The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
Publius Cornelius Scipio his master of the horse. The change of the
general suddenly produced a change in every thing. Their hopes seemed
different, the spirits of the people were different, the fortune also of
the city seemed changed. First of all, he punished according to military
discipline those who had fled from Veii in that panic, and took measures
that the enemy should not be the most formidable object to the soldier.
Then a levy being proclaimed for a certain day, he himself in the mean
while makes an excursion to Veii to strengthen the spirits of the
soldiers: thence he returns to Rome to enlist the new army, not a single
man declining the service. Youth from foreign states also, Latins and
Hernicians, came, promising their service for the war: after the
dictator returned them thanks in the senate, all preparations being now
completed for the war, he vowed, according to a decree of the senate,
that he would, on the capture of Veii, celebrate the great games, and
that he would repair and dedicate the temple of Mother Matuta, which had
been formerly consecrated by King Servius Tullius. Having set out from
the city with his army amid the high expectation[161] rather than mere
hopes of persons, he first encountered the Faliscians and Capenatians in
the district of Nepote. Every thing there being managed with consummate
prudence and skill, was attended, as is usual, with success. He not only
routed the enemy in battle, but he stripped them also of their camp, and
obtained a great quantity of spoil, the principal part of which was
handed over to the quæstor; not much was given to the soldiers. From
thence the army was marched to Veii, and additional forts close to each
other were erected; and by a proclamation being issued, that no one
should fight without orders, the soldiers were taken off from those
skirmishes, which frequently took place at random between the wall and
rampart, [so as to apply] to the work. Of all the works, far the
greatest and more laborious was a mine which they commenced to carry
into the enemies' citadel. And that the work might not be interrupted,
and that the continued labour under ground might not exhaust the same
individuals, he divided the number of pioneers into six companies; six
hours were allotted for the work in rotation; nor by night or day did
they give up, until they made a passage into the citadel.
[Footnote 161: _Expectatione, &c._ With confident expectations on the
part of his countrymen, rather than simple hope.]
20. When the dictator now saw that the victory was in his hands, that a
most opulent city was on the point of being taken, and that there would
be more spoil than had been obtained in all previous wars taken
together, that he might not incur either the resentment of the soldiers
from a parsimonious partition of the plunder, or displeasure among the
patricians from a prodigal lavishing of it, he sent a letter to the
senate, "that by the kindness of the immortal gods, his own measures,
and the perseverance of the soldiers, Veii would be soon in the power of
the Roman people." What did they think should be done with respect to
the spoil? Two opinions divided the senate; the one that of the elder
Publius Licinius, who on being first asked by his son, as they say,
proposed it as his opinion, that a proclamation should be openly sent
forth to the people, that whoever wished to share in the plunder, should
proceed to the camp before Veii; the other that of Appius Claudius,[162]
who, censuring such profusion as unprecedented, extravagant, partial,
and one that was unadvisable, if they should once judge it criminal,
that money taken from the enemy should be [deposited] in the treasury
when exhausted by wars, advised their pay to be paid to the soldiers out
of that money, so that the commons might thereby have to pay less tax.
For that "the families of all would feel their share of such a bounty in
equal proportion; that the hands of the idlers in the city, ever greedy
for plunder, would not then carry off the prizes due to brave warriors,
as it generally so happens that according as each individual is wont to
seek the principal part of the toil and danger, so is he the least
active as a plunderer." Licinius, on the other hand, argued that the
money in that case would ever prove the source of jealousy and
animosity, and that it would afford grounds for charges before the
commons, and thence for seditions and new laws. "That it was more
advisable therefore that the feelings of the commons should be
conciliated by that bounty; that succour should be afforded them,
exhausted and drained by a tax of so many years, and that they should
feel the fruits arising from a war, in which they had in a manner grown
old. What each took from the enemy with his own hand and brought home
with him would be more gratifying and delightful, than if he were to
receive a much larger share at the will of another." That the dictator
himself wished to shun the odium and recriminations arising from the
matter; for that reason he transferred it to the senate. The senate,
too, ought to hand the matter thus referred to them over to the commons,
and suffer every man to have what the fortune of war gave to him. This
proposition appeared to be the safer, as it would make the senate
popular. A proclamation was therefore issued, that those who chose
should proceed to the camp to the dictator for the plunder of Veii.
[Footnote 162: According to Niebuhr, (vol. ii. p. 233,) this fear put
into the mouth of Claudius, is attributable to ignorance or
forgetfulness on the part of Livy, of the early usage in the dividing of
spoils, which had ceased to be observed in the time of Augustus.
