The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08

avenged by passing a decree of the senate that consuls should be elected, magistrates detested by the commons. After an interval of fifteen years, Lucius Lucretius Flavus and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus were appointed consuls. In the beginning of this year, whilst the tribunes of the commons united their efforts to pass the law, because none of their college were likely to oppose them, and the consuls resisted them with no less energy, the Æquans storm Vitellia, a Roman colony in their territory. The chief part of the colonists made their way in safety to Rome, because the town, having been taken by treachery in the night, afforded an unimpeded mode of escape by the remote side of the city. That province fell to the lot of Lucius Lucretius the consul. He having set out with his army, vanquished the enemy in the field; and returned victorious to Rome to a much more serious contest. A day of trial had been appointed for Aulus Virginius and Quintus Pomponius, plebeian tribunes of the two preceding years, in whose defence by the combined power of the patricians, the honour of the senate was involved. For no one laid against them any other impeachment, either of their mode of life or of their conduct in office, save that, to gratify the patricians, they had protested against the tribunitian law. The resentment of the commons, however, prevailed over the influence of the senate; and by a most pernicious precedent these men, though innocent, were condemned [to pay a fine of] ten thousand _asses_ in weight. At this the patricians were very much incensed. Camillus openly charged the commons with gross violation of duty, "who, now turning their venom against their own body, did not feel that by their iniquitous sentence on the tribune they abolished the right of protesting; that abolishing this right of protesting, they had upset the tribunitian authority. For they were mistaken in expecting that the patricians would tolerate the unbridled licentiousness of that office. If tribunitian violence could not be repelled by tribunitian aid, that the patricians would find out some other weapon." The consuls he also blamed, because they had in silence suffered those tribunes who had followed the authority of the senate to be deceived by [their reliance] on the public faith. By openly expressing these sentiments, he every day still further exasperated the angry feelings of the people. 30. But he ceased not to urge the senate to oppose the law; "that when the day for proposing the law had arrived they should go down to the forum with no other feeling than as men who remembered that they had to contend for their altars and homes, and the temples of the gods, and the soil in which they had been born. For that as far as he himself individually was concerned, if during this contest [to be sustained] by his country it were allowable for him to think of his own glory, it would even reflect honour on himself, that a city captured by him should be densely inhabited, that he would daily enjoy the monument of his glory, and that he would have before his eyes a city borne by him in his triumph, that all would tread in the footsteps of his renown. But that he deemed it an impiety that a city deserted and forsaken by the immortal gods should be inhabited; that the Roman people should reside in a captive soil, and that a vanquished should be taken in exchange for a victorious country." Stimulated by these exhortations of their leader, the patricians, both young and old, entered the forum in a body, when the law was about to be proposed: and dispersing themselves through the tribes, each earnestly appealing to the members of their own tribe, began to entreat them with tears "not to desert that country for which they themselves and their fathers had fought most valiantly and successfully," pointing to the Capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other temples of the gods around; "not to drive the Roman people, exiles and outcasts, from their native soil and household gods into the city of the enemy; and not to bring matters to such a state, that it was better that Veii were not taken, lest Rome should be deserted." Because they proceeded not by violence, but by entreaties, and in the midst of these entreaties frequent mention was [made] of the gods, the greatest part [of the people] were influenced by religious scruples: and more tribes by one rejected the law than voted for it. And so gratifying was this victory to the patricians, that on the following day, on a motion made by the consuls, a decree of the senate was passed, that seven acres a man of Veientian territory should be distributed to the commons; and not only to the fathers of families, but so that all persons in their house in a state of freedom should be considered, and that they might be willing to rear up their children with that prospect. 31. The commons being won over by such a boon, no opposition was made to holding the elections for consuls. Lucius Valerius Potitus, and Marcus Manlius, who afterwards obtained the surname of Capitolinus, were elected consuls. These consuls celebrated the great games which Marcus Furius, when dictator, had vowed in the Veientian war. In the same year the temple of imperial Juno, vowed by the same dictator and during the same war, is dedicated; and they state that the dedication was attended with great zeal by the matrons. A war scarcely worth mentioning was waged with the Æquans at Algidum, the enemies taking to flight almost before they commenced the fight. To Valerius, because he was more persevering in slaughtering them in their flight, a triumph was granted; it was decreed that Manlius should enter the city with an ovation. The same year a new war broke out with the Volsinians; whither an army could not be led, on account of a famine and pestilence in the Roman territories, which arose from drought and excessive heat; on account of which the Volsinians forming a junction with the Salpinians, being elated with pride, made an unprovoked incursion into the Roman territories. War was then proclaimed against the two states. Caius Julius died during his censorship; Marcus Cornelius was substituted in his room; a proceeding which was afterwards considered as offensive to religion; because during that lustrum Rome was taken. Nor since that time has a censor ever been substituted in the room of one deceased. And the consuls being seized by the distemper, it was determined that the auspices should be taken anew during an interregnum. 