After the taking of Antium, Titus Æmilius and Quintus Fabius are elected consuls. This was the Fabius Quintus who alone had survived the family cut off at Cremera. Already, in his former consulate, Æmilius had been an adviser of giving land to the people. Accordingly in his second consulate also both the abettors of the agrarian law had raised themselves to the hope of carrying the measure, and the tribunes, supposing that a matter frequently attempted in opposition to both consuls might be obtained with the assistance at least of one consul, take it up, and the consul remained stedfast in his sentiments. The possessors and a considerable part of the patricians complaining that a person at the head of the state was recommending himself by his tribunitial proceedings, and that he was making himself popular by giving away other persons' property, had transferred the odium of the entire[Pg 159] affair from the tribunes to the consul. A violent contest was at hand, had not Fabius set the matter straight, by an expedient disagreeable to neither party, "that under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quintius, there was a considerable tract of land taken the preceding year from the Volscians; that a colony might be sent to Antium, a neighbouring, convenient, and maritime city; that the commons might come in for lands without any complaints of the present occupiers, that the state might remain in quiet." This proposition was accepted. He appoints as triumvirs for distributing the land, Titus Quintius, Aulus Virginius, and Publius Furius: those who wished to obtain land were ordered to give in their names. The gratification of their aim begat disgust, as usually happens; so few gave in their names that Volscian colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of the people preferred clamouring for land in Rome, rather than receive it elsewhere. The Æquans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius, (he was sent thither with an army,) and they themselves broke it by a sudden incursion into the Latin territory.

In the following year Quintus Servilius, (for he was consul with Spurius Posthumius,) being sent against the Æquans, fixed his camp in the Latin territory: inaction necessarily kept the army within the camp, involved as they were in a distemper. The war was protracted to the third year, Quintus Fabius and Titus Quintius being consuls. To Fabius, because he, as conqueror, had granted[105] peace to the Æquans, that province was assigned by an extraordinary commission: who, setting out with certain hope that the fame of his name would reduce the Æquans to submission, sent ambassadors to the council of the nation, and ordered them to say "that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he had brought peace to Rome from the Æquans, that from Rome he now brought war to the Æquans, that same right hand being armed, which he had formerly given to them in amity; that the gods were now witnesses, and would presently be avengers of those by whose perfidy and perjury that was brought to pass. That he, however, be matters as they might, would even now prefer that the Æquans should repent of their own accord than be[Pg 160] subject to the vengeance of an enemy. If they repent, that there would be a safe retreat in that clemency already experienced; but if they still delighted in perjury, they would wage war with the angry gods rather than with enemies." This statement had so little effect on any of them, that the ambassadors were near being ill-treated, and an army was sent to Algidum against the Romans. When these tidings were brought to Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, called out the other consul from the city; thus two consular armies advanced against the enemy in order of battle, so that they might at once engage. But as it so happened that much of the day did not now remain, a person from the advanced guard of the enemy cries out, "This is making a display of war, Romans, not waging it; you draw up your army in line of battle, when night is at hand; we require a greater length of day-light for the contest which is to come on. To-morrow by sun-rise return to the field: you shall have an opportunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers, stung by these threats, are marched back into the camp till the following day; thinking that the approaching night was tedious, which would cause delay to the contest. Then indeed they refresh their bodies with food and sleep: on the following day, when it was light, the Roman army took their post considerably sooner. At length the Æquans also came forward. The battle was obstinate on both sides, because both the Romans fought under the influence of resentment and hatred; and a consciousness of danger brought on by misconduct, and despair of obtaining future confidence afterwards, obliged the Æquans to exert and have recourse to the most desperate efforts. The Æquans however did not withstand the Roman troops, and when on being beaten they had betaken themselves to their own territories, the outrageous multitude, with dispositions not at all more disposed to peace, began to chide their leaders: "that their interest was committed to the hazard of a pitched battle, in which mode of fighting the Romans were superior. That the Æquans were better fitted for depredations and incursions, and that several parties acting in different directions conducted wars more successfully than the unwieldy mass of one single army."

Having left therefore a guard on the camp, they marched out and attacked the Roman frontiers with such fury, as to[Pg 161] carry terror even to the city: the unexpected nature of the thing also caused more alarm, because nothing could be less apprehended, than that an enemy, vanquished and almost besieged in their camp, should entertain a thought of depredation: and the peasants, in a panic pouring in at the gates, cried out, that it was not mere plundering, nor small parties of depredators, but, exaggerating every thing through groundless fear, that whole armies and legions of the enemy were advancing, and that they were pushing forward to the city determined for an assault. Those who were nearest (the gates) carried to others the accounts heard from these, uncertain as they were, and therefore the more groundless; and the hurry and confused clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant resemblance to the panic of a city taken by storm. It so happened that the consul Quintius had returned to Rome from Algidum; this was some relief for their terror; and the tumult being calmed, and after chiding them for being in dread of a vanquished enemy, he posted a guard on the gates. Then having convened the senate, when he set out to defend the frontiers, a suspension[106] of civil business having been proclaimed by a decree of the senate, leaving Quintus Servilius behind as prefect of the city, he found no enemy in the country. Matters were conducted with distinguished success by the other consul; who having attacked the enemy, wherever he knew that they were to come, laden with booty, and proceeding therefore with their army the more encumbered, made their depredation prove fatal to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the ambuscade; all the booty was recovered; thus the return of the consul Quintius to the city put a termination to the justitium, which lasted only four days. A census was then held, and the lustrum was closed by Quintius: the number of citizens rated are said to have been one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred afterwards among the Æquans; they betook themselves into their towns, suffering their possessions to be consumed by fire and to be devastated. The consul, after he had repeatedly carried depredation through the entire country of the enemy, returned to Rome with great glory and booty.

[Pg 162]

Then Aulus Posthumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus were consuls. Furii some writers have written Fusii; this I mention, lest any one may imagine that the change, which is only in the names, may be in the persons themselves. There was no doubt but that one of the consuls would commence hostilities against the Æquans. The Æquans accordingly sought aid from the Volscians of Ecetra; which being granted readily, (so keenly did these states vie in inveterate hatred against the Romans,) preparations for war were made with the utmost vigour. The Hernicians came to the knowledge of it, and warned the Romans that the Ecetrans had revolted to the Æquans; the colony of Antium also was suspected, because when the town was taken, a great number of the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the Æquans: and these proved the bravest soldiers during the war with the Æquans. Afterwards the Æquans being driven into the towns, this rabble withdrawing privately, when they returned to Antium, seduced from the Romans the colonists who were already disposed to treachery of their own accord. The matter not being yet ripe, when it was announced to the senate that a defection was intended, the consuls were charged to inquire into the business by summoning to Rome the leading men of the colony. When those persons attended without reluctance, being conducted to the senate by the consuls, they so answered to the questions put to them, that they were dismissed more suspected than they had come. Upon this war was considered as inevitable. Spurius Fusius, one of the consuls to whom that province had fallen, having marched against the Æquans, found the enemy committing depredations in the country of the Hernicians; and being ignorant of their numbers, because they had never been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement with an army not a match for their forces. Being beaten from his ground at the first onset, he betook himself to his camp: nor was that an end of the danger: for both on the next night and the following day, his camp was beset and assaulted with such vigour, that not even a messenger could be sent from thence to Rome. The Hernicians brought an account both that a defeat had taken place, and that the army was besieged: and they struck such terror into the senate, that a charge was given to the other consul Posthumius, that he should "take care that the common[Pg 163]wealth sustained no injury,"[107] which form of a decree has ever been deemed to be one of extreme exigency. It seemed most advisable that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enlist all who were able to bear arms: that Titus Quintius should be sent as pro-consul[108] to the relief of the camp with the army of the allies: to complete that army the Latins and Hernicians, and the colony of Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers (so they then called auxiliaries raised for sudden emergencies).

During those days many movements and many attempts were made on either side, because the enemy, having the advantage in numbers, attempted to weaken the Roman strength by dividing it into many parts, as not being likely to suffice for all points of attack. At the same time the camp was besieged, at the same time a part of the army was sent to devastate the Roman territory, and to attempt the city itself, if fortune should favour. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city: the consul Postumius was sent to repel the attacks on the frontiers. There was no abatement in any part either in vigilance or activity; watches in the city, out-posts before the gates, and guards stationed along the walls: and a justitium was observed for several days (a thing which was necessary in such general confusion). In the mean time the consul Furius, after he had at first passively endured the siege in his camp, burst forth from the Decuman gate on the enemy when off their guard; and though he might have pursued them, he stopped through fear, lest an attack should be made on the camp from the other side. The lieutenant-general Furius (he was the consul's brother) was carried away too far by his ardour; nor did he, from his eagerness to pursue, observe his own party returning, nor the attack of the enemy on his rear: thus being shut out, after repeatedly making many unavailing efforts to force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting bravely. And the consul, turning about to renew the fight, on hearing the account that his brother was surrounded, rushing into the thick of the fight rather rashly than with sufficient caution, received a wound, and was with difficulty rescued by those around him. This both damped the courage of his own men,[Pg 164] and rendered the enemy more daring; who, being encouraged by the death of the lieutenant-general, and by the consul's wound, could not afterwards be withstood by any force, so as to prevent the Romans from being driven within their camp and again submitting to a siege, as being a match for them neither in hopes nor in strength; and every thing would have been endangered, had not T. Quintius come to their relief with foreign troops from the Latin and Hernician army. He attacked the Æquans on their rear whilst intent on the Roman camp, and insultingly displaying the head of the lieutenant-general, and, a sally being made at the same time from the camp on a signal given at a distance by him, he surrounded a great number of the enemy. Of the Æquans on the Roman territory the slaughter was less, their dispersion was more complete. On these as they straggled in different directions, and were driving plunder before them, Postumius made an attack in several places, where he had posted convenient detachments; these straying about and pursuing their flight in great disorder, fell in with the victorious Quintius as he was returning with the wounded consul. Then did the consular army by their distinguished bravery take ample vengeance for the consul's wound, and for the death of the lieutenant-general and the cohorts; heavy losses were both inflicted and received on both sides during those days. In a matter of such antiquity it is difficult to state with certainty the exact number of those who fought or fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to sum them up; that in the Hernician territory there fell five thousand three hundred Romans; that of the predatory parties of the Æquans, who strayed through the Roman frontiers for the purpose of plundering, two thousand four hundred were slain by the consul Postumius; that the rest of the body that were driving booty before them, and which fell in with Quintius, by no means got off with so light a loss: that of these four thousand, and by way of stating the number exactly, two hundred and thirty, were slain. After this they returned to Rome; the order for the justitium was discharged. The sky seemed to be all on fire; and other prodigies either actually presented themselves to their sight, or exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted minds. To avert these terrors, a solemn festival of three days was proclaimed, during which, all the temples were filled with a[Pg 165] crowd of men and women, earnestly imploring the protection of the gods. After this the Latin and Hernician cohorts were sent back to their respective homes, thanks having been returned to them for their spirited military services. The thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed almost with disgrace, because they had come after the battle with assistance then too late.

