The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
the military tribunes, with consular power, of the following year,
Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Marcus Papirius Mugillanus, Caius Servilius the
son of Priscus, in whose dictatorship Fidenæ had been taken, ambassadors
came from Tusculum, just as they entered on their office. The
ambassadors brought word that the Lavicanians had taken arms, and having
ravaged the Tusculan territory in conjunction with the army of the
Æquans, that they had pitched their camp at Algidum. Then war was
proclaimed against the Lavicanians; and a decree of the senate having
been passed, that two of the tribunes should proceed to the war, and
that one should manage affairs at Rome, a contest suddenly sprung up
among the tribunes. Each represented himself as a fitter person to take
the lead in the war, and scorned the management of the city as
disagreeable and inglorious. When the senate beheld with surprise the
indecent contention between the colleagues, Quintus Servilius says,
"Since there is no respect either for this house, or for the
commonwealth, parental authority shall set aside this altercation of
yours. My son, without having recourse to lots, shall take charge of the
city. I wish that those who are so desirous of managing the war, may
conduct it with more consideration and harmony than they covet it."
46. It was determined that the levy should not be made out of the entire
body of the people indiscriminately. Ten tribes were drawn by lot; the
two tribunes enlisted the younger men out of these, and led them to the
war. The contentions which commenced between them in the city, were,
through the same eager ambition for command, carried to a much greater
height in the camp: on no one point did they think alike; they contended
strenuously for their own opinion; they desired their own plans, their
own commands only to be ratified; they mutually despised each other, and
were despised, until, on the remonstrances of the lieutenant-generals,
it was at length so arranged, that they should hold the supreme command
on alternate days. When an account of these proceedings was brought to
Rome, Quintus Servilius, taught by years and experience, is said to
have prayed to the immortal gods, that the discord of the tribunes might
not prove more detrimental to the commonwealth than it had done at Veii:
and, as if some certain disaster was impending over them, he pressed his
son to enlist soldiers and prepare arms. Nor was he a false prophet. For
under the conduct of Lucius Sergius, whose day of command it was, being
suddenly attacked by the Æquans on disadvantageous ground near the
enemy's camp, after having been decoyed thither by the vain hope of
taking it, because the enemy had counterfeited fear and betaken
themselves to their rampart, they were beaten down a declivity, and
great numbers were overpowered and slaughtered by their tumbling one
over the other rather than by flight: and the camp, retained with
difficulty on that day, was, on the following day, deserted by a
shameful flight through the opposite gate, the enemy having invested it
in several directions. The generals, lieutenant-generals, and such of
the main body of the army as kept near the colours, made their way to
Tusculum; others, dispersed in every direction through the fields,
hastened to Rome by different roads, announcing a heavier loss than had
been sustained. There was less of consternation, because the result
corresponded to the apprehensions of persons; and because the
reinforcements, which they could look to in this distressing state of
things, had been prepared by the military tribune: and by his orders,
after the disturbance in the city was quieted by the inferior
magistrates, scouts were instantly despatched, and brought intelligence
that the generals and the army were at Tusculum; that the enemy had not
removed their camp. And, what raised their spirits most, Quintus
Servilius Priscus was created dictator in pursuance of a decree of the
senate; a man whose judgment in public affairs the state had experienced
as well on many previous occasions, as in the issue of that war, because
he alone had expressed his apprehensions of the result of the disputes
among the tribunes, before the occurrence of the misfortune; he having
appointed for his master of the horse, by whom, as military tribune, he
had been nominated dictator, his own son, as some have stated, (for
others mention that Ahala Servilius was master of the horse that year;)
and setting out to the war with his newly-raised army, after sending for
those who were at Tusculum, chose ground for his camp at the distance
of two miles from the enemy.
47. The arrogance and negligence arising from success, which had
previously existed in the Roman generals, were now transferred to the
Æquans. Accordingly, when in the very first engagement the dictator had
thrown the enemy's van into disorder by a charge of his cavalry, he
immediately ordered the infantry to advance, and slew one of his own
standard-bearers who hesitated in so doing. So great was the ardour to
fight, that the Æquans did not stand the shock; and when, vanquished in
the field, they made for their camp in a precipitate flight, the taking
of it was shorter in time and less in trouble than the battle had been.
