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 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028270894 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DG 207.L5F85 1899 
 
 Roman histor 
 
 3 1924 028 270 894 
 
Titus Livius 
 Roman History 
 
 The World's 
 
 Great Books 
 
 Committee 
 
 of Selection 
 
 Thomas B. Reed 
 
 William R. Harper 
 
 Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives 
 
 President of the 
 University of Chicago 
 
 Edward Everett Hale 
 
 Ainsworth R. SpofFord 
 
 Author of The Man 
 Without a Country 
 
 Of the Congressional 
 Library 
 
 Rossiter 
 
 Johnson 
 
 Editor of Little Classics and Editor-in-Chief of this Series 
 
 Edition de Grand Luxe 
 
TITUS LIVIUS. 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving in a seventeenth-century edition 
 of Livy's History. 
 
Roman History 
 
 By 
 
 Titus Livius 
 
 Translated by 
 
 John Henry Freese, Alfred John Church, 
 
 and William Jackson Brodribb 
 
 With a Critical and Biographical Introduction 
 and Notes by Duffield Osborne 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 New York 
 
 D. Appleton and Company 
 
 1899 
 
LIVY'S HISTORY 
 
 OF the lost treasures of classical literature, it is doubtful 
 whether any are more to be regretted than the missing 
 books of Livy. That they existed in approximate en- 
 tirety down to the fifth century, and possibly even so late 
 as the fifteenth, adds to this regret. At the same time it leaves 
 in a few sanguine minds a lingering hope that some un- 
 visited convent or forgotten library may yet give to the world 
 a work that must always be regarded as one of the greatest 
 of Roman masterpieces. The story that the destruction of 
 Livy was effected by order of Pope Gregory I, on the score 
 of the superstitions contained in the historian's pages, never 
 has been fairly substantiated, and therefore I prefer to acquit 
 that pontiff of the less pardonable superstition involved in 
 such an act of fanatical vandalism. That the books preserved 
 to us would be by far the most objectionable from Gregory's 
 alleged point of view may be noted for what it is worth in 
 favour of the theory of destruction by chance rather than by 
 design. 
 
 Here is the inventory of what we have and of what we 
 might have had. The entire work of Livy — a work that oc- 
 cupied more than forty years of his life — was contained in one 
 hundred and forty-two books, which narrated the history of 
 Rome, from the supposed landing of vEneas, through the early 
 years of the empire of Augustus, and down to the death of 
 Drusus, B. c. 9. Books I-X, containing the story of early 
 Rome to the year 294 b. c, the date of the final subjugation of 
 the Samnites and the consequent establishment of the Roman 
 commonwealth as the controlling power in Italy, remain to 
 
iv LIVY'S HISTORY 
 
 US. These, by the accepted chronology, represent a period 
 of four hundred and sixty years. Books XI-XX, being the 
 second " decade," according to a division attributed to the 
 fifth century of our era, are missing. They covered seventy- 
 five years, and brought the narrative down to the beginning 
 of the second Punic war. Books XXI-XLV have been saved, 
 though those of the fifth " decade " are imperfect. They close 
 with the triumph of yEmiHus, in 167 B. c, and the reduction of 
 Macedonia to a Roman province. Of the other books, only 
 a few fragments remain, the most interesting of which (from 
 Book CXX) recounts the death of Cicero, and gives what 
 appears to be a very just estimate of his character. We have 
 epitomes of all the lost books, with the exception of ten; but 
 these are so scanty as to amount to little more than tables of 
 contents. Their probable date is not later than the time of 
 Trajan. To summarize the result, then, thirty-five books have 
 been saved and one hundred and seven lost — a most deplor- 
 able record, especially when we consider that in the later 
 books the historian treated of times and events whereof his 
 means of knowledge were adequate to his task. 
 
 Titus Livius was born at Patavium, the modern Padua, 
 some time between 61 and 57 b. c. Of his parentage and early 
 life nothing is known. It is easy to surmise that he was well 
 born, from his political bias in favour of the aristocratic party, 
 and from the evident fact of his having received a liberal edu- 
 cation; yet the former of these arguments is not at all incon- 
 sistent with the opposite supposition, and the latter should 
 lead to no very definite conclusion when we remember that in 
 his days few industries were more profitable than the higher 
 education of slaves for the pampered Roman market. Niebuhr 
 infers, from a sentence quoted by Quintilian, that Livy began 
 life as a teacher of rhetoric. However that may be, it seems 
 certain that he came to Rome about 30 b. c, was introduced 
 to Augustus and won his patronage and favour, and after the 
 death of his great patron and friend retired to the city of his 
 birth, where he died, 17 A. d. It is probable that he had fixed 
 the date of the Emperor's death as the limit of his history and 
 that his own decease cut short his task. 
 
LIVY'S HISTORY V 
 
 No historian ever told a story more delightfully. The 
 available translations leave much to be desired, but to the 
 student of Latin Livy's style is pure and simple, and possesses 
 that charm which purity and simplicity always give. If there 
 is anything to justify the charge of " Patavinity," or pro- 
 vincialism, made by Asinius Pollio, we, at least, are not 
 learned enough in Latin to detect it; and Pollio, too, ap- 
 pears to have been no gentle critic if we may judge by his 
 equally severe strictures upon Cicero, Caesar, and Sallust. 
 This much we know: the Patavian's heroes live; his events 
 happen, and we are carried along upon their tide. Our sym- 
 pathies, our indignation, our enthusiasm, are summoned into 
 being, and history and fiction appear to walk hand in hand 
 for our instruction and amusement. In this latter word — 
 fiction — lies the charge most often and most strongly made 
 against him — the charge that he has written a story and no 
 more; that with him past time existed but to furnish materials 
 " to point a moral or adorn a tale." Let us consider to what 
 extent this is true, and, if true, in what measure the author 
 has sinned by it or we have lost. 
 
 No one would claim that the rules by which scientific his- 
 torians of to-day are judged should be applied to those that 
 wrote when history was young, when the boundaries between 
 the possible and the impossible were less clearly defined, or 
 when, in fact, such boundaries hardly existed in men's minds. 
 In this connection, even while we vaunt, we smile. After all, 
 how much of our modern and so-called scientific history must 
 strike the reasoning reader as mere theorizing or as special 
 pleading based upon the slenderest evidence! Among the an- 
 cients the work of the historians whomwe consider trustworthy 
 — such writers, for instance, as Caesar, Thucydides, Xenophon, 
 Polybius, and Tacitus — may be said to fall generally within 
 Rawlinson's canons i and 2 of historical criticism — that is, (i) 
 cases where the historian has personal knowledge concerning 
 the facts whereof he writes, or (2) where the facts are such 
 that he may reasonably be supposed to have obtained them 
 from contemporary witnesses. Canon 2 might be elaborated 
 and refined very considerably, and perhaps to advantage. It 
 
vi LIVY'S HISTORY 
 
 naturally includes as sources of knowledge — first, personal 
 interviews with contemporary witnesses; and, second, access 
 to the writings of historians whose opportunities brought them 
 within canon I. In this latter case the evidence would be less 
 convincing, owing to the lack of opportunity to cross-question, 
 though even here apparent lack of bias or the existence of 
 biassed testimony on both sides, from which a judicious man 
 might have a fair chance to extract the truth, would go far to 
 cure the defect. 
 
 The point, however, to which I tend is, that the portions 
 of Livy's history from which we must judge of his trustwor- 
 thiness treat, for the most part, of periods concerning which 
 even his evidence was of the scantiest and poorest description. 
 He doubtless had family records, funeral panegyrics, and in- 
 scriptions — all of which were possibly almost as reliable as 
 those of our own day. Songs sung at festivals and handed 
 down by tradition may or may not be held more truthful. 
 These he had as well; but the government records, the ancient 
 fasti, had been destroyed at the time of the burning of the city 
 by the Gauls, and there is no hint of any Roman historian that 
 lived prior to the date of the second Punic war. Thus we may 
 safely infer that Livy wrote of the first five hundred years 
 without the aid of any contemporary evidence, either approxi- 
 mately complete or ostensibly reliable. With the beginning 
 of the second Punic war began also the writing of history. 
 Quintus Fabius Pictor had left a work, which Polybius con- 
 demned on the score of its evident partiality. Lucius Cincius 
 Alimentus, whose claim to knowledge if not to impartiality 
 rests largely on the fact that he was captured and held prisoner 
 by Hannibal, also left memoirs; but Hannibal was not famous 
 for treating prisoners mildly, and the Romans, most cruel 
 themselves in this respect, were always deeply scandalized by 
 a much less degree of harshness on the part of their enemies. 
 Above all, there was Polybius himself, who perhaps ap- 
 proaches nearer to the critical historian than any writer of 
 antiquity, and it is Polybius upon whom Livy mainly relies 
 through his third, fourth, and fifth decades. The works of 
 Fabius and Cincius are lost. So also are those of the Lacedse- 
 
LIVY'S HISTORY vii 
 
 monian Sosilus and the Sicilian Silanus, who campaigned with 
 Hannibal and wrote the Carthaginian side of the story; nor 
 is there any evidence that either Polybius or Livy had access 
 to their writings. Polybius, then, may be said to be the only 
 reliable source from which Livy could draw for any of his 
 extant books, and before condemning unqualifiedly in the 
 cases where he deserts him and harks back to Roman authori- 
 ties we must remember that Livy was a strong nationalist, one 
 of a people who, despite their conquests, were essentially 
 narrow, prejudiced, egotistical; and, thus remembering, we 
 must marvel that he so fully recognises the merit of his un- 
 prejudiced guide and wanders as little as he does. All told, 
 it is quite certain that he has dealt more fairly by Hannibal 
 than have Alison and other English historians by Napoleon. 
 His unreliability consists rather in his conclusions than in his 
 facts, and it is unquestioned that through all the pages of the 
 third decade he has so told the story of the man most hated 
 by Rome — the deadliest enemy she had ever encountered — • 
 that the reader can not fail to feel the greatness of Hannibal 
 dominating every chapter. 
 
 Referring again to the criticisms made so lavishly upon 
 Livy's story of the earlier centuries, it is well to recall the con- 
 tention of the hard-headed Scotchman Ferguson, that with 
 all our critical acumen we have found no sure ground to rest 
 upon until we reach the second Punic war. Niebuhr, on the 
 other hand, whose German temperament is alike prone to 
 delve or to theorize, is disposed to think — with considerable 
 generosity to our abilities, it appears to me — that we may yet 
 evolve a fairly true history of Rome from the foundation of 
 the commonwealth. As to the times of the kings, it is ad- 
 mitted that we know nothing, while from the founding of the 
 commonwealth to the second Punic war the field may be de- 
 scribed as, at the best, but a battle-ground for rival theories. 
 
 The ancient historian had, as a rule, little to do with such 
 considerations or controversies. In the lack of solid evidence 
 he had only to write down the accepted story of the origin 
 of things, as drawn from the lips of poetry, legend, or tradi- 
 tion, and it was for Livy to write thus or not at all. Even 
 
viii LIVY'S HISTORY 
 
 here the honesty of his intention is apparent. For much of 
 his early history he does not claim more than is claimed for it 
 by many of his modern critics, while time and again he pauses 
 to express a doubt as to the credibility of some incident. A 
 notable instance of this is found in his criticism of those stories 
 most dear to the Roman heart — the stories of the birth and 
 apotheosis of Romulus. On the other hand, if he has given 
 free life to many beautiful legends that were undoubtedly cur- 
 rent and believed for centuries, is it heresy to avow that these 
 as such seem to me of more true value to the antiquary than if 
 they had been subjected at their historical inception to the 
 critical and theoretical methods of to-day? I can not hold 
 Livy quite unpardonable even when following, as he often 
 does, such authorities as the Furian family version of the re- 
 demption of the city by the arms of their progenitor Camillus, 
 instead of by the payment of the agreed ransom, as modern 
 writers consider proven, while his putting of set speeches into 
 the mouths of his characters may be described as a conven- 
 tional usage of ancient historians, which certainly added to 
 the liveliness of the narrative and probably was neither in- 
 tended to be taken literally nor resulted in deceiving any one. 
 
 Reverting for a moment to Livy's honesty and frankness, 
 so far as his intent might govern such qualities, I think no 
 stronger evidence in his favour can be found than his avowed 
 republican leanings at the court of Augustus and his just esti- 
 mate of Cicero's character in the face of the favour of a prince 
 by whose consent the great orator had been assassinated. 
 Above all, it must have been a fearless and honest man who 
 could swing the scourge with which he lashed his degenerate 
 countrymen in those stinging words, " The present times, 
 when we can endure neither our vices nor their remedies." 
 
 Nevertheless, and despite the facts that Livy means to 
 be honest and that he questions much on grounds that would 
 not shame the repute of many of his modern critics, the charo-e 
 is doubtless true that his writings are not free from prejudice 
 in favour of his country. That he definitely regarded his- 
 tory rather as a moral agency and a lesson for the future than 
 as an irrefutable narrative of the past, I consider highly hypo- 
 
LIVY'S HISTORY ix 
 
 thetical; but it is probable that his mind was not of the type 
 that is most diligent in the close, exhaustive, and logical 
 study so necessary to the historian of to-day. " Super- 
 ficial," if we could eliminate the reproach in the word, would 
 perhaps go far toward describing him. He is what we would 
 call a popular rather than a scientific writer, and, since we think 
 somewhat lightly of such when they write on what we con- 
 sider scientific subjects, we are too apt to transfer their light 
 repute to an author who wrote popularly at a time when this 
 treatment was best adapted to his audience, his aims, and the 
 material at his command. That he has survived through all 
 these centuries, and has enjoyed, despite all criticism, the posi- 
 tion in the literature of the world which his very critics have 
 united in conceding to him, is perhaps a stronger commenda- 
 tion than any technical approval. 
 
 From the standpoint of the present work it was felt that 
 selections aggregating seven books would accomplish all the 
 purposes of a complete presentation. The editors have chosen 
 the first three books of the first decade as telling what no one 
 can better tell than Livy: the stories and legends connected 
 with the foundation and early life of Rome. Here, as I have 
 said, there was nothing for him to do but cut loose from all 
 trammels and hang breathless, pen in hand, upon the lips of 
 tradition. None can hold but that her faithful scribe has writ 
 down her words with all their ancient colour, with reverence 
 reigning over his heart, however doubts might lurk within his 
 brain. These books close with the restoration of the consular 
 power, after the downfall of the tyrannical rule of the Decem- 
 virs, the revolution following upon the attempt of Appius 
 Claudius to seize Virginia, the daughter of a citizen who, 
 rather than see his child fall into the clutches of the cruel pa- 
 trician, killed her with his own hand in the market-place, 
 and, rushing into the camp with the bloody knife, caused the 
 soldiers to revolt. The second section comprises Books XXI- 
 XXIV, a part of the narrative of the second Punic war, a mili- 
 tary exploit the most remarkable the world has ever seen. 
 
 The question who was the greatest general that ever lived 
 has been a fruitful source of discussion, and Alexander, Csesar, 
 
X LIVVS HISTORY 
 
 and Napoleon have each found numerous and ardent sup- 
 porters. Without decrying the signal abilities of these chiefs, 
 it must nevertheless be remembered that each commanded 
 a homogeneous army and had behind him a compact nation 
 the most warlike and powerful of his time. The adversaries 
 also of the Greek and the Roman were in the one instance an 
 efifete power already falling to pieces by its own internal weak- 
 ness, and in the other, for the most part, scattered tribes of 
 barbarians without unity of purpose or military discipline. 
 Even in his civil wars Caesar's armies were veterans, and those 
 of the commonwealth were, comparatively speaking, recruits. 
 But when the reader of these pages carefully considers the 
 story of Hannibal's campaign in Italy, what does he find? 
 Two nations — one Caucasian, young, warlike above all its 
 contemporaries, with a record behind it of steady aggrandize- 
 ment and almost unbroken victory, a nation every citizen of 
 which was a soldier. On the other side, a race of merchants 
 Semitic in blood, a city whose citizens had long since ceased 
 to go to war, preferring that their gold should fight for them 
 by the hands of mercenaries of every race and clime — hirelings 
 whose ungoverned valour had proved almost as deadly to their 
 employers and generals as to their enemies. Above all, the 
 same battle had been joined before when Rome was weaker 
 and Carthage stronger, and Carthage had already shown her 
 weakness and Rome her strength. 
 
 And now in this renewed war we see a young man, aided 
 only by a little group of compatriots, welding together an 
 army of the most heterogeneous elements — Spaniards, Gauls, 
 Numidians, Moors, Greeks — men of almost every race except 
 his own. We see him cutting loose from his base of supplies, 
 leaving enemies behind him, to force his way through hostile 
 races, through unknown lands bristling with almost impassa- 
 ble mountains and frigid with snow and ice. We see him con- 
 quering here, making friends and allies there, and, more won- 
 derful than all, holding his mongrel horde together through 
 hardships and losses by the force of his character alone. We 
 see him at last descending into the plains of Italy. We see 
 him not merely defeating but annihilating army after army 
 
LIVY'S HISTORY xi 
 
 more numerous than his own and composed of better raw ma- 
 terial. We see him, unaided, ranging from end to end of the 
 peninsula, none daring to meet him with opposing standards, 
 and the greatest general of Rome winning laurels because 
 he knew enough to recognise his own hopeless inferiority. 
 All stories of reverses other than those of mere detachments 
 may pretty safely be set down as the exaggeration of Roman 
 writers. Situated as was Hannibal, the loss of one mar- 
 shalled field would have meant immediate ruin, and ruin 
 never came when he fought in Italy. On the contrary, with- 
 out supplies save what his sword could take, without friends 
 save what his genius and his fortune could win, he maintained 
 his place and his superiority not for one or for two but through 
 fourteen years, during all which time we hear no murmur of 
 mutiny, no hint of aught but obedience and devotion among 
 the incongruous and unruly elements from which he had fash- 
 ioned his invincible army; and at the end we see him leaving 
 Italy of his own free will, at the call of his country, to waste 
 himself in a vain effort to save her from the blunders of other 
 leaders and from the penalty of inherent weakness, which only 
 his sword had so long warded off. 
 
 When I consider the means, the opposition, and the 
 achievement — a combination of elements by which alone we 
 can judge such questions with even approximate fairness — ■ 
 I can not but feel that of all military exploits this invasion of 
 Italy, which we shall read of here, was the most remarkable; 
 that of all commanders Hannibal has shown himself to be 
 the greatest. Some of Livy's charges against him as a man 
 are doubtless true. Avarice was in his blood; and cruelty 
 also, though it ill became a Roman to chide an enemy on that 
 score. Besides, Livy himself tells how Hannibal had sought 
 for the bodies of the generals he had slain, that he might give 
 them the rites of honourable sepulture; tells it, and in the 
 next breath relates how the Roman commander mutilated the 
 corpse of the fallen Hasdrubal and threw the head into his 
 brother's camp. So, too, his naive explanation that Hannibal's 
 " more than Punic perfidy " consisted mainly of ambushes 
 and similar military strategies, goes to show, as I have said, 
 
xii LIVY'S HISTORY 
 
 that whatever is unjust in our author's estimate was rather the 
 result of the prejudiced deductions of national egotism than 
 of facts wilfully or carelessly distorted by partisan spite. 
 
 To the reader who bears well in mind the points I have 
 ventured to make, I predict profit hardly less than pleasure in 
 these pages; for Livy is perhaps the only historian who may 
 be said to have been honest enough to furnish much of the 
 material for criticism of himself, and to be, to a very consid- 
 erable extent, self-adjusting. 
 
 DuFFiELD Osborne. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE ^ 
 
 WHETHER in tracing the history of the Roman peo- 
 ple, from the foundation of the city, I shall employ 
 myself to a useful purpose, I am neither very cer- 
 tain, nor, if I were, dare I say; inasmuch as I ob- 
 serve that it is both an old and hackneyed practice, later 
 authors always supposing that they will either adduce some- 
 thing more authentic in the facts, or, that they will excel the 
 less polished ancients in their style of writing. Be that as it 
 may, it will, at all events, be a satisfaction to me that I too 
 have contributed my share to perpetuate the achievements of 
 a people, the lords of the world; and if, amid so great a num- 
 ber of historians, my reputation should remain in obscurity, 
 I may console myself with the celebrity and lustre of those 
 who shall stand in the way of my fame. Moreover, the rub- 
 ject is of immense labour, as being one which must be 
 traced back for more than seven hundred years, and which, 
 having set out from small beginnings, has increased to such 
 a degree that it is now distressed by its own magnitude. And, 
 to most readers, I doubt not but that the first origin and the 
 events immediately succeeding, will afford but little pleasure, 
 while they will be hastening to these later times, in which the 
 strength of this overgrown people has for a long period been 
 working its own destruction. I, on the contrary, shall seek 
 this, as a reward of my labour, viz., to withdraw myself from 
 the view of the calamities, which our age has witnessed for 
 so many years, so long as I am reviewing with my whole at- 
 tention these ancient times, being free from every care that 
 may distract a writer's mind, though it can not warp it from 
 
 ' The tone of dignified despondency which pervades this remarkable 
 preface tells us much. That the republican historian was no timid or 
 time-serving flatterer of prince or public is more than clear, while his 
 unerring judgment of the future should bring much of respect for his 
 judgment of the past. When he wrote, Rome was more powerful than 
 ever. Only the seeds of ruin were visible, yet he already divines their 
 full fruitage. — D. O. 
 
xiv LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 the truth. The traditions that have come down to us of 
 what happened before the building of the city, or before its 
 building was contemplated, as being suitable rather to the 
 fictions of poetry than to the genuine records of history, I 
 have no intention either to afifirm or to refute. This indulgence 
 is conceded to antiquity, that by blending things human with 
 divine, it may make the origin of cities appear more vener- 
 able: and if any people might be allowed to consecrate their 
 origin, and to ascribe it to the gods as its authors, such is the 
 renown of the Roman people in war, that when they represent 
 Mars, in particular, as their own parent and that of their 
 founder, the nations of the world may submit to this as pa- 
 tiently as they submit to their sovereignty. But in whatever 
 way these and similar matters shall be attended to, or judged 
 of, I shall not deem it of great importance. I would have every 
 man apply his mind seriously to consider these points, viz., 
 what their life and what their manners were; through what 
 men and by what measures, both in peace and in war, their 
 empire was acquired and extended; then, as discipline grad- 
 ually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at 
 first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and 
 more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present 
 times, when we can endure neither our vices nor their reme- 
 dies. This it is which is particularly salutary and profitable 
 in the study of history, that you behold instances of every 
 variety of conduct displayed on a conspicuous monument; 
 that thence you may select for yourself and for your coun- 
 try that which you may imitate; thence note what is shame- 
 ful in the undertaking, and shameful in the result, which 
 you may avoid. But either a fond partiality for the task I 
 have undertaken deceives me, or there never was any state 
 either greater, or more moral, or richer in good examples, nor 
 one into which luxury and avarice made their entrance so late, 
 and where poverty and frugality were so much and so long 
 honoured; so that the less wealth there was, the less desire 
 was there. Of late, riches have introduced avarice, and ex- 
 cessive pleasures a longing for them, amid luxury and a pas- 
 sion for ruining ourselves and destroying everythino- else. 
 But let complaints, which will not be agreeable even then 
 when perhaps they will be also necessary, be kept aloof at least 
 from the first stage of beginning so great a work. We should 
 rather, if it was usual with us (historians) as it is with poets, 
 begin with good omens, vows and prayers to the gods and 
 goddesses to vouchsafe good success to our efforts in so ardu- 
 ous an undertaking. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS — B. C. 510 
 
 PACE 
 
 Arrival of ^neas in Italy — Ascanius founds Alba Longa— Birth of 
 Romulus and Remus — Founding the city — Rome under the 
 kings — Death of Lucretia — Expulsion of the Tarquins — First 
 consuls elected . . .... . . i 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH — B. C. 509-468 
 
 Brutus establishes the republic — A conspiracy to receive the kings 
 into the city — Death of Brutus — Dedication of the Capitol — Bat- 
 tle of Lake Regillus — Secession of the commons to the Sacred 
 Mount — Five tribunes of the people appointed — First proposal 
 of an agrarian law — Patriotism of the Fabian family — Contests 
 of the plebeians and patricians .... . . 72 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 THE DECEMVIRATE — B. C. 468-446 
 
 Disturbances over the agrarian law — Cincinnatus called from his 
 fields and made dictator — Number of tribunes increased to ten — 
 Decemvirs appointed — The ten tables — Tyranny of the decem- 
 virs — Death of Virginia — Re-establishment of the consular and 
 tribunician power ... .... . 148 
 
 BOOK XXI 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR — B. C. 2l8 
 
 Importance of the second Punic war — Character of Hannibal — Siege 
 and capture of Saguntum by the Carthaginians — War declared — 
 Hannibal passes the Ebro and Rhone, and crosses the Alps — De- 
 feat of Scipio on the Ticinus — Battle of Trebia — Roman victories 
 in Spain ..... ...... 232 
 
 XV 
 
xvi LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 BOOK XXII 
 
 FAGB 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED) — B. C. 217-216 
 
 Hannibal enters Etruria — Battle, and defeat of the Romans at Lake 
 Trasumennus — Fabius Maximus appointed dictator — Minucius 
 influences the army to rebel against the tactics of Fabius — Suc- 
 cess of the Scipios in Spain — Minucius rescued by Fabius from 
 defeat — Battle of Canna;, and utter defeat of the Roman army — 
 Hannibal's delay alone loses him the city ..... 293 
 
 BOOK XXIII 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED)— B. C. 216-215 
 
 Revolt of the Campanians — Marcellus repulses Hannibal at Nola — 
 Hannibal goes into winter quarters at Capua — King Hiero as- 
 sists the Romans — Destruction of a Roman army in Gaul — 
 Roman victories in Spain — Treaty between Hannibal and Philip, 
 King of Macedon ... 355 
 
 BOOK XXIV 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED) — B. C. 215-213 
 
 Assassination of Hieronymus, King of Syracuse — Hanno and Han- 
 nibal defeated by the Romans — Hannibal retires to Salapia — 
 Political troubles in Sicily — IMarcellus besieges Syracuse — Inge- 
 nuity of Archimedes — War with Philip of Macedon — Defeat of 
 Philip — Recovery of Saguntum by the Romans — Rome employs 
 mercenaries for the first time in her history 410 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGB 
 
 Titus LIVIUS Fronthj>iece 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving 
 
 Charles of Burgundy on his Throne ii 
 
 Illuminated coloured miniature from a manuscript history 
 
 TULLIA S6 
 
 Photogravure from a painting by Ernst Hildebrand 
 
 HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE 84 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving after a painting by Vincenzio 
 Camucinni 
 
 Environs of Rome ii8 
 
 Coloured map 
 
 Death of Virginia 202 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving after a painting by Vincenzio 
 Camucinni 
 
 Hannibal 238 
 
 Photogravure from an old engraving 
 
 Italy at the Time of the Second Punic War . . .284 
 Coloured map 
 
 Spain at the Time of the Second Punic War . . .386 
 Coloured map 
 
 xvii 
 
LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 BOOK I' 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS 
 
 TO begin with, it is generally admitted that, after the 
 taking of Troy, while all the other Trojans were treated 
 with severity, in the case of two, ^neas and Antenor, 
 the Greeks forbore to exercise the full rights of war, 
 both on account of an ancient tie of hospitality, and because 
 they had persistently recommended peace and the restora- 
 tion of Helen : and then Antenor, after various vicissitudes, 
 reached the inmost bay of the Adriatic Sea, accompanied by 
 a body of the Eneti, who had been driven from Paphlagonia 
 by civil disturbance, and were in search both of a place of set- 
 tlement and a leader, their chief Pylsemenes having perished 
 at Troy; and that the Eneti and Trojans, having driven out 
 the Euganei, who dwelt between the sea and the Alps, occu- 
 pied these districts. In fact, the place where they first landed 
 is called Troy, and from this it is named the Trojan canton. 
 The nation as a whole is called Veneti. It is also agreed that 
 jEneas, an exile from home owing to a like misfortune, but 
 conducted by the fates to the founding of a greater empire, 
 came first to Macedonia, that he was then driven ashore at 
 Sicily in his quest for a settlement, and sailing thence di- 
 rected his course to the territory of Laurentum. This spot 
 also bears the name of Troy. When the Trojans, having dis- 
 embarked there, were driving off booty from the country, as 
 was only natural, seeing that they had nothing left but their 
 arms and ships after their almost boundless wandering, Lati- 
 nus the king and the Aborigines, who then occupied these 
 districts, assembled in arms from the city and country to 
 repel the violence of the new-comers. In regard to what fol- 
 
 ' Books I-III are based upon the translation by John Henry Freese, 
 but in many places have been revised or retranslated by DuiBeld Osborne. 
 I I 
 
2 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B.C. 753 
 
 lowed there is a twofold tradition. Some say that Latinus, 
 having been defeated in battle, first made peace and then con- 
 cluded an alliance with ^neas ; others, that when the armies 
 had taken up their position in order of battle, before the 
 trumpets sounded, Latinus advanced to the front, and invited 
 the leader of the strangers to a conference. He then inquired 
 what manner of men they were, whence they had come, for 
 what reasons they had left their home, and in quest of what 
 they had landed on Laurentine territory. After he heard that 
 the host were Trojans, their chief ^Eneas, the son of Anchises 
 and Venus, and that, exiled from home, their country hav- 
 ing been destroyed by fire, they were seeking a settlement 
 and a site for building a city, struck with admiration both at 
 the noble character of the nation and the hero, and at their 
 spirit, ready alike for peace or war, he ratified the pledge of 
 future friendship by clasping hands. Thereupon a treaty was 
 concluded between the chiefs, and mutual greetings passed 
 between the armies : ^lineas was hospitably entertained at the 
 house of Latinus ; there Latinus, in the presence of his house- 
 hold gods, cemented the public league by a family one, by 
 giving ALneas his daughter in marriage. This event fully 
 confirmed the Trojans in the hope of at length terminating 
 their wanderings by a lasting and permanent settlement. 
 They built a town, which ^neas called Lavinium after the 
 name of his wife. Shortly afterward also, a son was the issue 
 of the recently concluded marriage, to whom his parents gave 
 the name of Ascanius. 
 
 Aborigines and Trojans were soon afterward the joint ob- 
 jects of a hostile attack. Turnus, king of the Rutulians, to 
 whom Lavinia had been affianced before the arrival of ^Eneas, 
 indignant that a stranger had been preferred to himself, had 
 made war on ^Eneas and Latinus together. Neither army 
 came out of the struggle with satisfaction. The Rutulians 
 were vanquished : the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost 
 their leader Latinus. Thereupon Turnus and the Rutulians, 
 mistrustful of their strength, had recourse to the prosperous 
 and powerful Etruscans, and their king Mezentius, whose 
 seat of government was at Caere, at that time a flourishing 
 town. Even from the outset he had viewed with dissatisfac- 
 tion the founding of a new city, and, as at that time he consid- 
 ered that the Trojan power was increasing far more than was 
 altogether consistent with the safety of the neighbouring peo- 
 ples, he readily joined his forces in alliance with the Rutulians 
 /Eneas, to gain the good-will of the Aborigines in face of a war 
 so serious and alarming, and in order that they might all be 
 
B. C. 753] ALBA LONGA BUILT 3 
 
 not only under the same laws but might also bear the same 
 name, called both nations Latins. In fact, subsequently, the 
 Aborigines were not behind the Trojans in zeal and loyalty to- 
 ward their king vEneas. Accordingly, in full reliance on this 
 state of mind of the two nations, who were daily becoming 
 more and more united, and in spite of the fact that Etruria was 
 so powerful, that at this time it had filled with the fame of its 
 renown not only the land but the sea also, throughout the 
 whole length of Italy from the Alps to the Sicilian Strait, 
 ^neas led out his forces into the field, although he might 
 have repelled their attack by means of his fortifications. 
 Thereupon a battle was fought, in which victory rested with 
 the Latins, but for ^neas it was even the last of his acts on 
 earth. He, by whatever name laws human and divine de- 
 mand he should be called, was buried on the banks of the 
 river Numicus : they call him Jupiter Indiges. 
 
 Ascanius, the son of ^neas, was not yet old enough to 
 rule ; the government, however, remained unassailed for him 
 till he reached the age of maturity. In the interim, under the 
 regency of a woman — so great was Lavinia's capacity — the 
 Latin state and the boy's kingdom, inherited from his father 
 and grandfather, was secured for him. I will not discuss the 
 question — for who can state as certain a matter of such an- 
 tiquity? — whether it was this Ascanius, or one older than he, 
 born of Creusa, before the fall of Troy, and subsequently the 
 companion of his father's flight, the same whom, under the 
 name of lulus, the Julian family represents to be the founder of 
 its name. Be that as it may, this Ascanius, wherever born and 
 of whatever mother — it is at any rate agreed that his father 
 wasyEneas — seeing that Lavinium was over-populated, left that 
 city, now a flourishing and wealthy one, considering those 
 times, to his mother or stepmother, and built himself a new one 
 at the foot of the Alban mount, which, from its situation, being 
 built all along the ridge of a hill, was called Alba Longa. 
 
 There was an interval of about thirty years between the 
 founding of Lavinium and the transplanting of the colony to 
 Alba Longa. Yet its power had increased to such a degree, 
 especially owing to the defeat of the Etruscans, that not even 
 on the death of .^neas, nor subsequently between the period 
 of the regency of Lavinia, and the first beginnings of the young 
 prince's reign, did either Mezentius, the Etruscans, or any 
 other neighbouring peoples venture to take up arms against it. 
 Peace had been concluded on the following terms, that the 
 river Albula, which is now called Tiber, should be the bound- 
 ary of Latin and Etruscan territory. After him Silvius, son of 
 
4 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 7S3 
 
 Ascanius, born by some accident in the woods, became kmg. 
 He was the father of ^neas Silvius, who afterward begot 
 Latinus Silvius. By him several colonies were transplanted, 
 which were called Prisci Latini. From this time all the 
 princes, who ruled at Alba, bore the surname of Silvius. 
 From Latinus sprung Alba; from Alba, Atys ; from Atys, 
 Capys ; from Capys, Capetus ; from Capetus, Tiberinus, who, 
 having been drowned while crossing the river Albula, gave it 
 the name by which it was generally known among those of 
 later times. He was succeeded by Agrippa, son of Tiberinus ; 
 after Agrippa, Romulus Silvius, having received the govern- 
 ment from his father, became king. He was killed by a thun- 
 derbolt, and handed on the kingdom to Aventinus, who, owing 
 to his being buried on that hill, which now forms part of the 
 city of Rome, gave it its name. After him reigned Proca, who 
 begot Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, who was the eldest 
 son, he bequeathed the ancient kingdom of the Silvian family. 
 Force, however, prevailed more than a father's wish or the re- 
 spect due to seniority. Amulius drove out his brother and 
 seized the kingdom : he added crime to crime, murdered his 
 brother's male issue, and, under pretence of doing honour to 
 his brother's daughter, Rea Silvia, having chosen her a Vestal 
 Virgin,^ deprived her of all hopes of issue by the obligation of 
 perpetual virginity. 
 
 My opinion, however, is that the origin of so great a city 
 and an empire next in power to that of the gods was due to 
 the fates. The Vestal Rea was ravished by force, and having 
 brought forth twins, declared Mars to be the father of her 
 illegitimate offspring, either because she really imagined it 
 to be the case, or because it was less discreditable to have 
 committed such an ofifence with a god.^ But neither gods 
 nor men protected either her or her offspring from the 
 king's cruelty. The priestess was bound and cast into 
 prison ; the king ordered the children to be thrown into the 
 flowing river. By some chance which Providence seemed to 
 direct, the Tiber, having overflown its banks, thereby forming 
 stagnant pools, could not be approached at the regular course 
 of its channel ; notwithstanding it gave the bearers of the chil- 
 
 > The king was originally the high priest, his office more sacerdotal 
 han military: as such he would have the selection and appointment of 
 the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses of Vesta, the hearth-goddess Their 
 chief duty was to keep the sacred fire burning ("the fire that^urns for 
 aye ), and to guard the rehcs in the Temple of Vesta. If convicted of 
 unchastity they were buried alive. convicieu oi 
 
 ' Surely there is no lack of " historical criticism " here, and on a subject 
 where a Roman writer might be pardoned for some crediility.— D q 
 
B. C. 753] YOUTH OF ROMULUS AND REMUS 5 
 
 dren hope that they could be drowned in its water however 
 calm. Accordingly, as if they had executed the king's orders, 
 they exposed the boys in the nearest land-pool, where now 
 stands the ficus Ruminalis, which they say was called Romu- 
 laris/ At that time the country in those parts was a desolate 
 wilderness. The story goes, that when the shallow water, 
 subsiding, had left the floating trough, in which the children 
 had been exposed, on dry ground, a thirsty she-wolf from the 
 mountains around directed her course toward the cries of 
 the infants, and held down her teats to them with such gentle- 
 ness, that the keeper of the king's herd found her licking the 
 boys with her tongue. They say that his name was Faustulus ; 
 and that they were carried by him to his homestead and given 
 to his wife Larentia to be brought up. Some are of the opin- 
 ion that Larentia was called Lupa among the shepherds from 
 her being a common prostitute; and hence an opening was 
 afforded for the marvellous story. The children, thus born 
 and thus brought up, as soon as they reached the age of youth, 
 did not lead a life of inactivity at home or amid the flocks, but, 
 in the chase, scoured the forests. Having thus gained 
 strength, both in body and spirit, they now were not only able 
 to withstand wild beasts, but attacked robbers laden with 
 booty, and divided the spoils with the shepherds, in whose 
 company, as the number of their young associates increased 
 daily, they carried on business and pleasure. 
 
 Even in these early times it is said that the festival of the 
 Lupercal, as now celebrated, was solemnized on the Palatine 
 Hill, which was first called Pallantium, from Pallanteum, a 
 city of Arcadia, and afterward Mount Palatius. There Evan- 
 der, who, belonging to the above tribe of the Arcadians, had 
 for many years before occupied these districts, is said to have 
 appointed the observance of a solemn festival, introduced from 
 Arcadia, in which naked youths ran about doing honour in 
 wanton sport to Pan Lycasus, who was afterward called Inuus 
 by the Romans. When they were engaged in this festival, as 
 its periodical solemnization was well known, a band of rob- 
 bers, enraged at the loss of some booty, lay in wait for them, 
 and took Remus prisoner, Romulus having vigorously de- 
 fended himself : the captive Remus they delivered up to King 
 Amulius, and even went so far as to bring accusations against 
 
 ' Livy ignores the more accepted and prettier tradition that this event 
 tools place where the sacred fig-tree originally stood, and that later it was 
 miraculously transplanted to the comitium by Attius Navius, the famous 
 augur, "That it might stand in the midst of the meetings of the Ro- 
 mans." — D. O. 
 
6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 753 
 
 him. They made it the principal charge that having made 
 incursions into Numitor's lands, and, having assembled a 
 band of young men, they had driven off their booty after 
 the manner of enemies. Accordingly, Remus was delivered 
 up to Numitor for punishment. Now from the very first 
 Faustulus had entertained hopes that the boys who were be- 
 ing brought up by him, were of royal blood : for he both knew 
 that the children had been exposed by the king's orders, and 
 that the time, at which he had taken them up, coincided ex- 
 actly with that period : but he had been unwilling to disclose 
 the matter, as yet not ripe for discovery, till either a fitting 
 opportunity or the necessity for it should arise. Necessity 
 came first. Accordingly, urged by fear, he disclosed the 
 whole affair to Romulus. By accident also, Numitor, while 
 he had Remus in custody, having heard that the brothers were 
 twins, by comparing their age and their natural disposition 
 entirely free from servility, felt his mind struck by the recollec- 
 tion of his grandchildren, and by frequent inquiries came to 
 the conclusion he had already formed, so that he was not far 
 from openly acknowledging Remus. Accordingly a plot was 
 concerted against the king on all sides. Romulus, not ac- 
 companied by a body of young men — for he was not equal to 
 open violence — but having commanded the shepherds to come 
 to the palace by different roads at a fixed time, made an at- 
 tack upon the king, while Remus, having got together another 
 party from Numitor's house, came to his assistance ; and so 
 they slew the king. 
 
 Numitor, at the beginning of the fray, giving out that 
 enemies had invaded the city and attacked the palace, after 
 he had drawn off the Alban youth to the citadel to secure 
 it with an armed garrison, when he saw the young men, after 
 they had compassed the king's death, advancing toward him 
 to offer congratulations, immediately summoned a meeting of 
 the people, and recounted his brother's unnatural behaviour 
 toward him, the extraction of his grandchildren, the manner 
 of their birth, bringing up, and recognition, and went on to 
 inform them of the king's death, and that he was responsible 
 for it. The young princes advanced through the midst of the 
 assembly with their band in orderly array, and, after they had 
 saluted their grandfather as king, a succeeding shout of ap- 
 probation, issuing from the whole multitude, ratified for him 
 the name and authority of sovereign. The government of 
 Alba being thus intrusted to Numitor, Romulus and Remus 
 were seized with the desire of building a city on the spot where 
 they had been exposed and brought up. Indeed, the number 
 
B. C. 753] FOUNDING THE CITY 7 
 
 of Alban and Latin inhabitants was too great for the city ; 
 the shepherds also were included among that population, and 
 all these readily inspired hopes that Alba and Lavinium would 
 be insignificant in comparison with that city, which was in- 
 tended to be built. But desire of rule, the bane of their grand- 
 father, interrupted these designs, and thence arose a shameful 
 quarrel from a sufficiently amicable beginning. For as they 
 were twins, and consequently the respect for seniority could 
 not settle the point, they agreed to leave it to the gods, under 
 whose protection the place was, to choose by augury which of 
 them should give a name to the new city, and govern it when 
 built. Romulus chose the Palatine and Remus the Aventine, 
 as points of observation for taking the auguries. 
 
 It is said that an omen came to Remus first, six vultures ; 
 and when, after the omen had been declared, twice that num- 
 ber presented themselves to Romulus, each was hailed king by 
 his own party, the former claiming sovereign power on the 
 ground of priority of time, the latter on account of the num- 
 ber of birds. Thereupon, having met and exchanged angry 
 words, from the strife of angry feelings they turned to blood- 
 shed : there Remus fell from a blow received in the crowd. 
 A more common account is that Remus, in derision of his 
 brother, leaped over the newly-erected walls, and was there- 
 upon slain by Romulus in a fit of passion, who, mocking him, 
 added words to this effect : " So perish every one hereafter, 
 who shall leap over my walls." Thus Romulus obtained pos- 
 session of supreme power for himself alone. The city, when 
 built, was called after the name of its founder.^ He first pro- 
 ceeded to fortify the Palatine Hill, on which he himself had 
 been brought up. He offered sacrifices to Hercules, according 
 to the Grecian rite, as they had been instituted by Evander ; 
 to the other gods, according to the Alban rite. There is a 
 tradition that Hercules, having slain Geryon, drove off his 
 oxen, which were of surpassing beauty," to that spot : and that 
 he lay down in a grassy spot on the banks of the river Tiber, 
 where he had swam across, driving the cattle before him, 
 to refresh them with rest and luxuriant pasture, being also 
 himself fatigued with journeying. There, when sleep had 
 overpowered him, heavy as he was with food and wine, a shep- 
 
 ' According to Varro, Rome was founded B.C. 753; according to Cato, 
 B. c. 751. Livy here derives Roma from Romulus, but this is rejected by 
 modern etymologists ; according to Mommsen the word means " stream- 
 town," from its position on the Tiber. 
 
 ' The remarkable beauty of the white or mouse-coloured cattle of cen- 
 tral Italy gives a touch of realism to this story. — D. O. 
 
8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 753 
 
 herd who dwelt in the neighbourhood, by name Cacus, prid- 
 ing himself on his strength, and charmed with the beauty of 
 the cattle, desired to carry them off as booty ; but because, if 
 he had driven the herd in front of him to the cave, their tracks 
 must have conducted their owner thither in his search, he 
 dragged the most beautiful of them by their tails backward 
 into a cave. Hercules, aroused from sleep at dawn, having 
 looked over his herd and observed that some of their number 
 were missing, went straight to the nearest cave, to see whether 
 perchance their tracks led thither. When he saw that they 
 were all turned away from it and led in no other direction, 
 troubled and not knowing what to make up his mind to 
 do, he commenced to drive off his herd from so dangerous a 
 spot. Thereupon some of the cows that were driven away, 
 lowed, as they usually do, when they missed those that were 
 left ; and the lowings of those that were shut in being heard in 
 answer from the cave, caused Hercules to turn round. And 
 when Cacus attempted to prevent him by force as he was ad- 
 vancing toward the cave, he was struck with a club and slain, 
 while vainly calling upon the shepherds to assist him. At 
 that time Evander, who was an exile from the Peloponnesus, 
 governed the country more by his personal ascendency than 
 by absolute sway. He was a man held in reverence on ac- 
 count of the wonderful art of writing, an entirely new discov- 
 ery to men ignorant of accomplishments,^ and still more re- 
 vered on account of the supposed divinity of his mother Car- 
 menta, whom those peoples had marvelled at as a prophetess 
 before the arrival of the Sybil in Italy. This Evander, roused 
 by the assembling of the shepherds as they hastily crowded 
 round the stranger, who was charged with open murder, after 
 he heard an account of the deed and the cause of it, gazing 
 upon the personal appearance and mien of the hero, consider- 
 ably more dignified and majestic than that of a man, asked who 
 he was. As soon as he heard the name of the hero, and that of 
 his father and native country, " Hail ! " said he, " Hercules son 
 of Jupiter I my mother, truthful interpreter of the will of the 
 gods, has declared to me that thou art destined to increase the 
 number of the heavenly beings, and that on this spot an altar 
 shall be dedicated to thee, which in after ages a people most 
 mighty on earth shall call Greatest, and honour in accordance 
 with rites instituted by thee." Hercules, having o-iven him 
 his right hand, declared that he accepted the prophetic in- 
 
 ■ The introduction of the art of writing among the Romans was ascribed 
 o Evander. The Roman alphabet was derived from the Greek, through 
 the Grecian (Chalcidian) colony at Cum£e. i."ivuj,u 
 
B. C. 753-717] FOUNDING THE CITY g 
 
 timation, and would fulfil the predictions of the fates, by 
 building and dedicating an altar. Thereon then for the first 
 time sacrifice was offered to Hercules with a choice heifer 
 taken from the herd, the Potitii and Pinarii, the most distin- 
 guished families who then inhabited those parts, being invited 
 to serve at the feast. It so happened that the Potitii presented 
 themselves in due time, and the entrails were set before them : 
 but the Pinarii did not arrive until the entrails had been eaten 
 up, to share the remainder of the feast. From that time it be- 
 came a settled institution, that, as long as the Pinarian family 
 existed, they should not eat of the entrails of the sacrificial vic- 
 tims. The Potitii, fully instructed by Evander, discharged 
 the duties of chief priests of this sacred function for many gen- 
 erations, until their whole race became extinct, in consequence 
 of this office, the solemn prerogative of their family, being 
 delegated to public slaves. These were the only religious 
 rites that Romulus at that time adopted from those of foreign 
 countries, being even then an advocate of immortality won by 
 merit, to which the destiny marked out for him was conduct- 
 ing him. 
 
 The duties of religion having been thus duly completed, 
 the people were summoned to a public meeting: and, as they 
 could not be united and incorporated into one body by any 
 other means save legal ordinances, Romulus gave them a code 
 of laws : and, judging that these would only be respected by 
 a nation of rustics, if he dignified himself with the insignia of 
 royalty, he clothed himself with greater majesty — above all, 
 by taking twelve lictors to attend him, but also in regard to his 
 other appointments. Some are of opinion that he was influ- 
 enced in his choice of that number by that of the birds which 
 had foretold that sovereign power should be his when the 
 auguries were taken. I myself am not indisposed to follow 
 the opinion of those, who are inclined to believe that it was 
 from the neighbouring Etruscans — from whom the curule 
 chair and purple-bordered toga were borrowed — that the ap- 
 paritors of this class, as well as the number itself, were in- 
 troduced: and that the Etruscans employed such a number 
 because, as their king was elected from twelve states in com- 
 mon, each state assigned him one lictor. 
 
 In the meantime, the city was enlarged by taking in vari- 
 ous plots of ground for the erection of buildings, while they 
 built rather in the hope of an increased population in the fu- 
 ture, than in view of the actual number of the inhabitants of 
 the city at that time. Next, that the size of the city might 
 not be without efficiency, in order to increase the population. 
 
10 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 753-717 
 
 following the ancient policy of founders of cities, who, by 
 bringing together to their side a mean and ignoble multitude, 
 were in the habit of falsely asserting that an offspring was born 
 to them from the earth, he opened as a sanctuary the place 
 which, now inclosed, is known as the " two groves," and 
 which people come upon when descending from the Capitol. 
 Thither, a crowd of all classes from the neighbouring peoples, 
 without distinction, whether freemen or slaves, eager for 
 change, flocked for refuge, and therein lay the foundation of 
 the city's strength, corresponding to the commencement of 
 its enlargement. Having now no reason to be dissatisfied 
 with his strength, he next instituted a standing council to 
 direct that strength. He created one hundred senators, either 
 because that number was sufficient, or because there were only 
 one hundred who could be so elected. Anyhow they were 
 called fathers ^ by way of respect, and their descendants pa- 
 tricians. 
 
 By this time the Roman state was so powerful, that it was 
 a match for any of the neighbouring states in war : but owing 
 to the scarcity of women its greatness was not likely to outlast 
 the existing generation, seeing that the Romans had no hope 
 of issue at home, and they did not intermarry with their neigh- 
 bours. So then, by the advice of the senators, Romulus sent 
 around ambassadors to the neighbouring states, to solicit an 
 alliance and the right of intermarriage for his new subjects, 
 saying, that cities, like everything else, rose from the humblest 
 beginnings : next, that those which the gods and their own 
 merits assisted, gained for themselves great power and high 
 renown : that he knew full well that the gods had aided the 
 first beginnings of Rome and that merit on their part would 
 not be wanting: therefore, as men, let them not be reluctant 
 to mix their blood and stock with men. The embassy no- 
 where obtained a favourable hearing : but, although the neigh- 
 bouring peoples treated it with such contempt, yet at the same 
 time they dreaded the growth of such a mighty power in their 
 midst to the danger of themselves and of their posterity. In 
 most cases when they were dismissed they were asked the 
 question, whether they had opened a sanctuary for women also : 
 for that in that way only could they obtain suitable matches. 
 The Roman youths were bitterly indignant at this, and the 
 
 • The title patres originaHy signified the heads of families, and was in 
 early times used of the patrician senate, as selected from these. When 
 later, plebeians were admitted into the senate, the members of the senate 
 were all called patres, while patricians, as opposed to plebeians enjoyed 
 certain distinctions and privileges. ' 
 
B.C. 753-717] THE RAPE OF THE SABINES II 
 
 matter began unmistakeably to point to open violence. Romu- 
 lus, in order to provide a fitting opportunity and place for 
 this, dissembling his resentment, with this purpose in view, in- 
 stituted games to be solemnized every year in honour of Nep- 
 tunus Equester, which he called Consualia. He then ordered 
 the show to be proclaimed among the neighbouring peoples ; 
 and the Romans prepared to solemnize it with all the pomp 
 with which they were then acquainted or were able to exhibit, 
 in order to make the spectacle famous, and an object of ex- 
 pectation. Great numbers assembled, being also desirous of 
 seeing the new city, especially all the nearest peoples, the 
 Caeninenses, Crustumini, and Antemnates : the entire Sabine 
 population attended with their wives and children. They 
 were hospitably invited to the different houses : and, when 
 they saw the position of the city, its fortified walls, and how 
 crowded with houses it was, they were astonished that the 
 power of Rome had increased so rapidly. When the time 
 of the show arrived, and their eyes and minds alike were 
 intent upon it, then, according to preconcerted arrangement, 
 a disturbance was made, and, at a given signal, the Roman 
 youths rushed in different directions to carry off the rmmar- 
 ried women. A great number were carried off at hap-hazard, 
 by those into whose hands they severally fell : some of the 
 common people, to whom the task had been assigned, con- 
 veyed to their homes certain women of surpassing beauty, who 
 were destined for the leading senators. They say that one, 
 far distinguished beyond the rest in form and beauty, was car- 
 ried off by the party of a certain Talassius, and that, when sev- 
 eral people wanted to know to whom they were carrying her, 
 a cry was raised from time to time, to prevent her being mo- 
 lested, that she was being carried to Talassius : and that from 
 this the word was used in connection with marriages. The 
 festival being disturbed by the alarm thus caused, the sorrow- 
 ing parents of the maidens retired, complaining of the violated 
 compact of hospitality, and invoking the god, to whose solemn 
 festival and games they had come, having been deceived by 
 the pretence of religion and good faith. Nor did the maidens 
 entertain better hopes for themselves, or feel less indignation. 
 Romulus, however, went about in person and pointed out that 
 what had happened was due to the pride of their fathers, in 
 that they had refused the privilege of intermarriage to their 
 neighbours ; but that, notwithstanding, they would be lawfully 
 wedded, and enjoy a share of all their possessions and civil 
 rights, and — a thing dearer than all else to the human race — 
 the society of their common children : only let them calm their 
 
12 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 753-717 
 
 angry feelings, and bestow their affections on those on whom 
 fortune had bestowed their bodies. Esteem (said he) often 
 arose subsequent to wrong : and they would find them better 
 husbands for the reason that each of them would endeavour, 
 to the utmost of his power, after having discharged, as far as 
 his part was concerned, the duty of a husband, to quiet the 
 longing for country and parents. To this the blandishments 
 of the husbands were added, who excused what had been done 
 on the plea of passion and love, a form of entreaty that works 
 most successfully upon the feelings of women. ^ 
 
 By this time the minds of the maidens were considerably 
 soothed, but their parents, especially by putting on the garb 
 of mourning, and by their tears and complaints, stirred up the 
 neighbouring states. Nor did they confine their feelings of 
 indignation to their own home only, but they flocked from 
 all quarters to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, and embassies 
 crowded thither, because the name of Tatius was held in the 
 greatest esteem in those quarters. The Casninenses, Crus- 
 tumini, and Antemnates were the people who were chiefly af- 
 fected by the outrage. As Tatius and the Sabines appeared to 
 them to be acting in too dilatory a manner, these three peoples 
 by mutual agreement among themselves made preparations 
 for war unaided. However, not even the Crustumini and An- 
 temnates bestirred themselves with sufficient activity to satisfy 
 the hot-headedness and anger of the Csninenses : accord- 
 ingly the people of Caenina, unaided, themselves attacked the 
 Roman territory. But Romulus with his army met them 
 while they were ravaging the country in straggling parties, 
 and in a trifling engagement convinced them that anger unac- 
 companied by strength is fruitless. He routed their army and 
 put it to flight, followed in pursuit of it when routed, cut down 
 their king in battle and stripped him of his armour, and, hav- 
 ing slain the enemy's leader, took the city at the first assault. 
 Then, having led back his victorious army, being a man both 
 distinguished for his achievements, and one equally skilful at 
 putting them in the most favourable light, he ascended the 
 Capitol, carrying suspended on a portable frame, cleverly con- 
 trived for that purpose, the spoils of the enemy's general, 
 whom he had slain : there, having laid them down at the foot 
 
 ' This story of the rape of the Sabines belongs to the class of what are 
 called " etiological " myths— i. e., stories invented to account for a rite or 
 custom, or to explain local names or characteristics. The custom pre- 
 vailed among Greeks and Romans of the bridegroom pretending to carry 
 off the bride from her home by force. Such a custom still exists among 
 the nomad tribes of Asia iVIinor. The rape of the Sabine women was 
 invented to account for this custom. 
 
B.C. 753-717] WAR WITH THE SABINES 13 
 
 of an oak held sacred by the shepherds, at the same time that 
 he presented the offering, he marked out tlie boundaries for a 
 temple of Jupiter, and bestowed a surname on the god. " Ju- 
 piter Feretrius," said he, " I, King Romulus, victorious over 
 my foes, offer to thee these royal arms, and dedicate to thee a 
 temple within those quarters, which I have just now marked 
 out in my mind, to be a resting-place for the spolia opima, 
 which posterity, following my example, shall bring hither on 
 slaying the kings or generals of the enemy." This is the ori- 
 gin of that temple, the first that was ever consecrated at Rome. 
 It was afterward the will of the gods, that neither the utter- 
 ances of the founder of the temple, in which he solemnly de- 
 clared that his posterity would bring such spoils thither, 
 should be spoken in vain, and that the honour of the offering 
 should not be rendered common owing to the number of those 
 who enjoyed it. In the course of so many years and so many 
 wars the spolia opima were only twice gained : so rare has 
 been the successful attainment of this honour.^ 
 
 While the Romans were thus engaged in those parts, the 
 army of the Antemnates made a hostile attack upon the Ro- 
 man territories, seizing the opportunity when they were left 
 unguarded. Against these in like manner a Roman legion 
 was led out in haste and surprised them while straggling in the 
 country. Thus the enemy were routed at the first shout and 
 charge : their town was taken : Romulus, amid his rejoic- 
 ings at this double victory, was entreated by his wife Hersilia, 
 in consequence of the importunities of the captured women, 
 to pardon their fathers and admit them to the privileges of 
 citizenship ; that the commonwealth could thus be knit to- 
 gether by reconciliation. The request was readily granted. 
 After that he set out against the Crustumini, who were begin- 
 ning hostilities : in their case, as their courage had been 
 damped by the disasters of others, the struggle was less 
 keen. Colonies were sent to both places : more, however, 
 were found to give in their names for Crustuminum, because 
 of the fertility of the soil. Great numbers also migrated from 
 thence to Rome, chiefly of the parents and relatives of the 
 women who had been carried off. 
 
 The last war broke out on the part of the Sabines, and this 
 was by far the most formidable : for nothing was done under 
 the influence of anger or covetousness, nor did they give in- 
 
 ' The spolia opima (grand spoils) — a term used to denote the arms 
 taken by one general from another — were only gained twice afterward 
 during the history of the republic : in E. c. 437, when A. Cornelius Cossus 
 slew Lars Tolumnius of Veii ; and in B. c. 222, when the consul M. 
 Claudius Marcellus slew Viridomarus, chief of the Insubrian Gauls. 
 
14 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 753-717 
 
 dications of hostilities before they had actually begun them. 
 Cunning also was combined with prudence. Spurms Tar- 
 peius was in command of the Roman citadel: his maiden 
 daughter, who at the time had gone by chance outside the 
 walls to fetch water for sacrifice, was bribed by Tatius, to ad- 
 mit some armed soldiers into the citadel. After they were ad- 
 mitted, they crushed her to death by heaping their arms upon 
 her; either that the citadel might rather appear to have been 
 taken by storm, or for the sake of setting forth a warning, 
 that faith should never on any occasion be kept with a be- 
 trayer. The following addition is made to the story : that, as 
 the Sabines usually wore golden bracelets of great weight on 
 their left arm and rings of great beauty set with precious 
 stones, she bargained with them for what they had on their 
 left hands ; and that therefore shields were heaped upon her 
 instead of presents of gold. Some say that, in accordance 
 with the agreement that they should deliver up what was on 
 their left hands, she expressly demanded their shields, and 
 that, as she seemed to be acting treacherously, she herself was 
 slain by the reward she had chosen for herself. 
 
 Be that as it may, the Sabines held the citadel, and on the 
 next day, when the Roman army, drawn up in order of battle, 
 had occupied all the valley between the Palatine and Capito- 
 line Hills, they did not descend from thence into the plain until 
 the Romans, stimulated by resentment and the desire of recov- 
 ering the citadel, advanced up hill to meet them. The chiefs 
 on both sides encouraged the iight, on the side of the Sabines 
 Mettius Curtius, on the side of the Romans Hostius Hostilius. 
 The latter, in the front of the battle, on unfavourable ground, 
 supported the fortunes of the Romans by his courage and 
 boldness. When Hostius fell, the Roman line immediately 
 gave way, and, being routed, was driven as far as the old gate 
 of the Palatium. Romulus himself also, carried away by the 
 crowd of fugitives, cried, uplifting his arms to heaven : " O 
 Jupiter, it was at the bidding of thy omens, that here on the 
 Palatine I laid the first foundations for the city. The citadel, 
 purchased by crime, is now in possession of the Sabines : 
 thence they are advancing hither in arms, having passed the 
 valley between. But do thou, O father of gods and men, keep 
 back the enemy from hence at least, dispel the terror of the 
 Romans, and check their disgraceful flight. On this spot I 
 vow to build a temple to thee as Jupiter Stator, to be a monu- 
 ment to posterity that the city has been preserved by thy ready 
 aid." Having offered up these prayers, as if he had felt that 
 they had been heard, he cried : " From this position, O Ro- 
 
B.C. 753-717] WAR WITH THE SABINES I5 
 
 mans, Jupiter, greatest and best, bids you halt and renew the 
 fight." The Romans halted as if ordered by a voice from 
 heaven. Romulus himself hastened to the front. Mettius 
 Curtius, on the side of the Sabines, had rushed down from the 
 citadel at the head of his troops and driven the Romans in 
 disordered array over the whole space of ground where the 
 Forum now is. He had almost reached the gate of the Pala- 
 tium, crying out : " We have conquered our perfidious friends, 
 our cowardly foes : now they know that fighting with men is 
 a very different thing from ravishing maidens." Upon him, 
 as he uttered these boasts, Romulus made an attack with a 
 band of his bravest youths. Mettius then happened to be 
 fighting on horseback : on that account his repulse was easier. 
 When he was driven back, the Romans followed in pursuit : 
 and the remainder of the Roman army, fired by the bravery of 
 the king, routed the Sabines. Mettius, his horse taking 
 fright at the noise of his pursuers, rode headlong into a mo- 
 rass : this circumstance drew off the attention of the Sabines 
 also at the danger of so high a personage. He indeed, his 
 own party beckoning and calling to him, gaining heart from 
 the encouraging shouts of many of his friends, made good his 
 escape. The Romans and Sabines renewed the battle in the 
 valley between the two hills : but the advantage rested with 
 the Romans. 
 
 At this crisis the Sabine women, from the outrage on 
 whom the war had arisen, with dishevelled hair and torn gar- 
 ments, the timidity natural to women being overcome by the 
 sense of their calamities, were emboldened to fling themselves 
 into the midst of the flying weapons, and, rushing across, to 
 part the incensed combatants and assuage their wrath : im- 
 ploring their fathers on the one hand and their husbands on 
 the other, as fathers-in-law and sons-in-law, not to besprinkle 
 themselves with impious blood, nor to fix the stain of murder 
 on their offspring, the one side on their grandchildren, the 
 other on their children. " If," said they, " you are dissatisfied 
 with the relationship between you, and with our marriage, 
 turn your resentment against us ; it is we who are the cause of 
 war, of wounds and bloodshed to our husbands and parents: 
 it will be better for us to perish than to live widowed or 
 orphans without one or other of you." This incident affected 
 both the people and the leaders ; silence and sudden quiet fol- 
 lowed; the leaders thereupon came forward to conclude a 
 treaty ; and not only concluded a peace, but formed one state 
 out of two. They united the kingly power, but transferred the 
 entire sovereignty to Rome. Rome having thus been made a 
 
l5 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 753-71/ 
 
 double state, that some benefit at least might be conferred on 
 the Sabines, they were called Quirites from Cures. To serve 
 as a memorial of that battle, they called the place— where 
 Curtius, after having emerged from the deep morass, set his 
 horse in shallow water — the Lacus Curtius.^ 
 
 This welcome peace, following suddenly on so melancholy 
 a war, endeared the Sabine women still more to their husbands 
 and parents, and above all to Romulus himself. Accordingly, 
 when dividing the people into thirty curis, he called the cu- 
 riae after their names. While the number of the women were 
 undoubtedly considerably greater than this, it is not recorded 
 whether they were chosen for their age, their own rank or that 
 of their husbands, or by lot, to give names to the curiae. At the 
 same time also three centuries of knights were enrolled: the 
 Ramnenses were so called from Romulus, the Titienses from 
 Titus Tatius : in regard to the Luceres, the meaning of the 
 name and its origin is uncertain.^ From that time forward the 
 two kings enjoyed the regal power not only in common, but 
 also in perfect harmony. 
 
 Several years afterward, some relatives of King Tatius ill- 
 treated the ambassadors of the Laurentines, and on the Lau- 
 rentines beginning proceedings according to the rights of 
 nations, the influence and entreaties of his friends had more 
 weight with Tatius. In this manner he drew upon himself 
 the punishment that should have fallen upon them : for, hav- 
 ing gone to Lavinium on the occasion of a regularly recurring 
 sacrifice, he was slain in a disturbance which took place there. 
 They say that Romulus resented this less than the event de- 
 manded, either because partnership in sovereign power is 
 never cordially kept up, or because he thought that he had 
 been deservedly slain. Accordingly, while he abstained from 
 going to war, the treaty between the cities of Rome and La- 
 vinium was renewed, that at any rate the wrongs of the am- 
 bassadors and the murder of the king might be expiated. 
 
 With these people, indeed, there was peace contrary to ex- 
 pectations : but another war broke out much nearer home 
 
 ' The place afterward retained its name, even when filled up and dry. 
 Livy (Book VII) gives a different reason for the name : that it was so 
 called from one Marcus Curtius having sprung, armed, and on horseback, 
 several hundred years ago (b. c. 362), into a gulf that suddenly opened in 
 the forum; it being imagined that it would not dose until an offering was 
 made of what was most valuable in the state— i. e., a warrior armed and 
 on horseback. According to Varro, it was a locus fulguritus (i. e., struck 
 by lightning), which was inclosed bv a consul named Curtius 
 
 Generally supposed to be derived from " Lucumo," the name or title 
 01 an btruscan chief who came to help Romulus.— D O 
 
B. C. 716] DEFEAT OF THE FIDENATES 
 
 17 
 
 and almost at the city's gates. The Fidenates/ being of opin- 
 ion that a power in too close proximity to themselves was gain- 
 ing strength, hastened to make war before the power of the 
 Romans should attain the greatness it was evidently destined 
 to reach. An armed band of youths was sent into Roman ter- 
 ritory and all the territories between the city and the Fidenae 
 was ravaged. Then, turning to the left, because on the right 
 the Tiber was a barrier against them, they continued to rav- 
 age the country, to the great consternation of the peasantry : 
 the sudden alarm, reaching the city from the country, was the 
 first announcement of the invasion. Romulus, aroused by 
 this — for a war so near home could not brook delay — led out 
 his army, and pitched his camp a mile from Fidenae. Hav- 
 ing left a small garrison there, he marched out with all his 
 forces and gave orders that a part of them should lie in am- 
 bush in a spot hidden amid bushes planted thickly around ; he 
 himself advancing with the greater part of the infantry and all 
 the cavalry, by riding up almost to the very gates, drew out 
 the enemy — which was just what he wanted — by a mode of 
 battle of a disorderly and threatening nature. The same tac- 
 tics on the part of the cavalry caused the flight, which it was 
 necessary to pretend, to appear less surprising: and when, as 
 the cavalry appeared undecided whether to make up its mind 
 to fight or flee, the infantry also retreated — the enemy, pour- 
 ing forth suddenly through the crowded gates, were drawn to- 
 ward the place of ambuscade, in their eagerness to press on 
 and pursue, after they had broken the Roman line. There- 
 upon the Romans, suddenly arising, attacked the enemy's line 
 in flanks ; the advance from the camp of the standards of 
 those, who had been left behind on guard, increased the panic : 
 thus the Fidenates, smitten with terror from many quarters, 
 took to flight almost before Romulus and the cavalry who ac- 
 companied him could wheel round : and those who a little be- 
 fore had been in pursuit of men who pretended flight, made 
 for the town again in much greater disorder, seeing that their 
 flight was real. They did not, however, escape the foe : the 
 Romans, pressing closely on their rear, rushed in as if it were 
 in one body, before the doors of the gates could be shut against 
 them. 
 
 The minds of the inhabitants of Veil,- being exasperated 
 
 ' The inhabitants of Fidenae, about five miles from Rome, situated on 
 the Tiber, now Castel Giubileo. 
 
 ^ About twelve and a half miles north of Rome, close to the little river 
 Cremera ; it was one of the most important of the twelve confederate 
 Etruscan towns. Plutarch describes it as the bulwark of Etruria ; not 
 inferior to Rome in military equipment and numbers. 
 2 
 
ig LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 716 
 
 by the infectious influence of the Fidenatian war, both from 
 the tie of kinship— for the Fidenates also were Etruscans— and 
 because the very proximity of the scene of action, in the event 
 of the Roman arms being directed against all their neighbours, 
 urged them on, they sallied forth into the Roman territories, 
 rather with the object of plundering than after the manner of 
 a regular war. Accordingly, without pitching a camp, or 
 waiting for the enemy's army, they returned to Veil, taking 
 with them the booty they had carried off from the lands ; the 
 Roman army, on the other hand, when they did not find the 
 enemy in the country, being ready and eager for a decisive 
 action, crossed the Tiber. And when the Veientes heard that 
 they were pitching a camp, and intended to advance to the 
 city, they came out to meet them, that they might rather de- 
 cide the matter in the open field, than be shut up and have to 
 fight from their houses and walls. In this engagement the 
 Roman king gained the victory, his power being unassisted 
 by any stratagem, by the unaided strength of his veteran 
 army : and having pursued the routed enemies up to their 
 walls, he refrained from attacking the city, which was strongly 
 fortified and well defended by its natural advantages : on his 
 return he laid waste their lands, rather from a desire of re- 
 venge than of booty. The Veientes, humbled by that loss 
 no less than by the unsuccessful issue of the battle, sent am- 
 bassadors to Rome to sue for peace. A truce for one hun- 
 dred years was granted them, after they had been mulcted in 
 a part of their territory. These were essentially the chief 
 events of the reign of Romulus, in peace and in war, none of 
 which seemed inconsistent with the belief of his divine origin, 
 or of his deification after death, neither the spirit he showed 
 in recovering his grandfather's kingdom, nor his wisdom in 
 building a city, and afterward strengthening it by the arts of 
 war and peace. For assuredly it was by the power that Rom- 
 ulus gave it that it became so powerful, that for forty years 
 after it enjoyed unbroken peace. He was, however, dearer to 
 the people than to the fathers : above all others he was most 
 beloved by the soldiers : of these he kept three hundred, whom 
 he called Celeres, armed to serve as a body-guard not only in 
 time of war but also of peace. 
 
 Having accomplished these works deserving of immortal- 
 ity, while he was holding an assembly of the people for review- 
 ing his army, in the plain near the Goat's pool, a storm sudden- 
 ly came on, accompanied by "loud thunder and lightning, and 
 enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it entirely hid him 
 from the sight of the assembly. After this Romulus was 
 
B. C. 716] DEATH OF ROMULUS 
 
 19 
 
 never seen again upon earth. The feeling of consternation 
 having at length calmed down, and the weather having be- 
 come clear and fine again after so stormy a day, the Roman 
 youth, seeing the royal seat empty — though they readily be- 
 lieved the words of the fathers who had stood nearest him, that 
 he had been carried up to heaven by the storm — yet, struck as 
 it were with the fear of being fatherless, for a considerable 
 time preserved a sorrowful silence. Then, after a few had set 
 the example, the whole multitude saluted Romulus as a god, 
 the son of a god, the king and parent of the Roman city ; they 
 implored his favour with prayers, that with gracious kindness 
 he would always preserve his offspring. I believe that even 
 then there were some, who in secret were convinced that the 
 king had been torn in pieces by the hands of the fathers — for 
 this rumour also spread, but it was very doubtfully received ; 
 admiration for the man, however, and the awe felt at the 
 moment, gave greater notoriety to the other report. Also by 
 the clever idea of one individual, additional confirmation is 
 said to have been attached to the occurrence. For Proculus 
 Julius, while the state was still troubled at the loss of the 
 king, and incensed against the senators, a weighty authority, 
 as we are told, in any matter however important, came forward 
 into the assembly. " Quirites," said he, " Romulus, the fa- 
 ther of this city, suddenly descending from heaven, appeared 
 to me this day at daybreak. While I stood filled with dread, 
 and religious awe, beseeching him to allow me to look upon 
 him face to face, ' Go,' said he, ' tell the Romans, that the gods 
 so will, that my Rome should become the capital of the world. 
 Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know 
 and so hand it down to posterity, that no human power can 
 withstand the Roman arms.' Having said this, he vanished 
 up to heaven." It is surprising what credit was given to that 
 person when he made the announcement, and how much the 
 regret of the common people and army for the loss of Romu- 
 lus was assuaged when the certainty of his immortality was 
 confirmed.^ 
 
 Meanwhile ^ contention for the throne and ambition en- 
 gaged the minds of the fathers ; the struggle was not as yet 
 carried on by individuals, by violence or contending factions, 
 because, among a new people, no one person was pre-eminent- 
 
 ' A naively circumstantial story characteristically told. Though a 
 republican, it is quite evident that Livy wishes to convey the idea that 
 Romulus, having by the creation of a ijody-guard aspired to tyrannical 
 power, was assassinated by the senate. — D. O. 
 
 ' The reading in this section is uncertain. 
 
20 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 716 
 
 ly distinguished ; the contest was carried on between the dif- 
 ferent orders. The descendants of the Sabines wished a king 
 to be elected from their own body, lest, because there had 
 been no king from their own party since the death of Tatius, 
 they might lose their claim to the crown although both were 
 on an equal footing. The old Romans spurned the idea of a 
 foreign prince. Amid this diversity of views, however, all 
 were anxious to be under the government of a king, as they 
 had not yet experienced the delights of liberty. Fear then 
 seized the senators, lest, as the minds of many surrounding 
 states were incensed against them, some foreign power should 
 attack the state, now without a government, and the army, 
 now without a leader. Therefore, although they were agreed 
 that there should be some head, yet none could bring himself 
 to give way to another. Accordingly, the hundred senators 
 divided the government among themselves, ten decuries be- 
 ing formed, and the individual members who were to have 
 the chief direction of affairs being chosen into each decury."^ 
 Ten governed; one only was attended by the lictors and with 
 the insignia of authority : their power was limited to the space 
 of five days, and conferred upon all in rotation, and the inter- 
 val between the government of a king lasted a year. From 
 this fact it was called an interregnum, a term which is em- 
 ployed even now. Then the people began to murmur, that 
 their slavery was multiplied, and that they had now a hundred 
 sovereigns instead of one, and they seemed determined to sub- 
 mit to no authority but that of a king, and that one appointed 
 by themselves. When the fathers perceived that such schemes 
 were on foot, thinking it advisable to offer them, without be- 
 ing asked, what they were sure to lose, they conciliated the 
 good-will of the people by yielding to them the supreme 
 power, yet in such a manner as to surrender no greater privi- 
 lege than they reserved to themselves. For they decreed, 
 that when the people had chosen a king, the election should be 
 valid, if the senate gave the sanction of their authority. And 
 even to this day the same forms are observed in proposing 
 laws and magistrates, though their power has been taken 
 away; for before the people begin to vote, the senators ratify 
 their choice, even while the result of the elections is still un- 
 certain. Then the interrex, having summoned an assembly 
 of the people, addressed them as follows : " Do you, Quirites, 
 
 ' Two interpretations are given of this passage— (i) that out of each 
 decury one senator was chosen by lot to make up the governing body of 
 ten ; (2) that each decury as a whole held office in succession, so that one 
 decury was in power for fifty days. 
 
B. C. 7i6] NUMA POMPILIUS, KING 21 
 
 choose yourselves a king, and may this choice prove fortunate, 
 happy, and auspicious ; such is the will of the fathers. Then, 
 if you shall choose a prince worthy to be reckoned next after 
 Romulus, the fathers will ratify your choice." This conces- 
 sion was so pleasing to the people, that, not to appear outdone 
 in generosity, they only voted and ordained that the senate 
 should determine who should be king at Rome. 
 
 The justice and piety of Numa Pompilius was at that time 
 celebrated. He dwelt at Cures, a city of the Sabines, and 
 was as eminently learned in all law, human and divine, as any 
 man could be in that age. They falsely represent that Py- 
 thagoras of Samos was his instructor in learning, because 
 there appears no other. Now it is certain that this philoso- 
 pher, in the reign of Servius Tullius, more than a hundred 
 years after this, held assemblies of young men, who eagerly 
 embraced his doctrines, on the most distant shore of Italy, 
 in the neighbourhood of Metapontum, Heraclea, and Croton. 
 But from these places, even had he flourished in the same age, 
 what fame of his could have reached the Sabines? or by what 
 intercourse of language could it have aroused any one to a 
 desire of learning? or by what safeguard could a single man 
 have passed through the midst of so many nations differing 
 in language and customs? I am therefore rather inclined 
 to believe that his mind, owing to his natural bent, was at- 
 tempered by virtuous qualities, and that he was not so much 
 versed in foreign systems of philosophy as in the stern and 
 gloomy training of the ancient Sabines, a race than which 
 none was in former times more strict. When they heard the 
 name of Numa, although the Roman fathers perceived that 
 the balance of power would incline to the Sabines if a king 
 were chosen from them, yet none of them ventured to prefer 
 himself, or any other member of his party, or, in fine, any of the 
 citizens or fathers, to a man so well known, but unanimously 
 resolved that the kingdom should be offered to Numa Pom- 
 pilius. Being sent for, just as Romulus obtained the throne 
 by the augury in accordance with which he founded the city, 
 so Numa in like manner commanded the gods to be consulted 
 concerning himself. Upon this, being escorted into the cita- 
 del by an augur, to whose profession that office was later 
 made a public and perpetual one by way of honour, he sat 
 down on a stone facing the south: the augur took his seat 
 on his left hand with his head covered, holding in his right 
 a crooked wand free from knots, called lituus ; then, after hav- 
 ing taken a view over the city and country, and offered a 
 prayer to the gods, he defined the bounds of the regions of 
 
22 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 716 
 
 the sky from east to west: the parts toward the south he 
 called the right, those toward the north, the left; and m front 
 of him he marked out in his mind the sign as far as ever his 
 eyes could see. Then having shifted the lituus into his left 
 hand, and placed his right on the head of Numa, he prayed 
 after this manner: "O father Jupiter, if it be thy will that 
 this Numa Pompilius, whose head I hold, be king of Rome, 
 mayest thou manifest infallible signs to us within those bounds 
 which I have marked." Then he stated in set terms the aus- 
 pices which he wished to be sent : on their being sent, Numa 
 was declared king and came down from the seat of augury. 
 
 Having thus obtained the kingdom, he set about estab- 
 lishing anew, on the principles of law and morality, the newly 
 founded city that had been already established by force of 
 arms. When he saw that the inhabitants, inasmuch as men's 
 minds are brutalized by military life, could not become recon- 
 ciled to such principles during the continuance of wars, con- 
 sidering that the savage nature of the people must be toned 
 down by the disuse of arms, he erected at the foot of Argile- 
 tum ^ a temple of Janus, as a sign of peace and war, that when 
 open, it might show that the state was engaged in war, and 
 when shut, that all the surrounding nations were at peace. 
 Twice only since the reign of Numa has this temple been 
 shut : once when Titus Manlius was consul, after the conclu- 
 sion of the first Punic war; and a second time, which the gods 
 granted our generation to behold, by the Emperor Caesar 
 Augustus, after the battle of Actium, when peace was estab- 
 lished by land and sea. This being shut, after he had secured 
 the friendship of all the neighbouring states around by alliance 
 and treaties, all anxiety regarding dangers from abroad being 
 now removed, in order to prevent their minds, which the fear 
 of enemies and military discipline had kept in check, running 
 riot from too much leisure, he considered, that, first of all, 
 awe of the gods should be instilled into them, a principle of 
 the greatest efhcacy in dealing with the multitude, ignorant 
 and uncivilized as it was in those times. But as this fear could 
 not sink deeply into their minds without some faction of a 
 miracle, he pretended that he held nightly interviews with the 
 goddess Egeria; that by her direction he instituted sacred 
 rites such as would be most acceptable to the gods, and ap- 
 pointed their own priests for each of the deities. And, first 
 
 'At this time a ffrove : later it became one of the artificers' quarters, 
 lying beyond the forum and in the jaws of the suburra, which stretched 
 away over the level ground to the foot of the Esquiline and Quirinal 
 Hills. — D. O. la 
 
B.C. 715-672] THE WORKS OF NUMA 23 
 
 of all, he divided the year into twelve months, according to 
 the courses of the moon ; ^ and because the moon does not 
 fill up the number of thirty days in each month, and some 
 days are wanting to the complete year, which is brought round 
 by the solstitial revolution, he so regulated this year, by in- 
 serting intercalary months, that every twentieth year, the 
 lengths of all the intermediate years being filled up, the days 
 corresponded with the same starting-point of the sun whence 
 they had set out. He likewise divided days into sacred and 
 profane, because on certain occasions it was likely to be ex- 
 pedient that no business should be transacted with the people. 
 Next he turned his attention to the appointment of priests, 
 though he discharged many sacred functions himself, espe- 
 cially those which now belong to the flamen of Jupiter. But, 
 as he imagined that in a warlike nation there would be more 
 kings resembling Romulus than Numa, and that they would 
 go to war in person, in order that the sacred functions of the 
 royal office might not be neglected, he appointed a perpetual 
 priest as flamen to Jupiter, and distinguished him by a fine 
 robe, and a royal curule chair. To him he added two other 
 flamens, one for Mars, another for Quirinus. He also chose 
 virgins for Vesta, a priesthood derived from Alba, and not 
 foreign to the family of the founder. That they might be 
 constant attendants in the temple, he appointed them pay 
 
 ' Romulus had made his year to consist of ten months, the first month 
 being March, and the number of days in the year only 304, which cor- 
 responded neither with the course of the sun nor moon. Numa, who 
 added the two months of January and February, divided the year into 
 twelve months, according to the course of the moon. This was the 
 lunar Greek year, and consisted of 354 days. Numa, however, adopted 
 355 days for his year, from his partiality to odd numbers. The lunar year 
 of 354 days fell short of the solar year by 11 J days; this in 8 years 
 amounted to (iij x 8) go days. These 90 days he divided into 2 months 
 of 22, and 2 of 23 days [(2 x 22) + (2 x 23) = 90], and introduced them alter- 
 nately every second year for two octennial periods : every third octennial 
 period, however, Numa intercalated only 66 days instead of 90 days — 
 1. c, he inserted 3 months of only 22 days each. The reason was, be- 
 cause he adopted 3-55 days as the length of his lunar year instead of 
 354, and this in 24 years (3 octennial periods) produced an error of 24 
 days ; this error was exactly compensated by intercalating only 66 days 
 (90 — 24) in the third octennial period. The intercalations were generally 
 made in the month of February, after the 23d of the month. The man- 
 agement was left to the pontiffs — ad metam eandem soils unde orsi essent 
 — dies congruerent ; " that the days might correspond to the same starting- 
 point of the sun in the heavens whence they had set out." That is, tak- 
 ing for instance the Tropic of Cancer for the place or starting-point of the 
 sun any one year, and observing that he was in that point of the heavens 
 on precisely the 21st of June, the object was so to dispense the year, that 
 the day on which the sun was observed to arrive at that same meta or 
 starting-point again, should also be called the 21st of June. 
 
24 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 715-672 
 
 out of the public treasury; and by enjoining virginity, and 
 various religious observances, he made them sacred and ven- 
 erable. He also chose twelve Salii for Mars Gradivus, and 
 gave them the distinction of an embroidered tunic, and over 
 the tunic a brazen covering for the breast. He commanded 
 them to carry the shields called Ancilia,^ which fell from 
 heaven, and to go through the city singing songs, with leap- 
 ing and solemn dancing. Then he chose from the fathers 
 Numa Marcius, son of Marcius, as pontiff, and consigned to 
 him a complete system of religious rites written out and re- 
 corded, showing with what victims, upon what days, and at 
 what temples the sacred rites were to be performed, and from 
 what funds the money was to be taken to defray the expenses. 
 He also placed all other religious institutions, public and pri- 
 vate, under the control of the decrees of the pontiff, to the 
 end that there might be some authority to whom the people 
 should come to ask advice, to prevent any confusion in the 
 divine worship being caused by their neglecting the cere- 
 monies of their own country, and adopting foreign ones. He 
 further ordained that the same pontiff should instruct the 
 people not only in the ceremonies connected with the heav- 
 enly deities, but also in the due performance of funeral so- 
 lemnities, and how to appease the shades of the dead; and 
 what prodigies sent by lightning or any other phenomenon 
 were to be attended to and expiated. To draw forth such 
 knowledge from the minds of the gods, he dedicated an altar 
 on the Aventine to Jupiter Elicius, and consulted the god by 
 means of auguries as to what prodigies ought to be at- 
 tended to. 
 
 The attention of the whole people having been thus di- 
 verted from violence and arms to the deliberation and adjust- 
 ment of these matters, both their minds were engaged in some 
 occupation, and the watchfulness of the gods now constantly 
 impressed upon them, as the deity of heaven seemed to inter- 
 est itself in human concerns, had filled the breasts of all with 
 such piety, that faith and religious obligations governed the 
 state, the dread of laws and punishments being regarded as 
 secondary. And while the people of their own accord were 
 forming themselves on the model of the king, as the most 
 excellent example, the neighbouring states also, who had 
 formerly thought that it was a camp, not a city, that had been 
 established in their midst to disturb the general peace, were 
 
 ' A more general form of the legend ran to the effect that but one of 
 these shields fell from heaven, and that the others were made like it to 
 lessen the chance of the genuine one being stolen. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 672-640] DEATH OF NUMA 25 
 
 brought to feel such respect for them that they considered it 
 impious to molest a state, wholly occupied in the worship of 
 the gods. There was a grove, the middle of which was irri- 
 gated by a spring of running water, flowing from a dark 
 grotto. As Numa often repaired thither unattended, under 
 pretence of meeting the goddess, he dedicated the grove to 
 the Camenae, because, as he asserted, their meetings with his 
 wife Egeria were held there. He also instituted a yearly festi- 
 val to Faith alone, and commanded her priests to be driven 
 to the chapel erected for the purpose in an arched chariot 
 drawn by two horses, and to perform the divine service with 
 their hands wrapped up to the fingers, intimating that Faith 
 ought to be protected, and that even her seat in men's right 
 hands was sacred. He instituted many other sacred rites, 
 and dedicated places for performing them, which the priests 
 call Argei. But the greatest of all his works was the main- 
 tenance of peace during the whole period of his reign, no less 
 than of his royal power. Thus two kings in succession, by 
 different methods, the one by war, the other by peace, ag- 
 grandized the state. Romulus reigi ed thirty-seven years, 
 Numa forty-three: the state was both strong and attempered 
 by the arts both of v/ar and peace. 
 
