The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
aspiring in mind, whilst he despised the other leading men, envied one,
who was peculiarly distinguished both by honours and by merit, Marcus
Furius: he became indignant that he should be the only man among the
magistrates; the only man at the head of the armies; that he now
attained such eminence that he treated not as colleagues but as mere
tools the persons elected under the same auspices; though, in the mean
time, if any one would form a just estimate, his country could not have
been recovered by Marcus Furius from the siege of the enemy, had not the
Capitol and citadel been first preserved by him; and the other attacked
the Gauls, whilst their attention was distracted between receiving the
gold and the hope of peace, when he himself drove them off when armed
and taking the citadel; of the other's glory, a man's share appertained
to all the soldiers who conquered along with him; that in his victory no
man living was a sharer. His mind puffed by these notions, and moreover,
from a viciousness of disposition being vehement and headstrong, when he
perceived that his influence among the patricians did not stand forth as
prominent as he thought it should, he, the first of all the patricians,
became a plebeian partisan, and formed plans in conjunction with the
plebeian magistrates; and by criminating the fathers, and alluring the
commons to his side, he now came to be carried along by the tide of
popular applause, not by prudence, and preferred to be of a great,
rather than of a good character: and not content with agrarian laws,
which had ever served the tribunes of the commons as material for
disturbances, he now began to undermine public credit; for [he well
knew] "that the incentives of debt were sharper, as not only threatening
poverty and ignominy, but intimidated personal liberty with stocks and
chains." And the amount of the debt was immense, contracted by building,
a circumstance most destructive even to the rich. The Volscian war
therefore, heavy in itself, charged with additional weight by the
defection of the Latins and Hernicians, was held out as a colourable
pretext, for having a higher authority resorted to. But it was rather
the reforming plans that drove the senate to create a dictator. Aulus
Cornelius Cossus having been elected dictator, nominated Titus Quinctius
Capitolinus his master of the horse.
12. The dictator, though he perceived that a greater struggle was
reserved for him at home than abroad; still, either because there was
need of despatch for the war, or supposing that by a victory and a
triumph he should add to the powers of the dictatorship itself, held a
levee and proceeds into the Pomptine territory, where he had heard that
the Volscians had appointed their army to assemble. I doubt not but
that, in addition to satiety, to persons reading of so many wars waged
with the Volscians, this same circumstance will suggest itself, which
often served as an occasion of surprise to me when perusing the writers
who lived nearer to the times of these occurrences, from what source the
Volscians and Æquans, so often vanquished, could have procured supplies
of soldiers. And as this has been unnoticed and passed over in silence
by ancient writers; on which matter what can I state, except mere
opinion, which every one may from his own conjecture form for himself?
It seems probable, either that they employed, as is now practised in the
Roman levies, successive generations of their young men one after the
other, during the intervals between the wars; or that the armies were
not always recruited out of the same states, though the same nation may
have made war; or that there was an innumerable multitude of free-men in
those places, which, at the present day, Roman slaves save from being a
desert, a scanty seminary of soldiers being scarcely left. Certain it
is, (as is agreed upon among all authors,) although their power was very
much impaired under the guidance and auspices of Camillus, the forces of
the Volscians were strong: besides, the Latins and Hernicians had been
added, and some of the Circeians, and some Roman colonists also from
Velitræ. The dictator, having pitched his camp on that day, and on
coming forth on the day following after taking the auspices, and having,
by sacrificing a victim, implored the favour of the gods, with joyful
countenance presented himself to the soldiers, who were now taking arms
at day-break, according to orders, on the signal for battle being
displayed. "Soldiers," says he, "the victory is ours, if the gods and
their prophets see aught into futurity. Accordingly, as it becomes men
full of well-grounded hope, and who are about to engage with their
inferiors, let us place our spears at our feet, and arm our right hands
only with our swords. I would not even wish that any should push forward
beyond the line; but that, standing firm, you receive the enemy's charge
in a steady posture. When they shall have discharged their ineffective
missives, and, breaking their ranks, they shall rush on you as you stand
firm, then let your swords glitter, and let each man recollect, that
there are gods who aid the Roman; those gods, who have sent us into
battle with favourable omens. Do you, Titus Quinctius, keep back the
cavalry, attentively observing the very commencement of the contest; as
soon as you observe the armies closed foot to foot, then, whilst they
are taken up with another panic, strike terror into them with your
cavalry, and by making a charge on them, disperse the ranks of those
engaged in the fight." The cavalry, the infantry conduct the fight, just
as he had ordered them. Nor did either the general disappoint the
legions, nor fortune the general.
