The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
have peace. Let them see you prepared for open force; they themselves
will relax their pretensions. Collectively you must attempt something,
or individually submit to every thing. How long will you look to me? I
for my part will not be wanting to any of you: do you see that my
fortune fail not. I, your avenger, when my enemies thought well of it,
was suddenly reduced to nothing; and you all in a body beheld that
person thrown into chains, who had warded off chains from each one of
you. What am I to hope, if my enemies attempt more against me? Am I to
expect the fate of Cassius and Mælius? You acted kindly in appearing
shocked at it: the gods will avert it: but never will they come down
from heaven on my account: they must inspire you with a determination to
avert it; as they inspired me, in arms and in peace, to defend you from
barbarous foes and tyrannical fellow-citizens. Is the spirit of so great
a people so mean, that aid against your adversaries always satisfies
you? And are you not to know any contest against the patricians, except
how you may suffer them to domineer over you? Nor is this implanted in
you by nature; but you are theirs by possession. For why is it you bear
such spirit with respect to foreigners, as to think it meet that you
should rule over them? because you have been accustomed to vie with them
for empire, against these to essay liberty rather than to maintain it.
Nevertheless, whatsoever sort of leaders you have, whatever has been
your own conduct, ye have up to this carried every thing which ye have
demanded, either by force, or your own good fortune. It is now time to
aim at still higher objects. Only make trial both of your own good
fortune, and of me, who have been, as I hope, already tried to your
advantage. Ye will with less difficulty set up some one to rule the
patricians, than ye have set up persons to resist their rule.
Dictatorships and consulships must be levelled to the ground, that the
Roman commons may be able to raise their heads. Wherefore stand by me,
prevent judicial proceedings from going on regarding money. I profess
myself the patron of the commons--a title with which my solicitude and
zeal invests me. If you will dignify your leader by any more
distinguishing title of honour or command, ye will render him still more
powerful to obtain what ye desire." From this his first attempt is said
to have arisen with respect to the obtaining of regal power; but no
sufficiently clear account is handed down, either with whom [he acted],
or how far his designs extended.
19. But, on the other side, the senate began to deliberate regarding the
secession of the commons into a private house, and that, as it so
happened, situate in the citadel, and regarding the great danger that
was threatening liberty. Great numbers cry out, that a Servilius Ahala
was wanted, who would not irritate a public enemy by ordering him to be
led to prison, but would finish an intestine war with the loss of one
citizen. They came to a resolution milder in terms, but possessing the
same force, that the magistrates should see that "the commonwealth
received no detriment from the designs of Marcus Manlius." Then the
consular tribunes, and the tribunes of the commons, (for these also had
submitted to the authority of the senate, because they saw that the
termination of their own power and of the liberty of all would be the
same,) all these then consult together as to what was necessary to be
done. When nothing suggested itself to the mind of any, except violence
and bloodshed, and it was evident that that would be attended with great
risk; then Marcus Mænius, and Quintus Publilius, tribunes of the
commons, say, "Why do we make that a contest between the patricians and
commons, which ought to be between the state and one pestilent citizen?
Why do we attack, together with the commons, a man whom it is safer to
attack through the commons themselves, that he may fall overpowered by
his own strength? We have it in contemplation to appoint a day of trial
for him. Nothing is less popular than regal power; as soon as the
multitude shall perceive that the contest is not with them, and that
from advocates they are to be made judges, and shall behold the
prosecutors from among the commons, the accused a patrician, and that
the charge between both parties is that of aiming at regal power, they
will favour no object more than their own liberty."
20. With the approbation of all, they appoint a day of trial for
Manlius. When this took place, the commons were at first excited,
especially when they saw the accused in a mourning habit, and with him
not only none of the patricians, but not even any of his kinsmen or
relatives, nay, not even his brothers Aulus and Titus Manlius; a
circumstance which had never occurred before, that at so critical a
juncture a man's nearest friends did not put on mourning. When Appius
Claudius was thrown into prison [they remarked], that Caius Claudius,
who was at enmity with him and the entire Claudian family, appeared in
mourning; that this favourite of the people was about to be destroyed by
a conspiracy, because he was the first who had come over from the
patricians to the commons. When the day arrived, I find in no author,
what acts were alleged by the prosecutors against the accused bearing
properly on the charge of aspiring to kingly power, except his
assembling the multitude, and his seditious expressions and his
largesses, and pretended discovery; nor have I any doubt that they were
by no means unimportant, as the people's delay in condemning him was
occasioned not by the merits of the cause, but by the place of trial.
