The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
was now rumoured were forming into a body; and also concerning a revolt
of the Hernicians. When all business was purposely deferred, so that
nothing should be transacted through means of the plebeian consul,
silence was observed on all matters, and a state of inaction like to a
justitium; except that, the tribunes not suffering it to pass unnoticed
that the nobility had arrogated to themselves three patrician
magistracies as a compensation for one plebeian consul, sitting in
curule chairs, clad in the prætexta like consuls; the prætor, too,
administering justice, and as if colleague to the consuls, and elected
under the same auspices, the senate were in consequence made ashamed to
order the curule ædiles to be elected from among the patricians. It was
at first agreed, that they should be elected from the commons every
second year: afterwards the matter was left open. Then, in the consulate
of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, affairs being tranquil both at
home and abroad, that they might at no period be exempt from fear and
danger, a great pestilence arose. They say that a prætor, a curule
ædile, and three plebeian tribunes died of it, and that several other
deaths took place in proportion among the populace; and that pestilence
was made memorable chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius, which, though
occurring at an advanced age, was still much lamented. For he was a
truly extraordinary man under every change of fortune; the first man in
the state in peace and war, before he went into exile; still more
illustrious in exile, whether by the regret felt for him by the state,
which, when in captivity, implored his aid when absent; or by the
success with which, when restored to his country, he restored that
country along with himself. For five and twenty years afterwards (for so
many years afterwards did he live) he uniformly preserved his claims to
such great glory, and was deemed deserving of their considering him,
next after Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.
2. The pestilence continued both for this and the following year, Caius
Sulpicius Peticus and Caius Licinius Stolo being consuls. During that
year nothing worth recording took place, except that for the purpose of
imploring the favour of the gods, there was a Lectisternium, the third
time since the building of the city. And when the violence of the
disease was alleviated neither by human measures nor by divine
interference, their minds being broken down by superstition, among
other means of appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays also are said
to have been instituted, a new thing to a warlike people (for hitherto
there had been only the shows of the circus). But the matter was
trivial, (as all beginnings generally are,) and even that itself from a
foreign source. Without any poetry, or gesticulating in imitation of
such poetry, actors were sent for from Etruria, dancing to the measures
of a musician, and exhibited, according to the Tuscan fashion, movements
by no means ungraceful. The young men afterwards began to imitate these,
throwing out at the same time among each other jocular expressions in
uncouth verses; nor were their gestures irrelevant to their language.
Wherefore the matter was received with approbation, and by frequent use
was much improved. To the native performers the name of _histriones_ was
given, because _hister_, in the Tuscan vocabulary, was the name of an
actor, who did not, as formerly, throw out alternately artless and
unpolished verses like the Fescennine at random, but represented medleys
complete with metre, the music being regularly adjusted for the
musician, and with appropriate gesticulation. Livius, who several years
after, giving up medleys, was the first who ventured to digest a story
with a regular plot, (the same being, forsooth, as all were at that
time, the actor of his own pieces,) after having broken his voice from
having been too repeatedly called on, and after having sought
permission, is said to have placed a boy before the musician to chaunt,
and to have performed the gesticulations with considerably freer
movement, because the employment of his voice was no impediment to him.
Thence commenced the practice of chaunting to the actors according to
their manual gesticulations, and the dialogues only were left to their
voice. When by this arrangement the business of the scenic performances
was called away from laughter and intemperate mirth, and the amusement
became gradually converted into an art, the young men, leaving to
regular actors the performance of plays, began themselves, according to
the ancient usage, to throw out ludicrous jests comprised in verses,
which from that time were called _exodia_, and were collected chiefly
from the Atellan farces. Which kind of amusement, received from the
Osci, the young kept to themselves, nor did they suffer it to be debased
by regular players. Hence it remains an established usage that the
actors of the Atellan farces are neither degraded from their tribe, and
may serve in the army, as if having no connexion with the profession of
the stage. Among the trifling beginnings of other matters, it seemed to
me that the first origin of plays also should be noticed; that it might
appear how from a moderate commencement it has reached its present
extravagance, scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.
3. However, the first introduction of plays, intended as a religious
expiation, neither relieved their minds from religious awe, nor their
bodies from disease. Nay more, when the circus being inundated by the
overflowing of the Tiber happened to interrupt the middle of the
performance, that indeed, as if the gods were now turned from them, and
despised their efforts to soothe their wrath, excited great terror.
