The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
or any other city to remove to? Has our native soil so slight a hold on
us, or this earth which we call mother; or does our love of country lie
merely in the surface and in the timber of the houses? For my part, I
will acknowledge to you, whilst I was absent, though I am less disposed
to remember this as the effect of your injustice than of my own
misfortune, as often as my country came into my mind, all these
circumstances occurred to me, the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the face
of the country familiar to my eyes, and this sky, beneath which I had
been born and educated; may these now induce you, by their endearing
hold on you, to remain in your present settlement, rather than they
should cause you to pine away through regret, after having left them.
Not without good reason did gods and men select this place for founding
a city: these most healthful hills; a commodious river, by means of
which the produce of the soil may be conveyed from the inland countries,
by which maritime supplies may be obtained; close enough to the sea for
all purposes of convenience, and not exposed by too much proximity to
the dangers of foreign fleets; a situation in the centre of the regions
of Italy, singularly adapted by nature for the increase of a city. The
very size of so new a city is a proof. Romans, the present year is the
three hundred and sixty-fifth year of the city; for so long a time are
you waging war amid nations of such long standing; yet not to mention
single cities, neither the Volscians combined with the Æquans, so many
and such strong towns, nor all Etruria, so potent by land and sea,
occupying the breadth of Italy between the two seas, can cope with you
in war. And as the case is so, where, in the name of goodness, is the
wisdom in you who have tried [this situation] to make trial now of some
other, when, though your own valour may be removed elsewhere, the
fortune of this place certainly cannot be transferred? Here is the
Capitol, where, a human head being found, it was foretold that in that
place would be the head of the world, and the chief seat of empire.
Here, when the Capitol was to be freed by the rites of augury, Juventas
and Terminus, to the very great joy of our fathers, suffered not
themselves to be moved. Here is the fire of Vesta, here the Ancilia sent
down from heaven, here are all the gods propitious to you if you stay."
55. Camillus is said to have moved them as well by other parts of his
speech, but chiefly by that which related to religious matters. But an
expression seasonably uttered determined the matter whilst still
undecided; for when a meeting of the senate, a little after this, was
being held in the Curia Hostilia regarding these questions, and some
troops returning from relieving guard passed through the forum in their
march, a centurion in the comitium cried out, "Standard-bearer, fix your
standard! it is best for us to remain here." Which expression being
heard, both the senate came out from the senate-house, and all cried out
that "they embraced the omen," and the commons, who were collected
around, joined their approbation. The law [under discussion] being
rejected, the building of the city commenced in several parts at once.
Tiles were supplied at the public expense. The privilege of hewing stone
and felling timber wherever each person wished was granted, security
being taken that they would finish the buildings on that year. Their
haste took away all attention to the regulating the course of the
streets, whilst, setting aside all distinction of property, they build
on any part that was vacant. That is the reason why the ancient sewers,
at first conducted through the public streets, now in many places pass
under private houses, and why the form of the city appears more like one
taken up by individuals, than regularly portioned out [by
commissioners].
BOOK VI.
_Successful operations against the Volscians, and Æquans, and
Prænestines. Four tribes were added. Marcus Manlius, who had
defended the Capitol from the Gauls, being condemned for aspiring
to regal power, is thrown from the Tarpeian rock; in commemoration
of which circumstance a decree of the senate was passed, that none
of the Manlian family should henceforward bear the cognomen of
Marcus. Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, tribunes of the people,
proposed a law that consuls might be chosen from among the commons;
and after a violent contest, succeeded in passing that law,
notwithstanding the opposition of the patricians, the same tribunes
of the commons being for five years the only magistrates in the
state; and Lucius Sextius was the first consul elected from the
commons._
1. The transactions of the Romans, from the building of the city of Rome
to the capture of the same city, first under kings, then under consuls,
and dictators, and decemvirs, and consular tribunes, their wars abroad,
their dissensions at home, I have exhibited in five books: matters
obscure, as well by reason of their very great antiquity, like objects
which from their great distance are scarcely perceptible, as also
because in those times the use of letters, the only faithful guardian of
the memory of events, was inconsiderable and rare: and, moreover,
whatever was contained in the commentaries of the pontiffs, and other
public and private records, were lost for the most part in the burning
of the city. Henceforwards, from the second origin of the city, which
sprung up again more healthfully and vigorously, as if from its root,
its achievements at home and abroad, shall be narrated with more
clearness and authenticity. But it now stood erect, leaning chiefly on
the same support, Marcus Furius, by which it had been first raised; nor
did they suffer him to lay down the dictatorship until the end of the
year. It was not agreeable to them, that the tribunes during whose time
of office the city had been taken, should preside at the elections for
the following year: the administration came to an interregnum. Whilst
the state was kept occupied in the employment and constant labour of
repairing the city, in the mean time a day of trial was named by Caius
Marcius, tribune of the people, for Quintus Fabius, as soon as he went
out of office, because whilst an ambassador he had, contrary to the law
of nations, appeared in arms against the Gauls, to whom he had been sent
as a negotiator; from which trial death removed him so opportunely that
most people thought it voluntary. The interregnum commenced. Publius
Cornelius Scipio was interrex, and after him Marcus Furius Camillus. He
nominates as military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Valerius
Publicola a second time, Lucius Virginius, Publius Cornelius, Aulus
Manlius, Lucius Æmilius, Lucius Postumius. These having entered on their
office immediately after the interregnum, consulted the senate on no
other business previous to that which related to religion. In the first
place they ordered that the treaties and laws which could be found,
should be collected; (these consisted of the twelve tables, and some
laws made under the kings.) Some of them were publicly promulgated; but
such as appertained to religious matters were kept secret chiefly by the
pontiffs, that they might hold the minds of the people fettered by them.