The elections were then held: Lucius Æbutius and Publius Servilius being elected consuls, enter on their office on the calends of August, which was then considered as the commencement of the year.[109] This was a distressing time, and it so happened that the season was pestilential to the city and country, and not more to men than to cattle; and they increased the malignity of the distemper, by admitting[110] the cattle and the peasants into the city through dread of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind mixed together, distressed both the citizens by the unusual stench, and the peasants crowded together into their close apartments, with heat, want of sleep, and their attendance on each other, and contact itself propagated the disease. Whilst with difficulty sustaining these calamities, ambassadors from the Hernicians suddenly bring word that the Æquans and Volscians, having united their forces, had pitched their camp in their territory, that from thence they were depopulating their frontiers with an immense army. Besides that the thinness of the senate was a proof to the allies that the state was prostrated by the pestilence, they further received this melancholy answer: "That the Hernicians, with the Latins, must now defend their possessions by their own exertions. That the Roman city, through the sudden anger of the gods, was now depopulated by disease. If any respite from that calamity should come, that they would afford aid to their allies, as they had done the year before, and always on other occasions." The allies departed, carrying home, instead of the melancholy news (they had brought), news still more melancholy, as being persons who were now obliged to sustain by their own means a war, which they had sustained with difficulty when backed by the power of Rome. The enemy did not confine themselves any[Pg 166] longer to the Hernician territory. They proceed thence with determined hostility into the Roman territories, which were already devastated without the injuries of war. Where, when there was no one to meet them, not even an unarmed person, and they passed through every place destitute not only of troops, but even of the cultivation of the husbandman, they reached as far as the third stone on the Gabinian road. Æbutius, the Roman consul, was dead; his colleague, Servilius, was dragging out life with slender hope of recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, all of the military age, were lying sick, so that strength was wanting not only for the expeditions, which, amid such an alarm the conjuncture required, but scarcely had they sufficient even for quietly mounting guard. The senators whose age and health permitted them, discharged personally the duty of sentinels. The going around[111] and attending to these was assigned to the ædiles of the people; on them devolved the chief administration of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority.

The commonwealth thus desolate, without a head, without strength, the guardian gods and good fortune of the city saved, which inspired the Volscians and Æquans with the disposition of banditti rather than of enemies; for so far was any hope not only of taking but even of approaching the walls of Rome[112] from taking possession of their minds, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the distance, and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, (from such an attempt,) that, a murmur having arisen in every direction throughout the entire camp, "why they should waste time in indolence without booty in a wild and desert land, amid the putrid decay of cattle and of human beings, when they might repair to places uninjured by infection, the Tusculan territory abounding in wealth?" they suddenly tore up their standards, and by journeys across the country, they passed through the Lavican territory to the Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the whole violence and storm of the war directed. In the mean time the Hernicians and Latins, influenced not only by compassion but by shame, if they neither gave opposition to the common[Pg 167] enemy, when making for the city of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded any aid to their allies when besieged, march to Rome with their forces united. Where, when they did not find the enemy, following their tracks as indicated by rumour, they meet them as they are coming down from the Tusculan territory into the Alban valley: there a battle was fought under circumstances by no means equal; and their fidelity proved by no means favourable to the allies for the present. The mortality at Rome by disease was not less than that of the allies by the sword (of the enemy); the only surviving consul dies; other eminent characters also died, Marcus Valerius, Titus Virginius Rutilus, the augurs; Servius Sulpicius, principal curio; and through persons of inferior note the virulence of the disease spread extensively: and the senate, destitute of human aid, directed the people's attention to the gods and to prayers; they were ordered to go to supplicate with their wives and children, and earnestly to implore the protection of heaven. Besides that their own sufferings obliged each to do so, when called on by public authority, they fill all the shrines; the prostrate matrons in every quarter sweeping the temples with their hair, beg for a remission of the divine displeasure, and a termination to the pestilence.

From this time, whether it was from the favour of the gods being obtained, or that the more unhealthy season of the year was now passed, the bodies of the people having shaken off disease, gradually began to be more healthy, and their attention being now directed to public concerns, when several interregna had expired, Publius Valerius Publicola, on the third day after he had entered on his office of interrex, causes Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Titus Veturius Geminus, (or Velusius,) to be elected consuls. They enter on their consulship on the third day of the Ides of August, the state being now sufficiently strong, not only to repel a hostile attack, but even to act itself on the offensive. Therefore when the Hernicians brought an account that the enemy had made an incursion into their frontiers, assistance was readily promised; two consular armies were enlisted. Veturius was sent against the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tricipitinus being appointed to protect the territory of the allies from devastation, proceeds no further than into the country of the Hernicians. Veturius routs and puts to flight the enemy in the first en[Pg 168]gagement. A party of plunderers which had marched over the Prænestine mountains, and from thence descended into the plains, escaped the notice of Lucretius, whilst he lay encamped amongst the Hernicians. These laid waste all the country around Præneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory they turn their course towards the heights of Tusculum; great alarm was excited in the city of Rome also, more from the suddenness of the affair, than that there was not sufficient strength to repel violence. Quintus Fabius had the command in the city;[113] he, by arming the young men and posting guards, rendered things secure and tranquil. The enemy therefore carrying off plunder from the adjacent places, not venturing to approach the city, when they were returning by a circuitous route, their caution being now more relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a greater distance from the enemy's city, fall in with the consul Lucretius, who had already explored their motions, drawn up in battle-array and determined on an engagement. Accordingly having attacked them with predetermined resolution whilst struck with sudden panic, though considerably fewer in numbers, they rout and put to flight their numerous army, and having driven them into the deep valleys, when an egress from thence was not easy, they surround them. There the Volscian nation was almost entirely cut off. In some histories I find that thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy fell in the field and in the pursuit, that one thousand two hundred and fifty were taken alive, that twenty-seven military standards were carried off; where, though there may have been some exaggeration in the number, there certainly was great slaughter. The victorious consul having obtained immense booty returned to the same standing camp. Then the consuls join their camps. The Volscians and Æquans also unite their shattered strength. This was the third battle on that year; the same good fortune gave them victory; the enemy being beaten, their camp was also taken.

Thus affairs at Rome returned to their former state; and successes abroad immediately excited commotions in the city. Caius Terentillus Arsa[114] was tribune of the people in that[Pg 169] year: he, considering that an opportunity was afforded for tribunitian intrigues during the absence of the consuls, after railing against the arrogance of the patricians for several days before the people, inveighed chiefly against the consular authority, as being exorbitant and intolerable in a free state: "for that, in name only, it was less invidious, in reality almost more oppressive than that of kings. For that two masters had been adopted instead of one, with unbounded, unlimited power; who, themselves unrestrained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and all kinds of severity against the commons." Now, in order that this licentious power might not continue perpetual, he would propose a law, that five persons be appointed to draw up laws regarding the consular power. That the consul should use that right which the people may give him over them; that they should not hold their own caprice and licentiousness as law. This law being published, when the patricians became afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they should be subjected to the yoke, the senate is convened by Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, who inveighed so vehemently against the bill and the author of it, that nothing was omitted of threats and intimidation, even though both the consuls in all their exasperation surrounded the tribune, "that he had lain in wait, and, watching his opportunity, he made an attack on the commonwealth. If the gods in their anger had given them any tribune like him on the preceding year, during the pestilence and war, he could not have been withstood. Both the consuls being dead, and the exhausted state lying enfeebled in universal confusion, that he would have proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether from the state; that he would have headed the Volscians and Æquans to attack the city. What? if the consuls adopted any tyrannical or cruel proceedings against any of the citizens, was it not competent to him to appoint a day of trial for him; to arraign him before those very judges against any one of whom severity may have been exercised? That it was not the consular authority but the tribunitian power that he was rendering hateful and insupportable: which having been peaceable and reconciled to the patricians, was now about to be brought back anew to its former mischievous habits. Nor would he entreat him not to go on as he commenced. Of you,[Pg 170] the other tribunes, says Fabius, we request, that you will first of all consider that that power was provided for the aid of individuals, not for the ruin of the community: that you were created tribunes of the commons, not enemies of the patricians. To us it is distressing, to you a source of odium, that the republic, now bereft of its chief magistrates, should be attacked; you will diminish not your rights, but the odium against you. Confer with your colleague, that he may postpone this business till the arrival of the consuls; even the Æquans and the Volscians, when our consuls were carried off by pestilence last year, did not press on us with a cruel and tyrannical war." The tribunes confer with Terentillus, and the bill being to all appearance deferred, but in reality abandoned, the consuls were immediately sent for.