Accordingly, Cneius Genucius and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus being a
second time consuls, when the searching for expiations harassed their
minds, more than the diseases did their bodies, it is said to have been
collected from the memory of the more aged, that a pestilence had
formerly been relieved, on the nail being driven by a dictator. Induced
by this superstitious circumstance, the senate ordered a dictator to be
appointed for the purpose of driving the nail. Lucius Manlius Imperiosus
being appointed, named Lucius Pinarius master of the horse. There is an
ancient law written in antique letters and words, that whoever is
supreme officer should drive a nail on the ides of September. It was
driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter supremely good and
great, on that part where the temple of Minerva is. They say that the
nail was a mark of the number of years elapsed, because letters were
rare in those times, and that the law was referred to the temple of
Minerva, because number is the invention of that goddess. Cincius, a
careful writer on such monuments, asserts that there were seen at
Volsinii also nails fixed in the temple of Nortia, a Tuscan goddess, as
indices of the number of years. Marcus Horatius, being consul, according
to law dedicated the temple of Jupiter the best and greatest the year
after the expulsion of kings; the solemnity of fixing the nail was
afterwards transferred from the consuls to the dictators, because theirs
was a superior office. The custom being afterwards dropped, it seemed a
matter of sufficient importance in itself, on account of which a
dictator should be appointed. For which reason Lucius Manlius being
appointed, just as if he had been appointed for the purpose of managing
the business of the state in general, and not to acquit it of a
religious obligation, being ambitious to manage the Hernician war,
harassed the youth by a severe levy, and at length, all the plebeian
tribunes having risen up against him, whether overcome by force or
shame, he resigned the dictatorship.
4. Notwithstanding this, in the commencement of the ensuing year,
Quintus Servilius Ahala, Lucius Genucius being consuls, a day of trial
is appointed for Manlius, by Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the commons.
His severity in the levies, carried not only to the fining of the
citizens, but even to the laceration of their bodies, those who had not
answered to their names being some beaten with rods, others thrown into
prison, was hateful; and more hateful than all was his violent temper,
and the surname of Imperiosus, offensive to a free state, adopted by him
from an ostentation of severity, which he exercised not more against
strangers than his nearest friends, and even those of his own blood. And
among other things, the tribune alleged as a charge against him that "he
had banished his son, a youth convicted of no improper conduct, from the
city, home, household gods, forum, light, from the society of his
equals, and consigned him in a manner to a prison or workhouse; where a
youth of dictatorian rank, born of a very high family, should learn by
his daily suffering that he was descended of a truly imperious father.
And for what offence? because he was not eloquent, nor ready in
discourse. Which defect of nature, whether ought it to be treated with
leniency if there were a particle of humanity in him, or ought it to be
punished, and rendered more remarkable by harsh treatment? The dumb
beasts even, if any of their offspring happen to be badly formed, are
not the less careful in nourishing and cherishing them. But Lucius
Manlius aggravated the misfortune of his son by severity, and further
clogged the slowness of his intellects; and if there were in him even
the least spark of natural ability he extinguished it by a rustic life
and a clownish education, and keeping him among cattle."
5. By these charges the minds of all were exasperated against him more
than that of the young man himself: nay, on the contrary, being grieved
that he was even the cause of public odium and accusations to his
father, that all the gods and men might know that he would rather afford
aid to his father than to his enemies, he forms the design,
characteristic of a rude and rustic mind no doubt, and though of a
precedent not conformable to the rules of civil life, yet commendable
for its filial piety. Having furnished himself with a knife, without the
knowledge of any one he proceeds early in the morning into the city, and
from the gate straightway to the house of Marcus Pomponius the tribune:
he tells the porter, that he wanted to see his master immediately, and
bid him to announce that he was Titus Manlius, son of Lucius. Being
introduced immediately, (for he had hopes that the youth, incensed
against his father, brought either some new charge, or some advice to
accomplish the project,) after mutual greeting, he says that there were
some matters which he wished to transact with him in private. Then, all
persons being ordered to withdraw to a distance, he draws his dagger;
and standing over the couch with his dagger ready to strike, he
threatens that he would immediately stab him, unless he would swear in
the words which he would dictate, that "he never would hold a meeting of
the commons for the purpose of prosecuting his father." The tribune
alarmed, (for he saw the steel glittering before his eyes, himself alone
and unarmed; the other a young man, and very powerful, and what was no
less terrifying, savagely ferocious in his bodily strength,) swears in
the terms in which he was obliged; and afterwards acknowledged that
forced by this proceeding he gave up his undertaking. Nor though the
commons would have preferred that an opportunity was afforded them of
passing sentence on so cruel and tyrannical a culprit, they were not
much displeased that the son had dared to act so in behalf of his
father; and that was the more commendable in this, that such great
severity on the part of the father had not weaned his mind from his