 Upon the death of Numa, the administration returned 
 again to an interregnum. After that the people appointed 
 as king Tullus Hostilius, the grandson of that Hostilius who 
 had made the noble stand against the Sabines at the foot of 
 the citadel: the fathers confirmed the choice. He was not 
 only unlike the preceding king, but even of a more warlike 
 disposition than Romulus. Both his youth and strength, and, 
 further, the renown of his grandfather, stimulated his ambi- 
 tion. Thinking therefore that the state was deteriorating 
 through ease, he everywhere sought for an opportunity of 
 stirring up war. It so happened that some Roman and Alban 
 peasants mutually plundered each other's lands. Gains Clu- 
 ihus at that time was in power at Alba. From both sides am- 
 bassadors were sent almost at the same time, to demand satis- 
 faction. Tullus had ordered his representatives to attend to 
 their instructions before anything else. He knew well that 
 the Alban would refuse, and so war might be proclaimed with 
 a clear conscience. Their commission was executed in a more 
 dilatory manner by the Albans: being courteously and kindly 
 entertained by Tullus, they gladly took advantage of the king's 
 hospitality. Meanwhile the Romans had both been first in 
 demanding satisfaction, and upon the refusal of the Alban, 
 had proclaimed war upon the expiration of thirty days: of this 
 
26 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 672-640 
 
 they gave Tullus notice. Thereupon he granted the Alban 
 ambassadors an opportunity of stating with what demands 
 they came. They, ignorant of everything, at first wasted 
 some time in making excuses : That it was with reluctance 
 they would say anything which might be displeasing to Tul- 
 lus, but they were compelled by orders: that they had come 
 to demand satisfaction: if this was not granted, they were 
 commanded to declare war. To this Tullus made answer, 
 " Go tell your king, that the king of the Romans takes the 
 gods to witness, that, whichever of the two nations shall have 
 first dismissed with contempt the ambassadors demanding 
 satisfaction, from it they [the gods] may exact atonement for 
 the disasters of this war." This message the Albans carried 
 home. 
 
 Preparations were made on both sides with the utmost 
 vigour for a war very like a civil one, in a manner be- 
 tween parents and children, both being of Trojan stock: for 
 from Troy came Lavinium, from Lavinium, Alba, and the 
 Romans were descended from the stock of the Alban kings. 
 However, the result of the war rendered the quarrel less dis- 
 tressing, for the struggle never came to regular action, and 
 when the buildings only of one of the cities had been demol- 
 ished, the two states were incorporated into one. The Albans 
 first invaded the Roman territories with a large army. They 
 pitched their camp not more than five miles from the city, and 
 surrounded it with a trench, which, for several ages, was called 
 the Cluilian trench, from the name of the general, till, by lapse 
 of time, the name, as well as the event itself, was forgotten. 
 In that camp Cluilius, the Alban king, died: the Albans cre- 
 ated Mettius Fufetius dictator. In the meantime Tullus, ex- 
 ultant, especially at the death of the king, and giving out that 
 the supreme power of the gods, having begun at the head, 
 would take vengeance on the whole Alban nation for this im- 
 pious war, having passed the enemy's camp in the night-time, 
 marched with a hostile army into the Alban territory. This 
 circumstance drew out Mettius from his camp: he led his 
 forces as close as possible to the enemy; thence he despatched 
 a herald and commanded him to tell Tullus that a conference 
 was expedient before they came to an engagement; and that, 
 if he would give him a meeting, he was certain he would bring 
 forward matters which concerned the interests of Rome no 
 less than of Alba. Tullus did not reject the ofifer: neverthe- 
 less, in case the proposals made should prove fruitless, he led 
 out his men in order of battle: the Albans on their side 
 marched out also. After both armies stood drawn up in battle 
 
B. C. 672-640] WAR WITI^ ALBA 27 
 
 array, the chiefs, with a few of the principal officers, advanced 
 into the midst. Then the Alban began as follows: " That in- 
 juries and the non-restitution of property claimed according 
 to treaty is the cause of this war, methinks I have both heard 
 our king Cluilius assert, and I doubt not, Tullus, but that 
 you allege the same. But if the truth must be told, rather than 
 what is plausible, it is thirst for rule that provokes two kindred 
 and neighbouring states to arms. Whether rightly or wrong- 
 ly, I do not take upon myself to determine: let the considera- 
 tion of that rest with him who has begun the war. As 
 for myself, the Albans have only made me their leader for 
 carrying on that war. Of this, Tullus, I would have you ad- 
 vised: how powerful the Etruscan state is around us, and 
 around you particularly, you know better than we, inasmuch 
 as you are nearer to them. They are very powerful by land, 
 far more so by sea. Recollect that, directly you shall give 
 the signal for battle, these two armies will be the object of 
 their attention, that they may fall on us when wearied and ex- 
 hausted, victor and vanquished together. Therefore, for the 
 love of heaven, since, not content with a sure independence, 
 we are running the doubtful hazard of sovereignty and slavery, 
 let us adopt some method, whereby, without great loss, with- 
 out much bloodshed of either nation, it may be decided which 
 is to rule the other." The proposal was not displeasing to 
 Tullus, though both from his natural bent, as also from the 
 hope of victory, he was rather inclined to violence. After 
 consideration, on both sides, a plan was adopted, for which 
 Fortune herself afforded the means of execution. 
 
 It happened that there were in the two armies at that 
 time three brothers born at one birth, neither in age nor 
 strength ill-matched. That they were called Horatii and Curi- 
 atii is certain enough, and there is hardly any fact of antiquity 
 more generally known; yet in a manner so well ascertained, 
 a doubt remains concerning their names, as to which nation 
 the Horatii, to which the Curiatii belonged. Authors incline 
 to both sides, yet I find a majority who call the Horatii 
 Romans: my own inclination leads me to follow them. The 
 kings arranged with the three brothers, that they should 
 fight with swords, each in defence of their respective country; 
 assuring them that dominion would rest with those on whose 
 side victory should declare itself. No objection was raised; 
 the time and place were agreed upon. Before the engage- 
 ment began, a compact was entered into between the Romans 
 and Albans on these conditions, that that state, whose cham- 
 pions should come off victorious in the combat, should rule 
 
28 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 672-640 
 
 the other state without further dispute. Different treaties are 
 made on different conditions, but in general they are all con- 
 cluded with the same formalities. We have heard that the 
 treaty in question was then concluded as follows, nor is there 
 extant a more ancient record of any treaty. The herald asked 
 King TuUus, " Dost thou command me, O king, to conclude 
 a treaty with the pater patratus of the Alban people?" On 
 the king so commanding him he said, " I demand vervain of 
 thee, O king." The king replied, " Take some that is pure." 
 The herald brought a pure blade of grass from the citadel; 
 then again he asked the king, " Dost thou, O king, appoint 
 me the royal delegate of the Roman people, the Quirites, and 
 my appurtenances and attendants?" The king replied, "So 
 far as it may be done without detriment to me and to the 
 Roman people, the Quirites, I do so." The herald was Mar- 
 cus Valerius, who appointed Spurius Fusius pater patratus,' 
 touching his head and hair with the vervain.^ The pater 
 patratus was appointed ad iusiurandum patrandum, that is, 
 to ratify the treaty; and he went through it in a lengthy pre- 
 amble, \vhich, being expressed in a long set form, it is not 
 worth while to repeat. After having set forth the conditions, 
 he said: "Hear, O Jupiter; hear, O pater patratus of the 
 Alban people, and ye, O Alban people, give ear. As those 
 conditions, from first to last, have been publicly recited from 
 those tablets or wax without wicked or fraudulent intent, and 
 as they have been most correctly understood here this day, 
 the Roman people will not be the first to fail to observe those 
 conditions. If they shall be the first to do so by public con- 
 sent, by fraudulent intent, on that day do thou, O Jupiter, 
 so_ strike the Roman people, as I shall here this day strike 
 this swme; and do thou strike them so much the more, as 
 thou art more mighty and more powerful." When he said 
 this, he struck the swine with a flint stone. The Albans like- 
 wise went through their own set form and oath by the mouth 
 of their own dictator and priests. 
 
 The treaty being concluded, the twin-brothers, as had been 
 agreed, took arms. While their respective friends exhortedj 
 each party, remmding them that their country's gods their 
 country and parents, all their fellow-citizens both at 'home 
 and m the army, had their eyes then fixed on their arms, oH 
 their hands, being both naturally brave, and animated by 
 
 ' The chief of the fetiales. 
 rool'^friU"'"''" ^^^^"^^d for religious purposes, and olucked up by the 
 Ih^™ tZ vioTnc? ^'^ ^^°""' ■ " "^^ "^"^^ ^^ ambassadors to^r'otect 
 
B. C. 672-640] THE HORATII AND CURIATII 29 
 
 the shouts and exhortations of their friends, they advanced 
 into the midst between the two lines. The two armies on 
 both sides had taken their seats in front of their respective 
 camps, free rather from danger for the moment than from 
 anxiety: for sovereign power was at stake, dependent on the 
 valour and fortune of so few. Accordingly, therefore, on the 
 tip-toe of expectation, their attention was eagerly fixed on a 
 spectacle far from pleasing. The signal was given: and the 
 three youths on each side, as if in battle array, rushed to the 
 charge with arms presented, bearing in their breasts the spirit 
 of mighty armies. Neither the one nor the other heeded their 
 personal danger, but the public dominion or slavery was pres- 
 ent to their mind, and the thought that the fortune of their 
 country would be such hereafter as they themselves should 
 have made it. Directly their arms clashed at the first en- 
 counter, and their glittering swords flashed, a mighty horror 
 thrilled the spectators; and, as hope inclined to neither side, 
 voice and breath alike were numbed. Then having engaged 
 hand to hand, when now not only the movements of their 
 bodies, and the indecisive brandishings of their arms and 
 weapons, but wounds also and blood were seen, two of the 
 Romans fell lifeless, one upon the other, the three Albans 
 being wounded. And when the Alban army had raised a 
 shout of joy at their fall, hope had entirely by this time, not 
 however anxiety, deserted the Roman legions, breathless with 
 apprehension at the dangerous position of this one man, 
 whom the three Curiatii had surrounded. He happened to 
 be unhurt, so that, though alone he was by no means a match 
 for them all together, yet he was full of confidence against 
 each singly. In order therefore to separate their attack, he 
 took to flight, presuming that they would each pursue him 
 with such swiftness as the wounded state of his body would 
 permit. He had now fled a considerable distance from the 
 place where the fight had taken place, when, looking back 
 he perceived that they were pursuing him at a great distanc 
 from each other, and that one of them was not far from hin . 
 On him he turned round with great fury, and while the Alba-, 1 
 army shouted out to the Curiatii to succour their brother, Ho- 
 ratius by this time victorious, having slain his antagonist, was 
 now proceeding to a second attack. Then the Romans en- 
 couraged their champion with a shout such as is wont to be 
 raised when men cheer in consequence of unexpected suc- 
 cess ; and he hastened to finish the combat. Wherefore before 
 the other, who was not far off, could come up to him, he slew 
 the second CuriatiuS also. And now, the combat being 
 
,0 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 672-640 
 
 brought to equal terms, one on each side remained, but un- 
 equally matched in hope and strength. The one was inspired 
 with courage for a third contest by the fact that his body 
 was uninjured by a weapon, and by his double victory: the 
 other dragging along his body exhausted from his wound, 
 exhausted from running, and dispirited by the slaughter of 
 his brothers before his eyes, thus met his victorious antago- 
 nist. And indeed there was no fight. The Roman, exulting, 
 cried: " Two I have oflered to the shades of my brothers: the 
 third I will offer to the cause of this war, that the Roman may 
 rule over the Alban." He thrust his sword down from above 
 into his throat, while he with difficulty supported the weight 
 of his arms, and stripped him as he lay prostrate. The Romans 
 welcomed Horatius with joy and congratulations; with so 
 much the greater exultation, as the matter had closely bor- 
 dered on alarm. They then turned their attention to the burial 
 of their friends, with feelings by no means the same: for the 
 one side was elated by the acquisition of empire, the other 
 brought under the rule of others: their sepulchres may still 
 be seen in the spot where each fell ; the two Roman in one 
 place nearer Alba, the three Alban in the direction of Rome, 
 but situated at some distance from each other, as in fact they 
 had fought. 
 
 Before they departed from thence, when Mettius, in ac- 
 cordance with the treaty which had been concluded, asked 
 Tullus what his orders were, he ordered him to keep his young 
 men under arms, for he intended to employ them, if a war 
 should break out with the Veientes. After this both armies 
 were led away to their homes. Horatius marched in front, 
 carrying before him the spoils of the three brothers: his 
 maiden sister, who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii, 
 met him before the gate Capena ; ^ and having recognised on 
 her brother's shoulders the military robe of her betrothed, 
 which she herself had worked, she tore her hair, and with 
 bitter wailings called by name on her deceased lover. The 
 sister's lamentations in the midst of his own victory, and of 
 such great public rejoicings, raised the ire of the hot-tempered 
 youth. So, having drawn his sword, he ran the maiden 
 through the body, at the same time reproaching her with these 
 words: " Go hence with thy ill-timed love to thy spouse, for- 
 getful of thy brothers that are dead, and of the one who sur- 
 vives — forgetful of thy country. So fare every Roman woman 
 who shall mourn an enemy." This deed seemed cruel to the 
 
 ' This gate became later the starting-point of the Appian Way. D. O. 
 
B.C. 672-640] TRIAL OF HORATIUS 31 
 
 fathers and to the people; but his recent services outweighed 
 its enormity. Nevertheless he was dragged before the king 
 for judgment. The king, however, that he might not him- 
 self be responsible for a decision so melancholy, and so dis- 
 agreeable in the view of the people, or for the punishment con- 
 sequent on such decision, having summoned an assembly of 
 the people, declared, " I appoint, according to law, duumvirs 
 to pass sentence on Horatius for treason." The law was of 
 dreadful formula. " Let the duumvirs pass sentence for trea- 
 son. If he appeal from the duumvirs, let him contend by 
 appeal; if they shall gain the cause, let the lictor cover his 
 head, hang him by a rope on the accursed tree, scourge him 
 either within the pomerium,^ or without the pomerium." The 
 duumvirs appointed in accordance with this decision, who did 
 not consider that, according to that law, they could acquit 
 the man even if innocent, having condemned him, then one 
 of them said: " Publius Horatius, I judge thee guilty of trea- 
 son. Lictor, bind his hands." The lictor had approached 
 him, and was commencing to fix the rope round his neck. 
 Then Horatius, on the advice of Tullus, a merciful interpreter 
 of the law, said, " I appeal." Accordingly the matter was 
 contested before the people as to the appeal. At that trial 
 the spectators were much afifected, especially on Publius 
 Horatius the father declaring that he considered his daughter 
 to have been deservedly slain; were it not so, that he would 
 by virtue of his authority as a father have inflicted punish- 
 ment on his son. He then entreated them, that they would 
 not render him childless, one whom but a little while ago they 
 had beheld blessed with a fine progeny. During these words 
 the old man, having embraced the youth, pointing to the 
 spoils of the Curiatii hung up in that place which is now 
 called Pila Horatia,^ " Quirites," said he, " can you bear to see 
 bound beneath the gallows, amid scourgings and tortures, 
 the man whom you just now beheld marching decorated with 
 spoils and exulting in victory — a sight so shocking that even 
 the eyes of the Albans could scarcely endure it? Go then, 
 lictor, bind those hands, which but a little while since, armed, 
 won sovereignty for the Roman people. Go, cover the head 
 of the liberator of this city: hang him on the accursed tree: 
 scourge him, either within the pomerium, so it be only amid 
 
 ' An imaginary sacred line that marked the bounds of the city. It did 
 not always coincide with the line of the walls, but was extended from 
 time to time. Such extension could only be made by a magistrate who 
 had extended the boundaries of the empire by his victories. — D. O. 
 
 ' Literally, " Horatian javelins." — D. O. 
 
32 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 672-640 
 
 those javelins and spoils of the enemy, or without the pomeri- 
 um, so it be only amid the graves of the Curiatii. For whither 
 can you lead this youth, where his own noble deeds will not 
 redeem him from such disgraceful punishment? " The people 
 could not withstand either the tears of the father, or the spirit 
 of the son, the same in every danger, and acquitted him_ more 
 from admiration of his bravery, than on account of the justice 
 of his cause. But that so clear a murder might be at least 
 atoned for by some expiation, the father was commanded to 
 expiate the son's guilt at the public charge. He, having 
 oflfered certain expiatory sacrifices, which were ever after 
 continued in the Horatian family, and laid a beam across 
 the street, made the youth pass under it, as under the yoke, 
 with his head covered. This beam remains even to this day, 
 being constantly repaired at the public expense; it is called 
 Sororium Tigillum (Sister's Beam). A tomb of square stone 
 was erected to Horatia in the spot where she was stabbed 
 and fell. 
 
 However, the peace with Alba did not long continue. The 
 dissatisfaction of the populace at the fortune of the state hav- 
 ing been intrusted to three soldiers, perverted the wavering 
 mind of the dictator; and since straightforward measures had 
 not turned out well, he began to conciliate the afifections of 
 the populace by treacherous means. Accordingly, as one 
 who had formerly sought peace in time of war, and was now 
 seeking war in time of peace, because he perceived that his 
 own state possessed more courage than strength, he stirred 
 up other nations to make war openly and by proclamation: 
 for his own people he reserved the work of treachery under 
 the show of allegiance. The Fidenates, a Roman colony,^ hav- 
 ing taken the Veientes into partnership in the plot, were in- 
 stigated to declare war and take up arms under a compact of 
 desertion on the part of the Albans. When Fidenae had 
 openly revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettius and his 
 army from Alba, marched against the enemy. When he 
 crossed the Anio, he pitched his camp at the conflux of the 
 rivers.^ Between that place and Fidenae, the army of the 
 Veientes had crossed the Tiber. These, in the line of battle, 
 also occupied the right wing near the river; the Fidenates 
 were posted on the left nearer the mountains. Tullus sta- 
 tioned his own men opposite the Veientine foe; the Albans 
 he posted to face the legion of the Fidenates. The Alban 
 
 ' Evidently so established after the destruction of the inhabitants in 
 the storming (see p. 17, above). — D. O. 
 ' Tiber and Anio. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 672-640] THE ALBANS DESERT TULLUS 33 
 
 had no more courage than loyalty. Therefore neither daring 
 to keep his ground, nor to desert openly, he filed off slowly 
 to the mountains. After this, when he supposed he had ad- 
 vanced far enough, he led his entire army uphill, and still 
 wavering in mind, in order to waste time, opened his ranks. 
 His design was, to direct his forces to that side on which 
 fortune should give success. At first the Romans who stood 
 nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks 
 were exposed by the departure of their allies; then a horse- 
 man at full gallop announced to the king that the Albans 
 were moving off. Tullus, in this perilous juncture, vowed 
 twelve Salii and temples to Paleness and Panic. Rebuking 
 the horseman in a loud voice, so that the enemy might hear 
 him plainly, he ordered him to return to the ranks, that 
 there was no occasion for alarm; that it was by his order 
 that the Alban army was being led round to fall on the un- 
 protected rear of the Fidenates. He likewise commanded 
 him to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; the exe- 
 cution of this order shut out the view of the retreating Alban 
 army from a great part of the Roman infantry. Those who 
 saw it, believing that it was even so, as they had heard from 
 the king, fought with all the greater valour. The alarm was 
 transferred to the enemy; they had both heard what had been 
 uttered so loudly, and a great part of the Fidenates, as men 
 who had mixed as colonists with the Romans, understood 
 Latin. Therefore, that they might not be cut off from the 
 town by a sudden descent of the Albans from the hills, they 
 took to flight. Tullus pressed forward, and having routed 
 the wing of the Fidenates, returned with greater fury against 
 the Veientes, who were disheartened by the panic of the 
 others : they did not even sustain his charge ; but the river, 
 opposed to them in the rear, prevented a disordered flight. 
 When their flight led thither, some, shamefully throwing down 
 their arms, rushed blindly into the river; others, while linger- 
 ing on the banks, undecided whether to fight or flee, were 
 overpowered. Never before was a more desperate battle 
 fought by the Romans. 
 
 Then the Alban army, which had been a mere spectator 
 of the fight, was marched down into the plains. Mettius con- 
 gratulated Tullus on his victory over the enemy; Tullus on 
 his part addressed Mettius with courtesy. He ordered the 
 Albans to unite their camp with that of the Romans, which 
 he prayed heaven might prove beneficial to both; and pre- 
 pared a purificatory sacrifice for the next day. As soon as it 
 was daylight, all things being in readiness, according to cus- 
 
24 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [e. C. 672-640 
 
 torn, he commanded both armies to be summoned to an as- 
 sembly. The heralds, beginning at the farthest part of the 
 camp, summoned the Albans first. They, struck also with the 
 novelty of the thing, in order to hear the Roman king deliver 
 a speech, crowded next to him. The Roman forces, under 
 arms, according to previous arrangement, surrounded them; 
 the centurions had been charged to execute their orders with- 
 out delay. Then Tullus began as follows: " Romans, if ever 
 before, at any other time, in any war, there was a reason that 
 you should return thanks, first to the immortal gods, next 
 to your own valour, it was yesterday's battle. For the strug- 
 gle was not so much with enemies as with the treachery and 
 perfidy of allies, a struggle which is more serious and more 
 dangerous. For — that you may not be under a mistaken 
 opinion — know that it was without my orders that the Albans 
 retired to the mountains, nor was that my command, but a 
 stratagem and the mere pretence of a command: that you, 
 being kept in ignorance that you were deserted, your atten- 
 tion might not be drawn away from the fight, and that the 
 enemy might be inspired with terror and dismay, conceiving 
 themselves to be surrounded on the rear. Nor is that guilt, 
 which I now complain of, shared by all the Albans. They 
 merely followed their leader, as you too would have done, 
 had I wished to turn my army away to any other point from 
 thence. It is Mettius there who is the leader of this march: 
 it is Mettius also who is the contriver of this war: it is Mettius 
 who is the violator of the treaty between Rome and Alba. 
 Let another hereafter venture to do the like, if I do not pres- 
 ently make of him a signal example to mankind." The cen- 
 turions in arms stood around Mettius: the king proceeded 
 with the rest of his speech as he had commenced: " It is my 
 intention, and may it prove fortunate, happy, and auspicious 
 to the Roman people, to myself, and to you, O Albans, to 
 transplant all the inhabitants of Alba to Rome, to grant your 
 commons the rights of citizenship, to admit your nobles into 
 the body of senators, to make one city, one state: as the 
 Alban state after being one people was formerly divided into 
 two, so let it now again become one." On hearing this the 
 Alban youth, unarmed, surrounded by armed men, although 
 divided in their sentiments, yet under pressure of the general 
 apprehension maintained silence. Then Tullus proceeded: 
 " If, Mettius Fufetius, you were capable of learning fidelity, 
 and how to observe treaties, I would have suffered you to live 
 and have given you such a lesson. But as it is, since your 
 disposition is incurable, do you at any rate by your punish- 
 
B.C. 672-640] DESTRUCTION OF ALBA 35 
 
 ment teach mankind to consider those obligations sacred, 
 which have been violated by you? As therefore a little while 
 since you kept your mind divided between the interests of 
 Fidense and of Rome, so shall you now surrender your body 
 to be torn asunder in different directions." Upon this, two 
 chariots drawn by four horses being brought up, he bound 
 Mettius stretched at full length to their carriages: then the 
 horses were driven in different directions, carrying off his 
 mangled body on each carriage, where the limbs had remained 
 hanging to the cords. All turned away their eyes from so 
 shocking a spectacle. That was the first and last instance 
 among the Romans of a ptmishment which established a 
 precedent that showed but little regard for the laws of human- 
 ity. In other cases we may boast that no other nation has 
 approved of milder forms of punishment.' 
 
 Meanwhile the cavalry had already been sent on to Alba, 
 to transplant the people to Rome. The legions were next led 
 thither to demolish the city. When they entered the gates, 
 there was not indeed such a tumult or panic as usually pre- 
 vails in captured cities, when, after the gates have been burst 
 open, or the walls levelled by the battering-ram, or the citadel 
 taken by assault, the shouts of the enemy and rush of armed 
 men through the city throws everything into confusion with 
 fire and sword: but gloomy silence and speechless sorrow so 
 stupefied the minds of all, that, through fear, paying no heed 
 as to what they should leave behind, what they should take 
 with them, in their perplexity, making frequent inquiries one 
 of another, they now stood on the thresholds, now wandering 
 about, roamed through their houses, which they were destined 
 to see then for the last time. When now the shouts of the 
 horsemen commanding them to depart became urgent, and 
 the crash of the dwellings which were being demolished was 
 heard in the remotest parts of the city, and the dust, rising 
 from distant places, had filled every quarter as with a cloud 
 spread over them ; then, hastily carrying out whatever each 
 of them could, while they went forth, leaving behind them 
 their guardian deity and household gods,^ and the homes in 
 which each had been born and brought up, an unbroken line 
 of emigrants soon filled the streets, and the sight of others 
 
 ' Scourging and beheading, scourging to death, burying alive, and 
 crucifixion (for slaves) may make us question the justice of this boast. 
 Foreign generals captured in war were only strangled. Altogether, the 
 Roman indifference to suffering was very marked as compared with the 
 humanity of the Greeks. — D. O. 
 
 ' The Lares were of human origin, being only the deified ancestors of 
 the family ; the Penates of divine origin, the tutelary gods of the family. 
 
36 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 672-640 
 
 caused their tears to break out afresh in pity for one another: 
 piteous cries too were heard, of the women more especially, 
 as they passed by their revered temples now beset with armed 
 men, and left their gods as it were in captivity. After the 
 Albans had evacuated the town, the Roman soldiery levelled 
 all the public and private buildings indiscriminately to the 
 ground, and a single hour consigned to destruction and ruin 
 the work of four hundred years, during which Alba had stood. 
 The temples of the gods, however — for so it had been ordered 
 by the king — were spared. 
 
 In the meantime Rome increased by the destruction of 
 Alba. The number of citizens was doubled. The Coelian 
 Mount was added to the city, and, in order that it might be 
 more thickly populated, Tullus selected it as a site for his 
 palace, and subsequently took up his abode there. The lead- 
 ing men of the Albans he enrolled among the patricians, that 
 that division of the state also might increase, the Tullii, Ser- 
 vilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii, Cloelii; and as a consecrated 
 place of meeting for the order thus augmented by himself he 
 built a senate-house, which was called Hostilia ^ even down to 
 the time of our fathers. Further, that all ranks might ac- 
 quire some additional strength from the new people, he chose 
 ten troops of horsemen from among the Albans: he likewise 
 recruited the old legions, and raised new ones, by additions 
 from the same source. Trusting to this increase of strength, 
 Tullus declared war against the Sabines, a nation at that time 
 the most powerful, next to the Etruscans, in men and arms. 
 On both sides wrongs had been committed, and satisfaction 
 demanded in vain. Tullus complained that some Roman mer- 
 chants had been seized in a crowded market near the temple 
 of Feronia : ^ the Sabines that some of their people had pre- 
 viously taken refuge in the asylum, and had been detained 
 at Rome. These were put forward as the causes of the war. 
 The Sabines, well aware both that a portion of their strength 
 had been settled at Rome by Tatius, and that the Roman 
 power had also been lately increased by the accession of the 
 Alban people, began, in like manner, to look around for for- 
 eign aid themselves. Etruria was in their neighbourhood; 
 of the Etruscans the Veientes were the nearest. From thence 
 they attracted some volunteers, whose minds were stirred up 
 to break the truce, chiefly in consequence of the rankling ani- 
 mosities from former wars. Pay also had its weight with some 
 
 1 "Curia Hostilia," It was at the northwest corner of the forum, 
 northeast of the comitium. — D. O. 
 * Identified with Juno. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 672-640] DEFEAT OF THE SABINES 37 
 
 stragglers belonging to the indigent population. They were 
 assisted by no aid from the government, and the loyal ob- 
 servation of the truce concluded with Romulus was strictly 
 kept by the Veientes: with respect to the others it is less sur- 
 prising. While both sides were preparing for war with the 
 utmost vigour, and the matter seemed to turn on this, which 
 side should first commence hostilities, Tullus advanced first 
 into the Sabine territory. A desperate battle took place at 
 the wood called Malitiosa, in which the Roman army gained 
 a decisive advantage, both by reason of the superior strength 
 of their infantry, and also, more especially, by the aid of their 
 cavalry, which had been recently increased. The Sabine ranks 
 were thrown into disorder by a sudden charge of the cavalry, 
 nor could they afterward stand firm in battle array, or retreat 
 in loose order without great slaughter. 
 
 After the defeat of the Sabines, when the government of 
 Tullus and the whole Roman state enjoyed great renown, 
 and was highly flourishing, it was announced to the king and 
 senators, that it had rained stones on the Alban Mount. As 
 this could scarcely be credited, on persons being sent to in- 
 vestigate the prodigy, a shower of stones fell from heaven 
 before their eyes, just as when balls of hail are pelted down 
 to the earth by the winds. They also seemed to hear a loud 
 voice from the grove on the summit of the hill, bidding the 
 Albans perform their religious services according to the rites 
 of their native country, which they had consigned to ob- 
 livion, as if their gods had been abandoned at the same time 
 as their country; and had either adopted the religious rites 
 of Rome, or, as often happens, enraged at their evil destiny, 
 had altogether renounced the worship of the gods. A festival 
 of nine days was instituted publicly by the Romans also on 
 account of the same prodigy, either in obedience to the heav- 
 enly voice sent from the Alban Mount — for that, too, is re- 
 ported — or by the advice of the soothsayers. Anyhow, it con- 
 tinued a solemn observance, that, whenever a similar prodigy 
 was announced, a festival for nine days was observed. Not 
 long after, they were afflicted with an epidemic; and though 
 in consequence of this there arose an unwillingness to serve, 
 yet no respite from arms was given them by the warlike 
 king, who considered besides that the bodies of the young 
 men were more healthy when on service abroad than at home, 
 until he himself also was attacked by a lingering disease. 
 Then that proud spirit and body became so broken, that he, 
 who had formerly considered nothing less worthy of a king 
 than to devote his mind to religious observances, began to 
 
38 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 640-616 
 
 pass his time a slave to every form of superstition, impor- 
 tant and trifling, and filled the people's minds also with re- 
 ligious scruples. The majority of his subjects, now desiring 
 the restoration of that state of things which had existed under 
 King Numa, thought that the only chance of relief for their 
 diseased bodies lay in grace and compassion being obtained 
 from the gods. It is said that the king himself, turning over 
 the commentaries of Numa, after he had found therein that 
 certain sacrifices of a secret and solemn nature had been per- 
 formed to Jupiter Elicius, shut himself up and set about the 
 performance of those solemnities, but that that rite was not 
 duly undertaken or carried out, and that not only was no 
 heavenly manifestation vouchsafed to him, but he and his house 
 were struck by lightning and burned to ashes, through the 
 anger of Jupiter, who was exasperated at the ceremony having 
 been improperly performed.^ Tullus reigned two-and-thirty 
 years with great military renown. 
 
 On the death of Tullus, according to the custom estab- 
 lished in the first instance, the government devolved once 
 more upon the senate, who nominated an interrex; and on 
 his holding the comitia, the people elected Ancus Marcius 
 king. The fathers ratified the election. Ancus Marcius was 
 the grandson of King Numa Pompilius by his daughter. As 
 soon as he began to reign, mindful of the renown of his grand- 
 father, and reflecting that the last reign, glorious as it had 
 been in every other respect, in one particular had not been 
 adequately prosperous, either because the rites of religion had 
 been utterly neglected, or improperly performed, and deem- 
 ing it of the highest importance to perform the public cere- 
 monies of religion, as they had been instituted by Numa, he 
 ordered the pontiff, after he had recorded them all from the 
 king's commentaries on white tables, to set them up in a 
 public place. Hence, as both his own subjects, and the neigh- 
 bouring nations desired peace, hope was entertained that the 
 king would adopt the conduct and institutions of his grand- 
 father. Accordingly, the Latins, with whom a treaty had been 
 concluded in the reign of Tullus, gained fresh courage; and, 
 after they had invaded Roman territory, returned a con- 
 temptuous answer to the Romans when they demanded satis- 
 faction, supposing that the Roman king would spend his reign 
 in indolence among chapels and altars. The disposition of 
 Ancus was betvifeen two extremes, preserving the qualities 
 
 ' This story makes us suspect the case of another warlike king who 
 had incurred the enmity of the senate. The patricians alone controlled or 
 were taught in religious matters. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 640-616J ANGUS MARCIUS MADE KING 35 
 
 of both Numa and Romulus; and, besides believing that peace 
 was more necessary in his grandfather's reign, since the peo- 
 ple were then both newly formed and uncivilized, he also 
 felt that he could not easily preserve the tranquility unmo- 
 lested which had fallen to his lot; that his patience was being 
 tried, and being tried, was despised: and that the times gen- 
 erally were more suited to a King TuUus than to a Numa. 
 In order, however, that, since Numa had instituted religious 
 rites in peace, ceremonies relating to war might be drawn up 
 by him, and that wars might not only be waged, but pro- 
 claimed also in accordance with some prescribed form, he 
 borrowed from an ancient nation, the ^Equicolae, and drew up 
 the form which the heralds observe to this day, according to 
 which restitution is demanded. The ambassador, when he 
 reaches the frontiers of the people from whom satisfaction 
 is demanded, having his head covered with a fillet — this cov- 
 ering is of wool — says: " Hear, O Jupiter, hear, ye confines" 
 (naming whatsoever nation they belong to), " let divine justice 
 hear. I am the public messenger of the Roman people; I 
 come deputed by right and religion, and let my words gain 
 credit." He then definitely states his demands; afterward he 
 calls Jupiter to witness : " If I demand these persons and 
 these goods to be given up to me contrary to human or divine 
 right, then may est thou never permit me to enjoy my native 
 country." These words he repeats when he passes over the 
 frontiers: the same to the first man he meets: the same on 
 entering the gate: the same on entering the forum, with a 
 slight change of expression in the form of the declaration 
 and drawing up of the oath. If the persons whom he demands 
 are not delivered up, after the expiration of thirty-three days 
 — for this number is enjoined by rule — he declares war in the 
 following terms: "Hear, Jupiter, and thou, Janus Quirinus, 
 and all ye celestial, terrestrial, and infernal gods, give ear! 
 I call you to witness, that this nation " (mentioning its name) 
 "is unjust, and does not carry out the principles of justice: 
 however, we will consult the elders in our own country con- 
 cerning those matters, by what means we may obtain our 
 rights." The messenger returns with them to Rome to con- 
 sult. The king used immediately to consult the fathers as 
 nearly as possible in the following words : " Concerning such 
 things, causes of dispute, and quarrels, as the pater patratus 
 of the Roman people, the Quirites, has treated with the pater 
 patratus of the ancient Latins, and with the ancient Latin 
 people, which things ought to be given up, made good, dis- 
 charged, which things they have neither given up, nor made 
 
.Q LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 640-616 
 
 good, nor discharged, declare," says he to him, whose^opinion 
 he asked first, " what thinlv you? " Then he rephes: " I thmk 
 that they should be demanded by a war free from guilt and 
 regularly declared; and accordingly I agree, and vote for it." 
 Then the others were asked in order, and when the majority 
 of those present expressed the same opinion, war was agreed 
 upon. It was customary for the fetialis to carry in his hand 
 a spear pointed with steel, or burned at the end and dipped in 
 blood, to the confines of the enemy's country, and in presence 
 of at least three grown-up persons, to say, " Forasmuch as the 
 states of the ancient Latins, and the ancient Latin people, have 
 ofifended against the Roman people of the Quirites, forasmuch 
 as the Roman people of the Quirites have ordered that there 
 should be war with the ancient Latins, and the senate of the 
 Roman people, the Quirites, have given their opinion, agreed, 
 and voted that war should be waged with the ancient Latins, 
 on this account I and the Roman people declare and wage 
 war on the states of the ancient Latins, and on the ancient 
 Latin people." Whenever he said that, he used to hurl the 
 spear within their confines. After this manner at that time 
 satisfaction was demanded from the Latins, and war pro- 
 claimed: and posterity has adopted that usage. 
 
 Ancus, having intrusted the care of sacred matters to the 
 flamens and other priests, set out with an army freshly levied, 
 and took Politorium, a city of the Latins, by storm: and fol- 
 lowing the example of former kings, who had increased the 
 Roman power by incorporating enemies into the state, trans- 
 planted all the people to Rome. And since the Sabines had 
 occupied the Capitol and citadel, and the Albans the Coelian 
 Mount on both sides of the Palatium, the dwelling-place of 
 the old Romans, the Aventine was assigned to the new peo- 
 ple; not long after, on the capture of Tellense and Ficana, 
 new citizens were added to the same quarter. After this Poli- 
 torium, which the ancient Latins had taken possession of when 
 vacated, was taken a second time by force of arms. This was 
 the cause of the Romans demolishing that city, that it might 
 never after serve as a place of refuge for the enemy. At last, 
 the war with the Latins being entirely concentrated at Me- 
 dullia, the contest was carried on there for some time with 
 changing success, according as the fortune of war varied: 
 for the town was both well protected by fortified works, and 
 strengthened by a powerful garrison, and the Latins, having 
 pitched their camp in the open, had several times come to a 
 close engagement with the Romans. At last Ancus, making 
 an effort with all his forces, first defeated them in a pitched 
 
B.C. 640-616] LUCIUS TARQUINIUS PRISCUS 4I 
 
 battle, and, enriched by considerable booty, returned thence 
 to Rome: many thousands of the Latins were then also ad- 
 mitted to citizenship, to whom, in order that the Aventine 
 might be united to the Palatium, a settlement was assigned 
 near the Temple of Murcia."^ The Janiculum ^ was likewise 
 added, not from want of room, but lest at any time it should 
 become a stronghold for the enemy. It was resolved that it 
 should not only be surrounded by a wall, but also, for con- * 
 venience of passage, be united to the city by a wooden bridge, 
 which was then for the first time built across the Tiber. The 
 fossa Quiritium, no inconsiderable defence in places where 
 the ground was lower and consequently easier of access, was 
 also the work of King Ancus. The state being augmented by 
 such great accessions, seeing that, amid such a multitude of 
 inhabitants (all distinction of right and wrong being as yet 
 confounded), secret crimes were committed, a prison^ was built 
 in the heart of the city, overlooking the forum, to intimidate 
 the growing licentiousness. And not only was the city in- 
 creased under this king, but also its territory and boundaries. 
 After the Mesian forest had been taken from the Veientines, 
 the Roman dominion was extended as far as the sea, and the 
 city of Ostia built at the mouth of the Tiber; salt-pits were 
 dug around it, and, in consequence of the distinguished suc- 
 cesses in war, the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius was enlarged. 
 
 In the reign of Ancus, Lucumo,* a wealthy and enterpris- 
 ing man, came to settle at Rome, prompted chiefly by the 
 desire and hope of high preferment, which he had no oppor- 
 tunity of obtaining at Tarquinii (for there also he was de- 
 scended from an alien stock). He was the son of Demaratus, 
 a Corinthian, who, an exile from his country on account of 
 civil disturbances, had chanced to settle at Tarquinii, and 
 having married a wife there, had two sons by her. Their 
 names were Lucumo and Arruns. Lucumo survived his 
 father, and became heir to all his property. Arruns died be- 
 fore his father, leaving a wife pregnant. The father did not 
 long survive the son, and as he, not knowing that his daughter- 
 in-law was pregnant, had died without mentioning his grand- 
 child in his will, the boy who was born after the death of his 
 grandfather, and had no share in his fortune, was given the 
 name of Egerius on account of his poverty. Lucumo, who was, 
 
 ' Supposed to be an Etruscan goddess, afterward identified with Ja- 
 nus, as was customary with the Romans. — D. O. 
 
 * The heights across the Tiber, — D. O. 
 
 ' Called Mamertinus, though apparently not until the Middle Ages. 
 
 * Lucumo seems to have been, originally at least, an Etruscan title 
 rather than name. — D. O. 
 
42 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 640-616 
 
 on the other hand, the heir of all his father's property, being 
 filled with high aspirations by reason of his wealth, had 
 these ambitions greatly advanced by his marriage with Tana- 
 quil, who was descended from a very high family, and was a 
 woman who would not readily brook that the condition into 
 which she had married should be inferior to that in which she 
 had been born. As the Etruscans despised Lucumo, as being 
 sprung from a foreign exile, she could not put up with the 
 affront, and, regardless of the natural love of her native coun- 
 try, provided only she could see her husband advanced to 
 honour, she formed the design of leaving Tarquinii. Rome 
 seemed particularly suited for that purpose. In a state, lately 
 founded, where all nobility is rapidly gained and as the re- 
 ward of merit, there would be room (she thought) for a man 
 of courage and activity. Tatius, a Sabine, had been king of 
 Rome: Numa had been sent for from Cures to reign there: 
 Ancus was sprung from a Sabine mother, and rested his title 
 to nobility on the single statue of Numa.^ Without difficulty 
 she persuaded him, being, as he was, ambitious of honours, 
 and one to whom Tarquinii was his country only on his 
 mother's side. Accordingly, removing their effects, they set 
 out for Rome. They happened to have reached the Janicu- 
 lum: there, as he sat in the chariot with his wife, an eagle, 
 gently swooping down on floating wings, took off his cap, 
 and hovering above the chariot with loud screams, as if it 
 had been sent from heaven for that very purpose, carefully 
 replaced it on his head, and then flew aloft out of sight. 
 Tanaquil is said to have joyfully welcomed this omen, being 
 a woman well skilled, as the Etruscans generally are, in celes- 
 tial prodigies, and, embracing her husband, bade him hope for 
 a high and lofty destiny: that such a bird had come from 
 such a quarter of the heavens, and the messenger of such a 
 god: that it had declared the omen around the highest part 
 of man: that it had lifted the ornament placed on the head 
 of man, to restore it to him again, by direction of the gods. 
 Bearing with them such hopes and thoughts, they entered 
 the city, and having secured a dwelling there, they gave out 
 his name as Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. The fact that he was 
 a stranger and his wealth rendered him an object of attention 
 to the Romans. He himself also promoted his own good 
 fortune by his affable address, by the courteousness of his 
 invitations, and by gaining over to his side all whom he could 
 
 ' No one was noble who could not show images of his ancestors : and 
 no one was allowed to have an image who had not filled the highest offices 
 of state : this was called ius imaginum. 
 
B. C. 616-578] TARQUIN OBTAINS THE RULE 43 
 
 by acts of kindness, until reports concerning him reached 
 even to the palace: and that notoriety he, in a short time, 
 by paying his court to the king without truckling and with 
 skilful address, improved so far as to be admitted on a footing 
 of intimate friendship, so much so that he was present at all 
 public and private deliberations alike, both foreign and do- 
 mestic; and being now proved in every sphere, he was at 
 length, by the king's will, also appointed guardian to his 
 children. 
 
 Ancus reigned twenty-four years, equal to any of the 
 former kings both in the arts of war and peace, and in renown. 
 His sons were now nigh the age of puberty ; for which reason 
 Tarquin was more urgent that the assembly for the election 
 of a king should be held as soon as possible. The assembly 
 having been proclaimed, he sent the boys out of the way to 
 hunt just before the time of the meeting. He is said to have 
 been the first who canvassed for the crown, and to have made 
 a speech expressly worded with the object of gaining the af- 
 fections of the people : saying that he did not aim at anything 
 unprecedented, for that he was not the first foreigner (a thing 
 at which any one might feel indignation or surprise), but the 
 third who aspired to the sovereignty of Rome. That Tatius 
 who had not only been an alien, but even an enemy, had been 
 made king ; that Numa, who knew nothing of the city, and 
 without solicitation on his part, had been voluntarily invited 
 by them to the throne. That he, from the time he was his 
 own master, had migrated to Rome with his wife and whole 
 fortune, and had spent a longer period of that time of life, 
 during which men are employed in civil offices, at Rome, than 
 he had in his native country ; that he had both in peace and 
 war become thoroughly acquainted with the political and 
 religious institutions of the Romans, under a master by no 
 means to be despised. King Ancus himself; that he had vied 
 with all in duty and loyalty to his king, and with the king 
 himself in his bounty to others. While he was recounting 
 these undoubted facts, the people with great unanimity elected 
 him king. The same spirit of ambition which had prompted 
 Tarquin, in other respects an excellent man, to aspire to the 
 crown, attended him also on the throne. And being no less 
 mindful of strengthening his own power, than of increasing 
 the commonwealth, he elected a hundred new members into 
 the senate, who from that time were called minorum gentium, 
 a party who stanchly supported the king, by whose favour 
 they had been admitted into the senate. The first war he 
 waged was with the Latins, in whose territory he took the 
 
44 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 616-578 
 
 town of Apiolas by storm, and having brought back thence 
 more booty than might have been expected from the reported 
 importance of the war, he celebrated games with more mag- 
 nificence and display than former kings. The place for the 
 circus, which is now called Maximus, was then first marked 
 out, and spaces were apportioned to the senators and knights, 
 where they might each erect seats for themselves: these were 
 called fori (benches). They viewed the games from scaffold- 
 ing which supported seats twelve feet in height from the 
 ground. The show consisted of horses and boxers that were 
 summoned, chiefly from Etruria. These solemn games, after- 
 ward celebrated annually, continued an institution, being 
 afterward variously called the Roman and Great games. By 
 the same king also spaces round the forum were assigned 
 to private individuals for building on ; covered walks and 
 shops were erected. 
 
 He was also preparing to surround the city with a stone 
 wall, when a war with the Sabines interrupted his plans. The 
 whole thing was so sudden, that the enemy passed the Anio 
 before the Roman army could meet and prevent them: great 
 alarm therefore was felt at Rome. At first they fought with 
 doubtful success, and with great slaughter on both sides. 
 After this, the enemy's forces were led back into camp, and 
 the Romans having thus gained time to make preparations for 
 the war afresh, Tarquin, thinking that the weak point of his 
 army lay specially in the want of cavalry, determined to add 
 other centuries to the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres 
 which Romulus had enrolled, and to leave them distinguished 
 by his own name. Because Romulus had done this after in- 
 quiries by augury, Attus Navius, a celebrated soothsayer of 
 the day, insisted that no alteration or new appointment could 
 be made, unless the birds had approved of it. The king, en- 
 raged at this, and, as they say, mocking at his art, said, 
 " Come, thou diviner, tell me, whether what I have in my 
 mind can be done or not? " When Attus, having tried the 
 matter by divination, afifirmed that it certainly could, " Well, 
 then," said he, " I was thinking that you should cut asunder 
 this whetstone with a razor. Take it, then, and perform what 
 thy birds portend can be done." Thereupon they say that he 
 immediately cut the whetstone in two. A statue of Attus, 
 with his head veiled, was erected in the comitium, close to 
 the steps on the left of the senate-house, on the spot where 
 the event occurred. They say also that the whetstone was 
 deposited in the same place, that it might remain as a record 
 of that miracle to posterity. Without doubt so much honour 
 
B. C. 616-578] PEACE WITH THE SABINES 
 
 45 
 
 accrued to auguries and the college of augurs, that nothing 
 was subsequently undertaken either in peace or war without 
 taking the auspices, and assemblies of the people, the sum- 
 moning of armies, and the most important affairs of state were 
 put off, whenever the birds did not prove propitious. Nor did 
 Tarquin then make any other alteration in the centuries of 
 horse, except that he doubled the number of men in each of 
 these divisions, so that the three centuries consisted of one 
 thousand eight hundred knights ; only, those that were added 
 were called " the younger," but by the same names as the 
 earlier, which, because they have been doubled, they now call 
 the six centuries. 
 
 This part of his forces being augmented, a second engage- 
 ment took place with the Sabines. But, besides that the 
 strength of the Roman army had been thus augmented, a 
 stratagem also was secretly resorted to, persons being sent 
 to throw into the river a great quantity of timber that lay 
 on the banks of the Anio, after it had been first set on fire; 
 and the wood, being further kindled by the help of the wind, 
 and the greater part of it, that was placed on rafts, being 
 driven against and sticking in the piles, fired the bridge. This 
 accident also struck terror into the Sabines during the battle, 
 and, after they were routed, also impeded their flight. Many, 
 after they had escaped the enemy, perished in the river: their 
 arms floating down the Tiber to the city, and being recog- 
 nised, made the victory known almost before any announce- 
 ment of it could be made. In that action the chief credit 
 rested with the cavalry: they say that, being posted on the 
 two wings, when the centre of their own infantry was now 
 being driven back, they charged so briskly in flank, that they 
 not only checked the Sabine legions who pressed hard on 
 those who were retreating, but suddenly put them to flight. 
 The Sabines made for the mountains in disordered flight, but 
 only a few reached them; for, as has been said before, most 
 of them were driven by the cavalry into the river. Tarquin, 
 thinking it advisable to press the enemy hard while in a state 
 of panic, having sent the booty and the prisoners to Rome, 
 and piled in a large heap and burned the enemy's spoils, vowed 
 as an offering to Vulcan, proceeded to lead his army onward 
 into the Sabine territory. And though the operation had 
 been unsuccessfully carried out, and they could not hope for 
 better success ; yet, because the state of affairs did not allow 
 time for deliberation, the Sabines came out to meet him with 
 a hastily raised army. Being again routed there, as the situa- 
 tion had now become almost desperate, they sued for peace. 
 
46 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. c. 616-578 
 
 Collatia and all the land round about was taken from the 
 Sabines, and Egerius, son of the king's brother, was left there 
 in garrison. I learn that the people of Collatia were sur- 
 rendered, and that the form of the surrender was as follows. 
 The king asked them, " Are ye ambassadors and deputies sent 
 by the people of Collatia to surrender yourselves and the 
 people of Collatia? " " We are." " Are the people of Collatia 
 their own masters?" " They are." " Do ye surrender your- 
 selves and the people of Collatia, their city, lands, water, 
 boundaries, temples, utensils, and everything sacred or pro- 
 fane belonging to them, into my power, and that of the Roman 
 people?" "We do." "Then I receive them." When the 
 Sabine war was finished, Tarquin returned in triumph to 
 Rome. After that he made war upon the ancient Latins, 
 wherein they came on no occasion to a decisive engagement; 
 yet, by shifting his attack to the several towns, he subdued 
 the whole Latin nation. Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, 
 Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, and Momentum, towns 
 which either belonged to the ancient Latins, or which had re- 
 volted to them, were taken from them. Upon this, peace was 
 concluded. Works of peace were then commenced with even 
 greater spirit than the efforts with which he had conducted 
 his wars, so that the people enjoyed no more repose at home 
 than it had already enjoyed abroad; for he set about sur- 
 rounding the city with a stone wall, on the side where he had 
 not yet fortified it, the beginning of which work had been 
 interrupted by the Sabine war ; and the lower parts of the 
 city round the forum, and the other valleys lying between the 
 hills, because they could not easily carry off the water from 
 the flat grounds, he drained by means of sewers conducted 
 down a slope into the Tiber. He also levelled an open space 
 for a temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, which he had vowed 
 to him in the Salaine war: as his mind even then forecast the 
 future grandeur of the place, he took possession of the site 
 by laying its foundations. 
 
 At that time a prodigy was seen in the palace, which was 
 marvellous in its result. It is related that the head of a boy, 
 called Servius TuUius, as he lay asleep, blazed with fire in the 
 presence of several spectators: that, on a great noise being 
 made at so miraculous a phenomenon, the king and queen 
 were awakened : and when one of the servants was bringing 
 water to put out the flame, that he was kept back by the queen, 
 and after the disturbance was quieted, that she forbade the boy 
 to be disturbed till he should awaken of his own accord. 
 As soon as he awoke the flame disappeared. Then Tanaquil, 
 
B.C. 616-578] THE STORY OF SERVIUS TULLIUS 47 
 
 taking her husband apart, said : " Do you see this boy whom 
 we are bringing up in so mean a style ? Be assured that some 
 time hereafter he will be a light to us in our adversity, and a 
 protector of our royal house when in distress. Henceforth let 
 us, with all the tenderness we can, train up this youth, who is 
 destined to prove the source of great glory to our family and 
 state." From this time the boy began to be treated as their 
 own son, and instructed in those accomplishments by which 
 men's minds are roused to maintain high rank with dignity. 
 This was easily done, as it was agreeable to the gods. The 
 young man turned out to be of truly royal disposition : nor 
 when a son-in-law was being sought for Tarquin, could any 
 of the Roman youth be compared to him in any accomplish- 
 ment : therefore the king betrothed his own daughter to him. 
 The fact of this high honour being conferred upon him, from 
 whatever cause, forbids us to believe that he was the son of a 
 slave, or that he had himself been a slave when young. I am 
 rather of the opinion of those who say that, on the taking of 
 Corniculum, the wife of Servius Tullius, who had been the 
 leading man in that city, being pregnant when her husband 
 was slain, since she was known among the other female pris- 
 oners, and, in consequence of her distinguished rank, exempt- 
 ed from servitude by the Roman queen, was delivered of a 
 child at Rome, in the house of Tarquinius Priscus : upon this, 
 that both the intimacy between the women was increased by 
 so great a kindness, and that the boy, as he had been brought 
 up in the family from his infancy, was beloved and respected ; 
 that his mother's lot, in having fallen into the hands of the 
 enemy after the capture of her native city, caused him to be 
 thought to be the son of a slave. 
 
 About the thirty-eighth year of Tarquin's reign, Servius 
 Tullius enjoyed the highest esteem, not only of the king, but 
 also of the senate and people. At this time the two sons of 
 Ancus, though they had before that always considered it the 
 highest indignity that they had been deprived of their father's 
 crown by the treachery of their guardian, that a stranger 
 should be King of Rome, who not only did not belong to a 
 neighbouring, but not even to an Italian family, now felt their 
 indignation roused to a still higher pitch at the idea that the 
 crown would not only not revert to them after Tarquin, but 
 would descend even lower to slaves, so that in the same state, 
 about the hundredth year after Romulus, descended from a 
 deity, and a deity himself, had occupied the throne as long as 
 he lived, Servius, one born of a slave, would possess it : that it 
 would be the common disgrace both of the Roman name, and 
 
48 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 616-578 
 
 more especially of their family, if, while there was male issue 
 of King Ancus still living, the sovereignty of Rome should be 
 accessible not only to strangers, but even to slaves. They de- 
 termined therefore to prevent that disgrace by the sword. But 
 since resentment for the injury done to them incensed them 
 more against Tarquin himself, than against Servius, and the 
 consideration that a king was likely to prove a more severe 
 avenger of the murder, if he should survive, than a private per- 
 son ; and moreover, even if Servius were put to death, it 
 seemed likely that he would adopt as his successor on the 
 throne whomsoever else he might have selected as his son-in- 
 law. For these reasons the plot was laid against the king 
 himself. Two of the most brutal of the shepherds, chosen for 
 the deed, each carrying with him the iron tools of husband- 
 men to the use of which he had been accustomed, by creating 
 as great a disturbance as they could in the porch of the palace, 
 under pretence of a quarrel, attracted the attention of all the 
 king's attendants to themselves ; then, when both appealed 
 to the king, and their clamour had reached even the interior 
 of the palace, they were summoned and proceeded before 
 him. At first both shouted aloud, and vied in clamouring 
 against each other, until, being restrained by the lictor, and 
 commanded to speak in turns, they at length ceased railing : 
 as agreed upon, one began to state his case. While the king's 
 attention, eagerly directed toward the speaker, was diverted 
 from the second shepherd, the latter, raising up his axe, 
 brought it down upon the king's head, and, leaving the weapon 
 in the wound, both rushed out of the palace. 
 
 When those around had raised up Tarquin in a dying state, 
 the lictors seized the shepherds, who were endeavouring to 
 escape. Upon this an uproar ensued and a concourse of peo- 
 ple assembled, wondering what was the matter. Tanaquil, 
 amid the tumult, ordered the palace to be shut, and thrust 
 out all spectators : at the same time she carefully prepared 
 everything necessary for dressing the wound, as if a hope still 
 remained : at the same time, she provided other means of 
 safety, in case her hopes should prove false. Having hastily 
 summoned Servius, after she had shown him her husband 
 almost at his last gasp, holding his right hand, she entreated 
 him not to suffer the death of his father-in-law to pass un- 
 avenged, nor to allow his mother-in-law to be an object of 
 scorn to their enemies. " Servius," said she, "if you are a man, 
 the kingdom belongs to you, not to those, who, by the hands 
 of others, have perpetrated a most shameful deed. Rouse 
 yourself, and follow the guidance of the gods, who portended 
 
B. C. 578-534] TARQUIN IS MURDERED 4c, 
 
 that this head of yours would be illustrious by formerly shed- 
 ding a divine blaze around it. Now let that celestial flame 
 arouse you. Now awake in earnest. We, too, though for- 
 eigners, have reigned. Consider who you are, not whence you 
 are sprung. If your own plans are rendered useless by rea- 
 son of the suddenness of this event, then follow mine." When 
 the uproar and violence of the multitude could scarcely be en- 
 dured, Tanaquil addressed the populace from the upper part 
 of the palace^ through the windows facing the New Street (for 
 the royal residence was near the Temple of Jupiter Stator). 
 She bade them be of good courage ; that the king was merely 
 stunned by the suddenness of the blow ; that the weapon had 
 not sunk deep into his body ; that he had already come to his 
 senses again ; that the blood had been wiped off and the 
 wound examined ; that all the symptoms were favourable ; 
 that she was confident they would see him in person very 
 soon ; that, in the meantime, he commanded the people to 
 obey the orders of Servius Tullius ; that the latter would ad- 
 minister justice, and perform all the other functions of the 
 king. Servius came forth wearing the trabea ^ and attended 
 by lictors, and seating himself on the king's throne, decided 
 some cases, and with respect to others pretended that he would 
 consult the king. Therefore, though Tarquin had now ex- 
 pired, his death was concealed for several days, and Servius, 
 under pretence of discharging the functions of another, 
 strengthened his own influence. Then at length the fact of 
 his death was made public, lamentations being raised in the 
 palace. Servius, supported by a strong body-guard, took pos- 
 session of the kingdom by the consent of the senate, being 
 the first who did so without the order of the people. The 
 children of Ancus, the instruments of their villainy having 
 been by this time caught, as soon as it was announced that the 
 king still lived, and that the power of Servius was so great, 
 had already gone into exile to Suessa Pometia. 
 
 And now Servius began to strengthen his power, not more 
 by public than by private measures ; and, that the children of 
 Tarquin might not entertain the same feelings toward himself 
 as the children of Ancus had entertained toward Tarquin, he 
 united his two daughters in marriage to the young princes, the 
 
 ' This part of the Via Nova probably corresponded pretty closely with 
 the present Via S. Teodoro, and Tarquin's house is supposed to have stood 
 not far from the church of Sta. Anastasia. — D. O. 
 
 ^ A white toga with horizontal purple stripes. This was originally the 
 royal robe. Later it became the ceremonial dress of the equestrian order. 
 The Salii priests of Mars Gradivus also wore it. — D. O. 
 
 4 
 
50 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 578-534 
 
 Tarquinii, Lucius and Arruns. He did not, however, break 
 through the inevitable decrees of fate by human counsels, so 
 as to prevent jealousy of the sovereign power creating general 
 animosity and treachery even among the members of his own 
 family. Very opportunely for the immediate preservation 
 of tranquility, a war was undertaken against the Veientes (for 
 the truce had now expired) and the other Etruscans. In that 
 war, both the valour and good fortune of Tullius were con- 
 spicuous, and he returned to Rome, after routing a large army 
 of the enemy, undisputed king, whether he tested the dis- 
 positions of the fathers or the people. He then set about a 
 work of peace of the utmost importance : that, as Numa had 
 been the author of religious institutions, so posterity might 
 celebrate Servius as the founder of all distinction in the state, 
 and of the several orders by which any difference is perceptible 
 between the degrees of rank and fortune. For he instituted 
 the census,^ a most salutary measure for an empire destined 
 to become so great, according to which the services of war and 
 peace were to be performed, not by every man, as formerly, 
 but in proportion to his amount of property. Then he divided 
 the classes and centuries according to the census, and intro- 
 duced the following arrangement, eminently adapted either 
 for peace or war. 
 
 Of those who possessed property to the value of a hundred 
 thousand asses ^ and upward, he formed eighty centuries, 
 forty of seniors' and forty of juniors.* All these were called the 
 first class, the seniors to be in readiness to guard the city, the 
 juniors to carry on war abroad. The arms they were ordered 
 to wear consisted of a helmet, a round shield, greaves, and a 
 coat of mail, all of brass ; these were for the defence of the 
 body : their weapons of offence were a spear and a sword. 
 To this class were added two centuries of mechanics, who were 
 to serve without arms : the duty imposed upon them was that 
 of making military engines in time of war. The second class 
 included all those whose property varied between seventy-five 
 and a hundred thousand asses, and of these, seniors and jun- 
 
 ' This was a quinquennial registering of every man's age, family, pro- 
 fession, property, and residence, by which the amount of his taxes was 
 regulated. Formerly each full citizen contributed an equal amount. Ser- 
 vius introduced a regulation of the taxes according to property qualifica- 
 tions, and clients and plebeians alike had to pay their contribution, if they 
 possessed the requisite amount of property. 
 
 * Or, " pounds weight of bronze," originally reckoned by the posses- 
 sion of a certain number of jugera (20 jugera being equal to 5,000 asses). 
 
 * Between the ages of forty-six and sixty. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Between the ages of seventeen and forty-six. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 578-534] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CENSUS 51 
 
 iors, twenty centuries were enrolled. The arms they were 
 ordered to wear consisted of a buckler instead of a shield, and, 
 except a coat of mail, all the rest were the same. He decided 
 that the property of the third class should amount to fifty 
 thousand asses : the number of its centuries was the same, and 
 formed with the same distinction of age : nor was there any 
 change in their arms, only the greaves were dispensed with. 
 In the fourth class, the property was twenty-five thousand 
 asses : the same number of centuries was formed, their arms 
 were changed, nothing being given them but a spear and a 
 short javelin. The fifth class was larger, thirty centuries be- 
 ing formed : these carried slings and stones for throwing. 
 Among them the supernumeraries, the horn-blowers and the 
 trumpeters, were distributed into three centuries. This class 
 was rated at eleven thousand asses. Property lower than this 
 embraced the rest of the citizens, and of them one century was 
 made up which was exempted from military service. Having 
 thus arranged and distributed the infantry, he enrolled twelve 
 centuries of knights from among the chief men of the state. 
 While Romulus had only appointed three centuries, Servius 
 formed six others under the same names as they had received 
 at their first institution. Ten thousand asses were given them 
 out of the public revenue, to buy horses, and a number of 
 widows assigned them, who were to contribute two thousand 
 asses yearly for the support of the horses. All these burdens 
 were taken off the poor and laid on the rich. Then an ad- 
 ditional honour was conferred upon them : for the suffrage 
 was not now granted promiscuously to all — a custom estab- 
 lished by Romulus, and observed by his successors — to every 
 man with the same privilege and the same right, but grada- 
 tions were established, so that no one might seem excluded 
 from the right of voting, and yet the whole power might reside 
 in the chief men of the state. For the knights were first called 
 to vote, and then the eighty centuries of the first class, consist- 
 ing of the first class of the infantry : if there occurred a dif- 
 ference of opinion among them, which was seldom the case, 
 the practice was that those of the second class should be called, 
 and that they seldom descended so low as to come down to 
 the lowest class. Nor need we be surprised, that the present 
 order of things, which now exists, after the number of the 
 tribes was increased to thirty-five, their number being now 
 double of what it was, should not agree as to the number of 
 centuries of juniors and seniors with the collective number in- 
 stituted by Servius Tullius. For the city being divided into 
 four districts, according to the regions and hills which were 
 
52 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 578-534 
 
 then inhabited, he called these divisions tribes, as I think, from 
 the tribute. For the method of levying taxes ratably accord- 
 ing to the value of property was also introduced by him : nor 
 had these tribes any relation to the number and distribution of 
 the centuries. 
 
 The census being now completed, which he had brought 
 to a speedy close by the terror of a law passed in reference to 
 those who were not rated, under threats of imprisonment and 
 death, he issued a proclamation that all the Roman citizens, 
 horse and foot, should attend at daybreak in the Campus Mar- 
 tins, each in his century. There he reviewed the whole army 
 drawn up in centuries, and purified it by the rite called Suove- 
 taurilia,'^ and that was called the closing of the lustrum, be- 
 cause it was the conclusion of the census. Eighty thousand 
 citizens are said to have been rated in that survey. Fabius 
 Pictor, the most ancient of our historians, adds that that was 
 the number of those who were capable of bearing arms. To 
 accommodate that vast population the city also seemed to re- 
 quire enlargement. He took in two hills, the Quirinal and 
 Viminal ; then next he enlarged the Esquiline, and took up his 
 own residence there, in order that dignity might be conferred 
 upon the place. He surrounded the city with a rampart, a 
 moat, and a wall : - thus he enlarged the pomerium. Those 
 who regard only the etymology of the word, will have the po- 
 merium to be a space of ground behind the walls : whereas it 
 is rather a space on each side of the wall, which the Etruscans, 
 in building cities, formerly consecrated by augury, within cer- 
 tain limits, both within and without, in the direction they in- 
 tended to raise the wall : so that the houses might not be 
 erected close to the walls on the inside, as people commonly 
 unite them now, and also that there might be some space 
 without left free from human occupation. This space, which 
 was forbidden to be tilled or inhabited, the Romans called 
 pomerium, not so much from its being behind the wall, as 
 from the wall being behind it : and in enlarging the bounda- 
 ries of the city, these consecrated limits were always extended, 
 as far as the walls were intended to be advanced. 
 
 When the population had been increased in consequence 
 of the enlargement of the city, and everything had been or- 
 
 ' A ceremony of purification, from sus, ovis, and taurus : the three 
 victims were led three times round the army and sacrificed to Mars. The 
 ceremony took place every fifth year. 
 
 ' These were the walls of Rome down to about 271-276 A. D,, when the 
 Emperor Aurelian began the walls that now inclose the city. Remains of 
 the Servian wall are numerous and of considerable extent. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 578-534] THE TEMPLE OF DIANA 53 
 
 ganized at home to meet the exigencies both of peace and war, 
 that the acquisition of power might not always depend on 
 mere force of arms, he endeavoured to extend his empire by 
 pohcy, and at the same time to add some ornament to the city. 
 The Temple of Diana at Ephesus was even then in high re- 
 nown ; it was reported that it had been built by all the states 
 of Asia in common. When Servius, in the company of some 
 Latin nobles with whom he had purposely formed ties of 
 hospitality and friendship, both in public and private, extolled 
 in high terms such harmony and association of their gods, by 
 frequently harping upon the same subject, he at length pre- 
 vailed so far that the Latin states agreed to build a temple of 
 Diana at Rome ^ in conjunction with the Roman people. This 
 was an acknowledgment that the headship of affairs, concern- 
 ing which they had so often disputed in arms, was centred in 
 Rome. An accidental opportunity of recovering power by a 
 scheme of his own seemed to present itself to one of the Sa- 
 bines, though that object appears to have been left out of con- 
 sideration by all the Latins, in consequence of the matter hav- 
 ing been so often attempted unsuccessfully by arms. A cow of 
 surprising size and beauty is said to have been calved to a cer- 
 tain Sabine, the head of a family : her horns, which were hung 
 up in the porch of the Temple of Diana, remained for many 
 ages, to bear record to this marvel. The thing was regarded 
 in the light of a prodigy, as indeed it was, and the soothsayers 
 declared that sovereignty should reside in that state, a citizen 
 of which had sacrificed this heifer to Diana. This prediction 
 had also reached the ears of the high priest of the Temple of 
 Diana. The Sabine, as soon as a suitable day for the sacrifice 
 seemed to have arrived, drove the cow to Rome, led her to the 
 Temple of Diana, and set her before the altar. There the Ro- 
 man priest, struck with the size of the victim, so celebrated by 
 fame, mindful of the response of the soothsayers, thus ac- 
 costed the Sabine : " What dost thou intend to do, stranger? " 
 said he; "with impure hands to offer sacrifice to Diana? 
 Why dost not thou first wash thyself in running water? The 
 Tiber runs past at the bottom of the valley." The stranger, 
 seized with religious awe, since he was desirous of everything 
 being done in due form, that the event might correspond with 
 the prediction, forthwith went down to the Tiber. In the 
 meantime the Roman priest sacrificed the cow to Diana, 
 which gave great satisfaction to the king, and to the whole 
 state. 
 
 Servius, though he had now acquired an indisputable 
 
 ' On the summit of the Aventine. — D. O. 
 
54 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 578-534 
 
 right to the kingdom by long possession, yet, as he heard that 
 expressions were sometimes thrown out by young Tarquin, 
 to the effect that he occupied the throne without the consent 
 of the people, having first secured the good-will of the people 
 by dividing among them, man by man, the land taken from 
 their enemies, he ventured to propose the question to them, 
 whether they chose and ordered that he should be king, and 
 was declared king with greater unanimity than any other of 
 his predecessors. And yet even this circumstance did not 
 lessen Tarquin's hope of obtaining the throne ; nay, because he 
 had observed that the matter of the distribution of land to the 
 people was against the will of the fathers, he thought that an 
 opportunity was now presented to him of arraigning Servius 
 before the fathers with greater violence, and of increasing his 
 own influence in the senate, being himself a hot-tempered 
 youth, while his wife Tullia roused his restless temper at home. 
 For the royal house of the Roman kings also exhibited an ex- 
 ample of tragic guilt, so that through their disgust of kings, 
 liberty came more speedily, and the rule of this king, which was 
 attained through crime, was the last. This Lucius Tar- 
 quinius (whether he was the son or grandson of Tarquinius 
 Priscus is not clear : following the greater number of authori- 
 ties, however, I should feel inclined to pronounce him his son) 
 had a brother, Arruns Tarquinius, a youth of a mild disposi- 
 tion. To these two, as has been already stated, the two Tul- 
 lias, daughters of the king, had been married, they also them- 
 selves being of widely different characters. It had come to 
 pass, through the good fortune, I believe, of the Roman peo- 
 ple, that two violent dispositions should not be united in mar- 
 riage, in order that the reign of Servius might last longer, and 
 the constitution of the state be firmly established. The 
 haughty spirit of Tullia was chagrined, that there was no pre- 
 disposition in her husband, either to ambition or daring. Di- 
 recting all her regard to the other Tarquinius, him she ad- 
 mired, him she declared to be a man, and sprung from royal 
 blood ; she expressed her contempt for her sister, because, 
 having a man for her husband, she lacked that spirit of daring 
 that a woman ought to possess. Similarity of disposition 
 soon drew them together, as wickedness is in general most 
 congenial to wickedness; but the beginning of the general 
 confusion originated with the woman. Accustomed to the 
 secret conversations of the husband of another, there was no 
 abusive language that she did not use about her husband to 
 his brother, about her sister to her sister's husband, asserting 
 that it would have been better for herself to remain unmarried, 
 
B. C. 578-S34] TULLIA AND LUCIUS TARQUIN 55 
 
 and he single, than that she should be united with one who was 
 no fit mate for her, so that her life had to be passed in utter in- 
 activity by reason of the cowardice of another. If the gods 
 had granted her the husband she deserved, she would soon 
 have seen the crown in possession of her own house, which she 
 now saw in possession of her father. She soon filled the 
 young man with her own daring. Lucius Tarquinius and the 
 younger Tullia, when the pair had, by almost simultaneous 
 murders, made their houses vacant for new nuptials, were 
 united in marriage, Servius rather offering no opposition than 
 actually approving. 
 
 Then indeed the old age of Tullius began to be every day 
 more endangered, his throne more imperilled. For now the 
 woman from one crime directed her thoughts to another, and 
 allowed her husband no rest either by night or by day, that 
 their past crimes might not prove unprofitable, saying that 
 what she wanted was not one whose wife she might be only in 
 name, or one with whom she might live an inactive life of slav- 
 ery : what she wanted was one who would consider himself 
 worthy of the throne, who would remember that he was the son 
 of Tarquinius Priscus, who would rather have a kingdom than 
 hope for it. " If you, to whom I consider myself married, are 
 such a one, I greet you both as husband and king ; but if not, 
 our condition has been changed so far for the worse, in that in 
 you crime is associated with cowardice. Why do you not gird 
 yourself to the task ? You need not, like your father, from 
 Corinth or Tarquinii, struggle for a kingdom in a foreign land. 
 Your household and country's gods, the statue of your father, 
 the royal palace and the kingly throne in that palace, and the 
 Tarquinian name, elect and call you king. Or if you have too 
 little spirit for this, why do you disappoint the state? Why 
 suffer yourself to be looked up to as a prince ? Get hence to 
 Tarquinii or Corinth. Sink back again to your original stock, 
 more like your brother than your father." By chiding him 
 with these and other words, she urged on the young man : 
 nor could she rest herself, at the thought that though Tanaquil, 
 a woman of foreign birth, had been able to conceive and carry 
 out so vast a project, as to bestow two thrones in succession 
 on her husband, and then on her son-in-law, she, sprung from 
 royal blood, had no decisive influence in bestowing and taking 
 away a kingdom. Tarquinius, driven on by the blind passion 
 of the woman, began to go round and solicit the support of the 
 patricians, especially those of the younger families i^ he re- 
 minded them of his father's kindness, and claimed a return 
 
 ' Those introduced by Tarquinius Priscus, as related above.— D. O. 
 
56 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 5/8-534 
 
 for it, enticed the young men by presents, increased his in- 
 fluence everywhere both by making magnificent promises on 
 his own part, as well as by accusations against the king. At 
 length, as soon as the time seemed convenient for carrying out 
 his purpose, he rushed into the forum, accompanied by a band 
 of armed men ; then, while all were struck with dismay, seat- 
 ing himself on the throne before the senate-house, he ordered 
 the fathers to be summoned to the senate-house by the crier to 
 attend King Tarquinius. They assembled immediately, some 
 having been already prepared for this, others through fear, 
 lest it should prove dangerous to them not to have come, as- 
 tounded at such a strange and unheard-of event, and consider- 
 ing that the reign of Servius was now at an end. Then Tar- 
 quinius began his invectives with his immediate ances- 
 tors: That a slave, the son of a slave, after the shameful death 
 of his father, without an interregnum being adopted, as on 
 former occasions, without any election being held, without the 
 suffrages of the people, or the sanction of the fathers, he had 
 taken possession of the kingdom by the gift of a woman ; that 
 so born, so created king, a strong supporter of the most de- 
 graded class, to which he himself belonged, through a hatred 
 of the high station of others, he had deprived the leading men 
 of the state of their land and divided it among the very lowest ; 
 that he had laid all the burdens, which were formerly shared 
 by all alike, on the chief members of the community ; that he 
 had instituted the census, in order that the fortune of the 
 wealthier citizens might be conspicuous in order to excite 
 envy, and ready to hand, that out of it he might bestow lar- 
 gesses on the most needy, whenever he pleased. 
 
 Servius, aroused by the alarming announcement, having 
 come upon the scene during this harangue, immediately 
 shouted with a loud voice from the porch of the senate-house : 
 " What means this, Tarquin ? by what audacity hast thou 
 dared to summon the fathers, while I am still alive, or to sit 
 on my throne? " When the other haughtily replied, that he, 
 a king's son, was occupying the throne of his father, a much 
 fitter successor to the throne than a slave ; that he had insulted 
 his masters full long enough by shuffling insolence, a shout 
 arose from the partisans of both, the people rushed into the 
 senate-house, and it was evident that whoever came ofif victor 
 would gain the throne. Then Tarquin, forced by actual ne- 
 cessity to proceed to extremities, having a decided advantage 
 both in years and strength, seized Servius by the waist, and 
 having carried him out of the senate-house, hurled him down 
 the steps to the bottom. He then returned to the senate- 
 
TULLIA. 
 Photogravure from a painting by Ernst Hildebrand. 
 
B. C. 578-534] MURDER OF SERVIUS TULLIUS 57 
 
 house to assemble the senate. The king's officers and attend- 
 ants took to flight. The king himself, almost lifeless (when he 
 was returning home with his royal retinue frightened to death 
 and had reached the top of the Cyprian Street), was slain 
 by those who had been sent by Tarquin, and had overtaken 
 him in his flight. As the act is not inconsistent with the rest 
 of her atrocious conduct, it is believed to have been done by 
 Tullia's advice. Anyhow, as is generally admitted, driving 
 into the forum in her chariot, unabashed by the crowd of men 
 present, she called her husband out of the senate-house, and 
 was the first to greet him, king; and when, being bidden by 
 him to withdraw from such a tumult, she was returning home, 
 and had reached the top of the Cyprian Street, where Diana's 
 chapel lately stood, as she was turning on the right to the 
 Urian Hill, in order to ride up to the Esquiline, the driver 
 stopped terrified, and drew in his reins, and pointed out to 
 his mistress the body of the murdered Servius lying on the 
 ground. On this occasion a revolting and inhuman crime is 
 said to have been committed, and the place bears record of 
 it. They call it the Wicked Street, where Tullia, frantic and 
 urged on by the avenging furies of her sister and husband, is 
 said to have driven her chariot over her father's body, and to 
 have carried a portion of the blood of her murdered father on 
 her blood-stained chariot, herself also defiled and sprinkled 
 with it, to her own and her husband's household gods, through 
 whose vengeance results corresponding with the evil be- 
 ginning of the reign were soon destined to follow. Ser- 
 vius Tullius reigned forty-four years in such a manner that it 
 was no easy task even for a good and moderate successor to 
 compete with him. However, this also has proved an addi- 
 tional source of renown to him, that together with him perished 
 all just and legitimate reigns. This same authority, so mild 
 and so moderate, because it was vested in one man, some say 
 that he nevertheless had intended to resign, had not the wick- 
 edness of his family interfered with him as he was forming 
 plans for the liberation of his country. 
 
 After this period Lucius Tarquinius began to reign, whose 
 acts procured him the surname of Proud, for he, the son-in- 
 law, refused his father-in-law burial, alleging that even Rom- 
 ulus was not buried after death. He put to death the prin- 
 cipal senators, whom he suspected of having favoured the 
 cause of Servius. Then, conscious that the precedent of ob- 
 taining the crown by evil means might be borrowed from him 
 and employed against himself, he surrounded his person with 
 a body-guard of armed men, for he had no claim to the king- 
 
58 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 578-534 
 
 dom except force, as being one who reigned without either the 
 order of the people or the sanction of the senate. To this was 
 added the fact that, as he reposed no hope in the affection 
 of his citizens, he had to secure his kingdom by terror ; and 
 in order to inspire a greater number with this, he carried out 
 the investigation of capital cases solely by himself without as- 
 sessors, and under that pretext had it in his power to put to 
 death, banish, or fine, not only those who were suspected or 
 hated, but those also from whom he could expect to gain 
 nothing else but plunder. The number of the fathers more 
 particularly being in this manner diminished, he determined to 
 elect none into the senate in their place, that the order might 
 become more contemptible owing to this very reduction in 
 numbers, and that it might feel the less resentment at no busi- 
 ness being transacted by it. For he was the first of the kings 
 who violated the custom derived from his predecessors of 
 consulting the senate on all matters, and administered the 
 business of the state by taking counsel with his friends alone. 
 War, peace, treaties, alliances, all these he contracted and dis- 
 solved with whomsoever he pleased, without the sanction of 
 the people and senate, entirely on his own responsibility. The 
 nation of the Latins he was particularly anxious to attach to 
 him, so that by foreign influence also he might be more secure 
 among his own subjects; and he contracted ties not only of 
 hospitality but also of marriage with their leading men. On 
 Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, who was by far the 
 most eminent of those who bore the Latin name, being de- 
 scended, if we believe tradition, from Ulysses and the god- 
 dess Circe, he bestowed his daughter in marriage, and by this 
 match attached to himself many of his kinsmen and friends. 
 
 The influence of Tarquin among the chief men of the 
 Latins being now considerable, he issued an order that they 
 should assemble on a certain day at the grove of Ferentina,^ 
 saying that there were matters of common interest about 
 which he wished to confer with them. They assembled in 
 great numbers at daybreak. Tarquinius himself kept the day 
 indeed, but did not arrive until shortly before sunset. Many 
 matters were there discussed in the meeting throughout the 
 day in various conversations. Turnus Herdonius of Aricia 
 inveighed violently against the absent Tarquin, saying that 
 it was no wonder the surname of Proud was given him at 
 Rome; for so they now called him secretly and in whispers, 
 but still generally. Could anything show more haughtiness 
 
 ' At the foot of the Alban Hill. The general councils of the Latins 
 were held here up to the time of their final subjugation. 
 
B. C. 534-5IO] THE REIGN OF TARQUIN 59 
 
 than this insolent mockery of the entire Latin nation? After 
 their chiefs had been summoned so great a distance from 
 home, he who had proclaimed the meeting did not attend ; as- 
 suredly their patience was being tried, in order that, if they 
 submitted to the yoke, he might crush them when at his 
 mercy. For who could fail to see that he was aiming at sov- 
 ereignty over the Latins ? This sovereignty, if his own coun- 
 trymen had done well in having intrusted it to him, or if it had 
 been intrusted and not seized on by murder, the Latins also 
 ought to intrust to him (and yet not even so, inasmuch as he 
 was a foreigner). But if his own subjects were dissatisfied with 
 him (seeing that they were butchered one after another, driven 
 into exile, and deprived of their property), what better pros- 
 pects were held out to the Latins ? If they listened to him, they 
 would depart thence, each to his own home, and take no more 
 notice of the day of meeting than he who had proclaimed it. 
 When this man, mutinous and full of daring, and one who had 
 obtained influence at home by such methods, was pressing 
 these and other observations to the same effect, Tarquin ap- 
 peared on the scene. This put an end to his harangue. All 
 turned away from him to salute Tarquin, who, on silence 
 being proclaimed, being advised by those next him to make 
 some excuse for having come so late, said that he had been 
 chosen arbitrator between a father and a son : that, from his 
 anxiety to reconcile them, he had delayed : and, because that 
 duty had taken up that day, that on the morrow he would carry 
 out what he had determined. They say that he did not make 
 even that observation unrebuked by Turnus, who declared 
 that no controversy could be more quickly decided than one 
 between father and son, and that it could be settled in a few 
 words — unless the son submitted to the father, he would be 
 punished. 
 
 The Arician withdrew from the meeting, uttering these 
 reproaches against the Roman king. Tarquin, feeling the 
 matter much more sorely than he seemed to, immediately set 
 about planning the death of Turnus, in order to inspire the 
 Latins with the same terror as that with which he had crushed 
 the spirits of his own subjects at home: and because he could 
 not be put to death openly, by virtue of his authority, he ac- 
 complished the ruin of this innocent man by bringing a false 
 charge against him. By means of some Aricians of the op- 
 posite party, he bribed a servant of Turnus with gold, to allow 
 a great number of swords to be secretly brought into his lodg- 
 ing. When these preparations had been completed in the 
 course of a single night, Tarquin, having summoned the chiefs 
 
6o LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 534-51° 
 
 of the Latins to him a Httle before day, as if alarmed by some 
 strange occurrence, said that his delay of yesterday, which had 
 been caused as it were by some providential care of the gods, 
 had been the means of preservation to himself and to them; 
 that he had been told that destruction was being plotted by 
 Turnus for him and the chiefs of the Latin peoples, that he 
 alone might obtain the government of the Latins. That he 
 would have attacked them yesterday at the meeting; that the 
 attempt had been deferred, because the person who summoned 
 the meeting was absent, who was the chief object of his attack. 
 That that was the reason of the abuse heaped upon him dur- 
 ing his absence, because he had disappointed his hopes by de- 
 laying. That he had no doubt that, if the truth were told him, 
 he would come attended by a band of conspirators, at break of 
 day, when the assembly met, ready prepared and armed. That 
 it was reported that a great number of swords had been con- 
 veyed to his house. Whether that was true or not, could be 
 known immediately. He requested them to accompany him 
 thence to the house of Turnus. Both the daring temper of 
 Turnus, and his harangue of the previous day, and the delay of 
 Tarquin, rendered the matter suspicious, because it seemed 
 possible that the murder might have been put of? in conse- 
 quence of the latter. They started with minds inclined in- 
 deed to believe, yet determined to consider everything else 
 false, unless the swords were found. When they arrived there, 
 Turnus was aroused from sleep, and surrounded by guards : 
 the slaves, who, from affection to their master, were preparing 
 to use force, being secured, and the swords, which had been 
 concealed, drawn out from all corners of the lodging, then in- 
 deed there seemed no doubt about the matter ; Turnus was 
 loaded with chains, and forthwith a meeting of the Latins was 
 summoned amid great confusion. There, on the swords be- 
 ing exhibited in the midst, such violent hatred arose against 
 him, that, without being allowed a defence, he was put to death 
 in an unusual manner ; he was thrown into the basin of the 
 spring of Ferentina, a hurdle was placed over him, and stones 
 being heaped up in it, he was drowned. 
 
 Tarquin then recalled the Latins to the meeting, and 
 having applauded them for having inflicted well-merited pun- 
 ishment on Turnus, as one convicted of murder, by his at- 
 tempt to bring about a change of government, spoke as 
 follows : That he could indeed proceed by a long-established 
 right ; because, since all the Latins were sprung from Alba, 
 they were comprehended in that treaty by which, dating from 
 the time of Tullus, the entire Alban nation, with its colonies, 
 
B. C. 534-5IO] SUBJECTION OF THE LATINS 6l 
 
 had passed under the dominion of Rome. However, for the 
 sake of the interest of all parties, he thought ratlier that that 
 treaty should be renewed, and that the Latins should rather 
 share in the enjoyment of the prosperity of the Roman peo- 
 ple, than be constantly either apprehending or suffering the 
 demolition of their towns and the devastation of their lands, 
 which they had formerly suffered in the reign of Ancus, and 
 afterward in the reign of his own father. The Latins were 
 easily persuaded, though in that treaty the advantage lay on 
 the side of Rome : however, they both saw that the chiefs of 
 the Latin nation sided with and supported the king, and Tur- 
 nus was a warning example, still fresh in their recollections, 
 of the danger that threatened each individually, if he should 
 make any opposition. Thus the treaty was renewed, and no- 
 tice was given to the young men of the Latins that, according 
 to the treaty, they should attend in considerable numbers in 
 arms, on a certain day, at the grove of Ferentina. And when 
 they assembled from all the states according to the edict of the 
 Roman king, in order that they should have neither a general 
 of their own, nor a separate command, nor standards of their 
 own, he formed mixed companies of Latins and Romans so 
 as out of a pair of companies to make single companies, and 
 out of single companies to make a pair : and when the com- 
 panies had thus been doubled, he appointed centurions over 
 them. 
 