32. Therefore when in pursuance of a decree of the senate the consuls resigned their office, Marcus Furius Camillus is created interrex, who appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio interrex, and he afterwards Lucius Valerius Potitus. By him were appointed six military tribunes with consular power; so that, though any one of them should be incommoded by bad health, the state might have a sufficient number of magistrates. On the calends of July, the following entered on their office, Lucius Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, Marcus Æmilius, Lucius Furius Medullinus a seventh time, Agrippa Furius, Caius Æmilius a second time. Of these, Lucius Lucretius and Caius Æmilius got the Volsinians as their province; the Salpinians fell to the lot of Agrippa Furius and Servius Sulpicius. The first engagement was with the Volsinians. The war, important from the number of the enemy, was without difficulty brought to a close. At the first onset, their army was put to flight. Eight thousand soldiers, hemmed in by the cavalry, laid down their arms and surrendered. The account received of that war had the effect of preventing the Salpinians from hazarding an engagement; the troops secured themselves within their towns. The Romans drove spoil in every direction, both from the Salpinian and Volsinian territory, there being no one to repel that aggression; until a truce for twenty years was granted to the Volsinians, exhausted by the war, on this condition, that they should make restitution to the Roman people, and furnish the pay of the army for that year. During the same year, Marcus Cædicius, a plebeian, announced to the tribunes that in the New Street, where the chapel now stands, above the temple of Vesta, he had heard in the silence of the night a voice louder than that of a human being, which ordered the magistrates to be told, that the Gauls were approaching. This, as is usual, was disregarded, on account of the humble station of the author, and also because the nation was a remote one, and therefore the less known. And not only were the warnings of the gods disregarded, fate now impending; but further, the only human aid which was left them, Marcus Furius, they drove away from the city; who, on a day [of trial] being appointed for him by Lucius Appuleius, a tribune of the people, in reference to the Veientian spoil, he having also lost his son, a young man, about the same time, when he summoned to his house the members of his tribe and his dependents, (they constituted a considerable portion of the commons,) and having sounded their sentiments, he received for answer, "that they would contribute whatever fine he should be condemned to pay; that to acquit him they were unable,"[168] retired into exile; after praying to the immortal gods, "that if that outrage was done to him without his deserving it, they would at the earliest opportunity give cause to his ungrateful country to regret his absence." In his absence he was fined fifteen thousand _asses_ in weight. [Footnote 168: Niebuhr and Arnold understand these words to signify, that these persons had already made up their minds not to acquit him, or assist him by voting in favour of him--in fact, that they could not conscientiously do so. It may, however, signify simply, that the people were so incensed against him, that there existed not a rational prospect of acquittal for him.] 33. That citizen being driven away, who being present, Rome could not be captured, if any thing is certain regarding human affairs; the destined ruin now approaching the city, ambassadors came from the Clusinians, soliciting aid against the Gauls. A report is current that that nation, allured by the delightfulness of the crops, and more especially of the wine, an enjoyment then new to them, crossed the Alps, and took possession of the lands formerly cultivated by the Etrurians; and that Aruns, a native of Clusium, introduced wine into Gaul for the purpose of enticing the nation, through resentment for his wife's having been debauched by Lucumo, whose guardian he himself had been, a very influential young man, and on whom vengeance could not be taken, unless foreign aid were resorted to; that this person served as a guide to them when crossing the Alps, and advised them to lay siege to Clusium. I would not indeed deny that the Gauls were brought to Clusium by Aruns or any other native of Clusium; but that those persons who laid siege to Clusium were not they who first crossed the Alps, is sufficiently certain. For two hundred years before they laid siege to Clusium and captured the city of Rome, the Gauls passed over into Italy. Nor were these the first of the Etrurians with whom the Gauls fought, but long before that they frequently fought with those who dwelt between the Apennines and the Alps. Before the Roman empire the sway of the Tuscans was much extended by land and by sea; how very powerful they were in the upper and lower seas, by which Italy is encompassed like an island, the names [of these seas] is a proof; the one of which the Italian nations have called the Tuscan sea, the general appellation of the people; the other the Hadriatic, from Hadria, a colony of Tuscans. The Greeks call these same seas the Tyrrhenian and Hadriatic. This people