This seems deserving of notice, that men may know what great and
glorious achievements his depraved ambition of regal power rendered not
only bereft of all merit, but absolutely hateful. He is said to have
brought forward near four hundred persons to whom he had lent money
without interest, whose goods he had prevented from being sold, whom he
had prevented from being carried off to prison after being adjudged to
their creditors. Besides this, that he not only enumerated also his
military rewards, but also produced them to view; spoils of enemies
slain up to thirty; presents from generals to the number of forty; in
which the most remarkable were two mural crowns and eight civic. In
addition to this, that he brought forward citizens saved from the enemy,
amongst whom was mentioned Caius Servilius, when master of the horse,
now absent. Then after he had recounted his exploits in war, in pompous
language suitable to the dignity of the subject, equalling his actions
by his eloquence, he bared his breast marked with scars received in
battle: and now and then, directing his eyes to the Capitol, he called
down Jupiter and the other gods to aid him in his present lot; and he
prayed, that the same sentiments with which they had inspired him when
protecting the fortress of the Capitol, for the preservation of the
Roman people, they would now inspire the Roman people with in his
critical situation: and he entreated them singly and collectively, that
they would form their judgment of him with their eyes fixed on the
Capitol and citadel and their faces turned to the immortal gods. As the
people were summoned by centuries in the field of Mars, and as the
accused, extending his hands towards the Capitol, directed his prayers
from men to the gods; it became evident to the tribunes, that unless
they removed the eyes of men also from the memory of so great an
exploit, the best founded charge would find no place in minds
prejudiced by services. Thus the day of trial being adjourned, a meeting
of the people was summoned in the Pœteline grove outside the Nomentan
gate, from whence there was no view of the Capitol; there the charge was
made good, and their minds being now unmoved [by adventitious
circumstances], a fatal sentence, and one which excited horror even in
his judges, was passed on him. There are some who state that he was
condemned by duumvirs appointed to inquire concerning cases of treason.
The tribunes cast him down from the Tarpeian rock: and the same place in
the case of one man became a monument of distinguished glory and of
extreme punishment. Marks of infamy were offered to him when dead: one,
a public one; that, when his house had been that where the temple of
Moneta and the mint-office now stand, it was proposed to the people,
that no patrician should dwell in the citadel and Capitol: the other
appertaining to his family; it being commanded by a decree that no one
of the Manlian family should ever after bear the name of Marcus Manlius.
Such was the fate of a man, who, had he not been born in a free state,
would have been celebrated with posterity. In a short time, when there
was no longer any danger from him, the people, recollecting only his
virtues, were seized with regret for him. A pestilence too which soon
followed, no causes of so great a calamity presenting themselves, seemed
to a great many to have arisen from the punishment inflicted on Manlius:
"The Capitol" [they said] "had been polluted with the blood of its
preserver; nor was it agreeable to the gods that the punishment of him
by whom their temples had been rescued from the hands of the enemy, had
been brought in a manner before their eyes."
21. The pestilence was succeeded by a scarcity of the fruits of the
earth, and the report of both calamities by spreading [was followed] by
a variety of wars in the following year, Lucius Valerius a fourth time,
Aulus Manlius a third time, Servius Sulpicius a third time, Lucius
Lucretius, Lucius Æmilius a third time, Marcus Trebonius, being military
tribunes with consular power. Besides the Volscians, assigned by some
fatality to give eternal employment to the Roman soldiery, and the
colonies of Circeii and Velitræ, long meditating a revolt, and Latium
which had been suspected, new enemies suddenly sprung up in the people
of Lanuvium, which had been a most faithful city. The fathers,
considering that this arose from contempt, because the revolt of their
own citizens, the people of Velitræ, had been so long unpunished,
decreed that a proposition should be submitted to the people at the
earliest opportunity on the subject of declaring war against them: and
in order that the commons might be the more disposed for that service,
they appointed five commissioners for distributing the Pomptine land,
and three for conducting a colony to Nepete. Then it was proposed to the
people that they should order a declaration of war; and the plebeian
tribunes in vain endeavouring to dissuade them, all the tribes declared
for war. That year preparations were made for war; the army was not led
out into the field on account of the pestilence. And that delay afforded
full time to the colonists to deprecate the anger of the senate; and a
great number of the people were disposed that a suppliant embassy should
be sent to Rome, had not the public been involved, as is usual, with the
private danger, and the abettors of the revolt from the Romans, through
fear, lest they, being alone answerable for the guilt, might be given up
as victims to the resentment of the Romans, dissuaded the colonies from
counsels of peace. And not only was the embassy obstructed by them in
the senate, but a great part of the commons were excited to make
predatory excursions into the Roman territory. This new injury broke off
all hope of peace. This year a report first originated regarding a
revolt of the Prænestines; and the people of Tusculum, Gabii and Lavici,
into whose territories the incursions had been made, accusing them of
the fact, the senate returned so placid an answer, that it became
evident that less credit was given to the charges, because they wished
them not to be true.