 Nor was Tarquin, though a tyrannical prince in time of 
 peace, an incompetent general in war; nay, he would have 
 equalled his predecessors in that art, had not his degeneracy 
 in other ways likewise detracted from his merit in this respect. 
 He first began the war against the Volsci, which was to last 
 two hundred years after his time, and took Suessa Pometia 
 from them by storm ; and when by the sale of the spoils he 
 had realized forty talents of silver, he conceived the idea of 
 building a temple to Jupiter on such a magnificent scale that 
 it should be worthy of the king of gods and men, of the 
 Roman Empire, and of the dignity of the place itself : for the 
 building of this temple he set apart the money realized by 
 the sale of the spoils. Soon after a war claimed his attention, 
 which proved more protracted than he had expected, in which, 
 having in vain attempted to storm Gabii,^ a city in the neigh- 
 bourhood, when, after suffering a repulse from the walls, he 
 was deprived also of all hope of taking it by siege, he assailed 
 
 ' A few ruins on the Via Prsenestina, about nine miles from the Porta 
 Maggiore, mark the site of Gabii. They are on the bank of the drained 
 Lago Castiglione, whence Macaulay's "Gabii of the Pool." — D. O. 
 
62 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 534-51° 
 
 it by fraud and stratagem, a method by no means natural to 
 the Romans. For when, as if the war had been abandoned, 
 he pretended to be busily engaged in laying the foundations 
 of the temple, and with other works in the city, Sextus, the 
 youngest of his three sons, according to a preconcerted ar- 
 rangement, fled to Gabii, complaining of the unbearable cru- 
 elty of his father toward himself: that his tyranny had now 
 shifted from others against his own family, and that he was 
 also uneasy at the number of his own children, and intended 
 to bring about the same desolation in his own house as he 
 had done in the senate, in order that he might leave behind 
 him no issue, no heir to his kingdom. That for his own part, 
 as he had escaped from the midst of the swords and weapons 
 of his father, he was persuaded he could find no safety any- 
 where save among the enemies of Lucius Tarquinius: for — 
 let them make no mistake — the war, which it was now pre- 
 tended had been abandoned, still threatened them, and he 
 would attack them when off their guard on a favourable op- 
 portunity. But if there were no refuge for suppliants among 
 them, he would traverse all Latium, and would apply next to 
 the Volscians, ^liquans, and Hernicans, until he should come 
 to people who knew how to protect children from the im- 
 pious and cruel persecutions of parents. That perhaps he 
 would even find some eagerness to take up arms and wage 
 war against this most tyrannical king and his equally savage 
 subjects. As he seemed likely to go further, enraged as he 
 was, if they paid him no regard, he was kindly received by the 
 Gabians. They bade him not be surprised, if one at last be- 
 haved in the same manner toward his children as he had done 
 toward his subjects and allies — that he would ultimately vent 
 his rage on himself, if other objects failed him — that his own 
 coming was very acceptable to them, and they believed that in 
 a short time it would come to pass that by his aid the war 
 would be transferred from the gates of Gabii up to the very 
 walls of Rome. 
 
 Upon this, he was admitted into their public councils, in 
 which, while, with regard to other matters, he declared him- 
 self willing to submit to the judgment of the elders of Gabii, 
 who were better acquainted with them, yet he every now and 
 again advised them to renew the war, claiming for himself 
 superior knowledge in this, on the ground of being well ac- 
 quainted with the strength of both nations, and also because 
 he knew that the king's pride, which even his own children 
 had been unable to endure, had become decidedly hateful to 
 his subjects. As he thus by degrees stirred up the nobles of the 
 
B. C. 534-510] STRATAGEM OF SEXTUS 63 
 
 Gabians to renew the war, and himself accompanied the most 
 active of their youth on phnidering parties and expeditions, 
 and unreasonable credit was increasingly given to all his 
 words and actions, framed as they were with the object of de- 
 ceiving, he was at last chosen general-in-chief in the war. In 
 the course of this war when — the people being still ignorant 
 of what was going on — trifling skirmishes with the Romans 
 took place, in which the Gabians generally had the advantage, 
 then all the Gabians, from the highest to the lowest, were 
 eager to believe that Sextus Tarquinius had been sent to them 
 as their general, by the favour of the gods. By exposing him- 
 self equally with the soldiers to fatigues and dangers, and by 
 his generosity in bestowing the plunder, he became so loved 
 by the soldiers, that his father Tarquin had not greater power 
 at Rome than his son at Gabii. Accordingly, when he saw 
 he had sufficient strength collected to support him in any 
 undertaking, he sent one of his confidants to his father at 
 Rome to inquire what he wished him to do, seeing the gods 
 had granted him to be all-powerful at Gabii. To this courier 
 no answer by word of mouth was given, because, I suppose, 
 he appeared of questionable fidelity. The king went into a 
 garden of the palace, as if in deep thought, followed by his 
 son's messenger; walking there for some time without utter- 
 ing a word, he is said to have struck off the heads of the tall- 
 est poppies with his staff.^ The messenger, wearied with ask- 
 ing and waiting for an answer, returned to Gabii apparently 
 without having accomplished his object, and told what he 
 had himself said and seen, adding that Tarquin, either 
 through passion, aversion to him, or his innate pride, had not 
 uttered a single word. As soon as it was clear to Sextus 
 what his father wished, and what conduct he enjoined by those 
 intimations without words, he put to death the most eminent 
 men of the city, some by accusing them before the people, as 
 well as others, who from their own personal unpopularity 
 were liable to attack. Many were executed publicly, and 
 some, in whose case impeachment was likely to prove less 
 plausible, were secretly assassinated. Some who wished to 
 go into voluntary exile were allowed to do so, others were 
 banished, and their estates, as well as the estates of those 
 who were put to death, publicly divided in their absence. Out 
 of these largesses and plunder were distributed ; and by the 
 
 ' This message without words is the same as that which, according to 
 Herodotus, was sent by Thrasybulus of Miletus to Periander of Corinth. 
 The trick by which Sextus gained the confidence of the people of Gabii is 
 also related by him of Zopyrus and Darius. 
 
64 LIVV'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 534-51° 
 
 sweets of private gain the sense of public calamities became 
 extinguished, till the state of Gabii, destitute of counsel and 
 assistance, surrendered itself without a struggle into the power 
 of the Roman king. 
 
 Tarquin, having thus gained possession of Gabii, made 
 peace with the nation of the yEqui, and renewed the treaty 
 with the Etruscans. He next turned his attention to the af- 
 fairs of tlie city. The chief of these was that of leaving behind 
 him the Temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian^ Mount, as a monu- 
 ment of his name and reign ; to remind posterity that of two 
 Tarquinii, both kings, the father had vowed, the son com- 
 pleted it. Further, that the open space, to the exclusion of 
 all other forms of worship, might be entirely appropriated to 
 Jupiter and his temple, which was to be erected upon it, he 
 resolved to cancel the inauguration of the small temples and 
 chapels, several of which had been first vowed by King Tatius, 
 in the crisis of the battle against Romulus, and afterward 
 consecrated and dedicated by him. At the very outset of the 
 foundation of this work it is said that the gods exerted their 
 divinity to declare the future greatness of so mighty an em- 
 pire ; for, though the birds declared for the unhallowing of 
 all the other chapels, they did not declare themselves in fa- 
 vour of it in the case of that of Terminus.- This omen and 
 augury were taken to import that the fact of Terminus not 
 changing his residence, and that he was the only one of the 
 gods who was not called out of the consecrated bounds de- 
 voted to his worship, was a presage of the lasting stability 
 of the state in general. This being accepted as an omen of 
 its lasting character, there followed another prodigy portend- 
 ing the greatness of the empire. It was reported that the head 
 of a man, with the face entire, was found by the workmen 
 when digging the foundation of the temple. The sight of this 
 phenomenon by no doubtful indications portended that this 
 temple should be the seat of empire, and the capital of the 
 world; and so declared the soothsayers, both those who were 
 in the city, and those whom they had summoned from Etruria, 
 to consult on this subject. The king's mind was thereby en- 
 couraged to greater expense ; in consequence of which the 
 spoils of Pometia, which had been destined to complete the 
 
 ' The name " Tarpeian," as given from the Tarpeia, whose story is told 
 above, was generally confined to the rock or precipice from which traitors 
 were thrown. Its exact location on the Capitoline Hill does not seem 
 positively determined ; in fact, most of the sites on this hill have been 
 subjects of considerable dispute. — D. O. 
 
 ' The god of boundaries. His action seems quite in keeping with his 
 ofSce. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 534-510] THE DELPHIAN ORACLE CONSULTED 65 
 
 work, scarcely sufficed for laying the foundation. On this ac- 
 count I am more incHned to beheve Fabius (not to mention 
 his being the more ancient authority), that there were only 
 forty talents, than Piso, who says that forty thousand pounds 
 of silver by weight were set apart for that purpose, a sum 
 of money neither to be expected from the spoils of any one 
 city in those times, and one that would more than suffice for 
 the foundations of any building, even the magnificent build- 
 ings of the present day. 
 
 Tarquin, intent upon the completion of the temple, having 
 sent for workmen from all parts of Etruria, employed on it 
 not only the public money, but also workmen from the peo- 
 ple; and when this labour, in itself no inconsiderable one, was 
 added to their military service, still the people murmured less 
 at building the temples of the gods with their own hands, than 
 at being transferred, as they afterward were, to other works, 
 which, while less dignified, required considerably greater toil; 
 such were the erection of benches in the circus, and conduct- 
 ing underground the principal sewer,^ the receptacle of all the 
 filth of the city ; two works the like of which even modern 
 splendour has scarcely been able to produce. After the people 
 had been employed in these works, because he both consid- 
 ered that such a number of inhabitants was a burden to the 
 city where there was no employment for them, and further, 
 was anxious that the frontiers of the empire should be more 
 extensively occupied by sending colonists, he sent colonists to 
 Signia ^ and Circeii,^ to serve as defensive outposts hereafter 
 to the city on land and sea. While he was thus employed a 
 frightful prodigy appeared to him. A serpent gliding out of 
 a wooden pillar, after causing dismay and flight in the palace, 
 not so much struck the king's heart with sudden terror, as it 
 filled him with anxious solicitude. Accordingly, since Etrus- 
 can soothsayers were only employed for public prodigies, ter- 
 rified at this so to say private apparition, he determined to 
 send to the oracle of Delphi, the most celebrated in the world; 
 and not venturing to intrust the responses of the oracle to 
 any other person, he despatched his two sons to Greece 
 through lands unknown at that time, and yet more unknown 
 seas. Titus and Arruns were the two who set out. They were 
 
 ' The Cloaca Maxima, upon which Rome still relies for much of her 
 drainage, is more generally attributed to Tarquinius Priscus. — D. O. 
 
 ' The modern Segni, upward of thirty miles from Rome, on the Rome- 
 Naples line. — D. O. 
 
 'On the coast, near Terracina. The Promontoria Circeo is the tradi- 
 tional site of the palace and grave of Circe, whose story is told in the 
 Odyssey.— D. O. 
 5 
 
66 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 534-51° 
 
 accompanied by Lucius Junius Brutus, the son of Tarqumia, 
 the king's sister, a youth of an entirely different cast of mind 
 from that of which he had assumed the disguise. He, having 
 heard that the chief men of the city, among them his own 
 brother, had been put to death by his uncle, resolved to leave 
 nothing in regard to his ability that might be dreaded by the 
 king, nor anything in his fortune that might be coveted, and 
 thus to be secure in the contempt in which he was held, seeing 
 that there was but little protection in justice. Therefore, 
 having designedly fashioned himself to the semblance of fool- 
 ishness, and allowing himself and his whole estate to become 
 the prey of the king, he did not refuse to take even the sur- 
 name of Brutus,^ that, under the cloak of this surname, the 
 genius that was to be the future liberator of the Roman people, 
 lying concealed, might bide its opportunity. He, in reality 
 being brought to Delphi by the Tarquinii rather as an object 
 of ridicule than as a companion, is said to have borne with 
 him as an offering to Apollo a golden rod, inclosed in a staff 
 of cornel-wood hollowed out for the purpose, a mystical em- 
 blem of his own mind. When they arrived there, and had 
 executed their father's commission, the young men's minds 
 were seized with the desire of inquiring to which of them the 
 sovereignty of Rome should fall. They say that the reply 
 was uttered from the inmost recesses of the cave, " Young 
 men, whichever of you shall first kiss his mother shall enjoy 
 the sovereign power at Rome." The Tarquinii ordered the 
 matter to be kept secret with the utmost care, that Sextus, who 
 had been left behind at Rome, might be ignorant of the re- 
 sponse of the oracle, and have no share in the kingdom; they 
 then cast lots among themselves, to decide which of them 
 should first kiss his mother, after they had returned to Rome. 
 Brutus, thinking that the Pythian response had another mean- 
 ing, as if he had stumbled and fallen, touched the ground 
 with his lips, she being, forsooth, the common mother of all 
 mankind. After this they returned to Rome, where prepara- 
 tions were being made with the greatest vigour for a war 
 against the Rutulians. 
 
 The Rutulians, a very wealthy nation, considering the 
 country and age in which they lived, were at that time in pos- 
 session of Ardea.^ Their wealth was itself the actual occasion 
 of the war: for the Roman king, whose resources had been 
 drained by the magnificence of his public works, was desirous 
 
 ' Dullard.— D. O. 
 
 ' In the Pomptine marshes, about twenty miles south of Rome and five 
 from the coast. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 534-5'°] LUCRETIA 67 
 
 both of enriching himself, and also of soothing the minds of 
 his subjects by a large present of booty, as they, independently 
 of the other instances of his tyranny, were incensed against 
 his government, because they felt indignant that they had 
 been kept so long employed by the king as mechanics, and 
 in labour only fit for slaves. An attempt was made, to see if 
 Ardea could be taken at the first assault ; when that proved 
 unsuccessful, the enemy began to be distressed by a blockade, 
 and by siege-works. In the standing camp, as usually hap- 
 pens when a war is tedious rather than severe, furloughs were 
 easily obtained, more so by the officers, however, than the 
 common soldiers. The young princes also sometimes spent 
 their leisure hours in feasting and mutual entertainments. 
 One day as they were drinking in the tent of Sextus Tar- 
 quinius, where CoUatinus Tarquinius, the son of Egerius, 
 was also at supper, they fell to talking about their wives. 
 Every one commended his own extravagantly: a dispute 
 thereupon arising, CoUatinus said there was no occasion for 
 words, that it might be known in a few hours how far his wife 
 Lucretia excelled all the rest. " If, then," added he, " we have 
 any youthful vigour, why should we not mount our horses 
 and in person examine the behaviour of our wives? let that 
 be the surest proof to every one, which shall meet his eyes 
 on the unexpected arrival of the husband." They were heated 
 with wine. " Come on, then," cried all. They immediately 
 galloped to Rome, where they arrived when darkness was 
 beginning to fall. From thence they proceeded to Collatia,^ 
 where they found Lucretia, not after the manner of the king's 
 dafighters-in-law, whom they had seen spending their time 
 in luxurious banqueting with their companions, but, although 
 the night was far advanced, employed at her wool, sitting in 
 the middle of the house in the midst of her maids who were 
 working around her. The honour of the contest regarding 
 the women rested with Lucretia. Her husband on his arrival, 
 and the Tarquinii, were kindly received ; the husband, proud 
 of his victory, gave the young princes a polite invitation. 
 There an evil desire of violating Lucretia by force seized Sex- 
 tus Tarquinius ; both her beauty, and her proved chastity 
 urged him on. Then, after this youthful frolic of the night, 
 they returned to the camp. 
 
 After an interval of a few days, Sextus Tarquinius, with- 
 out the knowledge of CoUatinus, came to Collatia with one 
 attendant only: there he was made welcome by them, as they 
 
 ' Its site, about nine miles from Rome, on the road to Tivoli, is now 
 known as Lunghezza. — D. O. 
 
68 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 534-5'° 
 
 had no suspicion of his design, and, having been conducted 
 after supper into the guest chamber, burning with passion, 
 when all around seemed sufficiently secure, and all fast asleep, 
 he came to the bedside of Lucretia, as she lay asleep, with a 
 drawn sword, and with his left hand pressing down the 
 woman's breast, said: " Be silent, Lucretia; I am Sextus Tar- 
 quinius. I have a sword in my hand. You shall die if you utter 
 a word." When the woman, awaking terrified from sleep, 
 saw there was no help, and that impending death was nigh 
 at hand, then Tarquin declared his passion, entreated, mixed 
 threats with entreaties, tried all means to influence the wom- 
 an's mind. When he saw she was resolved, and uninfluenced 
 even by the fear of death, to the fear of death he added the 
 fear of dishonour, declaring that he would lay a murdered 
 slave naked by her side when dead, so that it should be said 
 that she had been slain in base adultery. When by the terror 
 of this disgrace his lust (as it were victorious) had overcome 
 her inflexible chastity, and Tarquin had departed, exulting 
 in having triumphed over a woman's honour by force, Lu- 
 cretia, in melancholy distress at so dreadful a misfortune, 
 despatched one and the same messenger both to her father 
 at Rome, and to her husband at Ardea, bidding them come 
 each with a trusty friend ; that they must do so, and use de- 
 spatch, for a monstrous deed had been wrought. Spurius 
 Lucretius came accompanied by Publius Valerius, the son of 
 Volesus, Collatinus with Lucius Junius Brutus, in company 
 with whom, as he was returning to Rome, he happened to 
 be met by his wife's messenger. They found Lucretia sitting 
 in her chamber in sorrowful dejection. On the arrival of 
 her friends the tears burst from her eyes; and on her hus- 
 band inquiring, whether all was well, " By no means," she re- 
 plied, " for how can it be well with a woman who has lost her 
 honour? The traces of another man are on your bed, Col- 
 latinus. But the body only has been violated, the mind is 
 guiltless ; death shall be my witness. But give me your right 
 hands, and your word of honour, that the adulterer shall not 
 come off unpunished. It is Sextus Tarquinius, who, an enemy 
 last night in the guise of a guest, has borne hence by 
 force of arms, a triumph destructive to me, and one that 
 will prove so to himself also, if you be men." All gave their 
 word in succession ; they attempted to console her, grieved 
 in heart as she was, by turning the guilt of the act from her, 
 constrained as she had been by force, upon the perpetrator of 
 the crime, declaring that it is the mind sins, not the body; and 
 that where there is no intention, there is no guilt. " It is 
 
B. C. 510] FALL OF THE TARQUINS 69 
 
 for you to see," said she, " what is due to him. As for me, 
 though I acquit myself of guilt, I do not discharge myself 
 from punishment; nor shall any woman survive her dishonour 
 by pleading the example of Lucretia." She plunged a knife, 
 which she kept concealed beneath her garment, into her heart, 
 and falling forward on the wound, dropped down expiring. 
 Her husband and father shrieked aloud. 
 
 While they were overwhelmed with grief, Brutus drew 
 the knife out of the wound, and, holding it up before him 
 reeking with blood, said: " By this blood, most pure before 
 the outrage of a prince, I swear, and I call you, O gods, to 
 witness my oath, that I will henceforth pursue Lucius Tar- 
 quinius Superbus, his wicked wife, and all their children, with 
 fire, sword, and all other violent means in my power; nor 
 will I ever suffer them or any other to reign at Rome." Then 
 he gave the knife to Collatinus, and after him to Lucretius 
 and Valerius, who were amazed at such an extraordinary 
 occurrence, and could not understand the newly developed 
 character of Brutus. However, they all took the oath as they 
 were directed, and, their sorrow being completely changed 
 to wrath, followed the lead of Brutus, who from that time 
 ceased not to call upon them to abolish the regal power. 
 They carried forth the body of Lucretia from her house, and 
 conveyed it to the forum, where they caused a number of 
 persons to assemble, as generally happens, by reason of the 
 unheard-of and atrocious nature of an extraordinary occur- 
 rence. They complained, each for himself, of the royal vil- 
 lainy and violence. Both the grief of the father affected them, 
 and also Brutus, who reproved their tears and unavailing 
 complaints, and advised them to take up arms, as became 
 men and Romans, against those who dared to treat them like 
 enemies. All the most spirited youths voluntarily presented 
 themselves in arms ; the rest of the young men followed also. 
 From thence, after an adequate garrison had been left at the 
 gates at Collatia, and sentinels appointed, to prevent any one 
 giving intelligence of the disturbance to the royal party, the 
 rest set out for Rome in arms under the conduct of Brutus. 
 When they arrived there, the armed multitude caused panic 
 and confusion wherever they went. Again, when they saw 
 the principal men of the state placing themselves at their 
 head, they thought that, whatever it might be, it was not with- 
 out good reason. Nor did the heinousness of the event excite 
 less violent emotions at Rome than it had done at Collatia: 
 accordingly, they ran from all parts of the city into the forum, 
 and, as soon as they came thither, the public crier summoned 
 
70 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 510 
 
 them to attend the tribune of the celeres,^ with which office 
 Brutus happened to be at the time invested. There a ha- 
 rangue was delivered by him, by no means of the style and 
 character which had been counterfeited by him up to that 
 day, concerning the violence and lust of Sextus Tarquinius, 
 the horrid violation of Lucretia and her lamentable death, the 
 bereavement of Tricipitinus," in whose eyes the cause of his 
 daughter's death was more shameful and deplorable than that 
 death itself. To this was added the haughty insolence of the 
 king himself, and the sufferings and toils of, the people, buried 
 in the earth in the task of cleansing ditches and sewers: he 
 declared that Romans, the conquerors of all the surrounding 
 states, instead of warriors had become labourers and stone- 
 cutters. The unnatural murder of King Servius Tullius was 
 recalled, and the fact of his daughter having driven over the 
 body of her father in her impious chariot, and the gods who 
 avenge parents were invoked by him. By stating these and, 
 I believe, other facts still more shocking, which, though by 
 no means easy to be detailed by writers, the then heinous state 
 of things suggested, he so worked upon the already incensed 
 multitude, that they deprived the king of his authority, and 
 ordered the banishment of Lucius Tarquinius with his wife 
 and children. He himself, having selected and armed some 
 of the younger men, who gave in their names as volunteers, 
 set out for the camp at Ardea to rouse the army against the 
 king; the command in the city he left to Lucretius, who had 
 been already appointed prefect of the city by the king. Dur- 
 ing this tumult Tullia fled from her house, both men and 
 women cursing her wherever she went, and invoking upon her 
 the wrath of the furies, the avengers of parents. 
 
 News of these transactions having reached the camp, when 
 the king, alarmed at this sudden revolution, was proceeding 
 to Rome to quell the disturbances, Brutus — for he had had 
 notice of his approach — turned aside, to avoid meeting him ; 
 and much about the same time Brutus and Tarquinius arrived 
 by different routes, the one at Ardea, the other at Rome. The 
 gates were shut against Tarquin, and sentence of banishment 
 declared against him ; the camp welcomed with great joy the 
 deliverer of the city, and the king's sons were expelled. Two 
 of them followed their father, and went into exile to Csere, a 
 city of Etruria, Sextus Tarquinius, who had gone to Gabii, 
 as if to his own kingdom, was slain by the avengers of the 
 old feuds, which he had stirred up against himself by his 
 
 ' The royal body-guard. Sec the story of Romulus above.— D O 
 ' Spurius Lucretius. — D. O. 
 
II. c. 510] CONSULS ELECTED 71 
 
 rapines and murders. Lucius Tarciuinius Superbus reigned 
 twenty-five years: the reg-al form of government lasted, from 
 tlie building of the city to its deliverance, two hundred and 
 forty-four years. Twi) consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus and 
 Lucius Tar([uinius CoUatinus, were elected by the prefect of 
 the city at the comitia of centuries, according" to the com- 
 mentaries of Servius Tullius. 
 
BOOK II 
 
 THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH 
 
 THE acts, civil and military, of the Roman people, hence- 
 forth free, their annual magistrates, and the sover- 
 eignty of the laws, more powerful than that of men, I 
 will now proceed to recount. The haughty insolence 
 of the last king had caused this liberty to be the more wel- 
 come : for the former kings reigned in such a manner that 
 they all in succession may be deservedly reckoned founders of 
 those parts at least of the city, which they independently added 
 as new dwelling-places for the population, which had been in- 
 creased by themselves. Nor is there any doubt that that same 
 Brutus, who g'ained such renown from the expulsion of King 
 Superbus, would have acted to the greatest injury of the public 
 weal, if, through the desire of liberty before the people were fit 
 for it, he had wrested the kingdom from any of the preceding 
 kings. For what would have been the consequence, if that 
 rabble of shepherds and strangers, runaways from their own 
 peoples, had found, under the protection of an inviolable sanc- 
 tuary, either freedom, or at least impunity for former offences, 
 and, freed from all dread of regal authority, had begun to be 
 distracted by tribunician storms, and to engage in contests 
 with the fathers in a strange city, before the pledges of wives 
 and children, and afTection for the soil itself, to which people 
 become habituated only by length of time, had united their 
 affections? Their condition, not yet matured, would have 
 been destroyed by discord; but the tranquillizing moderation 
 of the government so fostered this condition, and by proper 
 nourishment brought it to such perfection, that, wlien their 
 strength was now developed, they were able to bring forth the 
 wholesome fruits of liberty. The first beginnings "of liberty, 
 however, one may date from this period, "rather because tlie 
 consular authority was made annual, than because of the royal 
 prerogative was in any way curtailed. The first consuls kept 
 all the privileges and outward signs of authoritv, care only 
 
 72 
 
B. C. 509] THE FIRST CONSULSHIP 73 
 
 being taken to prevent the terror appearing doubled, should 
 botli have the fasces at the same time. Brutus, with the con- 
 sent of his colleague, was first attended by the fasces, he who 
 proved himself afterward as keen in protecting liberty as he 
 had previously shown himself in asserting it. First of all he 
 bound over the people, jealous of their newly-acquired liberty, 
 by an oath that they would suffer no one to be king in Rome, 
 for fear that later they might be influenced by the importuni- 
 ties or bribes of the royal house. Next, that a full house might 
 give additional strength to the senate, he filled up the number 
 of senators, which had been diminished by the assassinations 
 of Tarquinius, to the full number of three hundred, by elect- 
 ing the principal men of equestrian rank to fill their places: 
 from this is said to have been derived the custom of summon- 
 ing into the senate both the patres and those who were con- 
 scripti. They called those who were elected, conscripti, en- 
 rolled, that is, as a new senate. It is surprising how much 
 that contributed to the harmony of the state, and toward unit- 
 ing the patricians and commons in friendship. 
 
 Attention was then paid to religious matters, and, as cer- 
 tain public functions had been regularly performed by the 
 kings in person, to prevent their loss being felt in any par- 
 ticular, they appointed a king of the sacrifices.'- This office 
 they made subordinate to the pontifex maximus. that the 
 holder might not, if high office were added to the title, prove 
 detrimental to liberty, which was then their principal care. 
 And I do not know but that, by fencing it in on every side to 
 excess, even in the most trivial matters, they exceeded bounds. 
 For, though there was nothing else that gave ofTence, the 
 name of one of the consuls was an object of dislike to the state. 
 They declared that the Tarquins had been too much habitu- 
 ated to sovereignty ; that it had originated with Priscus : 
 that Servius Tullius had reigned next ; that Tarquinius Super- 
 bus had not even, in spite of the interval that had elapsed, 
 given up all thoughts of the kingdom as being the property 
 of another, which it really was, but thought to regain it by 
 crime and violence, as if it were the heirloom of his family ; 
 that, after the expulsion of Superbus, the government was in 
 the hands of Collatinus : that the Tarquins knew not how to 
 live in a private station; that the name pleased them not; 
 that it was dangerous to liberty. Such language, used at 
 
 ' The functions of the old priest-king were divided, the political being 
 assigned to the consuls, the duty of sacrificing to the newly-created rex 
 sacrificulus. who was chosen from the patricians : he was, nevertheless, 
 subject to the control of the Pontife.v Maximus, by whom he was chosen 
 from several nominees of the college of priests. 
 
74 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 509 
 
 first bv persons quietly sounding the dispositions of the peo- 
 ple, was circulated through the whole state ; and the people, 
 now excited by suspicion, were summoned by Brutus to a 
 meeting. There first of all he read aloud the people's oath : 
 that they would neither suffer any one to be king, nor allow 
 anv one to live at Rome from whom danger to liberty might 
 arise. He declared that this ought to be maintained with all 
 their might, and that nothing, that had any reference to it, 
 ought to be treated with indifference: that he said this with 
 reluctance, for the sake of the individual; and that he would 
 not have said it, did not his affection for the commonwealth 
 predominate; that the people of Rome did not believe that 
 complete liberty had been recovered; that the regal family, 
 the regal name, was not only in the state but also in power; 
 that that was a stumbling-block, was a hindrance to liberty. 
 " Do you, Lucius Tarquinius," said he, " of your own free will, 
 remove this apprehension. We remember, we own it, you ex- 
 pelled the royal family ; complete your services ; take hence 
 the royal name ; your property your fellow-citizens shall not 
 only hand over to you, by my advice, but, if it is insufficient, 
 they will liberally supply the want. Depart in a spirit of friend- 
 ship. Relieve the state from a dread which may be only 
 groundless. So firmly are men's minds persuaded that only 
 with the Tarquinian race will kingly power depart hence." 
 Amazement at so extraordinary and sudden an occurrence at 
 first impeded the consul's utterance; then, as he was com- 
 mencing to speak, the chief men of the state stood around him, 
 and with pressing entreaties urged the same request. The rest 
 of them indeed had less weight with him, but after Spurius 
 Lucretius, superior to all the others in age and high charac- 
 ter, who was besides his own father-in-law, began to try vari- 
 ous methods, alternately entreating and advising, in order to 
 induce him to allow himself to be prevailed on by the general 
 feeling of the state, the consul, apprehensive that hereafter the 
 same lot might befall him, when his term of office had expired, 
 as well as loss of property and other additional disgrace, re- 
 signed his consulship, and removing all his effects to Lavini- 
 um, withdrew from the city. Brutus, according to a decree 
 of the senate, proposed to the people, that all who belonged 
 to the family of the Tarquins should be banished from Rome: 
 in the assembly of centuries he elected Publius Valerius, with 
 whose assistance he had expelled the kings, as his colleague. 
 Though nobody doubted that a war was impending from 
 the Tarquins, yet it broke out later than was generally ex- 
 pected ; however, liberty was well-nigh lost by fraud and 
 
5"9| 
 
 (."ONSriKACY A(;AlNSr TllK STATK 
 
 75 
 
 tri'iicliorv, a tliiiiL; llicv novcr ;ipi)i\'luMi(lc(l. Tlicro wort' 
 anioni;' tlio Ivoiuau yoiilli scvcial yiuniL; iiu'ii and llu'so of no 
 ii\oai\ rank wlin, wliilc (lio vc^nl ^nvi'iiimcnt lasted, liad I'li 
 JDVod j^roatiT liciMisi' in tlirii- plt'asuii's, hoiu!^ tlio t'(|Uals in 
 a,m', aiul liooii I'ompaiiious of thi' \'oiiiii; rar(|iiiiis, and ac- 
 ciislnnu'd to li\(.' aftt-r tlic fashion of prnux's. Missinj^' that 
 fri'i'dom, now tliat the piaxili'm's of all wcro luiualizod,' tlu'v 
 comphiincd ainoni;' tlu'nisolvcs tliat tlio lilu'ity of others had 
 turned out shivery for them: tliat a kins;' was a Innnan heini;', 
 from wlioni one eonhl ol>tain wliat one wanted, wlietlier llie 
 (k'ed ini,L;lit he an aet of jnstiet' oi" oi wroni; ; that there was 
 room for lavonr and f^ood olliees ; (hat lie eould he ani;ry, 
 and forgive; that he knew the dilTerenee between a friend and 
 an enemy; that the laws were a deaf, inexorable thin};-, more 
 lienetieial and ad\anla^eous for the poor than for the rieh; 
 that they allowed no ri'lasation or indnl|;enee, if one Irans- 
 (;ressed due hounds; that it was perilous, amid si) many 
 human errors, to have no seeurity for life hut imu>ceuee. 
 While their minds were alieadx of their own aeeord thus dis- 
 eontented, ambassadors Irom the ro\'al tamih arrixeil nnex- 
 peetedly, merely demandiuL; restitntiim of their personal prop- 
 el ty, without any mention of their return. .Vfler their appliea- 
 tion luul been heard in the senate, the deliberation about it 
 Listed for se\'eral da\s, as they feared that the tUMl-restitutiou 
 of the property uii^ht be made :i pretext for war, its restitu- 
 tion ;i fund and assistaiue for the s;uiie. In the me;mtime the 
 ambassadors were plannint; a dilTereut seheuie: while openly 
 denuuuliiiL;' the restoration of properly, they seeretb eoueerted 
 measures for reeoverini;' the throne, and solieitius;' them, as 
 if to promote that whieh appeared to be the object in view, 
 they sounded the minds oi the youuL;' iu>bles; to those by 
 whom their iiroposals were favourabls' received they gave let- 
 ters from the r.irquius. and eiMiferred with them alnnit admit- 
 tinj;' the ro\.il family into the eitv secretly by nii;ht. 
 
 The matter was lirst itilrnsted to the brothers N'itellii and 
 Aipiilii. .\ sister of the \'itellii was married to Hrutiis the 
 eonsul, and the issue of that ni;irri;iL;e were the t^rown-up sous, 
 Titus ami Tiberius; they also were admitted by their uncles to 
 sh.nre the plot: sever;il vouii!; nobles also were taken into their 
 coutidence, the recollection of whose names has been lost from 
 lapse of time. In the meantime, as that opinion hail prevaiUHl 
 in the seu;ite. which w.is in favour of the propertv beinf;' re- 
 stored, the amb.issadors u\ai.le use oi this .is ;i pretext for 
 
 ' I'liU, nl (■oin^ic, .iiipl it'll iit\lv lo p.in ii'i.in^. riobfi.uis were .u'oeunU'd 
 iu-IhhIu-s, n. O. 
 
■^e LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 509 
 
 lingering in the city, and the time which they had obtained 
 from the consuls to procure conveyances, in which to remove 
 the effects of the royal family, they spent entirely in consulta- 
 tions with the conspirators, and by persistent entreaties suc- 
 ceeded in getting letters given to them for the Tarquins. 
 Otherwise how could they feel sure that the representations 
 made by the ambassadors on matters of such importance were 
 not false? The letters, given as an intended pledge of their 
 sincerity, caused the plot to be discovered: for when, the day be- 
 fore the ambassadors set out to the Tarquins, they had supped 
 by chance at the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators had 
 there discoursed much together in private, as was natural, con- 
 cerning their revolutionary design, one of the slaves, who had 
 already observed what was on foot, overheard their conversa- 
 tion; he waited, however, for the opportunity when the letters 
 should be given to the ambassadors, the detection of which 
 would put the matter beyond a doubt. When he found that 
 they had been given, he laid the whole affair before the con- 
 suls. The consuls left their home to seize the ambassadors 
 and conspirators, and quashed the whole affair without any 
 disturbance, particular care being taken of the letters, to pre- 
 vent their being lost or stolen. The traitors were immediately 
 thrown into prison : some doubt was entertained concerning 
 the treatment of the ambassadors, and though their conduct 
 seemed to justify their being considered as enemies, the law of 
 nations nevertheless prevailed. 
 
 The consideration of the restoration of the king's effects, 
 for which the senate had formerly voted, was laid anew before 
 them. The fathers, overcome by indignation, expressly for- 
 bade either their restoration or confiscation. They were 
 given to the people to be rifled, that, having been polluted as 
 it were by participation in the royal plunder, they might lose 
 forever all hopes of a reconciliation with the Tarquins. A 
 field belonging to the latter, which lay between the city and 
 the Tiber, having been consecrated to Mars, was afterward 
 called the Campus Martins. It is said that there was by chance, 
 at that time, a crop of corn upon it ripe for harvest ; this prod- 
 uce of the field, as they thought it unlawful to use it, after it 
 had been reaped, a large number of men, sent into the field 
 together, carried in baskets corn and straw together, and 
 threw it into the Tiber, which then was flowing with shallow 
 water, as is usual in the heat of summer ; thus the heaps of 
 corn as they stuck in the shallows settled down, covered over 
 with mud ; by means of these and other substances carried 
 down to the same spot, which the river brings along hap-haz- 
 
B. C. 509] PUNISHMENT OF THE TRAITORS 
 
 17 
 
 ard, an island ^ was gradually formed. Afterward I believe that 
 substructures were added, and that aid was given by human 
 handicraft, that the surface might be well raised, as it is now, 
 and strong enough besides to bear the weight even of temples 
 and colonnades. After the tyrant's effects had been plun- 
 dered, the traitors were condemned and punishment inflicted. 
 This punishment was the more noticeable, because the con- 
 sulship imposed on the father the office of punishing his own 
 children, and to him, who should have been removed even as a 
 spectator, was assigned by fortune the duty of carrying out 
 the punishment. Young men of the highest rank stood bound 
 to the stake ; but the consul's sons diverted the eyes of all the 
 spectators from the rest of the criminals, as from persons un- 
 known ; and the people felt pity, not so much on account of 
 their punishment, as of the crime by which they had deserved 
 it. That they, in that year above all others, should have 
 brought themselves to betray into the hands of one, who, for- 
 merly a haughty tyrant, was now an exasperated exile, their 
 country recently delivered, their father its deliverer, the con- 
 sulate which took its rise from the Junian family, the fathers, 
 the people, and all the gods and citizens of Rome. The con- 
 suls advanced to take their seats, and the lictors were de- 
 spatched to inflict punishment. The young men were stripped 
 naked, beaten with rods, and their heads struck ofif with the 
 axe, while all the time the looks and countenance of the father 
 presented a touching spectacle, as his natural feelings displayed 
 themselves during the discharge of his duty in inflicting public 
 punishment. After the punishment of the guilty, that the ex- 
 ample might be a striking one in both aspects for the pre- 
 vention of crime, a sum of money was granted out of the 
 treasury as a reward to the informer : liberty also and the 
 rights of citizenship were conferred upon him. He is said to 
 have been the first person made free by the vindicta ; some 
 think that even the term vindicta is derived from him, and that 
 his name was Vindicius.'' After him it was observed as a 
 rule, that all who were set free in this manner were considered 
 to be admitted to the rights of Roman citizens. 
 
 On receiving the announcement of these events as they 
 had occurred, Tarquin, inflamed not only with grief at the an- 
 nihilation of such great hopes, but also with hatred and re- 
 sentment, when he saw that the way was blocked against 
 
 ' The insula Tiberina between Rome and the Janiculum. 
 
 "^ Vindicta was properly the rod which was laid on the head of a slave 
 by the magistrate who emancipated him, or by one of his attendants : the 
 word is supposed to be derived from vim dicere (to declare authority). 
 
78 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 509 
 
 stratagem, considering that war ought to be openly resorted 
 to, went round as a supphant to the cities of Etruria, imploring 
 above all the Veientines and Tarquinians, not to suffer him, 
 a man sprung from themselves, of the same stock, to perish 
 before* their eyes, an exile and in want, together with his 
 grown-up sons, after they had possessed a kingdom recently 
 so flourishing. That others had been invited to Rome from 
 foreign lands to succeed to the throne ; that he, a king, while 
 engaged in extending the Roman Empire by arms, had been 
 driven out by his nearest relatives by a villainous conspiracy : 
 that they had seized and divided his kingdom in portions 
 among themselves, because no one individual among them 
 was deemed sufficiently deserving of it: and had given up his 
 effects to the people to pillage, that no one might be without 
 a share in the guilt. That he was desirous of recovering his 
 country and his kingdom, and punishing his ungrateful sub- 
 jects. Let them bring succour and aid him ; let them also 
 avenge the wrongs done to them of old, the frequent slaughter 
 of their legions, the robbery of their land. These arguments 
 prevailed on the people of Veil, and with menaces they loudly 
 declared, each in their own name, that now at least, under the 
 conduct of a Roman general, their former disgrace would be 
 wiped out, and what they had lost in war would be recovered. 
 His name and relationship influenced the people of Tarquinii, 
 for it seemed a high honour that their countrymen should 
 reign at Rome. Accordingly, the armies of these two states 
 followed Tarquin to aid in the recovery of his kingdom, and 
 to take vengeance upon the Romans in war. When they 
 entered Roman territory, the consuls marched to meet the 
 enemy. Valerius led the infantry in a square battalion : Bru- 
 tus marched in front with the cavalry to reconnoitre. In like 
 manner the enemy's horse formed the van of the army: Ar- 
 runs Tarquinius, the king's son, was in command : the king 
 himself followed with the legions. Arruns, when he knew at a 
 distance by the lictors that it was a consul, and on drawing 
 nearer more surely discovered that it was Brutus by his face, 
 inflamed with rage, cried out: "Yonder is the man who has 
 driven us into exile from our native country ! see how he rides 
 in state adorned with the insignia of our rank ! now assist me, 
 ye gods, the avengers of kings." He put spurs to his horse 
 and charged furiously against the consul. Brutus perceived 
 that he was being attacked, and, as it was honourable in those 
 days for the generals to personally engage in battle, he ac- 
 cordingly eagerly offered himself for combat. They charged 
 with such furious animosity, neither of them heedful of pro- 
 
B. C. 509] DEATH OF BRUTUS 79 
 
 tecting his own person, provided he could wound his oppo- 
 nent, that each, pierced through the buckler by his adversary's 
 blow, fell from his horse in the throes of death, still transfixed 
 by the two spears. The engagement between the rest of the 
 horse began at the same time, and soon after the foot came 
 up. There they fought with varying success, and as it were 
 with equal advantage. The right wings of both armies were 
 victorious, the left worsted. The Veientines, accustomed to 
 defeat at the hands of the Roman soldiers, were routed and 
 put to flight. The Tarquinians, who were a new foe, not only 
 stood their ground, but on their side even forced the Romans 
 to give way. 
 
 After the engagement had thus been fought, so great a 
 terror seized Tarquinius and the Etruscans, that both armies, 
 the Veientine and Tarquinian, abandoning the attempt as a 
 fruitless one, departed by night to their respective homes. 
 Strange incidents are also reported in the account of this 
 battle — that in the stillness of the next night a loud voice was 
 heard from the Arsian wood;^ that it was believed to be the 
 voice of Silvanus. That the following words were uttered : 
 that more of the Tuscans by one man had fallen in the fight : 
 that the Romans were victorious in the war. Under these 
 circumstances, the Romans departed thence as conquerors, 
 the Etruscans as practically conquered. For as soon as it 
 was light, and not one of the enemy was to be seen anywhere, 
 Publius Valerius, the consul, collected the spoils, and returned 
 thence in triumph to Rome. He celebrated the funeral of his 
 colleague with all the magnificence possible at the time. But 
 a far greater honour to his death was the public sorrow, espe- 
 cially remarkable in this particular, that the matrons mourned 
 him for a year as a parent, because he had shown himself so 
 vigorous an avenger of violated chastity. Afterward, the con- 
 sul who survived — so changeable are the minds of the people 
 —after enjoying great popularity, encountered not only jeal- 
 ousy, but suspicion, that originated with a monstrous charge. 
 Report represented that he was aspiring to kingly power, be- 
 cause he had not substituted a colleague in the room of Bru- 
 tus, and was building on the top of Mount Velia : ^ that an im- 
 pregnable stronghold was being erected there in an elevated 
 and well-fortified position. These reports, widely circulated 
 and believed, disquieted the consul's mind at the unworthiness 
 of the charge ; and, having summoned the people to an assem.- 
 bly, he mounted the platform, after lowering the fasces. It 
 
 ' Near the Janiculum, between the Via Aurelia and the Via Claudia. 
 ' A summit of the Palatine. — D. O. 
 
8o 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 509 
 
 was a pleasing sight to the multitude that the insignia of au- 
 thority were lowered before them, and that acknowledgment 
 was made, that the dignity and power of the people were 
 greater than that of the consul. Then, after they had been 
 bidden to listen, the consul highly extolled the good fortune 
 of his colleague, in that, after having delivered his country, he 
 had died while still invested with the highest rank, fighting in 
 defence of the commonwealth, when his glory was at its 
 height, and had not yet turned to jealousy. He himself (said 
 he) had outlived his glory, and only survived to incur ac- 
 cusation and odium : that, from being the liberator of his 
 country, he had fallen back to the level of the Aquilii and 
 Vitellii. " Will no merit then," said he, " ever be so approved 
 in your eyes as to be exempt from the attacks of suspicion? 
 Was I to apprehend that I, that bitterest enemy of kings, 
 should myself have to submit to the charge of desiring kingly 
 power? Was I to believe that, even though I should dwell in 
 the citadel and the Capitol itself, I should be dreaded by my 
 fellow-citizens ? Does my character among you depend on 
 so mere a trifle? Does your confidence in me rest on such 
 slight foundations, that it matters more where I am than what 
 I am? The house of Publius Valerius shall not stand in the 
 way of your liberty, Quirites; the Velian Mount shall be se- 
 cure to you. I will not only bring down my house into the 
 plain, but will build it beneath the hill, that you may dwell 
 above me, the suspected citizen. Let those build on the Ve- 
 lian Mount, to whom liberty can be more safely intrusted than 
 to Publius Valerius." Immediately all the materials were 
 brought down to the foot of the Velian Mount, and the house 
 was built at the foot of the hill, where the Temple of Vica Pota ^ 
 now stands. 
 
 After this laws were proposed by the consul, such as not 
 only freed him from all suspicion of aiming at regal power, 
 but had so contrary a tendency, that they even made him 
 popular. At this time he was surnamed Publicola. Above 
 all, the laws regarding an appeal to the people against the 
 magistrates, and declaring accursed the life and property of 
 any one who should have formed the design of seizing regal 
 authority,* were welcome to the people. Having passed these 
 laws while sole consul, so that the merit of them might be 
 exclusively his own, he then held an assembly for the election 
 of a new colleague. Spurius Lucretius was elected consul, 
 
 ' The goddess of victory [vi(n)co-pot(is)]. 
 
 ' Practically a sentence ol combined excommunication and outlawry 
 — D. O. ■^' 
 
B.C. 508-507] WAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS 8 1 
 
 who, owing to his great age, and his strength being inade- 
 quate to discharge the consular duties, died within a few days. 
 Marcus Horatius Pulvillus was chosen in the room of Lucre- 
 tius. In some ancient authorities I find no mention of Lucre- 
 tius as consul ; they place Horatius immediately after Brutus. 
 My own belief is that, because no important event signalized 
 his consulate, all record of it has been lost. The Temple of 
 Jupiter on the Capitol had not yet been dedicated; the con- 
 suls Valerius and Horatius cast lots which should dedicate it. 
 The duty fell by lot to Horatius. Publicola departed to con- 
 duct the war against the Veientines. The friends of Valerius 
 were more annoyed than the circumstances demanded, that 
 the dedication of so celebrated a temple was given to Hora- 
 tius. Having endeavoured by every means to prevent it, 
 when all other attempts had been tried and failed, at the mo- 
 ment when the consul was holding the door-post during his 
 offering of prayer to the gods, they suddenly announced to 
 him the startling intelligence that his son was dead, and that, 
 while his family was polluted by death, he could not dedicate 
 the temple. Whether he did not believe that it was true, or 
 whether he possessed such great strength of mind, is neither 
 handed down for certain, nor is it easy to decide. On receiv- 
 ing the news, holding the door-post, without turning off his 
 attention in any other way from the business he was engaged 
 in, save that he ordered the body to be carried out for burial, he 
 completed the form of prayer, and dedicated the temple. Such 
 were the transactions at home and abroad during the first year 
 after the expulsion of the kings. After this Publius Valerius, 
 for the second time, and Titus Lucretius were elected consuls. 
 By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars Porsina, King 
 of Clusium. There, mingling advice with entreaties, they 
 now besought him not to suffer them, who were descended 
 from the Etruscans, and of the same stock and name, to live 
 in exile and poverty ; now advised him also not to let the rising 
 practice of expelling kings pass vinpunished. Liberty in itself 
 had charms enough ; and, unless kings defended their thrones 
 with as much vigour as the people strove for liberty, the high- 
 est was put on a level with the lowest ; there would be nothing 
 exalted in states, nothing to be distinguished above the rest ; 
 that the end of regal government, the most beautiful institu- 
 tion both among gods and men, was close at hand. Porsina, 
 thinking it a great honour to the Tuscans both that there 
 should be a king at Rome, and that one belonging to the 
 Etruscan nation, marched toward Rome with a hostile army. 
 Never before on any other occasion did such terror seize the 
 6 
 
82 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 508-507 
 
 senate ; so powerful was the state of Clusium ^ at that time, and 
 so great the renown of Porsina. Nor did they dread their 
 enemies only, but even their own citizens, lest the common 
 people of Rome, smitten with fear, should, by receiving the 
 Tarquins into the city, accept peace even at the price of slav- 
 ery. Many concessions were therefore granted to the people 
 by the senate during that period by way of conciliating them. 
 Their attention, in the first place, was directed to the markets, 
 and persons were sent, some to the country of the Volscians, 
 others to Cumse, to buy up corn. The privilege of selling salt 
 also was withdrawn from private individuals because it was 
 sold at an exorbitant price, while all the expense fell upon the 
 state : ^ and the people were freed from duties and taxes, inas- 
 much as the rich, since they were in a position to bear the bur- 
 den, should contribute them; the poor, they said, paid taxes 
 enough if they brought up their children. This indulgence 
 on the part of the fathers accordingly kept the state so united 
 during their subsequent adversity in time of siege and famine, 
 that the lowest as much as the highest abhorred the name of 
 king; nor did any single individual afterward gain such popu- 
 larity by intriguing practices, as the whole body of the senate 
 at that time by their excellent government. 
 
 On the approach of the enemy, they all withdrew for pro- 
 tection from the country into the city, and protected the city 
 itself with military garrisons. Some parts seemed secured 
 by the walls, others by the Tiber between. The SubHcian ' 
 bridge well-nigh afforded a passage to the enemy, had it not 
 been for one man, Horatius Codes : in him the protecting 
 spirit of Rome on that day found a defence. He happened to 
 be posted on guard at the bridge: and, when he saw the Ja- 
 niculum taken by a sudden assault, and the enemy pouring 
 down from thence at full speed, and his own party, in confu- 
 sion, abandoning their arms and ranks, seizing hold of them 
 one by one, standing in their way, and appealing to the faith 
 of gods and men, he declared, that their flight would avail 
 them nothing if they deserted their post ; if they crossed the 
 
 ' Now Chiusi. 
 
 ' They did not let these salt-works by auction, but took them under 
 their own management, and carried them on by means of persons em- 
 ployed to work on the public account. These salt-works, first established 
 at Ostia by Ancus, were, like other public property, farmed out to the 
 publicans. As they had a high rent to pay, the price of salt was raised 
 in proportion ; but now the patricians, to curry favour with the ple- 
 beians, did not let the salt-pits to private tenants, but kept them in the 
 hands of public labourers, to collect all the salt for the public use ; and 
 appointed salesmen to retail it to the people at a cheaper rate. 
 
 * Just below the sole remaining pillar of the Pons jEmilius. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 508-507] BRAVERY OF HORATIUS COCLES 83 
 
 bridge and left it behind them, there would soon be greater 
 numbers of the enemy in the Palatium and Capitol than in the 
 Janiculum ; therefore he advised and charged them to break 
 down the bridge, by sword, by fire, or by any violent means 
 whatsoever ; that he himself would receive the attack of the 
 enemy as far as resistance could be offered by the person of 
 one man. He then strode to the front entrance of the bridge, 
 and being easily distinguished among those whose backs were 
 seen as they gave way before the battle, he struck the enemy 
 with amazement by his surprising boldness as he faced round 
 in arms to engage the foe hand to hand. Two, however, a 
 sense of shame kept back with him, Spurius Larcius and Titus 
 Herminius, both men of high birth, and renowned for their 
 gallant exploits. With them he for a short time stood the first 
 storm of danger, and the severest brunt of the battle. After- 
 ward, as those who were cutting down the bridge called upon 
 them to retire, and only a small portion of it vi'as left, he 
 obliged them also to withdraw to a place of safety. Then, 
 casting his stern eyes threateningly upon all the nobles of the 
 Etruscans, he now challenged them singly, now reproached 
 them all as the slaves of haughty tyrants, who, unmindful of 
 their own freedom, came to attack that of others. For a con- 
 siderable time they hesitated, looking round one upon an- 
 other, waiting to begin the fight. A feeling of shame then 
 stirred the army, and raising a shout, they hurled their weap- 
 ons from all sides on their single adversary ; and when they 
 had all stuck in the shield he held before him, and he with no 
 less obstinacy kept possession of the bridge with firm step, 
 they now began to strive to thrust him down from it by their 
 united attack, when the crash of the falling bridge, and at the 
 same time the shout raised by the Romans for joy at having 
 completed their task, checked their assault with sudden con- 
 sternation. Then Codes said, " Father Tiberinus, holy one; I 
 pray thee, receive these arms, and this thy soldier, in thy fa- 
 vouring stream." So, in full armour, just as he was, he leaped 
 into the Tiber, and, amid showers of darts that fell upon him, 
 swam across unharmed to his comrades, having dared a deed 
 which is likely to obtain more fame than belief with posterity.^ 
 
 ' Macaulay, in his " Lays of Ancient Rome," has made this incident the 
 basis of one of the most stirring poems in the English language. Though 
 familiar to all, it does not seem out of place to quote from his " Hora- 
 tius" in connection with the story as told by Livy ; 
 " Alone stood brave Horatius, 
 But constant still in mind ; 
 Thrice thirty thousand foes before 
 And the broad flood behind. 
 
84 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 508-507 
 
 The state showed itself grateful toward such distinguished 
 valour; a statue of him was erected in the comitium, and as 
 much land was given to him as he could draw a furrovv round 
 in one day with a plough. The zeal of private individuals 
 also was conspicuous in the midst of public honours. For, 
 notwithstanding the great scarcity, each person contributed 
 
 ' Down with him ! ' cried false Sextus, 
 
 With smile on his pale face. 
 ' Now yield thee,' cried Lars Porsina, 
 
 ' Now yield thee to our grace.' 
 
 "'O Tiber! father Tiber! 
 
 To whom the Romans pray, 
 A Roman's life, a Roman's arras. 
 
 Take thou in charge this day ! ' 
 So he spake, and speaking, sheathed 
 
 The good sword by his side, 
 And with his harness on his back 
 
 Plunged headlong in the tide. 
 
 " No sound of joy or sorrow 
 
 Was heard from either bank. 
 But friends and foes, in dumb surprise. 
 With parted lips and straining eyes. 
 
 Stood gazing where he sank ; 
 And when above the surges 
 
 They saw his crest appear. 
 All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry. 
 And even the ranks of Tuscany 
 
 Could scarce forbear to cheer. 
 
 " But fiercely ran the current. 
 
 Swollen high by months of rain ; 
 And fast his blood was flowing. 
 
 And he was sore in pain. 
 And heavy with his armour. 
 
 And spent with changing blows ; 
 And oft they thought him sinking. 
 
 But still again he rose. 
 
 " ' Curse on him I ' quoth false Sextus, 
 
 ' Will not the villain drown ? 
 But for this stay, ere close of day. 
 
 We should have sacked the town ! ' 
 ' Heaven help him ! ' quoth brave Porsina 
 
 ' And bring him safe to shore ; 
 For such a gallant feat of arms 
 
 Was never seen before." 
 
 " And now he feels the bottom ; 
 Now on dry earth he stands ; 
 Now round him throng the fathers 
 To press his gory hands ; 
 
HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE. 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving after a painting by 
 Vincenzio Camucinni. 
 
B. C. 508-507] PORSINA BESIEGES ROME 85 
 
 something to him in proportion to his private means, depriv- 
 ing himself of his own means of support. 
 
 Porsina, repulsed in his first attempt, having changed his 
 plans to a siege of the city, and a blockade, and pitched his 
 camp in the plain and on the bank of the Tiber, placed a gar- 
 rison in the Janiculum. Then, sending for boats from all 
 parts, both to guard the river, so as to prevent any provisions 
 being conveyed up stream to Rome, and also that his soldiers 
 might get across to plunder in different places as opportunity 
 offered, in a short time he so harassed all the country round 
 Rome, that not only was everything else conveyed out of 
 the country, but even the cattle were driven into the city, and 
 nobody ventured to drive them without the gates. This lib- 
 erty of action was granted to the Etruscans, not more from 
 fear than from design : for the consul Valerius, eager for an 
 opportunity of falling unawares upon a number of them to- 
 gether in loose order, careless of taking vengeance in trifling 
 matters, reserved himself as a serious avenger for more im- 
 portant occasions. Accordingly, in order to draw out the pil- 
 lagers, he ordered a large body of his men to drive out their 
 cattle the next day by the Esquiline gate, which was farthest 
 from the enemy, thinking that they would get intelligence 
 of it, because during the blockade and scarcity of provisions 
 some of the slaves would turn traitors and desert. And in fact 
 they did learn by the information of a deserter, and parties far 
 more numerous than usual crossed the river in the hope of 
 seizing all the booty at once. Then Publius Valerius com- 
 manded Titus Herminius, with a small force, to lie in ambush 
 at the second milestone on the road to Gabii, and Spurius Lar- 
 cius, with a party of light-armed youths, to post himself at the 
 Colline gate while the enemy was passing by, and then to 
 throw himself in their way to cut off their return to the river. 
 The other consul, Titus Lucretius, marched out of the Nasvian 
 
 And now with shouts and clapping, 
 
 And noise of weeping loud, 
 He enters through the River-gate 
 
 Borne by the joyous crowd. 
 
 "When the goodman mends his armour. 
 
 And trims his helmet's plume ; 
 When the goodwife's shuttle merrily 
 
 Goes flashing through the loom ; 
 With weeping and with laughter 
 
 Still is the story told, 
 How well Horatius kept the bridge 
 
 In the brave days of old." 
 
S6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 508-507 
 
 gate with some companies of soldiers, while \"alerius himself 
 Ted some chosen cohorts down from the Ccelian ^Nlount. These 
 were the first who were seen by the enemy. Herminius, when 
 he perceived the alarm, rushed from his ambush and fell upon 
 the rear of the Etruscans, who had turned against \ alerius. 
 The shout was returned on the right and left, from the Col- 
 line gate on the one side and the Xxvian on the other. Thus 
 the plunderers were put to the sword between both, being 
 neither their match in strength for fighting, and all the ways 
 being blocked up to prevent escape: this put an end to the 
 disorderly raids of the Etruscans. 
 
 The blockade, however, was carried on none the less, and 
 corn was both scarce and very dear. Porsina still entertained 
 the hope that, by continuing the blockade, he would be able to 
 reduce the city, when Gains Mucins, a young noble, who con- 
 sidered it a disgrace that the Roman people, who, even when 
 in a state of slavery, while under the kings, had never been 
 confined within their walls during any war, or blockaded by 
 any enemy, should now, when a free people, be blockaded by 
 these very Etruscans whose armies they had often routed — 
 and thinking that such disgrace ought to be avenged by some 
 great and daring deed, at first designed on his own responsi- 
 bility to make his way into the enemy's camp. Then, being 
 afraid that, if he went without the permission of the consuls, 
 and unknown to all, he might perhaps be seized by the Roman 
 guards and brought back as a deserter, since the circumstances 
 of the city at the time rendered such a charge credible, he ap- 
 proached the senate. " Fathers," said he, " I desire to cross 
 the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if I may be able, not 
 as a plunderer, nor as an avenger to exact retribution for their 
 devastations : a greater deed is in my mind, if the gods assist.'' 
 The senate approved. He set out with a dagger concealed 
 under his garment. \Mien he reached the camp, he stationed 
 himself where the crowd was thickest, near the king's tribunal. 
 There, as the soldiers happened to be receiving their pay, and 
 the king's secretary, sitting by him, similarly attired, was 
 busily engaged, and generally addressed by the soldiers, he 
 killed the secretary, against whom chance blindlv directed the 
 blow, instead of the king, being afraid to ask which of the two 
 was Porsina, lest, by displaying his ignorance of the king, he 
 should disclose who he himself was. As he was moving off 
 in the direction where with his bloody dagger he had made a 
 way for himself through the dismayed multitude, the crowd 
 ran up on hearing the noise, and he was immediatelv seized 
 and brought back by the king's guards : being set before the 
 
11. c. 508-507] STORY OF GAIUS MUCIUS 87 
 
 king's tribunal, even then, aniitl the perilous fortune that 
 threatened him, more capable of inspirinj; dread than of feel- 
 ing- it, " I am," said he, " a Roman citi/^en ; men call me Gains 
 Mucins ; an enemy, 1 wished to slay an enemy, nor have 1 less 
 courage to suffer death than I had to iiifhct it. Both to do 
 and to suffer bravely is a Roman's part. Nor have I alone 
 harboured such feelings toward you ; there follows after me a 
 long succession of as[Mrants to the same honour. Therefore, 
 if you choose, prepare yourself for this peril, to be in danger 
 of your life from hour to hour: to find the sword and the 
 enemy at the very entrance of > our tent : such is the war wc, 
 the youth of Rome, declare against you; dread not an army in 
 the field, nor a battle ; you will have to contend alone and with 
 each of us one by one." When the king, furious with rage, 
 and at the same time terrified at the danger, threateningly 
 conuuanded fires to be kindled about him, if he did not speed- 
 ily disclose the plots, at which in his threats he had darkly 
 hinted. Mucins said, " See here, that you ma)- understand of 
 how little account the body is to those who have great glory in 
 view"; and inunediately thrust his right hand into the fire 
 that was lighted for sacrifice. \Mien he allowed it to burn as 
 if his spirit were quite insensible to any feeling of pain, the 
 king, well-nigh astounded at this surprising sight, leaped from 
 his seat and conuiianded the young man to be removed from 
 the altar. " Depart," said he. " thou who hast acted more 
 like an enemy toward thyself than toward me. I would bid 
 thee go on and prosper in thy valour, if that valour were on 
 the side of my country. I now dismiss thee unharmed and 
 unhurt, exempt from the right of war." Then Mucins, as if 
 in return for the kindness, said: "Since bravery is held in 
 honour with you, that you may obtain from me bv vour kind- 
 ness that which you could not obtain by threats, know that we 
 are three hundred, the chief of the Roman youth, who have 
 conspired to attack you in this manner. The lot fell upc-in me 
 first. The rest will be with you each in his turn, according to 
 the fortune that shall befall me who drew the first lot. until 
 forttme on some favourable opportunity shall have delivered 
 you into their hands." 
 
 ^lucius, to whom the surname of Sca?vola ' was afterward 
 given from the loss of his right hand, was let go and am- 
 bassadors from Porsina followed him to Rome. The danger 
 of the first attempt, in which nothing had protected him but 
 the mistake of his secret assailant, and the thought of the 
 
 ' Of the left hand.— D. O. 
 
88 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 507-506 
 
 risk of life he would have to run so often in proportion to the 
 number of surviving conspirators that remained, made so 
 strong an impression upon him that of his own accord he 
 offered terms of peace to the Romans. In these terms the 
 restoration of the Tarquins to the throne was proposed and 
 discussed without success, rather because he felt he could 
 not refuse that to the Tarquins, than from ignorance that it 
 would be refused him by the Romans. In regard to the 
 restoration of territory to the Veientines his request_ was 
 granted, and the obligation of giving hostages, if they wished 
 the garrison to be withdrawn from the Janiculum, was ex- 
 torted from the Romans. Peace being concluded on these 
 terms, Porsina led his troops down from the Janiculum, and 
 withdrew from Roman territory. The fathers bestowed upon 
 Gains Mucins, in reward for his valour, some land on the 
 other side of the Tiber, which was afterward called the Mucian 
 meadows. By this honour paid to valour women also were 
 roused to deeds that brought glory to the state. Among 
 others, a young woman named Clcelia, one of the hostages, 
 escaped her keepers, and, as the camp of the Etruscans had 
 been pitched not far from the bank of the Tiber, swam over 
 the river, amid the darts of the enemy, at the head of a band of 
 maidens, and brought them all back in safety to their relations 
 at Rome. When news of this was brought to the king, at 
 first, furious with rage, he sent deputies to Rome to demand 
 the hostage Cloelia, saying that he did not set great store by 
 the rest: afterward, his feelings being changed to admiration, 
 he said that this deed surpassed those of men like Codes and 
 Mucius, and further declared that, as he would consider the 
 treaty broken if the hostage were not delivered up, so, if 
 she were given up, he would send her back unharmed and 
 unhurt to her friends. Both sides kept faith: the Romans 
 restored their pledge of peace according to treaty: and with 
 the Etruscan king valour found not only security, but also 
 honour; and, after praising the maiden, he promised to give 
 her, as a present, half the hostages, allowing her to choose 
 whom she pleased. When they had all been led forth, she is 
 said to have picked out those below the age of puberty, a 
 choice which both reflected honour upon her maiden delicacy, 
 and was one likely to be approved of by consent of the hos- 
 tages themselves — that those who were of such an age as 
 was most exposed to injury should above all others be deliv- 
 ered from the enemy. Peace being renewed, the Romans 
 rewarded this instance of bravery uncommon in a woman 
 with an uncommon kind of honour: an equestrian statue, 
 
B. C. 507-506J PORSINA ABANDONS THE SIEGE 89 
 
 which, representing a maiden sitting on horseback, was 
 erected at the top of the Via Sacra.^ 
 
 The custom handed down from the ancients, and which 
 has continued down to our times among other usages at 
 pubHc sales, that of selHng the goods of King Porsina, is in- 
 consistent with this account of so peaceful a departure of the 
 Etruscan king from the city. The origin of this custom must 
 either have arisen during the war, and not been abandoned 
 in time of peace, or it must have grown from a milder begin- 
 ning than the form of expression seems, on the face of it, to 
 indicate, of selling the goods as if taken from an enemy. Of 
 the accounts handed down, the most probable is, that Por- 
 sina, when retiring from the Janiculum, made a present to 
 the Romans of his camp rich with stores of provisions con- 
 veyed from the neighbouring fertile fields of Etruria, as the 
 city was then exhausted owing to the long siege: that then, 
 to prevent its contents being plundered as if it belonged to an 
 enemy when the people were admitted, they were sold, and 
 called the goods of Porsina, the expression rather conveying 
 the idea of a thankworthy gift than an auction of the king's 
 property, seeing that this never even came into the power 
 of the Roman people. Porsina, having abandoned the war 
 against the Romans, that his army might not seem to have 
 been led into those parts to no purpose, sent his son Arruns 
 with part of his forces to besiege Aricia. The unexpected 
 occurrence at first terrified the Aricians : afterward aid, which 
 had been sent for, both from the people of Latium and from 
 Cumse," inspired such hope that they ventured to try the issue 
 of a pitched battle. At the beginning of the battle the Etrus- 
 cans attacked so furiously that they routed the Aricians at 
 the first onset. But the Cuman cohorts, employing strata- 
 gem against force, moved off a little to one side, and when 
 the enemy were carried beyond them in loose array, they 
 wheeled round and attacked them in the rear. By this means 
 the Etruscans, when on the point of victory, were hemmed 
 in and cut to pieces. A very small number of them, having 
 lost their general, and having no nearer refuge, came to Rome 
 without their arms, in the plight and guise of suppliants. 
 There they were kindly received and distributed in different 
 lodgings. When their wounds had been attended to, some 
 went home and recounted the kind hospitality they had met 
 
 ' Probably where the Cliva Capitolina begins to ascend the slope of 
 the Capitol.— D. O. 
 
 ' The most ancient of the Greek colonies in Italy. Its ruins are on 
 the coast north of the Promontory of Miseno. — D. O. 
 
go LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 507-506 
 
 with. Affection for their hosts and for the city caused many 
 others to remain at Rome: a quarter was assigned them to 
 dwell in, which has ever since been called the Tuscan Street.^ 
 
 Spurius Lucretius and Publius Valerius Publicola were 
 next elected consuls. In that year ambassadors came from 
 Porsina for the last time, to discuss the restoration of Tar- 
 quin to the throne. And when answer had been given them, 
 that the senate would send deputies to the king, the most dis- 
 tinguished of that order were forthwith despatched to explain 
 that it was not because the answer could not have been given 
 in a few words — that the royal family would not be received — 
 that select members of the senate had been deputed to him, 
 rather than an answer given to his ambassadors at Rome, but 
 in order that all mention of the matter might be put an end 
 to forever, and that their minds might not be disturbed amid 
 so many mutual acts of kindness on both sides, by his asking 
 what was adverse to the liberty of the Roman people, and by 
 their refusing him (unless they were willing to promote their 
 own destruction) whom they would willingly refuse nothing. 
 That the Roman people were not now under a kingly govern- 
 ment, but in the enjoyment of freedom, and were accordingly 
 resolved to open their gates to enemies sooner than to kings. 
 That it was the wish of all, that the end of their city's free- 
 dom might also be the end of the city itself. Wherefore, 
 if he wished Rome to be safe, they entreated him to suffer 
 it to be free. The king, overcome by feelings of respect, re- 
 plied: " Since that is your firm and fixed resolve, I will neither 
 annoy you by importunities, by urging the same request too 
 often to no purpose, nor will I disappoint the Tarquins by 
 holding out hopes of aid, which it is not in my power to give 
 them; whether they have need of peace, or of war, let them 
 go hence and seek another place of exile, that nothing may 
 hinder the peace between us." To kindly words he added 
 deeds still more friendly: he delivered up the remainder of 
 the hostages, and restored to them the land of the Veientines, 
 which had been taken from them by the treaty concluded 
 at the Janiculum. Tarquin, now that all hope of return was 
 cut off, went into exile to Tusculum = to his son-in-law Oc- 
 tavius Mamilius. Thus a lasting peace was concluded be- 
 tween Porsina and the Romans. 
 
 The next consuls were Marcus Valerius and Publius Pos- 
 tumius. During that year war was carried on successfully 
 
 ' Leading from the forum to the Velabrura. 
 
 » It was situated in the Alban Hills about ten miles from Rome on the 
 site of the modern Frascati. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 507-506J DEATH OF PUBLIUS VALERIUS 91 
 
 against the Sabines; the consuls received the honour of a 
 triumph. Upon this the Sabines made preparations for war 
 on a larger scale. To make head against them, and to pre- 
 vent any sudden danger arising from Tusculum, from which 
 quarter war, though not openly declared, was suspected, Pub- 
 lius Valerius was created consul a fourth time, and Titus 
 Lucretius a second time. A disturbance that arose among 
 the Sabines between the advocates of war and of peace, trans- 
 ferred considerable strength from them to the Romans. For 
 Attius Clausus, who was afterward called Appius Claudius 
 at Rome, being himself an advocate of peace, when hard 
 pressed by the agitators for war, and being no match for the 
 party, fled from Regillum to Rome, accompanied by a great 
 number of dependents. The rights of citizenship and land 
 on the other side of the Anio were bestowed on them. This 
 settlement was called the old Claudian tribe, and was subse- 
 quently increased by the addition of new tribesmen who kept 
 arriving from that district. Appius, being chosen into the 
 senate, was soon after advanced to the rank of the highest 
 in that order. The consuls entered the territories of the Sa- 
 bines with a hostile army, and when, both by laying waste 
 their country, and afterward by defeating them in battle, they 
 had so weakened the power of the enemy that for a long 
 time there was no reason to dread the renewal of the war in 
 that quarter, they returned to Rome in triumph. The follow- 
 ing year, Agrippa Menenius and Publius Postumius being 
 consuls, Publius Valerius, by universal consent the ablest man 
 in Rome, in the arts both of peace and war, died covered 
 with glory, but in such straitened private circumstances that 
 there was not enough to defray the expenses of a public 
 funeral: one was given him at the public charge. The ma- 
 trons mourned for him as they had done for Brutus. The 
 same year two Latin colonies, Pometia and Cora,^ revolted to 
 the Auruncans.^ War was commenced against the Auruncans, 
 and after a large army, which boldly met the consuls as they 
 were entering their frontiers, had been defeated, all the opera- 
 tions of the Auruncan war were concentrated at Pometia. 
 Nor, after the battle was over, did they refrain from slaughter 
 any more than when it was going on : the number of the 
 slain was considerably greater than that of the prisoners, 
 and the latter they put to death indiscriminately. Nor did 
 the wrath of war spare even the hostages, three hundred in 
 
 ' Suessa-Pometia, mentioned in former note. Cora is now Cori. — 
 D. O. 
 
 ^ Their home was in Campania. — D. O. 
 
p2 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 506-504 
 
 number, whom they had received. This year also the consuls 
 celebrated a triumph at Rome. 
 
 The succeeding consuls, Opiter Verginius and Spurius 
 Cassius, first endeavoured to take Pometia by storm, and 
 afterward by means of mantlets ' and other works. But the 
 Auruncans, stirred up against them more by an irreconcilable 
 hatred than induced by any hopes of success, or by a favour- 
 able opportunity, having sallied forth, more of them armed 
 with lighted torches than swords, filled all places with fire 
 and slaughter. Having fired the mantlets, slain and wounded 
 many of the enemy, they almost succeeded in slaying one of 
 the consuls, who had been thrown from his horse and severely 
 wounded: which of them it was, authorities do not mention. 
 Upon this the Romans returned to the city unsuccessful: the 
 consul was taken back with many more wounded, with doubt- 
 ful hope of his recovery. After a short interval, sufficient 
 for attending to their wounds and recruiting their army, they 
 attacked Pometia with greater fury and increased strength. 
 When, after the mantlets and the other military works had 
 been repaired, the soldiers were on the point of mounting the 
 walls, the town surrendered. Yet, though the town had sur- 
 rendered, the Auruncans were treated with no less cruelty 
 than if it had been taken by assault: the chief men were be- 
 headed: the rest, who were colonists, were sold by auction, 
 the town was razed, and the land sold. The consuls obtained 
 a triumph more from having violently gratified their ^ resent- 
 ment than in consequence of the importance of the war thus 
 concluded. 
 
 In the following year Postumus Cominius and Titus Lar- 
 cius were consuls. In that year, during the celebration of the 
 games at Rome, as some courtesans were being carried off 
 by some of, the Sabine youth in wanton frolic, a crowd assem- 
 bled, a quarrel ensued, and almost a battle: and in conse- 
 quence of this trifling occurrence the whole affair seemed to 
 point to a renewal of hostilities, which inspired even more 
 apprehension than a Latin war. Their fears were further in- 
 creased, because it was known for certain that thirty different 
 states had already entered into a confederacy against them, 
 at the instigation of Octavius Mamilius. While the state was 
 troubled during the expectation of such important events, the 
 idea of nominating a dictator was mentioned for the first time. 
 
 ' Wooden roofs covered with earth or wet hides, and rolled forward on 
 wheels for the protection of those engaged in battering or mining- the 
 walls.— D. O. » 6 
 
 ^ That is, the Romans. 
 
B. C. 504-502] DICTATOR FIRST APPOINTED p3 
 
 But in what year, or who the consuls were in whom con- 
 fidence was not reposed, because they belonged to the party 
 of the Tarquins — for that also is reported — or who was elected 
 dictator for the first time, is not satisfactorily established. 
 Among the oldest authorities, however, I find that Titus 
 Larcius was appointed the first dictator, and Spurius Cassius 
 master of the horse. They chose men of consular dignity: 
 so the law, that was passed for the election of a dictator, or- 
 dained. For this reason, I am more inclined to believe that 
 Larcius, who was of consular rank, was attached to the con- 
 suls as their director and superior, rather than Manius Va- 
 lerius, the son of Marcus and grandson of Volesus, who had 
 not yet been consul. Moreover, had they intended a dic- 
 tator to be chosen from that family under any circumstances, 
 they would much rather have chosen his father, Marcus 
 Valerius, a man of consular rank, and of approved merit. 
 On the first creation of the dictator at Rome, when they saw 
 the axes carried before him, great awe came upon the people,^ 
 so that they became more attentive to obey orders. For nei- 
 ther, as was the case under the consuls, who possessed equal 
 power, could the assistance of one of them be invoked, nor 
 was there any appeal, nor any chance of redress but in atten- 
 tive submission. The creation of a dictator at Rome also 
 terrified the Sabines, and the more so because they thought 
 he was created on their account. Accordingly, they sent am- 
 bassadors to treat concerning peace. To these, when they 
 earnestly entreated the dictator and senate to pardon a youth- 
 ful ofifence, the answer was given, that the young men might 
 be forgiven, but not the old, seeing that they were continually 
 stirring up one war after another. Nevertheless they con- 
 tinued to treat about peace, which would have been granted, 
 if the Sabines had brought themselves to make good the ex- 
 penses incurred during the war, as was demanded. War was 
 proclaimed; a truce, however, with the tacit consent of both 
 parties, preserved peace throughout the year. 
 
 Servius Sulpicius and Manius Tullius were consuls the 
 next year: nothing worth mentioning happened. Titus yEbu- 
 tius and Gains Vetusius succeeded. In their consulship 
 Fidense ^ was besieged, Crustumeria taken, and Pragneste ' re- 
 volted from the Latins to the Romans. Nor was the Latin 
 war, which had now been fomenting for several years, any 
 
 ' Perhaps because the twenty-four axes of both consuls went to the 
 dictator. — D. O. 
 
 ' On the Tiber, about five miles from Rome. Now Castel-Giubileo. 
 ' Now Palestrina. 
 
54 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. c. 501-499 
 
 longer deferred. Aulus Postumius the dictator, and Titus 
 jEbutius his master of the horse, setting out with a numerous 
 army of horse and foot, met the enemy's forces at the Lake 
 Regillus,! in the territory of Tusculum, and, because it was 
 rumoured that the Tarquins were in the army of the Latins, 
 their rage could not be restrained, so that they immediately 
 came to an engagement. Accordingly, the battle was con- 
 siderably more severe and fierce than others. For the gen- 
 erals were present not only to direct matters by their instruc- 
 tions, but, exposing their own persons, they met in combat. 
 And there was hardly one of the principal officers of either 
 army who came off unwounded, except the Roman dictator. 
 As Postumius was encouraging his men in the first line, and 
 drawing them up in order, Tarquinius Superbus, though now 
 advanced in years and enfeebled, urged on his horse to at- 
 tack him: and, being wounded in the side, he was carried ofif 
 by a party of his men to a place of safety. In like manner, 
 on the other wing, ^butius, master of the horse, had charged 
 Octavius Mamilius; nor was his approach unobserved by the 
 Etruscan general, vi'ho in like manner spurred his horse 
 against him. And such was their impetuosity as they ad- 
 vanced with lances couched, that ^butius was pierced 
 through the arm and Mamilius run through the breast. The 
 Latins received the latter into their second line; ^butius, 
 as he was unable to wield his lance with his wounded arm, 
 retired from the battle. The Latin general, no way discour- 
 aged by his wound, stirred up the fight: and, because he saw 
 that his own men were disheartened, sent for a company of 
 Roman exiles, commanded by the son of Lucius Tarquinius. 
 This body, inasmuch as they fought with greater fury, owing 
 to the loss of their country, and the seizure of their estates, 
 for a while revived the battle. 
 
 When the Romans were now beginning to give ground in 
 that quarter, Marcus Valerius, brother of Publicola, having 
 observed young Tarquin boldly parading himself at the head 
 of his exiles, fired besides with the renown of his house, that 
 the family, which had gained glory by having expelled the 
 kings, might also have the glory of destroying them, put 
 spurs to his horse, and with his javelin couched made toward 
 Tarquin. Tarquin retreated before his infuriated foe to a 
 battalion of his own men. As Valerius rode rashly into the 
 line of the exiles, one of them attacked him and ran' him side- 
 ways through the body, and as the horse was in no way im- 
 peded by the wound of his rider, the Roman sank to the 
 
 ' See Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome " • The Battle of Lake Regillus. 
 
B. C. 499-496] BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS 95 
 
 ground expiring, with his arms falling over his body. Pos- 
 tumius the dictator, seeing the fall of so distinguished a man, 
 and that the exiles were advancing boldly at a run, and his 
 own men disheartened and giving ground, gave the signal 
 to his own cohort, a chosen body of men which he kept for the 
 defence of his person, to treat every Roman soldier, whom 
 they saw fleeing from the battle, as an enemy. Upon this the 
 Romans, in fear of the danger on both sides, turned from 
 flight and attacked the enemy, and the battle was restored. 
 The dictator's cohort then for the first time engaged in the 
 fight, and with persons and courage unimpaired, fell on the 
 wearied exiles, and cut them to pieces. There another en- 
 gagement took place between the leading officers. The Latin 
 general, on seeing the cohort of the exiles almost surrounded 
 by the Roman dictator, hurried up some companies of re- 
 serves to the front. Titus Herminius, a lieutenant-general, 
 seeing them advancing in a body, and recognising Mamilius, 
 distinguished among them by his armour and dress, encoun- 
 tered the leader of the enemy with violence so much greater 
 than the master of the horse had shown a little before, that 
 at one thrust he ran him through the side and slew him. While 
 stripping the body of his enemy, he himself received a wound 
 with a javelin, and, though brought back to the camp victori- 
 ous, died while it was being dressed. Then the dictator hur- 
 ried up to the cavalry, entreating them, as the infantry were 
 tired out, to dismount and take up the fight. They obeyed 
 his orders, dismounted, flew to the front, and, taking the place 
 of the first line, covered themselves with their targets. The 
 infantry immediately recovered their courage when they saw 
 the young nobles sustaining a share of the danger with them, 
 the mode of fighting being now the same for all. Then at 
 length the Latins were beaten back, and their line, disheart- 
 ened, gave way. The horses were then brought up to the 
 cavalry, that they might pursue the enemy : the infantry like- 
 wise followed. Thereupon the dictator, disregarding nothing 
 that held out hope of divine or human aid, is said to have 
 vowed a temple to Castor, and to have promised rewards to 
 the first and second of the soldiers who should enter the ene- 
 my's camp. Such was the ardour of the Romans that they 
 took the camp with the same impetuosity wherewith they had 
 routed the enemy in the field. Such was the engagement at 
 the Lake Regillus.^ The dictator and master of the horse re- 
 turned to the city in triumph. 
 
 ' The details of Macaulay's story in his " Lays of Ancient Rome," that 
 both Castor and Pollux appeared mounted on white horses and, after de- 
 
96 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 495 
 
 For the next three years there was neither settled peace 
 nor open war. The consuls were Quintus Cloelius and Titus 
 Larcius: they were succeeded by Aulus Sempronius and Mar- 
 cus Minucius. During their consulship a temple was dedi- 
 cated to Saturn, and the Saturnalia ^ appointed to be kept as 
 a day of festival. Then Aulus Postumius and Titus Verginius 
 were chosen consuls. In some authors I find that the battle 
 at the Lake Regillus was not fought till this year, and that 
 Aulus Postumius, because the fidelity of his colleague was 
 suspected, laid down his office, and was thereupon created 
 dictator. Such great mistakes about dates perplex the in- 
 quirer, the magistrates being arranged differently in different 
 writers, that one can neither determine the order of succes- 
 sion of the consuls, nor what took place and in what year, by 
 reason of the great antiquity, not only of the facts, but also 
 of the historians. Then Appius Claudius and Publius Ser- 
 vilius were elected consuls. This year was remarkable for 
 the announcement of Tarquin's death. He died at Cumse, 
 whither he had betaken himself to the tyrant Aristodemus, 
 after the power of the Latins had been broken. The senate 
 and people were elated by this news. But in the case of the 
 senators their satisfaction was too extravagant, for oppression 
 began to be practised by the chief among them upon the 
 people, to whom they had up to that day paid court to the 
 utmost of their power. The same year the colony of Signia, 
 which King Tarquin had sent out, was recruited by filling up 
 the number of the colonists, and a second colony sent out. 
 The tribes at Rome were increased to twenty-one. A temple 
 of Mercury ^ was dedicated on the fifteenth of May. 
 
 During the Latin war there had been neither peace nor 
 war with the nation of the Volscians; ^ for both the Volscians 
 had raised auxiliary troops to send to the Latins, and they 
 would have been sent had not despatch been used by the 
 Roman dictator — the reason for such despatch on his part 
 being, that he might not have to contend in one and the same 
 battle with both Latins and Volscians. Resenting this, the 
 consuls marched their army into the Volscian territory; this 
 
 cidinff the victory, rode to Rome and announced it, are taken from Dio- 
 nysius. — D. O. 
 
 ' It took place toward the end of December. Slaves were relieved 
 from their toils, wore their masters' clothes and the pileus or cap of free- 
 dom, were granted full freedom of speech, and even waited on by their 
 masters at the banquet. — D. O. 
 
 ° Near the Circus Maximus. 
 
 " These inhabited for the most part southern Latium between the ter- 
 ritories of the Hernicans and the Auruncans. — D, O. 
 
B. C. 495] TREATY WITH THE LATINS 97 
 
 unexpected proceeding alarmed the Volscians, who appre- 
 hended no chastisement for the mere intention; without 
 thought of arms, they gave three hundred children of the prin- 
 cipal men of Cora and Pometia ^ as hostages. Upon this the 
 legions were withdrawn without an engagement. Not long 
 after the Volscians, freed from their fears, returned to their 
 former frame of mind: they again made secret preparations 
 for war, having taken the Hernicans into an offensive alliance 
 with them. They also sent ambassadors in every direction to 
 stir up Latium. But, on account of the defeat recently sus- 
 trined at the Lake Regillus, the Latins could scarcely be re- 
 strained from offering violence to the ambassadors, through 
 resentment and hatred of any one who advised them to take up 
 arms. The Volscians were seized and brought to Rome. They 
 were there delivered up to the consuls, and information was 
 given that the Volscians and Hernicans^ were making prepara- 
 tions for war against the Romans. The matter being reported 
 to the senate, it was so gratifying to the senators that they both 
 sent back six thousand prisoners to the Latins, and referred 
 to the new magistrates the matter of the treaty, which had 
 been almost finally refused them. Then indeed the Latins 
 were heartily glad at what they had done: the advisers of 
 peace were held in high esteem. They sent a crown of gold 
 to the Capitol as an offering to Jupiter. Along with the am- 
 bassadors and the offering came a great crowd, consisting 
 of the prisoners who had been sent back to their friends. 
 They proceeded to the houses of those persons with whom 
 they had severally been in servitude, and returned thanks for 
 having been generously treated and cared for during their 
 misfortune, and afterward entered into treaties of hospitality. 
 Never at any former time was the Latin nation more closely 
 united to the Roman state, either by public or private ties. 
 
