The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
removals were made from the places adjoining to the road, the
cultivation of the lands was not interrupted: the gates of the city
lying open, they came forth in crowds clad in their gowns to meet the
generals; provision for the army was brought with alacrity from the city
and the lands. Camillus having pitched his camp before the gates,
wishing to know whether the same appearance of peace, which was
displayed in the country, prevailed also within the walls, entered the
city, where he beheld the gates lying open, and every thing exposed to
sale in the open shops, and the workmen engaged each on their respective
employments, and the schools of learning buzzing with the voices of the
scholars, and the streets filled amid the different kinds of people,
with boys and women going different ways, whithersoever the occasions of
their respective callings carried them; nothing in any quarter that bore
any appearance of panic or even of surprise; he looked around at every
object, attentively inquiring where the war had been. No trace was there
of any thing having been removed, or brought forward for the occasion;
so completely was every thing in a state of steady tranquil peace, so
that it scarcely seemed that even the rumour of war could have reached
them.
26. Overcome therefore by the submissive demeanour of the enemy, he
ordered their senate to be called. "Tusculans," he says, "ye are the
only persons who have yet found the true arms and the true strength, by
which to protect your possessions from the resentment of the Romans.
Proceed to Rome to the senate. The fathers will consider, whether you
have merited more punishment for your former conduct, or forgiveness for
your present. I shall not anticipate your gratitude for a favour to be
conferred by the state. From me ye shall have the power of seeking
pardon. The senate will grant to your entreaties such a result, as they
shall consider meet." When the Tusculans came to Rome, and the senate
[of a people], who were till a little before faithful allies, were seen
with sorrowful countenances in the porch of the senate-house, the
fathers, immediately moved [at the sight,] even then ordered them to be
called in rather in a friendly than a hostile manner. The Tusculan
dictator spoke as follows: "Conscript fathers, we against whom ye
proclaimed and made war, just as you see us now standing in the porch of
your house, so armed and so attired did we go forth to meet your
generals and your legions. This was our habit, this the habit of our
commons; and ever shall be, unless whenever we shall receive arms from
you and defence of you. We return thanks to your generals and your
troops for having trusted their eyes more than their ears; and for
having committed nothing hostile, where none subsisted. The peace, which
we observed, the same we solicit at your hands: we pray you, avert war
to that quarter where, if any where, it subsists. What your arms may be
able to effect on us, if after our submission we are to experience it,
we will experience unarmed. This is our determination. May the immortal
gods grant that it be as successful as it is dutiful! With respect to
the charges, by which you were induced to declare war against us, though
it is needless to refute by words what has been contradicted by facts;
yet, admitting they were true, we think it safe for us to confess them,
after having shown such evident marks of repentance. Admit then that we
have offended against you, since ye deserve that such satisfaction be
made to you." These were nearly the words used by the Tusculans. They
obtained peace at the present, and not long after the freedom of the
state also. The legions were withdrawn from Tusculum.
27. Camillus, distinguished by his prudence and bravery in the Volscian
war, by his success in the Tusculan expedition, in both by his
extraordinary moderation and forbearance towards his colleague, went out
of office; the military tribunes for the following year being Lucius and
Publius Valerius, Lucius a fifth, Publius a third time, and Caius
Sergius a third time, Lucius Menenius a second time, Spurius Papirius,
and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis. The year required censors also,
chiefly on account of the uncertain representations regarding the debt;
the tribunes of the commons exaggerating the amount of it on account of
the odium of the thing, whilst it was underrated by those whose interest
it was that the difficulty of procuring payment should appear to depend
rather on [the want of] integrity, than of ability in the debtors. The
censors appointed were Caius Sulpicius Camerinus, Spurius Postumius
Regillensis; and the matter having been commenced was interrupted by the
death of Postumius, because it was not conformable to religion that a
substitute should be colleague to a censor. Accordingly after Sulpicius
had resigned his office, other censors having been appointed under some
defect, they did not discharge the office; that a third set should be
appointed was not allowed, as though the gods did not admit a censorship
for that year. The tribunes denied that such mockery of the commons was
to be tolerated; "that the senate were averse to the public tablets, the
witnesses of each man's property, because they were unwilling that the
amount of the debt should be seen, which would clearly show that one
part of the state was depressed by the other; whilst in the mean time
the commons, oppressed with debt, were exposed to one enemy after
another. Wars were now sought out in every direction without
distinction. Troops were marched from Antium to Satricum, from Satricum
to Velitræ, and thence to Tusculum. The Latins, Hernicians, and the
Prænestines were now threatened with hostilities, more through a hatred
of their fellow-citizens than of the enemy, in order to wear out the
commons under arms, and not suffer them to breathe in the city, or to
reflect on their liberty at their leisure, or to stand in an assembly
where they may hear a tribune's voice discussing concerning the
reduction of interest and the termination of other grievances. But if
the commons had a spirit mindful of the liberty of their fathers, that
they would neither suffer any Roman citizen to be assigned to a creditor
on account of debt, nor a levy to be held; until, the debts being
examined, and some method adopted for lessening them, each man should
know what was his own, and what another's; whether his person was still
free to him, or that also was due to the stocks." The price held out for
sedition soon raised it: for both several were made over to creditors,
and on account of the rumour of the Prænestine war, the senate decreed
that new legions should be levied; both which measures began to be
obstructed by tribunitian interposition and the combined efforts of the
commons. For neither the tribunes suffered those consigned to their
creditors to be thrown into prison, nor did the young men give in their
names. While the senate felt less pressing anxiety about enforcing the
laws regarding the lending of money than about the levy; for now it was
announced that the enemy, having marched from Præneste, had encamped in
the Gabinian territory; meanwhile this very report rather aroused the
tribunes of the commons to the struggle commenced than deterred them;
nor did any thing else suffice to allay the discontent in the city, but
the approach of hostilities to the very walls.