Lucretius returned with immense spoil, and much greater glory; and this glory he increased on his arrival, by exposing all the booty in the Campus Martius, so that each person might, during three days, recognise his own and carry it away; the remainder was sold, for which no owners appeared. A triumph was by universal consent due to the consul: but the matter was deferred, the tribune still pressing his law; this to the consul seemed of greater importance. The business was discussed for several days, both in the senate and before the people: at length the tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and desisted; then the due honour was rendered to the general and his army. He triumphed over the Volscians and Æquans: his troops followed him in his triumph. The other consul was allowed to enter the city in ovation without his soldiers. On the following year the Terentillian law having been taken up by the entire college, assailed the new consuls; the consuls were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. On that year the sky seemed to be on fire; a violent earthquake also occurred; it was now believed that an ox spoke, which circumstance had not obtained credit on the year before; among other prodigies it rained flesh also;[115] which shower a great number of birds is reported to have carried off by flying so as to intercept it; that which did fall, is said to have lain scattered about for several[Pg 171] days, so that its smell evinced no change. The books[116] were consulted by the duumviri for sacred rites: dangers of attacks being made on the highest parts of the city, and of bloodshed thence resulting, were predicted as about to come from an assemblage of strangers; among other things, an admonition was given that all intestine disturbances should be abandoned. The tribunes alleged that that was done to obstruct the law, and a desperate contest was at hand. Lo! (that the same circle of events may revolve every year) the Hernicians bring word that the Volscians and the Æquans, though their strength was much impaired, were recruiting their armies: that their chief dependence was Antium; that the inhabitants of Antium openly held councils at Ecetra: that that was the source—there the strength—for the war. As soon as this announcement was made in the senate, a levy was ordered: the consuls were commanded to divide the management of the war between them; that the Volscians should be the province of the one, the Æquans that of the other. The tribunes cried out to their faces in the forum, "That the Volscian war was all a concerted farce: that the Hernicians were instructed to act their parts; that the liberty of the Roman people was now no longer crushed by manly efforts, but that it was baffled by cunning; because all probability was now gone that the Volscians, who were almost exterminated, and the Æquans, would of themselves commence hostilities, new enemies were sought for: that a loyal colony, and one in their very vicinity, was being rendered infamous: that war was proclaimed against the unoffending people of Antium, and in reality waged with the commons of Rome, which after loading them with arms they were determined to drive out of the city with precipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes, by the exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That by these means, and let them not think that there was any other object contemplated, the law was defeated; unless, whilst the matter was still in abeyance, whilst they were still at home and in the garb of citizens, they would take precaution that they may not be driven out of possession of the city, and be subjected to the yoke. If they only had spirit, that support would not be wanting; that all the tribunes were unanimous; that there was no apprehension from abroad, no danger. That the gods had taken care, on the pre[Pg 172]ceding year, that their liberty could now be defended with safety." Thus far the tribunes.

But, on the other side, the consuls, having placed their chairs within view of them, were proceeding with the levy; thither the tribunes hasten, and draw the assembly along with them; a few were cited, by way of making an experiment, and instantly violence commenced. Whomsoever the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul, him the tribune ordered to be discharged; nor did his own proper jurisdiction set a limit to each, but whatever you set your mind upon, was to be attained by the hope of strength and by force. Just as the tribunes had behaved in impeding the levy, in the same manner did the consuls conduct themselves in obstructing the law which was brought on every assembly day. The commencement of the riot was, when the tribunes ordered the people to proceed to the vote, because the patricians refused to withdraw. The elder citizens scarcely attended the contest, inasmuch as it was one likely not to be directed by prudence, but abandoned to temerity and daring. The consuls also generally kept out of the way, lest in the general confusion they should expose their dignity to any insult. There was a young man, Cæso Quintius, a daring youth, as well by the nobility of his descent, as by his personal size and strength; to those endowments granted by the gods he himself had added many military honours, and eloquence in the forum; so that no person in the state was considered more efficient either in speaking or in acting. When this person took his place in the centre of a body of the patricians, conspicuous above the rest, carrying as it were in his eloquence and bodily strength dictatorships and consulships combined, he alone withstood the storms of the tribunes and the populace. Under his guidance the tribunes were frequently driven from the forum, the commons routed and dispersed; such as came in his way, went off after being ill-treated and stripped; so that it became sufficiently evident, that, if he were allowed to proceed in this way, the law would be defeated. Then the other tribunes being now almost thrown into despair, Aulus Virginius, one of the college, institutes a criminal prosecution on a capital charge against Cæso. By this proceeding he rather irritated than intimidated his violent temper: so much the more vigorously did he oppose the law, annoyed the commons, and persecuted the[Pg 173] tribunes, as it were by a regular war. The prosecutor suffered the accused to rush on headlong, and to heighten the charges against him by the flame and material of the popular odium thus incurred: in the mean time he proceeded with the law, not so much in the hope of carrying it through, as to provoke the temerity of Cæso. There many inconsiderate expressions and actions passing among the young men, are charged on the temper of Cæso, through the prejudice raised against him; still the law was resisted. And Aulus Virginius frequently remarks to the people, "Are you even now sensible that you cannot have Cæso, as a fellow-citizen, with the law which you desire? Though why do I say law? he is an opponent of your liberty; he surpasses all the Tarquins in arrogance. Wait till he is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a private citizen, you now see exercising kingly sway over you by his strength and audacity." Many assented, complaining that they had been beaten by him: and strongly urged on the tribune to go through with the prosecution.

The day of trial now approached, and it was evident that persons in general considered that their liberty depended on the condemnation of Cæso: then, at length being forced to it, he addressed the commons individually, though with a strong feeling of indignation; his relatives followed him, the principal members of the state. Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, after he recounted many splendid achievements of his own, and of his family, stated, that neither in the Quintian family, nor in the Roman state, had there appeared such promising genius of such early valour. "That he had first been his soldier, that he had often in his sight fought against the enemy." Spurius Furius declared, that "he having been sent to him by Quintius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in the midst of danger; that there was no individual by whose exertions he considered the common weal more effectually re-established." Lucius Lucretius, the consul of the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, shared his own services with Cæso; he recounted his battles, detailed his distinguished exploits, both on expeditions and in the field; he advised and recommended that they would prefer this extraordinary young man, endowed with all the advantages of nature and of rank, and (one who would prove) of the utmost importance to the interest of that state into which he should come, to be[Pg 174] their fellow-citizen, rather than the citizen of a foreign state. "That with respect to that which may be offensive in him, heat and vehemence, time would diminish daily; that the prudence, which may be wanting in him, was increasing daily; that as his faults were declining and his virtues ripening to maturity, they should allow so distinguished a man to become old in their state." Among these his father, Lucius Quintius, who bore the surname of Cincinnatus, without dwelling on his merits, lest he should heighten public hatred, but soliciting pardon for his errors and his youth, implored of them to forgive his son for his sake, who had not given offence to any one by either word or deed. But some, through respect or fear, turned away from listening to his entreaties; others complaining that themselves and their friends had been ill-treated, by the harshness of their answer declared their sentence beforehand.

Independently of the general odium, one charge bore heavily on the accused; that Marcus Volscius Fictor, who some years before had been tribune of the people, had come forward as a witness: "that not long after the pestilence had been in the city, he had fallen in with a party of young men rioting in the Suburra; that a scuffle arose there; and that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered from his illness, had fallen down almost dead, being struck with the fist by Cæso; that he was carried home between the hands of some persons, and that he considered that he died from that blow; and that it had not been permitted to him by the consuls of former years to follow up the matter." In consequence of Volscius vociferating these charges, the people became so excited, that Cæso was near being killed through the violence of the people. Virginius orders him to be seized and carried to prison. The patricians oppose force to force. Titus Quintius exclaims, "that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital offence has been appointed, and whose trial was now at hand, ought not to be outraged before trial and without sentence being passed." The tribune says, "that he would not inflict punishment[117] on him before condemnation, that he would however keep him in prison until the day of trial;[Pg 175] that the Roman people may have an opportunity of inflicting punishment on one who had killed a man." The tribunes being appealed to, secure their prerogative by adopting a middle course;[118] they forbid his being thrown into confinement, and declare it to be their wish that the accused should appear on his trial, and that a sum of money should be promised to the people, in case he should not appear. How large a sum of money ought to be promised, came under discussion: that is referred to the senate. The accused was detained in the public assembly, until the patricians should be consulted: it was determined that he should give bail:[119] each bail they bound to the amount of three thousand asses; how many should be given, was left to the tribunes; they limited the number to ten; for ten sureties the prosecutor discharged the accused. He was the first who gave public sureties. Being discharged from the forum, he went the following night into exile among the Etrurians. When on the day of trial it was pleaded that he had quitted his home in order to go into exile, Virginius notwithstanding holding the comitia, his colleagues when appealed to dismissed the assembly: the fine was rigorously exacted[120] from the father; so that after selling all his effects, he lived for a considerable time in a solitary cottage on the other side of the Tiber, as if in exile. This trial and the proposing of the law gave full employment to the state: there was quiet from foreign arms.

When the tribunes, flushed as it were with victory, imagined that the law was in a manner passed, the patricians being now dismayed by the banishment of Cæso, and when, with respect to the seniors of the patricians, they had relinquished all share in the administration of the commonwealth; the juniors, more especially those who were the intimate friends[Pg 176] of Cæso, redoubled their resentful feelings against the commons, and suffered not their spirits to droop; but the greatest improvement was made in this particular, that they tempered their animosity by a certain degree of moderation. When for the first time after Cæso's banishment the law began to be brought forward, arrayed and well prepared with a numerous body of clients, they attacked the tribunes, on their affording a pretext for it by attempting to remove them, in such a manner, that no one individual carried home from thence any prominent share either of glory or ill-will; the people complained that for one Cæso a thousand had started up. During the intermediate days, when the tribunes made no stir regarding the law, nothing could be more mild or peaceable than those same persons; they saluted the plebeians courteously, entered into conversation, and invited them home; they attended the forum, and suffered the tribunes themselves to hold their meetings without interruption: they never were uncivil to any one either in public or in private, unless when the business respecting the law began to be agitated. On other occasions the young men were popular. And not only did the tribunes transact all their other affairs without disturbance, but they were even re-elected for the following year, without one offensive expression, much less any violence being employed. By soothing and managing the commons they gradually rendered them tractable. By these methods the law was evaded for the entire year.