 Meanwhile both the Volscian war was threatening, and 
 the state, at variance with itself, was inflamed with internal 
 animosity between the senate and people, chiefly on account 
 of those who had entered into an obligation for debt. They 
 complained loudly that, while fighting abroad for liberty and 
 dominion, they had been imprisoned and cruelly treated at 
 home by their fellow-citizens, and that the liberty of the 
 people was more secure in time of war than of peace, more 
 secure among enemies than among their fellow-citizens. This 
 feeling of discontent, increasing of itself, was still further ag- 
 
 ' Apparently these cities had been rebuilt. — D. O. 
 
 ' They occupied the valley of the Trerus and the mountainous region 
 of central Latium between the Volscians and jEquans. — D. O. 
 7 
 
98 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 495 
 
 gravated by the striking sufferings of an individual. A man 
 advanced in years rushed into the forum with the tokens of his 
 utter misery upon him. His clothes were covered with filth, 
 his personal appearance still more pitiable, pale, and emaci- 
 ated. In addition, a long beard and hair gave a wild look to 
 his countenance. Notwithstanding his wretched appearance, 
 however, he was recognised, and people said that he had been 
 a centurion, and, compassionating him, recounted other dis- 
 tinctions that he had gained in war: he himself exhibited 
 scars on his breast in front, which bore witness to honourable 
 battles in several places. When they repeatedly inquired the 
 reason of his plight, and wretched appearance, a crowd hav- 
 ing now gathered round him almost like a regular assembly, 
 he said, that, while serving in the Sabine war, because he had 
 not only been deprived of the produce of his land in conse- 
 quence of the depredations of the enemy, but his residence 
 had also been burned down, all his effects pillaged, his cattle 
 driven off, and a tax imposed on him at a time when it pressed 
 most hardly upon him, he had got into debt: that this debt, 
 increased by exorbitant interest, had stripped him first of his 
 father's and grandfather's farm, then of all his other property; 
 lastly that, like a wasting sickness, it had reached his person: 
 that he had been dragged by his creditor, not into servitude, 
 but into a house of correction and a place of torture. He 
 then showed his back disfigured with the marks of recent 
 scourging. At this sight and these words a great uproar 
 arose. The tumult now no longer confined itself to the forum, 
 but spread everywhere through the entire city. The nexi,^ 
 both those who were imprisoned, and those who were now 
 at liberty, hurried into the streets from all quarters and im- 
 plored the protection of the Quirites. Nowhere was there 
 lack of volunteers to join the disturbance. They ran in crowds 
 through all the streets, from all points, to the forum with loud 
 shouts. Such of the senators as happened to be in the forum 
 fell in with this mob at great peril to themselves ; and it 
 might not have refrained from actual violence had not the 
 consuls, Publius Servilius and Appius Claudius, hastily inter- 
 fered to quell the disturbance. The multitude, however, turn- 
 ing toward them, and showing their chains and other marks 
 of wretchedness, said that they deserved all this," mentioning, 
 each of them, in reproachful terms, the military services per- 
 formed by himself, by one in one place, by another in an- 
 
 ' The bound (by the law of debt) from nexo, to join or connect. — D. O. 
 ' That is, for allowing themselves to suffer it and yet fight for their 
 oppressors. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 495] REVOLT OF THE DEBTORS gg 
 
 Other. They called upon them with menaces, rather than 
 entreaties, to assemble the senate, and stood round the senate- 
 house in a body, determined themselves to be witnesses and 
 directors of the public resolves. Very few of the senators, 
 whom chance had thrown in the way, were got together by 
 the consuls; fear kept the rest away not only from the senate- 
 house, but even from the forum, and no business could be 
 transacted owing to their small attendance. Then indeed the 
 people began to think they were being tricked, and put off: 
 and that such of the senators as absented themselves did so 
 not through accident or fear, but with the express purpose 
 of obstructing business: that the consuls themselves were 
 shuffling, that their miseries were without doubt held up to 
 ridicule. Matters had now almost come to such a pass that 
 not even the majesty of the consuls could restrain the vio- 
 lence of the people. Wherefore, uncertain whether they 
 would incur greater danger by staying at home, or venturing 
 abroad, they at length came into the senate; but, though 
 the house was now by this time full, not only were the sena- 
 tors unable to agree, but even the consuls themselves. Ap- 
 pius, a man of violent temperament, thought the matter ought 
 to be settled by the authority of the consuls, and that, if one or 
 two were seized, the rest would keep quiet. Servilius, more 
 inclined to moderate remedies, thought that, while their minds 
 were in this state of excitement, they could be bent with 
 greater ease and safety than they could be broken. 
 
 Meanwhile an alarm of a more serious nature presented 
 itself. Some Latin horse came full speed to Rome, with the 
 alarming news that the Volscians were marching with a hos- 
 tile army to besiege the city. This announcement — so com- 
 pletely had discord split the state into two — affected the sena- 
 tors and people in a far different manner. The people exulted 
 with joy, and said that the gods were coming to take venge- 
 ance on the tyranny of the patricians. They encouraged one 
 another not to give in their names, "^ declaring that it was 
 better that all should perish together than that they should 
 perish alone. Let the patricians serve as soldiers, let the pa- 
 tricians take up arms, so that those who reaped the advantages 
 of war should also undergo its dangers. But the senate, 
 dejected and confounded by the double alarm they felt, in- 
 spired both by their own countryman and by the enemy, en- 
 treated the constil Servilius, whose disposition was more in- 
 clined to favour the people, that he would extricate the com- 
 monwealth, beset as it was with so great terrors. Then the 
 
 ' For military service. 
 
lOo LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 495 
 
 consul, having dismissed the senate, came forward into the 
 assembly. There he declared that the senate were solicitous 
 that the interests of the people should be consulted: but that 
 alarm for the safety of the whole commonwealth had inter- 
 rupted their deliberation regarding that portion of the state, 
 which, though indeed the largest portion, was yet only a por- 
 tion: nor could they, seeing that the enemy were almost at 
 the gates, allow anything to take precedence of the war: nor, 
 even though there should be some respite, was it either to the 
 credit of the people not to have taken up arms in defence of 
 their country unless they first received pay, nor consistent 
 with the dignity of the senators to have adopted measures of 
 relief for the distressed fortunes of their countrymen through 
 fear rather than afterward of their own free will. He then 
 further gave his speech the stamp of sincerity by an edict, by 
 which he ordained that no one should detain a Roman citizen 
 either in chains or in prison, so that he would thereby be de- 
 prived of the opportunity of enrolling his name under the 
 consuls, and that no one should either take possession of or 
 sell the goods of any soldier, while on service, or detain his 
 children or grandchildren in custody for debt. On the publi- 
 cation of this edict, both the debtors who were present im- 
 mediately gave in their names, and crowds of persons, hasten- 
 ing from all quarters of the city from private houses, as their 
 creditors had no right to detain their persons, ran together 
 into the forum, to take the military oath. These made up a 
 considerable body of men, nor did any others exhibit more 
 conspicuous bravery or activity during the Volscian war. 
 The consul led out his forces against the enemy, and pitched 
 his camp at a little distance from them. 
 
 The next night the Volscians, relying on the dissension 
 among the Romans, made an attempt on their camp, to see 
 if there were any chance of desertion or treachery during 
 the night. The sentinels on guard perceived them: the army 
 was called up, and, the signals being given, they ran to arms. 
 Thus the attempt of the Volscians was frustrated; the re- 
 mainder of the night was given up to repose on both sides. 
 The next morning at daybreak the Volscians, having filled 
 the trenches, attacked the rampart. And already the fortifica- 
 tions were being demolished on every side, when the consul, 
 after having delayed a little while for the purpose of testing 
 the feelings of the soldiers, although all from every quarter, 
 and before all the debtors, were crying out for him to give the 
 signal, at length, when their great eagerness became unmis- 
 takable, gave the signal for sallying forth, and let out the sol- 
 
B. C. 495] DEFEAT OF THE VOLSCIANS loi 
 
 diery impatient for tlie fight. At the very first onset the enemy 
 were routed; the fugitives were harassed in the rear, as far 
 as the infantry were able to follow them: the cavalry drove 
 them in consternation up to their camp. In a short time the 
 legions having been drawn around it, the camp itself was 
 taken and plundered, since panic had driven the Volscians 
 even from thence also. On the next day the legions were led 
 to Suessa Pometia, whither the enemy had retreated. In a 
 few days the town was taken, and, after being taken, was 
 given up for plunder, whereby the needs of the soldiers were 
 somewhat relieved. The consul led back his victorious army 
 to Rome with the greatest renown to himself. On his de- 
 parture for Rome, he was met by the deputies of the Ecetrans, 
 a tribe of the Volscians, who were alarmed for the safety of 
 their state after the capture of Pometia. By a decree of the 
 senate peace was granted them, but they were deprived of 
 their land. 
 
 Immediately after this the Sabines also frightened the 
 Romans: for it was rather an alarm than a war. News was 
 brought into the city during the night that a Sabine army 
 had advanced as far as the river Anio, plundering the coun- 
 try: that the country houses there were being pillaged and 
 set fire to indiscriminately. Aulus Postumius, who had been 
 dictator in the Latin war, was immediately sent thither with 
 all the cavalry forces. The consul Servilius followed him with 
 a picked body of infantry. The cavalry cut off most of the 
 stragglers ; nor did the Sabine legions make any resistance 
 against the battalion of infantry when it came up with them. 
 Tired both by their march and nightly raids, surfeited with 
 eating and drinking in the country houses, a great number of 
 them had scarcely sufficient strength to flee. Thus the Sa- 
 bine war was heard of and finished in a single night. On the 
 following day, when all were sanguine that peace had been 
 secured in every quarter, ambassadors from the Auruncans 
 presented themselves before the senate, threatening to declare 
 war unless the troops were withdrawn from the Volscian terri- 
 tory. The army of the Auruncans had set out from home at 
 the same time as the ambassadors, and the report that this 
 army had been seen not far from Aricia threw the Romans 
 into such a state of confusion that neither could the senate 
 be consulted in regular form, nor could the Romans, while 
 themselves taking up arms, give a pacific answer to those 
 who were advancing to attack them. They marched to Aricia 
 in hostile array, engaged with the Auruncans not far from 
 that town, and in one battle the war was ended. 
 
102 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 495 
 
 After the defeat of the Auruncans, the people of Rome, 
 victorious in so many wars within a few days, were looking 
 to the consul to fulfil his promises, and to the senate to keep 
 their word, when Appius, both from his natural pride, and in 
 order to undermine the credit of his colleague, issued a decree 
 concerning borrowed money in the harshest possible terms. 
 From this time, both those who had been formerly in con- 
 finement were delivered up to their creditors, and others also 
 were taken into custody. Whenever this happened to any 
 soldier, he appealed to the other consul. A crowd gathered 
 about Servilius: they threw his promises in his teeth, severally 
 upbraiding him with their services in war, and the scars they 
 had received. They called upon him either to lay the matter 
 before the senate, or, as consul, to assist his fellow-citizens, 
 as commander, his soldiers. These remonstrances affected 
 the consul, but the situation of affairs obliged him to act in 
 a shuffling manner: so completely had not only his colleague, 
 but the whole of the patrician party, enthusiastically taken 
 up the opposite cause. And thus, by playing a middle part, 
 he neither escaped the odium of the people, nor gained the 
 favour of the senators. The patricians looked upon him as 
 wanting in energy and a popularity-hunting consul, the peo- 
 ple, as deceitful: and it soon became evident that he had be- 
 come as unpopular as Appius himself. A dispute had arisen 
 between the consuls, as to which of them should dedicate the 
 Temple of Mercury. The senate referred the matter from 
 themselves to the people, and ordained that, to whichever 
 of them the task of dedication should be intrusted by order 
 of the people, he should preside over the markets, establish 
 a guild of merchants,^ and perform the ceremonies in presence 
 of the Pontifex Maximus. The people intrusted the dedication 
 of the temple to Marcus Lsetorius, a centurion of the first 
 rank, which, as would be clear to all, was done not so much 
 out of respect to a person on whom an office above his rank 
 had been conferred, as to affront the consuls. Upon this one 
 of the consuls particularly, and the senators, were highly in- 
 censed: however, the people had gained fresh courage, and 
 proceeded in quite a different manner to what they had at 
 first intended. For when they despaired of redress from the 
 consuls and senate, whenever they saw a debtor led into court, 
 they rushed together from all quarters. Neither could the 
 decree of the consul be heard distinctly for the noise and 
 shouting, nor, when he had pronounced the decree, did any 
 
 ' Known as Mercuriales. Mercury was the patron of merchants. — 
 D. O. 
 
B.C. 495-494] RESIGNATION OF THE CONSULS 103 
 
 one obey it. Violence was the order of the day, and appre- 
 hension and danger in regard to personal liberty was entirely 
 transferred from the debtors to the creditors, who were indi- 
 vidually maltreated by the crowd before the very eyes of the 
 consul. In addition, the dread of the Sabine war spread, and 
 when a levy was decreed, nobody gave in his name: Appius 
 was enraged, and bitterly inveighed against the self-seeking 
 conduct of his colleague, in that he, by the inactivity he dis- 
 played to win the favour of the people, was betraying the 
 republic, and, besides not having enforced justice in the mat- 
 ter of debt, likewise neglected even to hold a levy, in obedi- 
 ence to the decree of the senate. Yet he declared that the 
 commonwealth was not entirely deserted, nor the consular 
 authority altogether degraded: that he, alone and unaided, 
 would vindicate both his own dignity and that of the senators. 
 When day by day the mob, emboldened by license, stood 
 round him, he commanded a noted ringleader of the seditious 
 outbreaks to be arrested. He, as he was being dragged oflf by 
 the lictors, appealed to the people; nor would the consul have 
 allowed the appeal, because there was no doubt regarding 
 the decision of the people, had not his obstinacy been with 
 difficulty overcome, rather by the advice and influence of the 
 leading men, than by the clamours of the people; with such 
 a superabundance of courage was he endowed to support the 
 weight of public odium. The evil gained ground daily, not 
 only by open clamours, but, what was far more dangerous, 
 by secession and by secret conferences. At length the con- 
 suls, so odious to the commons, resigned office, Servilius liked 
 by neither party, Appius highly esteemed by the senators. 
 
 Then Aulus A^erginius and Titus Vetusius entered on the 
 consulship. Upon this the commons, uncertain what sort 
 of consuls they were likely to have, held nightly meetings, 
 some of them upon the Esquiline, and others upon the Aven- 
 tine, lest, when assembled in the forum, they should be thrown 
 into confusion by being obliged to adopt hasty resolutions, 
 and proceed inconsiderately and at hap-hazard. The consuls, 
 judging this proceeding to be of dangerous tendency, as it 
 really was, laid the matter before the senate. But, when it 
 was laid before them, they could not get them to consult upon 
 it regularly; it was received with an uproar on all sides, and 
 by the indignant shouts of the fathers, at the thought that the 
 consuls threw on the senate the odium for that which should 
 have been carried out by consular authority. Assuredly, if 
 there were real magistrates in the republic, there would have 
 been no council at Rome but a public one. As it was, the re- 
 
I04 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 494 
 
 public was divided and split into a thousand senate-houses 
 and assemblies, some meetings being held on the Esquiline, 
 others on the Aventine. One man, like Appius Claudius — for 
 such a one was of more value than a consul — would have dis- 
 persed those private meetings in a moment. When the con- 
 suls, thus rebuked, asked them what it was that they desired 
 them to do, declaring that they would carry it out with as much 
 energy and vigour as the senators wished, the latter issued a 
 decree that they should push on the levy as briskly as possible, 
 declaring that the people had become insolent from want of 
 employment. When the senate had been dismissed, the con- 
 suls assembled the tribunal and summoned the younger men 
 by name. When none of them answered to his name, the 
 people, crowding round after the manner of a general assem- 
 bly, declared that the people could no longer be imposed on : 
 that they should never enlist one single soldier unless the 
 engagement made publicly with the people were fulfilled : that 
 liberty must be restored to each before arms should be given, 
 that so they might fight for their country and fellow-citizens, 
 and not for lords and masters. The consuls understood the 
 orders of the senate, but saw none of those who talked so big 
 within the walls of the senate-house present themselves to 
 share the odium they would incur. In fact, a desperate con- 
 test with the commons seemed at hand. Therefore, before they 
 had recourse to extremities, they thought it advisable to con- 
 sult the senate a second time. Then indeed all the younger 
 senators almost flew to the chairs of the consuls, commanding 
 them to resign the consulate, and lay aside an office which 
 they lacked the courage to support. 
 
 Both plans having been sufficiently made proof of, the con- 
 suls at length said: " Conscript fathers, that you may not say 
 that you have not been forewarned, know that a great disturb- 
 ance is at hand. We demand that those who accuse us most 
 loudly of cowardice, shall assist us when holding the levy; we 
 will proceed according to the resolution of the most intrepid 
 among you, since it so pleases you." Returning to their tri- 
 bunal, they purposely commanded one of the leaders of the 
 disturbance, who were in sight, to be summoned by name. 
 When he stood without saying a word, and a number of men 
 stood round him in a ring, to prevent violence being ofifered, 
 the consuls sent a lictor to seize him, but he was thrust back 
 by the people. Then, indeed, those of the fathers who at- 
 tended the consuls, exclaiming against it as an intolerable in- 
 sult, hurried down from the tribunal to assist the lictor. But 
 when the violence of the people was turned from the lictor, 
 
B.C. 494] CONTEST WITH THE COMMONS 105 
 
 who had merely been prevented from arresting the man, 
 against the fathers, the riot was quelled by the interposition of 
 the consuls, during which, however, without the use of stones 
 or weapons, there was more noise and angry words than actual 
 injury inflicted. The senate, summoned in a tumultuous man- 
 ner, was consulted in a manner still more tumultuous, those 
 who had been beaten demanding an inquiry, and the most vio- 
 lent of them attempting to carry their point, not so much by 
 votes as by clamour and bustle. At length, when their passion 
 had subsided, and the consuls reproached them that there was 
 no more presence of mind in the senate than in the forum, the 
 matter began to be considered in order. Three different opin- 
 ions were held. Publius Verginius was against extending re- 
 lief to all. He voted that they should consider only those who, 
 relying on the promise of Publius Servilius the consul, had 
 served in the war against the Volscians, Auruncans, and Sa- 
 bines. Titus Larcius was of opinion, that it was not now a 
 fitting time for services only to be rewarded : that all the people 
 were overwhelmed with debt, and that a stop could not be put 
 to the evil, unless measures were adopted for the benefit of all: 
 nay, further, if the condition of different parties were different, 
 discord would thereby rather be inflamed than healed. Ap- 
 pius Claudius, being naturally of a hard disposition, and fur- 
 ther infuriated by the hatred of the commons on the one hand, 
 and the praises of the senators on the other, insisted that such 
 frequent riots were caused not by distress, but by too much 
 freedom : that the people were rather insolent than violent : 
 that this mischief, in fact, took its rise from the right of appeal ; 
 since threats, not authority, was all that remained to the con- 
 suls, while permission was given to appeal to those who were 
 accomplices in the crime. " Come," added he, " let us create 
 a dictator from whom there lies no appeal, and this madness, 
 which has set everything ablaze, will immediately subside. 
 Then let me see the man who will dare to strike a lictor, when 
 he shall know that that person, whose authority he has in- 
 sulted, has sole and absolute power to flog and behead him." 
 
 To many the opinion of Appius appeared, as in fact it was, 
 harsh and severe. On the other hand, the proposals of Ver- 
 ginius and Larcius appeared injurious, from the precedent 
 they established : that of Larcius they considered especially 
 so, as one that would destroy all credit. The advice of Ver- 
 ginius was reckoned to be most moderate, and a happy me- 
 dium between the other two. But through party spirit and 
 men's regard for their private interest, which always has 
 and always will stand in the way of public councils, Appius 
 
Io6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 494 
 
 prevailed, and was himself near being created dictator — a step 
 which would certainly have alienated the commons at a most 
 dangerous juncture, when the Volscians, the yEquans, and the 
 Sabines all happened to be in arms at the same time. But 
 the consuls and elders of the senate took care that this com- 
 mand, in its own nature uncontrollable, should be intrusted to 
 a man of mild disposition. They elected Marcus Valerius, 
 son of Volesus, dictator. The people, though they saw that 
 this magistrate was appointed against themselves, yet, as they 
 possessed the right of appeal by his brother's law, had nothing 
 harsh or tyrannical to fear from that family. Afterward an 
 edict published by the dictator, which was almost identical in 
 terms with that of the consul Servilius, further inspirited them. 
 But, thinking reliance could be more safely placed both in the 
 man and in his authority,^ they abandoned the struggle and 
 gave in their names. Ten legions were raised, a larger army 
 than had ever been raised before.^ Of these, each of the con- 
 suls had three legions assigned him; the dictator commanded 
 four. 
 
 The war could not now be any longer deferred. The 
 yEquans had invaded the territory of the Latins: the depu- 
 ties of the latter begged the senate either to send them assist- 
 ance, or to allow them to -arm themselves for the purpose of 
 defending their own frontiers. It seemed safer that the Latins 
 should be defended without their being armed, than to allow 
 them to handle arms again. Vetusius the consul was sent to 
 their assistance : thereby a stop was put to the raids. The 
 yEquans retired from the plains, and depending more on the 
 advantages of position than on their arms, secured themselves 
 on the heights of the mountains. The other consul, having 
 set out against the Volscians, lest he in like manner might 
 waste time,' provoked the enemy to pitch their camp nearer, 
 and to risk a regular engagement, by ravaging their lands. 
 Both armies stood ready to advance, in front of their lines, in 
 hostile array, in a plain between the two camps. The Vol- 
 scians had considerably the advantage in numbers: accord- 
 ingly, they entered into battle in loose order, and in a spirit 
 of contempt. The Roman consul neither advanced his forces, 
 nor allowed the enemy's shouts to be returned, but ordered his 
 men to stand with their spears fixed in the ground, and when- 
 
 ' That is, over the senate. — D. O. 
 
 ' About 40,000 men. — D. O. 
 
 ' That is, in watching the ^quans, who uncrippled were lying in 
 their mountain fastnesses in northern Latiura, waiting a chance to renew 
 their ravages. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 494] DEFEAT OF THE VOLSCIANS AND SABINES 107 
 
 ever the enemy came to a hand-to-hand encounter, to draw 
 their swords, and attacking them with all their force, to carry 
 on the fight. The Volscians, wearied with running and shout- 
 ing, attacked the Romans, who appeared to them paralyzed 
 with fear; but when they perceived the vigorous resistance 
 that was made, and saw the swords glittering before their eyes, 
 just as if they had fallen into an ambuscade, they turned and 
 fled in confusion. Nor had they sufficient strength even to 
 flee, as they had entered into action at full speed. The Ro- 
 mans, on the other hand, as they had quietly stood their 
 ground at the beginning of the action, with physical vigour 
 unimpaired, easily overtook the weary foe, took their camp 
 by assault, and, having driven them from it, pursued them to 
 Velitrae,'^ into which city conquered and conquerors together 
 rushed in one body. By the promiscuous slaughter of all 
 ranks, which there ensued, more blood was shed than in the 
 battle itself. Quarter was given to a few, who threw down 
 their arms and surrendered. 
 
 While these operations were going on among the Vol- 
 scians, the dictator routed the Sabines, among whom by far 
 the most important operations of the war were carried on, put 
 them to flight, and stripped them of their camp. By a charge 
 of cavalry he had thrown the centre of the enemy's line into 
 confusion, in the part where, owing to the wings being ex- 
 tended too widely, they had not properly strengthened their 
 line with companies in the centre. The infantry fell upon 
 them in their confusion : by one and the same charge the 
 camp was taken and the war concluded. There was no other 
 battle in those times more memorable than this since the ac- 
 tion at the Lake Regillus. The dictator rode into the city in 
 triumph. Besides the usual honours, a place in the circus was 
 assigned to him and his descendants, to see the public games : 
 a curule chair ^ was fixed in that place. The territory of Ve- 
 litrse was taken from the conquered Volscians: colonists were 
 sent from Rome to Velitrse, and a colony led out thither. 
 Some considerable time afterward an engagement with the 
 ^quans took place, but against the wish of the consul, be- 
 cause they had to approach the enemy on unfavourable 
 ground: the soldiers, however, complaining that the afifair 
 was being purposely protracted, in order that the dictator 
 might resign his office before they themselves returned to 
 the city, and so his promises might come to nothing, like 
 
 ' Modern Velletri. 
 
 ' A chair-shaped H. Its use was an insignia first of royalty, then of 
 the higher magistracies. — D. O. 
 
Io8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 494 
 
 those of the consul before, forced him at all hazards to march 
 his army up the hills. This imprudent step, through the cow- 
 ardice of the enemy, turned out successful : for, before the Ro- 
 mans came within range, the ^quans, amazed at their bold- 
 ness, abandoned their camp, which they had pitched in a very 
 strong position, and ran down into the valleys that lay behind 
 them. There abundant plunder was found : the victory was 
 a bloodless one. While military operations had thus proved 
 successful in three quarters, neither senators nor people had 
 dismissed their anxiety in regard to the issue of domestic 
 questions. With such powerful influence and such skill had 
 the usurers made arrangements, so as to disappoint not only 
 the people, but even the dictator himself. For Valerius, after 
 the return of the consul Vetusius, of all the measures brought 
 before the senate, made that on behalf of the victorious people 
 the first, and put the question, what it was their pleasure 
 should be done with respect to the debtors. And when his 
 report was disallowed, he said : " As a supporter of reconcilia- 
 tion, I am not approved of. You will ere long wish, depend 
 on it, that the commons of Rome had supporters like myself. 
 For my part, I will neither further disappoint my fellow-citi- 
 zens, nor will I be dictator to no purpose. Intestine dissessions 
 and foreign wars have caused the republic to stand in need of 
 such a magistrate. Peace has been secured abroad, it is im- 
 peded at home. I will be a witness to the disturbance as a 
 private citizen rather than as dictator." Accordingly, quit- 
 ting the senate-house, he resigned his dictatorship. The rea- 
 son was clear to the people: that he had resigned his office 
 from indignation at their treatment. Accordingly, as if his 
 promise had been fully kept, since it had not been his fault 
 that his word had not been made good, they escorted him on 
 his return home with favouring shouts of acclamation. 
 
 Fear then seized the senators lest, if the army were dis- 
 banded, secret meetings and conspiracies would be renewed; 
 accordingly, although the levy had been held bv the dictator^ 
 yet, supposing that, as they had sworn obedience to the con- 
 suls, the soldiers were bound by their oath, they ordered the 
 legions to be led out of the city, under the pretext of hostili- 
 ties having been renewed by the ^Equans. By this course of 
 action the sedition was accelerated. And indeed it is said that 
 it was at first contemplated to put the consuls to death, that 
 the legions might be discharged from their oath: but that, 
 bemg afterward informed that no religious obligation could 
 be rendered void by a criminal act, they, by the advice of one 
 Sicinius, retired, without the orders of the consuls, to the 
 
B. C. 494] THE SECESSION OF THE COMMONS 109 
 
 Sacred Mount/ beyond the river Anio, three miles from the 
 city : this account is more commonly adopted than that which 
 Piso - has piven, that the secession was matle to the Aventine. 
 There, without any leader, their camp being fortified with a 
 rampart and trench, remaining quiet, taking nothing but what 
 was necessary for subsistence, they remained for several days, 
 neither molested nor molesting. Great was the panic in the 
 city, and through mutual fear all was in suspense. The peo- 
 ple, left by their fellows in the city, dreaded the violence of the 
 senators: the senators dreaded the people who remained in the 
 city, not feeling sure whether they preferred them to stay or 
 depart. On the other hand, how long would the multitude 
 which had seceded, remain quiet? what would be the conse- 
 quences hereafter, if, in the meantime, any foreign war should 
 break out ? they certainly considered there was no hope left, 
 save in the concord of the citizens: that this must be restored 
 to the state at any price. Under these circumstances it was 
 resolved that Agrippa Menenius, an eloquent man, and a fa- 
 vourite with the people, because he was sprung from them, 
 should be sent to negotiate with them. Being admitted into 
 the camp, he is said to have simply related to them the fol- 
 lowing story in an old-fashioned and unpolished style : " At 
 the time when the parts of the human body did not, as now, 
 all agree together, but the several members had each their own 
 counsel, and their own language, the other parts were indig- 
 nant that, while everything was provided for the gratification 
 of the belly by their labour and service, the belly, resting calm- 
 ly in their midst, did nothing but enjoy the pleasures afforded 
 it. They accordingly entered into a conspiracy, that neither 
 should the hands convey food to the mouth, nor the mouth 
 receive it when presented, nor the teeth have anything to 
 chew: while desiring, under the influence of this indignation, 
 to starve out the belly, the individual members themselves and 
 the entire body were reduced to the last degree of emaciation. 
 Thence it became apparent that the office of the belly as well 
 was no idle one ; that it did not receive more nourishment 
 than it supplied, sending, as it did, to all parts of the body that 
 blood from which we derive life and vigour, distributed equally 
 through the veins when perfected by the digestion of the 
 food." ^ r>y drawing a comparison from this, how like was 
 
 ' Supposed to be the hill beyond and to the right of the Ponte Nomen- 
 tano.— D, O. 
 
 ' Lucius Calpurnius Piso, the historian. 
 
 ' This fahlo is of very great antiquity. Max Muller says it is found 
 among the Hindus. 
 
no LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 494-493 
 
 the internal sedition of the body to the resentment of the peo- 
 ple against the senators, he succeeded in persuading the minds 
 of the multitude. 
 
 Then the question of reconciliation began to be discussed, 
 and a compromise was effected on certain conditions : that 
 the commons should have magistrates of their own, whose 
 persons should be inviolable, who should have the power^ of 
 rendering assistance against the consuls, and that no patrician 
 should be permitted to hold that office. Accordingly, two 
 tribunes of the commons were created, Gains Licinius and 
 Lucius Albinus. These created three colleagues for them- 
 selves. It is clear that among these was Sicinius, the ring- 
 leader of the sedition ; with respect to the other two, there is 
 less agreement who they were. There are some who say 
 that only two tribunes were elected on the Sacred Mount, and 
 that there the lex sacrata ^ was passed. 
 
 During the secession of the commons, Spurius Cassius and 
 Postumus Cominius entered on the consulship. During their 
 consulate, a treaty was concluded with the Latin states. To 
 ratify this, one of the consuls remained at Rome : the other, 
 who was sent to take command in the Volscian war, routed 
 and put to flight the Volscians of Antium,- and pursuing them 
 till they had been driven into the town of Longula, took 
 possession of the walls. Next he took Polusca, also a city of 
 the Volscians : he then attacked Corioli ^ with great violence. 
 There was at that time in the camp, among the young nobles, 
 Gnseus Marcius, a youth distinguished both for intelligence 
 and courage, who was afterward surnamed Coriolanus. 
 While the Roman army was besieging Corioli, devoting all its 
 attention to the townspeople, who were kept shut up within 
 the walls, and there was no apprehension of attack threaten- 
 ing from without, the Volscian legions, setting out from An- 
 tium, suddenly attacked them, and the enemy sallied forth at 
 the same time from the town. Marcius at that time happened 
 to be on guard. He, with a chosen body of men, not only 
 beat back the attack of those who had sallied forth, but boldly 
 rushed in through the open gate, and, having cut down all 
 who were in the part of the city nearest to it, and hastily seized 
 some blazing torches, threw them into the houses adjoining 
 the wall. Upon this, the shouts of the townsmen, mingled 
 with the wailings of the women and children occasioned at first 
 
 ' The law which declared the persons of the tribunes inviolate, and him 
 who transgressed it accursed, — D. O. 
 
 ^ Modern Angir, south of Ostia on the coast of Latium. — D. O. 
 ' Between Ardea and Aricia. 
 
B. C. 493-492] FAMINE AT ROME 1 1 1 
 
 by fright, as is usually the case, both increased the courage of 
 the Romans, and naturally dispirited the Volscians who had 
 come to bring help, seeing that the city was taken. Thus the 
 Volscians of Antium were defeated, and the town of Corioli 
 was taken. And so much did Marcius by his valour eclipse 
 the reputation of the consul, that, had not the treaty concluded 
 with the Latins by Spurius Cassius alone, in consequence of the 
 absence of his colleagues, and which was engraved on a brazen 
 column, served as a memorial of it, it would have been for- 
 gotten that Postumus Cominius had conducted the war with 
 the Volscians. In the same year died Agrippa Menenius, a 
 man all his life equally a favourite with senators and com- 
 mons, endeared still more to the commons after the secession. 
 This man, the mediator and impartial promoter of harmony 
 among his countrymen, the ambassador of the senators to the 
 commons, the man who brought back the commons to the 
 city, did not leave enough to bury him publicly. The people 
 buried him by the contribution of a sextans ^ per man. 
 
 Titus Geganius and Publius Minucius were next elected 
 consuls. In this year, when abroad there was complete rest 
 from war, and at home dissensions were healed, another far 
 more serious evil fell upon the state : first, dearness of pro- 
 visions, a consequence of the lands lying untilled owing to 
 the secession of the commons ; then a famine, such as attacks 
 those who are besieged. And matters would certainly have 
 ended in the destruction of the slaves and commons, had not 
 the consuls adopted precautionary measures, by sending per- 
 sons in every direction to buy up corn, not only into Etruria 
 on the coast to the right of Ostia, and through the terri- 
 tory of the Volscians along the coast on the left as far as 
 Cumae, but into Sicily also, in quest of it. To such an ex- 
 tent had the hatred of their neighbours obliged them to 
 stand in need of assistance from distant countries. When 
 corn had been bought up at Cumae, the ships were detained as 
 security for the property of the Tarquinians by the tyrant 
 Aristodemus, who was their heir. Among the Volscians and 
 in the Pomptine territory it could not even be purchased. 
 The corn dealers themselves incurred danger from the vio- 
 lence of the inhabitants. Corn was brought from Etruria by 
 way of the Tiber: by means of this the people were supported. 
 In such straitened resources they would have been harassed 
 by a most inopportune war, had not a dreadful pestilence at- 
 tacked the Volscians when on the point of beginning hos- 
 
 ' The sixth part of the as, the Roman money unit, which, there being 
 no coinage at this time, represented a pound's weight of copper. — D. O. 
 
112 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 491 
 
 tilities. The minds of the enemy being so terrified by this 
 calamity, that they felt a certain alarm, even after it had abated, 
 the Romans both augmented the number of their colonists at 
 Velitraj, and despatched a new colony to the mountains of 
 Norba,Ho serve as a stronghold in the Pomptine district. Then 
 in the consulship of Marcus Minucius and Aulus Sempronius, 
 a great quantity of corn was imported from Sicily, and it was 
 debated in the senate at what price it should be offered to the 
 commons. Many were of opinion that the time was come for 
 crushing the commons, and recovering those rights which had 
 been wrested from the senators by secession and violence. In 
 particular, Marcius Coriolanus, an enemy to tribunician 
 power, said : " If they desire corn at its old price, let them re- 
 store to the senators their former rights. Why do I, like a 
 captive sent under the yoke, as if I had been ransomed from 
 robbers, behold plebeian magistrates, and Sicinius invested 
 with power? Am I to submit to these indignities longer than 
 is necessary? Am I, who have refused to endure Tarquin as 
 king, to tolerate Sicinius? Let him now secede, let him call 
 away the commons. The road lies open to the Sacred Mount 
 and to other hills. Let them carry off the corn from our 
 lands, as they did three years since. Let them have the bene- 
 fit of that scarcity v/hich in their mad folly they have them- 
 selves occasioned. I venture to say, that, overcome by these 
 sufferings, they will themselves become tillers of the lands, 
 rather than, taking up arms, and seceding, prevent them 
 from being tilled." It is not so easy to say whether it should 
 have been done, but I think that it might have been practi- 
 cable for the senators, on the condition of lowering the price 
 of provisions, to have rid themselves of both the tribuni- 
 cian power, and all the regulations imposed on them against 
 their will. 
 
 This proposal both appeared to the senate too harsh, and 
 from exasperation well-nigh drove the people to arms: they 
 complained that they were now being attacked with famine, 
 as if they were enemies, that they were being robbed of food 
 and sustenance, that the corn brought from foreign countries, 
 the only support with which fortune had unexpectedly fur- 
 nished them, was being snatched from their mouth, unless the 
 tribunes were delivered in chains to Gnseus Marcius, unless 
 satisfaction were exacted from the backs of the commons of 
 Rome. That in him a new executioner had arisen, one to bid 
 them either die or be slaves. He would have been attacked 
 
 ' Its ruins lie on the road to Terracina, near Norma, and about forty- 
 five miles from Rome. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 491] EXILE OF GNyEUS MARCIUS 113 
 
 as he was leaving the senate-house, had not the tribunes very 
 opportunely appointed him a day for trial : thereupon their 
 rage was suppressed, every one saw himself become the judge, 
 the arbiter of the life and death of his foe. At first Marcius 
 listened to the threats of the tribunes with contempt, saying 
 that it was the right of affording aid, not of inflicting punish- 
 ment, that had been conferred upon that office : that they 
 were tribunes of the commons and not of the senators. But 
 the commons had risen with such violent determination, that 
 the senators felt themselves obliged to sacrifice one man to ar- 
 rive at a settlement. They resisted, however, in spite of oppos- 
 ing odium, and exerted, collectively, the powers of the whole 
 order, as well as, individually, each his own. At first, an at- 
 tempt was made to see if, by posting their clients ^ in sev- 
 eral places, they could quash the whole affair, by deterring in- 
 dividuals from attending meetings and cabals. Then they all 
 proceeded in a body — one would have said that all the senators 
 were on their trial — earnestly entreating the commons that, 
 if they would not acquit an innocent man, they would at least 
 for their sake pardon, assuming him guilty, one citizen, one 
 senator. As he did not attend in person on the day appointed, 
 they persisted in their resentment. He was condemned in 
 his absence, and went into exile among the Volscians, threat- 
 ening his country, and even then cherishing all the resent- 
 ment of an enemy. ^ The Volscians received him kindly on his 
 arrival, and treated him still more kindly every day, in propor- 
 tion as his resentful feelings toward his countrymen became 
 more marked, and at one time frequent complaints, at an- 
 other threats, were heard. He enjoyed the hospitality of At- 
 tius Tullius, who was at that time by far the chief man of the 
 Volscian people, and had always been a determined enemy of 
 the Romans. Thus, while long-standing animosity stimu- 
 lated the one, and recent resentment the other, they concerted 
 schemes for bringing about a war with Rome. They did not 
 readily believe that their own people could be persuaded to 
 take up arms, so often unsucessfully tried, seeing that by many 
 frequent wars, and lastly, by the loss of their youth in the pes- 
 tilence, their spirits were now broken; they felt that in a case 
 where animosity had now died away from length of time they 
 must proceed by scheming, that their feelings might become 
 
 1 The clientes formed a distinct class ; they were the hereditary de- 
 pendents of certain patrician families (their patroni) to whom they were 
 under various obligations ; they naturally sided with the patricians. 
 
 ' Dionysius and Plutarch give an account of the prosecution much 
 more favourable to the defendant. — D. O. 
 
jj, LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 491 
 
 exasperated under the influence of some fresh cause for resent- 
 
 ""^"it happened that preparations were being made at Rome 
 for a renewal of the great games.^ The cause of this renewal 
 was as follows: On the day of the games, m the mornmg, 
 when the show had not yet begun, a certam head ot a family 
 had driven a slave of his through the middle of the circus, 
 while he was being flogged, tied to the fork : ' after this the 
 games had been begun, as if the matter had nothing to 
 do with any religious difficulty. Soon afterward Titus La- 
 tinius, a plebeian, had a dream, in which Jupiter appeared to 
 him and said, that the person who danced before the games 
 had displeased him; unless those games were renewed on a 
 splendid scale, danger would threaten the city : let him go 
 and announce this to the consuls. Though his mind was not 
 altogether free from religious awe, his reverence for the dig- 
 nity of the magistrates, lest he might become a subject for 
 ridicule in the mouths of all, overcame his religious fear. This 
 delay cost him dear, for he lost his son within a few days ; and, 
 that there might be no doubt about the cause of this sudden 
 calamity, the same vision, presenting itself to him in the midst 
 of his sorrow of heart, seemed to ask him, whether he had been 
 sufficiently requited for his contempt of the deity ; that a still 
 heavier penalty threatened him, unless he went immediately 
 and delivered the message to the consuls. The matter was 
 now still more urgent. While, however, he still delayed and 
 kept putting it ofT, he was attacked by a severe stroke of dis- 
 ease, a sudden paralysis. Then indeed the anger of the gods 
 frightened him. Wearied out therefore by his past sufferings 
 and by those that threatened him, he convened a meeting of 
 his friends and relatives, and, after he had detailed to them all 
 he had seen and heard, and the fact of Jupiter having so often 
 presented himself to him in his sleep, and the threats and 
 anger of Heaven speedily fulfilled in his own calamities, he 
 was, with the unhesitating assent of all who were present, con- 
 veyed in a litter into the forum to the presence of the consuls. 
 From the forum, by order of the consuls, he was carried into 
 the senate-house, and, after he had recounted the same story 
 to the senators, to the great surprise of all, behold another 
 miracle : he who had been carried into the senate-house de- 
 
 ' Celebrated annually in the Circus Maximus, September 4th to 12th, 
 in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, or, according to some authori- 
 ties, of Census and Neptunus Equestus. — D. O. 
 
 * A > -shaped yoke placed on the slave's neck, with his hands tied to 
 the ends. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 49'] VOLSCIANS DRIVEN FROM THE CITY 115 
 
 prived of the use of all his limbs, is reported to have returned 
 home on his own feet, after he had discharged his duty. 
 
 The senate decreed that the games should be celebrated 
 on as magnificent a scale as possible. To those games a great 
 number of Volscians came at the suggestion of Attius Tullius. 
 Before the games had commenced, Tullius, as had been ar- 
 ranged privately with Marcius, approached the consuls, and 
 said that there were certain matters concerning the common- 
 wealth about which he wished to treat with them in private. 
 When all witnesses had been ordered to retire, he said: " I am 
 reluctant to say anything of my countrymen that may seem 
 disparaging. I do not, however, come to accuse them of any 
 crime actually committed by them, but to see to it that they do 
 not commit one. The minds of our people are far more fickle 
 than I could wish. We have learned that by many disasters; 
 seeing that we are still preserved, not through our own merits, 
 but thanks to your forbearance. There is now here a great 
 multitude of Volscians; the games are going on: the city will 
 be intent on the exhibition. I remember what was done in this 
 city on a similar occasion by the youth of the Sabines. My 
 mind shudders at the thought that anything should be done 
 inconsiderately and rashly. I have deemed it right that these 
 matters should be mentioned beforehand to you, consuls, both 
 for your sakes and ours. With regard to myself, it is my de- 
 termination to depart hence home immediately, that I may not 
 be tainted with the suspicion of any word or deed if I remain." 
 Having said this, he departed. When the consuls had laid the 
 matter before the senate, a matter that was doubtful, though 
 vouched for by a thoroughly reliable authority, the authority, 
 more than the matter itself, as usually happens, urged them to 
 adopt even needless precautions; and a decree of the senate 
 having been passed that the Volscians should quit the city, 
 criers were sent in different directions to order them all to 
 depart before night. They were at first smitten with great 
 panic, as they ran in different directions to their lodgings to 
 carry away their effects. Afterward, when setting out, indig- 
 nation arose in their breasts, to think that they, as if polluted 
 with crime and contaminated, had been driven away from the 
 games on festival days, a meeting, so to speak, both of gods 
 and men. 
 
 As they went along in an almost unbroken line, Tullius, 
 who had preceded them to the fountain of Ferentina,^ received 
 the chief men, as each arrived, and, complaining and giving 
 
 ' In a grove at the foot of the Alban Hill— D. O. 
 
Il6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 491 
 
 vent to expressions of indignation, led both those, who eager- 
 ly listened to language that favoured their resentment, _ and 
 through them the rest of the muhitude, into a plain adjoin- 
 ing the road. There, having begun an address after the 
 manner of a public harangue, he said : " Though you were to 
 forget the former wrongs inflicted upon you by the Roman 
 people, the calamities of the nation of the Volscians, and all 
 other such matters, with what feelings, pray, do you regard 
 this outrage ofifered you to-day, whereby they have opened 
 the games by insulting us? Did you not feel that a triumph 
 has been gained over you this day? that you, when leaving, 
 were the observed of all, citizens, foreigners, and so many 
 neighbouring states? that your wives, your children were led 
 in mockery before the eyes of men? What do you suppose 
 were the feelings of those who heard the voice of the crier? 
 what of those who saw us departing? what of those who met 
 this ignominious cavalcade? what, except that it is assuredly a 
 matter of some offence against the gods : and that, because, if 
 we were present at the show, we should profane the games, 
 and be guilty of an act that would need expiation, for this 
 reason we are driven away from the dwellings of these pious 
 people, from their meeting and assembly? what then? does 
 it not occur to you that we still live, because we have hastened 
 our departure? — if indeed this is a departure and not rather 
 a flight. And do you not consider this to be the city of ene- 
 mies, in which, if you had delayed a single day, you must 
 all have died? War has been declared against you, to the 
 great injury of those who declared it, if you be men." 
 Thus, being both on their own account filled with resent- 
 ment, and further incited by this harangue, they severally de- 
 parted to their homes, and by stirring up each his own state, 
 succeeded in bringing about the revolt of the entire Volscian 
 nation. 
 
 The generals selected to take command in that war by the 
 unanimous choice of all the states were Attius Tullius and 
 Gnasus Marcius, an exile from Rome, in the latter of whom 
 far greater hopes were reposed. These hopes he by no means 
 disappointed, so that it was clearly seen that the Roman 
 commonwealth was powerful by reason of its generals rather 
 than its military force. Having marched to Circeii, he first 
 expelled from thence the Roman colonists, and handed over 
 that city in a state of freedom to the Volscians. From thence 
 passing across the country through by-roads into the Latin 
 way, he deprived the Romans of the following recently ac- 
 quired towns, Satricum, Longula, Polusca, Corioli. He next 
 
B.C. 491-488] WAR WITH THE VOLSCIANS 117 
 
 made himself master of Lavinium, and then took in succes- 
 sion Corbio, Vitellia, Trebia, Labici, and Pedum/ Lastly he 
 marched from Pedum toward Rome, and having pitched his 
 camp at the Cluilian trenches five miles from the city, he 
 openly ravaged the Roman territory, guards being sent among 
 the devastators to preserve the lands of the patricians unin- 
 jured, whether it was that he was chiefly incensed against the 
 plebeians, or whether his object was that dissension might 
 arise between the senators and the people. And it certainly 
 would have arisen — so powerfully did the tribunes, by in- 
 veighing against the leading men of the state, incite the 
 plebeians, already exasperated in themselves — had not appre- 
 hension of danger from abroad, the strongest bond of union, 
 united their minds, though distrustful and mutually hostile. 
 The only matter in which they were not agreed was this: 
 that, while the senate and consuls rested their hopes on noth- 
 ing else but arms, the plebeians preferred anything to war. 
 Spurius Nautius and Sextus Furius were now consuls. While 
 they were reviewing the legions, posting guards along the 
 walls and other places where they had determined that there 
 should be outposts and watches, a vast multitude of persons 
 demanding peace terrified them first by their seditious clam- 
 ouring, and then compelled them to convene the senate, to 
 consider the question of sending ambassadors to Gnseus Mar- 
 cius. The senate approved the proposal, when it was evident 
 that the spirits of the plebeians were giving way; ambassa- 
 dors, sent to Marcius to treat concerning peace, brought back 
 the haughty answer: If their lands were restored to the Vol- 
 scians, the question of peace might then be considered; if they 
 were minded to enjoy the plunder of war at their ease, he, 
 remembering both the injurious treatment of his countrymen, 
 as well as the kindness of strangers, would do his utmost to 
 make it appear that his spirit was irritated by exile, not 
 crushed. The same envoys, being sent a second time, were 
 not admitted into the camp. It is recorded that the priests 
 also, arrayed in the vestments of their office, went as suppli- 
 ants to the enemy's camp, but that they did not influence his 
 mind any more than the ambassadors. 
 
 Then the matrons assembled in a body around Veturia, 
 the mother of Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether 
 
 ' There seems to be something wrong here, as Satricum, etc., were sit- 
 uated west of the Via Appia, while Livy places them on the Via Latina. 
 Niebuhr thinks that the words "passing across . . . Latin way," should 
 be transposed, and inserted after the words "he then took in succes- 
 sion." For the position of these towns, see Map. 
 
Il8 LI VY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 491-488 
 
 that was the result of public counsel, or of women's fear, I 
 can not clearly ascertain. Anyhow, they succeeded in in- 
 ducing Veturia, a woman advanced in years, and Volumnia, 
 with her two sons by Marcius, to go into the camp of the 
 enemy, and in prevailing upon women to defend the city by 
 entreaties and tears, since men were unable to defend it by 
 arms. When they reached the camp, and it was announced 
 to Coriolanus that a great crowd of women was approaching, 
 he, as one who had been affected neither by the public majesty 
 of the state, as represented by its ambassadors, nor by the 
 sanctity of religion so strikingly spread before his eyes and 
 understanding in the person of its priests, was at first much 
 more obdurate against women's tears. Then one of his ac- 
 quaintances, who had recognised Veturia, distinguished be- 
 yond all the rest by her sorrowful mien, standing in the midst 
 with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, said, " Unless my 
 eyes deceive me, your mother, and wife and children, are at 
 hand." Coriolanus, bewildered, almost like one who had lost 
 his reason, rushed from his seat, and ofifered to embrace his 
 mother as she met him; but she, turning from entreaties to 
 wrath, said: " Before I permit your embrace, let me know 
 whether I have come to an enemy or to a son, whether I am 
 in your camp a captive or a mother? Has length of life and 
 a hapless old age reserved me for this — to behold you first 
 an exile, then an enemy? Have you had the heart to lay waste 
 this land, which gave you birth and nurtured you? Though 
 you had come in an incensed and vengeful spirit, did not your 
 resentment abate when you entered its borders? When Rome 
 came within view, did not the thought enter your mind — 
 within those walls are my house and household gods, my 
 mother, wife, and children? So then, had I not been a mother, 
 Rome would not now be besieged: had I not a son, I might 
 have died free in a free country. But I can now sufTer noth- 
 ing that will not bring more disgrace on you than misery on 
 me; nor, most wretched as I am, shall I be so for long. Look 
 to these, whom, if you persist, either an untimely death or 
 lengthened slavery awaits." Then his wife and children em- 
 braced him: and the lamentation proceeding from the entire 
 crowd of women and their bemoaning their own lot and their 
 country's, at length overcame the man. Then, having em- 
 braced his family, he sent them away; he himself withdrew 
 his camp from the city. After he had drawn ofi his troops 
 from Roman territory, they say that he died overwhelmed by 
 the hatred excited against him on account of this act; diflfer- 
 ent writers give different accounts of his death: I find in 
 
ENVIRONS OF ROME. 
 
B.C. 488-486] AGRARIAN LAW FIRST PROPOSED ng 
 
 Fabius/ far the most ancient authority, that he lived to an 
 advanced age: at any rate, this writer states, that in his old 
 age he often made use of the expression, " that exile was far 
 more miserable to the aged." The men of Rome were not 
 grudging in the award of their due praise to the women, so 
 truly did they live without disparaging the merit of others: 
 a temple was built, and dedicated to female Fortune, to serve 
 also as a record of the event. 
 
 The \'olscians afterward returned, having been joined by 
 the /Equans, into Roman territory : the latter, however, would 
 no longer have Attius Tullius as their leader; hence from a 
 dispute, whether the \'olscians or the ^quans should give the 
 general to the allied army, a quarrel, and afterward a furious 
 battle, broke out. Therein the good fortune of the Roman 
 people destroyed the two armies of the enemy, by a contest 
 no less ruinous than obstinate. Titus Sicinius and Gaius 
 Aquilius were made consuls. The Volscians fell to Sicinius as 
 his province; the Hernicans — for they, too, were in arms — to 
 Aquilius. That year the Hernicans were completely defeated; 
 they met and parted with the Volscians without any advan- 
 tage being gained on either side. 
 
 Spurius Cassius and Proculus Verginius were next made 
 consuls; a treaty was concluded with the Hernicans; two 
 thirds of their land were taken from them: of this the consul 
 Cassius proposed to distribute one half among the Latins, 
 the other half among the commons. To this donation he 
 desired to add a considerable portion of land, which, though 
 public property,- he alleged was possessed by private indi- 
 viduals. This proceeding alarmed several of the senators, 
 the actual possessors, at the danger that threatened their prop- 
 erty; the senators moreover felt anxiety on public grounds, 
 fearing that the consul by his donation was establishing an 
 influence dangerous to liberty. Then, for the first time, an 
 agrarian law was proposed, which from that time down to the 
 memory of our own days has never been discussed without the 
 greatest civil disturbances. The other consul opposed the 
 donation, supported by the senators, nor, indeed, were all the 
 commons opposed to him: they had at first begun to feel 
 
 ' The historian. — D. O. 
 
 ' The ager publicus consisted of the landed estates which had belonged 
 to the kings, and were increased by land taken from enemies who had 
 been conquered in war. The patricians, having the chief political power, 
 gained exclusive occupation (possessio) of this ager publicus, for which 
 they paid a nominal rent in the shape of produce and tithes. The nature 
 of the charge brought by Cassius was not the fact of its being occupied 
 by privati, but by patricians to the exclusion of plebeians. 
 
120 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 488-486 
 
 disgust that this gift had been extended from the citizens to 
 the alHes, and thus rendered common: in the next place they 
 frequently heard the consul Verginius in the assemblies as it 
 were prophesying, that the gift of his colleague was pesti- 
 lential: that those lands were sure to bring slavery to those 
 who received them : that the way was being paved to a throne. 
 Else why was it that the allies were thus included, and the 
 Latin nation? What was the object of a third of the land 
 that had been taken being restored to the Hernicans, so lately 
 their enemies, except that those nations might have Cassius 
 for their leader instead of Coriolanus? The dissuader and op- 
 poser of the agrarian law now began to be popular. Both 
 consuls then vied with each other in humouring the commons. 
 Verginius said that he would suffer the lands to be assigned, 
 provided they were assigned to no one but a Roman citizen. 
 Cassius, because in the agrarian donation he sought popu- 
 larity among the allies, and was therefore lowered in the esti- 
 mation of his countrymen, commanded, in order that by an- 
 other gift he might win the affections of the citizens, that the 
 money received for the Sicilian corn should be refunded to 
 the people. That, however, the people spurned as nothing 
 else than a ready money bribe for regal authority: so uncom- 
 promisingly were his gifts rejected, as if there was abundance 
 of everything, in consequence of their inveterate suspicion 
 that he was aiming at sovereign power. As soon as he went 
 out of office, it is certain that he was condemned and put to 
 death. There are some who represent that his father was the 
 person who carried out the punishment: that he, having tried 
 the case at home, scourged him and put him to death, and 
 consecrated his son's private property to Ceres; that out of 
 this a statue was set up and inscribed, " Presented out of the 
 property of the Cassian family." In some authors I find it 
 stated, which is more probable, that a day was assigned him 
 to stand his trial for high treason, by the quaestors,^ Caeso 
 Fabius and Lucius Valerius, and that he was condemned by 
 the decision of the people; that his house was demolished 
 by a public decree: this is the spot where there is now an open 
 space before the Temple of Tellus.^ However, whether the 
 trial was held in private or public, he was condemned in the 
 consulship of Servius Cornelius and Ouintus Fabius. 
 
 The resentment of the people against Cassius was not last- 
 
 Qusstors," this is the first mention of these officers in Livy • in 
 rly times it appears to have been part of their duty to prosecute those 
 LO were guilty of treason, and to carry out the punishment 
 On the west slope of the Esquiline. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 486-483] AGRARIAN LAW DEFEATED 121 
 
 ing. The charm of the agrarian law, now that its proposer 
 was removed, of itself entered their minds: and their desire 
 of it was further kindled by the meanness of the senators, who, 
 after the Volscians and ^quans had been completely de- 
 feated in that year, defrauded the soldiers of their share of 
 the booty; whatever was taken from the enemy, was sold by 
 the consul Fabius, and the proceeds lodged in the public 
 treasury. All who bore the name of Fabius became odious 
 to the commons on account of the last consul : the patricians, 
 however, succeeded in getting Caeso Fabius elected consul 
 with Lucius jEmilius. The commons, still further aggravated 
 at this, provoked war abroad by exciting disturbance at home ;^ 
 in consequence of the war civil dissensions were then discon- 
 tinued. Patricians and commons uniting, under the command 
 of yEmilius, overcame the Volscians and ^quans, who re- 
 newed hostilities, in a successful engagement. The retreat, 
 however, destroyed more of the enemy than the battle; so 
 perseveringly did the cavalry pursue them when routed. Dur- 
 ing the same year, on the ides of July,^ the Temple of Castor 
 was dedicated: it had been vowed during the Latin war in 
 the dictatorship of Postumius: his son, who was elected du- 
 umvir for that special purpose, dedicated it. 
 
 In that year, also, the minds of the people were excited by 
 the allurements of the agrarian law. The tribunes of the 
 people endeavoured to enhance their authority, in itself agree- 
 able to the people, by promoting a popular law. The pa- 
 tricians, considering that there was enough and more than 
 enough frenzy in the multitude without any additional incite- 
 ment, viewed with horror largesses and all inducements to 
 ill-considered action: the patricians found in the consuls most 
 energetic abettors in resistance. That portion of the com- 
 monwealth therefore prevailed; and not for the moment only, 
 but for the coming year also they succeeded in securing the 
 election of Marcus Fabius, Cseso's brother, as consul, and one 
 still more detested by the commons for his persecution of 
 Spurius Cassius — namely, Lucius Valerius. In that year also 
 there was a contest with the tribunes. The law came to noth- 
 ing, and the supporters of the law proved to be mere boasters, 
 by their frequent promises of a gift that was never granted. 
 The Fabian name was thenceforward held in high repute, after 
 
 ' There seems to be something wrong in the text here, as the subter- 
 fuge was distinctively a patrician one, and the commons had nothing to 
 gain and all to lose by it. If Livy means that the comrnons provoked 
 war by giving cause for the patricians to seek refuge in it, he certainly 
 puts it very vaguely. — D. O. ' July 15th. 
 
122 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 483-481 
 
 three successive consulates, and all as it were uniformly tested 
 in contending with the tribunes; accordingly, the honour re- 
 mained for a considerable time in that family, as being right 
 well placed. A war with Veii was then begun : the Vol- 
 scians also renewed hostilities; but, while their strength was 
 almost more than sufficient for foreign wars, they only abused 
 it by contending among themselves. In addition to the dis- 
 tracted state of the public mind prodigies from heaven in- 
 creased the general alarm, exhibiting almost daily threats in 
 the city and in the country, and the soothsayers, being con- 
 sulted by the state and by private individuals, declared, at one 
 time by means of entrails, at another by birds, that there was 
 no other cause for the deity having been roused to anger, save 
 that the ceremonies of religion were not duly performed. 
 These terrors, however, terminated in this, that Oppia, a vestal 
 virgin, being found guilty of a breach of chastity, suffered 
 punishment.^ 
 
 Quintus Fabius and Gaius Julius were next elected con- 
 suls. During this year the dissension at home was not abated, 
 while the war abroad was more desperate. The ^Cjuans took 
 up arms: the Veientines also invaded and plundered the 
 Roman territory: as the anxiety about these wars increased, 
 Cebso Fabius and Spurius Furius were appointed consuls. 
 The ^Equans were laying siege to Ortona, a Latin city. The 
 Veientines, now sated with plunder, threatened to besiege 
 Rome itself. These terrors, which ought to have assuaged the 
 feelings of the commons, increased them still further: and 
 the people resumed the practice of declining military service, 
 not of their own accord, as before, but Spurius Licinius, a 
 tribune of the people, thinking that the time had come for 
 forcing the agrarian law on the patricians by extreme neces- 
 sity, had undertaken the task of obstructing the military prep- 
 arations. However, all the odium against the tribunician 
 power was directed against the author of this proceeding: and 
 even his own colleagues rose up against him as vigorously 
 as the consuls; and by their assistance the consuls held the 
 levy. An army was raised for the two wars simultaneously ; 
 one was intrusted to Fabius to be led against the Veientines, 
 the other to Furius to operate against the ^quans. In re- 
 gard to the latter, indeed, nothing took place worthy of 
 mention. Fabius had considerably more trouble with his 
 countrymen than with the enemy: that one man alone, as 
 consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was 
 
 ' By being buried alive. The idea being that the ceremonies could 
 not be duly performed by an unchaste vestal. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 483-481] SEDITION IN THE ARMY 123 
 
 doing its best to betray, as far as in it lay, from hatred of the 
 consul. For when the consul, in addition to his other military 
 talents, of which he had exhibited abundant instances in his 
 preparations for and in his conduct of war, had so drawn up 
 his line that he routed the enemy's army solely by a charge 
 of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue them when 
 routed: nor, although the exhortation of their general, whom 
 they hated, had no efTect upon them, could even their own 
 infamy, and the immediate public disgrace and subsequent 
 danger likely to arise, if the enemy recovered their courage, 
 induce them to quicken their pace, or even, if nothing else, 
 to stand in order of battle. Without orders they faced about, 
 and with a sorrowful air (one would have thought them de- 
 feated) they returned to camp, execrating at one time their 
 general, at another the vigour displayed by the cavalry. Nor 
 did the general know where to look for any remedies for so 
 harmful a precedent: so true is it that the most distinguished 
 talents will be more likely found deficient in the art of man- 
 aging a countryman, than in that of conquering an enemy. 
 The consul returned to Rome, not having so much increased 
 his military glory as irritated and exasperated the hatred of 
 his soldiers toward him. The patricians, however, succeeded 
 in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family. They elected 
 Marcus Fabius consul; Gnasus Manlius was assigned as a 
 colleague to Fabius. 
 
 This year also found a tribune to support an agrarian law. 
 This was Tiberius Pontificius, who, pursuing the same tactics, 
 as if it had succeeded in the case of Spurius Licinius, ob- 
 structed the levy for a little time. The patricians being once 
 more perplexed, Appius Claudius declared that the tribunician 
 power had been put down the year before, for the moment 
 by the fact, for the future by the precedent established, since 
 it was found that it could be rendered ineffective by its own 
 strength; for that there never would be wanting a tribune 
 who would both be willing to obtain a victory for himself 
 over his colleague, and the good-will of the better party to 
 the advancement of the public weal: that more tribunes than 
 one, if there were need of more than one, would be ready to 
 assist the consuls: and that in fact one would be sufficient even 
 against all.^ Only let the consuls and leading members of the 
 senate take care to win over, if not all, at least some of the 
 tribunes, to the side of the commonwealth and the senate. 
 The senators, instructed by the counsels of Appius, both col- 
 lectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and courtesy, 
 
 ' By his power of veto. — D. O. 
 
124 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 481-480 
 
 and the men of consular rank, according as each possessed 
 private personal influence over them individually, and, partly 
 by conciliation, partly by authority, prevailed so far as to 
 make them consent that the powers of the tribunician office 
 should be beneficial to the state; and by the aid of four trib- 
 unes against one obstructor of the public good, the consuls 
 carried out the levy. They then set out to the war against 
 Veii, to which auxiliaries had assembled from all parts of 
 Etruria, not so much influenced by feelings of regard for the 
 Veientines, as because they had formed a hope that the power 
 of Rome could be destroyed by internal discord. And in the 
 general councils of all the states of Etruria the leading men 
 murmured that the power of Rome would last forever, unless 
 they were distracted by disturbances among themselves: that 
 this was the only poison, this the bane discovered for powerful 
 states, to render mighty empires mortal: that this evil, a long 
 time checked, partly by the wise measures of the patricians, 
 partly by the forbearance of the commons, had now proceeded 
 to extremities: that two states were now formed out of one: 
 that each party had its own magistrates, its own laws: that, 
 although at first they were accustomed to be turbulent during 
 the levies, still these same individuals had notwithstanding 
 ever been obedient to their commanders during war : that as 
 long as military discipline was retained, no matter what might 
 be the state of the city, the evil might have been withstood: 
 but that now the custom of not obeying their officers followed 
 the Roman soldier even to the camp: that in the last war, 
 even in a regular engagement and in the very heat of battle, 
 by consent of the army the victory had been voluntarily sur- 
 rendered to the vanquished yEquans: that the standards had 
 been deserted, the general abandoned on the field, and that 
 the army had returned to camp without orders : without 
 doubt, if they persevered, Rome might be conquered by means 
 of her own soldiery: nothing else was necessary save a decla- 
 ration and show of war: the fates and the gods would of them- 
 selves manage the rest. These hopes had armed the Etrus- 
 cans, who by many changes of fortune had been vanquished 
 and victors in turn. 
 
 The Roman consuls also dreaded nothing else but their 
 own strength and their own arms. The recollection of the 
 most mischievous precedent set in the last war was a terrible 
 warning to them not to let matters go so far that they would 
 have two armies to fear at the same time. Accordingly, they 
 kept within their camp, avoiding battle, owing to the two- 
 fold danger that threatened them, thinking that length of time 
 
B. C. 48o] WAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS 125 
 
 and circumstances themselves would perchance soften down 
 resentment, and bring them to a healthy frame of mind. The 
 Veientine enemy and the Etruscans proceeded with propor- 
 tionately greater precipitation; they provoked them to battle, 
 at first by riding up to the camp and challenging them; at 
 length, when they produced no effect, by reviling the consuls 
 and the army alike, they declared that the pretence of internal 
 dissension was assumed as a cloak for cowardice: and that 
 the consuls rather distrusted the courage than disbelieved the 
 sincerity of their soldiers: that inaction and idleness among 
 men in arms were a novel form of sedition. Besides this they 
 uttered insinuations, partly true and partly false, .as to the 
 upstart nature of their race and origin. While they loudly 
 proclaimed this close to the very rampart and gates, the con- 
 suls bore it without impatience: but at one time indignation, 
 at another shame, agitated the breasts of the ignorant multi- 
 tude, and diverted their attention from intestine evils; they 
 were unwilling that the enemy should remain unpunished; 
 they did not wish success either to the patricians or the con- 
 suls; foreign and domestic hatred struggled for the mastery 
 in their minds : at length the former prevailed, so haughty and 
 insolent were the jeers of the enemy; they crowded in a body 
 to the general's tent; they desired battle, they demanded that 
 the signal should be given. The consuls conferred together 
 as if to deliberate; they continued the conference for a long 
 time: they were desirous of fighting, but that desire they 
 considered should be checked and concealed, that by opposi- 
 tion and delay they might increase the ardour of the soldiery 
 now that it was once roused. The answer was returned that 
 the matter in question was premature, that it was not yet time 
 for fighting: let them keep within their camp. They then 
 issued a proclamation, that they should abstain from fight- 
 ing: if any one fought without orders, they would punish 
 him as an enemy. When they were thus dismissed, their 
 eagerness for fighting increased in proportion as they believed 
 the consuls were less disposed for it; the enemy, moreover, 
 who now showed themselves with greater boldness, as soon 
 as it was known that the consuls had determined not to fight, 
 further kindled their ardour. For they supposed that they 
 could insult them with impunity; that the soldiers were not 
 trusted with arms; that the affair would explode in a violent 
 mutiny; that an end had come to the Roman Empire. Re- 
 lying on these hopes, they ran up to the gates, heaped abuse 
 on the Romans, and with difficulty refrained from assaulting 
 the camp. Then indeed the Romans could no longer endure 
 
126 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 480 
 
 their insults: they ran from every quarter of the camp to the 
 consuls: they no longer, as formerly, put forth their demands 
 with reserve, through the mediation of the centurions of the 
 first rank, but all proceeded indiscriminately with loud clam- 
 ours. The affair was now ripe; yet still they hesitated. Then 
 Fabius, as his colleague was now inclined to give way in 
 consequence of his dread of mutiny in face of the increasing 
 uproar, having commanded silence by sound of trumpet, said: 
 " I know that those soldiers are able to conquer, Gneius Man- 
 lius: by their own conduct they themselves have prevented 
 me from knowing that they are willing. Accordingly, I have 
 resolved and determined not to give the signal, unless they 
 swear that they will return from this battle victorious. The 
 soldier has once deceived the Roman consul in the field, the 
 gods he will never deceive." There was a centurion, Marcus 
 Flavoleius, one of the foremost in demanding battle: said he, 
 " Marcus Fabius, I will return victorious from the field." He 
 invoked upon himself, should he deceive them, the wrath of 
 Father Jove, Mars Gradivus, and the other gods. After him 
 in succession the whole army severally took the same oath. 
 After they had been sworn, the signal was given: they took 
 up arms and marched into battle, full of rage and of hope. 
 They bade the Etruscans now utter their reproaches: now 
 severally demanded that the enemy, so ready of tongue, 
 should face them, now that they were armed. On that day, 
 both commons and patricians alike showed distinguished 
 bravery: the Fabian family shone forth most conspicuous: 
 they were determined to recover in that battle the affections 
 of the commons, estranged by many civil contests. 
 
 The army was drawn up in order of battle; nor did the 
 Veientine foe and the Etruscan legions decline the contest. 
 They entertained an almost certain hope that the Romans 
 would no more fight with them than they had with the 
 ^quans; that even some more serious attempt was not to be 
 despaired of, considering the sorely irritated state of their 
 feelmgs, and the critical condition of affairs. The result 
 turned out altogether different: for never before in any other 
 war did the Roman soldiers enter the field with greater fury, 
 so exasperated were they by the taunts of the enemy on the 
 one hand, and the dilatoriness of the consuls on the other. 
 Before the Etruscans had time to form their ranks, their 
 javelins having been rather thrown away at random, 'in the 
 first confusion, than aimed at the enemy, the battle had be- 
 come a hand-to-hand encounter, even with swords, in which 
 the fury of war rages most fiercely. Among the foremost 
 
B. C. 48o] BATTLE WITH THE ETRUSCANS 127 
 
 the Fabian family was distinguished for the sight it afforded 
 and the example it presented to its fellow-citizens; one of 
 these, Quintus Fabius, who had been consul two years before, 
 as he advanced at the head of his men against a dense body 
 of Veientines, and incautiously engaged amid numerous 
 parties of the enemy, received a sword-thrust through the 
 breast at the hands of a Tuscan emboldened by his bodily 
 strength and skill in arms: on the weapon being extracted, 
 Fabius fell forward on the wound. Both armies felt the fall 
 of this one man, and the Romans in consequence were be- 
 ginning to give way, when the consul Marcus Fabius leaped 
 over the body of his prostrate kinsman, and, holding his 
 buckler in front, cried out: " Is this what you swore, soldiers, 
 that you would return to the camp in flight? are you so afraid 
 of your most cowardly foes, rather than of Jupiter and Mars, 
 by whom you have sworn? Well, then, I, who have taken 
 no oath, will either return victorious, or will fall fighting here 
 beside thee, Quintus Fabius." Then Cseso Fabius, the consul 
 of the preceding year, addressed the consul: "Brother, is it 
 by these words you think you will prevail on them to fight? 
 the gods, by whom they have sworn, will bring it about. 
 Let us also, as becomes men of noble birth, as is worthy of 
 the Fabian name, kindle the courage of the soldiers by fight- 
 ing rather than by exhortation." Thus the two Fabii rushed 
 forward to the front with spears presented, and carried the 
 whole line with them. 
 
 The battle being thus restored in one quarter, Gnseus Man- 
 lius, the consul, with no less ardour, encouraged the fight on 
 the other wing, where the course of the fortune of war was 
 almost identical. For, as the soldiers eagerly followed Quin- 
 tus Fabius on the one wing, so did they follow the consul 
 Manlius on this, as he was driving the enemy before him 
 now nearly routed. When, having received a severe wound, 
 he retired from the battle, they fell back, supposing that he 
 was slain, and would have abandoned the position had not 
 the other consul, galloping at full speed to that quarter with 
 some troops of horse, supported their drooping fortune, cry- 
 ing out that his colleague was still alive, that he himself was 
 now at hand victorious, having routed the other wing. Man- 
 lius also showed himself in sight of all to restore the battle. 
 The well-known faces of the two consuls kindled the courage 
 of the soldiers: at the same time, too, the enemy's line was 
 now thinner, since, relying on their superior numbers, they 
 had drawn ofif their reserves and despatched them to storm 
 the camp. This was assaulted without much resistance: and. 
 
128 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 480 
 
 while they wasted time, bethinking themselves of plunder 
 rather than fighting, the Roman triarii,^ who had not been 
 able to sustain the first shock, having sent a report to the 
 consuls of the position of affairs, returned in a compact body 
 to the praetorium,- and of their own accord renewed the battle. 
 The consul Manlius also having returned to the camp, and 
 posted soldiers at all the gates, had blocked up every passage 
 against the enemy. This desperate situation aroused the fury 
 rather than the bravery of the Etruscans; for when, rushing 
 on wherever hope held out the prospect of escape, they had 
 advanced with several fruitless efforts, a body of young men 
 attacked the consul himself, who was conspicuous by his 
 arms. The first missiles were intercepted by those who stood 
 around him ; afterward their violence could not be withstood. 
 The consul fell, smitten with a mortal wound, and all around 
 him were put to flight. The courage of the Etruscans in- 
 creased. Terror drove the Romans in dismay through the 
 entire camp; and matters would have come to extremities had 
 not the lieutenants,^ hastily seizing the body of the consul, 
 opened a passage for the enemy at one gate.* Through this 
 they rushed out; and going away in the utmost disorder, they 
 fell in with the other consul, who had been victorious; there 
 a second time they were cut down and routed in every direc- 
 tion. A glorious victory was won, saddened, however, by two 
 such illustrious deaths. The consul, therefore, on the senate 
 voting him a triumph, replied, that if the army could tri- 
 umph without its general, he would readily accede to it in 
 consideration of its distinguished service in that war: that 
 for his own part, as his family was plunged in grief in conse- 
 quence of the death of his brother Ouintus Fabius, and the 
 commonwealth in some degree bereaved by the loss of one 
 of her consuls, he would not accept the laurel disfigured by 
 public and private grief. The triumph thus declined was more 
 illustrious than any triumph actually enjoyed; so true it is, 
 that glory refused at a fitting moment sometimes returns with 
 accumulated lustre. He next celebrated the two funerals of 
 
 ' These were veterans and formed the third line. The first were the 
 " bastata," so called from their carrying long spears, which were later 
 discarded for heavy javelins. The second were the " principes," the 
 main line. — D. O. 
 
 ' The space assigned for the general's tent. — D. O. 
 
 ^ The legati of a general were at once his council of war and his 
 staff.— D. O. 
 
 ' There is much in the description of this battle not easy to under- 
 stand, and I am inclined to believe it was at least no better than drawn. 
 The plundered camp, the defeat of the triarii, and the failure to mention 
 pursuit or consequences, all favour this supposition. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 480-479] CONDUCT OF FABIUS 
 
 129 
 
 his colleague and brother, one after the other, himself deliv- 
 ering the funeral oration over both, wherein, by yielding up 
 to them the praise that was his own due, he himself obtained 
 the greatest share of it; and, not unmindful of that which 
 he had determined upon at the beginning of his consulate, 
 namely, the regaining the affection of the people, he distrib- 
 uted the wounded soldiers among the patricians to be attended 
 to. Most of them were given to the Fabii : nor were they 
 treated with greater attention anywhere else. From this time 
 the Fabii began to be popular, and that not by aught save 
 such conduct as was beneficial to the state. 
 
 Accordingly, Casso Fabius, having been elected consul 
 with Titus Verginius not more with the good-will of the sena- 
 tors than of the commons, gave no attention either to wars, 
 or levies, or anything else in preference, until, the hope of 
 concord being now in some measure assured, the feelings 
 of the commons should be united with those of the senators 
 at the earliest opportunity. Accordingly, at the beginning 
 of the year he proposed that before any tribune should 
 stand forth as a supporter of the agrarian law, the patricians 
 themselves should be beforehand in bestowing the gift un- 
 asked and making it their own: that they should distribute 
 among the commons the land taken from the enemy in as 
 equal a proportion as possible; that it was but just that those 
 should enjoy it by whose blood and labour it had been won. 
 The patricians rejected the proposal with scorn: some even 
 complained that the once vigorous spirit of Cseso was running 
 riot, and decaying through a surfeit of glory. There were 
 afterward no party struggles in the city. The Latins, how- 
 ever, were harassed by the incursions of the ^quans. Cseso 
 being sent thither with an army, crossed into the territory of 
 the ^quans themselves to lay it waste. The ^quans retired 
 into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that 
 account no battle worth mentioning was fought. 
 
 However, a reverse was sustained at the hands of the 
 Veientine foe owing to the rashness of the other consul; and 
 the army would have been all cut ofif, had not Caeso Fabius 
 come to their assistance in time. From that time there was 
 neither peace nor war with the Veientines: their mode of op- 
 eration had now come very near to the form of brigandage. 
 They retired before the Roman troops into the city; when they 
 perceived that the troops were drawn off, they made incursions 
 into the country, alternately mocking war with peace and 
 peace with war. Thus the matter could neither be dropped 
 altogether, nor brought to a conclusion. Besides, other wars 
 
Ijo LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 479 
 
 were threatening either at the moment, as from the ^quans 
 and Volscians, who remained inactive no longer than was 
 necessary, to allow the recent smart of their late disaster to 
 pass away, or at no distant date, as it was evident that the Sa- 
 bines, ever hostile, and all Etruria would soon begin to stir up 
 war: but the Veientines, a constant rather than a formidable 
 enemy, kept their minds in a state of perpetual uneasiness by 
 petty annoyances more frequently than by any real danger to 
 be apprehended from them, because they could at no time be 
 neglected, and did not suffer the Romans to turn their atten- 
 tion elsewhere. Then the Fabian family approached the sen- 
 ate: the consul spoke in the name of the family: " Conscript 
 fathers, the Veientine war requires, as you know, an unremit- 
 ting rather than a strong defence. Do you attend to other 
 wars: assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientines. We 
 pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall 
 be safe in that quarter. That war, as if it were a family mat- 
 ter, it is our determination to conduct at our own private 
 expense. In regard to it, let the republic be spared the ex- 
 pense of soldiers and money." The warmest thanks were 
 returned to them. The consul, leaving the senate-house, ac- 
 companied by the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in 
 the porch of the senate-house, awaiting the decree of the sen- 
 ate, returned home. They were ordered to attend on the fol- 
 lowing day in arms at the consul's gate: they then retired to 
 their homes. 
 
 The report spread through the entire city; they extolled 
 the Fabii to the skies: that a single family had undertaken 
 the burden of the state; that the Veientine war had now be- 
 come a private concern, a private quarrel. If there were two 
 families of the same strength in the city, let them demand, 
 the one the Volscians for itself, the other the ^quans; that 
 all the neighbouring states could be subdued, while the 
 Roman people all the time enjoyed profound peace. The day 
 following, the Fabii took up arms ; they assembled where 
 they had been ordered. The consul, coming forth in his mili- 
 tary robe, beheld the whole family in the porch drawn up in 
 order of march; being received into the centre, he ordered 
 the standards to be advanced. Never did an army march 
 through the city, either smaller in number, or more distin- 
 guished in renown and more admired by all. Three hundred 
 and six soldiers, all patricians, all of one familv, not one of 
 whom an honest senate would reject as a leader under any 
 circumstances whatever, proceeded on their march, threat- 
 ening the Veientine state with destruction by the might of a 
 
B. C. 479] PATRIOTISM OF THE FABII 131 
 
 single family. A crowd followed, one part belonging to them- 
 selves, consisting of their kinsmen and comrades, who con- 
 templated no half measures, either as to their hope or anxiety, 
 but everything on a grand scale : ^ the other aroused by solici- 
 tude for the public weal, unable to express their esteem and 
 admiration. They bade them proceed in their brave resolve, 
 proceed with happy omens, and render the issue proportionate 
 to the undertaking: thence to expect consulships and tri- 
 umphs, all rewards, all honours from them. As they passed 
 the Capitol and the citadel, and the other sacred edifices, they 
 offered up prayers to all the gods that presented themselves 
 to their sight, or to their mind, that they would send forward 
 that band with prosperity and success, and soon send them 
 back safe into their country to their parents. In vain were 
 these prayers uttered. Having set out on their luckless road 
 by the right-hand arch of the Carmental gate,^ they arrived at 
 the river Cremera : ^ this appeared a favourable situation for 
 fortifying an outpost. 
 
 Lucius ^milius and Gaius Servilius were then created 
 consuls. And as long as there was nothing else to occupy 
 them but mutual devastations, the Fabii were not only able 
 to protect their garrison, but through the entire tract, where 
 the Tuscan territory adjoins the Roman, they protected all 
 their own districts and ravaged those of the enemy, spreading 
 their forces along both frontiers. There was afterward a 
 cessation, though not for long, of these depredations: while 
 both the Veientines, having sent for an army from Etruria,* 
 assaulted the outpost at the Cremera, and the Roman troops, 
 brought up by the consul Lucius ^milius, came to a close 
 engagement in the field with the Etruscans; the Veientines, 
 however, had scarcely time to draw up their line: for, during 
 the first alarm, while they were entering the lines behind 
 their colours, and they were stationing their reserves, a bri- 
 gade of Roman cavalry, charging them suddenly in flank, 
 deprived them of all opportunity not only of opening the fight, 
 but even of standing their ground. Thus being driven back 
 to the Red Rocks '^ (where they had pitched their camp), as 
 
 ' It was to be victory or annihilation, — D. O. 
 
 ' So called from the altar of Carmenta, which stood near it. It was 
 located in or near what is now the Piazza Montanara, and was always 
 after considered a gate of evil omen. — D. O. 
 
 ' Now the Valchetta. — D. O. 
 
 ' Probably of mercenaries, as the Veientines are alluded to throughotit 
 the paragraph as commanding, and it was apparently not a case of alli- 
 ance. — D. O. 
 
 ' On the Via Flaminia (near the grotta rossa). 
 
122 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 478-476 
 
 suppliants they sued for peace ; and, after it was granted, ow- 
 ing to the natural inconsistency of their minds, they regretted 
 it even before the Roman garrison was withdrawn from the 
 
 Cremera. t- i,-- 
 
 Again the Veientine state had to contend with the bahn 
 without any additional military armament: and not merely 
 did they make raids into each other's territories, or sudden 
 attacks upon those carrying on the raids, but they fought re- 
 peatedly on level ground, and in pitched battles: and one 
 family of the Roman people oftentimes gained the victory 
 over an entire Etruscan state, and a most powerful one for 
 those times. This at first appeared mortifying and humiliat- 
 ing to the Veientines: then they conceived the design, sug- 
 gested by the state of afifairs, of surprising their daring enemy 
 by an ambuscade; they were even glad that the confidence 
 of the Fabii was increasing owing to their great success. 
 Wherefore cattle were frequently driven in the path of the 
 plundering parties, as if they had fallen in their way by acci- 
 dent, and tracts of land left abandoned by the flight of the 
 peasants: and reserve bodies of armed men, sent to prevent 
 the devastations, retreated more frequently in pretended than 
 in real alarm. By this time the Fabii had conceived such con- 
 tempt for the enemy that they believed that their arms, as 
 yet invincible, could not be resisted either in any place or on 
 any occasion: this presumption carried them so far that at 
 the sight of some cattle at a distance from Cremera, with an 
 extensive plain lying between, they ran down to them, in 
 spite of the fact that some scattered bodies of the enemy were 
 visible: and when, anticipating nothing, and in disorderly 
 haste, they had passed the ambuscade placed on either side 
 of the road itself, and, dispersed in different directions, had 
 begun to carry ofif the cattle that were straying about, as is 
 usual when frightened, the enemy started suddenly in a body 
 from their ambuscade, and surrounded them both in front 
 and on every side. At first the noise of their shouts, spread- 
 ing, terrified them; then weapons assailed them from every 
 side: and, as the Etruscans closed in, they also were com- 
 pelled, hemmed in as they were by an unbroken body of armed 
 men, to form themselves into a square of narrower compass 
 the more the enemy pressed on: this circumstance rendered 
 both their own scarcity of numbers noticeable and the supe- 
 rior numbers of the Etruscans, whose ranks were crowded 
 in a narrow space. Then, having abandoned the plan of fight- 
 ing, which they had directed with equal effort in every quar- 
 ter, they all turned their forces toward one point; straining 
 
B.C. 478-476] DESTRUCTION OF THE FABII 133 
 
 every effort in that direction, both with their arms and bodies, 
 and forming themselves into a wedge, they forced a pas- 
 sage. The way led to a gradually ascending hill: here they 
 first halted: presently, as soon as the higher ground afforded 
 them time to gain breath, and to recover from so great a 
 panic, they repulsed the foe as they ascended: and the small 
 band, assisted by the advantages of the ground, was gaining 
 the victory, had not a party of the Veientines, sent round the 
 ridge of the hill, made their way to the summit: thus the 
 enemy again got possession of the higher ground; all the 
 Fabii were cut down to a man, and the fort was taken by as- 
 sault: it is generally agreed that three hundred and six were 
 slain; that one only, who had nearly attained the age of 
 puberty, survived, who was to be the stock for the Fabian 
 family, and was destined to prove the greatest support of the 
 Roman people in dangerous emergencies on many occasions 
 both at home and in war.^ 
 
 At the time when this disaster was sustained, Gaius Hora- 
 tius and Titus Menenius were consuls. Menenius was im- 
 mediately sent against the Tuscans, now elated with victory. 
 On that occasion also an unsuccessful battle was fought, and 
 the enemy took possession of the Janiculum : and the city 
 would have been besieged, since scarcity of provisions dis- 
 tressed them in addition to the war — for the Etruscans had 
 passed the Tiber — had not the consul Horatius been recalled 
 from the Volscians ; and so closely did that war approach the 
 very walls, that the first battle was fought near the Temple of 
 Hope ^ with doubtful success, and a second at the Colline gate. 
 There, although the Romans gained the upper hand by only 
 a trifling advantage, yet that contest rendered the soldiers 
 more serviceable for future battles by the restoration of their 
 former courage. 
 
