The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
consequence of their ill success, and incensed against their leaders,
Marcus Postumius, being arraigned and brought before them, he who had
been military tribune with consular power at Veii, is condemned in a
fine of ten thousand _asses_ in weight, of brass. His colleague, Titus
Quintius, who endeavoured to shift the entire blame of that period on
his previously condemned colleague, was acquitted by all the tribes,
because both in the country of the Volscians, when consul, he had
conducted business successfully under the auspices of the dictator,
Postumius Tubertus, and also at Fidenæ, as lieutenant-general of another
dictator, Mamercus Æmilius. The memory of his father, Cincinnatus, a man
highly deserving of veneration, is said to have been serviceable to him,
as also Capitolinus Quintius, now advanced in years, humbly entreating
that they would not suffer him who had so short a time to live to be the
bearer of such dismal tidings to Cincinnatus.
42. The commons elected as tribunes of the people, though absent, Sextus
Tempanius, Aulus Sellius, Sextus Antistius, and Spurius Icilius, whom
the horsemen by the advice of Tempanius had appointed to command them as
centurions. The senate, inasmuch as the name of consuls was now becoming
displeasing through the hatred felt towards Sempronius, ordered that
military tribunes with consular power should be elected. Those elected
were Lucius Manlius Capitolinus, Quintus Antonius Merenda, Lucius
Papirius Mugillanus. At the very commencement of the year, Lucius
Hortensius, a tribune of the people, appointed a day of trial for Caius
Sempronius, a consul of the preceding year, and when his four
colleagues, in sight of the Roman people, entreated him that he would
not involve in vexation their unoffending general, in whose case
nothing but fortune could be blamed, Hortensius took offence, thinking
it to be a trying of his perseverance, and that the accused depended not
on the entreaties of the tribunes, which were merely used for show, but
on their protection. Therefore now turning to him, he asked, "Where were
those patrician airs, where the spirit supported and confiding in
conscious innocence; that a man of consular dignity took shelter under
the shade of the tribunes?" Another time to his colleagues, "What do you
intend doing, if I go on with the prosecution; will you wrest their
jurisdiction from the people and overturn the tribunitian authority?"
When they said that, "both with respect to Sempronius and all others,
the power of the Roman people was supreme; that they had neither the
will nor the power to do away with the judgment of the people; but if
their entreaties for their commander, who was to them in the light of a
parent, were to prove of no avail, that they would change their apparel
along with him:" then Hortensius says, "The commons of Rome shall not
see their tribunes in the garb of culprits. To Caius Sempronius I have
nothing more to say, since when in office he has attained this good
fortune, to be so dear to his soldiers." Nor was the dutiful attachment
of the four tribunes more grateful alike to the commons and patricians,
than was the temper of Hortensius, which yielded so readily to their
just entreaties. Fortune no longer indulged the Æquans, who had embraced
the doubtful victory of the Volscians as their own.
43. In the year following, when Numerius Fabius Vibulanus and Titus
Quintius Capitolinus, son of Capitolinus, were consuls, nothing worth
mentioning was performed under the conduct of Fabius, to whom that
province had fallen by lot. When the Æquans had merely showed their
dastardly army, they were routed by a shameful flight, without any great
honour to the consul; therefore a triumph is refused. However in
consequence of having effaced the ignominy of Sempronius's defeat, he
was allowed to enter the city with an ovation. As the war was terminated
with less difficulty than they had apprehended, so in the city, from a
state of tranquillity, an unexpected mass of dissensions arose between
the commons and patricians, which commenced with doubling the number of
quæstors. When the patricians approved most highly of this measure,
(viz. that, besides the two city quæstors, two should attend the
consuls to discharge some duties of the military service,) after it was
moved by the consuls, the tribunes of the commons contended in
opposition to the consuls, that half of the quæstors should be appointed
from the commons; for up to that time all patricians were appointed.
Against this proceeding both the consuls and patricians at first strove
with all their might; then by making a concession that the will of the
people should be equally free in the case of quæstors, as they enjoyed
in the election of tribunes with consular power, when they produced but
little effect, they gave up the entire matter about increasing the
number of quæstors. When relinquished, the tribunes take it up, and
other seditious schemes are continually started, among which is that of
the agrarian law. On account of these disturbances the senate was
desirous that consuls should be elected rather than tribunes, but no
decree of the senate could be passed in consequence of the protests of
the tribunes; the government from being consular came to an interregnum,
and not even that without a great struggle (for the tribunes prevented
the patricians from meeting). When the greater part of the following
year was wasted in contentions by the new tribunes of the commons and
some interreges, the tribunes at one time hindering the patricians from
assembling to declare an interrex, at another time preventing the
interrex from passing a decree regarding the election of consuls; at
length Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, being nominated interrex, censuring
now the patricians, now the tribunes of the people, asserted "that the
state, deserted and forsaken by man, being taken up by the providence
and care of the gods, subsisted by the Veientian truce and the
dilatoriness of the Æquans. From which quarter if any alarm of danger be
heard, did it please them that the state, left without a patrician
magistrate, should be taken by surprise? that there should be no army,
nor general to enlist one? Will they repel a foreign war by an intestine
one? And if they both meet, the Roman state can scarcely be saved, even
by the aid of the gods, from being overwhelmed. That they, by resigning
each a portion of their strict right, should establish concord by a
compromise; the patricians, by suffering military tribunes with consular
authority to be elected; the tribunes of the commons, by ceasing to
protest against the four quæstors being elected promiscuously from the
commons and patricians by the free suffrage of the people."