The consuls Caius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius Valerius Publicola, found the state in a more tranquil condition. The new year had brought with it nothing new; the thoughts about carrying the law, or submitting to it, engrossed all the members of the state. The more the younger members of the senate endeavoured to insinuate themselves into favour with the commons, the more strenuously did the tribunes strive to thwart them, so that they rendered them suspicious in the eyes of the commons by alleging: "that a conspiracy was formed; that Cæso was in Rome; that plans were concerted for assassinating the tribunes, and butchering the commons. That the commission assigned by the elder members of the patricians was, that the young men should abolish the tribunitian power from the state, and the form of government should be the same as it had been before the sa[Pg 177]cred mount had been taken possession of." Both a war from the Volsci and Æqui, which was now a stated thing, and one that was a regular occurrence for almost every year, was apprehended, and another evil nearer home started up unexpectedly. The exiles and slaves to the number of four thousand and five hundred men took possession of the Capitol and citadel during the night, under the command of Appius Herdonius, a Sabine. Immediately a massacre took place in the citadel of those who had evinced an unwillingness to enter into the conspiracy and to take up arms. Some, during the alarm, run down to the forum, driven precipitately through the panic; the cries, "to arms," and "the enemy are in the city," were heard alternately. The consuls were both afraid to arm the commons, and to suffer them to remain unarmed; uncertain what sudden calamity had assailed the city, whether external or intestine, whether from the hatred of the commons or the treachery of the slaves: they were for quieting the tumults, by such endeavours they sometimes exasperated them; for the populace, panic-stricken and terrified, could not be directed by authority. They give out arms, however, not indiscriminately; only so that, the enemy being still uncertain,[121] there might be a protection sufficient to be relied on for all emergencies. The remainder of the night they passed in posting guards through proper places through the entire city, anxious and uncertain, as to who the persons might be, and how great the number of the enemy was. Day-light then disclosed the war and the leader of the war. Appius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from the Capitol: "that he had espoused the cause of every most unfortunate individual, in order to bring back to their country those driven out by oppression, and to remove the grievous yoke from the slaves. That he had rather that were done under the authority of the Roman people. If there be no hope in that quarter, that he would rouse the Volscians and Æqui, and would try all extremities."

The matter began to disclose itself more clearly to the patricians and the consuls; besides those things, however, which were openly declared, they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the Veientes or Sabines; and, as there were so[Pg 178] many of the enemy in the city, lest the Sabine and Etrurian troops might come on according to a concerted plan; and then lest their eternal enemies, the Volscians and Æqui, should come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but to their very city, already in part taken. Many and various were their fears; among others, the most prominent was their dread of the slaves, lest each might harbour an enemy in his own house, one whom it was neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor to deny[122] confidence to him lest, by not trusting him, he might become more incensed. And (the evil) seemed scarcely capable of being resisted by perfect harmony (between the different orders of the state); only no one apprehended the tribunes or commons, other evils predominating and constantly starting up; that appeared an evil of a mild nature, and one always arising during the cessation of other evils, and it then appeared to be lulled to rest by external terror. Yet that was almost the only one that most aggravated their distressing circumstances: for such madness took possession of the tribunes, that they contended that not war, but the empty appearance of war had taken possession of the Capitol, to avert the people's minds from attending to the law; that these friends and clients of the patricians would depart in greater silence than they came, if they once perceived that, by the law being passed, they had raised these tumults in vain. They then held a meeting for passing the law, having called away the people from their arms. In the mean time, the consuls convene the senate, another dread presenting itself on the part of the tribunes, greater than that which the nightly foe had occasioned.

When it was announced that their arms were being laid aside, and that the men were quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, his colleague still detaining the senate, hastens from the senate-house; he comes thence into the meeting to the tribunes: "What is all this," says he, "tribunes? Are you determined to overthrow the commonwealth under the guidance and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so successful in corrupting you, who, by his authority, has not influenced your slaves? When the enemies are over our heads, is it your pleasure that arms should be given up, and laws be proposed?"[Pg 179] Then directing his discourse to the populace: "If, Romans, no concern for your city, for yourselves, moves you, at least revere the gods of your country, now made captive by the enemy. Jupiter, the best and greatest, Queen Juno, and Minerva, the other gods and goddesses, are besieged; the camp of slaves now holds the tutelary gods of the state. Does this seem to you the form of a state in its senses? Such a crowd of enemies is not only within the walls, but in the citadel, commanding the forum and senate-house: in the mean while meetings are being held in the forum; the senate is in the senate-house, just as when perfect tranquillity prevails; the senator gives his opinion, the other Romans give their votes. Would it not behove all the patricians and commons, consuls, tribunes, citizens, and all classes of persons, to bring aid with arms in their hands, to run into the Capitol, to liberate and restore to peace that most august residence of Jupiter, the best and greatest? O Father Romulus! do thou infuse into thy progeny that determination of thine, by which you once recovered from these same Sabines the citadel, when obtained by gold. Order them to pursue this same path, which thou, as leader, and thy army, pursued. Lo! I, as consul, shall be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as a mortal can follow a god." The close of his speech was: "That he would take up arms, that he invited every citizen of Rome to arms; if any one should oppose, that he,[123]forgetful of the consular authority, the tribunitian power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an enemy, whoever he may, wheresoever he may, in the Capitol, or in the forum. That the tribunes might order arms to be taken up against Publius Valerius the consul, since they forbid it against Appius Herdonius; that he would venture to act in that manner in the case of the tribunes, in which the founder of his family had ventured to act in the case of kings." It now became apparent that extreme violence was about to take place, and that a disturbance among the Romans would be exhibited as a sight to the enemy; the law, however, could neither be prepared, nor could the consul proceed to the Capitol: night quashed the contest that had commenced; the tribunes yielded[Pg 180] to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls. The fomenters of the disturbances being removed from thence, the patricians went about among the commons, and introducing themselves into their circles of conversation, they introduced observations suited to the occasion: they advised them "to beware into what hazard they were bringing the commonwealth; that the contest was not between the patricians and commons, but that patricians and commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods, the guardian gods of the state and of private families, were being delivered up to the enemy." Whilst these affairs are going on in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls in the mean time had armed the several gates and the walls, lest the Sabines or the Veientian enemy should make any move.

On the same night, messengers come to Tusculum announcing that the citadel was taken, and the Capitol seized, and the other state of disturbance in the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate and introduced the messengers, earnestly advises: "That they should not wait until ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the very danger and risk, and the social gods, and the faith of treaties, demanded it; that the gods would never afford them an equal opportunity of obliging so powerful a state and so near a neighbour." It is determined that assistance should be sent: the young men are enrolled; arms are given to them. Coming to Rome at break of day, they at a distance exhibited the appearance of enemies. The Æqui or Volscians appeared to be coming. Then when the groundless alarm was removed, they are admitted into the city, and descend in a body into the forum. There Publius Valerius, having left his colleague to guard the gates, was now drawing up in order of battle. The great influence of the man had produced an effect, when he affirmed that, "the Capitol being recovered, and the city restored to peace, if they would allow themselves to be convinced what lurking fraud was concealed under the law proposed by the tribunes, that he would offer no obstruction to the meeting of the people, mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname, and that the province of protecting the people had been handed down to him as hereditary by his ancestors." Following him as their leader, notwithstand[Pg 181]ing the tribunes cried out against it, they direct their march up the Capitoline hill. The Tusculan troops also joined them. Allies and citizens vied with each other which of them should appropriate to themselves the honour of recovering the citadel. Each leader encourages his own men. Then the enemy became terrified, and placed no dependence on any but the place. The Romans and allies advance on them whilst in this state of alarm. They had now broken into the porch of the temple, when Publius Valerius is slain animating the fight at the head of his men. Publius Volumnius, a man of consular rank, saw him falling. Having directed his men to cover the body, he rushes forward to the place and office of consul. Through their ardour and impetuosity the perception of so heavy a blow did not reach the soldiers; they conquered before they perceived that they conquered without a leader. Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood; many were taken alive; Herdonius was slain. Thus the Capitol was recovered. With respect to the prisoners,[124] punishment was inflicted on each according to his station, whether he was a freeman or a slave. The commons are stated to have thrown farthings into the consul's house, that he might be buried with greater solemnity.

Peace being established, the tribunes then pressed on the patricians to fulfil the promise of Publius Valerius; they pressed on Claudius, to free the shade of his colleague from breach of faith, and to allow the business of the law to proceed. The consul asserted that he would suffer the discussion on the law to go on, till he had a colleague appointed in the room of the deceased. These disputes held on until the elections for substituting a consul. In the month of December,[125] by the most zealous exertions of the patricians, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, Cæso's father, is elected consul to enter on his office without delay. The commons were dismayed at their being about to have as consul a man incensed against them, powerful by the support of the patricians, by his own merit, and by three sons, not one of whom yielded to Cæso in[Pg 182] greatness of spirit; "whilst they were superior to him by their exercising prudence and moderation, when the occasion required." When he entered on his office, in his frequent harangues from the tribunal, he was not more vehement in restraining the commons than in reproving the senate, "by the listlessness of which body the tribunes of the commons, now become perpetual, by means of their tongues and prosecutions exercised regal authority, not as in a republic of the Roman people, but as if in an ill-regulated family. That with his son Cæso, fortitude, constancy, all the splendid qualifications of youth in war or in peace, had been driven and exiled from the city of Rome: that talkative and turbulent men, sowers of discord, twice and even thrice re-elected tribunes, lived in the most destructive practices with regal tyranny. Did that Aulus Virginius," says he, "deserve less punishment than Appius Herdonius, because he was not in the Capitol? considerably more, by Jove, (in the mind of any one) who would judge the matter fairly. Herdonius, if nothing else, by avowing himself an enemy, in a manner gave you notice to take up arms: this man, by denying the existence of war, took arms out of your hands, and exposed you defenceless to your slaves and exiles. And did you, (without any offence to Caius Claudius and to Publius Valerius, now no more let me say it,) did you advance against the Capitoline hill before you expelled those enemies from the forum. It is shameful before gods and men. When the enemy were in the citadel, in the very Capitol, when the leader of the exiles and slaves, after profaning every thing, took up his residence in the shrine of Jupiter, the best and greatest, arms were taken up in Tusculum sooner than in Rome. It was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and Caius Claudius, the consuls, recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not suffer the Latins to touch arms, even in their own defence, when they had the enemy in their very frontiers, should have been taken and destroyed now, had not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes, is this bringing aid to the commons, to expose them in a defenceless state to be butchered by the enemy. Now, if any one, even the humblest individual of your commons, (which portion you have as it were broken off from the rest of the state, and made it your country and pe[Pg 183]culiar commonwealth,) if any one of these persons were to bring word that his house was beset by an armed band of slaves, you would think that assistance should be afforded to him. Was Jupiter, the best and greatest, when surrounded by the arms of exiles and of slaves, deserving of no human aid? And do these persons require that they be considered sacred and inviolable,[126] with whom the gods themselves are neither sacred nor inviolable? But, steeped as ye are in crimes against both gods and men, do ye say that you will pass your law this year? Verily then the day on which I was created consul was a disastrous day for the commonwealth, much more so even than that on which Publius Valerius the consul fell, if ye should carry it. Now, first of all," says he, "Romans, it is the intention of myself and of my colleague to march the legions against the Volsci and the Æqui. I know not by what fatality we find the gods more propitious when we are at war than in peace. How great the danger from those states would have been, had they known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is better to conjecture from the past, than to feel from actual experience."