 Aulus Verginius and Spurius Servilius were next chosen 
 consuls. After the defeat sustained in the last battle, the 
 Veientines declined an engagement' Ravages were com- 
 mitted, and they made repeated attacks in every direction 
 upon the Roman territory from the Janiculum, as if from a 
 fortress : nowhere were cattle or husbandmen safe. They 
 were afterward entrapped by the same stratagem as that by 
 
 ' This story has been much questioned by learned commentators. I 
 see nothing improbable in it if we pare down the exploits a little, and the 
 evidence, such as it is, is all pro. — D. O. 
 
 ' As this temple was about a mile from the city, it is probable the Ro- 
 mans were defeated, and that the second fight at the gate means simply 
 that they repulsed an assault on the walls. — D. O. 
 
 ' That is, did not renew their assault on the walls. — D. O. 
 
134 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 476 
 
 which they had entrapped the Fabii : having pursued some 
 cattle which had been intentionally driven on in all directions 
 to decoy them, they fell into an ambuscade ; in proportion as 
 they were more numerous/ the slaughter was greater. The 
 violent resentment resulting from this disaster was the cause 
 and beginning of one still greater: for having crossed the 
 Tiber by night, they attempted to assault the carnp of the 
 consul Servilius; being repulsed from thence with great 
 slaughter, they with difficulty made good their retreat to the 
 Janiculum. The consul himself also immediately crossed the 
 Tiber, and fortified his camp at the foot of the Janiculum: at 
 daybreak on the following morning, being both somewhat 
 elated by the success of the battle of the day before, more, 
 however, because the scarcity of corn forced him to adopt 
 measures, however dangerous, provided only they were more 
 expeditious, he rashly marched his army up the steep of the 
 Janiculum to the camp of the enemy, and, being repulsed from 
 thence with more disgrace than when he had repulsed them on 
 the preceding day, he was saved, both himself and his army, by 
 the intervention of his colleague. The Etruscans, hemmed 
 in between the two armies, and presenting their rear to the one 
 and the other by turns, were completely destroyed. Thus the 
 Veientine war was crushed by a successful piece of audacity.^ 
 Together with peace, provisions came in to the city in 
 greater abundance, both by reason of corn having been 
 brought in from Campania, and, as soon as the fear of want, 
 which every one felt was likely to befall himself, left them, by 
 the corn being brought out, which had been stored. Then 
 their minds once more became wanton from plenty and ease, 
 and they sought at home their former subjects of com- 
 plaint, now that there was none abroad; the tribunes began 
 to excite the commons by their poisonous charm, the agrarian 
 law : they roused them against the senators who opposed it, 
 and not only against them as a body, but against particular 
 individuals. Quintus Considius and Titus Genucius, the pro- 
 posers of the agrarian law, appointed a day of trial for Titus 
 Menenius: the loss of the fort of Cremera, while the consul 
 had his standing camp at no great distance from thence, was 
 the cause of his unpopularity. This crushed him, though 
 both the senators had exerted themselves in his behalf with 
 
 ' Evidently only a small detachment, nevertheless they were in condi- 
 tion to assault a fortified consular camp despite their defeat. D. O. 
 
 ' The story of this war is much more doubtful than the exploit of the 
 Fabii, and Livy, as usual, furnishes the material for his own criticism — 
 D. O. 
 
B. C. 476] TRIALS OF MENENIUS AND SERVILIUS 135 
 
 no less earnestness than in behalf of Coriolanus, and the popu- 
 larity of his father Agrippa was not yet forgotten. The trib- 
 unes, however, acted leniently in the matter of the fine : though 
 they had arraigned him for a capital offence, they imposed on 
 him, when found guilty, a fine of only two thousand asses. 
 This proved fatal to him. They say that he could not brook 
 the disgrace and anguish of mind : and that, in consequence, 
 he was carried of? by disease. Another senator, Spurius Ser- 
 vilius, was soon after arraigned, as soon as he went out of 
 office, a day of trial having been appointed for him by the 
 tribunes, Lucius Caedicius and Titus Statins, immediately at 
 the beginning of the year, in the consulship of Gaius Nau- 
 tius and Publius Valerius : he did not, however, like Me- 
 nenius, meet the attacks of the tribunes with supplications on 
 the part of himself and the patricians, but with firm reliance 
 on his own integrity and his personal popularity. The battle 
 with the Tuscans at the Janiculum was also the charge brought 
 against him : but being a man of impetuous spirit, as he had for- 
 merly done in time of public peril, so now in the danger which 
 threatened himself, he dispelled it by boldly meeting it, by con- 
 futing not only the tribunes but the commons also, in a 
 haughty speech, and upbraiding them with the condemnation 
 and death of Titus Menenius, by the good offices of whose 
 father the commons had formerly been re-established, and now 
 had those magistrates and enjoyed those laws, by virtue of 
 which they then acted so insolently: his colleague Verginius 
 also, who was brought forward as a witness, aided him by as- 
 signing to him a share of his own glory : however — so had 
 they changed their mind — the condemnation of Menenius was 
 of greater service to him. 
 
 The contests at home were now concluded. A war against 
 the Veientines, with whom the Sabines had united their forces, 
 broke out afresh. The consul Publius Valerius, after auxilia- 
 ries had been sent for from the Latins and Hernicans, being 
 despatched to Veil with an army, immediately attacked the 
 Sabine camp, which had been pitched before the walls of their 
 allies, and occasioned such great consternation that, while 
 scattered in different directions, they sallied forth in small par- 
 ties to repel the assault of the enemy, the gate which he first 
 attacked was taken : then within the rampart a massacre rather 
 than a battle took place. From within the camp the alarm 
 spread also into the city; the Veientines ran to arms in as 
 great a panic as if Veii had been taken : some came up to the 
 support of the Sabines, others fell upon the Romans, who had 
 directed all their force against the camp. For a little while 
 
136 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 475-473 
 
 they were disconcerted and thrown into confusion ; then they 
 in like manner formed two fronts and made a stand : and the 
 cavalry, being commanded by the consul to charge, routed the 
 Tuscans and put them to flight ; and in the self-same hour two 
 armies and two of the most influential and powerful of the 
 neighbouring states were vanquished. While these events 
 were taking place at Veil, the Volscians and yEquans had 
 pitched their camp in Latin territory, and laid waste their fron- 
 tiers. The Latins, being joined by the Hernicans, without 
 either a Roman general or Roman auxiliaries, by their own 
 efforts, stripped them of their camp. Besides recovering 
 their own effects, they obtained immense booty. The consul 
 Gaius Nautius, however, was sent against the Volscians from 
 Rome. The custom, I suppose, was not approved of, that 
 the allies should carry on wars with their own forces and ac- 
 cording to their own plans without a Roman general and 
 troops. There was no kind of injury and petty annoyance 
 that was not practised against the Volscians ; they could not, 
 however, be prevailed on to come to an engagement in the 
 field. 
 
 Lucius Furius and Gaius Manlius were the next consuls. 
 The Veientines fell to Manlius as his province. No war, how- 
 ever, followed: a truce for forty years was granted them at 
 their request, but they were ordered to provide corn and pay 
 for the soldiers. Disturbance at home immediately followed 
 in close succession on peace abroad : the commons were 
 goaded by the spur employed by the tribunes in the shape of 
 the agrarian law. The consuls, no whit intimidated by the 
 condemnation of Menenius, nor by the danger of Servilius, re- 
 sisted with their utmost might ; Gnaeus Genucius, a tribune 
 of the people, dragged the consuls before the court on their 
 going out of office. Lucius iEmilius and Opiter Verginius 
 entered upon the consulate. Instead of Verginius I find Vo- 
 piscus Julius given as consul in some annals. In this year 
 (whoever were the consuls) Furius and Manlius, being sum- 
 moned to trial before the people, in sordid garb solicited the 
 aid of the younger patricians as much as that of the commons : 
 they advised, they cautioned them to keep themselves from 
 public offices and the administration of public affairs, and in- 
 deed to consider the consular fasces, the toga praetexta and 
 curule chair, as nothing else but a funeral parade: that when 
 decked with these splendid insignia, as with fillets,^ they were 
 doomed to death. But if the charms of the consulate were so 
 
 ' After the manner of animals about to be sacrificed. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 473] MURDER OF GN^US GENUCIUS 137 
 
 great, they should even now rest satisfied that the consulate 
 was held in captivity and crushed by the tribunician power; 
 that everything had to be done by the consul, at the beck and 
 command of the tribune, as if he were a tribune's beadle. If he 
 stirred, if he regarded the patricians at all, if he thought that 
 there existed any other party in the state but the commons, 
 let him set before his eyes the banishment of Gnseus Marcius, 
 the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by these 
 words, the patricians from that time held their consultations 
 not in public, but in private houses, and remote from the 
 knowledge of the majority, at which, when this one point only 
 was agreed on, that the accused must be rescued either by fair 
 means or foul, the most desperate proposals were most ap- 
 proved ; nor did any deed, however daring, lack a supporter.^ 
 Accordingly, on the day of trial, when the people stood in 
 the forum on tiptoe of expectation, they at first began to feel 
 surprised that the tribune did not come down ; then, the delay 
 now becoming more suspicious, they believed that he was 
 hindered by the nobles, and complained that the public cause 
 was abandoned and betrayed. At length those who had been 
 waiting before the entrance of the tribune's residence, an- 
 nounced that he had been found dead in his house. As soon 
 as rumour spread the news through the whole assembly, just 
 as an army disperses on the fall of its general, so did they scat- 
 ter in different directions. Panic chiefly seized the tribunes, 
 now taught by their colleague's death how utterly ineffectual 
 was the aid the devoting laws afforded them.^ Nor did the 
 patricians display their exultation with due moderation; and so 
 far was any of them from feeling compunction at the guilty act, 
 that even those who were innocent wished to be considered 
 to have perpetrated it, and it was openly declared that the tribu- 
 nician power ought to be subdued by chastisement. 
 
 Immediately after this victory, that involved a most ruin- 
 ous precedent, a levy was proclaimed ; and, the tribunes being 
 now overawed, the consuls accomplished their object without 
 any opposition. Then indeed the commons became enraged 
 more at the inactivity of the tribunes than at the authority of 
 the consuls : they declared there was an end of their liberty : 
 that things had returned to their old condition : that the tribu- 
 nician power had died along with Genucius and was buried 
 with him ; that other means must be devised and adopted, by 
 which the patricians might be resisted: and that the only means 
 
 ' This was probably the origin of the "clubs" of young patricians, to 
 which so much of the later violence was due. — D. O. 
 
 ' The lex sacrata, which declared their persons inviolate. — D. O. 
 
138 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 473 
 
 to that end was for the people to defend themselves, since 
 they had no other help : that four-and-twenty lictors waited on 
 the consuls, and they men of the common people : that noth- 
 ing could be more despicable, or weaker, if only there were 
 persons to despise them; that each person magnified those 
 things and made them objects of terror to himself. When 
 they had excited one another by these words, a lictor was de- 
 spatched by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man belonging 
 to the commons, because he declared that, having been a cen- 
 turion, he ought not to be made a common soldier. Volero 
 appealed to the tribunes. When no one came to his assistance, 
 the consuls ordered the man to be stripped and the rods to be 
 got ready. " I appeal to the people," said Volero, " since the 
 tribunes prefer to see a Roman citizen scourged before their 
 eyes, than themselves to be butchered by you each in his bed." 
 The more vehemently he cried out, the more violently did the 
 lictor tear off his clothes and strip him. Then Volero, being 
 both himself a man of great bodily strength, and aided by his 
 partisans, having thrust back the lictor, retired into the thick- 
 est part of the crowd, where the outcry of those who expressed 
 their indignation was loudest, crying out: " I appeal, and im- 
 plore the protection of the commons; assist me, fellow-citi- 
 zens: assist me, fellow-soldiers: it is no use to wait for the 
 tribunes, who themselves stand in need of your aid." The 
 men, excited, made ready as if for battle : and it was clear that 
 a general crisis was at hand, that no one would have respect 
 for anything, either public or private right. When the con- 
 suls had faced this violent storm, they soon found out that 
 authority unsupported by strength had but little security ; the 
 lictors being maltreated, and the fasces broken, they were 
 driven from the forum into the senate-house, uncertain how 
 far Volero would follow up his victory. After that, the dis- 
 turbance subsiding, having ordered the members to be sum- 
 moned to the senate, they complained of the insults ofifered to 
 themselves, of the violence of the people, of the daring con- 
 duct of Volero. After many violent measures had been pro- 
 posed, the older members prevailed, who did not approve of 
 the rash behaviour of the commons being met by the resent- 
 ment of the patricians. 
 
 The commons having warmly espoused the cause of Vo- 
 lero, at the next meeting, secured his election as tribune of 
 the people for that year, in which Lucius Pinarius and Publius 
 Furius were consuls : and, contrary to the opinion of all, who 
 thought that he would make free use of his tribunesh'ip to 
 harass the consuls of the preceding year, postponing private 
 
B.C. 473] DISTURBANCES IN THE CITY 139 
 
 resentment to the public interest, without the consuls being 
 attacked even by a single word, he brought a bill before the 
 people, that plebeian magistrates should be elected at the comi- 
 tia tributa.^ A measure of no small importance was now pro- 
 posed, under an aspect at first sight by no means alarming ; 
 but one of such a nature that it really deprived the patricians 
 of all power of electing whatever tribunes they pleased by the 
 suffrages of their clients. The patricians resisted to the ut- 
 most this proposal, which met with the greatest approval of 
 the commons : and though none of the college ^ could be in- 
 duced by the influence either of the consuls or of the chief 
 members of the senate to enter a protest against it, which was 
 the only means of efifectual resistance, yet the matter, a weighty 
 one from its own importance, was spun out by party struggles 
 for a whole year. The commons re-elected Volero as tribune. 
 The senators, considering that the matter would end in a des- 
 perate struggle, elected as consul Appius Claudius, the son of 
 Appius, who was both hated by and had hated the commons, 
 ever since the contests between them and his father. Titus 
 Quinctius was assigned to him as his colleague. Immediately, 
 at the beginning of the year,^ no other question took pre- 
 cedence of that regarding the law. But like Volero, the origi- 
 nator of it, so his colleague, Ljetorius, was both a more recent, 
 as well as a more energetic, supporter of it. His great renown 
 in war made him overbearing, because, in the age in which he 
 lived, no one was more prompt in action. He, while Volero 
 confined himself to the discussion of the law, avoiding all abuse 
 of the consuls, broke out into accusations against Appius and 
 his family, as having ever been most overbearing and cruel to- 
 ward the Roman commons, contending that he had been elected 
 by the senators, not as consul, but as executioner, to harass 
 and torture the people : his tongue, unskilled in speech, as was 
 natural in a soldier, was unable to give adequate expression to 
 the freedom of his sentiments. When, therefore, language 
 failed him, he said : " Romans, since I do not speak with as 
 much readiness as I make good what I have spoken, attend 
 here to-morrow. I will either die before your eyes, or will 
 carry the law." On the following day the tribunes took pos- 
 session of the platform : the consuls and the nobles took their 
 places together in the assembly to obstruct the law. Lasto- 
 rius ordered all persons to be removed, except those going to 
 vote. The young nobles kept their places, paying no regard 
 
 ' The assembly of the plebeians by tribes. — D. O. 
 ' Of tribunes. * The consular year. 
 
I40 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 471 
 
 to the officer; then Latorius ordered some of them to be 
 seized. The consul Appius insisted that the tribune had no 
 jurisdiction over any one except a plebeian ; for that he was 
 not a magistrate of the people in general, but only of the com- 
 mons; and that even he himself could not, according to the 
 usage of their ancestors, by virtue of his authority remove any 
 person, because the words were as follows : " If ye think 
 proper, depart, Quirites." He was easily able to disconcert 
 Lsetorius by discussing his right thus contemptuously. The 
 tribune, therefore, burning with rage, sent his officer to the 
 consul; the consul sent his lictor to the tribune, exclaiming 
 that he was a private individual, without military office and 
 without civil authority : and the tribune would have been 
 roughly handled, had not both the entire assembly risen up 
 with great warmth in behalf of the tribune against the consul, 
 and a crowd of people belonging to the excited multitude, 
 rushed from all parts of the city into the forum. Appius, how- 
 ever, withstood this great storm with obstinacy, and the con- 
 test would have ended in a battle, not without bloodshed, had 
 not Quinctius, the other consul, having intrusted the men of 
 consular rank with the task of removing his colleague from the 
 forum by force, if they could not do so in any other way, him- 
 self now assuaged the raging people by entreaties, now im- 
 plored the tribunes to dismiss the assembly. Let them, said 
 he, give their passion time to cool : delay would not in any re- 
 spect deprive them of their power, but would add prudence 
 to strength; and the senators would be under the control of 
 the people, and the consul under that of the senators. 
 
 The people were with difficulty pacified by Quinctius; the 
 other consul with much more difficulty by the patricians. The 
 assembly of the people having been at length dismissed, the 
 consuls convened the senate ; in which, though fear and re- 
 sentment by turns had produced a diversity of opinions, the 
 more their minds were called off, by lapse of time, from pas- 
 sion to reflection, the more adverse did they become to con- 
 tentiousness, so that they returned thanks to Quinctius, be- 
 cause it was owing to his exertions that the disturbance had 
 been quieted. Appius was requested to give his consent that 
 the consular dignity should be merely so great as it could be 
 in a state if it was to be united : it was declared that, as long 
 as the tribunes and consuls claimed all power, each for his own 
 side, no strength was left between: that the commonwealth 
 was distracted and torn asunder : that the object aimed at was 
 rather to whom it should belong, than that it should be safe. 
 Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to witness that 
 
B. c. 471] TRIBUNES ELECTED IN THE COMITIA 141 
 
 the commonwealth was being betrayed and abandoned through 
 cowardice ; that it was not the consul who had failed to sup- 
 port the senate, but the senate the consul: that more oppres- 
 sive conditions were now being submitted to than had been 
 submitted to on the Sacred Mount. Overcome, however, by 
 the unanimous feeling of the senators, he desisted: the law was 
 carried without opposition. 
 
 Then for the first time the tribunes were elected in the 
 comitia tributa. Piso is the authority for the statement that 
 three were added to the number, as if there had been only two 
 before. He also gives the names of the tribunes, Gnaeus 
 Siccius, Lucius Numitorius, Marcus Duellius, Spurius Icilius, 
 Lucius Mecilius. During the disturbance at Rome, a war 
 broke out with the Volscians and ^quans, who had laid waste 
 the country, so that, if any secession of the people took place, 
 they might find a refuge with them. Afterward, when matters 
 were settled, they moved back their camp. Appius Claudius 
 was sent against the Volscians ; the ^liquans fell to Quinctius 
 as his province. Appius exhibited the same severity in war 
 as at home, only more unrestrained, because it was free from 
 the control of the tribunes. He hated the commons with a 
 hatred greater than that inherited from his father : he had 
 been defeated by them : when he had been chosen consul as 
 the only man able to oppose the influence of the tribunes, a law 
 had been passed, which former consuls had obstructed with 
 less effect, amid hopes of the senators by no means so great 
 as those now placed in him. His resentment and indignation 
 at this stirred his imperious temper to harass the army by the 
 severity of his command; it could not, however, be subdued 
 by any exercise of authority, with such a spirit of opposition 
 were the soldiers filled. They carried out all orders slowly, in- 
 dolently, carelessly, and stubbornly : neither shame nor fear 
 restrained them. If he wished the march to be accelerated, 
 they designedly went more slowly : if he came up to them to 
 encourage them in their work, they all relaxed the energy 
 which they had before exerted of their own accord : they cast 
 down their eyes in his presence, they silently cursed him as 
 he passed by ; so that that spirit, unconquered by plebeian 
 hatred, was sometimes moved. Every kind of severity having 
 been tried without effect, he no longer held any intercourse 
 with the soldiers ; he said the army was corrupted by the cen- 
 turions ; he sometimes gibingly called them tribunes of the 
 people and Voleros. 
 
 None of these circumstances were unknown to the Vol- 
 scians, and they pressed on with so much the more vigour, 
 
142 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 471 
 
 hoping that the Roman soldiers would entertain the same 
 spirit of opposition against Appius as they had formerly ex- 
 hibited against the consul Fabius. However, they showed 
 themselves still more embittered against Appius than agamst 
 Fabius. For they were not only unwilling to conquer, like 
 the army of Fabius, but even wished to be conquered. When 
 led forth into the field, they made for their camp in ignomini- 
 ous flight, and did not stand their ground until they saw the 
 Volscians advancing against their fortifications, and the dread- 
 ful havoc in the rear of their army. Then they were compelled 
 to put forth their strength for battle, in order that the now vic- 
 torious enemy might be dislodged from their lines ; while, how- 
 ever, it was sufficiently clear that the Roman soldiers were only 
 unwilling that the camp should be taken, in regard to all else 
 they gloried in their own defeat and disgrace. When the 
 haughty spirit of Appius, in no wise broken by this behaviour 
 of the soldiers, purposed to act with still greater severity, and 
 summoned a meeting, the lieutenants and tribunes flocked 
 around him, recommending him by no means to decide to put 
 his authority to the proof, the entire strength of which lay in 
 unanimous obedience, saying that the soldiers generally refused 
 to come to the assembly, and that their voices were heard on all 
 sides, demanding that the camp should be removed from the 
 Volscian territory : that the victorious enemy were but a little 
 time ago almost at the very gates and rampart, and that not 
 merely a suspicion but the visible form of a grievous disaster 
 presented itself to their eyes. Yielding at last — since they 
 gained nothing save a respite from punishment — having pro- 
 rogued the assembly, and given orders that their march should 
 be proclaimed for the following day, at daybreak he gave the 
 signal for departure by sound of trumpet. At the very moment 
 when the army, having got clear of the camp, was forming 
 itself, the Volscians, as if they had been aroused by the same 
 signal, fell upon those in the rear : from these the alarm spread- 
 ing to the van, threw both the battalions and companies into 
 such a state of consternation, that neither could the general's 
 orders be distinctly heard, nor the lines drawn up. No one 
 thought of anything but flight. In such loose order did they 
 make their way through heaps of dead bodies and arms, that 
 the enemy ceased their pursuit sooner than the Romans their 
 flight. The soldiers having at length rallied from their disor- 
 dered flight, the consul, after he had in vain followed his men, 
 bidding them return, pitched his camp in a peaceful part of the 
 country; and having convened an assembly, after inveighing 
 not without good reason against the army, as traitors to'mili- 
 
B. C. 471-469] TRIAL OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS 143 
 
 tary discipline, deserters of their posts, asking them, one by 
 one, where were their standards, where their arms, he first beat 
 with rods and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown 
 down their arms, the standard-bearers who had lost their 
 standards, and also the centurions, and those who received 
 double allowance,' who had deserted their ranks. With re- 
 spect to the rest of the rank and file, every tenth man was 
 drawn by lot for punishment. 
 
 On the other hand, the consul and soldiers among the 
 yEquans vied with each other in courtesy and acts of kindness : 
 Quinctius was naturally milder in disposition, and the ill-fated 
 severity of his colleague had caused him to give freer vent to 
 his own good temper. This remarkable agreement between 
 the general and his army the ^quans did not venture to meet, 
 but sufifered the enemy to go through their country commit- 
 ting devastations in every direction. Nor were depredations 
 committed more extensively in that quarter in any preceding 
 war. The whole of the booty was given to the soldiers. In 
 addition, they received praise, in which the minds of soldiers 
 find no less pleasure than in rewards. The army returned 
 more reconciled both to their general, and also, thanks to the 
 general, to the patricians, declaring that a parent had been 
 given to them, a tyrant to the other army by the senate. The 
 year which had passed with varied success in war, and vio- 
 lent dissensions at home and abroad, was rendered mem- 
 orable chiefly by the elections of tribes, a matter which 
 was more important from the victory in the contest ^ that 
 was undertaken than from any real advantage ; for more dig- 
 nity was withdrawn from the elections themselves by the 
 fact that the patricians were excluded from the council, 
 than influence either added to the commons or taken from 
 the patricians.' 
 
 A still more stormy year followed, when Lucius Valerius 
 and Titus ^milius were consuls, both by reason of the strug- 
 gles between the different orders concerning the agrarian law, 
 as well as on account of the trial of Appius Claudius, for whom 
 Marcus Duilius and Gnseus Siccius appointed a day of trial, 
 as a most active opposer of the law, and one who supported 
 the cause of the possessors of the public land, as if he were a 
 
 ' One of the rewards of good conduct was double rations. — D. O. 
 
 ' That is, the contest to obtain the reform. — D. O. 
 
 ' While the plebeians lost the dignity conferred on the assembly by 
 the presence of distinguished patricians, they gained nothing, as, in the 
 mere matter of votes, they already had a majority; and the patricians 
 lost nothing, as the number of their votes would not be sufficient to ren- 
 der them of much importance. 
 
144 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 471-469 
 
 third consul.! j^ever before was an accused person so hateful 
 to the commons brought to trial before the people over- 
 helmed with their resentment agamst himself and also 
 
 w 
 
 against his father. The patricians too seldom made equal 
 exertions so readily on one's behalf: they declared that the 
 champion of the senate, and the upholder of their dignity, set 
 up as a barrier against all the storms of the tribunes and com- 
 mons, was exposed to the resentment of the commons, al- 
 though he had only exceeded the bounds of moderation m the 
 contest. Appius Claudius himself was the only one of the 
 patricians who made light both of the tribunes and commons 
 and his own trial. Neither the threats of the commons, nor 
 the entreaties of the senate, could ever persuade him even to 
 change his garb, or accost persons as a suppliant, or even to 
 soften or moderate his usual harshness of speech in the least 
 degree, when his cause was to be pleaded before the people. 
 The expression of his countenance was the same;_ the^ same 
 stubbornness in his looks, the same spirit of pride in his lan- 
 guage : so that a great part of the commons felt no less awe of 
 Appius when on his trial than they had felt for him when con- 
 sul. He pleaded his cause only once, and in the same haughty 
 style of an accuser which he had been accustomed to adopt on 
 all occasions: and he so astounded both the tribunes and the 
 commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own accord, they post- 
 poned the day of trial, and then allowed the matter to die out. 
 No long interval elapsed : before, however, the appointed day 
 came, he died of some disease ; and when the tribunes of the 
 people endeavoured to put a stop to his funeral panegyric, the 
 commons would not allow the burial day of so great a man to 
 be defrauded of the customary honours : and they listened to 
 his eulogy when dead as patiently as they had listened to the 
 charges brought against him when living, and attended his ob- 
 sequies in vast numbers. 
 
 In the same year the consul Valerius, having marched 
 with an army against the yEquans, and being unable to draw 
 out the enemy to an engagement, proceeded to attack their 
 camp. A dreadful storm coming down from heaven accom- 
 panied by thunder and hail prevented him. Then, on a signal 
 for a retreat being given, their surprise was excited by the 
 return of such fair weather, that they felt scruples about at- 
 tacking a second time a camp which was defended as it were 
 by some divine power : all the violence of the war was directed 
 to plundering the country. The other consul, ^milius, con- 
 
 ' There were other specific charges, but Livy confines himself to the 
 spirit of the prosecution. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 471-469] WAR WITH THE VOLSCIANS 145 
 
 ducted the war in Sabine territory. There also, because the 
 enemy confined themselves within their walls, the lands were 
 laid waste. Then the Sabines, roused by the burning not only 
 of the farms, but of the villages also, which were thickly in- 
 habited, after they had fallen in with the raiders retired from 
 an engagement the issue of which was left undecided, and on 
 the following day removed their camp into a safer situation. 
 This seemed a sufficient reason to the consul why he should 
 leave the enemy as conquered, and depart thence, although 
 the war was as yet unfinished. 
 
 During these wars, while dissensions still continued at 
 home, Titus Numicius Priscus and Aulus Verginius were 
 elected consuls. The commons appeared determined no 
 longer to brook the delay in accepting the agrarian law, and 
 extreme violence was on the point of being resorted to, when 
 it became known by the smoke from the burning farms and the 
 flight of the peasants that the Volscians were at hand: this 
 circumstance checked the sedition that was now ripe and on 
 the point of breaking out. The consuls, under the immediate 
 compulsion of the senate, led forth the youth from the city to 
 war, and thereby rendered the rest of the commons more quiet. 
 And the enemy indeed, having merely filled the Romans with 
 fear that proved groundless, departed in great haste. Nu- 
 micius marched to Antium against the Volscians, Verginius 
 against the ^quans. There, after they had nearly met with 
 a great disaster in an attack from an ambuscade, the bravery 
 of the soldiers restored their fortunes, which had been en- 
 dangered through the carelessness of the consul. Affairs 
 were conducted better in the case of the Volscians. The ene- 
 my were routed in the first engagement, and driven in flight 
 into the city of Antium, a very wealthy place, considering the 
 times : the consul, not venturing to attack it, took from the 
 people of Antium another town, Caeno,^ which was by no means 
 so wealthy. While the yEquans and Volscians engaged the 
 attention of the Roman armies, the Sabines advanced in their 
 depredations even to the gates of the city: then they them- 
 selves, a few days later, sustained from the two armies heavier 
 losses than they had inflicted, both the consuls having entered 
 their territories under the influence of exasperation. 
 
 At the close of the year to some extent there was peace, 
 but, as frequently at other times, a peace disturbed by con- 
 tests between the patricians and commons. The exasperated 
 commons refused to attend the consular elections : Titus 
 Quinctius and Quintus Servilius were elected consuls through 
 
 ' The port of Antium, now Porto d'Anjo. 
 
146 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 469-468 
 
 the influence of the patricians and their dependents : the con- 
 suls had a year similar to the preceding, disturbed at the be- 
 ginning, and afterward tranquil by reason of war abroad. 
 The Sabines crossing the plains of Crustumerium by forced 
 marches, after carrying fire and sword along the banks of the 
 Anio, being repulsed when they had nearly come up to the 
 Colline gate and the walls, drove off, however, great booty of 
 men and cattle : the consul Servilius, having pursued them 
 with an army bent on attacking them, was unable to overtake 
 the main body itself in the level country : he, however, ex- 
 tended his devastations over such a wide area, that he left 
 nothing unmolested by war, and returned after having ob- 
 tained booty many times greater than that carried ofif by the 
 enemy. The public cause was also extremely well supported 
 among the Volscians by the exertions both of the general and 
 the soldiers. First a pitched battle was fought, on level 
 ground, with great slaughter and much bloodshed on both 
 sides: and the Romans, because their small numbers caused 
 their loss to be more keenly felt, would have given way, had not 
 the consul, by a well-timed fiction, reanimated the army, by 
 crying out that the enemy was in flight on the other wing; hav- 
 ing charged, they, by believing themselves victorious, became 
 so. The consul, fearing lest, by pressing on too far, he might 
 renew the contest, gave the signal for retreat. A few days in- 
 tervened, both sides resting as if by tacit suspension of hos- 
 tilities : during these days a vast number of persons from all 
 the states of the Volscians and yEquans came to the camp, feel- 
 ing no doubt that the Romans would depart during the night, 
 if they perceived them. Accordingly, about the third watch,^ 
 they came to attack the camp. Quinctius having allayed the 
 confusion which the sudden panic had occasioned, and ordered 
 the soldiers to remain quiet in their tents, led out a cohort of 
 the Hernicans for an advance guard : the trumpeters and horn- 
 blowers he mounted on horseback, and commanded them to 
 sound their trumpets before the rampart, and to keep the ene- 
 my in suspense till daylight: during the rest of the night every- 
 thing was so quiet in the camp, that the Romans had even the 
 opportunity of sleeping.^ The sight of the armed infantry, 
 whom they both considered to be more numerous than they 
 were, and at the same time Romans, the bustle and neighing of 
 the horses, which became restless, both from the fact of strange 
 riders being mounted on them, and moreover from the sound 
 
 ' Midnight.— D. O. 
 
 ' The rendering of the rest of this section is vague and unsatisfac- 
 tory. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 468] DEFEAT OF THE VOLSCIANS 
 
 147 
 
 of the trumpets frightening them, kept the Volscians intently 
 awaiting an attack of the enemy. 
 
 When the day dawned, the Romans, invigorated and hav- 
 ing enjoyed a full sleep, on being marched out to battle, at the 
 first onset caused the Volscians to give way, wearied as they 
 were from standing and keeping watch : though indeed the 
 enemy rather retired than were routed, because in the rear 
 there were hills to which the unbroken ranks behind the first 
 line had a safe retreat. The consul, when he came to the un- 
 even ground, halted his army ; the infantry were kept back 
 with difficulty : they loudly demanded to be allowed to pursue 
 the discomfited foe. The cavalry were more violent : crowd- 
 ing round the general, they cried out that they would proceed 
 in front of the first line. While the consul hesitated, relying 
 on the valour of his men, yet having little confidence in the 
 nature of the ground, they all cried out that they would pro- 
 ceed; and execution followed the shout. Fixing their spears 
 in the ground, in order that they might be lighter to mount 
 the heights, they advanced uphill at a run. The Volscians, 
 having discharged their missile weapons at the first onset, 
 hurled down the stones that lay at their feet upon the Romans 
 as they were making their way up, and having thrown them 
 into confusion by incessant blows, strove to drive them from 
 the higher ground : thus the left wing of the Romans was 
 nearly overborne, had not the consul dispelled their fear by 
 rousing them to a sense of shame as they were on the point 
 of retreating, chiding at the same time their temerity and their 
 cowardice. At first they stood their ground with determined 
 firmness; then, as they recovered their strength by still hold- 
 ing their position, they ventured to advance of themselves, and, 
 renewing their shouts, they encouraged the whole body to 
 advance: then having made a fresh attack, they forced their 
 way up and surmounted the unfavourable ground._ They were 
 now on the point of gaining the summit of the hill, when the 
 enemy turned their backs, and pursued and pursuer at full 
 speed rushed into the camp almost in one body. During this 
 panic the camp was taken; such of the Volscians as were able 
 to make good their escape, made for Antium. The Roman 
 army also was led thither; after having been invested for a few 
 days, the town surrendered, not in consequence of any new 
 efforts on the part of the besiegers, but because the spirits of 
 the inhabitants had sunk ever since the unsuccessful battle and 
 the loss of their camp. 
 
BOOK III 
 
 THE DECEMVIRATE 
 
 AFTER the capture of Antium, Titus ^milius and Quin- 
 tus Fabius became consuls. This was the Fabius who 
 ^ was the sole survivor of the family that had been an- 
 nihilated at the Cremera. ^milius had already in his 
 former consulship recommended the bestowal of land on the 
 people. Accordingly, in his second consulship also, both the 
 advocates of the agrarian law encouraged themselves to hope 
 for the passing of the measure, and the tribunes took it up, 
 thinking that a result, that had been frequently attempted in 
 opposition to the consuls, might be obtained now that at any 
 rate one consul supported it: the consul remained firm in 
 his opinion. The possessors of state land ^ — and these a con- 
 siderable part of the patricians — transferred the odium of the 
 entire affair from the tribunes to the consul, complaining that 
 a man, who held the first office in the state, was busying him- 
 self with proposals more befitting the tribunes, and was gain- 
 ing popularity by making presents out of other people's prop- 
 erty. A violent contest was at hand, had not Fabius com- 
 promised the matter by a suggestion disagreeable to neither 
 party. That under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quinc- 
 tius a considerable tract of land had been taken in the pre- 
 ceding year from the Volscians: that a colony might be sent 
 to Antium, a neighbouring and conveniently situated mari- 
 time city: in this manner the commons would come in for 
 lands without any complaints on the part of the present occu- 
 
 ' The ager publicus or public land consisted of the landed estates 
 which had belonged to the kings, and were increased by land taken from 
 enemies who had been captured in war. The patricians had gained ex- 
 clusive occupation of this, for which they paid a nominal rent in the 
 shape of produce and tithes : the state, however, still retained the right 
 of disposal of it. By degrees the ager publicus fell into the hands of a 
 few rich individuals, who were continually buying up smaller estates, 
 which were cultivated by slaves, thus reducing the number of free agri- 
 cultural labourers. 
 
 148 
 
B. C. 465] WAR WITH THE ^QUANS I49 
 
 piers, and the state remain at peace. This proposition was 
 accepted. He secured the appointment of Titus Quinctius, 
 Aulus Verginius, and Publius Furius as triumvirs for dis- 
 tributing the land: such as wished to receive land were or- 
 dered to give in their names. The attainment of their object 
 created disgust immediately, as usually happens, and so few 
 gave in their names that Volscian colonists were added to 
 fill up the number: the rest of the people preferred to ask for 
 land in Rome, rather than to receive it elsewhere. The 
 iEquans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius (he had gone 
 thither with an army), and they themselves broke it by a 
 sudden incursion into Latin territory. 
 
 In the following year Quintus Servilius (for he was consul 
 with Spurius Postumius), being sent against the vEquans, 
 pitched his camp permanently in Latin territory: unavoidable 
 inaction held the army in check, since it was attacked by 
 illness. The war was protracted to the third year, when 
 Quintus Fabius and Titus Quinctius were consuls. To Fa- 
 bius, because he, as conqueror, had granted peace to the 
 iEquans, that sphere of action was assigned in an unusual 
 manner.^ He, setting out with a sure hope that his name and 
 renown would reduce the ^Equans to submission, sent ambas- 
 sadors to the council of the nation, and ordered them to an- 
 nounce that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that he had 
 brought peace to Rome from the ^quans, that from Rome 
 he now brought them war, with that same right hand, but 
 now armed, which he had formerly given to them in amity; 
 that the gods were now witnesses, and would presently take 
 vengeance on those by whose perfidy and perjury that had 
 come to pass. That he, however, be matters as they might, 
 even now preferred that the ^quans should repent of their 
 own accord rather than suffer the vengeance of an enemy. 
 If they repented, they would have a safe retreat in the clem- 
 ency they had already experienced; but if they still took 
 pleasure in perjury, they would wage war with the gods en- 
 raged against them rather than their enemies. These words 
 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 news of this was brought to 
 Rome, the indignity of the affair, rather than the danger, 
 caused the other consul to be summoned from the city; thus 
 two consular armies advanced against the enemy in order of 
 
 ' Directly, rather than by lot as was usual. 
 
 ' Monte Algido, the highest point of the Alban Mountains, not far 
 from Ontanese. — D. O. 
 
ijO LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. c. 465 
 
 battle, intending to come to an engagement at once. But as 
 it happened that not much of the day remained, one of the 
 advance guard of the enemy cried out: "This is making a 
 show of war, Romans, not waging it: you draw up your army 
 in Hne of battle, when night is at hand; we need a longer 
 period of daylight for the contest which is to come. To- 
 morrow at sunrise return to the field: you shall have an op- 
 portunity of fighting, never fear." The soldiers, stung by 
 these taunts, were marched back into camp till the following 
 day, thinking that a long night was approaching, which 
 would cause the contest to be delayed. Then indeed they re- 
 freshed their bodies with food and sleep: on the following 
 day, when it was light, the Roman army took up their posi- 
 tion some considerable time before. At length the yEquans 
 also advanced. The battle was hotly contested on both sides, 
 because the Romans fought under the influence of resentment 
 and hatred, while the ^quans were compelled by a conscious- 
 ness of danger incurred by misconduct, and despair of any 
 confidence being reposed in them hereafter, to venture and 
 to have recourse to the most desperate efTorts. The ^^iquans, 
 however, did not withstand the attack of the Roman troops, 
 and when, having been defeated, they had retired to their own 
 territories, the savage multitude, with feelings not at all more 
 disposed to peace, began to rebuke their leaders: that their 
 fortunes had been intrusted to the hazard of a pitched battle, 
 in which mode of fighting the Romans were superior. That 
 the ^quans were better adapted for depredations and incur- 
 sions, and that several parties, acting in different directions, 
 conducted wars with greater success than the unwieldy mass 
 of a single army. 
 
 Accordingly, having left a guard over the camp, they 
 marched out and attacked the Roman frontiers with such 
 fury that they carried terror even to the city: the fact that 
 this was unexpected also caused more alarm, because it was 
 least of all to be feared that an enemy, vanquished and al- 
 most besieged in their camp, should entertain thoughts of 
 depredation: and the peasants, rushing through the gates in 
 a state of panic, cried out that it was not a mere raid, nor 
 small parties of plunderers, but, exaggerating everything in 
 their groundless fear, whole armies and legions of the enemy 
 that were close at hand, and that they were hastening toward 
 the city in hostile array. Those who were nearest carried to 
 others the reports heard from these, reports vague and on 
 that account more groundless: and the hurry and clamour 
 of those calling to arms bore no distant resemblance to the 
 
B.C. 464] WAR WITH THE ^QUANS 15 1 
 
 panic that arises when a city has been taken by storm. It 
 so happened that the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome 
 from Algidum: this brought some rehef to their terror; and, 
 the tumult being calmed, after chiding them for their dread 
 of a vanquished enemy, he set a guard on the gates. Then 
 a meeting of the senate was summoned, and a suspension of 
 business proclaimed by their authority: he himself, having 
 set out to defend the frontiers, leaving behind Quintus Ser- 
 vilius as prefect of the city, found no enemy in the country. 
 Affairs were conducted with distinguished success by the 
 other consul; who, having attacked the enemy, where he 
 knew that they would arrive, laden with booty, and therefore 
 marching with their army the more encumbered, caused their 
 depredation to prove their destruction. Few of the enemy 
 escaped from the ambuscade; all the booty was recovered. 
 Thus the return of the consul Quinctius to the city put an 
 end to the suspension of business, which lasted four days. A 
 census ^ was then held, and the lustrum ^ closed by Quinctius : 
 the number of citizens rated is said to have been one hundred 
 and four thousand seven hundred and fourteen, not counting 
 orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred after- 
 ward among the ^quans; they retired into their towns, allow- 
 ing their possessions to be consumed by fire and devastated. 
 The consul, after he had repeatedly carried devastation with a 
 hostile army through the whole of the enemy's country, re- 
 turned to Rome with great glory and booty. 
 
 The next consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spu- 
 rius Furius Fusus. Furii is by some writers written Fusii; 
 this I mention, to prevent any one thinking that the change, 
 which is only in the names, is in the persons themselves. 
 There was no doubt that one of the consuls was about to 
 begin hostilities against the ^quans. The latter accord- 
 ingly sought help from the Volscians of Ecetra ; this was 
 readily granted (so keenly did these states contend in in- 
 veterate hatred against the Romans), and preparations for 
 war were made with the utmost vigour. The Hernicans came 
 to hear of it, and warned the Romans that the Ecetrans had 
 revolted to the ^Equans : the colony of Antium also was sus- 
 pected, because, after the town had been taken a great num- 
 ber of the inhabitants had fled thence for refuge to the 
 ^quans: and these soldiers behaved with the very greatest 
 bravery during the course of the war. After the ^^iquans had 
 
 ' In later times the censor performed this office. — D. O. 
 ' The ceremony of purification toolc place every five years, hence " lus- 
 trum " came to be used for a period of five years. 
 
152 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 464 
 
 been driven into the towns, when this rabble returned to An- 
 tium, it alienated from the Romans the colonists who were al- 
 ready of their own accord disposed to treachery. The matter 
 not yet being ripe, when it had been announced to the senate 
 that a revolt was intended, the consuls were charged to inquire 
 what was going on, the leading men of the colony being sum- 
 moned to Rome. When they had attended without reluctance, 
 they were conducted before the senate by the consuls, and 
 gave such answers to the questions that were put to them that 
 they were dismissed more suspected than they had come. 
 
 After this war was regarded as inevitable. Spurius Furius, 
 one of the consuls to whom that sphere of action had fallen, 
 having marched against the ^quans, found the enemy com- 
 mitting depredations in the country of the Hernicans; and 
 being ignorant of their numbers, because they had nowhere 
 been seen all together, he rashly hazarded an engagement 
 with an army which was no match for their forces. Being 
 driven from his position at the first onset, he retreated to his 
 camp: nor was that the end of his 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 despatched thence to Rome. The Hernicans brought news 
 both that an unsuccessful battle had been fought, and that 
 the consul and army were besieged: and inspired the senate 
 with such terror, that the other consul Postumius was charged 
 to see to it that the commonwealth took no harm,^ a form 
 of decree which has ever been deemed to be one of extreme 
 urgency. It seemed most advisable that the consul himself 
 should remain at Rome to enlist all such as were able to bear 
 arms : that Titus Quinctius should be sent as proconsul - to 
 the relief of the camp with the army of the allies : to complete 
 this army the Latins and Hernicans, and the colony of Antium 
 were ordered to supply Quinctius with troops hurriedly raised 
 - — such was the name (subitarii) that they gave to auxiliaries 
 raised for sudden emergencies. 
 
 During those days many manoeuvres and many attacks 
 were carried out on both sides, because the enemy, having 
 the advantage in numbers, attempted to harass the Roman 
 forces by attacking them on many sides, as not likely to 
 prove sufificient to meet all attacks. While the camp was 
 being besieged, at the same time part of the army was sent 
 to devastate Roman territory, and to make an attempt upon 
 
 ' This decree was practically a bestowal of absolute power. — D. O. 
 ' In later times the proconsul was the consul of the previous year, ap- 
 pointed to act as such over one of the provinces. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 464] DEFEAT OF THE .EQUANS 1 53 
 
 the city itself, should fortune favour. Lucius Valerius was 
 left to guard the city: the consul Postumius was sent to pre- 
 vent the plundering of the frontiers. There was no abatement 
 in any quarter either of vigilance or activity; watches were 
 stationed in the city, outposts before the gates, and guards 
 along the walls: and a cessation of business was observed for 
 several days, as was necessary amid such general confusion. 
 In the meantime the consul Furius, after he had at first pas- 
 sively endured the siege in his camp, sallied forth through 
 the main gate ^ against the enemy when off their guard ; and 
 though he might have pursued them, he stopped through 
 apprehension, that an attack might be made on the camp 
 from the other side. The lieutenant Furius (he was also the 
 consul's brother) was carried away too far in pursuit: nor 
 did he, in his eagerness to follow them up, observe either 
 his own party returning, or the attack of the enemy on his 
 rear: being thus shut out, having repeatedly made many un- 
 availing efforts to force his way to the camp, he fell, fighting 
 bravely. In like manner the consul, turning about to renew 
 the fight, on being informed that his brother was surrounded, 
 rushing into the thick of the fight rashly rather than with 
 sufficient caution, was wounded, and with difficulty rescued 
 by those around him. This both damped the courage of his 
 own men, and increased the boldness of the enemy; who, 
 being encouraged by the death of the lieutenant, and by the 
 consul's wound, could not afterward have been withstood by 
 any force, as the Romans, having been driven into their camp, 
 were again being besieged, being a match for them neither 
 in hopes nor in strength, and the very existence of the state 
 would have been imperilled, had not Titus Quinctius come 
 to their relief with foreign troops, the Latin and Hernican 
 army. He attacked the ^quans on their rear while their 
 attention was fixed on the Roman camp, and while they were 
 insultingly displaying the head of the lieutenant: and, a sally 
 being made at the same time from the camp at a signal given by 
 himself from a distance, he surrounded a large force of the 
 enemy. Of the ^quans in Roman territory the slaughter was 
 less, their flight more disorderly. As they straggled in different 
 directions, driving their plunder before them, Postumius at- 
 tacked them in several places, where he had posted bodies of 
 troops in advantageous positions. They, while straying about 
 
 ' This gate was on the west side, in the rear, farthest from the enemy ; 
 it was so called from the decumanus, a line drawn from east to west 
 which divided the camp into two halves ; see note in revised edition of 
 Prendeville's Livy. 
 
J c- LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 464-463 
 
 and pursuing their flight in great disorder, fell in with the 
 victorious Ouinctius as he was returning with the wounded 
 consul Th'^n the consular army by its distinguished bravery 
 amply avenged the consul's wound, and the death of the lieu- 
 tenant and the slaughter of 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, so as to 
 inspire conviction, the exact number of those who fought or 
 fell: Antias Valerius, however, ventures to give an estimate 
 of the numbers: that in the Hernican territory there fell five 
 thousand eight hundred Romans; that of the predatory par- 
 ties of the yEquans, who strayed through the Roman frontiers 
 for the purpose of plundering, two thousand four hundred 
 were slain by the consul Aulus Postumius; that the rest of 
 the body which fell in with Quinctius while driving its booty 
 before them, by no means got off with a loss equally small: 
 of these he asserts that four thousand, and by way of stating 
 the number exactly, two hundred and thirty were slain. After 
 their return to Rome, the cessation of business was aban- 
 doned. The sky seemed to be all ablaze with fire; and other 
 prodigies either actually presented themselves before men's 
 eyes, or exhibited imaginary appearances to their affrighted 
 minds. To avert these terrors, a solemn festival for three 
 days was proclaimed, during which all the shrines were filled 
 with a crowd of men and women, earnestly imploring the 
 favour of the gods. After this the Latin and Hernican co- 
 horts were sent back to their respective homes, after they 
 had been thanked by the senate for their spirited conduct in 
 war. The thousand soldiers from Antium were dismissed 
 almost with disgrace, because they had come after the battle 
 too late to render assistance. 
 
 The elections were then held: Lucius ^^ibutius and Pub- 
 lius Servilius were elected consuls, and entered on their office 
 on the calends of August,^ according to the practice of be- 
 ginning the year on that date. It was an unhealthy season, 
 and it so happened that the year ^ was pestilential to the city 
 and country, and not more to men than to cattle ; and they 
 themselves increased the severity of the disease by admitting 
 the cattle and the peasants into the city in consequence of their 
 dread of devastation. This collection of animals of every kind 
 
 ' August 1st. 
 
 ' The consular year, not the civil one, which began in January : the 
 time at which the consuls entered upon office varied very much until B. c, 
 153, when it was finally settled that the date of their doing so should be 
 January 1st. 
 
B.C. 463-462] PESTILENCE AT ROME 1 55 
 
 mingled together both distressed the inhabitants of the city 
 by the unusual stench, and also the peasants, crowded to- 
 gether into their confined dwellings, by heat and want of 
 sleep, while their attendance on each other, and actual con- 
 tact helped to spread disease. While they were hardly able 
 to endure the calamities that pressed upon them, ambassadors 
 from the Hernicans suddenly brought word that the ^quans 
 and Volscians had united their forces, and pitched their camp 
 in their territory: that from thence they were devastating 
 their frontiers with an immense army. In addition to the 
 fact that the small attendance of the senate was a proof to the 
 allies that the state was prostrated by the pestilence, they fur- 
 ther received this melancholy answer: That the Hernicans, as 
 well as the Latins, must now defend their possessions by their 
 own unaided exertions. That the city of Rome, through the 
 sudden anger of the gods, was ravaged by disease. If any 
 relief from that calamity should arise, that they would afiford 
 aid to their allies, as they had done the year before, and always 
 on other occasions. The allies departed, carrying home, in- 
 stead of the melancholy news they had brought, news still 
 more melancholy, seeing that they were now obliged to sus- 
 tain by their own resources a war, which they would have 
 with difficulty sustained even if backed by the power of Rome. 
 The enemy no longer confined themselves to the Hernican 
 territory. They proceeded thence with determined hostility 
 into the Roman territories, which were already devastated 
 without the injuries of war. There, without any one meeting 
 them, not even an unarmed person, they passed through en- 
 tire tracts destitute not only of troops, but even uncultivated, 
 and reached the third milestone on the Gabinian road.^ iEbu- 
 tius, the Roman consul, was dead: his colleague, Servilius, 
 was dragging out his life with slender hope of recovery; most 
 of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, nearly all 
 those of military age, were stricken down with disease, so that 
 they not only had not sufficient strength for the expeditions, 
 which amid such an alarm the state of affairs required, but 
 scarcely even for quietly mounting guard. Those senators, 
 whose age and health permitted them, personally discharged 
 the duty of sentinels. The patrol and general supervision was 
 assigned to the plebeian aediles: on them devolved the chief 
 conduct of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority. 
 The commonwealth thus desolate, since it was without 
 a head, and without strength, was saved by the guardian gods 
 and good fortune of the city, which inspired the Volscians 
 
 ' Called "Via Praenestina " beyond Gabii. 
 
156 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 462 
 
 and ^quans with the disposition of freebooters rather than 
 of enemies; for so far were their minds from entertammg 
 any hope not only of taking but even of approaching the walls 
 of Rome, and so thoroughly did the sight of the houses in the 
 distance, and the adjacent hills, divert their thoughts, that, 
 on a murmur arising throughout the entire camp — why should 
 they waste time in indolence without booty in a wild and 
 desert land, amid the pestilence engendered by cattle and 
 human beings, when they could repair to places as yet unat- 
 tacked — the Tusculan territory abounding in wealth? They 
 suddenly pulled up their standards,^ and, by cross-country 
 marches, passed through the Lavican territory to the Tusculan 
 hills : to that quarter the whole violence and storm of the war 
 was directed. In the meantime the Hernicans and Latins, in- 
 fluenced not only by compassion but by a feeling of shame, 
 if they neither opposed the common enemy who were mak- 
 ing for the city of Rome with a hostile army, nor afforded 
 any aid to their allies when besieged, marched to Rome with 
 united forces. Not finding the enemy there, they followed 
 their tracks in the direction they were reported to have taken, 
 and met them as they were coming down from Tusculan ter- 
 ritory 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 time being. The 
 havoc caused by pestilence at Rome was not less than that 
 caused by the sword among the allies: the only surviving 
 consul died, as well as other distinguished men, Marcus Va- 
 lerius, Titus Verginius Rutilus, augurs: Servius Sulpicius, 
 chief priest of the curies : ^ while among undistinguished per- 
 sons the virulence of the disease spread extensively: and the 
 senate, destitute of human aid, directed the people's atten- 
 tion to the gods and to vows: they were ordered to go and 
 offer supplications with their wives and children, and to en- 
 treat the favour of Heaven. Besides the fact that their own 
 sufferings obliged each to do so, when summoned by public 
 authority, they filled all the shrines; the prostrate matrons in 
 every quarter sweeping the temples with their hair, begged for 
 a remission of the divine displeasure, and a termination to the 
 pestilence. 
 
 From this time, whether it was that the favour of the gods 
 was obtained, or that the more unhealthful season of the year 
 
 ' That is, broke up camp, — D. O. 
 
 I The people of Rome had been divided in early times into thirty- 
 curies : each of these had an officiating priest, called curio, and the whole 
 body was under the presidency of the curio maximus. 
 
B.C. 462] ABATEMENT OF THE PLAGUE 157 
 
 was now over, the bodily condition of the people, now rid 
 of disease, gradually began to be more healthy, and their 
 attention being now directed to public concerns, after the 
 expiration of several interregna, Publius Valerius Publicola, 
 on the third day after he had entered on his office of interrex,^ 
 procured the election of Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and 
 Titus Veturius (or Vetusius) Geminus, to the consulship. 
 They entered on their consulship on the third day before the 
 ides of August,^ the state being now strong enough not only 
 to repel a hostile attack, but even to act itself on the offensive. 
 Therefore when the Hernicans announced that the enemy had 
 crossed over into their boundaries, assistance was readily 
 promised: two consular armies were enrolled. Veturius was 
 sent against the Volscians to carry on an offensive war. Tri- 
 cipitinus, being posted to protect the territory of the allies 
 from devastation, proceeded no further than into the country 
 of the Hernicans. Veturius routed and put the enemy to 
 flight in the first engagement. A party of plunderers, led over 
 the Prsenestine Mountains, and from thence sent down into 
 the plains, was unobserved by Lucretius, while he lay en- 
 camped among the Hernicans. These laid waste all the coun- 
 try around Praeneste and Gabii: from the Gabinian territory 
 they turned their course toward the heights of Tusculum; 
 great alarm was excited in the city of Rome also, more from 
 the suddenness of the afTair than because there was not suf- 
 ficient strength to repel the attack. Quintus Fabius was in 
 command of the city; he, having armed the young men and 
 posted guards, made things secure and tranquil. The enemy, 
 therefore, not venturing to approach the city, when they were 
 returning by a circuitous route, carrying off plunder from 
 the adjacent places, their caution being now more relaxed, 
 in proportion as they removed to a greater distance from the 
 enemy's city, fell in with the consul Lucretius, who had al- 
 ready reconnoitred his lines of march, and whose army was 
 drawn up in battle array and resolved upon an engagement. 
 Accordingly, having attacked them with predetermined reso- 
 lution, though with considerably inferior forces, they routed 
 and put to flight their numerous army, while smitten with 
 sudden panic, and having driven them into the deep valleys, 
 where means of egress were not easy, they surrounded them. 
 There the power of the Volscians was almost entirely anni- 
 hilated. In some annals, I find that thirteen thousand four 
 
 ' The ten leading senators held the office in rotation for five days each, 
 until the consular comitia were held. — D. O. 
 ' August nth. 
 
158 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 462 
 
 hundred and seventy fell in battle and in flight, that one thou- 
 sand seven hundred and fifty were taken alive, that twenty- 
 seven military standards were captured: and although in these 
 accounts there may have been some exaggeration in regard 
 to numbers, undoubtedly great slaughter took place. The 
 victorious consul, having obtained immense booty, returned 
 to his former standing camp. Then the consuls joined camps. 
 The Volscians and yEquans also united their shattered 
 strength. This was the third battle in that year; the same 
 good fortune gave them victory; the enemy was routed, and 
 their camp taken. 
 
 Thus the affairs of Rome returned to their former condi- 
 tion; and successes abroad immediately excited commotions 
 in the city. Gaius Terentilius Harsa was tribune of the people 
 in that year: he, considering that an opportunity was afforded 
 for tribunician intrigues during the absence of the consuls, 
 began, after railing against the arrogance of the patricians for 
 several days before the people, to inveigh chiefly against the 
 consular authority, as being excessive and intolerable for a 
 free state: for that in name only was it less hateful, in reality 
 it was almost more cruel than the authority of the kings: that 
 forsooth in place of one, two masters had been accepted, with 
 unbounded and unlimited power, who, themselves unre- 
 strained and unbridled, directed all the terrors of the law, and 
 all kinds of punishments against the commons. Now, in order 
 that their unbounded license might not last forever, he would 
 bring forward a law that five persons be appointed to draw 
 up laws regarding the consular power, by which the consul 
 should use that right which the people should have given 
 him over them, not considering their own caprice and license 
 as law. Notice having been given of this law, as the pa- 
 tricians were afraid, lest, in the absence of the consuls, they 
 should be subjected to the yoke, the senate was convened 
 by Quintus Fabius, prefect of the city, who inveighed so ve- 
 hemently against the bill and its proposer that no kind of 
 threats or intimidation was omitted by him, which both the 
 consuls could supply, even though they surrounded the trib- 
 une in all their exasperation : That he had lain in wait, and, 
 having seized a favourable opportunity, had made an attack 
 on the commonwealth. If the gods in their anger had given 
 them any tribune like him in the preceding year, during the 
 pestilence and war, it could not have been endured: that, 
 when both the consuls were dead, and the state prostrate and 
 enfeebled, in the midst of the general confusion he would have 
 proposed laws to abolish the consular government altogether 
 
B. C. 46i] THE TERENTILIAN LAW Ijg 
 
 from the state; that he would have headed the Volscians and 
 jEquans in an attack on the city. What? if the consuls be- 
 haved in a tyrannical or cruel manner against any of the citi- 
 zens, was it not open to him to appoint a day of trial for them, 
 to arraign them before those very judges against any one of 
 whom severity might have been exercised? That he by his 
 conduct was rendering, not the consular authority, but the 
 tribunician power hateful and insupportable: which, after 
 having been in a state of peace, and on good terms with the 
 patricians, was now being brought back anew to its former 
 mischievous practices: nor did he beg of him not to proceed 
 as he had begun. " Of you, the other tribunes," said Fa- 
 bius, " we beg, that you will first of all consider that that 
 power was appointed 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 distress- 
 ing, 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, to be then discussed afresh: even the ^quans 
 and the Volscians, when our consuls were carried off by pesti- 
 lence last year, did not harass us with a cruel and tyrannical 
 war." The tribunes conferred with Terentilius, 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 Martins, so that each person 
 might, for the space of three days, recognise what belonged 
 to him and carry it away; the remainder, for which no owners 
 were forthcoming, was sold. A triumph was by universal 
 consent due to the consul: but the matter was deferred, as 
 the tribune again urged 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 last the 
 tribune yielded to the majesty of the consul, and desisted; then 
 their due honour was paid to the general and his army. He 
 triumphed over the Volscians and ^quans: his troops fol- 
 lowed him in his triumph. The other consul was allowed to 
 enter the city in ovation ^ unaccompanied by his soldiers. 
 
 In the following year the Terentilian law, being brought 
 forward again by the entire college, engaged the serious at- 
 tention of the new consuls, who were Publius Volumnius and 
 
 ' A lesser form of triumph. 
 
l6o Livrs ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 461 
 
 Sei^'ius Sulpicius. In that year the sky seemed to be on fire, 
 and a violent earthquake took place: it ^vas believed that an 
 ox spoke, a phenomenon which had not been credited in the 
 previous vear: among other prodigies there was a shower ot 
 flesh, which a large flock of birds is said to have earned off 
 bv pecking at the falling pieces: that which fell to the ground 
 is said to have lain scattered about just as it was for several 
 days without becoming tainted. The books were consulted ^ 
 bv the duumviri for sacred rites: dangers of attacks to be 
 made on the highest parts of the city, and of consequent blood- 
 shed, were predicted as threatening from an assemblage of 
 strangers; among other things, admonition was given that 
 all intestine disturbances should be abandoned.- The tnbunes 
 alleged that that was done to obstruct the law, and a desper- 
 ate contest was at hand. 
 
 On a sudden, however, that the same order of events might 
 be renewed each vear, the Hernicans announced that the 
 \'olscians and the '.^Iquans, in spite of their strength being 
 much impaired, were recruiting their armies : that the centre 
 of events was situated at Antium; that the colonists of An- 
 tium openly held councils at Ecetra : that there was the head 
 — there was the strength — of the war. As soon as this an- 
 nouncement was made in the senate, a levy was proclaimed: 
 the consuls were commanded to divide the management of the 
 war between them; that the \"olscians should be the sphere 
 of action of the one, the .iiquans of the other. The tribunes 
 loudly declared openly in the forum that the story of the \'ol- 
 scian'war was nothing but a got-up farce: that the Hernicans 
 had been trained to act their parts: that the liberty of the 
 Roman people was now not even crushed by manly elTorts, 
 but was baffled by cunning; because it was now no longer 
 believed that the Volscians and the yEquans who were almost 
 utterly annihilated, could of themselves begin 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, in 
 reality waged with the commons of Rome, whom, loaded with 
 arms, they were determined to drive out of the city with pre- 
 cipitous haste, wreaking their vengeance on the tribunes by 
 the exile and expulsion of their fellow-citizens. That by these 
 
 ' The Sibylline books, supposed to haA'e been sold to Tarquinius Su- 
 perbus by the Sibyl of Cumae : they were written in Greek hexameter 
 verses. In times of emergency and distress they were consulted and in- 
 terpreted by special priests (the duumviri here mentioned). 
 
 - It will be frequently observed that the patricians utilized their mo- 
 nopoly of religious offices to effect their own ends. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 461] OBSTRUCTION OF THE LAW 161 
 
 means — and let them not think that there was any other ob- 
 ject contemplated — the law was defeated, unless, while the 
 matter was still in abeyance, while they were still at home 
 and in the garb of citizens, they took precautions, so as to 
 avoid being driven out of possession of the city, or being 
 subjected to the yoke. If they only had spirit, 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, in the preceding year, that their lib- 
 erty could be defended with safety. Thus spoke the tribunes. 
 But, on the other side, the consuls, having placed their 
 chairs '■ within view of them, were holding the levy ; thither 
 the tribunes hastened down, and carried the assembly along 
 with them ; a few ^ were summoned, as it were, by way of 
 making an experiment, and instantly violence ensued. Whom- 
 soever the lictor laid hold of by order of the consul, him the 
 tribune ordered to be released; nor did his own proper juris- 
 diction set a limit to each, but they rested their hopes on 
 force, and whatever they set their mind upon, was to be 
 gained by violence. Just as the tribunes had behaved in im- 
 peding the levy, in the same manner did the consuls conduct 
 themselves in obstructing the law which was brought for- 
 ward on each assembly day. The beginning of the riot was, 
 that the patricians refused to allow themselves to be moved 
 away, when the tribunes ordered the people to proceed to 
 give their vote. Scarcely any of the older citizens mixed 
 themselves up in the affair, inasmuch as it was one that would 
 not be directed by prudence, but was entirely abandoned to 
 temerity and daring. The consuls also frequently kept out 
 of the way, lest in the general confusion they might expose 
 their dignity to insult. There was one Cseso Quinctius, a 
 youth who prided himself both on the nobility of his descent, 
 and his bodily stature and strength; to these endowments be- 
 stowed on him by the gods, he himself had added many brave 
 deeds in war, and elocjuence in the forum; so that no one in 
 the state was considered readier either in speech or action. 
 When he had taken his place in the midst of a body of the 
 patricians, pre-eminent above the rest, carrying as it were 
 in his eloquence and bodily strength dictatorships and con- 
 sulships combined, he alone withstood the storms of the trib- 
 unes 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, came ofif ill-treated and 
 stripped: so that it became quite clear that, if he were allowed 
 
 ' Curule chairs of office. ' That is, recruits. — D. O. 
 
 II 
 
l62 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 461 
 
 to proceed in this way, the law was as good as defeated. 
 Then, when the other tribunes were now almost thrown into 
 despair, Aulus Verginius, one of the college, appointed a day 
 for Caeso to take his trial on a capital charge. By this pro- 
 ceeding he rather irritated than intimidated his violent tem- 
 per: so much the more vigorously did he oppose the law, 
 harass the commons, and persecute the tribunes, as if in a 
 regular war. The accuser suffered the accused to rush head- 
 long to his ruin, and to fan the flame of odium and supply 
 material for the charges he intended to bring against him: in 
 the meantime he proceeded with the law, not so much in the 
 hope of carrying it through, as with the object of provoking 
 rash action on the part of Caeso. After that many inconsiderate 
 expressions and actions of the younger patricians were put 
 down to the temper of Cseso alone, owing to the suspicion 
 with which he was regarded: still the law was resisted. Also 
 Aulus Verginius frequently remarked to the people: "Are 
 you now sensible, Quirites, that you can not at the same time 
 have Cseso as a fellow-citizen, and the law which you desire? 
 Though why do I speak of the law? he is a hindrance to your 
 liberty; he surpasses all the Tarcjuins in arrogance. Wait 
 till that man is made consul or dictator, whom, though but a 
 private citizen, you now see exercising kingly power by his 
 strength and audacity." Many agreed, complaining that they 
 had been beaten by him: and, moreover, urged the tribune 
 to go through with the prosecution. 
 
 The day of trial was now at hand, and it was evident that 
 people in general considered that their liberty depended on 
 the condemnation of Caeso: then, at length being forced to 
 do so, he solicited the commons individually, though with a 
 strong feeling of indignation; his relatives and the principal 
 men of the state attended him. Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, 
 who had been thrice consul, recounting many splendid 
 achievements of his own, and of his family, declared that nei- 
 ther in the Ouinctian family, nor in the Roman state, had 
 there ever appeared such a promising genius displaying such 
 early valour. That he himself was the first under whom he 
 had served, that he had often in his sight fought against the 
 enemy. Spurius Furius declared that Caeso, having been sent 
 to him by Quinctius Capitolinus, had come to his aid when in 
 the midst of danger; that there was no single individual by 
 whose exertions he considered the common weal had been 
 more effectually re-established. Lucius Lucretius, the consul 
 of the preceding year, in the full splendour of recent glory, 
 shared his own meritorious services with Caeso; he recounted 
 
B. C. 461] TRIAL OF CyESO 163 
 
 his battles, detailed his distinguished exploits, both in ex- 
 peditions and in pitched battle; he recommended and ad- 
 vised them to choose rather that a youth so distinguished, 
 endowed with all the advantages of nature and fortune, and 
 one who would prove the greatest support of whatsoever state 
 he should visit, should continue to be a fellow-citizen of their 
 own, rather than become the citizen of a foreign state: that 
 with respect to those qualities which gave offence in him, hot- 
 headedness and overboldness, they were such as increasing 
 years removed more and more every day : that what was lack- 
 ing, prudence, increased day by day; that as his faults de- 
 clined, and his virtues ripened, they should allow so distin- 
 guished a man to grow old in the state. Among these his 
 father, Lucius Quinctius, who bore the surname of Cincin- 
 natus, without dwelling too often on his services, so as not 
 to heighten public hatred, but soliciting pardon for his youth- 
 ful errors, implored them to forgive his son for his sake, who 
 had not given offence to any either by word or deed. But 
 while some, through respect or fear, turned away from his 
 entreaties, others, by the harshness of their answer, complain- 
 ing that they and their friends had been ill-treated, made no 
 secret of what their decision would be. 
 
 Independently of the general odium, one charge in par- 
 ticular bore heavily on the accused; that Marcus Volscius 
 Fictor, who some years before had been tribune of the people, 
 had come forward to bear testimony: that not long after the 
 pestilence had raged in the city, he had fallen in with a party 
 of young men rioting in the Subura ; ^ that a scuffle had taken 
 place: and that his elder brother, not yet perfectly recovered 
 from his illness, had been knocked down by Caeso with a blow 
 of his fist: that he had been carried home half dead in the 
 arms of some bystanders, and that he was ready to declare 
 that he had died from the blow: and that he had not been 
 permitted by the consuls of former years to obtain redress for 
 such an atrocious affair. In consequence of Volscius vocif- 
 erating these charges, the people became so excited that Caeso 
 was near being killed through the violence of the crowd. Ver- 
 ginius ordered him to be seized and dragged off to prison. 
 The patricians opposed force to force. Titus Quinctius ex- 
 claimed that a person for whom a day of trial for a capital 
 offence had been appointed, and whose trial was now close 
 at hand, ought not to be outraged before he was condemned, 
 
 ' The worst quarter of the city — its Whitechapel, as it were. It lay, 
 roughly speaking, from the Forum eastward along the valley between 
 the Esquiline and Viminal Hills. — D. O. 
 
l64 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 461 
 
 and without a hearing. The tribune replied that he would not 
 inflict punishment on him before he was condemned: that he 
 would, however, keep him in prison until the day of trial, that 
 the Roman people might have an opportunity of inflicting 
 punishment on one who had killed a man.^ The tribunes 
 being appealed to, got themselves out of the difficulty in re- 
 gard to their prerogative of rendering aid, by a resolution 
 that adopted a middle course: they forbade his being thrown 
 into confinement, and declared it to be their wish that the ac- 
 cused should be brought to trial, and that a sum of money 
 should be promised to the people, in case he should not ap- 
 pear. How large a sum of money ought to be promised was 
 a matter of doubt: the decision was accordingly referred to 
 the senate. The accused was detained in public custody until 
 the patricians should be consulted: it was decided that bail 
 should be given: they bound each surety in the sum of three 
 thousand asses; how many sureties should be given was left 
 to the tribunes; they fixed the number at ten: on this num- 
 ber of sureties the prosecutor admitted the accused to bail.^ 
 He was the first who gave public sureties. Being discharged 
 from the forum, he went the following night into exile among 
 the Tuscans. When on the day of trial it was pleaded that he 
 had withdrawn into voluntary exile, nevertheless, at a meet- 
 ing of the comitia under the presidency of Verginius, his col- 
 leagues, when appealed to, dismissed the assembly : ' the fine 
 was rigorously exacted from his father, so that, having sold 
 all his effects, he lived for a considerable time in an out-of- 
 the-way cottage on the other side of the Tiber, as if in exile. 
 This trial and the proposal of the law gave full employ- 
 ment to the state : in regard to foreign wars there was peace. 
 When the tribunes, as if victorious, imagined that the law was 
 all but passed owing to the dismay of the patricians at the 
 banishment of Cseso, and in fact, as far as regarded the seniors 
 of the patricians, they had relinquished all share in the admin- 
 istration of the commonwealth, the juniors, more especially 
 those who were the intimate friends of Caeso, redoubled their 
 resentful feelings against the commons, and did not allow their 
 spirits to fail ; but the greatest improvement was made in 
 this particular, that they tempered their animosity by a certain 
 degree of moderation. The first time when, after Cseso's ban- 
 ishment, the law began to be brought forward, these, arrayed 
 
 ' That is, to insure punishment and practically abnegate the right an 
 accused person had of escaping sentence by voluntary exile. — D. O. 
 ' Perhaps the first bail-bond historically noted. — D. O. 
 ' That is, refused to accept the plea. 
 
B. C. 46o] SEIZURE OF THE CAPITOL 165 
 
 and well prepared, with a numerous body of clients, so attacked 
 the tribunes, as soon as they afforded a pretext for it by at- 
 tempting to remove them, that no one individual carried home 
 from thence a greater share than another, either of glory 
 or ill-will, but the people complained that in place of one 
 Caeso a thousand had arisen. During the days that intervened, 
 when the tribunes took no proceedings regarding the law, 
 nothing could be more mild or peaceable than those same 
 persons ; they saluted the plebeians courteously, entered into 
 conversation with them, and invited them home : they attend- 
 ed them in the forum, ^ and suffered the tribunes themselves 
 to hold the rest of their meetings without interruption: they 
 were never discourteous to any one either in public or in 
 private, except on occasions when the matter of the law be- 
 gan to be agitated. In other respects 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 even an offensive expression, 
 much less any violence being employed, but by soothing and 
 carefully managing the commons the young patricians gradu- 
 ally rendered them tractable. By these artifices the law was 
 evaded through the entire year. 
 
 The consuls Gaius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Pub- 
 lius Valerius Publicola, took over the government from their 
 predecessors in a more tranquil condition. The next year had 
 brought with it nothing new : thoughts about carrying the 
 law, or submitting to it, engrossed the attention of the state. 
 The more the younger patricians strove to insinuate themselves 
 into favour with the plebeians, the more strenuously did the 
 tribunes strive on the other hand to render them suspicious 
 in the eyes of the commons by alleging that a conspiracy had 
 been formed; that Cseso was in Rome; that plans had been 
 concerted for assassinating the tribunes, for butchering the 
 commons. That the commission assigned by the elder mem- 
 bers of the patricians was, that the young men should abolish 
 the tribunician power from the state, and the form of govern- 
 ment should be the same as it had been before the occupation 
 of the Sacred Mount. At the same time a war from the Vol- 
 scians and yEquans, which had now become a fixed and almost 
 regular occurrence every year, was apprehended, and another 
 evil nearer home started up unexpectedly. Exiles and slaves, 
 to the number of two thousand five hundred, seized the 
 Capitol and citadel during the night, under the command of 
 Appius Herdonius, a Sabine. Those who refused to join the 
 
 ' That is, defended them in court. 
 
1 66 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 460 
 
 conspiracy and take up arms with them, were immediately 
 massacred in the citadel : others, during the disturbance, fled 
 in headlong panic down to the forum: the cries, " To arms! ' 
 and ■' The enemy are in the city! " were heard alternately. The 
 consuls neither dared to arm the commons, nor to suffer them 
 to remain unarmed ; uncertain what sudden calamity had as- 
 sailed the city, whether from without or within, whether aris- 
 ing from the hatred of the commons or the treachery of the 
 slaves : they tried to quiet the disturbances, and while trying 
 to do so they sometimes aroused them; for the populace, 
 panic-stricken and terrified, could not be directed by authority. 
 They gave out arms, however, but not indiscriminately ; only 
 so that, as it was yet uncertain who the enemy were, there 
 might be a protection sufficiently reliable to meet all emergen- 
 cies. The remainder of the night they passed in posting 
 guards in suitable places throughout the city, anxious and un- 
 certain who the enemy were, and how great their number. 
 Daylight subsequently disclosed the war and its leader. Ap- 
 pius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from the Capi- 
 tol, saying, that he had espoused the cause of all the most 
 unfortunate, in order to bring back to their country those who 
 had been exiled and driven out by wrong, 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 were 
 no hope in that quarter, he would rouse the Volscians and 
 ^Equans, and would try even the most desperate remedies. 
 
 The whole affair now began to be clearer to the patricians 
 and consuls ; besides the news, however, which was officially 
 announced, they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the 
 Veientines or Sabines ; and, further, as there were so many of 
 the enemy in the city, lest the Sabine and Etruscan troops 
 might presently come up according to a concerted plan, and 
 their inveterate enemies, the Volscians and ^quans should 
 come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but even to the 
 gates of the city, as being already in part taken. Many and 
 various were their fears, the most prominent among which 
 was their dread of the slaves, lest each should harbour an 
 enemy in his own house, one whom it was neither sufficiently 
 safe to trust, nor, by distrusting, to pronounce unworthy of 
 confidence, lest he might prove a more deadly foe. And it 
 scarcely seemed that the evil could be resisted by harmony: no 
 one had any fear of tribunes or commons, while other troubles 
 so predominated and threatened to swamp the state: that fear 
 seemed an evil of a mild nature, and one that always arose 
 during the cessation of other ills, and then appeared to be lulled 
 
B. C. 46o] SPEECH OF VALERIUS 167 
 
 to rest by external alarm. Yet at the present time that, almost 
 more than anything else, weighed heavily on their sinking for- 
 tunes: for such madness took possession of the tribunes, that 
 they contended that not war, but an empty appearance of war, 
 had taken possession of the Capitol, to divert the people's minds 
 from attending to the law; that these friends and clients of the 
 patricians would depart in deeper silence than they had come, 
 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 arms. In 
 the meantime, the consuls convened the senate, another dread 
 presenting itself by the action of the tribunes, greater than that 
 which the nightly foe had occasioned. 
 
 When it was announced that the men were laying aside 
 their arms, and quitting their posts, Publius Valerius, while 
 his colleague still detained the senate, hastened from the sen- 
 ate-house, and went thence into the meeting-place to the trib- 
 unes. " What is all this," said he, " O tribunes? Are you de- 
 termined to overthrow the commonwealth under the guidance 
 and auspices of Appius Herdonius? Has he been so success- 
 ful in corrupting you, he who, by his authority, has not even 
 influenced your slaves ? When the enemy is over our heads, 
 is it your pleasure that we should give up our arms, and laws 
 be proposed?" Then, directing his words to the populace: 
 " If, Ouirites, no concern for your city, or for yourselves, 
 moves you, at least revere the gods of your country, now made 
 captive by the enemy. Jupiter, best and greatest, Queen 
 Juno, and Minerva, and the other gods and goddesses,^ are 
 being besieged ; a camp of slaves now holds possession of the 
 tutelary gods of the state. Does this seem to you the be- 
 haviour 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 meanwhile meetings are being 
 held in the forum, the senate is in the senate-house : just as 
 when tranquility prevails, the senator gives his opinion, the 
 other Romans their votes. Does it not behoove all patricians 
 and plebeians, consuls, tribunes, gods, and men of all classes, 
 to bring aid with arms in their hands, to hurry into the Capitol, 
 to liberate and restore to peace that most august residence of 
 Jupiter, best and greatest ? O Father Romulus ! do thou in- 
 spire thy progeny with that determination of thine, by which 
 thou didst formerly recover from these same Sabines this cita- 
 
 ' The Temple of Jupiter in the Capitol was divided into three parts : 
 the middle was sacred to Jupiter, the right to Minerva, the left to Juno. 
 By the " other gods " are meant Terminus, Fides, Juventas. 
 
l68 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 460 
 
 del, when captured by gold. Order them to pursue this same 
 path, which thou, as leader, and thy army, pursued. Lo ! I, as 
 consul, will be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far 
 as I, a mortal, can follow a god." Then, in concluding his 
 speech, he said that he was ready to take up arms, that he 
 summoned every citizen of Rome to arms ; if any one sliould 
 oppose, that he, heedless of the consular authority, the tribuni- 
 cian power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an 
 enemy, whoever and wheresoever he might be, in the Capi- 
 tol, or in the forum. Let the tribunes order arms to be taken 
 up against Publius Valerius the consul, since they forbade it 
 against Appius Herdonius ; that he would dare to act in the 
 case of the tribunes, as the founder of his family ^ had dared to 
 act in the case of the kings. It was now clear that matters 
 would come to violent extremities, and that a quarrel among 
 Romans would be exhibited to the enemy. The law, however, 
 could neither be carried, nor could the consul proceed to the 
 Capitol. Night put an end to the struggle that had been 
 begun ; the tribunes yielded to the night, dreading the arms 
 of the consuls.^ When the ringleaders of the disturbances had 
 been removed, the patricians went about among the commons, 
 and, mingling in their meetings, spread statements suited to 
 the occasion : they advised them to take heed into what danger 
 they were bringing the commonwealth : that the contest was 
 not one between 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. While these measures 
 were being taken in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the 
 disturbances, the consuls in the meantime had retired to visit 
 the gates and the walls, fearing that the Sabines or the Veien- 
 tine enemy might bestir themselves. 
 
 During the same night, messengers reached Tusculum with 
 news of the capture of the citadel, the seizure of the Capitol, 
 and also of the generally disturbed condition of the city. Lu- 
 cius Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tusculum ; he, hav- 
 ing immediately convoked the senate and introduced the mes- 
 sengers, earnestly advised, that they should not wait until 
 ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance ; that the 
 danger itself and importance of the crisis, the gods of allies, 
 and the good faith of treaties, demanded it; that the gods 
 would never afford them a like opportunity of obliging so 
 powerful a state and so near a neighbour. It was resolved that 
 
 ' Publicola, the father of Brutus. 
 
 * That is, personal violence from the young patricians. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 460] RECOVERY OF THE CAPITOL 169 
 
 assistance should be sent : the young men were enrolled, and 
 arms given them. On their way to Rome at break of day, at 
 a distance they exhibited the appearance of enemies. The 
 ^quans or Volscians were thought to be coming. Then, 
 after the groundless alarm was removed, they were admitted 
 into the city, and descended in a body into the forum. There 
 Publius Valerius, having left his colleague with the guards of 
 the gates, was now drawing up his forces in order of battle. 
 The great influence of the man produced an effect on the peo- 
 ple, when he declared that, when the Capitol was recovered, 
 and the city restored to peace, if they allowed themselves to be 
 convinced what hidden guile was contained in the law pro- 
 posed by the tribunes, he, mindful of his ancestors, mindful 
 of his surname, and remembering that the duty of protect- 
 ing the people had been handed down to him as hereditary by 
 his ancestors, would offer no obstruction to the meeting of the 
 people. Following him, as their leader, in spite of the fruitless 
 opposition of the tribunes, they marched up the ascent of the 
 Capitoline Hill. The Tusculan troops also joined them. Al- 
 lies and citizens vied with each other as to which of them 
 should appropriate to themselves the honour of recovering the 
 citadel. Each leader encouraged his own men. Then the 
 enemy began to be alarmed, and placed no dependence on any- 
 thing but their position. While they were in this state of 
 alarm, the Romans and allies advanced to attack them. They 
 had already burst into the porch of the temple, when Publius 
 Valerius was slain while cheering on 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 
 himself rushed forward to take the place and duty of the con- 
 sul. Owing to their excitement and impetuosity, this great 
 misfortune passed unnoticed by the soldiers ; they conquered 
 before they perceived that they were fighting without a leader. 
 Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood ; many 
 were taken prisoners : Herdonius was slain. Thus the Capi- 
 tol was recovered. With respect to the prisoners, punishment 
 was inflicted on each according to his station, as he was a free- 
 man or a slave. The Tusculans received the thanks of the 
 Romans : the Capitol was cleansed and purified. The com- 
 mons are stated to have thrown every man a farthing into the 
 consul's house, that he might be buried with more splendid 
 obsequies. 
 
 Order being thus established, the tribunes then urged the 
 patricians to fulfil the promise given by Publius Valerius; 
 they pressed on Claudius to free the shade of his colleague 
 
IjQ LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 460 
 
 from breach of faith, and to allow the matter of the law to 
 proceed. The consul asserted that he would not suffer the 
 discussion of the law to proceed, until he had appointed a col- 
 league to assist him. These disputes lasted until the time of 
 the elections for the substitution of a consul. In the month of 
 December, by the most strenuous exertions of the patricians, 
 Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, C^so's father, was elected con- 
 sul, to enter upon office without delay. The commons were 
 dismayed at being about to have for consul a man incensed 
 against them, powerful by the support of the patricians, by his 
 own merit, and by reason of his three sons, not one of whom 
 was inferior to Cseso in greatness of spirit, while they were his 
 superiors in the exercise of prudence and moderation, whenever 
 occasion required. When he entered upon office, in his fre- 
 quent harangues from the tribunal, he was not more vehe- 
 ment in restraining the commons than in reproving the senate, 
 owing to the listlessness of which body the tribunes of the com- 
 mons, now become a standing institution, exercised regal au- 
 thority, by means of their readiness of speech and prosecutions, 
 not as if in a republic of the Roman people, but as if in an 
 ill-regulated household. That with his son C^so, valour, 
 constancy, all the splendid qualifications of youth in war and 
 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 by the vilest intrigues, lived in 
 the enjoyment of regal irresponsibility. " Does that Aulus 
 Verginius," said he, " deserve less punishment than Appius 
 Herdonius, because he was not in the Capitol? considerably 
 more, by Hercules, if any one will look at the matter fairly. 
 Herdonius, if nothing else, by avowing himself an enemy, 
 thereby as good as 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 the attack of slaves and exiles. 
 And did you — I will speak with all due respect for Gaius Clau- 
 dius and Publius Valerius, now no more — did you decide to ad- 
 vance against the Capitoline Hill before you expelled those ene- 
 mies from the forum? I feel ashamed in the sight of gods and 
 men. When the enemy were in the citadel, in the Capitol, when 
 the leader of the exiles and slaves, after profaning everything, 
 took up his residence in the shrine of Jupiter, best and greatest, 
 arms were taken up at Tusculum sooner than at Rome. It 
 was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the Tusculan 
 leader, or Publius Valerius and Gaius Claudius, the consuls, 
 recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not 
 suffer the Latins to touch arms, not even in their own defence, 
 
B. C. 46o] THE ARMY LED OUT 171 
 
 when they had the enemy on 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? I suppose, if any one, even the 
 humblest individual of your commons — which portion you 
 have as it were broken ofT from the rest of the state, and cre- 
 ated a country and a commonwealth of your own — if any one 
 of these were to bring you word that his house was beset by 
 an armed band of slaves, you would think that assistance 
 should be afforded him : was then Jupiter, best and greatest, 
 when hemmed in by the arms of exiles and of slaves, deserving 
 of no human aid? And do these persons claim to be con- 
 sidered sacred and inviolable, to whom the gods themselves 
 are neither sacred nor inviolable? Well but, loaded as you 
 are with crimes against both gods and men, you proclaim 
 that you will pass your law this year. Verily then, on the day 
 I was created consul, it was a disastrous act of the state, much 
 more so even than the day when Publius Valerius the consul 
 fell, if you shall pass it. Now, first of ah," said he, " Quirites, 
 it is the intention of myself and of my colleague to march the 
 legions against the Volscians and the ^quans. 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 be- 
 sieged by exiles, it is better to conjecture from what is past, 
 than to learn by actual experience." 
 