According to former Roman usage, half of the conquering army was
employed, under the sanction of a solemn oath, to subtract nothing, in
collecting the spoil, which was then partly divided by lot, partly sold,
and the proceeds, if promised to the soldiers, disbursed to them man by
man, if otherwise, it was brought into the treasury. Both schemes
mentioned here by Livy, it will be observed, contemplated compensation
to the people for the war-tax which they had so long paid; but that of
Licinius was more favourable, especially to the poor, as the ordinary
citizens would receive equal shares, and the compensation would be
direct and immediate.--_Gunne._]
21. The vast multitude who went filled the camp. Then the dictator,
going forth after taking the auspices, having issued orders that the
soldiers should take arms, says, "Under thy guidance, O Pythian Apollo,
and inspired by thy divinity, I proceed to destroy the city of Veii, and
I vow to thee the tenth part of the spoil.[163] Thee also, queen Juno,
who inhabitest Veii, I beseech, that thou wilt accompany us, when
victors, into our city, soon to be thine, where a temple worthy of thy
majesty shall receive thee."[164] Having offered up these prayers, there
being more than a sufficient number of men, he assaults the city on
every quarter, in order that the perception of the danger threatening
them from the mine might be diminished. The Veientians, ignorant that
they had already been doomed by their own prophets, already by foreign
oracles, that the gods had been already invited to a share in their
plunder, that some, called out by vows from their city, were looking
towards the temple of the enemy and new habitations, and that they were
spending that the last day [of their existence], fearing nothing less
than that, their walls being undermined, the citadel was now filled with
enemies, briskly run to the walls in arms, wondering what could be the
reason that, when no one had stirred from the Roman posts for so many
days, then, as if struck with sudden fury, they should run heedlessly to
the walls. A fabulous narrative is introduced here, that, when the king
of the Veientians was offering sacrifice, the voice of the aruspex,
declaring that the victory was given to him who should cut up the
entrails of that victim, having been heard in the mine, incited the
Roman soldiers to burst open the mine, carry off the entrails, and bring
them to the dictator. But in matters of such remote antiquity, I should
deem it sufficient, if matters bearing a resemblance to truth be
admitted as true. Such stories as this, more suited to display on the
stage, which delights in the marvellous, than to historic authenticity,
it is not worth while either to affirm or refute. The mine, at this time
full of chosen men, suddenly discharged the armed troops in the temple
of Juno which was in the citadel of Veii.[165] Some of them attack the
rear of the enemy on the walls; some tore open the bars of the gates;
some set fire to the houses, while stones and tiles were thrown down
from the roofs by the women and slaves. Clamour, consisting of the
various voices of the assailants and the terrified, mixed with the
crying of women and children, fills every place. The soldiers being in
an instant beaten off from the walls, and the gates being thrown open,
some entering in bodies, others scaling the deserted walls, the city
become filled with enemies, fighting takes place in every quarter. Then,
much slaughter being now made, the ardour of the fight abates; and the
dictator commands the heralds to proclaim that the unarmed should be
spared. This put an end to bloodshed. Then laying down their arms, they
commenced to surrender; and, by permission of the dictator, the soldiers
disperse in quest of plunder. And when this was collected before his
eyes, greater in quantity and in the value of the effects than he had
hoped or expected, the dictator, raising his hands to heaven, is said to
have prayed, "that, if his success and that of the Roman people seemed
excessive to any of the gods and men, it might be permitted to the Roman
people to appease that jealousy with as little detriment as possible to
himself and the Roman people."[166] It is recorded that, when turning
about during this prayer, he stumbled and fell; and to persons judging
of the matter by subsequent events, that seemed to refer as an omen to
Camillus' own condemnation, and the disaster of the city of Rome being
akin, which happened a few years after. And that day was consumed in
slaughtering the enemy and in the plunder of this most opulent city.
[Footnote 163: "This vow frequently occurs in Grecian history, like that
made of the Persian booty, but this is the only instance in the history
of Rome."--_Niebuhr_, vol. ii. 239.]
[Footnote 164: _Evocatos_. When the Romans besieged a town, and thought
themselves sure of taking it, they used solemnly to call out of it the
gods in whose protection the place was supposed to be.]
[Footnote 165: The idea of the Romans working a mine, even through the
soil of Veii, so as to be sure of reaching not only the town and the
citadel, and even the temple, is considered by Niebuhr as extremely
ridiculous. He deems the circumstance a clear proof of the fiction that
attaches to the entire story of the capture of Veii. The whole seems to
be an imitation of the siege of Troy.--_Gunne._]
[Footnote 166: The passage in the original, in the generality of
editions, is read as follows: _ut eam invidium lenire, quàm minimo suo
privato incommodo publicoque, populo Romano liceret_: i. e. that both
himself and the Roman people may get over the evil consequences of the
jealousy of the gods with as little detriment as possible to either:
_populi Romani_ seems preferable here: i. e. "that it might be allowed
to lighten that jealousy, by the least possible injury to his own
private interest, and to the public interests of the Roman people."
There were certainly two persons concerned in the _invidia_ and
_incommodum_ here, Camillus himself, and the Roman people; to whom