28. For when the Prænestines had been informed that no army was levied
at Rome, no general fixed on, that the senate and people were turned the
one against the other; their leaders thinking that an opportunity
presented itself, making a hasty march, and laying waste the country as
they went along, they advanced their standards as far as the Colline
gate. The panic in the city was great. The alarm was given to take up
arms; persons ran together to the walls and gates, and at length turning
from sedition to war, they created Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus dictator.
He appointed Aulus Sempronius Atratinus his master of the horse. When
this was heard, (such was the terror of that office,) the enemy retired
from the walls, and the young Romans assembled to the edict without
refusal. Whilst the army is being levied at Rome, in the mean time the
enemy's camp is pitched not far from the river Allia: thence laying
waste the land far and wide, they boasted one to the other that they had
chosen a place fatal to the Roman city; that there would be a similar
consternation and flight from thence as occurred in the Gallic war. For
"if the Romans dread a day deemed inauspicious, and marked with the name
of that place, how much more than the Allian day would they dread the
Allia itself, the monument of so great a disaster. No doubt the fierce
looks of the Gauls and the sound of their voices would recur to their
eyes and ears." Turning over in mind those groundless notions of
circumstances as groundless, they rested their hopes on the fortune of
the place. On the other hand, the Romans [considered] that, "in whatever
place a Latin enemy stood, they knew full well that they were the same
whom, after having utterly defeated at the lake Regillus, they kept in
peaceable subjection for one hundred years; that the place being
distinguished by the memory of their defeat, would rather stimulate them
to blot out the remembrance of their disgrace, than raise a fear that
any land should be unfavourable to their success. Were even the Gauls
themselves presented to them in that place, that they would fight just
as they fought at Rome in recovering their country, as the day after at
Gabii; then, when they took care, that no enemy, who had entered the
walls of Rome, should carry home an account of their success or defeat."
29. With these feelings on either side they came to the Allia. The Roman
dictator, when the enemy were in view drawn up and ready for action,
says, "Aulus Sempronius, do you see that these men have taken their
stand at the Allia, relying on the fortune of the place? nor have the
immortal gods granted them any thing of surer confidence, or any more
effectual support. But do you, relying on arms and on courage, make a
brisk charge on the middle of their line; I will bear down on them when
thrown into disorder and consternation with the legions. Ye gods,
witnesses of the treaty, assist us, and exact the penalty, due for
yourselves having been violated, and for us who have been deceived
through the appeal made to your divinity." The Prænestines sustained not
the attack of cavalry, or infantry; their ranks were broken at the first
charge and shout. Then when their line maintained its ground in no
quarter, they turn their backs; and being thrown into consternation and
carried beyond their own camp by their panic, they stop not from their
precipitate speed, until Præneste came in view. There, having been
dispersed in consequence of their flight, they select a post for the
purpose of fortifying it in a hasty manner; lest, if they betook
themselves within the walls, the country should be burned forthwith, and
when all places should be desolated, siege should be laid to the city.
But when the victorious Romans approached, the camp at the Allia having
been plundered, that fortress also was abandoned, and considering the
walls scarcely secure, they shut themselves up within the town of
Præneste. There were eight towns besides under the sway of the
Prænestines. Hostilities were carried round to these also; and these
being taken one after the other without much difficulty, the army was
led to Velitræ. This also was taken by storm. They then came to
Præneste, the main source of the war. That town was obtained, not by
force, but by capitulation. Titus Quinctius, being once victorious in a
pitched battle, having taken also two camps belonging to the enemy, and