 The consul's harangue had a great effect on the com- 
 mons : the patricians, recovering their spirits, believed the 
 state re-established. The other consul, a more ardent partner 
 than promoter of a measure, readily allowing his colleague to 
 take the lead in measures of such importance, claimed to him- 
 self his share of the consular duty in carrying these measures 
 into execution. Then the tribunes, mocking these declara- 
 tions as empty, went on to ask how the consuls were going to 
 lead out an army, seeing that no one would allow them to hold 
 a levy? "But," replied Quinctius, "we have no need of a 
 levy, since, at the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the com- 
 mons to recover the Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that 
 they would assemble at the command of the consul, and would 
 not depart without his permission. We therefore publish an 
 order that all of you, who have sworn, attend to-morrow 
 under arms at the Lake Regillus." The tribunes then began to 
 quibble, and wanted to absolve the people from their obliga- 
 tion, asserting that Quinctius was a private person at the 
 
J -2 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 460 
 
 time when they were bound by the oath. But that disregard 
 of the gods, which possesses the present generation, had not 
 yet gained ground : nor did every one accommodate oaths and 
 laws to his own purposes, by interpreting them as it suited 
 him, but rather adapted his own 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 earnest- 
 ly on this account, because a report had gone out, both that 
 the augurs had been ordered to attend at the Lake Regillus, 
 and that a place was to be consecrated, where business might 
 be transacted with the people by auspices : and whatever had 
 been passed at Rome by tribunician violence, might be re- 
 pealed there in the assembly.^ That all would order what the 
 consuls desired : for that there was no appeal at a greater dis- 
 tance than a mile ^ from the city : and that the tribunes, if they 
 should come there, would, like the rest of the Quirites, be sub- 
 jected to the consular authority. This alarmed them: but the 
 greatest anxiety which afifected their minds was because Quinc- 
 tius frequently declared that he would not hold an election 
 of consuls. That the malady of the state was not of an ordi- 
 nary nature, so that it could be stopped by the ordinary reme- 
 dies. That the commonwealth required a dictator, so that 
 whoever attempted to disturb the condition of the state, might 
 feel that from the dictatorship there was no appeal. 
 
 The senate was assembled in the Capitol. Thither the trib- 
 unes came with the commons in a state of great consternation : 
 the multitude, with loud clamours, implored the protection, 
 now of the consuls, now of the patricians : nor could they 
 move the consul from his determination, until the tribunes 
 promised that they would submit to the authority of the senate. 
 Then, on the consul's laying before them the demands of the 
 tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate were passed : that 
 neither should the tribunes propose the law during that year, 
 nor should the consuls lead out the army from the city — that, 
 for the future, the senate decided that it was against the in- 
 terests of the commonwealth that the same magistrates 
 should be continued and the same tribunes be reappointed. 
 The consuls conformed to the authority of the senate : the trib- 
 unes were reappointed, notwithstanding the remonstrances of 
 
 ' Their control over the auspices was a favourite weapon of the patri- 
 cians, and one which could naturally be better used at a distance from 
 Rome. The frequency of its use would seem to argue an adaptability in 
 the devotional feelings of the nobles at least, which might modify our 
 reliance upon the statement made above as to the respect for the gods 
 then prevalent in Rome. — D. O. 
 
 " This was the limit of the tribunes' authority. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 459] QUINCTIUS REFUSES THE CONSULSHIP 173 
 
 the consuls. The patricians also, that they might not yield 
 to the commons in any particular, themselves proposed to 
 re-elect Lucius Quinctius consul. No address of the consul 
 was delivered with greater warmth during the entire year. 
 " Can I be surprised," said he, " if your authority with the peo- 
 ple is held in contempt, O conscript fathers? it is you your- 
 selves who are weakening it. Forsooth, because the com- 
 mons have violated a decree of the senate, by reappointing 
 their magistrates, you yourselves also wish it to be violated, 
 that you may not be outdone by the populace in rashness ; as 
 if greater power in the state consisted in the possession of 
 greater inconstancy and liberty of action ; for it is certainly 
 more inconstant and greater folly to render null and void 
 one's own decrees and resolutions, than those of others. Do 
 you, O conscript fathers, imitate the unthinking multitude ; 
 and do you, who should be an example to others, prefer to 
 transgress by the example of others, rather than that others 
 should act rightly by yours, provided only I do not imitate the 
 tribunes, nor allow myself to be declared consul, contrary to 
 the decree of the senate. But as for you. Gains Claudius, I 
 recommend that you, as well as myself, restrain the Roman 
 people from this licentious spirit, and that you be persuaded 
 of this, as far as I am concerned, that I shall take it in such a 
 spirit, that I shall not consider that my attainment of office 
 has been obstructed by you, but that the glory of having de- 
 clined the honour has been augmented, and the odium, which 
 would threaten me if it were continued, lessened." Thereupon 
 they issued this order jointly : That no one should support 
 the election of Lucius Quinctius as consul : if any one should 
 do so, that they would not allow the vote. 
 
 The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus (for 
 the third time), and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The 
 census was taken during that year ; it was a matter of religious 
 scruple that the lustrum should be closed, on account of the 
 seizure of the Capitol and the death of the consul. In the con- 
 sulship of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius, disturbances 
 broke out immediately at the beginning of the year. The 
 tribunes were urging on the commons. The Latins and Her- 
 nicans brought word that a formidable war was threatening 
 on the part of the Volscians and ^quans ; that the troops of 
 the Volscians were now in the neighbourhood of Antium. 
 Great apprehension was also entertained, that the colony itself 
 would revolt : and with difficulty the tribunes were prevailed 
 upon to allow the war to be attended to first. The consuls 
 then divided their respective spheres of action. Fabius was 
 
174 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 459 
 
 commissioned to march the legions to Antium : to Cornelius 
 was assigned the duty of keeping guard at Rome, lest any por- 
 tion of the enemy's troops, as was the practice of the yEquans, 
 should advance to commit depredations. The Hernicans and 
 Latins were ordered to supply soldiers in accordance with the 
 treaty ; and of the army two thirds consisted of allies, the re- 
 mainder of Roman citizens. When the ahies arrived on the 
 appointed day, the consul pitched his camp outside the porta 
 Capena.^ Then, after the army had been reviewed, he set out 
 for Antium, and encamped not far from the town and fixed 
 quarters of the enemy. There, when the Volscians, not ven- 
 turing to risk an engagement, because the contingent from 
 the ^quans had not yet arrived, were making preparations to 
 see how they might protect themselves quietly within their 
 ramparts, on the following day Fabius drew up not one mixed 
 army of allies and citizens, but three bodies of the three states 
 separately around the enemy's works. He himself occupied 
 the centre with the Roman legions. He ordered them to 
 watch for the signal for action, so that at the same time both 
 the allies might begin the action together, and retire to- 
 gether if he should give orders to sound a retreat. He also 
 posted the proper cavalry of each division behind the front 
 line. Having thus assailed the camp at three different points, 
 he surrounded it : and, pressing on from every side, he dis- 
 lodged the Volscians, who were unable to withstand his attack, 
 from the rampart. Having then crossed the fortifications, he 
 drove out from the camp the crowd wlio were panic-strick- 
 en and inclining to make for one direction. Upon this the 
 cavalry, who could not have easily passed over the ram- 
 part, having stood by till then as mere spectators of the fight, 
 came up with them while fiying in disorder over the open 
 plain, and enjoyed a share of the victory, by cutting down 
 the affrighted troops. Great was the slaughter of the fugi- 
 tives, 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 the entire army would 
 have been destroyed, had not the woods covered them in 
 their flight. 
 
 While these events were taking place at Antium, the 
 .<?iquans, in the meanwhile, sending forward the flower of their 
 youth, surprised the citadel of Tusculum by night : and with 
 the rest of their army sat down at no great distance from the 
 
 ' This gate, from which at a later date the Via Appia and the Via La- 
 tina started, stood near what is now the junction of the Via S. Gregorio 
 with the Vi di Porta S. Sebastiano. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 459] RELIEF OF TUSCULUM 175 
 
 walls of Tusculum, so as to divide the forces of the enemy. ^ 
 News of this being quickly brought to Rome, and from Rome 
 to the camp at Antium, affected the Romans no less than if it 
 had been announced that the Capitol was taken ; so recent was 
 the service rendered by the Tusculans, and the very similarity 
 of the danger seemed to demand a return of the aid that had 
 been afforded. Fabius, giving up all thought of everything 
 else, removed the booty hastily from the camp to Antium : 
 and, having left a small garrison there, hurried on his army by 
 forced marches to Tusculum. The soldiers were allowed to 
 take with them nothing but their arms, and whatever baked 
 provision was at hand. The consul Cornelius sent up provi- 
 sions 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 .<5Lquans ; he had given part to the Tusculans 
 to aid in the recovery of their citadel. They could never have 
 made their way up to it by force : at length famine caused the 
 enemy to withdraw from it. When matters subsequently 
 came to extremities, they were all sent under the yoke,^ by the 
 Tusculans, unarmed and naked. While returning home in 
 ignominious flight, they were overtaken by the Roman con- 
 sul at Algidum, and cut to pieces to a man.^ After this vic- 
 tory, having marched back his army to Columen (so is the 
 place named), he pitched his camp there. The other consul 
 also, as soon as the Roman walls ceased to be in danger, now 
 that the enemy had been defeated, set out from Rome. Thus 
 the consuls, having entered the territories of the enemies on 
 two different sides, in eager rivalry plundered the territory of 
 the Volscians on the one hand, and of the ^quans on the 
 other. I find it stated by several writers that the people of 
 Antium revolted during the same year. That Lucius Corne- 
 lius, the consul, conducted that war and took the town, I 
 would not venture to assert it for certain, because no mention 
 is made of the matter in the older writers. 
 
 This war being concluded, a tribunician war at home 
 alarmed the senate. The tribunes held that the detention of 
 the army abroad was due to a fraudulent motive : that that de- 
 
 ■ By drawing part of the Roman army to the defence of the allied 
 city.— D. O. 
 
 ' Two spears were set upright and a third lashed across. To pass 
 through and under this "yoke" was, among the Italian states, the great- 
 est indignity that could be visited upon a captured army. It symbolized 
 servitude in arms. — D. O. 
 
 ' This would seem to augur some treachery, unless we are to believe 
 that only the young men taken in the citadel were sent under the yoke, 
 while the slaughter took place among the flying besiegers. — D. O. 
 
176 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 459 
 
 ception was intended to prevent the passing of the law ; that 
 they, however, would none the less go through with the matter 
 they had undertaken. Publius Lucretius, however, the pre- 
 fect 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 had also arisen. The qusestors,^ Aulus 
 Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, appointed a day of trial for 
 Marcus Volscius, because he had come forward as a mani- 
 festly false witness against Caeso. For it was established by 
 many proofs, that the brother of Volscius, from the time he 
 first fell ill, had not only never been seen in public, but that he 
 had not even left his bed after he had been attacked by illness, 
 and that he had died of a wasting disease of several months' 
 standing; and that at the time to which the witness had re- 
 ferred the commission of the crime, Caeso had not been seen 
 at Rome : while those who had served in the army with him 
 positively stated that at that time he had regularly attended at 
 his post along with them without any leave of absence. Many, 
 on their own account, proposed to Volscius to refer the matter 
 to the decision of an arbitrator. As he did not venture to go 
 to trial, all these points coinciding rendered the condemnation 
 of Volscius no less certain than that of Cjeso had been on the 
 testimony of Volscius. The tribunes were the cause of delay, 
 who said that they would not suffer the quaestors to hold the 
 assembly concerning the accused, unless it were first held con- 
 cerning 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 nothing was said about 
 the law, many thought that the tribunes were struck with dis- 
 may. But they in reality (for it was now the close of the year), 
 being eager to obtain a fourth tribuneship, had turned away 
 their efforts from the law to the discussion of the elections; 
 and when the consuls, with the object of lessening their dig- 
 nity, opposed the continuation of their tribuneship with no less 
 earnestness than if the law in question had been proposed, the 
 victory in the contest was on the side of the tribunes. 
 
 In the same year peace was granted to the ^quans on 
 their suing for it. The census, begun in the preceding year, 
 was completed : this is said to have been the tenth lustrum 
 that was completed from the date of the foundation of the 
 city. The number of citizens rated was one hundred and 
 seventeen thousand three hundred and nineteen. The consuls 
 
 ' " QufEStors," these officers are first mentioned in Book II, ch. xli : 
 in early times it appears to have been part of their duty to prosecute 
 those guilty of treason, and to carry the punishment into execution. 
 
B. C. 458] AMBASSADORS TO THE ^QUANS 177 
 
 obtained great glory this year both at home and in war, be- 
 cause they estabhshed peace abroad, while at home, though 
 the state was not in a condition of absolute harmony, yet it 
 was less harassed by dissensions than at other times. 
 
 Lucius Minucius and Gains Nautius being next elected 
 consuls, took up the two causes which remained undecided 
 from the preceding year. As before, the consuls obstructed 
 the law, the tribunes the trial of Volscius : but in the new 
 qujestors there was greater power and greater influence. 
 With Marcus Valerius, son of Manius and grandson of Vole- 
 sus, Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, who had been thrice consul, 
 was appointed quaestor. Since Cffiso could neither be restored 
 to the Quinctian family, nor to the state, though a most prom- 
 ising youth, 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 Verginius, more than any 
 of the tribunes, busied himself about the passing of the law, 
 the space of two months was allowed the consuls to examine 
 into the law : on condition 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 of 
 this respite established tranquility in the city. The yEquans, 
 however, did not allow them long rest : in violation of the 
 treaty which had been made with the Romans the year before, 
 they conferred the chief command on Gracchus Cloelius. He 
 was then by far the chief man among the yEquans. Under 
 the command of Gracchus they advanced with hostile depre- 
 dations into the district of Labici, from thence into that of 
 Tusculum, and, laden with booty, pitched their camp at Algi- 
 dum. To that camp came Quintus Fabius, Publius Volum- 
 nius, Aulus Postumius, ambassadors from Rome, _ to _ corn- 
 plain of the wrongs committed, and to demand restitution in 
 accordance with the treaty. The general of the Jiquans com- 
 manded them to deliver to the oak the message they brought 
 from the Roman senate; that he in the meantime would at- 
 tend to other matters. An oak, a mighty tree, whose shade 
 formed a cool resting-place, overhung the general's tent. 
 Then one of the ambassadors, when departing, cried out: 
 " Let both this consecrated oak and all the gods hear that the 
 treaty has been broken by you, and both lend a favourable ear 
 to our complaints now, and assist our arms presently, when we 
 shall avenge the rights of gods and men that have been vio- 
 lated simultaneously." As soon as the ambassadors returned 
 to Rome, the senate ordered one of the consuls to lead his 
 
 ' Evidently a new pretext for delay. — D. O. 
 
178 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 458 
 
 army into Algidum against Gracchus, to the other they as- 
 signed as his sphere of action the devastation of the country of 
 the jEquans. The tribunes, after their usual manner, attempt- 
 ed to obstruct the levy, and probably would have eventually 
 succeeded in doing so, had not a new and additional cause of 
 alarm suddenly arisen. 
 
 A large force of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation, 
 advanced almost up to the walls of the city. The fields were 
 laid waste, the city was smitten with terror. Then the com- 
 mons cheerfully took up arms ; two large armies were raised, 
 the remonstrances of the tribunes being of no avail. Nautius 
 led one against the Sabines, and, having pitched his camp at 
 Eretum,^ by trifling incursions, mostly by night, he so deso- 
 lated the Sabine territory that, in comparison with it, the Ro- 
 man borders seemed almost undamaged by the war. Minu- 
 cius neither had the same good fortune nor displayed the same 
 energy in conducting his operations : for after he had pitched 
 his camp at no great distance from the enemy, without hav- 
 ing experienced any reverse of importance, he kept himself 
 through fear within the camp. When the enemy perceived 
 this, their boldness increased, as usually happens, from the 
 fears of others ; and, having attacked his camp by night, when 
 open force availed little, they drew lines of circumvallation 
 around it on the following day. Before these could close the 
 means of egress, by a rampart thrown up on all sides, five 
 horsemen, despatched between the enemies' posts, brought 
 news 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 were as great as if 
 the enemy were besieging the city, not the camp. They sum- 
 moned the consul Nautius ; and when there seemed to be but 
 insufficient protection in him, and it was determined that a dic- 
 tator should be appointed to retrieve their shattered fortunes, 
 Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was appointed by universal 
 consent. 
 
 It is^ worth while for those persons who despise all things 
 human in comparison with riches, and who suppose that there 
 is no room either for exalted honour, or for virtue, except 
 where riches abound in great profusion, to listen to the fol- 
 lowing: Lucius Quinctius, the sole hope of the empire of 
 the Roman people, cultivated a farm of four acres on the other 
 side of the Tiber, which is called the Quinctian meadows, 
 exactly opposite the place where the dock-yard now is. 
 There, whether leaning on a stake while digging a trench, or 
 ' A little beyond Crustumerium. on the Via Salaria. D. O. 
 
B.C. 458] CINCINNATUS Ijg 
 
 while ploughing, at any rate, as is certaiii, while engaged on 
 some work in the fields, after mutual exchange of salutations 
 had taken place, being requested by the ambassadors to put 
 on his toga, and listen to the commands of the senate (with 
 wishes that it might turn out well both for him and the com- 
 monwealth), he was astonished, and, asking whether all was 
 well, bade his wife Racilia immediately bring his toga from 
 the hut. As soon as he had put it on and come forward, 
 after having first wiped off the dust and sweat, the ambassa- 
 dors, congratulating him, united in saluting him as dictator: 
 they summoned him into the city, and told him what terror 
 prevailed in the army. A vessel was prepared for Quinctius 
 by order of the government, and his three sons, having come 
 out to meet him, received him on landing at the other side; 
 then his other relatives and his friends: then the greater part 
 of the patricians. Accompanied by this numerous attendance, 
 the lictors going before him, he was conducted to his resi- 
 dence.^ There was a numerous concourse of the commons 
 also: but they by no means looked on Quinctius with the 
 same satisfaction, as they considered both that he was vested 
 with excessive authority, and was likely to prove still more 
 arbitrary by the exercise of that same authority. During that 
 night, however, nothing was done except that guards were 
 posted in the city. 
 
 On the next day the dictator, having entered the forum 
 before daylight, appointed as his master of the horse Lucius 
 Tarquitius, a man of patrician family, but who, though he had 
 served his campaigns on foot by reason of his scanty means, 
 was yet considered by far the most capable in military mat- 
 ters among the Roman youth. With his master of the horse 
 he entered the assembly, proclaimed a suspension of public 
 business, ordered the shops to be closed throughout the city, 
 and forbade any one to attend to any private affairs. Then 
 he commanded all who were of military age to attend under 
 arms, in the Campus Martins, before sunset, with dressed 
 provisions for five days and twelve stakes apiece : those whose 
 age rendered them unfit for active service were ordered to 
 prepare victuals for the soldiers near them, while the latter 
 were getting their arms ready, and procuring stakes. Ac- 
 cordingly, the young men ran in all directions to procure 
 the stakes; they took them whatever was nearest to each: 
 no one was prevented from doing so : all attended readily 
 according to the dictator's order. Then, the troops being 
 
 ' Possibly to one assigned to him ofEcially. Freese regards the ex- 
 pression as inconsistent with his alleged poverty. — D. O. 
 
l8o LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 458 
 
 drawn up, not more suitably for a march than for an engage- 
 ment, should occasion require it, the dictator himself marched 
 at the head of the legions, the master of the horse at the head 
 of his cavalry. In both bodies such exhortations were deliv- 
 ered as circumstances required: that they should quicken 
 their pace; that there was need of despatch, that they might 
 reach the enemy by night; that the consul and the Roman 
 army were besieged; that they had now been shut up for 
 three days; that it was uncertain what each day or night 
 might bring with it; that the issues of the most important 
 affairs often depended on a moment of time. The soldiers, 
 to please their leaders, exclaimed among themselves : " Stand- 
 ard-bearer, hasten; follow, soldier." At midnight they reached 
 Algidum: and, as soon as they perceived that they were near 
 the enemy, they halted. 
 
 There the dictator, riding about, and having observed, 
 as far as could be ascertained by night, what the extent of 
 the camp was, and what was its nature, commanded the trib- 
 unes of the soldiers to order the baggage to be thrown into 
 one place, and that the soldiers with their arms and bundles 
 of stakes should return to their ranks. His orders were exe- 
 cuted. Then, with the regularity which they had observed 
 on the march, he drew the entire army in a long column 
 around the enemy's camp, and directed 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 carried out their instructions; the shout 
 echoed around the enemy: it then passed beyond the camp of 
 the enemy, and reached that of the consul : in the one it occa- 
 sioned panic, in the other great joy. The Romans, observing 
 to each other with exultation that this was the shout of their 
 countrymen, and that aid was at hand, took the initiative, 
 and from their watch-guards and outposts dismayed the ene- 
 my. The consul declared that there must be no delay; that 
 by that shout not only their arrival was intimated, but that 
 hostilities were already begun by their friends ; and that it 
 would be a wonder if the enemy's camp were not attacked 
 on the farther side. He therefore ordered his men to take 
 up arms and follow him. The battle was begun during 
 the night. They gave notice by a shout to the dictator's 
 legions that on that side also the decisive moment had ar- 
 rived. The ^quans were now preparing to prevent the works 
 from being drawn around them, when, the battle being be- 
 gun by the enemy from within, having turned their atten- 
 
B. C. 4S8] THE ^QUANS SUBDUED l8i 
 
 tion 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 free for 
 the completion of the work, and continued the fight with the 
 consul till daylight. At daybreak 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 the army of Quinctius, which, immediately after complet- 
 ing its work, returned to arms. Here a new engagement 
 pressed on them: the former one had in no wise slackened. 
 Then, as the danger that beset them on both sides pressed 
 them hard, turning from fighting to entreaties, they implored 
 the dictator on the one hand, the consul on the other, not to 
 make the victory their total destruction, and to suffer them to 
 depart without arms. They were ordered by the consul to 
 apply to the dictator: he, incensed against them, added dis- 
 grace to defeat. He gave orders that Gracchus Cloelius, their 
 general, and the other leaders should be brought to him in 
 chains, and that the town of Corbio should be evacuated; he 
 added that he did not desire the lives of the ^quans: that 
 they were at liberty to depart; but that a confession might 
 at last be wrung from them that their nation was defeated 
 and subdued, they would have to pass under the yoke. The 
 yoke was formed of three spears, two fixed in the ground, 
 and one tied across between the upper ends of them. Under 
 this yoke the dictator sent the jliquans. 
 
 The enemy's camp, which was full of all their belongings 
 — for he had sent them out of the camp half naked — having 
 been taken, he distributed all the booty among his own sol- 
 diers only: rebuking the consul's army and the consul him- 
 self, he said: "Soldiers, you shall not enjoy any portion of 
 the spoil taken from that enemy to whom you yourselves 
 nearly became a spoil: and you, Lucius Minucius, until you 
 begin to assume a spirit worthy of a consul, shall command 
 these legions only as lieutenant." Minucius accordingly re- 
 signed his office of consul, and remained with the army, as 
 he had been commanded. But so meekly obedient were the 
 minds of men at that time to authority combined with supe- 
 rior merit, that this army, remembering his kindness, rather 
 than their own disgrace, both voted a golden crown of a 
 pound weight to the dictator, and saluted him as their pre- 
 server when he set out. The senate at Rome, convened by 
 Quintus Fabius, prefect of the city, ordered Quinctius 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: 
 
1 82 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C- 457 
 
 the military standards were carried before him: his army fol- 
 lowed laden with spoil. Banquets are said to have been 
 spread before the houses of all, and the soldiers, partaking 
 of the entertainment, followed the chariot 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, amid universal approbation. The dic- 
 tator would have immediately laid down his office had not 
 the assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the false wit- 
 ness, detained him; the fear of the dictator prevented the trib- 
 unes from obstructing it. Volscius was condemned and went 
 into exile at Lanuvium. Quinctius laid down his dictator- 
 ship on the sixteenth day, having been invested with it for 
 six months. During those days the consul Nautius engaged 
 the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success: besides 
 the devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell 
 the Sabines. Fabius was sent to Algidum as successor to 
 Minucius. Toward the end of the year the tribunes began 
 to agitate concerning the law; but, because two armies were 
 away, the patricians carried their point, that no proposal 
 should be made before the people. The commons succeeded 
 in electing the same tribunes for the fifth time. It is said that 
 wolves seen in the Capitol were driven away by dogs, and that 
 on account of that prodigy the Capitol was purified. Such 
 were the transactions of that year. 
 
 Quintus Minucius and Gaius Horatius Pulvillus were the 
 next consuls. At the beginning of this year, when there 
 was peace abroad, the same tribunes and the same law occa- 
 sioned disturbances at home; and matters would have pro- 
 ceeded further — so highly were men's minds inflamed — had 
 not news been brought, as if for the very purpose, that by a 
 night attack of the Jfequans the garrison at Corbio had been 
 cut ofif. The consuls convened the senate: they were ordered 
 to raise a hasty levy and to lead it to Algidum. Then, the 
 struggle about the law being abandoned, a new dispute arose 
 regarding the levy. The consular authority was on the point 
 of being overpowered by tribunician influence, when an addi- 
 tional cause of alarm arose: that the Sabine army had made 
 a descent upon Roman territory to commit depredations, and 
 from thence was advancing toward the city. This fear in- 
 fluenced the tribunes to allow the soldiers to be enrolled, not 
 without a stipulation, however, that since they themselves had 
 been foiled for five years, and as the present college was but 
 
 ' A curious feature of a triumph were the disrespectful and often scur- 
 rilous verses chanted by the soldiers at the expense of their general.— D. O. 
 
B.C. 457-454] TEN TRIBUNES ELECTED 1 83 
 
 inadequate protection for the commons, ten tribunes of the 
 people should henceforward be elected. Necessity extorted 
 this concession from the patricians : they only exacted this pro- 
 viso, that they should not hereafter see the same men tribunes. 
 The election for the tribunes was held immediately, lest that 
 measure also, like others, might remain unfulfilled after the war. 
 In 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, but 
 found no enemy. Horatius, when the ^quans, having put 
 the garrison at Corbio to the sword, had taken Ortona also, 
 fought a battle at Algidum, in which he slew a great number 
 of the enemy and drove them not only from Algidum, but 
 from Corbio and Ortona. He also razed Corbio to the ground 
 for having betrayed the garrison. 
 
 Marcus Valerius and Spurius Verginius were next elected 
 consuls. Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. The people 
 were distressed for provisions on account of the excessive 
 rains. A law was proposed to make Mount Aventine public 
 property.'^ The same tribunes of the people were re-elected. 
 In the following year, Titus Romilius and Gains Veturius 
 being consuls, they strongly recommended the law in all their 
 harangues, declaring that they were ashamed that their num- 
 ber had been increased to no purpose, if that matter should 
 be neglected during their two years in the same manner as it 
 had been during the whole preceding five. While they were 
 most busily employed in these matters, an alarming message 
 came from Tusculum, that the ^quans were in Tusculan ter- 
 ritory. The recent services of that state made them ashamed 
 of delaying relief. Both the consuls were sent with an army, 
 and found the enemy in their usual post in Algidum. There 
 a battle was fought: upward of seven thousand of the enemy 
 were slain, the rest were put to flight : immense booty was ob- 
 tained. This the consuls sold on account of the low state 
 of the treasury. This proceeding, however, brought them 
 into odium with the army, and also afforded the tribunes ma- 
 terial for bringing a charge against the consuls before the 
 commons. Accordingly, as soon as they went out of ofifice, 
 in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius, a 
 day of trial was appointed for Romilius by Gains Calvius 
 Cicero, tribune of the people; for Veturius, by Lucius Alienus, 
 plebeian sedile. They were both condemned, to the great 
 
 ' The meaning of this passage is obscure. Many explanations have 
 been attempted, none of which, to ray mind, is quite satisfactory. — D. O. 
 
1 84 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 454-452 
 
 mortification of the patricians: Romilius to pay ten thousand 
 asses, Veturius fifteen thousand. Nor did this niisfortune of 
 their predecessors render the new consuls more timid. They 
 said that on the one hand they might be condemned, and that 
 on the other the commons and tribunes could not carry the 
 law. Then, having abandoned the law, which, by being re- 
 peatedly brought forward, had now lost consideration, the 
 tribunes adopted a milder method of proceeding with the 
 patricians. Let them, said they, at length put an end to dis- 
 putes. If laws drawn up by plebeians displeased them, at 
 least let them allow legislators to be chosen in common, both 
 from the commons and from the patricians, who might pro- 
 pose measures advantageous to both parties, and such as 
 would tend to the establishment of liberty on principles of 
 equality. The patricians did not disdain to accept the pro- 
 posal. They claimed that no one should propose laws, except 
 he were a patrician. When they agreed with respect to the 
 laws, and differed only in regard to the proposer, ambassadors 
 were sent to Athens, Spurius Postumius Albus, Aulus Man- 
 lius, Publius Sulpicius Camerinus, who were ordered to copy 
 out the celebrated laws of Solon, and to make themselves 
 acquainted with the institutions, customs, and laws of the 
 other states of Greece. 
 
 The year was peaceful as regards foreign wars; the fol- 
 lowing one, when Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quinctilius 
 were consuls, was still more quiet, owing to the tribunes ob- 
 serving uninterrupted silence, which was occasioned in the 
 first place by their waiting for the return of the ambassadors 
 who had gone to Athens, and for the account of the foreign 
 laws; in the next place, two grievous calamities arose at the 
 same time, famine and pestilence, destructive to man, and 
 equally so to cattle. The lands were left desolate; the city 
 exhausted by a constant succession of deaths. Many illus- 
 trious families were in mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis,^ 
 Servius Cornelius, died ; also the augur. Gains Horatius Pul- 
 villus; in his place the augurs elected Gains Veturius, and 
 that with all the more eagerness, because he had been con- 
 demned by the commons. The consul Quinctilius died, and 
 four tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a melan- 
 choly one by these manifold disasters; as far as foreign foes 
 were concerned there was perfect quiet. Then Gains Mene- 
 nius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus were elected consuls. 
 Nor in that year was there any foreign war: but disturbances 
 arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the 
 
 ' Priest of Quirinus.— D. O. 
 
B.C. 452-45'] DECEMVIRS APPOINTED 185 
 
 Athenian laws; the tribunes therefore insisted the more 
 urgently that a beginning should at length be made of com- 
 piling the laws. It was resolved that decemvirs should be 
 elected to rule 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 conceded to the patricians, pro- 
 vided that the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and the 
 other devoting laws were not repealed. 
 
 In the three hundred and second year after the foundation 
 of Rome, the form of government was a second time changed, 
 the supreme power being transferred from consuls to decem- 
 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 afterward 
 ran riot through excess. On that account the sooner did the 
 arrangement fall to the ground, and the practice was revived, 
 that the name and authority of consuls should be committed 
 to two persons. The decemvirs appointed were, Appius 
 Claudius, Titus Genucius, Publius Sestius, Lucius Veturius, 
 Gains Julius, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius, Publius Curi- 
 atius, Titus Romilius, Spurius Postumius. On Claudius and 
 Genucius, because they had been consuls elect 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 the plan itself to the senate 
 against the will of his colleague. Next to these were con- 
 sidered the three ambassadors who had gone to Athens, so 
 that the honour might serve at once as a recompense for so 
 distant an embassy, while at the same time they considered 
 that persons acquainted with the foreign laws would be of 
 use in drawing up the new code of justice. The others 
 made up the number. They say that also 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 rested with Appius 
 through the favour of the commons, and he had assumed a 
 demeanour so different that, from being a severe and harsh 
 persecutor of the people, he became suddenly a courter of the 
 commons, and strove to catch every breath of popular favour. 
 They administered justice to the people individually every 
 tenth day. On that day the twelve fasces attended the admin- 
 istrator of justice; one officer attended each of his nine col- 
 leagues, and in the midst of the singular unanimity that ex- 
 isted among themselves — a harmony that sometimes proves 
 
l86 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 451 
 
 prejudicial to private persons — the strictest equity was shown 
 to others. In proof of their moderation it will be enough to 
 instance a single case as an example. Though they had been 
 appointed to govern without appeal, yet, upon a dead body be- 
 ing found buried in the house of Publius Sestius,^ a man of pa- 
 trician rank, and produced in the assembly, Gaius Julius, a de- 
 cemvir, appointed a day of trial for Sestius, in a matter at once 
 clear and heinous, and appeared before the people as prosecutor 
 of the man whose lawful judge he was if accused: and relin- 
 quished his right,^ so that he might add what had been taken 
 from the power of the office to the liberty of the people. 
 
 While highest and lowest alike obtained from them this 
 prompt administration of justice, undefiled, as if from an 
 oracle, at the same time 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 ordered them to go and read the laws that 
 were exhibited,^ and Heaven grant it might prove favourable, 
 advantageous, and of happy result to the commonwealth, 
 themselves, and their children. 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 had greater weight; let them 
 turn over in their minds each particular among themselves, 
 discuss it in conversation, and bring forward for public dis- 
 cussion whatever might be superfluous or defective under 
 each particular: that the Roman people should have such 
 laws only as the general consent might appear not so much to 
 have ratified when proposed as to have itself proposed. When 
 they seemed sufficiently corrected in accordance with public 
 opinion regarding each section 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 the im- 
 mense heap of laws crowded one upon the other, still remain 
 the source of all public and private jurisprudence. A rumour 
 then spread that two tables were needed, on the addition of 
 which a digest, as it were, of the whole Roman law could be 
 completed. The desire for this gave rise, as the day of election 
 approached, to a request that decemvirs be appointed again. 
 The commons by this time, besides that they detested the 
 
 ' The law forbade burial within the limits of the city except in certain 
 cases. — D. O. 
 
 ' That is, relinquished his right of acting as judge in favour of the 
 people and of popular trial. — D. O. 
 
 ' A new law was hung up in the Forum for public perusal. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 45'] THE TEN TABLES 187 
 
 name of consuls no less than that of kings, did not even re- 
 quire the tribunician aid, as the decemvirs in turn allowed an 
 appeal. 
 
 But when the assembly for the election of decemvirs was 
 proclaimed for the third market-day, the flame of ambition 
 burst out so powerfully that even the first men of the state 
 began to canvass individuals — fearing, I suppose, that the 
 possession of such high authority might become accessible 
 to persons not sufficiently worthy if the post were left unoc- 
 cupied by themselves — humbly soliciting, from those very 
 commons with whom they had often contended, an honour 
 which had been opposed by them with all their might. The 
 fact of their dignity being now laid aside in a contest, at their 
 time of life, and after they had filled such high official po- 
 sitions, stimulated the exertions of Appius Claudius. You 
 would not have known whether to reckon him among the 
 decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled at times more 
 closely one canvassing for office than one invested with it; he 
 aspersed the nobles, extolled all the most unimportant and 
 insignificant candidates; surrounded by the Duellii and Icilii 
 who had been tribunes, he himself bustled about the forum, 
 through their means he recommended himself to the com- 
 mons; until even his colleagues, who till then had been de- 
 voted to him heart and soul, turned their eyes on him, won- 
 dering what he was about. It was evident to them that there 
 was no sincerity in it; that such affability amid such pride 
 would surely prove not disinterested. That this excessive low- 
 ering of himself, and condescending to familiarity with pri- 
 vate citizens, was characteristic not so much of one eager to 
 retire from office, as of one seeking the means of continuing 
 that office. Not daring openly to oppose his wishes, they set 
 about mitigating his ardour by humouring it. They by com- 
 mon consent conferred on him, as being the youngest, the 
 office of presiding at the elections. This was an artifice, to 
 prevent his appointing himself; which no one ever did, ex- 
 cept the tribunes of the people, and that with the very worst 
 precedent. He, however, declaring that, with the favour of 
 fortune, he would preside at the elections, seized upon what 
 should have been an obstacle as a lucky opportunity: and 
 having succeeded by a coalition in keeping out of office 
 the two Quinctii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his own 
 uncle. Gains Claudius, a man most steadfast in the cause of 
 the nobility, and other citizens of equal eminence, he secured 
 the appointment as decemvirs of men by no means their equals 
 in distinction — himself in the first instance, a proceeding which 
 
l38 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 451-450 
 
 honourable men disapproved of greatly, as no one believed 
 that he would have ventured to do it. With him were elected 
 Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Mi- 
 nucius, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, Quintus Poetilius, Titus 
 Antonius Merenda, Cseso Duilius, Spurius Oppius Cornicen, 
 Manius Rabuleius. 
 
 This was the end of Appius's playing a part at variance 
 with his disposition. Henceforward he began to live accord- 
 ing to his natural character, and to mould to his own temper 
 his new colleagues before they entered upon office. They 
 daily held meetings in private: then, instructed in their un- 
 ruly designs, which they concocted apart from others, now 
 no longer dissembling their arrogance, difficult of access, 
 captious to all who conversed with them, they protracted the 
 matter until the ides of May. The ides of May was at that 
 time the usual period for beginning office. Accordingly, at 
 the attainment of their magistracy, they rendered the first 
 day of their office remarkable by threats that inspired great 
 terror. For, while the preceding decemvirs had observed 
 the rule, that only one should have the fasces, and that this 
 emblem of royalty should pass to all in rotation, to each 
 in his turn, lo ! on a sudden they all came forth, each with 
 twelve fasces. One hundred and twenty lictors filled the fo- 
 rum, and carried before them the axes tied up with the fasces,^ 
 giving the explanation that it was of no consequence that the 
 axe should be taken away, since they had been appointed with- 
 out appeal. There appeared to be ten kings, and terrors were 
 multiplied not only among the humblest individuals, but even 
 among the principal men of the patricians, who thought that 
 an excuse for the beginning of bloodshed was being sought 
 for: so that, if any one should have uttered a word that 
 hinted at liberty, either in the senate or in a meeting of the 
 people, the rods and axes would also instantly be brought 
 forward, for the purpose of intimidating the rest. For, be- 
 sides that there was no protection in the people, as the right of 
 appeal had been abolished, they had also by mutual consent 
 prohibited interference with each other: whereas the preced- 
 ing decemvirs had allowed the decisions pronounced by them- 
 selves to be amended by appeal to any one of their colleagues, 
 and had referred to the people some points which seemed 
 naturally to come within their own jurisdiction. For a consid- 
 erable time the terror seemed equally distributed among all 
 ranks; gradually it began to be directed entirely against the 
 
 ' As in the case of a dictator. The consular lictors carried only the 
 fasces.— D. O. 
 
B. C. 45°] THE DECEMVIRATE 1 89 
 
 commons. While they spared the patricians, arbitrary and 
 cruel measures were taken against the lower classes. As being 
 persons with whom interest usurped the force of justice, they 
 all took account of persons rather than of causes. They con- 
 certed their decisions at home, and pronounced them in the 
 forum. If any one appealed to a colleague, he departed from 
 the one to whom he had appealed in such a manner that he re- 
 gretted that he had not abided by the sentence of the former. 
 An irresponsible rumour had also gone abroad that they had 
 conspired in their tyranny not only for the present time, but 
 that a clandestine league had been concluded among them on 
 oath, that they would not hold the comitia, but by perpetuating 
 the decemvirate would retain supreme power now that it had 
 once come into their possession. 
 
 The plebeians then began narrowly to watch the counte- 
 nances of the patricians, and to strive to catch a glimpse 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, de- 
 tested the commons ; they neither approved of what was go- 
 ing on, and they considered that what befell the latter was not 
 undeserved. They were unwilling to assist men who, by rush- 
 ing too eagerly toward liberty, had fallen into slavery : they 
 even heaped injuries on them, that, from disgust at the present 
 state of things, two consuls and the former constitution might 
 at length be regretted. By this time the greater part of the 
 year had passed, and two tables of laws had been added to the 
 ten tables of the former year ; and if these laws also had been 
 passed in the assembly of the centuries, there would now have 
 remained no reason why the republic should require that form 
 of government. They were anxiously waiting to see how long 
 it would be before the assembly would be proclaimed for the 
 election of consuls. The only thing that troubled the coni- 
 mons was by what means they should re-establish the tribuni- 
 cian power, that bulwark of' their liberty, now so long dis- 
 continued, no mention in the meantime being made of the 
 elections. Further, the decemvirs, who had at first exhibited 
 themselves to the people surrounded by men of tribunician 
 rank, because that was deemed popular, now guarded them- 
 selves by bands of young patricians : crowds of these beset the 
 tribunals. They harried the commons, and plundered their 
 effects: when fortune was on the side of the more powerful 
 individual, in regard to whatever was coveted. And now they 
 spared not even their persons : some were beaten with rods, 
 others had to submit to the axe ; and, that such cruelty might 
 
igo LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 450-449 
 
 not go unrewarded, a grant of his effects followed the punish- 
 ment of the owner. Corrupted by such bribes, the young 
 nobles not only made no opposition to oppression, but openly 
 avowed a preference for their own selfish gratification rather 
 than for the liberty of all. 
 
 The ides of May came round. Without any magistrates 
 being elected in place of those retiring, private persons ^ came 
 forward as decemvirs, without any abatement either in their 
 determination to enforce their authority, or any alteration in 
 the insignia displayed as outward signs of office. That indeed 
 seemed undoubted regal tyranny. Liberty was now deplored 
 as lost forever : no champion of it stood forth, or seemed likely 
 to do so. And not only were the Romans themselves sunk in 
 despondency, but they began to be looked down upon by the 
 neighbouring states, who felt indignant that sovereign power 
 should be in the hands of a state where liberty did not exist. 
 The Sabines with a numerous body of men made an incursion 
 into Roman territory; and having committed extensive devasta- 
 tions, after they had driven off with impunity booty of men and 
 cattle, they recalled their troops, which had been dispersed in 
 different directions, to Eretum, where they pitched their camp, 
 grounding their hopes on the dissensions at Rome, which they 
 expected would prove an obstruction to the levy. Not only 
 the couriers, but also the flight of the country people through 
 the city inspired them with alarm. The decemvirs, left in a 
 dilemma between the hatred of the patricians and people, took 
 counsel what was to be done. Fortune, moreover, brought 
 an additional cause of alarm. The ^quans on the opposite 
 side pitched their camp at Algidum, and by raids from thence 
 ravaged Tusculan territory. News of this was brought by am- 
 bassadors from Tusculum imploring assistance. The panic 
 thereby occasioned urged the decemvirs to consult the senate, 
 now that two wars at once threatened the city. They ordered 
 the patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well 
 aware what a storm of resentment was ready to break upon 
 them ; they felt that all would heap upon them the blame for 
 the devastation of their territory, and for the dangers that 
 threatened; and that that would give them an opportunity 
 of endeavouring to abolish their office, if they did not unite 
 in resisting, and by enforcing their authority with severity on 
 a few who showed an intractable spirit repress the attempts 
 of others. When the voice of the crier was heard in the forum 
 summoning the senators into the senate-house to the presence 
 
 ' That is, the incumbents of the past year, now of right private per- 
 sons, their term of office having expired. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 449] THE SENATE CONVENED igi 
 
 of the decemvirs, this proceeding, as altogether new, because 
 they had long since given up the custom of consulting the sen- 
 ate, attracted the attention of the people, who, full of surprise, 
 wanted to know what had happened, and why, after so long 
 an interval, they were reviving a custom that had fallen into 
 abe3'ance: stating that they ought to thank the enemy and the 
 war, that any of the customs of a free state were complied with. 
 They looked around for a senator through all parts of the 
 forum, and seldom recognised one anywhere : they then di- 
 rected their attention to the senate-house, and to the solitude 
 around the decemvirs, who both themselves judged that their 
 power was universally detested, while the commons were of 
 opinion that the senators refused to assemble because the de- 
 cemvirs, now reduced to the rank of private citizens, had no 
 authority to convene them : that a nucleus was now formed of 
 those who would help them to recover their liberty, if the com- 
 mons would but side with the senate, and if, as the patricians, 
 when summoned, refused to attend the senate, so also the com- 
 mons would refuse to enlist. Thus the commons grumbled. 
 There was hardly one of the patricians in the forum, and but 
 very few in the city. In disgust at the state of affairs, they 
 had retired into the country, and busied themselves only 
 with their private afifairs, giving up all thought of state con- 
 cerns, considering that they themselves were out of reach of 
 ill-treatment in proportion as they removed themselves from 
 the meeting and converse of their imperious masters. When 
 those who had been summoned did not assemble, state messen- 
 gers were despatched to their houses, both to levy the penal- 
 ties,^ and to make inquiries whether they purposely refused to 
 attend. They brought 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 obe- 
 dience to their commands. They commanded them all to be 
 summoned, and proclaimed a meeting of the senate for the 
 following day, which assembled in much greater numbers than 
 they themselves had expected. By this proceeding the com- 
 mons considered that their liberty was betrayed by the patri- 
 cians, 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 mere private individuals, were it not for the 
 violence displayed by them. 
 
 However, they showed more obedience in coming into the 
 senate than obsequiousness in the opinions expressed by them, 
 as we have learned. It is recorded that, after Appius Claudius 
 
 ' The fine for non-attendance. — D. O. 
 
IQ2 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 laid the subject of debate before the meeting, and before their 
 opinions were asked in order, Lucius Valerius Potitus excited 
 a commotion, by demanding permission to express his senti- 
 ments concerning the state, and — when the decemvirs pre- 
 vented him with threats ^ — by declaring that he would present 
 himself before the people. It is also recorded that Marcus 
 Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with no less boldness, call- 
 ing them " ten Tarquins," and reminding them that under the 
 leadership of the Valerii and Horatii the kings had been ex- 
 pelled. Nor was it the mere name that men were then dis- 
 gusted with, as being that by which it was proper that Jupiter 
 should be styled, as also Romulus, the founder of the city, and 
 the succeeding kings, and a name too which had been retained 
 also for the ceremonies of religion,^ as a solemn one ; that it 
 was the tyranny and arrogance of a king they then detested : 
 and if these were not to be tolerated in that same king or the 
 son of a king, who would tolerate it in so many private citi- 
 zens ? Let them beware lest, by preventing persons from ex- 
 pressing their sentiments freely in the senate, they obliged 
 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 would be found to 
 be, when it was a question of vindicating one's own liberty, 
 than ambition, when the object was to preserve an unjust 
 dominion. That they proposed the question concerning the 
 war with the Sabines, as if the Roman people had any more im- 
 portant 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 equaliz- 
 ing liberty ; who, though private citizens, still possessed the 
 fasces and regal dominion. That after the expulsion of the 
 kings, patrician magistrates had been appointed, and subse- 
 quently, after the secession of the people, plebeian magistrates. 
 What party was it, he asked, to which they belonged? To 
 the popular party? What had they ever done with the con- 
 currence of the people ? To the party of the nobles ? who for 
 now nearly an entire year had not held a meeting of the senate, 
 and then held one in such a manner that they prevented the 
 expression of sentiments regarding the commonwealth ? Let 
 
 ' As being out of order, the senate having been convened to consider 
 the war. 
 
 ' Rex Sacrificulus (see note, page 73). — D. O. 
 
B. C. 449] FEELING AGAINST THE DECEMVIRS 193 
 
 them not place too much hope in the fears of others ; the griev- 
 ances which they were now suffering appeared to men more 
 oppressive than any they might apprehend. 
 
 While Horatius was exclaiming thus, and the decemvirs 
 could not discover the proper bounds either of their anger or 
 forbearance, nor saw how the matter would end, Gains Clau- 
 dius, who was uncle of Appius the decemvir, delivered an ad- 
 dress more in the style of entreaty than reproach, beseech- 
 ing him by the shade of his brother and of his father, that he 
 would hold in recollection the civil society in which he had 
 been born, rather than the confederacy nefariously entered 
 into with his colleagues, adding that he besought this much 
 more on Appius's own account, than for the sake of the com- 
 monwealth. For the commonwealth would claim its rights in 
 spite of them, if it could not obtain them with their consent : 
 that, however, from a great contest great animosities were gen- 
 erally aroused : it was the result of the latter that he dreaded. 
 Though the decemvirs forbade them to speak on any subject 
 save that which they had submitted to them, they felt too 
 much respect for Claudius to interrupt him. He therefore con- 
 cluded the expression of his opinion by moving that it was 
 their wish that no decree of the senate should be passed. And 
 all understood the matter thus, that they were judged by 
 Claudius to be private citizens ; ^ and many of those of consu- 
 lar standing expressed their assent in words. Another meas- 
 ure, more severe in appearance, which ordered the patricians 
 to assemble to nominate an interrex, in reality had much less 
 force; for by this motion the mover gave expression to a de- 
 cided opinion that those persons were magistrates of some 
 kind or other who might hold a meeting of the senate, while 
 he who recommended that no decree of the senate should be 
 passed, had thereby declared them private citizens. When the 
 cause of the decemvirs was now failing, Lucius Cornelius Ma- 
 luginensis, brother of Marcus Cornelius the decemvir, having 
 been purposely reserved from among those of consular rank 
 to close the debate, by affecting an anxiety about the war, de- 
 fended his brother and his colleagues by declaring that he won- 
 dered by what fatality it had occurred, that those who had been 
 candidates for the decemvirate, either these or their friends, had 
 above all others attacked the decemvirs: or why, when no one 
 had disputed for so many months while the state was free from 
 anxiety, whether legal magistrates were at the head of affairs, 
 they now at length sowed the seeds of civil discord, when the 
 
 ' As having been improperly convened. — D. O. 
 13 
 
J54 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 enemy were nearly at the gates, except it were that in a state of 
 confusion they thought that their object would be less clearly 
 seen through. For the rest, it was unfair that any one should 
 prejudge a matter of such importance, while their minds were 
 occupied with a more momentous concern. It was his opin- 
 ion that, in regard to what Valerius and Horatius alleged — 
 that the decemvirs had gone out of office before the ides of 
 May — the matter should be discussed in the senate and left to 
 them to decide, when the wars which were now impending 
 were over, and the commonwealth restored to tranquility ; 
 and that Appius Claudius was even now preparing to take 
 notice that an account had to be rendered by him of the elec- 
 tion which he himself as decemvir held for electing decemvirs, 
 whether they were elected for one year, or until the laws, which 
 were wanting, were ratified. It was his opinion that all other 
 matters should be disregarded for the present, except the war ; 
 and if they thought that the reports regarding it were prop- 
 agated without foundation, and that not only the messen- 
 gers but also the ambassadors of the Tusculans had stated 
 what was false, he thought that scouts should be despatched 
 to bring back more certain information; but if credit were 
 given both to the messengers and the ambassadors, that 
 the levy should be held at the very earliest opportunity ; 
 that the decemvirs should lead the armies, whither each 
 thought proper : and that no other matter should take pre- 
 cedence. 
 
 The junior patricians almost succeeded in getting this reso- 
 lution passed on a division. Accordingly, Valerius and Hora- 
 tius, rising again with greater vehemence, loudly demanded 
 that it should be allowed them to express their sentiments 
 concerning the republic ; that they would address a meeting 
 of the people, if owing to party efforts they were not allowed to 
 do so in the senate : for that private individuals, whether in 
 the senate or in a general assembly, could not prevent them: 
 nor would they yield to their imaginary fasces. Appius, now 
 considering that the crisis was already nigh at hand, when 
 their authority would be overpowered, unless the violence of 
 these were resisted with equal boldness, said, " It will be better 
 for you not to utter a word on any subject, except the subject 
 of discussion " ; and against Valerius, when he refused to be si- 
 lent for a private individual, he commanded a lictor to pro- 
 ceed. When Valerius, from the threshold of the senate-house, 
 now craved the protection of the citizens, Lucius Cornelius, 
 embracing Appius, put an end to the struggle, not in reality 
 consulting the interest of him whose interest he pretended to 
 
B. C. 449] THE LEVY HELD I95 
 
 consult ;^ and, after permission to say what he pleased had been 
 obtained for Valerius by means of Cornelius, when this liberty 
 did not extend beyond words, the decemvirs attained their ob- 
 ject. The men of consular rank also and senior members, 
 from the hatred of tribunician power still rankling in their bo- 
 soms, the longing for which they considered was much more 
 keenly felt by the commons than for the consular power, al- 
 most preferred that the decemvirs themselves should volun- 
 tarily resign their office at some future period, than that the 
 people should once more become prominent through hatred 
 against these. If the matter, quietly conducted, should again 
 return to the consuls without popular turbulence, that the 
 commons might be induced to forget their tribunes, either by 
 the intervention of wars or by the moderation of the consuls 
 in exercising their authority. 
 
 A levy was proclaimed without objection on the part of the 
 patricians ; the young men answered to their names, as the 
 government was without appeal. The legions having been 
 enrolled, the decemvirs proceeded to arrange among them- 
 selves who should set out to the war, who should command 
 the armies. The leading men among the decemvirs were 
 Quintus Fabius and Appius Claudius. The war at home ap- 
 peared more serious than abroad. The decemvirs considered 
 the violence of Appius better suited to suppress commotions in 
 the city; that Fabius possessed a disposition rather lacking 
 in firmness in a good purpose than energetic in a bad one. 
 For this man, formerly distinguished at home and abroad, had 
 been so altered by his office of decemvir and the influence of 
 his colleagues, that he chose rather to be like Appius than like 
 himself. To him the war among the Sabines was intrusted, 
 Manius Rabuleius and Quintus Patilius being sent with him 
 as colleagues. Marcus Cornelius was sent to Algidum with 
 Lucius Minucius, Titus Antonius, Cseso Duillius, and Marcus 
 Sergius : they appointed Spurius Oppius to assist Appius 
 Claudius in protecting the city, while all the decemvirs were 
 to enjoy equal authority. 
 
 The republic was managed with no better success in war 
 than at home. In this the only fault in the generals was, that 
 they had rendered themselves objects of hatred to their fellow- 
 citizens : in other respects the entire blame lay with the sol- 
 diers, who, lest any enterprise should be successfully conducted 
 under the leadership and auspices of the decemvirs, suffered 
 themselves to be beaten, to their own disgrace and that of their 
 
 ' That is, of Valerius, but rather of Appius himself in restraining him 
 from precipitating matters. — D. O. 
 
196 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 449 
 
 generals. Their armies were routed both by the Sabines at 
 Eretum, and by the yEquans in Algidum. Fleeing from Ere- 
 tum during the silence of the night, they fortified their camp 
 nearer the city, on an elevated position between Fidense and 
 Crustumeria; nowhere encountering on equal ground the ene- 
 my who pursued them, they protected themselves by the nature 
 of the ground and a rampart, not by valour or arms. Their 
 conduct was more disgraceful, and greater loss also was sus- 
 tained in Algidum; their camp too was lost, and the soldiers, 
 stripped of all their arms, munitions, and supphes, betook them- 
 selves to Tusculum, determined to procure the means of sub- 
 sistence from the good faith and compassion of their hosts ; and 
 in these, notwithstanding their conduct, they were not disap- 
 pointed. Such alarming accounts were brought to Rome, that 
 the patricians, having now laid aside their hatred of the decem- 
 virs, passed an order that watches should be held in the city, 
 and commanded that all who were not hindered by reason of 
 their age from carrying arms, should mount guard on the walls, 
 and form outposts before the gates ; they also voted that arms 
 should be sent to Tusculum, besides a re-enforcement ; and that 
 the decemvirs should come down from the citadel of Tusculum 
 and keep their troops encamped ; that the other camp should 
 be removed from Fidense into Sabine territory, and the enemy, 
 by their thus attacking them first, should be deterred from en- 
 tertaining any idea of assaulting the city. 
 
 In addition to the reverses sustained at the hands of the 
 enemy, the decemvirs were guilty of two monstrous deeds, 
 one abroad, and the other in the city. They sent Lucius Sic- 
 cius, who was quartered among the Sabines, to take osberva- 
 tions for the purpose of selecting a site for a camp : he, availing 
 himself of the unpopularity of the decemvirs, was introducing, 
 in his secret conversations with the common soldiers, sugges- 
 tions of a secession and the election of tribunes: the soldiers, 
 .whom they had sent to accompany him in that expedition, 
 were commissioned to attack him in a convenient place and 
 slay him. They did not kill him with impunity ; several of the 
 assassins fell around him, as he offered resistance, since, pos- 
 sessing great personal strength and displaying courage equal 
 to that strength, he defended himself against them, although 
 surrounded. The rest brought news into the camp that Sic- 
 cius, while fighting bravely, had fallen into an ambush, and 
 that some soldiers had been lost with him. At first the 
 account was believed ; afterward a party of men, who went by 
 permission of the decemvirs to bury those who had fallen, 
 when they observed that none of the bodies there were 
 
B. C. 449] MURDER OF SICCIUS 197 
 
 stripped, and that Siccius lay in the midst fully armed, and that 
 all the bodies were turned toward him, while there was neither 
 the body of any of the enemy, nor any traces of their departure, 
 brought back his body, saying that he had assuredly been slain 
 by his own men. The camp was now filled with indignation, 
 and it was resolved that Siccius should be forthwith brought 
 to Rome, had not the decemvirs hastened to bury him with 
 military honours at the public expense. He was buried amid 
 the great grief of the soldiery, and with the worst possible 
 infamy of the decemvirs among the common people. 
 
 Another monstrous deed followed in the city, originating 
 in lust, and attended by results not less tragical than that deed 
 which had brought about the expulsion of the Tarquins from 
 the city and the throne through the violation and death of 
 Lucretia : so that the decemvirs not only came to the same 
 end as the kings, but the reason also of their losing their power 
 was the same. Appius Claudius was seized with a criminal 
 passion for violating the person of a young woman of plebeian 
 rank. Lucius Verginius, the girl's father, held an honourable 
 rank among the centurions at Algidum, a man who was a pat- 
 tern of uprightness both at home and in the service. His wife 
 and children were brought up in the same manner. He 
 had betrothed his daughter to Lucius Icilius, who had been 
 tribune, a man of spirit and of approved zeal in the interest of 
 the people. Appius, burning with desire, attempted to seduce 
 by bribes and promises this young woman, now grown up, and 
 of distinguished beauty; and when he perceived that all the 
 avenues of his lust were barred by modesty, he turned his 
 thoughts to cruel and tyrannical violence. Considering that, as 
 the girl's father was absent, there was an opportunity for com- 
 mitting the wrong, he instructed a dependent of his, Marcus 
 Claudius, to claim the girl as his slave, and not to yield to those 
 who demanded her enjoyment of liberty pending judgment. 
 The tool of the decemvir's lust laid hands on the girl as she 
 was coming into the forum — for there the elementary schools 
 were held in booths^calling her the daughter of his slave 
 and a slave herself, and commanded her to follow him, declaring 
 that he would drag her ofif by force if she demurred. The girl 
 being struck dumb with terror, a crowd collected at the cries of 
 her nurse, who besought the protection of the citizens. The 
 popular names of her father, Verginius, and of her betrothed, 
 Icilius, were in every one's mouth. Esteem for them gained 
 the good-will of their acquaintances, the heinousness of the pro- 
 ceeding, that of the crowd. She was now safe from violence, 
 forasmuch as the claimant said that there was no occasion for 
 
ip8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 rousing the mob; that he was proceeding by law, not by force. 
 He summoned the girl into court. Her supporters advising her 
 to follow him, they reached the tribunal of Appius. The 
 claimant rehearsed the farce well known to the judge, as being 
 in presence of the actual author of the plot, that the girl, born 
 in his house, and clandestinely transferred from thence to the 
 house of Verginius, had been fathered on the latter : that what 
 he stated was established by certain evidence, and that he 
 would prove it, even if Verginius himself, who would be the 
 principal sufferer, were judge : that meanwhile it was only fair 
 the servant should accompany her master. The supporters 
 of Verginia, after they had urged that Verginius was absent 
 on business of the state, that he would be present in two days 
 if word were sent to him, and that it was unfair that in his 
 absence he should run any risk regarding his children, de- 
 manded that Appius should adjourn the whole matter till the 
 arrival of the father; that he should allow the claim for her 
 liberty pending judgment according to the law passed by him- 
 self, and not allow a maiden of ripe age to encounter the risk 
 of her reputation before that of her liberty. 
 
 Appius prefaced his decision by observing that the very 
 same law, which the friends of Verginius put forward as the 
 plea of their demand, showed how strongly he himself was in 
 favour of liberty : that liberty, however, would find secure pro- 
 tection in the law on this condition only, that it varied neither 
 with respect to cases or persons. For with respect to those in- 
 dividuals who were claimed as free, that point of law was good, 
 because any citizen could proceed by law in such a matter : 
 but in the case of her who was in the hands of her father, there 
 was no other person in whose favour her master need relin- 
 quish his right of possession.^ That it was his decision, there- 
 fore, that her father should be sent for : that, in the meantime, 
 the claimant should not be deprived of the right, which allowed 
 him to carry off the girl with him, at the same time promising 
 that she should be produced on the arrival of him who was 
 called her father. When there were many who murmured 
 against the injustice of this decision rather than any one indi- 
 vidual who ventured to protest against it, the girl's great-uncle, 
 Publius Numitorius, and her betrothed, Icilius, appeared on the 
 
 ' Appius's argument is that, if Verginia was living in a state of slavery 
 under Claudius, as any one might institute an action to establish her 
 liberty, she would be entitled to her liberty until the matter was settled : 
 but as she was now living under her father's protection, and was his prop- 
 erty by the right of the patria potestas, and he was absent, and as no 
 other person had a right to keep or defend her, she ought to be given up 
 to the man who claimed to be her master, pending her father's return. 
 
B. C. 449] THE STORY OF VERGINIA 
 
 199 
 
 scene: and, way being made for them through the crowd, the 
 multitude thinking that Appius could be most effectually re- 
 sisted by the intervention of Icilius, the lictor declared that he 
 had decided the matter, and attempted to remove Icilius, when 
 he began to raise his voice. Such a monstrous injustice would 
 have fired even a cool temper. " By the sword, Appius," said 
 he, " must I be removed hence, that you may secure silence 
 about that which 3-ou wish to be concealed. This young wom- 
 an I am about to marry, to have and to hold as my lawful wife. 
 Wherefore call together all the lictors of your colleagues also ; 
 order the rods and axes to be got ready : the betrothed wife 
 of Icilius shall not pass the night outside her father's house. 
 No : though you have taken from us the aid of our tribunes, 
 and the power of appeal to the commons of Rome, the two bul- 
 warks for the maintenance of our liberty, absolute authority 
 has not therefore been given to your lust over our wives and 
 children. Vent your fury on our backs and necks ; let chas- 
 tity at least be secure. If violence shall be offered to her, I 
 shall implore the protection of the citizens here present on be- 
 half of my betrothed, Verginius that of the soldiers on behalf 
 of his only daughter, all of us the protection of gods and men, 
 nor shall you carry that sentence into effect without our blood. 
 I demand of you, Appius, consider again and again to what 
 lengths you are proceeding. Verginius, when he comes, will 
 see to it, what conduct he is to pursue with respect to his 
 daughter : only let him be assured of this, that if he yield to 
 the claims of this man, he will have to look out for another 
 match for his daughter. As for my part, in vindicating the 
 liberty of my spouse, life shall leave me sooner than honour." 
 
 The multitude was now roused, and a contest seemed 
 threatening. The lictors had taken their stand around Icilius ; 
 they did not, however, proceed beyond threats, while Appius 
 said, that it was not Verginia who was being defended by 
 Icilius, but that, being a restless man, and even now breathing 
 the spirit of the tribuneship, he was seeking an opportunity 
 for creating a disturbance. That he would not afford him the 
 chance of doing so on that day ; but in order that he might 
 now know that the concession had been made not to his petu- 
 lance, but to the absent Verginius, to the name of father and to 
 liberty, that he would not decide the case on that day, nor in- 
 troduce a decree : that he would request Marcus Claudius to 
 forego somewhat of his right, and to suffer the girl to be bailed 
 till the next day. However, unless the father attended on 
 the following day, he gave notice to Icilius and to men like 
 Icilius, that, as the framer of it, he would maintain his own law, 
 
200 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 as a decemvir, his firmness: that he would certainly not as- 
 semble the lictors of his colleagues to put down the promoters 
 of sedition ; that he would be content with his own. When 
 the time of this act of injustice had been deferred, and the 
 friends of the maiden had retired, it was first of all determined 
 that the brother of Icilius, and the son of Numitorius, both 
 active young men, should proceed thence straight to the city 
 gate, and that Verginius should be summoned from the camp 
 with all possible haste : that the safety of the girl depended on 
 his being present next day at the proper time, to protect her 
 from wrong. They proceeded according to directions, and 
 galloping at full speed, carried the news to her father. When 
 the claimant of the maiden was pressing Icilius to lay claim to 
 her, and give bail for her appearance, and Icilius said that that 
 was the very thing that was being done, purposely wasting the 
 time, until the messengers sent to the camp should finish their 
 journey, the multitude raised their hands on all sides, and 
 every one showed himself ready to go surety for Icilius. And 
 he, with his eyes full of tears, said : " This is a great favour ; 
 to-morrow I will avail myself of your assistance : at present I 
 have sufficient sureties." Thus Verginia was bailed on the 
 security of her relations. Appius, having delayed a short 
 time, that he might not appear to have sat on account of that 
 case alone, when no one made application to him, all other 
 concerns being set aside owing to the interest displayed in 
 this one case, betook himself home, and wrote to his colleague 
 in the camp, not to grant leave of absence to Verginius, and 
 even to keep him in confinement. This wicked scheme was 
 too late, as it deserved : for Verginius, having already ob- 
 tained his leave, had set out at the first watch, while the letter 
 regarding his detention was delivered on the following morn- 
 ing without effect. 
 
 But in the city, at daybreak, when the citizens were stand- 
 ing in the forum on the tiptoe of expectation, Verginius, clad 
 in mourning, conducted his daughter, also shabbily attired, at- 
 tended by some matrons, into the forum, with a considerable 
 body of supporters. He there began to go around and solicit 
 people : and not only entreated their aid given out of kindness, 
 but demanded it as a right : saying that he stood daily in the 
 field of battle in defence of their wives and children, nor was 
 there any other man, whose brave and intrepid deeds in war 
 could be recorded in greater numbers. What availed it, if, 
 while the city was secure from dangers, their children had to 
 endure these calamities, which were the worst that could be 
 dreaded if it were taken? Uttering these words just like one 
 
B. C. 449] THE STORY OF VERGINIA 20I 
 
 delivering a public harangue, he solicited the people individ- 
 ually. Similar arguments were put forward by Icilius : the at- 
 tendant throng of women produced more effect by their silent 
 tears than any words. With a mind stubbornly proof against 
 all this — such an attack of frenzy, rather than of love, had per- 
 verted his mind — Appius ascended the tribunal, and when the 
 claimant went on to complain briefly, that justice had not been 
 administered to him on the preceding day through party in- 
 fluence, before either he could go through with his claim, or 
 an opportunity of reply was afforded to Verginius, Appius in- 
 terrupted him. The preamble with which he prefaced his de- 
 cision, ancient authors may have handed down perhaps with 
 some degree of truth ; but since I nowhere find any that is 
 probable in the case of so scandalous a decision, I think it best 
 to state the bare fact, which is generally admitted, that he 
 passed a sentence consigning her to slavery. At first a feeling 
 of bewilderment astounded all, caused by amazement at so 
 heinous a proceeding : then for some time silence prevailed. 
 Then, when Marcus Claudius proceeded to seize the maiden, 
 while the matrons stood around, and was met by the piteous 
 lamentations of the women, Verginius, menacingly stretching 
 forth his hands toward Appius, said : " To Icilius, and not to 
 you, Appius, have I betrothed my daughter, and for matri- 
 mony, not for prostitution, have I brought her up. Would 
 you have men gratify their lust promiscuously, like cattle and 
 wild beasts ? Whether these persons will endure such things, 
 I know not ; I do not think that those will do so who have 
 arms in their hands." When the claimant of the girl was re- 
 pulsed by the crowd of women and supporters who were stand- 
 ing around her, silence was proclaimed by the crier. 
 
 The decemvir, as if he had lost his reason owing to his pas- 
 sion, stated that not only from Icilius's abusive harangue of 
 the day before, and the violence of Verginius, of which he 
 could produce the entire Roman people as witnesses, but from 
 authentic information also he had ascertained that secret meet- 
 ings were held in the city throughout the night with the ob- 
 ject of stirring up sedition : that he, accordingly, being aware 
 of that danger, had come down with armed soldiers, not to 
 molest any peaceable person, but in order to punish, as the 
 majesty of the government demanded, those who disturbed 
 the tranquility of the state. " It will, therefore," said he, " be 
 better to remain quiet: go, lictor, disperse the crowd, and 
 clear the way for the master to lay hold of his slave." After 
 he had thundered out these words, full of wrath, the multitude 
 of their own accord dispersed, and the girl stood deserted, a 
 
203 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 sacrifice to injustice. Then Verginius, when he saw no aid 
 anywhere, said : " I beg you, Appius, first pardon a father's 
 grief, if I have attacked you too harshly: in the next place, 
 suffer me to ask the nurse here in presence of the maiden, 
 what all this means, that, if I have been falsely called her fa- 
 ther, I may depart hence with mind more tranquil." Permis- 
 sion having been granted, he drew the girl and the nurse aside 
 to the booths near the chapel of Cloacina,^ which now go by the 
 name of the New Booths : - and there, snatching a knife from a 
 butcher, " In this, the only one way I can, my daughter," said 
 he, " do I secure to you your liberty." He then plunged it into 
 the girl's breast, and looking back toward the tribunal, said, 
 " With this blood I devote thee,'' Appius, and thy head ! " Ap- 
 pius, aroused by the cry raised at so dreadful a deed, ordered 
 Verginius to be seized. He, armed with the knife, cleared the 
 way whithersoever he went, until, protected by the crowd of 
 persons attending him, he reached the gate. Icilius and Nu- 
 mitorius took up the lifeless body and showed it to the people; 
 they deplored the villainy of Appius, the fatal beauty of the 
 maiden, and the cruel lot of the father.* The matrons, follow- 
 ing, cried out : Was this the condition of rearing children ? 
 were these the rewards of chastity? and other things which 
 female grief on such occasions suggests, when their com- 
 plaints are so much the more afifecting, in proportion as their 
 grief is more intense from their want of self-control. The men, 
 and more especially Icilius, spoke of nothing but the tribuni- 
 cian power, and the right of appeal to the people which had 
 been taken from them, and gave vent to their indignation in 
 regard to the condition of public afifairs. 
 
 The multitude was excited partly by the heinousness of 
 the misdeed, partly by the hope of recovering their liberty on 
 a favourable opportunity. Appius first ordered Icilius to be 
 summoned before him, then, when he refused to come, to be 
 seized: finally, when the officers were not allowed an oppor- 
 tunity of approaching him, he himself, proceeding through 
 the crowd with a body of young patricians, ordered'him to be 
 led away to prison. Now not only the multitude, but Lucius 
 Valerius and Marcus Horatius, the leaders of the multitude, 
 stood around Icilius and, having repulsed the lictor, declared, 
 that, if Appius should proceed according to law, they would 
 
 ' Venus Cloacina (she who cleanses). — D. O. 
 
 * On two sides of the forum were colonnades, between the pillars of 
 which were tradesmen's booths known as "the Old Booths" and "the 
 New Booths." 
 
 ' That is, to the infernal gods. 
 
 ■• See Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome" : " Verginia." 
 
DEATH OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Photogravure from an engraving after a painting by 
 Vincenzio Camucinni. 
 
B. C. 449] VERGINIUS AT THE CAMP 203 
 
 protect Icilius from one who was but a private citizen ; if he 
 should attempt to employ force, that even in that case they 
 would be no unequal match for him. Hence arose a violent 
 quarrel. The decemvir's lictor attacked Valerius and Hora- 
 tius : the fasces were broken by the people. Appius ascended 
 the tribunal ; Horatius and Valerius followed him. They were 
 attentively listened to by the assembly : the voice of the de- 
 cemvir was drowned with clamour. Now Valerius, as if he 
 possessed the authority to do so, was ordering the lictors to 
 depart from one who was but a private citizen, when Appius, 
 whose spirits were now broken, alarmed for his life, betook 
 himself into a house in the vicinity of the forum, unobserved 
 by his enemies, with his head covered up. Spurius Oppius, in 
 order to assist his colleague, rushed into the forum by the 
 opposite side : he saw their authority overpowered by force. 
 Distracted then by various counsels and by listening to several 
 advisers from every side, he had become hopelessly confused : 
 eventually he ordered the senate to be convened. Because 
 the official acts of the decemvirs seemed displeasing to the 
 greater portion of the patricians, this step quieted the people 
 with the hope that the government would be abolished 
 through the senate. The senate was of opinion that the com- 
 mons should not be stirred up, and that much more effectual 
 measures should be taken lest the arrival of Verginius should 
 cause any commotion in the army. 
 
 Accordingly, some of the junior patricians, being sent to 
 the camp which was at that time on Mount Vecilius, an- 
 nounced to the decemvirs that they should do their utmost to 
 keep the soldiers from mutinying. There Verginius occa- 
 sioned greater commotion than he had left behind him in the 
 city. For besides that he was seen coming with a body of 
 nearly four hundred men, who, enraged in consequence of the 
 disgraceful nature of the occurrence, had accompanied him 
 from the city, the unsheathed knife, and his being himself be- 
 smeared with blood, attracted to him the attention of the en- 
 tire camp ; and the gowns, ^ seen in many parts of the camp, 
 had caused the number of people from the city to appear much 
 greater than it really was. When they asked him what was 
 the matter, in consequence of his weeping, for a long time he 
 did not utter a word. At length, as soon as the crowd of those 
 running together became quiet after the disturbance, and si- 
 lence ensued, he related everything in order as it had occurred. 
 Then extending his hands toward heaven, addressing his fel- 
 low-soldiers, he begged of them, not to impute to him that 
 ' The civilian togas. — D. O. 
 
204 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 which was the crime of Appius Claudius, nor to abhor him as 
 the murderer of his child. To him the life of his daughter was 
 dearer than his own, if she had been allowed to live in freedom 
 and chastity. When he beheld her dragged to prostitution as 
 if she were a slave, thinking it better that his child should be 
 lost by death rather than by dishonour, through compassion 
 for her he had apparently fallen into cruelty. Nor would he 
 have survived his daughter had he not entertained the hope 
 of avenging her death by the aid of his fellow-soldiers. For 
 they too had daughters, sisters, and wives ; nor was the lust of 
 Appius Claudius extinguished with his daughter ; but in pro- 
 portion as it escaped with greater impunity, so much the more 
 unbridled would it be. That by the calamity of another a 
 warning was given to them to guard against a similar injury. 
 As far as he was concerned, his wife had been taken from him 
 by destiny ; his daughter, because she could no longer have 
 lived as a chaste woman, had met with an unfortunate but 
 honourable death ; that there was now no longer in his family 
 an opportunity for the lust of Appius ; that from any other 
 violence of his he would defend his person with the same spirit 
 with which he had vindicated that of his daughter : that others 
 should take care for themselves and their children. While he 
 uttered these words in a loud voice, the multitude responded 
 with a shout, that they would not be backward, either to 
 avenge his wrongs or to defend their own liberty. And the 
 civilians mixing with the crowd of soldiers, by uttering the 
 same complaints, and by showing how much more shocking 
 these things must have appeared when seen than when merely 
 heard of, and also by telling them that the disturbance at Rome 
 was now almost over — and others having subsequently arrived 
 who asserted that Appius, having v\ath difficulty escaped with 
 life, had gone into exile — all these individuals so far influenced 
 them that there was a general cry to arms, and having pulled 
 up the standards, they set out for Rome. The decemvirs, be- 
 ing alarmed at the same time both by what they now saw, as 
 well as by what they had heard had taken place at Rome, ran 
 about to dififerent parts of the camp to quell the commotion. 
 While they proceeded with mildness no answer was returned 
 to them : if any of them attempted to exert authority, the 
 soldiers replied, that they were men and were armed. They 
 proceeded in a body to the city and occupied the Aventine, 
 encouraging the commons, as each person met them, to 
 recover their liberty, and elect tribunes of the people ; no 
 other expression of violence was heard. Spurius Oppius held 
 a meeting of the senate ; it was resolved that no harsh meas- 
 
B.C. 449] AMBASSADORS FROM THE SENATE 205 
 
 ures should be adopted, inasmuch as occasion for sedition had 
 been given by themselves.^ Three men of consular rank, Spu- 
 rius Tarpeius, Gaius Julius, Publius Sulpicius, were sent as 
 ambassadors, to inquire, in the name of the senate, by whose 
 orders they had deserted the camp ? or what they meant by 
 having occupied the Aventine in arms, and, turning away 
 their arms from the enemy, having seized their own country? 
 They were at no loss for an answer : but they wanted some one 
 to give the answer, there being as yet no certain leader, and in- 
 dividuals were not bold enough to expose themselves to the 
 invidious office. The multitude only cried out with one ac- 
 cord, that they should send Lucius Valerius and Marcus 
 Horatius to them, saying that they would give their answer to 
 them. 
 
 The ambassadors being dismissed, Verginius reminded the 
 soldiers that a little while before they had been embarrassed 
 in a matter of no very great difficulty, because the multitude 
 was without a head ; and that the answer given, though not 
 inexpedient, was the result rather of an accidental agreement 
 than of a concerted plan. His opinion was, that ten persons 
 should be elected to preside over the management of state 
 affairs, and that they should be called tribunes of the soldiers, 
 a title suited to their military dignity. When that honour 
 was offered to himself in the first instance, he replied, " Re- 
 serve for an occasion more favourable to both of us your kind 
 recognition of me. The fact of my daughter being unavenged, 
 does not allow any office to be agreeable to me, nor, in the 
 present disturbed condition of the state, is it advantageous 
 that those should be at your head who are most exposed to 
 party animosity. If I am of any use, the benefit to be gained 
 from my services will be just as great while I am a private in- 
 dividual." They accordingly elected military tribunes ten in 
 number. 
 
 Meanwhile the army among the Sabines was not inactive. 
 There also, at the instance of Icilius and Numitorius, a seces- 
 sion from the decemvirs took place, men's minds being no less 
 moved when they recalled to mind the murder of Siccius, than 
 when they were fired with rage at the recent account of the 
 disgraceful attempt made on the maiden to gratify lust. When 
 Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers had been elected 
 on the Aventine, lest the election assembly in the city should 
 follow the precedent of the military assembly, by electing 
 the same persons tribunes of the commons, being well versed 
 in popular intrigues and having an eye to that office himself, 
 ' Appius Claudius, a member of their order. — D. O. 
 
2o6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 he also took care, before they proceeded to the city, that the 
 same number should be elected by his own party with equal 
 power. They entered the city by the Colline gate under their 
 standards, and proceeded in a body to the Aventine through 
 the midst of the city. There, joining the other army, they 
 commissioned the twenty tribunes of the soldiers to select two 
 out of their number to preside over state affairs. They elected 
 Marcus Oppius and Sextus Manilius. The patricians, alarmed 
 for the general safety, though there was a meeting of the sen- 
 ate every day, wasted the time in wrangling more frequently 
 than in deliberation. The murder of Siccius, the lust of Ap- 
 pius, and the disgraces incurred in war were urged as charges 
 against the decemvirs. It was resolved that Valerius and 
 Horatius should proceed to the Aventine. They refused to 
 go on any other condition than that the decemvirs should 
 lay down the badges of that office, which they had resigned at 
 the end of the previous year. The decemvirs, complaining 
 that they were now being degraded, declared that they would 
 not resign their office until those laws, for the sake of which 
 they had been appointed, were passed. 
 
 The people being informed by Marcus Duillius, who had 
 been tribune of the people, that by reason of their continual 
 contentions no business was transacted, passed from the Aven- 
 tine to the Sacred Mount, as Duillius asserted that no concern 
 for business would enter the minds of the patricians, until they 
 saw the city deserted : that the Sacred Mount would remind 
 them of the people's firmness : that they would then know that 
 matters could not be brought back to harmony without the 
 restoration of the tribunician power. Having set out along the 
 Nomentan way, which was then called the Ficulean,^ they 
 pitched their camp on the Sacred Mount, imitating the mod- 
 eration of their fathers by committing no violence. The com- 
 mons followed the army, no one whose age would permit him 
 declining to go. Their wives and children attended them, 
 piteously asking to whom they were leaving them, in a city 
 where neither chastity nor liberty were respected? When 
 the unusual solitude had created everywhere at Rome a feeling 
 of desolation ; when there was no one in the forum but a few 
 old men : when, after the patricians had been summoned into 
 the senate, the forum appeared deserted, by this time more 
 besides Horatius and Valerius began to exclaim, " What will 
 you now wait for, conscript fathers? If the decemvirs do not 
 put an end to their obstinacy, will you suffer all things to go 
 to wreck and ruin ? What power is that of yours, decemvirs, 
 ' From the Colline gate. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 449] AT THE SACRED MOUNT 207 
 
 which you embrace and hold so firmly? do you mean to ad- 
 minister justice to walls and houses? Are you not ashamed 
 that an almost greater number of your lictors is to be seen in 
 the forum than of the other citizens ? What are you going to 
 do, in case the enemy should approach the city? What, if the 
 commons should come presently in arms, in case we show our- 
 selves little affected by their secession? do you mean to end 
 your power by the fall of the city ? Well, then, either we must 
 not have the commons, or they must have their tribunes. We 
 shall sooner be able to dispense with our patrician magistrates, 
 than they with their plebeian. That power, when new and un- 
 tried, they wrested from our fathers : much less will they now, 
 when once captivated by its charm, endure the loss of: more 
 especially since we do not behave with such moderation in the 
 exercise of our power, that they are in no need of the aid of 
 the tribunes." When these arguments were thrown out from 
 every quarter, the decemvirs, overpowered by the united opin- 
 ions of all, declared that, since such seemed to be the feeling, 
 they would submit to the authority of the patricians. All they 
 asked for themeselves was, that they might be protected from 
 popular odium : they warned the senate, that they should not, 
 by shedding their blood, habituate the people to inflict punish- 
 ment on the patricians. 
 
 Then Valerius and Horatius, having been sent to bring 
 back the people on such terms as might seem fit, and to adjust 
 all differences, were directed to make provision also to protect 
 the decemvirs from the resentment and violence of the multi- 
 tude. They set forth and were received into the camp amid 
 the great joy of the people, as their undoubted liberators, 
 both at the beginning of the disturbance and at the termina- 
 tion of the matter. In consideration of these things, thanks 
 were returned to them on their arrival. Icilius delivered a 
 speech in the name of the people. When the terms came to 
 be considered, on the ambassadors inquiring what were the 
 demands of the people, he also, having already concerted the 
 plan before the arrival of the ambassadors, made such de- 
 mands, that it became evident that more hope was placed in 
 the justice of their case than in arms. For they demanded the 
 restoration of the tribunician office and the right of appeal, 
 which, before the appointment of decemvirs, had been the sup- 
 ports of the people, and that it should be without detriment to 
 any one to have instigated the soldiers or the commons to 
 seek to recover their liberty by a secession. Concerning the 
 punishment only of the decemvirs was their demand immoder- 
 ate : for they thought it but just that they should be delivered 
 
2o8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 up to them, and threatened to burn them alive. The ambas- 
 sadors repHed : " Your demands which have been the result 
 of deliberation are so reasonable, that they should be volunta- 
 rily offered to you : for you demand therein safeguards for your 
 liberty, not a means of arbitrary power to assail others. Your 
 resentment we must rather pardon than indulge, seeing that 
 from your hatred of cruelty you rush into cruelty, and almost 
 before you are free yourselves, already wish to lord it over 
 your opponents. Shall our state never enjoy rest from punish- 
 ments, inflicted either by the patricians on the Roman com- 
 mons, or by the commons on the patricians ? you need a shield 
 rather than a sword. He is sufficiently and abundantly hum- 
 bled who lives in the state on an equal footing with his fellow- 
 citizens, neither inflicting nor suffering injury. Should you, 
 however, at any time wish to render yourselves formidable, 
 when, after you have recovered your magistrates and laws, de- 
 cisions on our lives and fortunes shall be in your hands, then 
 you shall determine according to the merits of each case : for 
 the present it is sufficient that your liberty be recovered." 
 
