evils which men refer to the anger of heaven, as the
severest of public calamities. Two young men courted a maiden of a
plebeian family, highly distinguished for beauty: one of them on a level
with the maid in point of birth, and favoured by her guardians, who were
themselves of the same rank; the other of noble birth, captivated by
nothing but her beauty. The latter was aided by the good wishes of the
nobles, through which party disputes made their way even into the girl's
family. The nobleman was preferred in the judgment of the mother, who
was anxious that her daughter should have the most splendid match
possible: the guardians, mindful of party even in that transaction,
strove for the person of their own order. As the matter could not be
settled within the walls of the house, they proceeded to a court of
justice. On hearing the claim of the mother and of the guardians, the
magistrate decides the right of marriage in conformity with the wish of
the mother. But violence was the more powerful. For the guardians,
having harangued openly in the forum among persons of their own faction,
on the injustice of the decree, collected a party and carry off the girl
from her mother's house: against whom a body of nobles having arisen
more incensed than before, attends the young man rendered furious by the
outrage. A desperate battle takes place; the commons in no respect like
to the Roman commons were worsted, and having set out from the city in
arms, and taken possession of a hill, make excursions into the lands of
the nobles with fire and sword. The city too, which had been previously
free from all contest, they set about besieging, having induced, by the
hope of plunder, a multitude of artisans to join them: nor was any
appearance or calamity of war absent; as if the whole state were
infested by the mad rage of the two young men, who sought the
accomplishment of the fatal match through their country's ruin. The arms
and war at home seemed insufficient to both parties. The nobles called
in the Romans to the relief of their besieged city; the commons called
upon the Volscians to join them in storming Ardea. The Volscians, under
the command of Clælius, an Æquan, came first to Ardea, and drew a line
of circumvallation around the enemy's walls. When news of this was
brought to Rome, Marcus Geganius, the consul, having set out immediately
at the head of an army, selected a place for his camp about three miles
from the enemy; and the day being now fast declining, he orders his
soldiers to refresh themselves; then at the fourth watch he puts his
troops in motion; and the work, once commenced, was expedited in such a
manner, that at sun-rise the Volscians found themselves enclosed by the
Romans with stronger works than the city was by themselves. The consul
had also at another place connected an arm to the wall of Ardea, through
which his friends might pass to and from the town.
10. The Volscian general, who up to that period had maintained his army,
not out of provisions which had been previously provided, but with corn
brought in daily from the plunder of the country, when now encompassed
by a rampart he perceives himself suddenly destitute of every thing,
calling the consul to a conference, says, that "if the Roman came for
the purpose of raising the siege, he would withdraw the Volscians from
thence." To this the consul made answer, that "the vanquished had to
accept terms, not to dictate them; and as the Volscians came at their
own discretion to attack the allies of the Roman people, they should not
go off in the same same way." He orders, "that their general be given
up, their arms laid down, acknowledging themselves vanquished, and ready
to submit to his further orders: otherwise, whether they went away or
stayed, that he would prove a determined enemy, and would prefer to
carry to Rome a victory over the Volscians than an insidious peace."
The Volscians, determined on trying the slender hope they had in arms,
all other being now cut off, besides many other disadvantages, having
come to an engagement in a place unfavourable for fighting, and still
more so for retreat, when they were being cut down on every side, from
fighting have recourse to entreaties; having given up their general and
surrendered their arms, they are sent under the yoke and dismissed full
of disgrace and suffering, with one garment each. And when they halted
not far from the city of Tusculum, in consequence of an old grudge of
the Tusculans they were surprised, unarmed as they were, and suffered
severe punishment, a messenger being scarcely left to bring an account
of their defeat. The Roman general quieted the disturbed state of
affairs at Ardea, beheading the principal authors of that commotion, and
confiscating their effects to the public treasury of the Ardeans; the
Ardeans considered the injustice of the decision completely repaired by
such kindness on the part of the Roman people; it seemed to the senate,
however, that something remained to be done to obliterate the
remembrance of public avarice. The consul returns to the city in
triumph, Clælius, the general of the Volscians, being led before his
chariot, and the spoils being carried before him, of which he had
stripped the enemy's army after he had sent them under the yoke.
Quintius the consul, by his civil administration, equalled, which is no
easy matter, the glory attained by his colleague in war; for he so
regulated the domestic care of harmony and peace, by dispensing justice
with moderation to the highest and the lowest, that both the patricians
considered him a strict consul, and the commons, as one sufficiently
lenient. Against the tribunes too he carried his measures more by his
influence than by striving against them. Five consulships conducted with
the same even tenor of conduct, and every part of his life being passed
in a manner worthy of the consular dignity, rendered himself almost more
venerable than the high office itself. On this account no mention was
made of the military tribunes during this consulate.
11. They appoint as consuls Marcus Fabius Vibulanus, Publius Æbutius
Cornicen. Fabius and Æbutius, the consuls, inasmuch as they perceived
that they succeeded to a greater glory of achievements performed at home
and abroad, (the year was rendered particularly remarkable among the
neighbouring states, both friendly and hostile, because relief had been
afforded to the Ardeans in their perilous situation with so much zeal,)
the more strenuously exerted themselves in obtaining a decree of the
senate, that they might completely efface the infamy of the decision
from the memory of men, to the effect that since the state of the
Ardeans had been reduced to a few by intestine war, a colony should be
sent thither as a protection against the Volscians. This is what was