44. The election of tribunes was first held. There were chosen tribunes
with consular power, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus a third time, Lucius
Furius Medullinus a second time, Marcus Manlius, Aulus Sempronius
Atratinus. On the last-named tribune presiding at the election of
quæstors, and among several other plebeians a son of Antistius, a
plebeian tribune, and a brother of Sextus Pompilius, also a tribune of
the commons, becoming candidates, neither the power nor interest of the
latter at all availed so as to prevent those, whose fathers and
grandfathers they had seen consuls, from being preferred for their high
birth. All the tribunes of the commons became enraged, above all
Pompilius and Antistius were incensed at the rejection of their
relatives. "What could this mean? that neither through their own
kindnesses, nor in consequence of the injurious treatment of the
patricians, nor even through the natural desire of making use of their
new right, as that is now allowed which was not allowed before, was any
individual of the commons elected if not a military tribune, not even a
quæstor. That the prayers of a father in behalf of a son, those of one
brother in behalf of another, had been of no avail, though proceeding
from tribunes of the people, a sacrosanct power created for the support
of liberty. There must have been some fraud in the matter, and Aulus
Sempronius must have used more of artifice at the elections than was
compatible with honour." They complained that by the unfairness of his
conduct their friends had been kept out of office. Accordingly as no
attack could be made on him, secured by his innocence and by the office
he then held, they turned their resentment against Caius Sempronius,
uncle to Atratinus; and, with the aid of their colleague Marcus
Cornelius, they entered a prosecution against him on account of the
disgrace sustained in the Volscian war. By the same tribunes mention was
frequently made in the senate concerning the division of the lands,
(which scheme Caius Sempronius had always most vigorously opposed,) they
supposing, as was really the case, that the accused, should he give up
the question, would become less valued among the patricians, or by
persevering up to the period of trial he would give offence to the
commons. He preferred to expose himself to the torrent of popular
prejudice, and to injure his own cause, than to be wanting to the public
cause; and he stood firm in the same sentiment, "that no largess should
be made, which was sure to turn to the benefit of the three tribunes;
that it was not land was sought for the people, but odium for him. That
he too would undergo that storm with a determined mind; nor should
either himself, nor any other citizen, be of so much consequence to the
senate, that in showing tenderness to an individual, a public injury may
be done." When the day of trial came, he, having pleaded his own cause
with a spirit by no means subdued, is condemned in a fine of fifteen
thousand _asses_, though the patricians tried every means to make the
people relent. The same year Postumia, a Vestal virgin, is tried for a
breach of chastity, though guiltless of the charge; having fallen under
suspicion in consequence of her dress being too gay and her manners less
reserved than becomes a virgin, not avoiding the imputation with
sufficient care. The case was first deferred, she was afterwards
acquitted; but the chief pontiff, by the instruction of the college,
commanded her to refrain from indiscreet mirth, and to dress with more
regard to sanctity than elegance. In the same year Cumæ, a city which
the Greeks then occupied, was taken by the Campanians.
45. The following year had for military tribunes with consular power,
Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, Spurius
Nautius Rutilus: to the good fortune of the Roman people, the year was
remarkable rather by great danger than by losses. The slaves conspire to
set fire to the city in several quarters, and whilst the people should
be intent in bearing assistance to the houses in every direction, to
take up arms and seize the citadel and Capitol. Jupiter frustrated their
horrid designs; and the offenders, being seized on the information of
two (accomplices), were punished. Ten thousand _asses_ in weight of
brass paid out of the treasury, a sum which at that time was considered
wealth, and their freedom, was the reward conferred on the parties who
discovered. The Æquans then began to prepare for a renewal of
hostilities; and an account was brought to Rome from good authority,
that new enemies, the Lavicanians, were forming a coalition with the old
ones. The state had now become habituated, as it were, to the
anniversary arms of the Æquans. When ambassadors were sent to Lavici
and brought back from thence an evasive answer, from which it became
evident that neither war was intended there, nor would peace be of long
continuance, instructions were given to the Tusculans, that they should
observe attentively, lest any new commotion should arise at Lavici. To