Then they began to turn their attention to the subject of desecrated
days; and the day before the fifteenth day of the calends of August,
remarkable for a double disaster, (as being the day on which the Fabii
were slain at Cremera, and afterwards the disgraceful battle attended
with the ruin of the city had been fought at Allia,) they called the
Allian day from the latter disaster, and they rendered it remarkable for
transacting no business whether public or private. Some persons think,
that because Sulpicius, the military tribune, had not duly offered
sacrifice on the day after the ides of July, and because, without having
obtained the favour of the gods, the Roman army had been exposed to the
enemy on the third day after, an order was also made to abstain from all
religious undertakings on the day following the ides: thence the same
religious observance was derived with respect to the days following the
calends and the nones.
2. But it was not long allowed them to consult in quiet regarding the
means of raising the city, after so grievous a fall. On the one side
their old enemies, the Volscians, had taken arms, to extinguish the
Roman name: on the other, some traders brought [intelligence] that a
conspiracy of the leading men of Etruria from all the states had been
formed at the temple of Voltumna. A new cause of terror also had been
added by the defection of the Latins and Hernicians, who, since the
battle fought at the lake Regillus, had remained in friendship with the
Roman people with fidelity not to be questioned. Accordingly, when such
great alarms surrounded them on every side, and it became apparent to
all that the Roman name laboured not only under hatred with their
enemies, but under contempt also with their allies; it was resolved that
the state should be defended under the same auspices, as those under
which it had been recovered, and that Marcus Furius should be nominated
dictator. He, when dictator, nominated Caius Servilius Ahala master of
the horse; and a suspension of all public business being proclaimed, he
held a levy of the juniors, in such a manner as to divide them into
centuries after they had sworn allegiance to him. The army, when raised
and equipped with arms, he divided into three parts. One part he opposed
to Etruria in the Veientian territory; another he ordered to pitch their
camp before the city. A military tribune, Aulus Manlius, commanded the
latter; those who were sent against the Etrurians, Lucius Æmilius
commanded. The third part he led in person against the Volscians; and
not far from Lanuvium, (the place is called ad Mæcium,) he set about
storming their camp. Into these, who set out to the war from motives of
contempt, because they thought that all the Roman youth were cut off by
the Gauls, the fact of having heard that Camillus was appointed to the
command struck such terror, that they fenced themselves with a rampart,
and the rampart itself with trees piled up together, lest the enemy
might by any means reach to the works. When Camillus observed this, he
ordered fire to be thrown into the fence opposed to him; and it so
happened that a very strong wind was turned towards the enemy. He
therefore not only opened a passage by the fire, but the flames being
directed against the camp, by the vapour also and the smoke, and by the
crackling of the green timber as it burned, he so confounded the enemy
that the Romans had less difficulty in passing the rampart into the
camp of the Volscians, than they had experienced in climbing over the
fence which had been consumed by the fire. The enemy being routed and
cut down, after the dictator had taken the camp by assault, he gave up
the booty to the soldiers, which was so much the more agreeable, as it
was less expected, the commander being by no means profusely generous.
Then having pursued them in their flight, after he had depopulated the
entire Volscian land, he at length in the seventieth year forced the
Volscians to a surrender. After his victory he passed from the Volscians
to the Æquans, who were also preparing for hostilities: he surprised
their army at Bolæ, and having attacked not only their camp, but their
city also, he took them at the first onset.
3. When such fortune manifested itself on that side where Camillus, the
life and soul of the Roman interest, was, a great alarm had fallen on
another quarter. For almost all Etruria, taking up arms, were besieging