 All assenting that they should act just as they thought 
 proper, the ambassadors assured them that they would speedily 
 return, having brought everything to a satisfactory termination. 
 When they had gone and laid before the patricians the mes- 
 sage of the commons — while the other decemvirs, since, con- 
 trary to their own expectation, no mention was made of their 
 punishment — raised no objection, Appius, being of a truculent 
 disposition and the chief object of detestation, measuring the 
 rancour of others toward him by his own toward them, said: 
 " I am not ignorant of the fate which threatens me. I see that 
 the contest against us is only deferred until our arms are de- 
 livered up to our adversaries. Blood must be offered up to 
 popular rage. I do not even hesitate to resign my decemvi- 
 rate." A decree of the senate was then passed : that the de- 
 cemvirs should as soon as possible resign their office ; that 
 Quintus Furius, chief pontiff, should hold an election of ple- 
 beian tribunes, and that the secession of the soldiers and com- 
 mons should not be detrimental to any one. These decrees of 
 the senate being completed, and the senate dismissed, the de- 
 cemvirs came forth into the assembly, and resigned their office, 
 to the great joy of all. News of this was carried to the com- 
 mons. All those who remained in the city escorted the am- 
 bassadors. This crowd was met by another joyous body from 
 the camp ; they congratulated each other on the restoration of 
 liberty and concord to the state. The deputies spoke as fol- 
 lows before the assembly : " Be it advantageous, fortunate, 
 
E. C. 449] RETURN TO THE CITY 209 
 
 and happy for you and the repubhc — return to your country, 
 to your household gods, your wives and children ; but carry 
 into the city the same moderation which you observed here, 
 where, in spite of the pressing need of so many things neces- 
 sary for so large a number of persons, no man's field has been 
 injured. Go to the Aventine, whence you set out. There, in 
 that auspicious place, where you laid the first beginnings of 
 your liberty, you shall elect tribunes of the people. The 
 chief pontifT will be at hand to hold the elections." Great was 
 their approval and joy, as evinced in their assent to every 
 measure. They then pulled up their standards, and having set 
 out for Rome, vied in exultation with all they met. Silently, 
 under arms, they marched through the city and reached the 
 Aventine. There, the chief pontiff holding the meeting for the 
 elections, they immediately elected as their tribunes of the 
 people, first of all Lucius Verginius, then Lucius Icilius, and 
 Publius Numitorius, the uncle of Verginius, who had recom- 
 mended the secession : then Gains Sicinius, the offspring of 
 him who is recorded to have been elected first tribune of the 
 commons on the Sacred Mount ; and Marcus Duillius, who 
 had held a distinguished tribuneship before the appointment 
 of the decemvirs, and never failed the commons in their con- 
 tests with the decemvirs. Marcus Titinius, Marcus Pomponius, 
 Gains Apronius, Appius Villius, and Gains Oppius, were elect- 
 ed more from hope entertained of them than from any actual 
 services. When he entered on his tribuneship, Lucius IciHus 
 immediately brought before the people, and the people enact- 
 ed, that the secession from the decemvirs which had taken 
 place should not prove detrimental to any individual. Imme- 
 diately after Duillius carried a proposition for electing consuls, 
 with right of appeal.^ All these things were transacted in an 
 assembly of the commons in the Flaminian meadows, which 
 are now called the Flaminian Circus.^ 
 
 Then, through an interrex, Lucius Valerius and Marcus 
 Horatius were elected consuls, and immediately entered on 
 their office ; their consulship, agreeable to the people, although 
 it did no injury to the patricians, was not, however, without 
 giving them ofifence ; for whatever measures were taken to 
 secure the liberty of the people, they considered to be a dimi- 
 nution of their own power. First of all, when it was as it 
 were a disputed point of law, whether patricians were bound 
 by regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, they 
 
 ' From whose decision an appeal would lie. 
 
 ' The church of S. Caterina de' Fernari now stands within its lines. — 
 D. O. 
 
 14 
 
210 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 proposed a law in the assembly of the centuries, that whatever 
 the commons ordered in the assembly of the tribes, should be 
 binding on the entire people ; by which law a most keen-edged 
 weapon of offence was given to the motions introduced by 
 tribunes. Then another law made by a consul concerning the 
 right of appeal, a singularly effective safeguard of liberty, that 
 had been upset by the decemviral power, was not only restored, 
 but also guarded for the time to come, by the passing of a new 
 law, that no one should appoint any magistrate without ap- 
 peal : ^ if any person should so appoint, it should be lawful and 
 right that he be put to death ; and that such killing should not 
 be deemed a capital offence. And when they had sufficiently 
 secured the commons by the right of appeal on the one hand, 
 by tribunician aid on the other, they revived for the tribunes 
 themselves the privilege that their persons should be consid- 
 ered inviolable — the recollection of which was now almost for- 
 gotten — by renewing after a long interval certain ceremonies 
 which had fallen into disuse ; and they rendered them invio- 
 lable by religion, as well as by a law, enacting that whoso- 
 ever should offer injury to tribunes of the people, sdiles, or 
 judicial decemvirs, his person should be devoted to Jupiter, 
 and his property be sold at the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and 
 Libera. Expounders of the law deny that any person is by 
 this law inviolable, but assert that he, who may do an injury 
 to any of them, is deemed by law accursed : and that, accord- 
 ingly, an sedile may be arrested and carried to prison by su- 
 perior magistrates, which, though it be not expressly war- 
 ranted by law (for an injury is done to a person to whom it is 
 not lawful to do an injury according to this law), is yet a proof 
 that an sedile is not considered as sacred and inviolable ; the 
 tribunes, however, are sacred and inviolable according to the 
 ancient oath of the commons, when first they created that 
 office. There have been some who supposed that by this same 
 Horatian law provision was made for the consuls also and the 
 prjetors, because they were elected under the same auspices 
 as the consuls ; for a consul was called a judge. This inter- 
 pretation is refuted, because at this time it had not yet been 
 customary for the consul to be styled judge, but prsetor." 
 These were the laws proposed by the consuls. It was also 
 arranged by the same consuls, that decrees of the senate, 
 
 ' Evidently this could not apply to a dictator. — D. O. 
 
 ' The name consul, although used by Livy (Bk. I, ch. Ix), was not 
 really employed until after the period of the decemvirs. The title in 
 early use was praetor : it is not definitely known when the name jude.x 
 was attached to the office. 
 
B.C. 449] TRIAL OF APPIUS 211 
 
 which before that used to be suppressed and altered at the 
 pleasure of the consuls, should be deposited in the Temple of 
 Ceres, under the care of the sediles of the commons. Then 
 Marcus Duillius, tribune of the commons, brought- before the 
 people, and the people enacted, that whoever left the people 
 without tribunes, and whoever caused a magistrate to be elect- 
 ed without appeal, should be punished with stripes and be- 
 headed. All these enactments, though against the feelings of 
 the patricians, passed off without opposition from them, be- 
 cause as yet no severity was aimed at any particular individual. 
 Then, both the tribunician power and the liberty of the 
 commons having been firmly established, the tribunes, now 
 deeming it both safe and seasonable to attack individuals, 
 singled out Verginius as the first prosecutor and Appius as 
 defendant. When Verginius had appointed a day for Ap- 
 pius to take his trial, and Appius had come down to the forum, 
 accompanied by a band of young patricians, the recollection of 
 his most profligate exercise of power was instantly revived in 
 the minds of all, as soon as they beheld the man himself and 
 his satellites. Then said Verginius : " Long speeches are 
 only meant for matters of a doubtful nature. Accordingly, I 
 shall neither waste time in dwelling on the guilt of this man 
 before you, from whose cruelty you have rescued yourselves 
 by force of arms, nor will I suffer him to add impudence to his 
 other crimes in defending himself. Wherefore, Appius Clau- 
 dius, I pardon you for all the impious and nefarious deeds you 
 have had the effrontery to commit one after another for the 
 last two years ; with respect to one charge only, unless you shall 
 choose a judge who shall acquit you that you have not sentenced 
 a free person to slavery, contrary to the laws, I shall order that 
 you be taken into custody." Neither in the aid of the tribunes, 
 nor in the judgment of the people, could Appius place any 
 hope : still he both appealed to the tribunes, and, when no one 
 heeded him, being seized by the officer, he exclaimed, " I ap- 
 peal." The hearing of this one word, that safeguard of lib- 
 erty, and the fact that it was uttered from that mouth, by which 
 a free citizen was so recently consigned to slavery, caused si- 
 lence. And, while they loudly declared, each on his own be- 
 half, that at length the existence of the gods was proved, and 
 that they did not disregard human affairs ; and that pun- 
 ishments awaited tyranny and cruelty, which punishments, 
 though late, were, however, by no means light ; that that man 
 now appealed, who had abolished all right of appeal ; and that 
 he implored the protection of the people, who had trampled 
 under foot all the rights of the people : and that he was being 
 
212 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 drac^q-ed off to prison, destitute of the rights of Hberty, who 
 had" doomed a free person to slavery, the voice of Appius him- 
 self was heard, amid the murmurs of the assembly, imploring the 
 protection of the Roman people. He enumerated the services 
 of his ancestors to the state, at home and abroad : his own un- 
 fortunate anxiety for the interests of the Roman commons, 
 owing to which he had resigned the consulship, to the very 
 great" displeasure of the patricians, for the purpose of cqualiz- 
 mg the laws : he then went on to mention those laws of his, 
 the framer of which was dragged off to prison, though the laws 
 still remained in force. However, in regard to what bore 
 especiallv on his own case, his personal merits and demerits, 
 he would make trial of them, when an opportunity should be 
 aft'orded him of stating his defence ; at present, he. a Roman 
 citizen, demanded, by the common right of citizenship, that he 
 be allowed to speak on the day appointed, and to appeal to the 
 judgment of the Roman people : he did not dread popular 
 odium so much as not to place any hope in the fairness and 
 compassion of his fellow-citizens. But if he were led to prison 
 without being heard, that he once more appealed to the trib- 
 unes of the people, and warned them not to imitate those 
 whom they hated. But if the tribunes acknowledged them- 
 selves bound by the same agreement for abolishing tlie right of 
 appeal, which they charged the decemvirs with having con- 
 spired to form, then he appealed to the people, he implored 
 the aid of the laws passed that very year, both by the consuls 
 and tribunes, regarding the right of appeal. For who would 
 there be to appeal, if this were not alloweil a person as yet un- 
 condemneil. whose case had not been heard? what plebeian or 
 humble individual would find protection in the laws, if Appius 
 Claudius could not ? that he would be a procif whether tyranny 
 or liberty was established by the new laws, and whether the 
 right of appeal and of challenge against the injustice of magis- 
 trates was only held out in idle words, or really granted. 
 
 \'erginins. on the other hand, affirmed that Appius Clau- 
 dius was the only person who had no part or share in the laws, 
 or in any covenant civil or human. Men should look to the 
 tribunal, the fortress of all villainies, where that perpetual de- 
 cemvir, venting his fur)- on the property, person, and life of 
 the citizens, threatening all with his rods and axes, a despiser 
 of gods and men. surrounded by men who were executioners, 
 not lictors, turning his thoughts from rapine and murtler to 
 lust, tore a free-born maiden, as if she had been a prisoner of 
 war, from the embraces of her father, before the eves of the 
 Roman people, and gave her as a present to a dependent, 
 
B. C. 449] PREPARATION FOR WAR 213 
 
 the minister to liis secret pleasures : wlicre too by a cruel de- 
 cree, and a most outrageous decision, he armed the right hand 
 of the father against the daughter : where he ordered the be- 
 trothed and uncle, on their raising the lifeless body of the girl, 
 to be leil away to prison, aflfected more by the interruption of 
 his lust than by her death : that the prison was built for him 
 also, which he was wont to call the domicile of the Roman 
 commons. Wherefore, though he might appeal again and 
 again, he himself would again and again propose a judge, to try 
 him on the charge of having sentenced a free person to slavery ; 
 if he would not go before a judge, he ordered him to be taken 
 to prison as one already condemned. He was thrown into 
 prison, though without the disapprobation of any individual, 
 yet not without considerable emotion of the public mind, since, 
 in consequence of the punishment by itself of so distinguished a 
 man, their own liberty began to be considered by the commons 
 themselves as excessive.^ The tribunes adjourned the day 
 of trial. 
 
 Meanwhile, ambassadors from the Hernicans and Latins 
 came to Rome to ofTer their congratulations on the har- 
 mony existing between the patricians and commons, and as 
 an offering on that account to Jupiter, best and greatest, they 
 brought into the Capitol a golden crown, of small weight, as 
 money at that time was not plentiful, and the duties of re- 
 ligion were performed rather with piety than si)lendour. On 
 the same authority it was ascertained that the yEquans and 
 Volscians were preparing for war with the utmost energy. 
 The consuls were therefore ordered to divide the provinces 
 between them. The Sabines fell to the lot of Horatius, the 
 /Equans to Valerius. After they had proclaimed a levy for 
 these wars, through the good offices of the commons, not only 
 the younger men, but a large number, consisting of volunteers 
 from among those \\'ho had served their time,= attended to give 
 in their names : and hence the army was stronger not only in 
 the number but also in the quality of its soldiers, owing to 
 the admixture of veterans. Before they marched out of the 
 city, they engraved on brass, and fixed up in public view, the 
 decemviral laws, which arc named " the twelve tables." There 
 are some who state that the asdiles discharged that office by 
 order of the tribunes. 
 
 Gains Claudius, who, detesting the crimes of the decemvirs 
 and, above all, incensed at the arrogant conduct of his broth- 
 
 ' I question the rendering of this sentence. To read plebis for plebi 
 would very much improve the sense. — D. O. 
 ' Twenty years. — D. O. 
 
214 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 er's son, had retired to Regillum, the country of his forefathers, 
 having now returned, though by this time advanced m years, 
 to endeavour to avert the dangers impending over him, whose 
 vices he had shunned, went about the forum, clad m a mourn- 
 ing garment, with the members of his family and his clients, 
 and solicited the interest of the citizens individually, begging 
 them not to desire the Claudian family to be branded with 
 such a disgrace as to be considered deserving of imprisonment 
 and chains; that a man whose bust would be most highly 
 honoured by posterity, the framer of their laws and the founder 
 of Roman jurisprudence, should lie in chains among nightly 
 thieves and robbers! Let them turn away their thoughts 
 from resentment for a while to examination and reflection; 
 and rather pardon one at the entreaty of so many members 
 of the Claudian family, than through a hatred of one spurn 
 the entreaties of many ; he himself also paid this tribute to the 
 family and the name ; nor had he been reconciled to him 
 whose unfortunate situation he wished relieved ; by valour lib- 
 erty had been recovered : by clemency the harmony of the sev- 
 eral orders might be established. Some there were whom he 
 influenced more by his warm attachment to his family than by 
 the cause of him for whom he pleaded. But Verginius begged 
 that they would rather pity him and his daughter, and that 
 they would listen to the entreaties, not of the Claudian family, 
 which had allotted to its members a sort of sovereignty over 
 the commons, but to those of the near friends of Verginia, the 
 three tribunes, who, having been created to aid the commons, 
 were now themselves imploring the protection and aid of that 
 same commons. These laments appeared more justified. Ac- 
 cordingly, all hope being cut ofif, Appius put an end to his life 
 before the day appointed for his trial arrived. Immediately 
 after, Spurius Oppius, the next object of public indignation, 
 because he had been in the city when the unjust decision was 
 given by his colleague, was arraigned by Publius Numitorius. 
 However, a positive act of injustice committed by Oppius 
 brought more odium on him, than the fact of his not having 
 prevented the wrong committed by Appius. A witness was 
 brought forward who, after reckoning up twenty campaigns, 
 and who had been presented with a special reward of valour 
 eight dififerent times, and wearing these honours in the sight 
 of the Roman people, tore open his garments and exhibited 
 his back mangled with stripes, begging for nothing else but 
 that, if the accused could name one single guilty act of his, 
 he might, through a private individual, once" more repeat his 
 severity on him. Oppius was also thrown into prison, where 
 
B.C. 449] EXILE OF THE DECEMVIRS 215 
 
 he put an end to his hfe before the day of trial. The tribunes 
 confiscated the property of Appius and Oppius. Their col- 
 leagues left their homes to go into exile ; their property was 
 confiscated. Marcus Claudius, the claimant of Verginia, after 
 a day had been appointed for his trial, was condemned : he 
 was, however, discharged and went away into exile to Tibur, 
 Verginius himself remitting the extreme penalty : ^ and the 
 shade of Verginia, happier after death than she had been dur- 
 ing life, after having roamed through so many families in 
 quest of vengeance, at length rested in peace, no guilty person 
 being left unpunished. 
 
 Great alarm had seized the patricians, and the faces of 
 the tribunes were now the same as those of the decemvirs 
 had been, when Marcus Duillius, tribune of the people, hav- 
 ing put a salutary check upon their excessive power, said : 
 " We have enjoyed sufficient liberty on our own part, and 
 have taken sufficient vengeance on our enemies ; wherefore 
 for this year I do not intend to allow either a day of trial to be 
 appointed for any one, or any person to be thrown into prison. 
 For it is neither pleasing to me that old crimes now forgotten 
 should be raked up again, seeing that the recent ones have 
 been atoned for by the punishment of the decemvirs ; and the 
 unremitting care of both the consuls in defending your liber- 
 ties, is a guarantee that nothing will be done of such a na- 
 ture as to call for the intervention of the authority of the 
 tribunes." This moderation on the part of the tribune first 
 relieved the patricians of their fears and at the same time in- 
 creased the feeling of ill-will toward the consuls, for they had 
 been so devoted to the commons, that even a plebeian magis- 
 trate was the first to take interest in the safety and political 
 independence of the patricians, before one of patrician rank, 
 and their enemies had become surfeited with inflicting punish- 
 ments on them, before the consuls, to all appearance, would 
 have resisted their licentious career. And there were many 
 who said that sufficiently energetic measures had not been 
 taken, inasmuch as the fathers had given their approbation to 
 the laws proposed by them : nor was there any doubt that, in 
 the troubled state of public affairs, they had yielded to the exi- 
 gencies of the occasion. 
 
 Affairs in the city being thus arranged, and the rights of 
 the commons firmly established, the consuls departed to their 
 respective provinces. Valerius prudently deferred all warlike 
 
 ' "The extreme penalty," that is, death by beingf thrown from the 
 Tarpeian rock, which, according to the laws of the Twelve Tables, was 
 the punishment for perjury. 
 
2i6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 449 
 
 Operations against the armies of the ^quans and the Vol- 
 scians, which had now united at Algidum : whereas, if he had 
 immediately intrusted the issue to fortune, I am inclined to 
 think that, considering the feelings both of the Romans and of 
 their enemies at that time, after the unfavourable auspices of 
 the decemvirs,^ the contest would have cost him heavy loss. 
 Having pitched his camp at the distance of a mile from the 
 enemy, he kept his men quiet. The enemy filled the space 
 lying between the two camps with their army in order of bat- 
 tle, and not a single Roman made answer when they chal- 
 lenged them to fight. At length, wearied with standing and 
 waiting in vain for a contest, the ^quans and Volscians, con- 
 sidering that the victory was almost yielded to them, went off, 
 some to Hernican, others to Latin territory, to commit depre- 
 dations. There was left in the camp rather a garrison for its 
 defence than sufficient force for a contest. When the consul 
 perceived this, he in turn inspired the terror which his own 
 men had previously felt, and having drawn up his troops in 
 order of battle on his side, provoked the enemy to fight. 
 When they, conscious of their lack of forces, declined battle, 
 the courage of the Romans immediately increased, and they 
 considered them vanquished, as they stood panic-stricken with- 
 in their rampart. Having stood throughout the day eager 
 for the contest, they retired at night. And the Romans, now 
 full of hope, set about refreshing themselves. The enemy, in 
 by no means equal spirits, being now anxious, despatched mes- 
 sengers in every direction to recall the plundering parties. 
 Those in the nearest places returned : those who were farther 
 off were not found. When day dawned, the Romans left the 
 camp, determined on assaulting the rampart, unless an oppor- 
 tunity of fighting presented itself ; and when the day was now 
 far advanced, and no movement was made by the enemy, the 
 consul ordered an advance ; and the troops being put in mo- 
 tion, the ^quans and Volscians were seized with indignation, 
 at the thought that victorious armies had to be defended by a 
 rampart rather than by valour and arms. Wherefore they also 
 earnestly demanded the signal for battle from their generals, 
 and received it. And now half of them had got out of the 
 gates, and the others in succession were marching in order, 
 as they went down each to his own post, when the Roman con- 
 sul, before the enemy's line, supported by their entire strength, 
 could get into close order, advanced upon them ; and having 
 attacked them before they were all as yet led forth, and before 
 
 ' The misfortunes of the previous campaign were supposed to exert 
 an influence on the present one. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 449] BATTLE WITH THE VOLSCIANS 217 
 
 those, who were, had their Hnes properly drawn out, he fell 
 upon them, a crowd almost beginning to waver, as they ran 
 from one place to another, and gazed around upon themselves, 
 and looked eagerly for their friends, the shouts and violent 
 attack adding to the already panic-stricken condition of their 
 minds. The enemy at first gave way ; then, having rallied 
 their spirits, when their generals on every side reproachfully 
 asked them, whether they intended to yield to vanquished foes, 
 the battle was restored. 
 
 On the other side, the consul desired the Romans to re- 
 member that on that day, for the first time, they fought as 
 free men in defence of Rome, now a free city. That it was for 
 themselves they were about to conquer, not to become, when 
 victorious, the prize of the decemvirs. That it was not 
 under the command of Appius that operations were being 
 conducted, but under their consul Valerius, descended from 
 the liberators of the Roman people, himself their liberator. 
 Let them show that in former battles it had been the fault of 
 the generals and not of the soldiers, that they did not conquer. 
 That it was shameful to have exhibited more courage against 
 their own countrymen than against their enemies, and to have 
 dreaded slavery more at home than abroad. That Verginia 
 was the only person whose chastity had been in danger in 
 time of peace : that Appius had been the only citizen of dan- 
 gerous lust. But if the fortune of war should turn against 
 them, the children of all would be in danger from so many 
 thousands of enemies : that he was unwilling to forebode what 
 neither Jupiter nor their father Mars would be likely to suffer 
 to befall a city built under such auspices. He reminded them 
 of the Aventine and the Sacred Mount ; that they should bring 
 back dominion unimpaired to that spot, where their liberty had 
 been won but a few months before : and that they should show 
 that the Roman soldiers retained the same disposition after the 
 expulsion of the decemvirs, as they had possessed before they 
 were appointed, and that the valour of the Roman people had 
 not deteriorated after the laws had been equalized. After he 
 uttered these words among the battalions of the infantry, he 
 hurried from them to the cavalry. " Come, young men," said 
 he, " show yourselves superior to the infantry in valour, as you 
 already are their superiors in honour and in rank. The in- 
 fantry at the first onset have made the enemy give way ; now 
 that they have given way, do you give reins to your horses 
 and drive them from the field. They will not stand your 
 charge : even now they rather hesitate than resist." They 
 spurred on their horses, and charged at full speed against the 
 
2i8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 enemy, who were already thrown into confusion by the at- 
 tack of the infantry: and having broken through the ranks, 
 some dashing on to the rear of their line, others wheeling 
 about in the open space from the flanks, turned most of them 
 away from the camp as they were now flying in all directions, 
 and by, riding beyond them headed them of?. The line of 
 infantry, the consul himself, and the whole onset of the bat- 
 tle was borne toward the camp, and having taken it with 
 considerable slaughter, he got possession of still more con- 
 siderable booty. The fame of this battle, carried not only to 
 the city, but to the other army also in Sabine territory, was 
 welcomed in the city with public rejoicing; in the camp, it in- 
 spirited the soldiers to emulate such glory. Horatius, by 
 training them in sallies, and making trial of them in slight skir- 
 mishes, had accustomed them to trust in themselves rather 
 than remember the ignominy incurred under the command of 
 the decemvirs, and these trifling engagements had greatly con- 
 tributed to the successful consummation of their hopes. The 
 Sabines, elated at their success in the preceding year, ceased 
 not to provoke and urge them to fight, constantly asking why 
 they wasted time, sallying forth in small numbers and return- 
 ing like marauders, and why they distributed the issue of a 
 single war over a number of engagements, and those of no im- 
 portance? Why did they not meet them in the field, and in- 
 trust to fortune the decision of the matter once and for all ? 
 
 Besides that they had already of themselves recovered suffi- 
 cient courage, the Romans were fired with exasperation at 
 the thought that the other army would soon return victorious 
 to the city ; that the enemy were now wantonly affronting them 
 with insolence : when, moreover, would they be a match for 
 the enemy, if they were not so then? When the consul as- 
 certained that the soldiers loudly expressed these sentiments 
 in the camp, having summoned an assembly, he spoke as fol- 
 lows : " How matters have fared in Algidum, I suppose that 
 you, soldiers, have already heard. As became the army of 
 the free people to behave, so have they behaved ; through the 
 good judgment of my colleague, and the valour of the soldiers, 
 the victory has been gained. For my part, I shall display the 
 same judgment and determination as you yourselves, O sol- 
 diers, display. The war may either be prolonged with advan- 
 tage, or be brought to a speedy conclusion. If it is to be 
 prolonged, I shall take care, by employing the same method 
 of warfare with which I have begun, that your hopes and 
 your valour may increase every day. If you have now suffi- 
 cient courage, and it is your wish that the matter be decided. 
 
B. C. 449] DEFEAT OF THE SABINES 219 
 
 come, raise here a shout such as you will raise in the field of 
 battle, in token both of your wishes and your valour." When 
 the shout was raised with great alacrity, he assured them that 
 he would comply with their wishes — and so might Heaven 
 prosper it — and lead them next day into the field. The re- 
 mainder of the day was spent in getting ready their arms. On 
 the following day, as soon as the Sabines saw the Roman 
 army being drawn up in order of battle, they too, having long 
 since been eager for the encounter, advanced. The battle was 
 one such as would be fought between two armies who both 
 had confidence in themselves, the one on account of its long- 
 standing and unbroken career of glory, the other recently 
 elated by its unusual success. The Sabines aided their 
 strength also by stratagem ; for, having formed a line equal 
 to that of the Romans, they kept two thousand men in reserve, 
 to make an attack on the left wing of the Romans in the heat 
 of the battle. When these, by an attack in flank, were on the 
 point of overpowering that wing, now almost surrounded, 
 about six hundred of the cavalry of two legions leaped down 
 from their horses, and, as their men were giving way, rushed 
 forward in front, and at the same time both opposed the ad- 
 vance of the enemy, and roused the courage of the infantry, 
 first by sharing the danger equally with them, and then by 
 arousing in them a sense of shame. It was a matter of shame 
 that the cavalry should fight in their own proper fashion and 
 in that of others, and that the infantry should not be equal to 
 the cavalry even when dismounted.^ 
 
 They marched therefore to the fight, which had been sus- 
 pended on their part, and endeavoured to regain the ground 
 which they had lost, and in a moment not only was the battle 
 restored, but one of the wings of the Sabines gave way. The 
 cavalry, protected between the ranks of the infantry, remounted 
 their horses ; they then galloped across to the other division 
 to announce their success to their party ; at the same time also 
 they charged the enemy, now disheartened by the discomfiture 
 of their stronger wing. The valour of none shone forth more 
 conspicuous in that battle. The consul provided for all emer- 
 gencies ; he applauded the brave, rebuked wherever the battle 
 seemed to slacken. When reproved, they displayed imme- 
 diately the deeds of brave men ; and a sense of shame stimu- 
 lated these, as much as praises the others. The shout being 
 raised anew, all together making a united effort, drove the ene- 
 my back ; nor could the Roman attack be any longer resisted. 
 
 ' The cavalry at this period wore no defensive armour, and carried 
 only an ox-hide buckler and a light lance.— D. O. 
 
220 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449 
 
 The Sabines, driven in every direction through the country, 
 left their camp behind them for the enemy to plunder. There 
 the Romans recovered the effects, not of the allies, as at Algi- 
 dum, but their own property, which had been lost by the dev- 
 astations of their lands. For this double victory, gained in 
 two battles, in two different places, the senate in a niggardly 
 spirit merely decreed thanksgivings in the name of the consuls 
 for one day only. The people went, however, on the second 
 day also, in great numbers of their own accord to ofTer thanks- 
 giving; and this unauthorized and popular thanksgiving, ow- 
 ing to their zeal, was even better attended. The consuls by 
 agreement came to the city within the same two days, and 
 summoned the senate to the Campius Martins.^ When they 
 were there relating the services performed by themselves, the 
 chiefs of the patricians complained that the senate was design- 
 edly convened among the soldiers for the purpose of intimida- 
 tion. The consuls, therefore, that there might be no room for 
 such a charge, called away the senate to the Flaminian mead- 
 ows, where the Temple of Apollo now is (even then it was called 
 the Apollinare). There, when a triumph was refused by a 
 large majority of the patricians, Lucius Icilius, tribune of the 
 commons, brought a proposition before the people regarding 
 the triumph of the consuls, many persons coming forward to 
 argue against the measure, but in particular Gains Claudius, 
 who exclaimed, that it was over the senate, not over the enemy, 
 that the consuls wished to triumph ; and that it was intended 
 as a return for a private service to a tribune, and not as an 
 honour due to valour. That never before had the matter of 
 a triumph been managed through the people; but that the 
 consideration of that honour and the disposal of it, had al- 
 ways rested with the senate; that not even the kings had 
 infringed on the majesty of this most august body. The trib- 
 unes should not so occupy every department with their own au- 
 thority, as to allow the existence of no public council ; that the 
 state would be free, and the laws equalized by these means 
 only, if each order retained its own rights and its own dig- 
 nity. After much had been said by the other senior patricians 
 also to the same purpose, all the tribes approved the proposi- 
 tion. Then for the first time a triumph was celebrated by 
 order of the people, without the authority of the senate. 
 
 This victory of the tribunes and people was well-nigh ter- 
 minating in an extravagance by no means salutary, a con- 
 spiracy being formed among the tribunes that the same trib- 
 
 ' A victorious general who had entered the city could not afterward 
 triumph. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 449] ELECTIONS HELD 221 
 
 unes might be re-elected, and, in order that their own ambition 
 might be the less conspicuous, that the consuls also might 
 have their office prolonged. They pleaded, in excuse, the 
 combination of the patricians by which the privileges of the 
 commons were attempted to be undermined by the affronts 
 of the consuls. What would be the consequence, when the 
 laws were as yet not firmly established, if they attacked the 
 new tribunes through consuls of their own party? Men like 
 Horatius and Valerius would not always be consuls, who 
 would regard their own interests as secondary after the liberty 
 of the people. By some concurrence of circumstances, use- 
 ful in view of the situation, it fell by lot to Marcus Duillius be- 
 fore all others to preside at the elections, a man of prudence, 
 and who perceived the storm of public odium that was hang- 
 ing over them from the continuance of their office. And when 
 he declared that he would take no account of any of the for- 
 mer tribunes, and his colleagues struggled to get him to allow 
 the tribes to vote independently, or to give up the office of pre- 
 siding at the elections, which he held by lot, to his colleagues, 
 who would hold the elections according to law rather than 
 according to the pleasure of the patricians; a contention being 
 now excited, when Duillius had sent for the consuls to his seat 
 and asked them what they contemplated doing with respect 
 to the consular elections, and they answered that they would 
 appoint new consuls ; then, having secured popular supporters 
 of a measure by no means popular, he proceeded with them 
 into the assembly. There the consuls were brought forward 
 before the people, and asked what they would do if the Ro- 
 man people mindful of their liberty recovered at home through 
 them, mindful also of their services in war, should again elect 
 them consuls : and when they in no way changed their opin- 
 ions, he held the election, after eulogizing the consuls, because 
 they persevered to the last in being unlike the decemvirs ; and 
 five tribunes of the people having been elected, when, through 
 the zealous exertions of the nine tribunes who openly pressed 
 their canvass, the other candidates could not make up the re- 
 quired number of tribes, he dismissed the assembly; nor did 
 he hold one afterward for the purpose of an election. He 
 said that the law had been satisfied, which, without any num- 
 ber being anywhere specified, only enacted that tribunes 
 who had been elected should be left to choose their colleagues 
 and confirmed those chosen by them. He then went on to 
 recite the formula of the law, in which it was laid down : " If 
 I shall propose for election ten tribunes of the commons, if 
 from any cause you shall elect this day less than ten tribunes 
 
222 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 449-447 
 
 of the people, then that those whom they may have chosen as 
 colleagues for themselves, that these, I say, be legitimate trib- 
 unes of the people on the same conditions as those whom 
 you shall on this day have elected tribunes of the people." 
 When Duillius persevered to the last, stating that the republic 
 could not have fifteen tribunes of the people, having baffled the 
 ambition of his colleagues, he resigned office, equally approved 
 of by patricians and commons. 
 
 The new tribunes of the people, in electing their colleagues, 
 endeavoured to gratify the wishes of the patricians ; they even 
 elected two who were patricians,^ and men of consular rank, 
 Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius. The consuls elected, 
 Spurius Herminius, Titus Verginius Caelimontanus, not being 
 specially inclined to the cause either of the patricians or com- 
 mons, had perfect tranquillity both at home and abroad. Lu- 
 cius Trebonius, tribune of the commons, incensed against the 
 patricians, because, as he said, he had been imposed on by them 
 in the matter of choosing tribunes, and betrayed by his col- 
 leagues, brought forward a proposal, that whoever proposed 
 the election of tribunes of the people before the commons, 
 should go on taking the votes, until he elected ten tribunes of 
 the people ; and he spent his tribuneship in worrying the patri- 
 cians, whence the surname of Asper was given him. Next 
 Marcus Geganius Macerinus, and Gains Julius, being elected 
 consuls, quieted some disputes that had arisen between the 
 tribunes and the youth of the nobility, without displaying any 
 harshness against that power, and at the same time preserving 
 the dignity of the patricians. By proclaiming a levy for the 
 war against the Volscians and ^Equans, they kept the people 
 from riots by keeping matters in abeyance, affirming that 
 everything was also quiet abroad, owing to the harmony in 
 the city, and that it was only through civil discord that foreign 
 foes took courage. Their anxiety for peace abroad was also 
 the cause of harmony at home. But notwithstanding, the one 
 order ever attacked the moderation of the other. Acts of in- 
 justice began to be committed by the younger patricians on 
 the commons, although the latter kept perfectly quiet. Where 
 the tribunes assisted the more humble, in the first place it ac- 
 complished little: and thereafter they did not even themselves 
 escape ill-treatment: particularly in the latter months, when 
 injustice was committed through the combinations among the 
 more powerful, and the power of the office became consid- 
 erably weaker in the latter part of the year. And now the 
 
 ' It was first necessary for these to be adopted into plebeian families, 
 as none but plebeians were eligible. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 447-446] DISSATISFACTION IN THE CITY 223 
 
 commons placed some hopes in the tribuneship, if only they 
 could get tribunes like Icilius : for the last two years they de- 
 clared that they had only had mere names. On the other 
 hand, the elder members of the patrician order, though they 
 considered their young men to be too overbearing, yet pre- 
 ferred, if bounds were to be exceeded, that a superabundance 
 of spirit should be exhibited by their own order rather than 
 by their adversaries. So difficult a thing is moderation in 
 maintaining liberty, vi^hile every one, by pretending to desire 
 equality, exalts himself in such a manner as to put down an- 
 other, and men, by their very precautions against fear, cause 
 themselves to become objects of dread : and we saddle on 
 others injustice repudiated on our own account, as if it 
 were absolutely necessary either to commit injustice or to 
 submit to it. 
 
 Titus Ouinctius Capitolinus for the fourth time and Agrip- 
 pa Furius being then elected consuls, found neither disturb- 
 ance at home nor war abroad ; both, however, were impend- 
 ing. The discord of the citizens could now no longer be 
 checked, both tribunes and commons being exasperated 
 against the patricians, while, if a day of trial was appointed for 
 any of the nobility, it always embroiled the assemblies in new 
 struggles. On the first report of these the iEquans and Vol- 
 scians, as if they had received a signal, took up arms ; also 
 because their leaders, eager for plunder, had persuaded them 
 that the levy proclaimed two years previously could not be 
 proceeded with, as the commons now refused obedience to 
 military authority : that for that reason no armies had been 
 sent against them ; that military discipline was subverted by 
 licentiousness, and that Rome was no longer considered a com- 
 mon country for its citizens; that whatever resentment and ani- 
 mosity they might have entertained against foreigners, was 
 now directed against themselves ; that now an opportunity 
 offered itself for destroying wolves blinded by intestine rage. 
 Having united their forces, they first utterly laid waste the 
 Latin territory : when none met them to avenge the wrong, 
 then indeed, to the great exultation of the advisers of the 
 war, they approached the very walls of Rome, carrying their 
 depredations into the district around the Esquiline gate,'^ 
 pointing out to the city in mocking insult the devastation of 
 the land. When they marched back thence to Corbio unmo- 
 lested, and driving their booty before them, Quinctius the 
 consul summoned the people to an assembly. 
 
 There I find that he spoke to this effect : " Though I am 
 
 ' It stood about where the Arch of Gallienus now stands. — D. O. 
 
224 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 446 
 
 conscious to myself of no fault, Quirites, yet it is with the 
 greatest shame I have come forward to your assembly. To 
 think that you should know this, that this should be handed 
 down on record to posterity, that the ^quans and Volscians, 
 a short time since scarcely a match for the Hernicans, have 
 with impunity come with arms in their hands to the walls of 
 Rome, in the fourth consulate of Titus Quinctius ! Had I 
 known that this disgrace was reserved for this year, above all 
 others, though we have now long been living in such a man- 
 ner, and such is the state of affairs, that my mind can forebode 
 nothing good, I would have avoided this honour either by ex- 
 ile or by death, if there had been no other means of escaping it. 
 Then, if men of courage had held those arms, which were at 
 our gates, Rome could have been taken during my consulate. 
 I have had sufficient honours, enough and more than enough 
 of life : I ought to have died in my third consulate. Whom, I 
 pray, did these most dastardly enemies despise ? us, consuls, 
 or you, Quirites? If the fault lies in us, take away the com- 
 mand from those who are unworthy of it ; and, if that is not 
 enough, further inflict punishment on us. If the fault is yours, 
 may there be none of gods or men to punish your offences : 
 do you yourselves only repent of them. It is not your cow- 
 ardice they have despised, nor their own valour that they have 
 put their trust in : having been so often routed and put to 
 flight, stripped of their camp, mulcted in their land, sent under 
 the yoke, they know both themselves and you. It is the dis- 
 cord among the several orders that is the curse of this city, 
 the contests between the patricians and commons. While we 
 have neither bounds in the pursuit of power, nor you in that 
 of liberty, while you are wearied of patrician, we of plebeian 
 magistrates, they have taken courage. In the name of Heaven, 
 what would you have? You desired tribunes of the com- 
 mons ; we granted them for the sake of concord. You longed 
 for decemvirs ; we suffered them to be created. You became 
 weary of decemvirs ; we compelled them to resign office. 
 Your resentment against these same persons when they be- 
 came private citizens still continuing, we suffered men of the 
 highest family and rank to die or go into exile. You wished a 
 second time to create tribunes of the commons ; you created 
 them. You wished to elect consuls attached to your party: 
 and, although we saw that it was unjust to the patricians, we 
 have even resigned ourselves to see a patrician magistracy 
 conceded as an offering to the people. The aid of tribunes, 
 right of appeal to the people, the acts of the commons made 
 binding on the patricians under the pretext of equalizing the 
 
B. C. 446] SPEECH OF QUINCTIUS 225 
 
 laws, the subversion of our privileges, we have endured and 
 still endure. What end is there to be to our dissensions? 
 when shall it be allowed us to have a united city, one common 
 country? We, when defeated, submit with greater resigna- 
 tion than you when victorious. Is it enough for you, that you 
 are objects of terror to us ? The Aventine is taken against us : 
 against us the Sacred Mount is seized. When the Esquiline 
 was almost taken by the enemy, no one defended it, and when 
 the Volscian foe was scaling the rampart, no one drove him 
 oflf: it is against us you behave like men, against us you are 
 armed. 
 
 " Come, when you have blockaded the senate-house here, 
 and have made the forum the seat of war, and filled the prison 
 with the leading men of the state, march forth through the 
 Esquiline gate, with that same determined spirit ; or, if you do 
 not even venture thus far, behold from your walls your lands 
 laid waste with fire and sword, booty driven off, houses set on 
 fire in every direction and smoking. But, I may be told, it is 
 only the public weal that is in a worse condition through this: 
 the land is burned, the city is besieged, the glory of the war rests 
 with the enemy. What in the name of Heaven — what is the 
 state of your own private affairs ? even now to each of you his 
 own private losses from the country will be announced. What, 
 pray, is there at home, whence you can recruit them ? Will the 
 tribunes restore and re-establish what you have lost? Of 
 sound and words they will heap on you as much as you please, 
 and of charges against the leading men, laws one after another, 
 and public meetings. But from these meetings never has one 
 of you returned home more increased in substance or in for- 
 tune. Has any one ever brought back to his wife and children 
 aught save hatred, quarrels, grudges public and private, from 
 which you may ever be protected, not by your own valour and 
 integrity, but by the aid of others? But, by Hercules! when 
 you served under the command of us consuls, not under trib- 
 unes, in the camp and not in the forum, and the enemy trem- 
 bled at your shout in the field of battle, not the Roman patri- 
 cians in the assembly, having gained booty and taken land 
 from the enemy, loaded with wealth and glory, both public and 
 private, you used to return home in triumph to your household 
 gods : now you allow the enemy to go off laden with your 
 property. Continue fast bound to your assemblies, live in the 
 forum ; the necessity of taking the field, which you strive to 
 escape, still follows you. It was hard on you to march against 
 the yEquans and the Volscians : the war is at your gates : if 
 it is not driven from thence, it will soon be within your walls, 
 15 
 
226 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 446 
 
 and will scale the citadel and Capitol, and follow you into your 
 very houses. Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be 
 held, and an army to be marched out to Algidum ; yet we sit 
 down listless at home, quarrelling with each other like women, 
 delighting in present peace, and not seeing that after that 
 short-lived inactivity war will return with interest. That 
 there are other topics more pleasing than these, I well know; 
 but even though my own mind did not prompt me to it, neces- 
 sity obliges me to speak the truth rather than what is pleas- 
 ing. I would indeed like to meet with your approval, Qui- 
 rites ; but I am much more anxious that you should be 
 preserved, whatever sentiments you shall entertain toward me. 
 It has been so ordained by nature, that he who addresses a 
 crovv^d for his own private interest, is more welcome than the 
 man whose mind has nothing in view but the public interest : 
 unless perhaps you suppose that those public sycophants, 
 those flatterers of the commons, who neither suffer you to 
 take up arms nor to live in peace, excite and work you up for 
 your own interests. When excited, you are to them sources 
 either of position or of profit : and, because, when the orders 
 are in accord, they see that they themselves are of no impor- 
 tance in anything, they prefer to be leaders of a bad cause, of 
 tumults and sedition, rather than of no cause at all. If you 
 can at last become wearied of all this, and if you are willing 
 to resume the habits practised by your forefathers of old, and 
 formerly by yourselves, in place of these new ones, I am ready 
 to submit to any punishment, if I do not in a few days rout and 
 put to flight, and strip of their camp those devastators of our 
 lands, and transfer from our gates and walls to their cities this 
 terror of war, by which you are now thrown into conster- 
 nation." 
 
 Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more 
 acceptable to the commons than this of a most austere consul on 
 that occasion. The young men also, who, during such alarms, 
 had been accustomed to employ the refusal to enlist as the 
 sharpest weapon against the patricians, began to turn their 
 attention to war and arms : and the flight of the rustics, and 
 those who had been robbed and wounded in the country, by 
 announcing events more revolting even than what was before 
 their eyes, filled the whole city with exasperation. When they 
 came into the senate, there all, turning to Quinctius, looked 
 upon him as the only champion of the majesty of Rome: and 
 the leading senators declared that his harangue was worthy 
 of the consular authority, worthy of so many consulships for- 
 merly borne by him, worthy of his whole life, full of honours 
 
B. C. 446] THE ARMY MARCHES 227 
 
 frequently enjoyed, more frequently deserved. That other 
 consuls had either flattered the commons by betraying the 
 dignity of the patricians, or by harshly maintaining the rights 
 of their order, had rendered the multitude more exasperated 
 by their efforts to subdue them : that Titus Quinctius had de- 
 livered a speech mindful of the dignity of the patricians, of the 
 concord of the different orders, and above all, of the needs of 
 the times. They entreated him and his colleague to assume 
 the management of the commonwealth ; they entreated the 
 tribunes, by acting in concert with the consuls, to join in driv- 
 ing back the war from the city and the walls, and to induce 
 the commons to be obedient to the senate at so perilous a 
 conjuncture : declaring that, their lands being devastated, and 
 their city in a manner besieged, their common country ap- 
 pealed to them as tribunes, and implored their aid. By uni- 
 versal consent the levy was decreed and held. When the con- 
 suls gave public notice that there was no time for considering 
 claims for exemption ; that all the young men should attend 
 on the following morning at dawn in the Campus Martius ; 
 that when the war was over, they would afford time for in- 
 quiring into the excuses of those who had not given in their 
 names ; that the man should be held as a deserter, whose ex- 
 cuse they found unsatisfactory; all the youth attended on the 
 following day. The cohorts ^ chose each their centurions : two 
 senators were placed at the head of each cohort. We have 
 read that all these measures were carried out with such ex- 
 pedition that the standards, which had been brought forth 
 from the treasury on that very day by the qusestors and con- 
 veyed to the Campus, started from thence at the fourth hour ; 
 and the newly-raised army halted at the tenth milestone, fol- 
 lowed only by a few cohorts of veteran soldiers as volunteers. 
 The following day brought the enemy within sight, and camp 
 was joined to camp near Corbio. On the third day, when re- 
 sentment urged on the Romans, and a consciousness of guilt 
 for having so often rebelled and a feeling of despair, the others, 
 there was no delay in coming to an engagement. 
 
 In the Roman army, though the two consuls were invested 
 with equal authority, the supreme command was, by the con- 
 cession of Agrippa, resigned to his colleague, an arrangement 
 most salutary in the conduct of matters of great importance ; 
 and he who was preferred made a polite return for the ready 
 condescension of the other, who thus lowered himself, by 
 making him his confidant in all his plans and sharing with 
 him his honours, and by putting him on an equality with him 
 
 ' Each legion was divided into ten cohorts. — D. O. 
 
228 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 446 
 
 although he was by no means as capable. On the field of 
 battle Quinctius commanded the right, Agrippa the left wing; 
 the command of the centre was intrusted to Spurius Postumius 
 Albus, as lieutenant-general. Publius Sulpicius, the other 
 lieutenant-general, was placed at the head of the cavalry. The 
 infantry on the right wing fought with distinguished valour, 
 while the Volscians offered a stout resistance. Publius Sulpi- 
 cius with his cavalry broke through the centre of the enemy's 
 line ; and, though he might have returned thence in the same 
 way to his own party, before the enemy restored their broken 
 ranks, it seemed more advisable to attack them in the rear, and 
 in a moment, charging the line in the rear, he would have dis- 
 persed the enemy by the double attack, had not the cavalry of 
 the Volscians and ^^quans kept him for some time engaged 
 by a mode of fighting like his own. Then indeed Sulpicius 
 declared that there was no time for delay, crying out that they 
 were surrounded and would be cut of? from their own friends, 
 unless they united all their efiforts and despatched the en- 
 gagement with the cavalry. Nor was it enough to rout the 
 enemy without disabling them ; they must slay horses and 
 men, that none might return to the fight or renew the battle ; 
 that these could not resist them, before whom a compact body 
 of infantry had given way. His orders were addressed to no 
 deaf ears ; by a single charge they routed the entire cavalry, 
 dismounted great numbers, and killed with their javelins both 
 the riders and the horses. Thus ended the cavalry engage- 
 ment. Then, having attacked the enemy's infantry, they sent 
 an account to the consuls of what had been done, where the 
 enemy's line was already giving way. The news both gave 
 fresh courage to the Romans who were now gaining the day, 
 and dismayed the ^quans who were beginning to give way. 
 They first began to be beaten in the centre, where the furious 
 charge of the cavalry had broken their ranks. Then the left 
 wing began to lose ground before the consul Quinctius ; the 
 contest was most obstinate on the right. Then Agrippa, in 
 the vigour of his youth and strength, seeing matters going 
 more favourably in every part of the battle than in his own 
 quarter, snatched some of the standards from the standard- 
 bearers and carried them on himself, some even he began to 
 throw into the thick of the enemy.^ The soldiers, urged on 
 by the fear of this disgrace, attacked the enemy ; thus the vic- 
 tory was equalized in every quarter. News then came from 
 Quinctius that he, being now victorious, was about to attack 
 
 ' A not unusual method of forcing the charge, as not only military 
 honour but religious sentiment forbade the loss of the standards. D. O. 
 
B. C. 446] THE AFFAIR WITH ARICIA 229 
 
 the enemy's camp ; that he was unwiUing to break into it, be- 
 fore he learned that they were beaten in the left wing also. If 
 he had routed the enemy, let him now join him, that all the 
 army together might take possession of the booty. Agrippa, 
 being victorious, with mutual congratulations advanced to- 
 ward his victorious colleague and the enemy's camp. There, 
 as there were but few to defend it, and these were routed in a 
 moment, they broke into the fortifications without a struggle, 
 and marched back the army, in possession of abundant spoil, 
 having recovered also their own effects, which had been lost 
 by the devastation of the lands. I have not heard that they 
 either themselves demanded a triumph, or that one was offered 
 to them by the senate ; nor is any cause assigned for the hon- 
 our being either overlooked or not hoped for. As far as I can 
 conjecture at so great a distance of time, since a triumph had 
 been refused to the consuls Horatius and Valerius, who, in ad- 
 dition to the victory over the ^quans and \'olscians, had 
 gained the glory of having also finished the Sabine war, the 
 consuls were ashamed to demand a triumph for one half of the 
 services done by them, lest, even if they should have obtained 
 it, regard might appear to have been paid to persons rather 
 than to merit. 
 
 A disgraceful decision of the people regarding the bound- 
 aries of their allies marred the honourable victory obtained 
 over their enemies. The people of Aricia ^ and of Ardea, who 
 had frequently contended in arms concerning a disputed piece 
 of land, wearied out by many losses on either side, appointed 
 the Roman people as arbitrators. When they arrived to sup- 
 port their claims, an assembly of the people being granted 
 them by the magistrates, the matter was debated with great 
 warmth. The witnesses being now produced, when it was 
 time for the tribes to be called, and for the people to give their 
 votes, Publius Scaptius, a plebeian advanced in years, rose up 
 and said, " Consuls, if it is permitted me to speak on the 
 public interest, I will not suffer the people to be led into a 
 mistake in this matter." When the consuls said that he, as 
 unworthy of attention, ought not to be heard, and, on his 
 shouting that the public interest was being betrayed, ordered 
 him to be put aside, he appealed to the tribunes. The trib- 
 unes, as they are nearly alwavs directed by the multitude 
 rather than direct it, granted Scaptius leave to say what he 
 pleased in deference to the people, who were anxious to hear 
 him. He then began : That he was now in his eighty-third 
 
 ' About twenty miles from Rome in tlie Alban Mountains. Tiie vil- 
 lage of Ariccia occupies the site of the ancient citadel. — D. O. 
 
230 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 446 
 
 year, and that he had served in that district which was now in 
 dispute, not even then a young man, as he was already serving 
 in his twentieth campaign, when operations were going on at 
 CorioU. He therefore brought forward a fact forgotten by 
 length of time — one, however, deeply fixed in his memory: 
 namely, that the district now in dispute had belonged to the 
 territory of Corioli, and, after the taking of Corioli, it had be- 
 come by right of war the public property of the Roman people. 
 That he was surprised how the states of Ardea and Aricia 
 could have the face to hope to deprive the Roman people, 
 whom instead of lawful owners they had made arbitrators, of 
 a district the right of which they had never claimed while the 
 state of Corioli existed. That he for his part had but a short 
 time to live; he could not, however, bring himself, old as he 
 now was, to desist claiming by his voice, the only means he 
 now had, a district which, as a soldier, he had contributed to 
 acquire, as far as a man could. That he strenuously advised 
 the people not to ruin their own interest by an idle feeling of 
 delicacy. 
 
 The consuls, when they perceived that Scaptius was lis- 
 tened to not only in silence, but even with approbation, calling 
 gods and men to witness, that a disgraceful enormity was be- 
 ing committed, summoned the principal senators : with them 
 they went round to the tribes, entreated, that, as judges, they 
 would not be guilty of a most heinous crime, with a still worse 
 precedent, by converting the subject of dispute to their own 
 interest, more especially when, even though it may be lawful 
 for a judge to look after his own interest, so much would by 
 no means be acquired by keeping the land, as would be lost by 
 alienating the affections of their allies by injustice ; for that the 
 loss of reputation and confidence was of greater importance 
 than could be estimated. Was this the answer the ambassa- 
 dors were to carry home ; was this to go out to the world ; 
 were their allies to hear this ; were their enemies to hear it — 
 with what sorrow the one — with what joy the other? Could 
 they suppose that the neighbouring states would ascribe this 
 proceeding to Scaptius, an old babbler at assemblies ? that 
 Scaptius would be rendered distinguished by this statue : but 
 that the Roman people would assume the character of a cor- 
 rupt informer ^ and appropriator of the claims of others. For 
 what judge in a private cause ever acted in such a way as to 
 adjudge to himself the property in dispute ? That even Scap- 
 
 ' Quadruplatores were public informers, so called because they re- 
 ceived a fourth part of the fine imposed : also used in a general sense of 
 those who tried to promote their interests by underhand means. 
 
B. C. 446] THE AFFAIR WITH ARICIA 231 
 
 tius himself would not act so, though he had now outlived all 
 sense of shame. Thus the consuls, thus the senators ex- 
 claimed ; but covetousness, and Scaptius, the adviser of that 
 covetousness, had more influence. The tribes, when con- 
 vened, decided that the district was the public property of the 
 Roman people. Nor can it be denied that it might have been 
 so, if they had gone to other judges ; but, as it is, the infamy of 
 the decision is not in any way diminished by the justice of the 
 cause : nor did it appear more disgraceful or more repulsive to 
 the people of Aricia and of Ardea, than it did to the Roman 
 senate. The remainder of the year continued free from dis- 
 turbances both at home and abroad.^ 
 
 ' This is one of the best of Livy's books. The story of Verg-inia and 
 of the deposition and punishment of the decemvirs is unexcelled in his- 
 torical narrative. — D. O. 
 
BOOK XXI 1 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR 
 
 I CLAIM leave to preface a portion of my history by a re- 
 mark which most historians make at the beginning of their 
 whole work. I am about to describe the most memorable 
 war ever waged, the war which the Carthaginians, under 
 the leadership of Hannibal, waged against the people of 
 Rome.^ Never have states or nations with mightier resources 
 met in arms, and never had these two peoples themselves 
 
 ' Books XXI-XXIV are the translation of Alfred John Church and 
 William Jackson Brodribb, revised and emended by DufBeld Osborne. 
 
 ' The relations between Rome and Carthage date from a very early- 
 period. A treaty was concluded between the two powers in B. c. 509, 
 the year after the expulsion of the kings. It provided that neither Ro- 
 mans nor allies of Rome were to sail for trading purposes east of the head- 
 land known as ApoUinis Promontorium, now Cape Farina, situated im- 
 mediately to the northwest of Carthage ; that in the part of Sicily subject 
 to Carthage, Roman and Carthaginian traders were to have the same 
 rights, that the Cathaginians were not to occupy any fortified position in 
 Latium, or to do any injury to any of Rome's subjects or allies, or indeed 
 to meddle with any Italian city, whether subject to Rome or not. 
 
 The provisions of this treaty imply that Carthage claimed Sardinia 
 and Libya as her own territory, but only certain portions of Sicily, these 
 portions being, it would appear, the west and northwest coasts. It is 
 clear that this great commercial city wished to exclude the Roman traders 
 from the eastern waters of the Mediterranean. Equally anxious was Rome 
 to keep Italy, though only a portion of it was actually under her subjec- 
 tion, to herself, and to guard its shores from those piratical raids to which 
 the Phoenicians were addicted. 
 
 A second treaty was negotiated in b. c. 347, with, on the whole, less 
 favourable conditions for Roman traders. In this treaty Carthage did 
 not speak for herself alone, but claimed to represent the Tyrian peoples 
 generally, and the important city of Utica, also a Tyrian colony. Rome 
 was to confine her trading and piratical expeditions within narrow limits 
 on the coast of Africa, and was to be wholly excluded from Sardinia. As 
 to Sicily, matters were to be on the footing of the older treaty. So also, 
 as before, Carthage was not to meddle with Roman territory in Italy; 
 should her corsairs capture any town on the Latin shores that was not 
 subject to Rome, the plunder and the captives might be retained, but the 
 town itself was to be surrendered. Carthage was to have no settlements 
 or possessions on the coasts of Italy. Rome, on her side, was to inflict 
 
 232 
 
B. C. 229] NATURE OF THE STRUGGLE 233 
 
 possessed such strength and endurance. The modes of war- 
 fare with which they encountered one another were not un- 
 famihar, but had been tested in the first Punic war.'- Again, 
 
 no injury on any town or people on friendly terms with Carthage. The 
 treaty was to be binding on the allies of the two powers. 
 
 Rome's trade, as well as her military strength, had, it may be pre- 
 sumed, grown considerably in the interval between the two treaties, and 
 Carthage felt she must guard the interests of her own commerce by further 
 restrictions, The effect of this last treaty would be to secure to her the 
 largest and most profitable part of the trade of the Mediterranean. 
 
 A third treaty, concluded in B. c. 279, at the time of Pyrrhus's invasion 
 of Italy, ratified the terms of the two preceding treaties, and further pro- 
 vided for a defensive alliance between Rome and Carthage, the latter 
 power undertaking to put her fleet at the service of her ally for purposes 
 of transport, and even of actual war, short of the obligation to disembark 
 troops on the enemy's territory. A record of this treaty, inscribed on a 
 brass tablet, was kept in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. — W. J. B. 
 
 ' The first Punic war began in B. c. 264 and ended in B. c. 241 with 
 the decisive victory of the Roman admiral, Lutatius Catulus, at the 
 .Agates Islands off the west coast of Sicily. It was a hard-fought strug- 
 gle, glorious, no doubt, for the conquerors, whose ultimate triumph was 
 the reward of the persevering energy which had created a navy, and 
 had wrested from the mistress of the Mediterranean her maritime supe- 
 riority. It was clearly proved that in naval strength, and indeed in the 
 long run, in material strength, Rome was superior to Carthage. Rome's 
 first aim and object, for which she counted no sacrifice too costly, was 
 empire ; with Carthage it was commercial success and wealth. Rome 
 loved to fight with her own citizens ; Carthage must employ mercenaries. 
 At the conclusion of the war Roman trade and Roman finance were sorely 
 crippled, and were probably in a far worse plight than those of her rival ; 
 but in the event of a renewal of the contest everything pointed to a simi- 
 lar result. 
 
 The name of Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal, first became 
 famous in this war, and it was through him that negotiations for peace 
 were set on foot by Carthage. The terms exacted by Rome were such as 
 to suggest that she did not wish to prolong the struggle. The whole of 
 Sicily was to be given up by the Carthaginians, and also the islands be- 
 tween Italy and Sicily, and they were to restore without ransom all Ro- 
 man prisoners, to pay down 1,000 talents, and a further sum of 2,200 
 talents by ten annual instalments, an amount in all equivalent to about 
 $4,000,000 of our money, though it should be understood that when esti- 
 mated in relation to modern finance it really represented a vastly larger 
 sum. All Carthaginian territory, properly so called, was to be recognised 
 as perfectly independent of Rome, and neither Rome nor Carthage was 
 to enter into any separate engagement with the allies of either power. 
 These last conditions seem to have been unsatisfactory to the popular 
 party at Rome, which thought that after the efforts and sacrifices tfiey had 
 made they had a right to insist on depriving Carthage of her political in- 
 dependence. 
 
 The main result to Rome of the first Punic war was that Sicily be- 
 came from that time a Roman dependency. The Romans called it a 
 province ; but in using that term we must understand that it was as yet 
 not under the direct rule of Rome. King Hiero, whose headquarters 
 were Syracuse, was Rome's ally rather than her subject, and it was through 
 him that Roman influence made itself felt throughout the island. 
 
 No sooner was the war with Rome over than Carthage found herself 
 
234 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 229 
 
 so varying was the fortune of battle, so doubtful the strug- 
 gle, that they who finally conquered were once the nearer to 
 
 face to face with a danger which threatened her very existence. Her 
 mercenary troops, now no longer needed, rose on their return from Sicily 
 to Africa in a furious mutiny, in which they had the sympathy and sup- 
 port of the neighbouring native population, which caught at the oppor- 
 tunity of shaking off the yoke of Carthage. It was the hard fate of Car- 
 thage to have to struggle for nearly three years with the gigantic insur- 
 rection of this rude and motley host. The war commonly known as the 
 Mercenary or African war, was also from the ferocity with which it was 
 waged, spoken of as the " truceless," or " inexpiable," war. Even at this 
 terrible crisis Carthage was not free from the rivalries of political fac- 
 tions, though ultimately the genius of Hamilcar won for her a complete 
 triumph as far as the immediate contest was concerned. But before it 
 was ended, her troops in Sardinia, which had also mutinied, surrendered 
 the island to Rome, and the surrender was accepted in disregard of the 
 terms of the last treaty. Thus both Sicily and Sardinia were lost to Car- 
 thage previous to the second Punic war. This was, of course, a severe 
 blow to her maritime power. 
 
 It was not long, however, before she obtained some compensation for 
 her losses. Under the conduct and direction of the great Hamilcar she 
 acquired a large territory in Spain, where as yet she had possessed only 
 the small commercial centre of Gades with its immediate vicinity. Spain 
 was a country with a rough and hardy population and all the material of 
 an efficient army, with a number of strong positions and hill-fortresses, 
 and with the sources of great wealth in the silver mines in its southern 
 districts. It was Hamilcar's aim to reduce it to a Cathaginian depend- 
 ency, and to raise from its warlike tribes a well-trained infantry by way 
 of supplement to the admirable Numidian cavalry. We have not the 
 means of tracing his operations in detail, but we may take it as certain 
 that he showed extraordinary capacity both as a general and a statesman, 
 and gave Carthage a new source of both military and financial strength. 
 After his death, in B. c. 229, which occurred in battle with some tribes in 
 the interior, his work was ably continued by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal ; 
 the conquests of Carthage were confirmed, several cities were founded, 
 among them New Carthage (Cartagena), with its excellent harbour, and 
 the mines in the neighbourhood were worked with great profit. It is 
 probable that the territory directly under Carthaginian rule comprised what 
 is now Andalusia, Granada, Murcia, and Valencia, and that Carthaginian 
 influence extended to the eastern shores of the peninsula. Carthage had 
 thus not only recovered lost ground, but had greatly added to her strength 
 at all points. She had in her armies a formidable infantry as well as 
 splendid cavalry, and her new possessions largely increased her means of 
 furnishing them with regular pay. She was, in fact, at the height of her 
 power when she entered on the second Punic war. 
 
 Rome naturally did not like the state of affairs in Spain, and the result 
 was a treaty with Hasdrubal providing that the Carthaginians were not 
 to advance east of the Ebro with designs of conquest. The treaty, so 
 said the war party at Carthage, was not concluded with the sanction of 
 the home government. Hannibal's attack on Saguntum, which was to 
 the west of the Ebro, was not indeed a violation of this treaty or compact 
 with Hasdrubal, but it was obviously meant as an insult to Rome, whose 
 allies, as he well knew, the Saguntines had been for many years. In this 
 sense Carthage may be said to have provoked the second Punic war, 
 though had Rome wished to put herself in the right and to stand by 
 the faith of treaties, she ought to have given up Sardinia, which, as we 
 
B. C. 229] LIFE OF HANNIBAL 
 
 235 
 
 ruin. And they fought, too, with a hate well-nigh greater than 
 their strength. Rome was indignant that the conquered 
 should presume to attack the conqueror, Carthage because she 
 thought the vanquished had been subjected to an arrogant 
 and rapacious rule. 
 
 There is a story, too, of Hannibal when, at nine years of 
 age, he was boyishly coaxing his father Hamilcar to take him 
 with him to Spain (Hamilcar had just finished the African 
 war, and was sacrificing before transporting his army to that 
 country), how the child was set by the altar, and there, with 
 his hand upon the victim, was made to swear that, so soon as 
 he could, he would be the enemy of the Roman people. The 
 loss of Sicily and Sardinia was very galling to a man of high 
 spirit.^ Sicily, he knew, had been surrendered in premature 
 despair; Sardinia had been snatched from them by Roman 
 fraud, in the midst of their troubles in Africa, while an addi- 
 tional war indemnity had been imposed on them. 
 
 Agitated by these thoughts during the five years of the 
 African war, which followed immediately on the recent peace 
 with Rome, and then during the nine years in which he was 
 extending the Carthaginian empire in Spain, he showed plainly 
 by his actions that he was meditating a war greater than that 
 in which he was engaged. Had he lived longer, the Car- 
 thaginians, led by Hamilcar, would have entered Italy in arms, 
 as they did afterward under the leadership of Hannibal. 
 
 The singularly opportune death of Hamilcar and the ex- 
 treme youth of Hannibal delayed the war. During an interval 
 of eight years between the father and the son, Hasdrubal held 
 supreme command. In the first bloom of his youth, such is 
 the story, he became the favourite of Hamilcar, who subse- 
 quently in his later years, seeing his high spirits, chose him to 
 be his son-in-law. As such, he rose to power, not indeed with 
 the approval of the principal citizens, but by the influence of 
 the Barcine faction,^ which was very great with the army and 
 the people. Preferring policy to force, he advanced Cartha- 
 ginian interests far more by forming connections with the 
 petty chiefs, and by winning over new tribes through the 
 friendship of their leading men, than by war and arms. To 
 him, however, peace proved no safer than war. A barbarian, 
 resenting Hasdrubal's execution of his master, murdered him 
 
 have seen, she had acquired by the treacherous surrender of the mutinous 
 Carthaginian garrison. — W. J. B. 
 
 ' That is, Hamilcar.— D. O. 
 
 ' Barca was the surname of Hamilcar. As being the greatest of the 
 Carthaginian families, they courted, as was often the case, popular and 
 military support against their rivals of the oligarchy. — D. O. 
 
236 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 229 
 
 in open day. Seized by the bystanders, he seemed as cheerful 
 as if he had escaped; even when he was torn upon the rack, 
 the expression of his face was of one who laughed; so com- 
 pletely did joy triumph over agony. It was with this Has- 
 drubal that Rome, seeing his marvellous tact in dealing with 
 the tribes, and in attaching them to his government, had re- 
 newed the old treaty. The river Ebro was to be the boundary 
 of their respective empires, while the Saguntines, who were 
 between the dominions of the two nations, were to retain their 
 freedom.^ 
 
 As to Hasdrubal's successor, there could be no question 
 that the leader of the soldiers' choice — they had instantly car- 
 ried the young Hannibal into the general's tent, and pro- 
 claimed him commander-in-chief amid loud and universal ac- 
 clamation — was followed by the good wishes of the people. 
 When he was a mere boy, Hasdrubal had written a letter 
 inviting him over to Spain, and a proposal had been actually 
 made in the senate, the Barcine party contending that Hanni- 
 bal should be trained to the soldier's life and succeed to his 
 father's high position. To this, Hanno, the leader of the oppo- 
 sita faction, replied, " Hasdrubal's demand seems fair, and 
 yet I, for my part, maintain that we ought not to grant what 
 he asks." 
 
 Astonishment at a speech so ambiguous having drawn 
 every eye upon the speaker, Hanno added : " The youthful 
 beauty which Hasdrubal himself surrendered to Hannibal's 
 father, he has now good right, he thinks, to claim back from 
 the son. But we surely ought not to habituate our young 
 men to the wanton lusts of our generals by way of an appren- 
 ticeship in arms. Or are we afraid that the son of Hamilcar 
 will have to wait too long before he witnesses the unrestrained 
 power, the show of monarchy, which his father assumed; 
 that we shall fall too slowly under the domination of the son 
 of the man who, after the manner of a king, left our armies as 
 an inheritance to his son-in-law? For my part I think that this 
 young man should be kept at home under our laws and 
 magistrates and taught to live on the same terms as the rest of 
 us, or else, I fear, this little fire will some day blaze forth into 
 a mighty conflagration." ^ 
 
 ' As Saguntum lay considerably south of the Ebro, a special claim was 
 put in in their favour as beinff allies of Rome. Livy's statement seems 
 to be inaccurate on its face. — D. O. 
 
 » This is a foretaste of the constant opposition which Hanno and the 
 oligarchy at home offered to Hannibal's efforts for his country The 
 same influence went to cripple him through all his campaigns and it is 
 perhaps natural that Livy should sympathize with it,— D O' 
 
B. C. 229] CHARACTER OF HANNIBAL 237 
 
 Hanno carried the assent of but few, among whom, how- 
 ever, were all the best men. As often happens, numbers pre- 
 vailed over right. Hannibal was sent to Spain, and instantly 
 on his arrival attracted the admiration of the whole army. 
 The veterans thought that it was Hamilcar restored to them a 
 youth again, as they saw in him the same animated look and 
 penetrating eye, the same expression, the same features. Soon 
 he made them feel that his father's likeness was but the least of 
 the influences in winning their esteem. Never had man a tem- 
 per that adapted itself better to the widely diverse duties of obe- 
 dience and command, till it was hard to decide whether he was 
 more beloved by the general or the army. There was no one 
 whom Hasdrubal preferred to put in command, whenever 
 courage and persistency were specially needed, no officer 
 under whom the soldiers were more confident and more dar- 
 ing. Bold to the extreme in incurring peril, he was per- 
 fectly cool in its presence. No toil could weary his body or 
 conquer his spirit. Heat and cold he bore with equal en- 
 durance; the cravings of nature, not the pleasure of the pal- 
 ate, determined the measure of his food and drink. His wak- 
 ing and sleeping hours were not regulated by day and night. 
 Such time as business left him, he gave to repose; but it was 
 not on a soft couch or in stillness that he sought it. Many 
 a man often saw him, wrapped in his military cloak, lying on 
 the ground amid the sentries and pickets. His dress was 
 not one whit superior to that of his comrades, but his ac- 
 coutrements and horses were conspicuously splendid. Among 
 the cavalry or the infantry he was by far the first soldier; the 
 first in battle, the last to leave it when once begun. 
 
 These great virtues in the man were equalled by mon- 
 strous vices, inhuman cruelty, a worse than Punic perfidy. 
 Absolutely false and irreligious, he had no fear of God, no 
 regard for an oath, no scruples. With this combination of 
 virtues and vices, he served three years under the command of 
 Hasdrubal, omitting nothing which a man who was to be a 
 great general ought to do or to see.'^ 
 
 ' Livy's brief and vigorous sketch of Hannibal's character should be 
 supplemented by Polybius's estimate of him, which is carefully worked 
 out and may no doubt be accepted as tolerably impartial. According to 
 Polybius, " some said he was horribly cruel, some that he was very ra- 
 pacious," but of his alleged cruelties, many were to be set down to a cer- 
 tain Hannibal Monomachus, one of his friends and advisers, with whom 
 he was confounded. As to his rapacity, he got credit for this vice through 
 employing the services of an unscrupulous plunderer, one Mago, in Brut- 
 tium. These seem rather poor excuses for serious faults, and Polybius 
 has to admit that his countrymen, the Carthaginians, thought Hannibal 
 rapacious, and his enemies, the Romans, thought him cruel. Of course 
 
2 8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B.C. 220-219 
 
 From the day on which he was proclaimed general he re- 
 garded Italy as his duly assigned province, and war with 
 Rome as his special commission. Feelmg that there must not 
 be a moment's delay, or that he, too, Uke his father Hamilcar 
 and afterward Hasdrubal, might, if he hesitated, be cut off by 
 some sudden mischance, he resolved on war with Saguntum. 
 As it was certain that Rome would be provoked to arms by an 
 attack on this place, he first led his troops mto the territory of 
 the Olcades,^ a tribe beyond the Ebro, withm Carthaginian 
 limits rather than within their actual dominions. He wished 
 to seem, if possible, not to have made Saguntum his object, 
 but to have been gradually drawn into war with it, by suc- 
 cessive events, the subjugation of neighbouring tribes and 
 the annexation of territory. He stormed and plundered Car- 
 tala, a rich city and the capital of the Olcades. Terror-stricken 
 by this disaster, the weaker submitted to his rule and to the 
 tribute imposed on them. The victorious army, laden with 
 booty, was now marched into winter quarters at New Car- 
 thage.^ There, by a liberal distribution of the spoil and a 
 faithful discharge of all arrears of pay, Hannibal won all hearts 
 among both citizens and soldiers. 
 
 Early in the spring, the war was pushed into the country 
 of the Vaccsei.^ Their towns, Hermandica and Arbocala, were 
 stormed. Arbocala owed a long defence to the valour and 
 the numbers of its inhabitants. The fugitives from Herman- 
 dica joined the exiles from the Olcades, the tribe conquered in 
 the previous summer, and together roused the Carpetani.* 
 Falling upon Hannibal, on his return from the Vaccaei, near 
 the river Tagus, they threw his troops, encumbered as they 
 
 it at once occurs to us that at Carthage there was a violent political party 
 against him and his policy, and so not much weight perhaps ought to 
 be attached to an imputation from such a quarter. On the whole, Po- 
 lybius's sympathies appear to be with him, and he more than once re- 
 marks on the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the exact truth about 
 men who have made a conspicuous figure in the world's history. The 
 embarrassing position in which Hannibal found himself after the recov- 
 ery of Capua by the Romans, when he had to hold his ground with 
 inferior numbers against several hostile armies, may very well, he admits, 
 have driven him into harsh and cruel acts, or at least into acts which, 
 from a Roman point of view, would have been so described. — W. J, B. 
 
 ' Their territory lay just north of Carthagena. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Now Carthagena. — D. O. 
 
 ' Their country lay in northern and central Spain, west of Numan- 
 tia.— D. O. 
 
 '' They inhabited central Spain southward of Numantia, and lay be- 
 tween the Vacccei and Olcades. Probably they had remained neutral, and 
 allowed the Carthaginians to march through their territory against the 
 Vaccjei. — D. O. 
 
HANNIBAL. 
 Photogravure from an old engraving. 
 
B. C. 219] SUBJUGATION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 239 
 
 were with spoil, into confusion. Hannibal declined an engage- 
 ment. He encamped on the river bank, and, as soon as ever 
 he noticed that the enemy was quiet and silent, forded the 
 stream.^ His rampart being advanced so far that the enemy 
 had room to cross, he resolved to attack them during the 
 passage.^ He ordered his cavalry as soon as they entered the 
 water to charge the encumbered host. On the bank he ranged 
 his forty elephants. The Carpetani, with the contingent of 
 the Olcades and Vaccsei, numbered a hundred thousand, an 
 invincible array had the battle been fought in open and level 
 country. Naturally fearless, they were now confident in 
 their numbers. Fancying that the enemy's retreat was due 
 to fear, they saw in the river the only obstacle to victory ; and, 
 raising a shout, dashed recklessly into the stream, taking every 
 man the nearest way, without waiting for any orders. From 
 the opposite bank a strong body of cavalry was launched into 
 the stream against them, and the two met in midchannel in an 
 utterly unequal conflict. The foot soldier, with insecure foot- 
 ing and but a faint trust in the ford, might well be beaten down 
 even by a weaponless rider who spurred his horse fiercely at 
 him; while the trooper, free to use limbs and weapons, his 
 steed standing firm even amid the rush of the water, could 
 fight at close quarters or skirmish as he pleased. Numbers 
 were swept away by the stream; some were carried by the 
 eddying current among their foes, and trampled down by the 
 elephants. Those in the rear who could return in comparative 
 safety to their own bank, began to reassemble from all parts 
 to which they had fled; but before they could recover from so 
 great a shock, Hannibal had plunged into the river with a 
 column in fighting order, and driven them in flight from the 
 shore. He laid waste their country, and within a few days the 
 Carpetani too had surrendered. And now all beyond the Ebro 
 except Saguntum was in Carthaginian hands. 
 
 War with Saguntum was not indeed yet declared; but al- 
 ready, with a view to war, quarrels were being started between 
 it and its neighbours, more particularly the Turdetani. When 
 the very man who was the sower of strife took up the cause 
 of the tribe, and it was evident that he was not bent on arbitra- 
 tion, but on hostilities, the Saguntines despatched envoys to 
 Rome, begging help for a war now assuredly imminent. The 
 
 ' Having first deceived them as to his intentions by pitching camp. — 
 D. O. 
 
 ^ Apparently he advanced his camp to a distance, that they might im- 
 agine he had continued his flight, and that the passage of the river would 
 not be disputed. — D. O. 
 
240 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 219 
 
 consuls at Rome were then Publius Cornelius Scipio and 
 Tiberius Sempronius Longus. They introduced the embassy 
 to the senate, and brought before it the question of public 
 policy, the result being a decision to send envoys to Spain to 
 look into the position of their allies. Should these envoys 
 think that there was adequate cause, they were peremptorily 
 to bid Hannibal not to meddle with the Saguntines, as being 
 allies of Rome, then to cross over into Africa to Carthage and 
 there report the complaints of Rome's allies. 
 
 The mission had been resolved upon, but not despatched, 
 when news came sooner than any one could have expected 
 that Saguntum was besieged. At once the matter was again 
 brought before the senate. Some were for assigning Spain 
 and Africa to the consuls as their provinces, and for making 
 war by sea and land. Others were for bending all their ef- 
 forts against Spain and Hannibal. Some maintained that they 
 must not move rashly in so serious a crisis, but should await 
 the return of their envoys from Spain. This seemed the 
 safest counsel, and it prevailed. Accordingly, the envoys, Pub- 
 lius Valerius Flaccus and Quintus Baebius Tamphilus, were 
 despatched without further delay to Hannibal at Saguntum; 
 thence, unless there was a cessation of hostilities, they were 
 to go to Carthage to demand the surrender of the ofifending 
 general as a penalty for the violation of the treaty. 
 
 While the Romans were thus preparing and deliberating, 
 Saguntum was already being attacked with the utmost vigour. 
 It was far the richest city beyond the Ebro, and stood about a 
 mile from the sea. Its inhabitants came originally, it is said, 
 from the island Zacynthus,^ and mingled with them was an 
 element of Rutulian origin from Ardea. Anyhow, it is cer- 
 tain that they had rapidly risen to their great prosperity by 
 profits that came both from sea and land, by the growth of 
 population, and b}' that training in a scrupulous honour which 
 made them respect their loyaltj^ as allies even to their own 
 destruction. Hannibal entered their territory with an army 
 prepared for war, and after ravaging their lands far and wide, 
 attacked their city in three divisions. 
 
 One angle of their wall looked toward a valley more level 
 and more open than the neighbouring country, and against 
 this he decided to advance his engines, and under their shel- 
 ter to apply the battering-ram to the ramparts. But al- 
 though the ground at some distance from the wall was con- 
 venient enough for advancing the engines, yet when they 
 came to attack the wall in earnest, the attempt was anything 
 
 ' The modern Zante, off the west coast of Morea. — D. O, 
 
B. C. 219] SIEGE OF SAGUNTUM 241 
 
 but successful. There was a huge overhanging tower; the 
 wall, too (for the place was known to be weak), was raised 
 above its height in other parts. Then again, as the point was 
 one of conspicuous peril and danger, a picked body of young 
 men opposed there a particularly vigorous resistance. First, 
 they kept off the enemy with missiles and left him no sort of 
 safety, while he was making his advances; next, no longer 
 merely discharging their volleys from the fortifications and 
 the tower, they took courage to rush out upon his outposts 
 and works. In these skirmishes hardly more Saguntines fell 
 than Carthaginians. Hannibal himself, approaching the wall 
 somewhat incautiously, was struck down by a severe wound 
 on his thigh from a javelin, and forthwith there was such 
 consternation and panic everywhere around that the works 
 and engines were all but abandoned. 
 
 During the next few days, while the general's wound was 
 being treated, there was more of blockade than of active at- 
 tack. But, though during this interval there was a lull in the 
 fighting, there was no rest from the preparation of works and 
 from engineering labour. And so the contest was renewed 
 with greater fury; approaches began to be made, and the 
 battering-rams applied at a number of points, though some 
 places hardly admitted of their being worked. The Cartha- 
 ginians had a superabundance of men, having, it is generally 
 believed, a hundred and fifty thousand under arms, while the 
 townspeople were now compelled to spread their strength over 
 a wide space in order to guard and watch each point. Their 
 numbers, therefore, were insufficient. The walls, too, which 
 were now being hammered by the battering-rams, had in many 
 places been shattered. At one point a continuous breach 
 had left the city defenceless; three towers in succession and 
 the wall between them had fallen with a great crash. The 
 town, so thought the Carthaginians, was as good as taken 
 after such a downfall. Then, just as if the wall had before 
 screened both combatants alike, the besiegers and besieged 
 rushed to battle. This was nothing like one of those irregu- 
 lar fights which commonly occur at assaults on towns, where 
 one side seizes his opportunity; regular lines, drawn up as 
 though in an open plain, took their stand between the ruins of 
 the wall and the houses, which stood not far off. Hope fired 
 one side, despair the other. The Carthaginians thought that, 
 with a very slight effort, they were masters of the place, while 
 the Saguntines barred the way with their bodies to save homes 
 now stripped of their defences, and not a man yielded a foot 
 lest he should let in the enemy to the ground surrendered. 
 16 
 
242 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 219 
 
 The fiercer the fight, the denser the crowd on either side, 
 the more numerous were the wounded, for not a dart fell 
 without effect amid such a mass of combatants. The Sagun- 
 tines used the so-called " falarica," a missile with a pine-wood 
 shaft, smooth except at the extremity, from which an iron 
 point projected. This, which, as in the " pilum," was of a 
 square form, was bound round with tow and smeared with 
 pitch. The iron point of the weapon was three feet long, such 
 as could pierce straight through the body armour and all, and 
 even if it stuck in the shield without penetrating the body, it 
 caused great panic, for it was discharged with one half of it 
 on fire, and carrying with it a flame fanned by the very motion 
 into greater fury, it made the men throw off their armour, and 
 exposed the soldier to the stroke which followed. 
 
 After a long, indecisive struggle, the Saguntines, taking 
 heart because they were holding their ground beyond their 
 hopes, the Carthaginians thinking themselves vanquished be- 
 cause they were not victorious, suddenly the townspeople 
 raised a shout, drove the enemy to the ruins of the wall, and 
 thrusting him out thence, entangled and bewildered, finally 
 beat him back in disorderly flight to his camp. Meanwhile 
 came news of the arrival of the envoys from Rome. Hanni- 
 bal sent men to the sea to meet them with the message that 
 it would not be safe for them to come to him through such a 
 vast host of wild tribes, and that it was not worth his while 
 at such a crisis to be receiving embassies. It was evident 
 that, if not admitted, they would go straight to Carthage. 
 So Hannibal sent off before them some messengers with a 
 letter to the chiefs of the Barcine faction, bidding them pre- 
 pare the minds of their partisans, that the other party might 
 not have the chance of making any concession to Roman 
 demands. 
 
 Thus, save that they were received and heard,' the mis- 
 sion of the envoys was fruitless and abortive. Hanno alone 
 pleaded for the treaty before the senate, amid a profound 
 silence due to his personal influence, but not with the ap- 
 proval of his audience. " I charged, I forewarned you," said 
 he, appealing to the gods who were the arbiters and witnesses 
 of treaties, " not to let Hamilcar's son go to the army. The 
 departed spirit, the race of that man, know no rest. As long 
 as there is a survivor of Barcine blood and name, the treaty 
 with Rome will never be left in peace. You have sent to the 
 army, by way of adding fuel to the flame, a youth burning 
 with the lust of empire, and seeing but one way to its attain- 
 
 ' That is, at Carthage. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 219] HANNO'S SPEECH 243 
 
 merit, to start war after war, and to live encompassed with 
 arms and armies. Thus you have fed this fire which is now 
 blazing around you. Your armies are besieging Saguntum, 
 which a treaty forbids them to touch; before long, Rome's 
 legions will be besieging Carthage, led by those same gods 
 through whom in the last war Rome avenged her broken 
 treaties.^ Is it of the enemy, or of yourselves, or of the for- 
 tunes of either people that you are so utterly ignorant? En- 
 voys who come from allies on behalf of allies, your good gen- 
 eral has not admitted to his camp; he has made light of inter- 
 national law. Yet these men after being repulsed where even 
 an enemy's envoys are not refused admission, come to you, 
 claiming satisfaction as the treaty directs. To free the state 
 from wrong-doing, they demand the author of the offence, 
 the man chargeable with the crime. The more gently they 
 deal, the slower they are to begin, the more persistent, I fear, 
 when they have once begun, will be their wrath. Keep be- 
 fore your eyes the yEgates Islands and Mount Eryx,^ and what 
 for twenty-four years you sufifered by land and sea. And it 
 was not this boy who was then in command, but the boy's 
 father, Hamilcar, a second Mars, as his party will have it. 
 But we had not kept our hands oiT Tarentum,^ that is, ofif 
 Italy, as the treaty enjoined, just as now we are not keeping 
 our hands ofif Saguntum. And so gods and men prevailed. 
 And in the question so long debated, which of the two nations 
 had broken the treaty, the issue of the war, like an impartial 
 arbiter, yielded the triumph to the side on which right stood. 
 It is against Carthage that Hannibal is bringing up his en- 
 gines and his towers; it is the walls of Carthage that he is 
 shaking with his battering-ram. The ruins of Saguntum (I 
 hope I may be a false prophet) will fall on our heads, and the 
 war begun with the Saguntines must be carried on with the 
 Romans. 
 
 " Shall we, then, give up Hannibal? some one will say. I 
 know that my word goes for little in the matter, because of 
 my feud with his father. Still, as I rejoiced at Hamilcar's 
 death, because we should have had war with Rome had he 
 lived, so, as for this youth, the very fury, I may call him, and 
 firebrand of this conflict, I hate and detest him. Not only do 
 
 ' To put such language and what follows in the mouth of a Cathagin- 
 ian is rather absurd, especially as the fault of the first Punic war lay 
 principally with Rome. — D. O. 
 
 ' The scenes of the defeats suffered in the war in Sicily. 
 
 ' Modern Taranto. The incident referred to had nothing to do with 
 the first war, having taken place after the war with Pyrrhus. Its rights 
 or wrongs are uncertain. — D. O. 
 
244 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 219 
 
 I think that we should give him up to atone for the broken 
 treaty, but that, even if no one demanded, we should transport 
 him to the remotest regions of earth and sea, and banish him 
 to where neither his name nor fame could reach us and trouble 
 the welfare of a peace-loving community. My opinion is that 
 we ought at once to send envoys to Rome with an apology 
 to the senate, and others to bid Hannibal withdraw his army 
 from Saguntum, and to deliver up the man himself to the 
 Romans, as the treaty directs. And I propose that there be a 
 third embassy to make restitution to the Saguntines." 
 
 When Hanno had done speaking, not a single man felt 
 it necessary to answer his speech. Almost the whole senate 
 was devoted to Hannibal; Hanno, they declared, had spoken 
 more bitterly than Flaccus Valerius, the Roman ambassador. 
 Answer was then returned to the envoys from Rome. " The 
 war," it was said, " was begun by the Saguntines, not by Han- 
 nibal; the Roman people do wrong if they prefer the Sagun- 
 tines to their very ancient alliance with Carthage." 
 