The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons; the patricians, recovering their spirits, considered the state as re-established. The other consul, more eager as a seconder than as the first mover (of a measure), readily suffering his colleague to take the first lead in a matter of so much importance, claimed to himself his share of the consular duty in executing the plan. Then the tribunes, mocking these declarations as empty, went on inquiring "by what means the consuls would lead out the army, as no one would allow them to hold a levy?" "But," says Quintius, "we have no occasion for a levy; since at the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons to recover the Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would assemble on an order from the consul, and would not depart without an order. We therefore publish our order that all of you, who have sworn, attend to-morrow under arms at the lake Regillus." The tribunes then began to cavil, and wished to absolve the people from their obligation; that Quintius was a private person at the[Pg 184] time at which they were bound by the oath. But that disregard of the gods which prevails in the present age had not yet arrived; nor did every one, by his own interpretation, accommodate oaths and laws to his own purposes, but rather adapted his conduct to them. Wherefore the tribunes, as there was no hope of obstructing the matter, attempted to delay the departure (of the army) the more earnestly on this account, because a report had gone out "both that the augurs had been ordered to attend at the lake Regillus, and to consecrate a place, where business might be transacted with the people with the benefit of auspices; that whatever had been passed at Rome by tribunitian violence, might be repealed there in an assembly. That all would agree to that which the consuls wished; for that there was no appeal at a distance greater than that of a mile from the city: and that the tribunes, if they should come there, would, among the rest of the crowd, be subjected to the consular authority." These matters alarmed them; but the greatest terror which acted on their minds was, that Quintius frequently said, "that he would not hold an election of consuls. That the state was affected with such a disease, as could not be stopped by the ordinary remedies. That the commonwealth required a dictator, so that whoever should stir a step to disturb the peace of the state, might feel that the dictatorship was without appeal."

The senate was assembled in the Capitol. Thither the tribunes come with the commons in great consternation: the populace, with loud clamours, implore the protection now of the consuls, now of the patricians: nor could they make the consul recede from his determination, until the tribunes promised that they would be under the direction of the patricians. Then on the consul's laying before them the demands of the tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate are passed, "That neither the tribunes should propose the law during that year, and that the consuls should not lead the army from the city—that for the time to come, the senate decided that it was to the injury of the commonwealth, that the same magistrates should be continued, and the same tribunes be re-appointed." The consuls conformed to the authority of the senate, the tribunes were re-appointed notwithstanding the remonstrances of the consuls. The patricians also, that they might not yield to the commons in any par[Pg 185]ticular, re-elected Lucius Quintius consul. No proceeding of the consul was urged with more warmth during the entire year. "Can I be surprised," says he, "if your authority is of little weight, conscript fathers? yourselves are disparaging it. Forsooth, because the commons have violated a decree of the senate, by re-appointing their magistrates, you yourselves also wish it to be violated, lest ye should yield to the populace in rashness; as if to possess greater power in the state consisted in having more of inconstancy and irregularity; for it is certainly more inconstant and greater folly, to do away with one's own decrees and resolutions, than those of others. Imitate, conscript fathers, the inconsiderate multitude; and ye, who should be an example to others, transgress by the example of others, rather than others should act correctly by yours, provided I imitate not the tribunes, nor suffer myself to be re-elected consul, contrary to a decree of the senate. But I advise you, Caius Claudius, that both you on your part restrain the Roman people from this licentiousness, and that you be persuaded of this on my part, that I shall so take it, as not to consider that my honour has been obstructed by you, but that the glory of declining the honour has been augmented, and the odium, which would hang over me from its being continued, has been lessened." Upon this they issue this order jointly: "That no one should attempt to make Lucius Quintius consul: if any one should do so, that they would not allow that vote."

The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, a third time, and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was performed that year; it was a matter of religious scruple that the lustrum should be closed, on account of the Capitol having been taken and the consul slain. In the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius, disturbances broke out immediately at the commencement of the year. The tribunes were urging on the commons. The Latins and Hernici brought word that a formidable war was in preparation on the part of the Volscians and Æqui; that the troops of the Volscians were now at Antium. Great apprehension was also entertained, that the colony itself would revolt: and with difficulty were the tribunes prevailed on to allow the war to take precedence. The consuls then divided the provinces between them. It was assigned to Fabius to march the legions[Pg 186] to Antium; to Cornelius, to protect the city; lest any part of the enemy, as was the practice of the Æqui, should come to commit depredations. The Hernici and Latins were ordered to supply soldiers in conformity to the treaty; and in the army two parts consisted of allies, one part of natives. When the allies came to the day already appointed, the consul pitches his camp outside the Capuan gate. Then, after the army was purified, he set out for Antium, and encamped not far from the town, and standing camp of the enemy. Where, when the Volscians, not venturing to risk an engagement, were preparing to protect themselves quietly within their ramparts, on the following day Fabius drew up not one mixed army of allies and citizens, but three separate bodies of the three states around the enemy's works. He himself was in the centre with the Roman legions. He ordered them to watch for the signal from thence, so that the allies might both commence the action together, and retire together, if he should sound a retreat. He placed their cavalry in the rear of each division. Having thus assailed the camp in three different points, he surrounds it; and when he pressed on from every side, he dislodges from the rampart the Volscians, not able to sustain his attack. Having then crossed the fortifications, he expels from the camp the crowd who were dismayed and inclining towards one direction. Upon this the cavalry, who could not easily pass over the rampart, having stood by up to that period mere spectators of the fight, having come up with them whilst flying in disorder on the open plain, enjoys a share of the victory, by cutting down the affrighted troops. The slaughter of them as they fled was great, both in the camp and outside the lines; but the booty was still greater, because the enemy were scarcely able to carry off their arms with them; and their entire army would have been destroyed, had not the woods covered them in their flight.

Whilst these transactions are taking place at Antium, the Æqui, in the mean while, sending forward the main strength of their youth, surprise the citadel of Tusculum by night, and with the rest of their army they sit down at no great distance from the walls of Tusculum, so as to divide the forces of the enemy. This account being quickly brought to Rome, and from Rome to Antium, affect the Romans not less than if it was told them that the Capitol was taken; so[Pg 187] recent were both the services of the Tusculans, and the very similitude of the danger seemed to require a return of the aid that had been afforded. Fabius, giving up every other object, removes the booty hastily from the camp to Antium. Having a small garrison there, he hurries on his army by forced marches to Tusculum. The soldiers were allowed to carry nothing but their arms, and whatever dressed provision was at hand. The consul Cornelius sends provisions from Rome. The war was carried on at Tusculum for several months. With one part of his army the consul assailed the camp of the Æqui; a part he had given to the Tusculans to recover their citadel. They never could have made their way to it by force. Famine at length withdrew the enemy from it. And when they came to this at last, they were all sent under the yoke by the Tusculans, unarmed and naked. These, when betaking themselves home by an ignominious flight, were overtaken by the Roman consul on Algidum and cut off to a man. After this victory, having marched back[127] his army to Columen, (that is the name of the place,) he pitches his camp. The other consul also, as soon as the Roman walls ceased to be in danger, the enemy being defeated, set out from Rome. Thus the consuls, having entered the territories of the enemies on two different sides, strenuously vie with each other in depopulating the Volscians on the one hand, the Æqui on the other. I find in some writers that the people of Antium revolted[128] the same year. That Lucius Cornelius, the consul, conducted that war and took the town, I would not venture to affirm for certain, because no mention is made of the matter among the older writers.

This war being concluded, a tribunitian war at home alarms the senate. They exclaim, "that the detaining the army abroad was done for a fraudulent motive: that such frustration was for the purpose of doing away with the law; that they, however, would go through with the matter undertaken by them." Publius Lucretius, however, the præfect of the city, so far prevailed that the proceedings of the tribunes were postponed till the arrival of the consuls. A new cause of disturbance also arose. Aulus Cornelius and Quintus Ser[Pg 188]vilius, quæstors, appoint a day of trial for Marcus Volscius, because he had come forward as a manifestly false witness against Cæso. For it appeared by many proofs, that the brother of Volscius, from the time he first became ill, not only never appeared in public, but that he had not even arisen from his sick bed, and that he died of an illness of several months' standing; and that at the time to which the witness had referred the commission of the crime, Cæso had not been seen at Rome: those who served in the army with him, positively stating that at that time he had constantly attended at his post with them without any leave of absence. Many persons proposed on their own private responsibility to Volscius to have a judicial decision on the matter.[129] As he would not venture to go to trial, all these matters coinciding rendered the condemnation of Volscius no less certain than that of Cæso had been on the testimony of Volscius. The tribunes occasioned a delay, who said that they would not suffer the quæstors to hold the assembly[130] concerning the accused, unless it was first held concerning the law. Thus both matters were spun out till the arrival of the consuls. When they entered the city in triumph with their victorious army, because silence was (observed) with regard to the law, many thought that the tribunes were struck with dismay. But they, (for it was now the close of the year,) desirous of obtaining a fourth tribuneship, had turned away their efforts from the law to canvassing for the elections; and when the consuls strove with no less strenuousness than if the law in question were proposed for[Pg 189] the purpose of lessening their own dignity, the victory in the contest was on the side of the tribunes. On the same year peace was granted to the Æqui on their suing for it. The census, a matter commenced on the preceding year, is completed. The number of citizens rated were one hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred and nineteen. The consuls obtained great glory this year both at home and in war, because they both re-established peace abroad and at home; though the state was not in a state of absolute concord, yet it was less disturbed than at other times.