13. The army of the enemy, relying on nothing but on their number, and
measuring both armies merely by the eye, entered on the battle
inconsiderately, and inconsiderately gave it over: fierce only in their
shout and with their missive weapons, and at the first onset of the
fight, they were unable to withstand the swords, and the close
engagement foot to foot, and the looks of the enemy, darting fire
through their ardour for the fight. Their front line was driven in, and
confusion spread to the reserve troops, and the cavalry occasioned alarm
on their part: the ranks were then broken in many places, every thing
was set in motion, and the line seemed as it were fluctuating. Then
when, the foremost having fallen, each saw that death was about to reach
himself, they turn their backs. The Roman followed close on them; and as
long as they went off armed and in bodies, the labour in the pursuit
fell to the infantry; when it was observed that their arms were thrown
away in every direction, and that the enemy's line was scattered in
flight through the country; then squadrons of horse were sent out,
intimation being given that they should not, by losing time with the
massacre of individuals, afford an opportunity in the mean time to the
multitude to escape: it would be sufficient that their speed should be
retarded by missive weapons and by terror, and that the progress of
their forces should be detained by skirmishing, until the infantry
should be able to overtake and despatch the enemy by regular slaughter.
There was no end of the flight and slaughter before night; on the same
day the camp of the Volscians was taken also and pillaged, and all the
plunder, save the persons of free condition, was given up to the
soldiers. The greatest part of the prisoners consisted of Latins and
Hernicians, and these not men of plebeian rank, so that it could be
supposed that they had served for hire, but some young men of rank were
found among them: an evident proof that the Volscian enemies had been
aided by public authority. Some of the Circeians also were recognised,
and colonists from Velitræ; and being all sent to Rome, on being
interrogated by the leading senators, plainly revealed the same
circumstances as they had done to the dictator, the defection each of
his respective state.
14. The dictator kept his army in the standing camp, not at all doubting
that the senate would order war with these states; when a more momentous
difficulty having occurred at home, rendered it necessary that he should
be sent for to Rome, the sedition gaining strength every day, which the
fomenter was now rendering more than ordinarily formidable. For now it
was easy to see from what motives proceeded not only the discourses of
Manlius, but his actions also, apparently suggested by popular zeal, but
at the same time tending to create disturbance. When he saw a centurion,
illustrious for his military exploits, leading off to prison by reason
of a judgment for debt, he ran up with his attendants in the middle of
the forum and laid hands on him; and exclaiming aloud against the
insolence of the patricians, the cruelty of the usurers, and the
grievances of the commons, and the deserts and misfortunes of the man.
"Then indeed," said he, "in vain have I preserved the Capitol and
citadel by this right hand, if I am to see my fellow-citizen and
fellow-soldier, as if captured by the victorious Gauls, dragged into
slavery and chains." He then paid the debt to the creditor openly before
the people, and having purchased his freedom with the scales and brass,
he sets the man at liberty, whilst the latter implored both gods and
men, that they would grant a recompence to Marcus Manlius, his
liberator, the parent of the Roman commons; and being immediately
received into the tumultuous crowd, he himself also increased the
tumult, displaying the scars received in the Veientian, Gallic, and
other succeeding wars: "that he, whilst serving in the field, and
rebuilding his dwelling which had been demolished, though he had paid
off the principal many times over, the interest always keeping down the
principal, had been overwhelmed with interest: that through the kind
interference of Marcus Manlius, he now beheld the light, the forum, and
the faces of his fellow-citizens: that he received from him all the kind
services usually conferred by parents; that to him therefore he devoted
whatever remained of his person, of his life, and of his blood; whatever
ties subsisted between him and his country, public and private guardian
deities, were all centred in that one man." When the commons, worked
upon by these expressions, were now wholly in the interest of the one
individual, another circumstance was added, emanating from a scheme
still more effectually calculated to create general confusion. A farm in
the Veientian territory, the principal part of his estate, he subjected
to public sale: "that I may not," says he, "suffer any of you, Romans,
as long as any of my property shall remain, to be dragged off to prison,
after judgment has been given against him, and he has been consigned to
a creditor." That circumstance, indeed, so inflamed their minds, that
they seemed determined on following the assertor of their freedom
through every thing, right and wrong. Besides this, speeches [were made]
at his house, as if he were delivering an harangue, full of imputations
against the patricians; among which he threw out, waving all distinction
whether he said what was true or false, that treasures of the Gallic
gold were concealed by the patricians; that "they were now no longer
content with possessing the public lands, unless they appropriated the
public money also; if that were made public, that the commons might be
freed from their debt." When this hope was presented to them, then
indeed it seemed a scandalous proceeding, that when gold was to be
contributed to ransom the state from the Gauls, the collection was made
by a public tribute; that the same gold, when taken from the Gauls, had
become the plunder of a few. Accordingly they followed up the inquiry,