After the camp had been taken and plundered, and the dictator had given
up the spoil to the soldiers, and the cavalry, who had pursued the enemy
in their flight, brought back intelligence that all the Lavicanians were
vanquished, and that a considerable number of the Æquans had fled to
Lavici, the army was marched to Lavici on the following day; and the
town, being invested on all sides, was taken by storm and plundered. The
dictator, having marched back his victorious army to Rome, resigned his
office on the eighth day after he had been appointed; and before
agrarian disturbances could be raised by the tribunes of the commons,
allusion having been made to a division of the Lavicanian land, the
senate very opportunely voted in full assembly that a colony should be
conducted to Lavici. One thousand five hundred colonists were sent from
the city, and received each two acres. Lavici being taken, and
subsequently Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, and Lucius Servilius Structus,
and Publius Lucretius Tricipitinus, all these a second time, and Spurius
Rutilius Crassus being military tribunes with consular authority, and on
the following year Aulus Sempronius Atratinus a third time, and Marcus
Papirius Mugillanus and Spurius Nautius Rutilus both a second time,
affairs abroad were peaceable for two years, but at home there was
dissension from the agrarian laws.
48. The disturbers of the commons were Spurius Mæcilius a fourth time,
and Spurius Mætilius a third time, tribunes of the people, both elected
during their absence. And after they had proposed a bill, that the land
taken from the enemy should be divided man by man, and the property of
a considerable part of the nobles would be confiscated by such a
measure; for there was scarcely any of the land, considering the city
itself was built on a strange soil, that had not been acquired by arms;
nor had any other persons except the commons possession of that which
had been sold or publicly assigned, a violent contest between the
commons and patricians seemed to be at hand; nor did the military
tribunes discover either in the senate, or in the private meetings of
the nobles, any line of conduct to pursue; when Appius Claudius, the
grandson of him who had been decemvir for compiling the laws, being the
youngest senator of the meeting, is stated to have said; "that he
brought from home an old and a family scheme, for that his
great-grandfather, Appius Claudius, had shown the patricians one method
of baffling tribunitian power by the protests of their colleagues; that
men of low rank were easily led away from their opinions by the
influence of men of distinction, if language were addressed to them
suitable to the times, rather than to the dignity of the speakers. That
their sentiments were regulated by their circumstances. When they should
see that their colleagues, having the start in introducing the measure,
had engrossed to themselves the whole credit of it with the commons, and
that no room was left for them, that they would without reluctance
incline to the interest of the senate, through which they may conciliate
the favour not only of the principal senators, but of the whole body."
All expressing their approbation, and above all, Quintius Servilius
Priscus eulogizing the youth, because he had not degenerated from the
Claudian race, a charge is given, that they should gain over as many of
the college of the tribunes as they could, to enter protests. On the
breaking up of the senate the tribunes are applied to by the leading
patricians: by persuading, admonishing, and assuring them "that it would
be gratefully felt by them individually, and gratefully by the entire
senate, they prevailed on six to give in their protests." And on the
following day, when the proposition was submitted to the senate, as had
been preconcerted, concerning the sedition which Mæcilius and Mætilius
were exciting by urging a largess of a most mischievous precedent, such
speeches were delivered by the leading senators, that each declared
"that for his part he had no measure to advise, nor did he see any
other resource in any thing, except in the aid of the tribunes. That to
the protection of that power the republic, embarrassed as it was, fled
for succour, just as a private individual in distress. That it was
highly honourable to themselves and to their office that there resided
not in the tribuneship more strength to harass the senate and to excite
disunion among the several orders, than to resist their perverse
colleagues." Then a shout arose throughout the entire senate, when the
tribunes were appealed to from all parts of the house: then silence
being established, those who had been prepared through the interest of
the leading men, declare that they will protest against the measure
which had been proposed by their colleagues, and which the senate
considers to tend to the dissolution of the state. Thanks were returned
to the protestors by the senate. The movers of the law, having convened
a meeting, and styling their colleagues traitors to the interests of the
commons and the slaves of the consulars, and after inveighing against
them in other abusive language, relinquished the measure.
49. The following year, on which Publius Cornelius Cossus, Caius
Valerius Potitus, Quintus Quintius Cincinnatus, Numerius Fabius
Vibulanus were military tribunes with consular power, would have brought
with it two continual wars, had not the Veientian campaign been deferred
by the religious scruples of the leaders, whose lands were destroyed,
chiefly by the ruin of the country-seats, in consequence of the Tiber
having overflowed its banks. At the same time the loss sustained three
years before prevented the Æquans from affording assistance to the
Bolani, a state belonging to their own nation. Excursions had been made
from thence on the contiguous territory of Lavici, and hostilities were
committed on the new colony. As they had expected to be able to defend
this act of aggression by the concurrent support of all the Æquans, when
deserted by their friends they lost both their town and lands, after a
war not even worth mentioning, through a siege and one slight battle. An
attempt made by Lucius Sextius, tribune of the people, to move a law by
which colonists might be sent to Bolæ also, in like manner as to Lavici,
was defeated by the protests of his colleagues, who declared openly that
they would suffer no order of the commons to be passed, unless with the
approbation of the senate. On the following year the Æquans, having