Lucius Minucius and Caius Nautius being next elected consuls, took up the two causes which lay over since the preceding year. The consuls obstructed the law, the tribunes the trial of Volscius in the same manner: but in the new quæstors there was greater power, and greater influence. With Marcus Valerius, son of Valerius and grandson of Volesus, Titus Quintius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, was appointed quæstor. Since Cæso could neither be restored to the Quintian family, nor could he, though a most promising young man, be restored to the state, he justly, and as in duty bound, prosecuted the false witness who had deprived an innocent person of the power of pleading his cause. When Virginius in particular and the (other) tribunes were promoting the passing of the law, the space of two months was allowed to the consuls to examine into the law: so that, when they had satisfied the people, as to what secret designs were concealed under it, they should then allow them to give their votes. The granting this respite established tranquillity in the city. The Æqui however did not allow them long rest; who, in violation of the treaty which had been made with the Romans the year before, confer the chief command on Gracchus Clælius. He was then the leading man amongst the Æqui. Under the command of Gracchus they carry hostile depredations into the district of Lavici, from thence into that of Tusculum, and laden with booty they pitch their camp at Algidum. To that camp Quintus Fabius, Publius Volumnius, Aulus Posthumius, come to complain of the wrongs committed, and to demand restitution in accordance with the treaty. The general of the Æqui commands them "to deliver to the oak whatever instructions they brought from the Roman senate; that he in the mean time should attend to[Pg 190] other matters." A large oak tree hung over the prætorium, the shade of which constituted a pleasant seat. Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, says, "Let both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear the treaty violated by you, and favour both our complaints now, and our arms presently, when we shall simultaneously avenge the rights of gods and men as violated by you." As soon as the ambassadors returned to Rome, the senate ordered one of the consuls to lead his army against Gracchus at Algidum, to the other they assigned as his province the laying waste of the country of the Æqui. The tribunes, according to their practice, attempted to obstruct the levy; and probably would have eventually prevented it, but a new cause of alarm was suddenly added.

A large body of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation, approached very close to the walls of the city. The fields were laid waste, the city was struck with terror. Then the commons cheerfully took up arms; two large armies were raised, the tribunes remonstrating to no purpose. Nautius led the one against the Sabines; and having pitched his camp at Eretum, by small detachments, generally by nightly incursions, he effected such desolation in the Sabine land, that, when compared to it, the Roman territories seemed intact by an enemy. Minucius had neither the same success nor the same energy of mind in conducting his business; for after he had pitched his camp at no great distance from the enemy, without having experienced any considerable loss, he kept himself through fear within the camp. When the enemy perceived this, their boldness increased, as sometimes happens, from others' fears; and having attacked his camp by night, when open force did not succeed well, they on the following day drew lines of circumvallation around it. Before these could close up all the passes, by a vallum being thrown up on all sides, five horsemen being despatched between the enemies' posts, brought the account to Rome, that the consul and his army were besieged. Nothing could have happened so unexpected, nor so unlooked-for. Accordingly the panic and the alarm was as great as if the enemy besieged the city, not the camp. They send for the consul Nautius; in whom when there seemed to be but insufficient protection, and they were determined that a dictator should be appointed to retrieve their embarrassed affairs, Lucius Quintius Cincinna[Pg 191]tus is appointed by universal consent. It is worth those persons' while to listen, who despise all things human in comparison with riches, and who suppose "that there is no room for exalted honour, nor for virtue, unless where riches abound in great profusion." Lucius Quintius, the sole hope of the Roman people, cultivated a farm of four acres, at the other side of the Tiber, which are called the Quintian meadows, opposite to the very place where the dock-yard now is. There, whether leaning on a stake in a ditch which he was digging, or in the employment of ploughing, engaged at least on some rural work, as is certain, after mutual salutations had passed, being requested by the ambassadors to put on his gown, and listen to the commands of the senate, (with wishes) that it might be happy both to him and to the commonwealth, being astonished, and asking frequently "whether all was safe," he bids his wife Racilia immediately to bring his toga from his hut. As soon as he put this on and came forward, after first wiping off the dust and sweat, the ambassadors, congratulating him, unite in saluting him as dictator: they call him into the city; explain to him what terror now exists in the army. A vessel was prepared for Quintius by order of government, and his three sons having come out to meet him, receive him on his landing at the other side; then his other relatives and friends; then the greater part of the patricians. Accompanied by this numerous attendance, and the lictors going before him, he was conducted to his residence. There was a numerous concourse of the commons also; but they by no means looked on Quintius with equal pleasure, considering both the extent of his authority as too great, and the man vested with such authority rather arbitrary. And during that night indeed nothing was done in the city besides posting guards.

On the next day the dictator, after he had come into the forum before day-light, names a master of the horse, Lucius Tarquitius, a man of patrician family, but one who, though he had served his campaigns among the foot by reason of his scanty means, was yet considered by many degrees the first in military skill among the Roman youth. With his master of the horse he came into the assembly, proclaims a suspension of civil business, orders the shops to be closed throughout the city, and forbids any one to attend to any private affairs. Then he commands that all, whoever were of[Pg 192] the military age, should attend under arms, in the Campus Martius, before sun-set, with dressed provisions for five days and twelve palisades, and he commanded that whose age was too far advanced for military service, should dress their victuals for the soldiers in their vicinity, whilst the latter were preparing arms, and procuring the palisade. Accordingly, the young men run in different directions to procure the palisades; they took them wherever they were nearest to them; no one was prevented, and they all attended punctually according to the dictator's order. Then the troops being formed, not more fitted for the march than for an engagement, should the occasion require it, the dictator himself marches at the head of the legions, the master of the horse at the head of his cavalry. In both bodies there were such exhortations as the juncture itself required; that "they should quicken their pace; that there was need of expedition, that they might reach the enemy by night; that the consul and the Romans were besieged; that they had been shut up now three days: that it was uncertain what each day or night might bring with it; that the issue of the most important affairs often depended on a moment of time." They, to please their leaders, exclaimed among themselves, "Standard-bearer, hasten on; follow, soldier." At midnight they reach Algidum: and, as soon as they perceived that they were near the enemy, they halted.

There the dictator, having rode about, and having observed, as far as could be ascertained by night, what the situation of the camp was, and what its form, commanded the tribunes of the soldiers to order the baggage to be thrown into one place, and that the soldiers with their arms and palisades should return to their ranks. What he commanded was executed. Then, with the regularity which they had observed on the march, he draws the entire army in a long column around the enemies' camp, and directs that, when the signal was given, they should all raise a shout; and that on the shout being raised, each man should throw up a trench before his post, and fix his palisade. The orders being issued, the signal followed: the soldiers perform what they were commanded; the shout resounds around the enemy: it then passes beyond the camp of the enemy, and reaches the consul's camp: it occasions panic in one place, great joy in another.[Pg 193] The Romans, observing to each other with exultation, "that this was the shout of their countrymen, and that aid was at hand," from their watch-guards and out-posts intimidate the enemy on their part. The consul says, that there must be no delay: "that by that shout not only their arrival was intimated, but that proceedings were already commenced by their friends; and that it would be a wonder if the enemies' camp were not attacked on the outside." He therefore orders his men to take up arms and follow him. The battle was commenced by the legions during the night: they give notice to the dictator by a shout, that on that side also the action was commenced. The Æquans were now preparing to prevent the works from being brought around them,[131] when, the battle being commenced by the enemy from within, turning their attention from those employed on the fortifications to those who were fighting on the inside, lest a sally should be made through the centre of their camp, they left the night to remain without interruption for the finishing of the work; and they continued the fight with the consul till daylight. At the break of day they were now encompassed by the dictator's works, and were scarcely able to maintain the fight against one army. Then their lines were attacked by Quintius's army, who immediately after completing their work returned to their arms. Here a new fight pressed on them: the former one had suffered no relaxation. Then the twofold peril pressing hard on them, turning from fighting to entreaties, they implored the dictator on the one hand, the consul on the other, not to make the victory consist in their general slaughter, that they would suffer them to depart without arms. When they were bid by the consul to go to the dictator, he, incensed against them, added ignominy (to defeat). He orders Gracchus Cloelius, their general, and other leaders to be brought to him in chains, and that they should evacuate the town of Corbio; "that he wanted not the blood of the Æquans: that they were allowed to depart; but that the confession may be at length extorted, that their nation was defeated and subdued, that they should pass under the yoke." The yoke is formed with three spears, two fixed in the ground, and one tied across between the[Pg 194] upper ends of them. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.

The enemy's camp being taken, which was full of every thing, (for he had sent them away naked,) he distributed all the booty among his own soldiers only: chiding the consul's army and the consul himself, he says, "Soldiers, ye shall do without any portion of the spoil taken from that enemy to which you were well nigh becoming a spoil: and you, Lucius Minutius, until you begin to assume the spirit of a consul, shall command these legions as lieutenant-general." Minutius accordingly resigns his office of consul, and remains with the army, as he had been commanded. But so meekly obedient were the minds of men at that time to authority combined with superior merit, that this army, mindful of the kindness (conferred) rather than of the slur (cast on them), both voted a golden crown of a pound weight to the dictator, and saluted him as their patron when setting out. The senate at Rome, being convened by Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered Quintius to enter the city in triumph, in the order of march in which he was coming. The leaders of the enemy were led before his car: the military standards were carried before him: his army followed laden with spoil. Tables with provisions are said to have been laid out before the houses of all, and (the soldiers) partaking of the entertainment, followed the car with the triumphal hymn and the usual jests, after the manner of revellers. On that day the freedom of the state was granted to Lucius Mamilius of Tusculum, with universal approbation. The dictator would have laid down his office, had not the assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the false witness, detained him; the fear of the dictator prevented the tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius was condemned and went into exile to Lanuvium. Quintius laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day, having received it for six months. During those days the consul Nautius engages the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell the Sabines. Fabius Quintus was sent to Algidum as successor to Minucius. Towards the end of the year the tribunes began to agitate the question of the law; but because two armies were abroad, the patricians carried the point, that no business should be proposed to the people. The commons[Pg 195] succeeded in electing the same tribunes for the fifth time. They report that wolves seen in the Capitol were driven away by dogs; that on account of that prodigy the Capitol was purified. Such were the transactions in that year.

Quintus Minucius and Caius Horatius Pulvillus follow as the next consuls. At the commencement of this year, when there was peace abroad, the same tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and parties would have proceeded further, (so highly were their passions inflamed,) had not, as if for the very purpose, news been brought, that by an attack of the Æquans the garrison at Corbio had been cut off. The consuls convene the senate; they are ordered to raise a hasty levy and to proceed to Algidum. Then the contest about the law being given up, a new dispute arose regarding the levy. And the consular authority[132] was about to be overpowered by tribunitian influence, when an additional cause of alarm comes on them: that the Sabine army had made a descent into the Roman lands to commit depredations; that from thence they were advancing to the city. This fear influenced the tribunes to allow the levy to proceed, not without a stipulation, however, that since they had been foiled for five years, and as that was but little protection to the commons, ten tribunes of the people should henceforward be elected. Necessity wrung this from the patricians; this exception only they made, that they should not hereafter re-elect the same tribunes. The election for the tribunes was held immediately, lest that measure also, like others, might prove a delusion after the war. On the thirty-sixth year after the first tribunes, ten were elected, two from each class; and provision was made that they should be elected in this manner for the future. The levy being then held, Minucius marched out against the Sabines, and found no enemy. Horatius, after the Æquans, having put the garrison at Corbio to the sword, had taken Ortona also, fights a battle at Algidum; he slays a great number; drives the enemy not only from Algidum, but from Corbio and Ortona also. Corbio he razed to the ground for their having betrayed the garrison.

Marcus Valerius and Spurius Virginius are next elected[Pg 196] consuls. Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. They laboured under a scarcity of provisions on account of the excessive rains. A law was proposed regarding the making Mount Aventine public property. The same tribunes of the people being re-elected on the following year, Titus Romilius and Caius Veturius being consuls, strongly recommended the law[133] in all their harangues, "That they were ashamed of their number increased to no purpose, if that question should lie for their two years in the same manner as it had lain for the whole preceding five." Whilst they were most busily employed in these matters, an alarming account comes from Tusculum, that the Æquans were in the Tusculan territory. The recent services of that state made them ashamed of delaying relief. Both the consuls were sent with an army, and find the enemy in their usual post in Algidum. A battle was fought there; upwards of seven thousand of the enemy were slain; the rest were routed; immense booty was obtained. This the consuls sold on account of the low state of the treasury; the proceeding was the cause of dissatisfaction to the army, and it also afforded to the tribunes materials for bringing a charge against the consuls before the commons. Accordingly, as soon as they went out of office, in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aterius, a day was appointed for Romilius by Caius Claudius Cicero, tribune of the people; for Veturius, by Lucius Alienus, plebeian ædile. They were both condemned, to the great mortification of the patricians; Romilius to pay ten thousand asses; Veturius, fifteen thousand. Nor did this misfortune of their predecessors render the new consuls more remiss. They said that they too might be condemned, and that the commons and tribunes could not carry the law. Then having thrown up the law, which, in its repeated publication, had now grown old, the tribunes adopted a milder mode of proceeding with the patricians. "That they should at length put an end to their disputes. If plebeian laws displeased them, at least they should suffer legislators (chosen) in common, both from the commons and from the patricians, who would propose measures advantageous to both parties,[Pg 197] and such as might tend to the equalization of liberty." This proposal the patricians did not reject. They said that "no one should propose laws, except some of the patricians." When they agreed with respect to the laws, and differed only with respect to the proposer; ambassadors were sent to Athens, Spurius Posthumius Albus, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius Camerinus; and they were ordered to copy out the celebrated laws of Solon, and to become acquainted with the institutions, customs, and laws of the other states of Greece.

The year was undisturbed by foreign wars; the following one was still more quiet, Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quintilius being consuls, the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which was occasioned in the first place by their waiting for the ambassadors who had gone to Athens, and for the foreign laws; in the next place, two heavy calamities arose at the same time, famine and pestilence, (which proved) destructive to man, and equally so to cattle. The lands were left desolate; the city exhausted by a constant succession of deaths. Many and illustrious families were in mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis, Servilius Cornelius, died; as also the augur, Caius Horatius Pulvillus; into whose place the augurs elected Caius Veturius, the more eagerly, because he had been condemned by the commons. The consul Quintilius died, and four tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a melancholy one by these manifold disasters; but from an enemy there was perfect quiet. Then Caius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus were elected consuls. Nor was there in that year any external war: disturbances arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the Athenian laws; the tribunes pressed the more urgently, that a commencement should at length be made of compiling the laws. It was resolved that decemvirs should be elected without appeal, and that there should be no other magistrate during that year. There was, for a considerable time, a dispute whether plebeians should be admitted among them: at length the point was given up to the patricians, provided that the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and the other devoting laws were not repealed.

In the three hundred and first year after Rome was built, the form of the government was a second time changed, the supreme power being transferred from consuls to decem[Pg 198]virs, as it had passed before from kings to consuls. The change was less remarkable, because not of long duration; for the joyous commencement of that government became too licentious. So much the sooner did the matter fall, and (the usage) was recurred to, that the name and authority of consuls was committed to two persons. The decemvirs appointed were, Appius Claudius, Titus Genucius, Publius Sestius, Lucius Veturius, Caius Julius, Aulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Publius Curiatius, Titus Romilius, Spurius Postumius. On Claudius and Genucius, because they had been elected consuls for that year, the honour was conferred in compensation for the honour (of the consulate); and on Sestius, one of the consuls of the former year, because he had proposed that matter to the senate against the will of his colleague. Next to these were considered the three ambassadors who had gone to Athens; at the same time that the honour might serve as a recompence for so distant an embassy; at the same time they considered that persons acquainted with the foreign laws would be of use in digesting the new code of regulations. Other persons made up the number. They say that persons advanced in years were appointed by the last suffrages, in order that they might oppose with less warmth the opinions of others. The direction of the entire government was rested in Appius through the favour of the commons, and he had assumed a demeanour so new, that from a severe and harsh reviler of the people, he became suddenly a protector of the commons, and a candidate for popular favour. They administered justice to the people one every tenth day. On that day the twelve fasces attended the præfect of justice; one beadle attended each of his nine colleagues, and in the singular harmony among themselves, which unanimity might sometimes prove prejudicial to private persons, the strictest equity was shown to others. It will suffice to adduce a proof of their moderation by instancing one matter. Though they had been appointed without (the privilege of) appeal, yet a dead body having been found buried in the house of Publius Sestius, a man of patrician rank, and this having been brought forward in an assembly, in a matter equally clear and atrocious, Caius Julius, a decemvir, appointed a day of trial for Sestius, and appeared before the people as prosecutor (in a matter) of which he was legally a judge; and relinquished his right, so[Pg 199] that he might add what had been taken from the power of the office to the liberty of the people.

Whilst the highest and lowest alike experienced from them this prompt administration of justice, impartial, as if from an oracle, then their attention was devoted to the framing of laws; and the ten tables being proposed amid the intense expectation of all, they summoned the people to an assembly: and "what may prove favourable, advantageous, and happy to the commonwealth themselves, and to their children, ordered them to go and read the laws that were exhibited." "That they had equalized the rights of all, both the highest and the lowest, as far as could be devised by the abilities of ten men; that the understanding and counsels of a greater number might prove more successful; that they should turn in their minds each particular within themselves, canvass it in conversation; and bring together under public discussion whatever might seem an excess or deficiency under each particular. That the Roman people should have such laws, as the general consent might appear not so much to have ratified when proposed, as to have proposed from themselves." When they appeared sufficiently corrected according to public opinion (as expressed) regarding each chapter of the laws as it was published, the laws of the ten tables were passed at the assembly voting by centuries; which, even at the present time, amid this immense heap of laws crowded one upon the other, still remain the source of all public and private jurisprudence. A rumour was then spread that two tables were wanting; on the addition of which a body, as it were, of the whole Roman law might be completed. The expectation of this, as the day of election approached, created a desire to appoint decemvirs again. The commons now, besides that they detested the name of consuls as much as that of kings, required not even the tribunitian aid, as the decemvirs in turn submitted to appeal.

But when the assembly for electing decemvirs was proclaimed for the third market-day, so strong a flame of ambition blazed forth, that the first men of the state began to canvass individuals, (through fear, I suppose, lest the possession of such high authority might become accessible to persons not sufficiently worthy, if the post were left unoccupied[Pg 200] by themselves,) suppliantly soliciting for an honour, which had been opposed by them with all their might, from that commons with whom they had so often contended. Their dignity now lowered to the risk of a contest, at such an age, and after passing through such honours, stimulated the exertions of Appius Claudius. You would not know whether to reckon him among the decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled more closely one canvassing for the office than one invested with it; he aspersed the nobility, extolled every most insignificant and humble candidate; surrounded by the Duilii and Icilii who had been tribunes, he bustled about the forum, through their means he recommended himself to the commons; until his colleagues even, who till then had been extremely devoted to him, turned their eyes on him, wondering what he meant. It was evident to them, that there was no sincerity in it; "that certainly such affability amid such pride would not be for nothing. That this excessive lowering of himself, and putting himself on a level with private citizens, was not so much the conduct to be expected from one hastening to go out of office, as of one seeking the means of continuing that office." Not daring openly to oppose his wishes, they set about baffling his ardour by humouring it. They by common consent confer on him, as being the youngest, the office of presiding at the elections. This was an artifice, that he might not appoint himself; which no one ever did, except the tribunes of the people, and that too with the very worst precedent. He, however, declaring that with the favour of fortune he would preside at the elections, seized on the (intended) obstacle[134] as a happy occasion; and having by a coalition foiled the two Quintii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his own uncle, Caius Claudius, a man most stedfast in the interest of the nobility, and other citizens of the same eminence, he appoints as decemvirs men by no means equal in rank of life: himself in the first instance, which proceeding honourable men disapproved so much the more, as no one had imagined that he would have the daring to act so. With him were elected Marcus Cornelius-Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minutius, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, Quintus[Pg 201] Pœtelius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Cæso Duilius, Spurius Oppius Cornicen, Manius Rabuleius.[135]

This was the end of Appius's assumption of a character not his own. Henceforward he began to live according to his own natural disposition, and to mould to his own temper his new colleagues before they should enter on their office. They held daily meetings remote from witnesses: then, furnished with their schemes of tyranny,[136] which they digested apart from others, no longer dissembling their arrogance, difficult of access, morose to all who addressed them, they carried out the matter to the ides of May. The ides of May were at that time the usual period for commencing office. At the commencement then of their magistracy, they rendered the first day of their office remarkable by making an exhibition of great terror. For when the preceding decemvirs had observed the rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that this emblem of royalty should pass through all in rotation, to each in his turn, they all suddenly came forth with the twelve fasces. One hundred and twenty lictors filled the forum, and carried before them the axes tied up with the fasces: and they explained that it was of no consequence that the axe should be taken away, as they had been appointed without the privilege of appeal.[137] There was the appearance of ten kings, and terrors were multiplied not only in the humblest individuals, but even in the principal men among the patricians, who thought that a pretext and commencement of bloodshed were sought for; so that if any one should utter a word favourable to liberty, either in the senate or in a meeting of the people, the rods and axes would be instantly brought forward, even to intimidate the rest. For besides that there was no protection in the people, the right of appeal[Pg 202] being done away with, they had also by mutual consent prohibited interference with each other:[138] whereas the preceding decemvirs had allowed the points of law decided by themselves to be amended by appeal to a colleague, and had referred to the people some points which might seem to come within their own jurisdiction. For a considerable time the terror seemed equalized among all ranks; gradually it began to turn entirely on the commons. They spared the patricians; arbitrary and cruel treatment was shown to the humbler classes: they were wholly respective of the person, not of the cause: as being persons with whom interest usurped the force of justice. Their decisions they concerted at home, and pronounced in the forum. If any person appealed to a colleague, he left the one to whom he had appealed in such a manner as to regret that he had not abided by the sentence of the former. An opinion also had gone abroad without an authority, that they had conspired in their tyranny not only for the present time, but that a clandestine league had been struck among them (accompanied) with an oath, that they would not hold the comitia, and that by perpetuating the decemvirate they would retain the power now in their possession.

The plebeians then began to watch narrowly the countenances of the patricians, and (hoped) to catch the breeze of liberty from that quarter, by apprehending slavery from which, they had brought the republic into its present condition. The leading members of the senate detested the decemvirs, detested the commons; they neither approved of what was going on, and they considered that what befell the latter was not without their deserving it. They were unwilling to assist men who, by rushing too eagerly towards liberty, had fallen into slavery: they even heaped injuries on them, that, from their disgust at the present state of things, two consuls and the former mode of government may at length become desirable. The greater part of the year was now passed, and two tables of laws had been added to the ten tables of the former year; and if these laws also were once passed in an assembly of the centuries, there now remained no reason why the republic should require that form[Pg 203] of government. They were anxiously waiting to see how soon the assembly would be proclaimed for the election of consuls. The commons were only devising by what means they should re-establish the tribunitian power, that bulwark of their liberty, a thing now so long discontinued. When in the mean time no mention was made of the elections, and the decemvirs, who had at first exhibited themselves to the people, surrounded by men of tribunitian rank, because that was deemed popular, now guarded themselves by collecting young patricians; troops of these beset the tribunals. These seized and drove about the commons, and the effects of the commons; when success attended the more powerful individual, as far as obtaining any thing he might covet.[139] And now they spared not even their backs. Some were beaten with rods; others had to submit to the axe; and lest such cruelty might go for nothing, a grant of his effects followed the punishment of the owner. Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobility not only made no opposition to oppression, but openly avowed their preference of their own gratification to the general liberty.

The ides of May came. No new election of magistrates having taken place, private persons came forth as decemvirs, without any abatement either in their determination to enforce their authority,[140] or any diminution in the emblems employed to make a parade of their station. This indeed seemed to be regal tyranny. Liberty is now deplored as lost for ever; nor does any champion stand forth, or appear likely to do so. And not only they themselves sunk into despondence, but they began to be looked down upon by the neighbouring states; and they felt indignant that dominion should exist where liberty was lost. The Sabines with a numerous body of men made an incursion on the Roman territory; and having committed extensive devastations, after they had driven with impunity booty of men and cattle, they recalled their[Pg 204] troops which had been dispersed in different directions to Eretum, and pitch their camp there, grounding their hopes on the dissensions at Rome; (and trusting) that they would prove an obstruction to the levy. Not only the couriers, but the flight of the country people through the city, occasioned alarm. The decemvirs consult what should be done. Whilst they were thus left destitute between the hatred of the patricians and people, fortune added, moreover, another cause of alarm. The Æquans on the opposite side pitch their camp at Algidum; and ambassadors from Tusculum, imploring relief, bring accounts that the Tusculan land was ravaged by detachments from thence. The panic occasioned hereby urged the decemvirs to consult the senate, two wars at the same time surrounding the city. They order the patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well aware what a storm of resentment was ready to break upon them; that all would heap on them the causes of the land laid waste, and of the dangers which threatened them; and that that would occasion an attempt to abolish their office, if they did not unite in resisting, and by enforcing their authority with severity on a few of an intractable spirit repress the efforts of others. When the voice was heard in the forum of the crier summoning the senators into the senate-house before the decemvirs; as a matter altogether new, because they had long since laid aside the custom of consulting the senate, it attracted the attention of the people, who expressed their surprise: "What could have happened, that after so long an interval they should revive a practice now discontinued. That they had reason to return thanks to the enemy and to war, that any thing was done that used to be done when their state was free." They looked around for a senator through all parts of the forum, and seldom recognised one any where: they then directed their attention to the senate-house, and to the solitude around the decemvirs: whilst both they themselves referred the non-assembling of the patricians to their own universally detested government, and the commons (would have it, that the cause of the non-assembling was) because, being but private citizens, they (the decemvirs) had no right to convene the senate;[141][Pg 205] "that a head was now formed of those who would demand back their liberty, if the commons would but accompany the senate, and as the patricians, when summoned, did not attend the senate, so the commons also should refuse to enlist." Such were the remarks of the commons. There was scarcely any of the patricians in the forum, and but very few in the city. In disgust with the state of affairs, they had retired into the country, and were attending to their own affairs, renouncing all public concerns, considering that they themselves were aloof from ill-treatment in proportion as they should remove themselves from the meeting and converse of their imperious masters. When those who had been summoned did not assemble, apparitors were despatched to their houses, both to levy the penalties,[142] and to ascertain whether they declined attendance through design? They bring back word that the senate was in the country. This was more pleasing to the decemvirs, than if they brought word that they were present and refused obedience to their commands. They command them all to be sent for, and proclaim a meeting of the senate for the following day; which congregated together in much greater numbers than they themselves had expected. By which proceeding the commons considered that their liberty was betrayed by the patricians, because the senate had obeyed those persons, as if they had a right to compel them, who had already gone out of office; and were but private individuals, were it not for the violence employed by them.[143]

But they showed more obedience in coming into the senate than servility in the sentiments expressed by them, as[Pg 206] we have learned. It is recorded that, after Appius's stating the subject of the meeting, and before the opinions were demanded in order, Lucius Valerius Potitus excited a commotion, by demanding permission to express his sentiments concerning the state, and when the decemvirs were prohibiting him with threats, declaring that he would present himself before the people. (We have also heard) that Marcus Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with no less boldness, calling them "ten Tarquins," and reminding them, "that under the leadership of the Valerii and Horatii[144] the kings had been expelled. Nor was it of the mere name that men were then tired, it being that by which it was usual to style Jupiter, and by which Romulus, the founder of the city, and his successors were also styled; a name too which has been retained even in the ceremonies of religion, as a solemn one; that it was the tyranny and arrogance of a king they then detested, which if they were not to be tolerated in one who was both a king himself and the son of a king, who was to tolerate it in so many private citizens? that they should beware lest, by preventing persons from speaking their sentiments freely in the senate, they might oblige them to raise their voice outside the senate-house. Nor could he see how it was less allowable for him, a private citizen, to summon the people to an assembly, than for them to convene the senate. They might try, whenever they pleased, how much more determined a sense of wrong will be found to be in vindicating one's own liberty, than ambition in (vindicating) usurped domination. That they proposed the question concerning the Sabine war, as if the Roman people had any more important war on hand, than that against those who, having been elected for the purpose of framing laws, had left no law in the state; who had abolished elections, annual magistrates, the regular change of rulers, which was the only means of equalizing liberty; who, though private citizens, still possess the fasces and regal dominion. That on the expulsion of the kings, patrician magistrates were ap[Pg 207]pointed, and subsequently, after the secession of the people, plebeian magistrates. To which party, he asked, did they belong? To the popular party? What had they ever done with the concurrence of the people? were they nobles? who for now nearly an entire year have not held a meeting of the senate; and then hold one in such a manner, that they actually prevent numbers from expressing their sentiments regarding the commonwealth; that they should not place too much hope in the fears of others; that the grievances which they are suffering now appear to men more oppressive than any they may have to apprehend."

Whilst Horatius was exclaiming in this manner, "and the decemvirs could not discover any limit either to their anger or forbearance, nor could they see to what the thing would come, Caius Claudius