 While the Romans were wasting time in sending em- 
 bassies, Hannibal, finding his soldiers wearied with fighting 
 and siege work, gave them a few days' rest, posting pickets, 
 however, to guard his engines and other works. Meanwhile 
 he kindled their ardour, now firing them with wrath against 
 the foe, now by the hope of reward. As soon as he had pub- 
 licly proclaimed that the spoil of the captured city should 
 belong to the soldiers, they were all so excited that, had the 
 signal been that instant given, no strength, it seemed, could 
 have resisted them. The Saguntines, though they had had 
 rest from fighting, and had neither attacked nor been at- 
 tacked for some days, worked night and day without cessa- 
 tion to build up a new wall on the spot where the fall of the 
 old had laid their town bare. Then they had to face a far 
 fiercer assault than ever, nor could they well judge, with loud 
 discordant cries all about them, where the promptest or the 
 most powerful aid was needed. Hannibal was present in per- 
 son encouraging his men where they were advancing a mov- 
 able tower, which exceeded in height any part of the fortifica- 
 tions. As soon as it had been brought up and, by means of 
 the catapults and ballistas '^ ranged on its several stories, had 
 swept the defenders from the ramparts, he thought that the 
 opportunity was come, and sent about five hundred Africans 
 with pickaxes to undermine the wall. This was no difficult 
 work, for the rubble had not been compacted with mortar, 
 but joined only with layers of mud in the fashion of ancient 
 
 ' The catapult shot darts, the ballista stones. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 219] THE CITADEL TAKEN 245 
 
 buildings. And so there fell a greater extent of wall than 
 actually received the blows, and through the gaps made by 
 the fall bodies of armed men penetrated into the city. They 
 also seized some high ground, dragged up catapults and bal- 
 listas, and inclosed the position with a wall, so as to have in 
 the very heart of the town a fort, dominating it, like a citadel. 
 The Saguntines, on their part, drew an inner wall from the 
 part of the city not yet captured. Both sides toiled and fought 
 with all their might, but in defending the interior of the town 
 the Saguntines every day reduced its dimensions. The scarci- 
 ty of all necessaries increased from the length of the siege, 
 while the prospect of external aid diminished, as the Romans, 
 their only hope, were so far distant, and the whole country 
 round was in the enemy's hands. Still for a brief space their 
 sinking spirits were revived by Hannibal's sudden departure 
 on an expedition against the Oretani and Carpetani. These 
 two tribes, dismayed at the rigour of the conscription, had 
 detained the recruiting officers and caused some apprehen- 
 sions of revolt, but they were overpowered by Hannibal's 
 rapidity, and dismissed all thoughts of war. 
 
 There was no slackening in the siege of Saguntum, as 
 Maharbal, Himilco's son, whom Hannibal had left in com- 
 mand, pressed the attack so vigorously that the general's 
 absence was felt neither by the Saguntines nor by their foe. 
 Maharbal not only fought some successful engagements but 
 shook down a good part of the walls with three battering- 
 rams, and showed Hannibal on his return the gap all strewn 
 with fresh ruins. Hannibal at once marched his army straight 
 to the citadel; there was a fierce battle with great slaughter 
 on both sides, and part of the citadel was taken. 
 
 There was now a feeble hope of peace, and two men, 
 Alcon, of Saguntum, and Alorcus, a Spaniard, tried to realize 
 it. Alcon, thinking to gain something by entreaties, went 
 over to Hannibal by night without the knowledge of the 
 Saguntines; but as tears had no effect, and the hard terms 
 which might be expected from an enraged conqueror were 
 offered, he sank the envoy in the deserter, and remained with 
 the enemy, asserting that it would be death to any one to 
 propose peace on such conditions. Hannibal's demands, in- 
 deed, were these: They must make restitution to the Turde- 
 tani, surrender all their silver and gold, depart from the city 
 with one garment apiece, and settle wherever the Cartha- 
 ginians might bid them. When Alcon protested that the 
 Saguntines would not accept such terms of peace, Alorcus 
 declared that courage yields when all else yields, and he of- 
 
246 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 219 
 
 fered to be the negotiator of a peace. He was then one of 
 Hannibal's soldiers, but he was the recognised guest and 
 friend of the Saguntine community. In the sight of all he 
 gave up his weapon to the enemy's sentries, then crossed 
 the lines, and was conducted at his own request to the Sagun- 
 tine officer. Instantly there was a rush to the spot of citizens 
 of every class. When the crowd had been pushed aside, Alor- 
 cus had an audience before the senate, and made the following 
 speech : 
 
 " Had your fellow-citizen Alcon brought back to you from 
 Hannibal terms of peace, as he went to sue for them, this 
 journey of mine would have been needless, for I have come 
 to you neither as Hannibal's spokesman nor as a deserter. 
 But since Alcon — be the fault his or yours — has chosen to stay 
 with the enemy (his own it is, if he feigned alarm ; yours, if it 
 is dangerous to bring back to you a true report), I have now 
 come to you in consideration of the old tie of friendship be- 
 tween us, to let you know that there are certain terms of peace 
 and safety for you. That I am saying what I do say to you 
 for your own sakes and no one else's, this in itself should be 
 sufficient proof that I never mentioned peace to you as long 
 as either your own strength held out or you hoped for aid 
 from Rome. Now that you have no hope from the Romans, 
 and that your arms and walls no longer give you an adequate 
 defence, I bring you a peace which is inevitable rather than 
 favourable. Of this there is some hope on this condition, 
 that to the terms which Hannibal ofifers as a conqueror, you 
 listen as the conquered, and are prepared to recognise no 
 loss indeed in what you part with, seeing all is in the victor's 
 hand, but a bounty in whatever is left you. Your city, to a 
 great extent destroyed, and almost wholly in his grasp, he 
 takes from you; your lands he leaves you, and intends to 
 assign you a place where you can build a new town; all your 
 gold and silver, whether the property of the state or of pri- 
 vate citizens, he orders brought to him; your own persons 
 and the persons of your wives and children he preserves in- 
 violate, if you are willing to quit Saguntum without arms, 
 with two garments apiece. Such are the terms insisted on 
 by the victorious enemy; grievous and hard, as they are, your 
 plight commends them to you. For my part I do not despair 
 of some mitigation of them, when Hannibal has once got- 
 ten everything into his power. Yet I maintain that it is better 
 that you should endure even such terms, than be massacred 
 and suffer your wives and children to be seized and dragged 
 into slavery before your eyes under the right of conquest." 
 
B. C. 219] CAPTURE OF SAGUNTUM 247 
 
 In the throng that gradually crowded round to hear this 
 speech, the popular assembly had mingled with the senate. 
 All in a moment, before an answer had been given, the chief 
 citizens withdrew. All the gold and silver belonging to the 
 state or to private persons they collected and flung into 
 a fire hastily lighted for the purpose, and many of them then 
 threw themselves into the flames. Amid the panic and con- 
 sternation that this spread through the whole city, a further 
 alarm was heard from the citadel. A tower which had long 
 been tottering had fallen; a body of Carthaginians had rushed 
 through the breach, and signalled to their general that the 
 enemy's town was bare of its usual guards and sentries. Re- 
 solved promptly to seize such an opportunity, Hannibal at- 
 tacked in full force and took the city in a moment. He had 
 given orders for the massacre of all the adult males. Cruel 
 as the order was, it was seen by the issue to have been almost 
 a necessity. Who, in fact, could have been spared out of a 
 population who either shut themselves in with their wives and 
 children, and burned the houses over their heads, or, v/ith 
 swords in their hands, ceased only to fight when they lay 
 dying ? 
 
 The town was taken with an immense booty. Though 
 much of the property had been purposely destroyed by the 
 owners, though in the massacre scarce any distinction of age 
 was recognised by the enemy's fury, and the captives were 
 the soldiers' spoil, still it is certain that what was sold pro- 
 duced a considerable sum, and that much rich furniture and 
 apparel were sent to Carthage. 
 
 Some writers say that Saguntum was captured eight 
 months after the beginning of the siege, that Hannibal then 
 retired into winter quarters at New Carthage, and arrived 
 in Italy five months after his departure from that town. If 
 so, it can not be that Publius Cornelius and Tiberius Sem- 
 pronius were the consuls to whom the Saguntine envoys were 
 sent at the beginning of the siege, and who were still in ofifice 
 when they fought the battles of the Ticinus and the Trebia 
 with Hannibal, one of them being present at the former, both 
 at the latter. All this either occupied a somewhat shorter 
 time, or Saguntum was taken, instead of its siege having 
 been begun, early in the year in which Cornelius and Sem- 
 pronius were consuls. For the battle of the Trebia can not 
 have fallen so late as the year of Servilius or Flaminius, as 
 Flaminius entered on his consulate at Ariminum on the 
 declaration of the consul Sempronius, and Sempronius, who 
 went to Rome after the battle of the Trebia to nominate the 
 
248 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 219 
 
 consuls, returned to his army in winter quarters as soon as 
 the election was over. 
 
 At almost one and the same moment, the envoys who 
 had returned from Carthage reported that everything tended 
 to war, and the fall of Saguntum was announced. Grief the 
 most intense, pity for the unmerited destruction of their allies, 
 shame at having rendered them no aid, wrath against the Car- 
 thaginians, and alarm for the actual safety of the state, as 
 though tne enemy were already at their gates, so mastered the 
 senate, and so distracted them with the variety of simultane- 
 ous emotions, that there was more confusion than counsel 
 among them. A fiercer and more warlike foe they had never 
 had to encounter, nor had Rome ever been so slothful and un- 
 warlike. The Sardi, the Corsi, the Histri, the Illyrii,^ had an- 
 noyed rather than practised the arms of Rome, and with the 
 Gauls there had been skirmishing more than regular war. 
 The Carthaginian, their old enemy, uniformly victorious 
 through three-and-twenty years of the severest fighting among 
 the nations of Spain, and trained under a most determined 
 leader, was now crossing the Ebro, fresh from the destruction 
 of one of the richest of cities; he led with him the levies of 
 many Spanish tribes ; the nations of Gaul, ever eager for arms, 
 would rise at his bidding; a war with the whole world would 
 have to be fought in Italy, and before the walls of Rome. 
 
 The provinces to be assigned to the consuls had been 
 already named ; ^ they were now bidden to draw lots for them. 
 Spain fell to Cornelius ; Africa with Sicily to Sempronius. Six 
 legions were voted for the year, with such a force of allies as 
 the consuls might think fit, and as large a fleet as could pos- 
 sibly be equipped; of Romans there were enrolled twenty-four 
 thousand infantry, eighteen hundred cavalry; of the allies 
 forty thousand infantry, four thousand and four hundred cav- 
 alry, while two hundred and twenty five-banked ships ^ and 
 twenty light galleys were launched. 
 
 The question was then put to the commons — Was it their 
 will and pleasure that war should be declared against the 
 people of Carthage? For the war thus sanctioned, public 
 prayers were offered throughout Rome, and entreaty made 
 to the gods that what the people of Rome had decided might 
 have a good and prosperous issue. The forces were then 
 
 ' The Histri and Illyrii dwelt around tlie Gulf of Trieste. — D. O. 
 
 ' Referring to the debate above, when the news came that Saguntum 
 was besieged. — D. O. 
 
 " Quinqueremes, or ships with five banks of oars, were the ships of 
 the line at this period. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 219] AMBASSADORS SENT TO CARTHAGE 249 
 
 divided between the consuls. To Sempronius were assigned 
 two legions (these were each four thousand infantry and three 
 hundred cavalry), and sixteen thousand of the allied infantry, 
 with eighteen hundred cavalry, one hundred and sixty great 
 war ships, and twelve light galleys. Sempronius was de- 
 spatched with these land and sea forces to Sicily, whence he 
 was to cross into Africa, if the other consul proved sufficient 
 to keep the Carthaginians out of Italy. Cornelius had a smaller 
 army, as Lucius Manlius, the prjetor, was himself sent to Gaul 
 with a fairly strong force. It was in his fleet that he was weak- 
 est; he had but sixty five-banked ships, for it was not believed 
 that the enemy would invade by sea or attempt that kind of 
 warfare. He had also two Roman legions with their proper 
 complement of cavalry, fourteen thousand allied infantry, and 
 sixteen hundred cavalry. The province of Gaul contained two 
 Roman legions, ten thousand allied infantry, a thousand allied 
 and six hundred Roman cavalry, now destined for the same 
 object — the Carthaginian war. 
 
 Having completed these preparations, the Romans, anx- 
 ious to insure the due performance of all the proper prelimi- 
 naries to war, sent as envoys to Africa Quintus Fabius, Mar- 
 cus Livius, Lucius j^milius, Caius Licinius, Quintus Bsebius, 
 all men of venerable age, who were to question the Cartha- 
 ginians whether Hannibal had attacked Saguntum by order 
 of the state. Should they, as seemed likely, admit and justify 
 the act as done by order of the state, war was to be declared 
 against the Carthaginians. 
 
 As soon as the Roman envoys arrived and audience was 
 given them in the senate, Quintus Fabius asked nothing more 
 than the single question with which he had been intrusted. 
 Thereupon one of the Carthaginians replied: " Your previous 
 embassy, men of Rome, was peremptory enough, when you 
 demanded Hannibal on the assumption that he was attacking 
 Saguntum on his own responsibility; but this embassy, 
 though so far its language is milder, is in reality harder on 
 us. On that occasion it was Hannibal whom you denounced, 
 whose surrender you demanded; now, you want to extort 
 from us a confession of wrong-doing, and to claim instant 
 satisfaction on the strength of such confession. I should 
 say that the question ought not to be whether Saguntum 
 was attacked on the responsibility of the state, or of a private 
 citizen, but was the attack just or unjust? It is surely for us 
 to inquire and decide about our own citizen, as to what he 
 may have done on our instance or his own; with you we 
 have only to discuss whether the act was permissible by the 
 
250 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 219 
 
 treaty. Well, as you wish us to distinguish between what 
 generals do on the state's responsibility and what on their 
 own, we have a treaty with you which was concluded by your 
 consul, Caius Lutatius, and in this, though it guarded the 
 interests of the allies of both parties, there was no such pro- 
 vision for the Saguntines, who, in fact, were not yet your 
 allies. But you will say, the Saguntines are exempted from 
 attack by the treaty which you concluded with Hasdrubal. 
 Against this I am going to say nothing but what I have 
 learned from you. You said yourselves that you were not 
 bound by the treaty which Caius Lutatius, your consul, first 
 made with us, because it was made without the sanction of 
 the senate and the assent of the commons, and accordingly 
 another treaty was concluded with the sanction of the state. 
 If you are not bound by your own treaties unless they are 
 made with your full sanction and assent, assuredly we can not 
 accept the obligation of Hasdrubal's treaty, which he made 
 without our knowledge. So cease to talk of Saguntum and 
 the Ebro, and let your hearts at last give birth to the project 
 of which they have long been in labour." 
 
 Upon this the Roman gathered his robe into a fold, and 
 said: "Here we bring you peace and war; take which you 
 please." Instantly on the word rose a shout as fierce: " Give 
 us which you please." The Roman, in reply, shook out the 
 fold, and spoke again : " I give you war." The answer from 
 all was : " We accept it, and in the spirit with which we accept 
 it will we wage it." 
 
 This straightforward question and declaration of war 
 seemed to suit the dignity of the Roman people better than a 
 debate about treaty obligations. So it seemed before, and 
 more than ever now that Saguntum was destroyed. Had it 
 indeed been a matter to debate, how could Hasdrubal's treaty 
 be properly compared with the earlier treaty of Lutatius, the 
 one which was changed? For in that treaty there was an 
 express clause that it was to be binding only on condition of 
 being voted by the commons, while in Hasdrubal's treaty 
 there was no such exception, and the silence of so many years 
 during his lifetime had so thoroughly ratified it that even after 
 its author's death it was not altered in the least. Still, if they 
 were to stand by the first treaty, the Saguntines were quite 
 enough protected, as the allies of both nations were exempted 
 from attack. Nor was there a word to the efifect, " those who 
 were then aUies," or " not such as may be taken into alliance 
 hereafter." And as it was permitted to make new allies, who 
 could think it fair that they should admit no one into their 
 
B. C. 219] WAR DECLARED 251 
 
 friendship, whatever his services, or that having received peo- 
 ple under their protection they should not defend them, always 
 provided that the allies of the Carthaginians were not either 
 to be excited to revolt, or received as allies should they revolt 
 of themselves ? 
 
 The Roman envoys, following the instructions given them 
 at Rome, crossed from Carthage into Spain with the view of 
 visiting the Spanish states and drawing them into alliance, or 
 at least alienating them from the Carthaginians. First they 
 came to the Bargusii,^ who, being weary of Carthaginian rule, 
 received them favourably, and thus they roused a craving for 
 a change of condition among several tribes beyond the Ebro. 
 Then they went to the Volciani, whose answer, becoming 
 famous throughout Spain, set the other tribes against the 
 Roman alliance. Their oldest man gave the following reply 
 in their council: "Where, Romans, is your sense of shame 
 that you ask us to prefer your friendship to that of the Car- 
 thaginians, when those who have done so have been betrayed 
 more cruelly by you, their allies, than they have been destroyed 
 by the Carthaginian foe? Seek your allies, so I say, where 
 men have never heard of the destruction of Saguntum, as 
 the ruins of that city are a warning, as conspicuous as it is 
 grievous, to the tribes of Spain not to trust in any case to 
 Roman faith and alliance.'' They were told instantly to quit 
 the territory of the Volciani, and from not a single assembly 
 in Spain did they subsequently get a more favourable answer. 
 
 Having thus travelled through Spain with no result, they 
 passed into Gaul. Here they witnessed a strange and alarm- 
 ing sight. The people came armed to the assembly — their 
 national custom. When the envoys extolled the glory and 
 valour of the Roman people, and the greatness of their em- 
 pire, and demanded that they should not grant the Cartha- 
 ginian in his invasion of Italy a passage through their coun- 
 try and its towns, there was such a burst, it is said, of hooting 
 and laughter, that the magistrates and the elders could hardly 
 quiet the younger men; so senseless and impudent a request 
 it seemed, to propose that the Gauls, rather than let the war 
 pass into Italy, should draw it upon themselves, and ofifer 
 their own lands to the spoiler to save those of others. At last 
 the uproar was hushed, and this answer was given to the 
 envoys : That the Romans had done them no service, the 
 Carthaginians no injury, in return for which they need either 
 take up arms for Rome or against Carthage. On the other 
 hand, they heard that men of their own race were being driven 
 ' Just north of the Ebro. — D. O. 
 
252 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 219-218 
 
 from the lands and borders of Italy by the Roman people, 
 and were paying tribute and suffering other indignities. 
 
 Much the same was said and heard in all the other assem- 
 blies throughout Gaul, and not a friendly or even tolerably 
 peaceful answer was received until they came to Massilia.^ 
 There they got all the information which their allies had care- 
 fully and faithfully acquired for them; that already Hannibal 
 had gained a hold on the minds of the Gauls, but that even 
 he would not find the nation sufficiently tractable (so fierce 
 and untamable was its temper) unless he further won the af- 
 fections of the chiefs with gold, of which the Gaul is intensely 
 greedy. So the envoys, after visiting the tribes of Spain and 
 Gaul, returned to Rome soon after the departure of the consuls 
 to their provinces. They found the whole city excited by its 
 anticipation of war, all accounts agreeing that the Cartha- 
 ginians had crossed the Ebro. 
 
 After the taking of Saguntum Hannibal had withdrawn 
 into winter quarters at New Carthage. Hearing there what 
 had been done and decided on at Rome and at Carthage, and 
 that he was himself the cause of the war as well as its leader, 
 he divided and distributed the remainder of the booty in the 
 conviction that there must be no further delay. He then 
 called together his soldiers of Spanish blood. 
 
 " I think," said he, " that you, my allies, can see for your- 
 selves that, now that we have reduced all the tribes of Spain, 
 we must end our campaigns and disband our army, or else 
 carry the war into other countries. For only by our seeking 
 spoil and glory from other nations will these tribes enjoy the 
 fruits of victory as well as of peace. And so, as you are about 
 to engage in a war far away from your homes, and it is uncer- 
 tain when you will again see those homes and all that is there 
 dear to you, I grant leave of absence to any one who wishes 
 to visit his kindred. I bid you be present in early spring, 
 that with the gods' good help we may begin what will be a 
 war of prodigious glory and recompense." 
 
 All or nearly all welcomed the spontaneous offer of an op- 
 portunity to visit their homes; even then they had a longing 
 to see their kindred, and they foresaw a longing more pro- 
 tracted in time to come. Rest during the entire winter be- 
 tween toils that already had been or were soon to be endured, 
 renewed both body and mind with strength to encounter 
 afresh every hardship. 
 
 In early spring they assembled according to orders. After 
 
 ' Marseilles, — D. O, 
 
B. C. 2i8] ASSIGNING THE TROOPS 253 
 
 reviewing each tribe's contingent, Hannibal went to Gades/ 
 where he paid a vow to Herctiles,^ and bound himself by fresh 
 vows should his other schemes prosper. Then dividing his 
 attention between a war of attack and a war of defence, he 
 resolved on securing Sicily by a strong force, so that Africa 
 might not be open and exposed to the Romans on that side, 
 while he was himself advancing on Italy overland through 
 Spain and Gaul. To take the place of these troops Hannibal 
 demanded for himself re-enforcements from Africa, chiefly of 
 light-armed spearmen, so that Africans might serve in Spain 
 and Spaniards in Africa, each set of soldiers being likely to 
 fight better away from home, as under the influence, so to 
 speak, of mutual obligations. To Africa he sent off thirteen 
 thousand eight hundred and fifty infantry with light leathern 
 shields, eight hundred and seventy Balearic slingers, and 
 twelve hundred cavalry, made up from a number of tribes. 
 These forces were by his order partly to garrison Carthage, 
 partly to be dispersed throughout Africa. He likewise sent 
 recruiting officers into the states, and having raised a levy 
 of four thousand picked youth, directed that they should be 
 marched to Carthage, to serve both as garrison troops and as 
 hostages. 
 
 Spain, too, Hannibal felt, must not be forgotten, the less 
 so indeed as he was well aware that the Roman envoys had 
 travelled through the country to sound the temper of the 
 chiefs. So he assigned the province to his brother Hasdrubal, 
 a thoroughly energetic man, and secured it with troops, mainly 
 African, that is, with eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty 
 infantry of African race, three hundred Ligurians, and five 
 hundred Baliarians. To this auxiliary infantry were added 
 four hundred and fifty Libyphoenician cavalry, a race this of 
 mingled Carthaginian and African blood, with Numidians and 
 Moors, dwellers on the shores of the ocean, to the number of 
 eight hundred, and a small body of Ilergetes ^ from Spain, 
 consisting of two hundred cavalry, and, that no description 
 of land force might be wanting, twenty-one elephants. Has- 
 drubal had also a fleet given him to defend the coast, fifty 
 five-banked, two four-banked, and five three-banked ships, 
 for it might well be believed that now again the Romans 
 would wage war on the element on which they had already 
 been successful. But of these only thirty-two five-banked, 
 
 ' Now Cadiz.— D. O. 
 
 ' Melkarth, confounded by the Greeks with Hercules, was the national 
 numen of the Phoenician race. — D. O. 
 
 ' These dwelt along the southern slope of the Pyrenees.^D. O. 
 
254 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 with the five three-banked ships were furnished and equipped 
 with crews. 
 
 From Gades Hannibal returned to the winter quarters of 
 his army at New Carthage. Thence he led his men by the 
 coast past the town of Onusa to the Ebro. There he saw in 
 a dream, so the story goes, a youth of godlike shape, who 
 said that he had been sent by Jupiter to conduct the army 
 of Hannibal into Italy; that he was therefore to follow and 
 nowhere turn his eyes away from him. At first Hannibal 
 followed trembling, neither looking around nor behind; after 
 a while, with the natural curiosity of the human mind, as he 
 wondered what it could be on which he was forbidden to look 
 back, he could not restrain his eyes; he then saw behind him 
 a serpent of marvellous size moving onward with a fearful 
 destruction of trees and bushes; close after this followed a 
 storm cloud with crashing thunder. When he asked what 
 was the monster and what the portent meant, he was told it 
 was the devastation of Italy; let him go straight on and ask 
 no more questions, and leave the decrees of the fates in dark- 
 ness. 
 
 Cheered by the vision, he crossed the Ebro with his army 
 in three divisions, after having first despatched messengers 
 with gifts to gain the good-will of the Gauls in the regions 
 which his army had to traverse, and to reconnoitre the passes 
 of the Alps. It was with ninety thousand infantry and twelve 
 thousand cavalry that he crossed the Ebro. Then he reduced 
 the Ilergetes, the Bargusii, and the Ausetani, and also Lace- 
 tania, a district at the foot of the Pyrenees. All this country 
 he put in charge of Hanno, who was to have the control of 
 the passes connecting Spain and Gaul. Hanno had ten thou- 
 sand infantry and a thousand cavalry given him to garrison 
 the district which he was to hold. At this point, as soon as 
 the army began its march through the defiles of the Pyrenees, 
 and more definite rumours of war with Rome had spread 
 through the barbarian host, three thousand infantry of the 
 Carpetani left him. It was understood that what alarmed 
 them was not so much the war as the long march and the 
 hopelessness of the passage of the Alps. As to recall or de- 
 tain them by force would have been a dangerous experiment, 
 likely to exasperate the wild tempers of his other allies, Han- 
 nibal sent back to their homes more than seven thousand 
 men, whom he had also perceived to be weary of the service, 
 and he pretended that even the Carpetani had been dismissed 
 by his own act. 
 
 Then, that his men fnight not feel the temptation occasioned 
 
B. C. 2i8] THE MARCH BEGUN 255 
 
 by delay or inaction, he crossed the Pyrenees and encamped at 
 the town of IHberri. Though the Gauls understood that the war 
 was directed against Italy, yet, as it was rumoured that the 
 Spaniards beyond the Pyrenees had been reduced by force and 
 strong garrisons set over them, some of the tribes were roused 
 to arms by the dread of enslavement, and assembled at Rus- 
 cino. Hannibal on being told of this, as he feared delay more 
 than defeat, sent envoys to their chiefs, to say that he wished 
 to have a personal interview with them; they might either 
 come nearer to Iliberri, or he would himself go to Ruscino; 
 thus brought nearer together they could meet more easily. 
 " I will gladly," he added, " receive you in my camp, or I 
 will go myself to you without hesitation, for I have come as 
 a friend, not an enemy to the Gauls, and will not draw sword, 
 unless the Gauls compel me, till I reach Italy." Such was the 
 message conveyed by the envoys. But when the Gallic chiefs, 
 instantly moving their camp to Iliberri, came without any 
 reluctance to Hannibal, it was by his gifts that they were 
 persuaded to let his army march perfectly unmolested through 
 their territories past the town of Ruscino. 
 
 In Italy meanwhile nothing was known but the bare fact, 
 reported at Rome by envoys from Massilia, that Hannibal 
 had crossed the Ebro. At that moment, just as if it was the 
 Alps that had been crossed, the Boii, after sounding the In- 
 subres, revolted, not so much from old animosities against 
 Rome, as because they were annoyed at the recent establish- 
 ment of the colonies of Placentia ^ and Cremona near the Po 
 in Gallic territory. Suddenly they flew to arms, burst into 
 the territory in dispute and spread such dismay and con- 
 fusion that even the three Roman commissioners who had 
 come to assign the lands,^ Caius Lutatius, Caius Servilius, 
 and Marcus Annius, as well as the rural population, dared not 
 trust themselves to the walls of Placentia, and took refuge 
 in Mutina.=' About the name of Lutatius there is no question ; 
 for Annius and Servilius some chronicles give the names of 
 Acilius and Herennius, others those of Cornelius Asina and 
 Papirius Maso. There is some doubt too whether the envoys 
 sent to remonstrate with the Boii were insulted, or whether 
 the commissioners, as they were measuring the lands, were at- 
 tacked. While they were besieged in Mutina, and the Gauls, 
 a people quite ignorant of the science of assaulting towns and 
 very indolent in all military operations, sat idle without at- 
 tempting to assail the walls, sham negotiations for peace were 
 
 ' Modern Piacenza.— D. O. " That is, to the colonists.— D. O. 
 
 ' Modern Modena. — D. O. 
 
256 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 218 
 
 begun. The envoys were summoned by the Gallic chiefs to 
 a conference, and there, contrary to all international law, and 
 in actual violation of the pledge given for the special occa- 
 sion, were arrested, the Gauls declaring that they would not 
 let them go unless their own hostages were restored. 
 
 On hearing of this treatment of the envoys, and of the 
 danger of Mutina and its garrison, the praetor, Lucius Man- 
 lius, burning with anger, marched in loose order to the place. 
 The road at that time was surrounded with woods, and most 
 of the country was wild. Manlius advanced without recon- 
 noitring, and fell headlong into an ambuscade, out of which 
 he struggled with difficulty into open ground after great loss 
 to his men. There he fortified a camp, and as the Gauls lacked 
 confidence to assail it, the spirits of his soldiers revived, 
 though it was understood that as many as five hundred had 
 fallen. He then began his march afresh, nor did the enemy 
 show himself as long as the troops advanced over open 
 ground; but as soon as the v/oods were once more entered, 
 the Gauls fell on the rear, spread the greatest confusion and 
 panic through all the army, and cut down seven hundred men, 
 capturing also six standards. When they were once clear 
 of the pathless and intricate forest, the Gauls ceased to terrify, 
 and the Romans to feel alarm. Thence through open coun- 
 try, where they marched easily and safely, they pushed on 
 to Tannetum,"^ a district close to the Po. There protected 
 by temporary intrenchments and the windings of the river, 
 with the help, too, of the Brixian Gauls, they defended them- 
 selves against the daily increasing multitude of the enemy. 
 
 As soon as this sudden outbreak was reported at Rome, 
 and the senate heard that a war with the Gauls was added to 
 the war with Carthage, Gains Atilius, the praetor, was ordered 
 to re-enforce Manlius with one Roman legion and five thou- 
 sand allies, newly levied by the consul. Manlius reached 
 Tannetum without any fighting, as the enemy had retired in 
 alarm. 
 
 Publius Cornelius, too, having raised a new legion in place 
 of that which had been despatched with the prjetor, sailed 
 from Rome with sixty war ships along the coasts of Etruria 
 and Liguria, and thence past the mountains of the Salyes, 
 and so arrived at Massilia. He pitched his camp at the near- 
 est mouth of the Rhone, for that river divides itself into sev- 
 eral streams as it flows into the sea. He then encamped, 
 hardly believing that Hannibal had yet crossed the Pyrenees. 
 When, however, he understood that he was actually medi- 
 
 ' At or near what is now the village of St. Ilario. D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i8] AT THE RHONE 257 
 
 tating the passage of the Rhone, as he did not know where 
 he might meet him, and his soldiers were not properly recov- 
 ered from the fatigue of the voyage, he sent forward mean- 
 while three hundred picked cavalry with some guides from 
 Massiha and from the friendly Gauls to reconnoitre the whole 
 country and get a safe view of the enemy. 
 
 By this time Hannibal had reached the territory of the 
 Volcse,^ a powerful tribe, after having frightened or bribed 
 all their neighbours into submission. They dwell on both 
 banks of the Rhone ; but not feeling confidence that they 
 could keep the Carthaginian out of the territory nearest him, 
 and anxious to have the stream as a defence, they crossed the 
 river with almost their whole tribe, and occupied the further 
 bank in arms. The other tribes by the Rhone, and all even 
 of this same tribe who had clung to their homes, Hannibal 
 bribed into collecting and building vessels, and it was indeed 
 their own wish that his army should cross and thereby relieve 
 their lands from the pressure of such a multitude. Thus an 
 immense number of vessels and boats, roughly constructed 
 for use on the spot, were brought together. Then, too, the 
 Gauls setting the example of making new boats, which they 
 hollowed out from single trees, the soldiers also, tempted 
 by the abundance of timber and the ease of the work, hastily 
 shaped out some clumsy hulks to convey themselves and their 
 belongings to the other side, satisfied if these would only float 
 and hold a cargo. 
 
 And now all was fairly ready for the passage, while facing 
 them stood the enemy in menacing array, cavalry and in- 
 fantry, occupying the entire bank. To distract their attention 
 Hannibal ordered Hanno, son of Bomilcar, to go with part of 
 the army, chiefly Spaniards, one day's march up the stream, 
 starting at the first watch of the night, to cross the river on 
 the first opportunity as stealthily as possible, and taking a 
 circuit to fall on the enemy's rear at the required moment. 
 The Gallic guides provided for the purpose, told him that, 
 about twenty-five miles higher up, the river encircled a little 
 island, and could be crossed at the point of division, where 
 the channel was broader and consequently shallower. At this 
 place timber was felled in eager haste, and rafts constructed 
 for the passage of men and horses and other cargo. The 
 Spaniards, without any trouble, threw their clothes on blad- 
 ders, laid their light shields on these, and resting on them 
 swam the stream. The rest of the army crossed on a bridge 
 of rafts; having encamped close to the river they recruited 
 
 ' They dwelt in the neighbourhood of Orange. — D. O. 
 17 
 
258 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 218 
 
 themselves by a day's repose after the fatigue of their night's 
 march and laborious work, while their general watched in- 
 tently the opportunity of executing his plan. 
 
 Next day they advanced, and showed by some smoke from 
 an eminence that they had crossed and were not far off. Han- 
 nibal seeing this, not to miss his opportunity, gave the signal 
 for crossing. His infantry now had their light boats ready and 
 in order, and his cavalry had larger rafts chiefly on account 
 of the horses. A line of vessels was thrown across higher up 
 to sustain the force of the current, and so gave smooth water 
 to the boats which were crossing below; many of the horses 
 as they sv/am were towed by leathern thongs from the sterns, 
 beside those which had been put on board, saddled and bridled 
 and ready for their riders as soon as they had landed. 
 
 The Gauls on the bank rushed at them with all manner 
 of cries and their customary war songs, waving their shields 
 over their heads and brandishing javelins in their right hands, 
 though confronting them was this threatening array of vessels, 
 with the terrific roar of the water and the confused shouts 
 of sailors and soldiers, some of whom were struggling to stem 
 the force of the stream, while others on the opposite shore 
 were cheering on their comrades as they crossed. Disturbed 
 as they were already at the alarming scene before their eyes, 
 a yet more appalling din fell on their ears from the rear, where 
 Hanno had taken their camp. In another moment he was 
 himself on the spot. On either side they were beset with 
 peril, for a vast array of armed men was landing from the 
 vessels, and a host was unexpectedly pressing them in their 
 rear. The Gauls, repulsed in their attempt to fight a double 
 battle, broke through where the way seemed most open, and 
 fled in wild panic to their villages. Hannibal crossed with 
 the rest of his army at his leisure, and encamped, henceforth 
 heartily despising any menaces from the Gauls. 
 
 For the passage of the elephants there were, I believe, 
 various devices. At any rate there are various traditions how 
 it was accomplished. Some say that the elephants were 
 crowded together on the bank, that here the fiercest of them, 
 provoked by its driver, pursued the man as he retreated into 
 the water, and drew the whole herd after it; afterward the 
 simple force of the stream carried them all to the opposite 
 bank, as they lost their footing one by one in their terror at 
 the depth. It is, however, more generally understood that 
 they were transported on rafts; such a plan would have 
 seemed safer beforehand, as afterward it is certainly more 
 credible. A raft two hundred feet long and fifty broad was 
 
B. C. 2i8] CROSSING THE RIVER 259 
 
 extended from the bank into the water, and, to save it from 
 being carried down the stream, it was attached to a point up 
 the river by a number of strong hawsers, and then covered 
 hke a bridge with a layer of earth, so that the beasts might 
 walk on it as confidently as if it were firm ground. To this 
 was fastened another raft of equal breadth, a hundred feet 
 long, suitable for being ferried across; then the elephants were 
 driven, the females taking the lead, along the stationary raft, 
 as if it were a road. When they had passed on to the smaller 
 raft attached to it, the ropes with which this was slightly 
 fastened were instantly untied, and it was towed to the oppo- 
 site bank by some light craft. In this way as soon as the first 
 had been landed, the rest were fetched and conveyed across. 
 They showed no alarm while they were moving on what 
 seemed a bridge connected with the land; the first panic was 
 when the raft was detached from its surroundings, and they 
 were carried into the deep channel. Then pressing one on 
 another, as those on the edge drew back from the water, they 
 showed decided signs of terror, until their very fear at the 
 sight of the water all around them made them quiet. Some 
 in their fury fell off into the stream, but their weight kept 
 them steady, and shaking oft their drivers and feeling their 
 way into shallow water they reached land. 
 
 During the passage of the elephants, Hannibal sent five 
 hundred Numidian cavalry to the Roman camp to reconnoitre 
 and ascertain the position, the strength, and the plans of their 
 army. The three hundred Roman cavalry which had been 
 despatched, as before related, from the mouth of the Rhone, 
 fell in with this squadron. A battle, fierce out of proportion 
 to the number of the combatants, ensued. There were many 
 wounded and an almost equal number killed on both sides, 
 and the Romans were thoroughly exhausted when the flight 
 and panic of the Numidians gave them the victory. Of the 
 victors there fell about a hundred and sixty, not all Romans, 
 some being Gauls; of the vanquished more than two hundred. 
 Here was at once a prelude and an omen of the war, por- 
 tending indeed to Rome success in the final issue, but a vic- 
 tory far from bloodless, to be won after a doubtful struggle. 
 
 On the return of the men after this battle to their re- 
 spective generals, Scipio could form no resolution but to adapt 
 his plans to the designs and movements of the enemy, and 
 Hannibal also was in doubt whether he should persist in the 
 advance toward Italy which he had begun, or should fight 
 the Roman army, which had been the first to encounter him. 
 He was deterred from immediate battle by the arrival of 
 
26o LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 envoys from the Boii, and their chief Magalus, who declared 
 that they would be his guides in all his marches, and his 
 comrades in danger, while they maintained that he must at- 
 tack Italy with al! the resources of his arms and with strength 
 unimpaired. The mass, indeed, of the army dreaded the 
 enemy, for they had not yet forgotten the last war, but they 
 feared still more the endless march over the Alps, _ which 
 rumours had made terrible, at any rate to the inexperienced. 
 Hannibal accordingly, his resolve now being fixed to pur- 
 sue his march and to advance on Italy, assembled his men 
 and worked on their feelings by the various methods of re- 
 proof and encouragement. " I wonder," said he, " what sud- 
 den panic can have seized hearts ever fearless? For many 
 a year have you fought and conquered; nor did you quit 
 Spain till all the tribes and countries embraced between two 
 distant seas were under Carthaginian sway. Then, in your 
 wrath at the demand of the Roman people for the surrender 
 as criminals of the besiegers of Saguntum, whoever they might 
 be, you crossed the Ebro to blot out the name of Rome and 
 to give freedom to the world. Not a man of you thought 
 the march too long, which you were then beginning, from the 
 setting to the rising sun; now, when you see far the greatest 
 portion of it actually traversed — the passes of the Pyrenees 
 surmounted amid the fiercest tribes — the Rhone, that broad 
 river, crossed in the face of many thousand Gauls, and the 
 very force of the stream itself vanquished — when you have in 
 sight the Alps the other side of which is in Italy — here, at 
 the very gates of the enemy, you are halting in weariness. 
 What do you imagine the Alps to be but mountain heights? 
 Suppose them to be loftier than the ranges of the Pyrenees, 
 surely there is no spot on earth which touches heaven or is 
 an insuperable barrier to man. As for the Alps, they are 
 inhabited and cultivated; they produce and rear living crea- 
 tures; their gorges are passable for armies. Those very en- 
 voys, whom you see, were not wafted aloft on wings across 
 them; neither were their ancestors natives of the country; 
 they were foreign settlers in Italy, who often in vast troops, 
 with their wives and children, as is the habit of emigrants, 
 safely crossed these very Alps. To the armed soldier, who 
 carries naught but the implements of war, what is impassable 
 or insurmountable? What danger, what toil for six months 
 did we not undergo to take Saguntum? Aiming as we are 
 at Rome, the capital of the world, can we think anything so 
 formidable and arduous as to delay our enterprise? The 
 Gauls once captured what the Carthaginian despairs of ap- 
 
B. C. 2i8] AMONG THE ALLOBROGES 261 
 
 preaching. Either then yield in spirit and in valour to a peo- 
 ple whom in these days you have so repeatedly vanquished, 
 or look forward to the plain between the Tiber and the walls 
 of Rome as the goal of your expedition." 
 
 Having inspirited them with these words of encourage- 
 ment, Hannibal bade them refresh themselves and prepare 
 for their march. Next day he advanced up the Rhone toward 
 the interior of Gaul, not because this was the more direct 
 route to the Alps, but thinking that the further he withdrew 
 from the sea, the less likely he was to encounter the Romans, 
 whom it was not his intention to engage till his arrival in Italy. 
 In four days' march he reached the Island. Here the Isere 
 and the Rhone, which pour down their waters from Alpine 
 summits far apart, and embrace a large stretch of country, 
 unite in one stream, and the plains between have received 
 the name of the Island. In the neighbourhood are settled 
 the Allobroges, a tribe even at that time inferior to none 
 of the tribes of Gaul in resources or renown. They were 
 then at strife. Two brothers were contending for the 
 throne. The elder, who had previously been king, Brancus 
 by name, was now being thrust aside by his younger brother, 
 and a party of the younger men, who had more might than 
 right on their side. The settlement of the feud was very op- 
 portunely referred to Hannibal, and he having thus to dispose 
 of the kingdom restored the elder brother to power, such 
 having been the feeling of the senate and the chiefs. For 
 this service he was helped with supplies and an abundance of 
 all things, clothing especially, which the notorious horrors 
 of the cold in the Alps compelled him to provide. 
 
 Having composed the feud of the Allobroges, Hannibal 
 marched toward the Alps, not, however, pursuing a direct 
 course, but turning leftward to the country of the Tricastini, 
 from which again he passed to that of the Tricorii, along the 
 extreme frontier of the Vocontii, a route at no point em- 
 barrassing till he reached the river Druentia.'^ One of the 
 rivers of the Alps, it is naturally far the most difficult to cross 
 of all the streams in Gaul ; for though it rushes down with a 
 vast body of water, it is not navigable, not being confined 
 within banks, and flowing in many channels at once, and these 
 not always the same. Its ever-changing shallows and eddies, 
 which make the passage perplexing even to one on foot, and 
 the rocks and gravelly bed over which it rolls, allow no sure 
 
 ' This is the modern Durance, but the uncertainty as to the line of 
 Hannibal's march begins here. Had he followed the course indicated he 
 would not have met the Durance. — D. O. 
 
262 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 and safe foothold. At this time it happened to be swollen 
 by rains, and so caused much confusion among the men as 
 they crossed — a confusion increased by other alarms, and by 
 their own haste and bewildered cries. 
 
 About three days after Hannibal had moved from the 
 Rhone, the consul Publius Cornelius reached the enerny's 
 camp with his army in order of battle, resolved to fight with- 
 out a moment's delay. Seeing, however, that the lines were 
 abandoned, and that the enemy must be too far ahead to be 
 easily overtaken, he went back to the sea and to his ships, 
 assured that he could thus more safely and conveniently en- 
 counter Hannibal on his descent from the Alps. But not to 
 leave Spain, his allotted province, bare of Roman defence, he 
 sent his brother Cneius Scipio with the largest part of his 
 army against Hasdrubal, not merely to protect our old allies 
 and form fresh alliances, but actually to drive Hasdrubal out 
 of the country. Scipio himself with quite a small force re- 
 turned to Genua, '^ purposing to defend Italy with the troops 
 encamped in the neighbourhood, of the Po. 
 
 From the Druentia Hannibal marched through a country 
 generally fiat to the Alps, wholly unmolested by the Gauls in 
 those parts. And then, though rumour which usually mag- 
 nifies the unknown far beyond truth had given some anticipa- 
 tion of the facts, still the near sight of the mountain heights 
 with their snows almost mingling with the sky, the rude huts 
 perched on the rocks, cattle and beasts of burden shrivelled 
 with cold, human beings unkempt and wild, and all things 
 animate and inanimate stiffened with frost, with other scenes 
 more horrible to behold than to describe, revived the terror of 
 the soldiers. 
 
 As the vanguard was struggling up the first slopes, the 
 mountain tribes showed themselves on the overhanging hills. 
 Had they lain hid in some of the obscurer valleys and sud- 
 denly rushed out to the attack, they must have caused terrible 
 panic and loss. Hannibal ordered a halt, and the Gauls were 
 sent on to reconnoitre. When he ascertained that here there was 
 no passage for his troops, he pitched his camp in the broadest 
 valley he could find, where the country all around was rugged 
 and precipitous. Then from those same Gauls, mingling and 
 conversing with the mountaineers, whom indeed in language 
 
 ' On the site of the modern Genoa. It is mentioned here for the 
 first time in history. Its situation rendered it the Icey to Liguria and 
 Cisalpine Gaul, As a Roman municipium it became a centre for the com- 
 merce of the district, but does not appear to have been a place of first-rate 
 importance. 
 
B. C. 218] CROSSING THE ALPS 263 
 
 and manners they resembled, he learned that it was only by 
 day that the pass was barred, and that at night all dispersed 
 to their various dwellings. With early dawn he advanced to 
 the foot of the hills, as if he meant to push his way by force 
 in open day through the defiles. In this feint, preparing a 
 movement not really intended, the day was spent, and the 
 camp was fortified on the spot on which it had been pitched. 
 But the moment Hannibal saw the mountaineers coming 
 down from the hills and the outposts weakly manned, he had 
 a multitude of fires lit for show, greater than would correspond 
 with the number of troops in camp, and then leaving behind 
 him the baggage with the cavalry as well as the greater part 
 of the infantry, and taking with him some lightly armed men, 
 the bravest he could pick, he rapidly mounted the passes and 
 established himself on the very hills which the enemy had 
 occupied. 
 
 ^^t daybreak the camp was broken up and the rest of the 
 army began to move. The mountaineers on a signal given 
 were now gathering in force from their fortresses to one of 
 their regular positions, when suddenly they saw the enemy, 
 some on the heights over their heads and in possession of 
 their own stronghold, the remainder marching through the 
 pass. The double impression thus made on their sight and 
 imagination held them for a brief while rooted to the earth. 
 Soon, when they saw the hurry in the defiles, and how the 
 army was in utter confusion from its own disorder, the horses 
 especially being wild with fright, they thought that, could 
 they in any way increase the panic, it would insure the ene- 
 my's destruction, and rushed down the face of the rocks they 
 knew so well, whether along pathless steeps or obscure tracks. 
 Then indeed both the foe and the perils of the place fought 
 against the Carthaginians, and while every man strove for him- 
 self to get soonest out of danger, there was more struggling 
 among the soldiers themselves than between them and the 
 enemy. The horses were the most dangerous hindrance to the 
 army. They were terrified and scared by the confused cries 
 which the woods and echoing valleys further multiplied, and 
 if they chanced to be struck and wounded, in the wildness of 
 their terror they made fearful havoc alike among the men 
 and the baggage of every description. The pressure, too, in 
 the defile, each side of which was a sheer precipice, hurled 
 numbers down to an immense depth, and among them were 
 soldiers with their accoutrements; but it was more particu- 
 larly the beasts with their burdens, which rolled down with 
 just such a crash as a falling house. 
 
264 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 Horrible as all this was to behold, Hannibal halted a while 
 and kept his men in their ranks, so as not to aggravate the dis- 
 order and panic, and then, as soon as he saw a break in the 
 line, and the danger that the army might accomplish the 
 passage safely indeed but to no purpose, because stripped 
 of all their baggage, he hurried down from his position pn 
 the heights and routed the enemy, but at the same time_ in- 
 creased the confusion of his own troops. This confusion, 
 however, was quieted in a moment when the flight of the 
 mountaineers left the roads clear, and all soon marched 
 through the pass not merely in peace but almost in silence. 
 Next "he took a fortress, the capital of the district, and some 
 villages in the neighbourhood, and fed his troops for three 
 days on the corn and cattle he had seized. In those three 
 days he accomplished a considerable march, as there was not 
 much hindrance from the ground or from the mountaineers, 
 whom they had cowed at the outset. 
 
 Then they reached a canton, which, for a mountain dis- 
 trict, was densely peopled. Here Hannibal was all but cut 
 off, not by open fighting, but by his own peculiar arts, treach- 
 ery and ambuscade. Some old men, governors of the for- 
 tresses, came to him as envoys, with assurances that warned 
 by the salutary examples of the misfortunes of others, they 
 preferred to make trial of the friendship rather than of the 
 might of the Carthaginians ; that thereupon they would obedi- 
 ently do his bidding; and they begged him to accept sup- 
 plies, guides for his march, and hostages as a guarantee of 
 their promises. Hannibal, feeling that he must not either 
 rashly trust or slight them, lest refusal might make them open 
 enemies, gave them a gracious answer. He accepted the of- 
 fered hostages, and used the supplies which they had them- 
 selves brought to the road, but he followed the guides with 
 his army in fighting order, not as if he was among a friendly 
 people. His van was formed of the elephants and cavalry, 
 while he marched himself in the rear with the main strength 
 of the infantry, anxiously reconnoitring at every step. The 
 moment they entered a narrow pass, dominated on one side 
 by an overhanging height, the barbarians sprang out of their 
 ambuscades in every direction, attacking in front and rear, 
 discharging missiles and coming to close quarters, and roll- 
 ing down huge stones upon the army. It was on the rear 
 that the enemy pressed in greatest force. The infantry col- 
 umn wheeled and faced him; but it was proved beyond a 
 doubt that, had not the rear been well strengthened, a terrible 
 disaster would have been sustained in that pass. Even as it 
 
B. C. 2i8] FIGHTING THE MOUNTAINEERS 265 
 
 was, they were brought to the extremest jeopardy, and were 
 within a hair's breadth of destruction. For while Hannibal 
 was hesitating about sending his men into the defile because, 
 though he could himself support the cavalry, he had no reserve 
 in his rear for the infantry, the mountaineers rushed on his 
 flanks, and having cut his line in half barred his advance. One 
 night he had to pass without his cavalry and his baggage. 
 
 Next day, as the barbarians were less active in their at- 
 tacks, the army was again united, and fought its way through 
 the pass, but not without loss, which, however, fell more 
 heavily on the beasts of burden than on the men. From this 
 point the mountaineers became less numerous ; hovering 
 round more like brigands than soldiers, they threatened now 
 the van, now the rear, whenever the ground gave them a 
 chance, or stragglers in advance or behind offered an oppor- 
 tunity. The elephants, though it was a tedious business to 
 drive them along the narrow precipitous passes, at least pro- 
 tected the troops from the enemy wherever they went, in- 
 spiring as they did, a peculiar fear in all who were unused to 
 approach them. 
 
 On the ninth day they reached the top of the Alps, passing 
 for the most part over trackless steeps, and by devious ways, 
 into which they were led by the treachery of their guides. 
 Two days they encamped on the height, and the men, worn 
 out with hardships and fighting, were allowed to rest. Some 
 beasts of burden too which had fallen down among the crags, 
 found their way to the camp by following the army's track. 
 The men were already worn out and wearied with their many 
 miseries, when a fall of snow coming with the setting of 
 the Pleiades added to their sufferings a terrible fear. At day- 
 break the march was resumed, and as the army moved wearily 
 over ground all buried in snow, languor and despair were vis- 
 ibly written on every face, when Hannibal stepped to the front, 
 and having ordered a halt on a peak which commanded a wide 
 and distant prospect, pointed to Italy and to the plains round 
 the Po, as they lay beneath the heights of the Alps, telling his 
 men, " 'Tis the walls not of Italy only but of Rome itself that 
 you are now scaling. What remains," he added, " will be a 
 smooth descent ; in one, or at the most, in two battles we shall 
 have the citadel and capital of Italy in our grasp and power." 
 
 The army then began to advance, and now even the enemy 
 attempted nothing but some stealthy ambuscades, as oppor- 
 tunity offered. The remainder, however, of the march proved 
 far more difficult than the ascent, as the Alps for the most 
 part on the Italian side have a shorter and therefore a steeper 
 
266 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 218 
 
 slope. In fact the whole way was precipitous, narrow, and 
 slippery, so much so that they could not keep themselves from 
 falling, nor could those who had once stumbled maintain their 
 foothold. Thus they tumbled one over another and the beasts 
 of burden over the men. 
 
 Next they came to a much narrower pass with walls of 
 rock so perpendicular that a light-armed soldier could hardly 
 let himself down by feeling his way, and grasping with his 
 hands the bushes and roots sticking out around him. The 
 place of old was naturally precipitous, and now by a recent 
 landslip it had broken away sheer to a depth of a thousand 
 feet. Here the cavalry halted, as if it must be the end of their 
 route, and Hannibal wondering what delayed the march, was 
 told that the rock was impassable. Then he went himself 
 to examine the spot. There seemed to be no doubt that he 
 must lead his army round by pathless and hitherto untrodden 
 slopes, however tedious might be the circuit. This route, 
 however, was impracticable; for while on last season's still un- 
 melted snow lay a fresh layer of moderate depth, where the 
 foot of the first comer found a good hold on the soft and not 
 very deep drift, as soon as it had been once trampled down 
 under the march of such a host of men and beasts, they had 
 to walk on the bare ice beneath, and the liquid mud from the 
 melting snow. Here there was a horrible struggle. The slip- 
 pery ice allowed no firm foothold, and indeed betrayed the 
 foot all the more quickly on the slope, so that whether a man 
 helped himself to rise by his hands or knees, his supports gave 
 way, and he fell again. And here there were no stalks or 
 roots to which hand or foot could cling. Thus there was in- 
 cessant rolling on nothing but smooth ice or slush of snow. 
 The beasts broke through, occasionally treading down even 
 to the very lowest layer of snow, and when they fell, as they 
 wildly struck out with their hoofs in their efTorts to rise, they 
 cut clean to the bottom, till many of them stuck fast in the 
 hard and deep frozen ice, as if caught in a trap. 
 
 At last, when both men and beasts were worn out with 
 fruitless exertion, they encamped on a height, in a spot which 
 with the utmost difficulty they had cleared ; so much snow 
 had to be dug out and removed. The soldiers were then 
 marched ofif to the work of making a road through the rock, 
 as there only was a passage possible. Having to cut into the 
 stone, they heaped up a huge pile of wood from great trees in 
 the neighbourhood, which they had felled and" lopped. As 
 soon as there was strength enough in the wind to create a 
 blaze they lighted the pile, and "melted the rocks, as they 
 
B. C. 2i8] MELTING THE ROCKS 267 
 
 heated, by pouring vinegar on them. The burning stone was 
 cleft open with iron implements, and then they relieved the 
 steepness of the slopes by gradual winding tracks, so that even 
 the elephants as well as the other beasts could be let down. 
 Four days were spent in this rocky pass, and the beasts almost 
 perished of hunger, as the heights generally are quite bare, 
 and such herbage as grows is buried in snow. Amid the 
 lower slopes were valleys, sunny hills too, and streams, and 
 woods beside them, and spots now at last more worthy to be 
 the habitations of man. Here they sent the beasts to feed, 
 and the men worn out with the toil of road-making, were 
 allowed to rest. In the next three days they reached level 
 ground, and now the country was less wild, as was also the 
 character of the inhabitants. 
 
 Such on the whole was the march which brought them 
 to Italy, in the fifth month, according to some authors, after 
 leaving New Carthage, the passage of the Alps having occu- 
 pied fifteen days. As to the numbers of Hannibal's army on 
 his arrival in Italy, historians are not agreed. The highest 
 reckoning is a hundred thousand infantry and twenty thou- 
 sand cavalry ; the lowest twenty thousand infantry and six 
 thousand cavalry. Cincius Alimentus, who tells us that he 
 was taken prisoner by Hannibal, would have the greatest 
 weight with me, did he not confuse the numbers by adding the 
 Gauls and Ligurians. Including these there arrived eighty 
 thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry, though it is more 
 probable that they flocked to his standard in Italy ; and so 
 some writers state. Cincius says that Hannibal himself told 
 him that, after crossing the Rhone, he lost thirty-six thousand 
 men, and a vast number of horses and beasts of burden. The 
 tribe that he first encountered on his descent into Italy were 
 the Taurini,^ a half Gallic race. About this all agree, and there- 
 fore I am the more surprised at there being a controversy as 
 to where Hannibal crossed the Alps, and at the vulgar be- 
 lief that he marched over the Pcenine Pass, and that the range 
 thence got its name. I wonder, too, that Cselius says that he 
 crossed by the heights of Cremo. Both these passes would 
 have brought him, not to the Taurini, but through other 
 mountain tribes to the Libuan Gauls. Nor is it likely that 
 those routes to Gaul were then open ; certainly those which 
 lead to the Pcenine would have been barred by tribes of half- 
 German race. And assuredly these mountains, according to 
 the Seduni and Veragri, the inhabitants of the range, did 
 not get their name, if such an argument has any weight, from 
 
 ' From whom Turin takes its name. — D. O. 
 
268 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 218 
 
 any passage of the Poeni, but from the deity to whom the sum- 
 mit is sacred, and whom the mountaineers call Poeninus/ 
 
 Very opportunely for the opening of the campaign, war 
 had broken out between the Taurini, the nearest tribe, and 
 the Insubres. But Hannibal could not get his army ready 
 to help either side, for it was in recovering itself that it felt 
 most keenly the miseries which had accumulated on it. Ease 
 after hardship, plenty after want, comfort after squalor and 
 filth acted variously on their neglected and well-nigh brutal- 
 ized frames. This was enough to make the consul Publius 
 Cornelius march rapidly to the Po, as soon he had reached 
 Pisse by sea, though the troops which he took over from 
 Manlius and Atilius were raw levies, still cowed by recent dis- 
 graces. He desired to engage the enemy before he had recov- 
 ered himself. But by the time that he had arrived at Placentia, 
 Hannibal had moved from his camp, and had stormed one of 
 the towns of the Taurini, the capital of the tribe, as the citi- 
 zens chose to decline his friendship. He would have secured 
 the alliance of the Gauls in the neighbourhood of the Po, not 
 merely by intimidation but with their own consent, had not the 
 consul's sudden arrival surprised them, as they were looking 
 out for an opportunity of revolt. Hannibal at the same mo- 
 ment left the Taurini, feeling that the Gauls, in their uncer- 
 tainty which side they ought to take, would range themselves 
 on that of the successful. 
 
 The two armies were now nearly in sight of each other, 
 and the generals had almost met, each penetrated with a cer- 
 tain admiration for his antagonist, though as yet he knew but 
 little of him. Hannibal's name, indeed, even before the fall of 
 Saguntum, was familiar to the Romans, while Scipio was re- 
 garded by Hannibal as an eminent man, from the simple fact 
 that he had been singled out for command against himself. 
 And now they had risen in each other's esteem : Scipio, be- 
 cause, though left in Gaul, he had confronted Hannibal on his 
 descent into Italy; Hannibal, because he had attempted and 
 accomplished the passage of the Alps. Scipio, however, was 
 the first to cross the Po. He moved his camp to the river 
 Ticinus, and before leading his men into action delivered the 
 following harangue for their encouragement : 
 
 '_' Soldiers, were I leading into battle the army I had with 
 me in Gaul, I should have thought it needless to address you. 
 What use, indeed, could there be in words of encouragement 
 
 ' This discussion has continued down to the present day, with no satis- 
 factory results. I am rather inclined to apree with Dr. Arnold in his 
 preference for the Little St. Bernard route. — D, O. 
 
B. C. 2i8] SCIPIO ADDRESSES HIS ARMY 269 
 
 to the horsemen who gloriously defeated the enemy's cavalry 
 at the Rhone, or to the legions with which I pursued that same 
 enemy in his flight, finding in his retreat and in his refusal to 
 give battle the equivalent of victory? Now, since that army, 
 having been levied for Spain, is fighting there, as the senate 
 and people of Rome willed that it should, with my brother 
 Cn. Scipio in command, and under my auspices,^ and since I 
 have volunteered to command in this battle, that you may 
 have a consul to lead you against Hannibal and the Cartha- 
 ginians, I, a new commander over new soldiers, am bound to 
 say a few words. I would have you know both the enemy and 
 the conditions of the war. You have to fight, soldiers, with the 
 men whom you vanquished by sea and land in the former war, 
 from whom for twenty years you have exacted tribute, from 
 whom you wrested as prizes of the contest provinces which 
 you now hold, Sicily and Sardinia. In this battle, therefore, 
 there will be in you and in them the spirit which belongs 
 respectively to the victors and the vanquished. Even now 
 they are going to fight, not because they are confident, but 
 because they are compelled. For surely you can not think 
 that the very men who declined battle with their army in its 
 full strength, have found more confidence now that they have 
 lost two thirds of their infantry and cavalry in crossing the 
 Alps. Well, but you will say that though they are but few, 
 they have such stout hearts and frames, that scarcely any 
 strength can bear the brunt of their resolute attack. No ; 
 they are nothing but ghosts and shadows of men, half dead 
 with hunger, cold, filth, and misery, bruised and maimed amid 
 crags and rocks ; add to this their limbs frost-bitten, their 
 fingers stiffened by the snow, their frames shrivelled with the 
 frost, their arms shattered and broken, their horses lame and 
 feeble. Such is the cavalry, such the infantry with which you 
 are going to fight. It is not an enemy, it is the last remnant 
 of an enemy that you will have before you ; and what I fear 
 most is that when you have fought, it will be the Alps that will 
 seem to have conquered Hannibal. Yet perhaps it was right 
 that it should be so, and that the gods, without human aid, 
 should begin and all but terminate a war waged against a 
 treaty-breaking leader and people, while we, who next to the 
 gods have been grievously wronged, merely finish off what 
 they have both begun and almost ended. 
 
 " I have no fear that any of you will think that I am talk- 
 
 ' As being consul. It was on this theory that in later times triumphs 
 were decreed to the emperors, though the victories might have been won 
 by their generals. — D. O. 
 
270 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 ing grandly to encourage you, while in heart I feel far other- 
 wise. I might have gone with my army to Spain, my allotted 
 province, for which I had started, where I should have a 
 brother to share my counsels and be the companion of my 
 dangers, Hasdrubal instead of Hannibal for my foe, and an 
 unquestionably less formidable war. But, as I was sailing 
 along the shores of Gaul, on hearing the rumours about this 
 enemy I landed, sent on my cavalry and advanced my camp to 
 the Rhone. In an action fought by my cavalry, the only por- 
 tion of my army with which I had an opportunity of fighting, I 
 vanquished the enemy. His infantry, which hurried on with 
 the rapidity of a flight, I could not overtake, and so I returned 
 with all possible speed to my ships, made this long circuit by 
 sea and land, and now almost at the foot of the Alps have met 
 this dread foe. Can you think that I have stumbled on him 
 unexpectedly, when seeking to shun a conflict, rather than that 
 I am confronting him on his very track, challenging and forc- 
 ing him to fight ? It is a joy to me to try whether in the last 
 twenty years the earth has suddenly produced another race of 
 Carthaginians, or whether they are the same as they were 
 when they fought at the ^Egates Islands, whom you then let 
 go from Eryx at a valuation of eighteen denarii for each man. 
 And this Hannibal, is he, as he boasts, a rival of Hercules in 
 his expeditions, or the man whom his father left to pay tax 
 and tribute and be the slave of the Roman people? Were it 
 not that his crime at Saguntum is driving him on, he would 
 surely look back, if not on his conquered country, at least on 
 his home and his father, and on those treaties in the very hand- 
 writing of that Hamilcar who, at our consul's bidding, with- 
 drew his garrison from Eryx, accepted with murmurs and 
 lamentation the hard terms imposed on Carthage, and con- 
 sented to give up Sicily and pay tribute to Rome. So I would 
 have you fight, soldiers, not merely with the feelings you have 
 toward any other foe, but with a peculiar wrath and fury, as if 
 you saw your own slaves suddenly bearing arms against you. 
 You might have destroyed them by that worst of all human 
 punishments, starvation, when they were shut in at Eryx ; you 
 might have crossed with your victorious fleet into Africa, and 
 within a few days have efifaced Carthage without a struggle. 
 But we gave quarter when they begged it ; we released them 
 from blockade ; we made peace with the conquered ; finally, 
 we took them under our protection in their sore distress dur- 
 ing the African war. By way of return for these boons, they 
 come following the lead of a young madman, to attack our 
 country. And would that this battle were only for your hon- 
 
B. C. 2i8] HANNIBAL'S SPEECH TO HIS MEN 271 
 
 our, and not for your safety ! Not for the possession of Sicily 
 and Sardinia, which were formerly in dispute, but for Italy 
 you have now to fight. There is no other army behind you 
 to bar the enemy's way if we do not conquer ; there are no 
 more Alps, during the passage of which new forces can be 
 raised. Here, soldiers, you must make a stand as if we were 
 fighting before the walls of Rome. Let every man of you 
 assure himself that he is defending with his arms, not himself, 
 but his wife and his little children ; and let him not confine 
 himself to thoughts of his family ; let him reflect again and 
 again that the senate and commons of Rome are now anx- 
 iously watching our prowess, and that such as shall be our 
 strength and resolution, such too in the future will be the for- 
 tune of that great city and of the empire of Rome." 
 
 So spake the consul to the Romans. Hannibal, thinking 
 that his men might be best stirred by deeds first and words 
 afterward, formed his army in a circle and exhibited to them a 
 spectacle. Some prisoners taken from the mountaineers were 
 placed bound in the midst. Gallic weapons were flung down 
 at their feet, and an interpreter was ordered to ask whether 
 any of them would like to fight, if he were to be released from 
 his bonds and were to receive, as the prize of victory, arms 
 and a charger. All to a man cried out for arms and a com- 
 bat, and when the lot had been thrown for that purpose, 
 every man was eager to be the person whom fortune should 
 select for the deed. Each man too, as his lot fell out, with 
 brisk alacrity and joyful exultation, amid congratulating com- 
 rades, hurriedly seized his weapons and danced after his coun- 
 try's fashion. When they came to fight, the prevailing temper, 
 not only of their fellows in the same plight as themselves, but 
 also of the crowd of spectators was such that the fortune of 
 the man who nobly fell was as much applauded as that of the 
 conqueror. 
 
 Hannibal having thus impressed his men by the spectacle 
 of several pairs of combatants and then dismissed them, after- 
 ward summoned them together and spoke as follows : 
 
 " If, soldiers, you mean to exhibit in estimating your own 
 lot that same temper which you have just shown in witnessing 
 the exhibition of the fortunes of others, we have already con- 
 quered. What you saw yonder, was not a mere spectacle; it 
 was, so to say, a picture of your present position. I almost 
 think that fortune has imposed heavier bonds and heavier 
 necessities on you than on your prisoners. On your right and 
 on your left two seas shut you in, and you have not so much as 
 a single vessel for your escape. Round you is the river Po, a 
 
272 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 broader and more rapid stream than the Rhone ; behind hang 
 over you the Alps, which in the full freshness of your strength 
 you could scarcely cross. Here, soldiers, you must conquer or 
 die, as soon as you have met the enemy; and that same for- 
 tune, which has imposed on you the necessity of fighting, 
 holds out to you, if victorious, the grandest rewards which 
 men can hope for even from the immortal gods. Were Sicily 
 and Sardinia, which were wrested from our forefathers, all we 
 were about to recover by our valour, even this would be an 
 ample recompense. All that the Romans have won, all the 
 accumulated fruits of their many triumphs, all this and its 
 possessors will be yours. For so magnificent a reward haste 
 to arm yourselves, the gods being your good helpers. Hith- 
 erto while you hunted cattle amid those wild mountains of 
 Lusitania and Celtiberia, you have seen no recompense for 
 your hardships and dangers ; now it is time for you to enter 
 on rich and lucrative campaigns, and to earn great wages for 
 your service. Your vast marches over these many moun- 
 tains, over these rivers, through these warlike tribes, you have 
 already accomplished ; here Fortune has given you an end of 
 your labours; here, when you have finished your campaign- 
 ing, she will give you a worthy reward. 
 
 " And do not think that, because the war has a great name, 
 victory will be correspondingly difHcult. Often has a de- 
 spised foe fought a bloody battle, and famous nations and 
 kings been vanquished with a very slight effort. If you take 
 away the mere glitter of Rome's name, what ground is there 
 for comparing the Romans with yourselves ? Not to speak of 
 your twenty years' service, marked by a valour and a suc- 
 cess known to all, you have marched hither victorious from 
 the Pillars of Hercules, from the ocean and the remotest limits 
 of the earth, through a host of the fiercest peoples of Spain 
 and Gaul. You will fight with raw levies, which this very 
 summer have been beaten, vanquished, and hemmed in by the 
 Gauls ; an army of which their commander knows nothing, 
 and which knows nothing of him. Am I, born as I almost 
 was, certainly bred in my father's tent, and he the most famous 
 of generals, I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, victorious 
 over the Alpine tribes, and, what is even more, over the Alps 
 themselves, to compare myself with this six months' ofScer, 
 this deserter from his own army? Why, I am sure that if he 
 were to be shown the Carthaginians and Romans without 
 their standards, he would not know which army he com- 
 manded. It is, I consider, no light matter, soldiers, that there 
 is not a man among you before whose eyes I have not myself 
 
B. C. 2i8] HANNIBAL'S SPEECH TO HIS MEN 273 
 
 achieved some soldierly deed, not a man whose valour I have 
 not personally witnessed, and whose honourable distinctions 
 I can not call to mind with their proper dates and scenes. As 
 your foster-son rather than as your commander, with those 
 whom I have praised and rewarded a thousand times, I shall 
 go into battle against men unknowing and unknown to each 
 other. 
 
 " Wherever I turn my eyes, I see around me nothing but 
 courage and solid strength, veteran infantry, cavalry regular 
 and irregular from the noblest tribes, you the most loyal and 
 bravest of allies, you, men of Carthage, resolving to fight for 
 your country, and in a most righteous quarrel. 'Tis we who 
 attack, who with hostile standards are marching down on Italy, 
 certain to fight more bravely and fearlessly than the foe, inas- 
 much as he who attacks has higher hope and greater spirit 
 than he who defends. Our hearts too are burning with the 
 excitement of wrath, of wrong remembered and indignities 
 endured. They demanded for execution first myself, your 
 general, then all of you that were at the siege of Saguntum ; 
 had we been surrendered, they meant to inflict on us the ex- 
 tremest tortures. The most merciless, the most arrogant of 
 nations would have everything its own and at its own disposal, 
 and thinks it right to prescribe to us with whom we may have 
 war, with whom peace. It confines and incloses us within 
 boundaries of mountains and rivers, which we are not to pass, 
 but it does not itself observe those boundaries which it fixes. 
 ' You are not to cross the Ebro ; you are not to meddle with 
 Saguntum.' Well, but Saguntum is not on the Ebro.^ ' You 
 are not to move a foot's breadth anywhere.' Is it a trifle that 
 you are robbing me of my oldest provinces, Sicily and Sar- 
 dinia? Will you also cross over into Spain, and if I with- 
 draw thence, into Africa? Will you cross over, do I say? 
 They have crossed over. Of the two consuls of this year they 
 have sent one to Africa, the other to Spain. Nothing is left 
 us but what we shall make good by our arms. They can 
 afford to be cowards and dastards, they who have something 
 to fall back on, whom their own country, their own territory 
 will receive, as they flee through its safe and peaceful roads. 
 For you it is a necessity to be brave ; and now that you have 
 resolved in your despair to cast away all but the alternatives of 
 victory or death, you must either conquer, or, if fortune be 
 
 ' This is the very suitable place where Livy pricks the one apparent 
 inconsistency in the treaty made with Hasdrubal. Altogether these 
 speeches may be regarded as models of imaginative historical writing. 
 — D. O. 
 
 18 
 
274 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 218 
 
 doubtful, meet your fate in battle rather than in flight. If 
 this is the fixed resolve of every heart, I say again, your have 
 conquered. Contempt of death is the mightiest weapon given 
 by the gods to man for the v^finning of victory." 
 
 Such were the stirring words by which the soldiers' hearts 
 on both sides were kindled for the battle. The Romans threw 
 a bridge over the Ticinus, building a fort also on it for its de- 
 fence. While the enemy was busy with this work, the Car- 
 thaginian despatched Maharbal with a squadron of five^ hun- 
 dred Numidian cavalry to ravage the lands of the allies of 
 Rome, with orders to spare the Gauls as much as possible and 
 to incite the minds of their chiefs to revolt. As soon as the 
 bridge was completed, the Roman army was marched across 
 it into the territory of the Insubres, and encamped five miles 
 from Ictumuli. Here Hannibal had his camp. He promptly 
 recalled Maharbal and the cavalry, when he saw that a battle 
 was imminent, and as he thought that he could not say enough 
 by way of encouragement to inspirit his men, he summoned 
 them to an assembly and offered definite rewards, in the hope 
 of which they were to fight. He would give them land in 
 Italy, Africa, Spain, wherever each man liked, free of all bur- 
 dens to its possessor and his children ; the man who preferred 
 money to land he would furnish amply with coin ; those of the 
 allies who wished to become Carthaginian citizens should have 
 the opportunity ; as for those who chose to return to their 
 homes, he would take care that they would never wish to ex- 
 change their lot for that of any of their fellow-countrymen. 
 To slaves also who accompanied their masters he offered free- 
 dom, and to the masters were to be given two slaves in place 
 of each. That they might be assured of the fulfilment of these 
 promises, he held in his left hand a lamb and a flint knife in 
 his right, and invoked Jupiter and the other gods to slay him 
 as he slew the lamb should he break faith. After this impre- 
 cation, he crushed the animal's head with the stone. Then, 
 as if every man felt that the gods authorized his hopes, to de- 
 lay the fight seemed to be to delay the attainment of their 
 desires, and they all with one heart and voice clamoured for 
 battle. 
 
 Among the Romans there was no such eagerness. Be- 
 sides other fears, some recent portents had dismayed them. A 
 wolf had entered their camp, and after mangling all he met had 
 escaped uninjured. A swarm of bees too had settled on a tree 
 overhanging the general's tent. Scipio went through the due 
 propitiations, and then with his cavalry and light-armed spear- 
 men set out to reconnoitre the enemy's camp and learn from a 
 
B. C. 2i8] FIRST BATTLE WITH HANNIBAL 275 
 
 near view the composition of his army. He met Hannibal, 
 also riding forward with some troopers to ascertain the na- 
 ture of the neighbouring ground. Neither at first saw the 
 other. Soon the dust rising more and more densely with 
 the movements of such a host of men and horses indicated 
 an enemy's approach. Both armies halted and prepared for 
 battle. 
 
 Scipio posted his light-armed spearmen and his Gallic cav- 
 alry in his first line, his Roman soldiers with the flower of the 
 allies in his reserves. Hannibal ranged his regular cavalry in 
 his centre ; his wings he strengthened with his Numidians. 
 Scarce had the battle-shout been raised, when the spearmen 
 fled to the second line among the reserves. For some time 
 after this the fight between the cavalry was doubtful ; but after 
 a while as the foot-soldiers mingling with their ranks fright- 
 ened the horses, and many of the riders were thrown or else dis- 
 mounted on seeing their fellow-soldiers hard pressed and in 
 danger, the battle came to be fought to a great degree on foot. 
 Then the Numidians on the wings, making a slight wheel, 
 showed themselves on the rear. This alarming sight quite 
 confounded the Romans, and their terror was increased by the 
 wounding of their general, who was rescued from his danger 
 by the prompt arrival of his son, then in his early youth. This 
 was the young man to whom belongs the glory of the ending 
 of this war, and who was named Africanus for his splendid vic- 
 tory over Hannibal and the Carthaginians. Still there was a 
 disorderly flight, especially among the spearmen, who were the 
 first whom the Numidians had charged. Some of the cavalry 
 closed up, received the consul into their centre, and defending 
 him with their persons as well as with their weapons brought 
 him back to the camp in a retreat free from hurry and confu- 
 sion. The glory of having saved the consul is ascribed by 
 Ca8lius to a slave of Ligurian origin ; but I prefer myself to 
 accept as true the story about the son, which has the prepon- 
 derance of authority and has been uniformly asserted by tra- 
 dition. 
 
 Such was the first battle with Hannibal. It clearly showed 
 the Carthaginian's superiority in cavalry, and that, conse- 
 quently, open plains, such as those between the Po and the 
 Alps, were not a suitable battle-field for the Romans. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the following night, orders were given to the sol- 
 diers to collect their baggage, the camp was moved from the 
 Ticinus, and a forced march made to the Po, in the hope of 
 finding the rafts with which the river had been bridged still 
 unbroken, and so of crossing without confusion and pursuit 
 
276 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [B. c. 218 
 
 from the enemy. They reached Placentia before Hannibal 
 knew for certain that they had left the Ticinus ; as it was, how- 
 ever, he captured about six hundred who were lingering on 
 the left bank of the Po, lazily loosing the raft. He could not 
 cross the bridge, as the entire raft drifted down the stream, as 
 soon as its extremities were unfastened. According to Caelius, 
 Mago at once swam across the river with the cavalry and 
 Spanish infantry, while Hannibal himself took his men across 
 by the upper fords of the Po, first posting his elephants in line 
 so as to check the force of the current. This will hardly find 
 belief with those who know the river ; for it is not likely that 
 cavalry could with safety to their arms and horses have 
 stemmed so rapid a stream, even supposing that all the Span- 
 iards had already crossed it on inflated bladders ; besides, a 
 circuit of several days would have been required to discover 
 fords on the Po by which an army encumbered with baggage 
 could cross. I put more confidence in those historians who 
 relate that with difficulty, in two days' search, a place was 
 found for bridging the river with a raft, by which Mago and 
 the light-armed Spaniards were sent on in advance. While 
 Hannibal, who tarried a while near the river to receive em- 
 bassies from the Gauls, was crossing with his heavy infantry, 
 Mago and his horsemen in one day's march after the passage 
 came up with the enemy at Placentia. A few days afterward 
 Hannibal fortified his camp at a distance of six miles from 
 Placentia ; the next day he drew up his army in sight of the 
 enemy, and offered battle. 
 
 The following night some auxiliary Gauls perpetrated an 
 outrage in the Roman camp ; there was more disturbance, 
 however, than damage. As many as two thousand infantry 
 and two hundred cavalry, cutting down the sentries at the 
 camp-gates, deserted to Hannibal. The Carthaginian re- 
 ceived them kindly, animated them with the hope of great re- 
 wards, and dismissed every man to his native state that he 
 might work on the minds of his fellow-countrymen. Scipio 
 looked on the outrage as a sign of the impending revolt of all 
 the Gauls, who, affected by the contagion of the crime, would 
 fly to arms in a sudden access of madness. Though still suf- 
 fering from his wound, he yet set off with his army in silence at 
 the fourth watch of the following night, and moved his camp 
 to the river Trebia, where was some rather high ground and 
 hills ill adapted for cavalry. He was less successful in escap- 
 ing observation than he had been at the Ticinus. Hannibal 
 first despatched his Numidians, then all his cavalry, and would 
 at least have thrown into disorder Scipio's rear, had not the 
 
B. C. 2181 EVENTS IN SICILY 
 
 277 
 
 Numidians in their greed for spoil turned off into the Roman 
 camp. Ransacking every corner in the camp and wasting 
 time without any adequate compensation for such delay, they 
 let the enemy slip from their grasp. After taking a view of 
 the Romans, who had now crossed the Trebia and were meas- 
 uring out their camp, they cut down a few loiterers whom they 
 had surprised on their own side of the stream. 
 
 Scipio, no longer able to bear up against the pain of his 
 wound, which the march had irritated, and thinking that he 
 ought to wait for his colleague, who had, he understood, been 
 already recalled from Sicily, selected and fortified a position 
 near the river, which seemed safest for a permanent camp. 
 Hannibal also encamped at no great distance ; though he was 
 elated by his successful cavalry engagement, he was equally 
 perplexed by the daily increasing scarcity which encountered 
 him in his advance through the enemy's country, in which no 
 supplies had been anywhere prepared. He sent therefore to 
 the town of Clastidium,^ where the Romans had accumulated 
 vast stores of corn. His troops were on the point of attack, 
 when hope was held out that the place would be betrayed to 
 him. At no great cost, merely that of four hundred gold 
 coins, Dasius Brundisinus, the officer of the garrison, was 
 bribed, and Clastidium delivered up to Hannibal. The place 
 served as a magazine to the Carthaginians while in camp 
 on the Trebia. There was no cruel treatment of the prisoners 
 from the surrendered garrison, as Hannibal sought at the out- 
 set to get a name for clemency. 
 
 Though the war by land was at a standstill at the Trebia, 
 some operations had been carried on by the consul Sempro- 
 nius, and also before his arrival, both by land and sea, around 
 Sicily and the closely adjacent islands. Twenty five-banked 
 ships had been sent by the Carthaginians with a thousand sol- 
 diers to ravage the coasts of Italy. Of these nine reached the 
 Liparse islands and eight the Isle of Vulcan," while three were 
 driven into the straits by a heavy sea. They were seen from 
 Messana, and Hiero, King of Syracuse, who happened at that 
 time to be at Messana waiting the arrival of the Roman con- 
 sul, despatched twelve ships against them ; these captured 
 them without resistance and brought them into that port. 
 From the prisoners it was ascertained, that besides the fleet of 
 twenty ships, to which they themselves belonged, thirty-five 
 other five-banked ships were making for Sicily with the view 
 of rousing old allies ; that the chief object was the seizure of 
 Lilybseum ; that it was their belief that these ships also had 
 
 ' Now Castiggio. — D. O. * One of the Liparae. — D. O. 
 
278 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 been driven on the Agates Islands in the same storm by which 
 they were themselves scattered. King Hiero communicated 
 all this by letter, just as he had heard it, to Marcus ^mihus, 
 the praetor, whose province Sicily was, and advised him to 
 hold Lilybsum with a strong garrison. Instantly the praetor 
 sent off to the various states envoys and military officers, 
 who were to urge their allies to vigilance in self-defence. 
 Above all, Lilybaeum was busy with warlike preparations, 
 orders having been publicly issued that the seamen were to 
 bring to the ships cooked food for ten days. There would 
 thus be nothing left to delay embarkation as soon as the signal 
 was given. Along the whole coast, too, men were despatched 
 to observe the enemy's approach from watch-towers. 
 
 Accordingly, though the Carthaginians had purposely de- 
 layed the advance of their fleet, so as to approach Lilybaeum 
 before daylight, yet they were perceived, as the moon shone 
 all night, and they came with their sails set. In a moment 
 the signal was given from the watch-towers, and in the 
 town there was a call to arms, and the fleet was manned. 
 Some of the soldiers were on the walls and on guard at the 
 gates, some on board the ships. The Carthaginians, seeing 
 that they would have to deal with an enemy who was by no 
 means unprepared, kept outside the harbour till daybreak, 
 passing the time lowering the sails and getting their vessels 
 ready for action. At dawn of day they retired with their fleet 
 into the open sea, that there might be room for a battle, and 
 that the enemy's ships might have free passage out of the 
 harbour. Nor did the Romans decline an engagement, en- 
 couraged as they were by the memories of past achievements 
 on those same seas, and by the multitude and valour of their 
 soldiers. 
 
 As soon as they had reached the open water the Romans 
 were eager to close and to try their strength at near quarters. 
 The Carthaginians, on the contrary, avoided the enemy, pre- 
 ferring manceuvres to direct attack, and wishing to make it a 
 contest of ships more than of men and arms ; for their fleet, 
 though amply manned with mariners, was poor in soldiers, and 
 whenever a ship was grappled by the foe, the troops which 
 fought from it were in numbers decidedly inferior. This hav- 
 ing been observed, the confidence of the Romans rose at the 
 sight of their numerous soldiery, while that of the enemy was 
 depressed by their deficiency. Seven Carthaginian vessels 
 were at once surrounded ; the remainder took to flight. In 
 the captured ships were seventeen hundred soldiers and sail- 
 ors, and among them three Carthaginian nobles. The Roman 
 
B. C. 218] ROMAN SUCCESSES IN THE SOUTH 279 
 
 fleet returned without loss into harbour, only one vessel hav- 
 ing been pierced, but even this was brought back safely. 
 
 Immediately after this battle, before those at Messana 
 knew anything of it, Sempronius the consul arrived at the 
 town. As he entered the straits, King Hiero met him with a 
 fleet fully manned and equipped ; went from his own to the 
 admiral's ship, and after congratulating the consul on his safe 
 arrival with his army and his fleet, and praying that his pas- 
 sage to Sicily might have a prosperous and successful issue, 
 explained to him the state of the island and the aims of the 
 Carthaginians. He promised, too, that now in his old age he 
 would help the Roman people with as willing a heart as he had 
 done in his youth in the former war. Corn and clothing for 
 the consul's legions and for the seamen he would provide 
 free of cost, and he added that there was the greatest danger 
 hanging over Lilybaeum and the cities on the coast, and that 
 some would welcome a revolution. Hearing this the consul 
 thought that he ought without a moment's delay to proceed 
 with his fleet to Lilybjeum. The king and the royal fleet 
 started with him. During the voyage from Messana they 
 heard of the battle off Lilybseum, and of the rout and capture 
 of the enemy's ships. 
 
 From Lilybaeum the consul, dismissing Hiero and the 
 royal fleet and leaving the praetor to guard the coasts of Sicily, 
 crossed over himself to the island of Melita,"^ then in the pos- 
 session of the Carthaginians. On his approach, Hamilcar, 
 son of Gisgo, the commander of the garrison, surrendered 
 himself, with nearly two thousand troops, the town, and the 
 island. A few days afterward the consul returned from Mes- 
 sana to Lilybaeum, and the prisoners taken both by him and 
 the consul were sold by auction, such as were distinguished 
 by noble birth being excepted. When he thought that Sicily 
 was safe enough on this side, he crossed to the islands of 
 Vulcan, as report said that the Carthaginian fleet was moored 
 there. Not a man, however, of the enemy was found near the 
 i-slands, for it so happened that they had sailed away to ravage 
 the shores of Italy, where they had wasted the territory round 
 Vibo ^ and were also threatening that city. As the consul was 
 returning to Sicily, this raid of the enemy into the territory 
 of Vibo was reported to him, and there was also handed to him 
 a despatch from the senate telling of Hannibal's passage into 
 Italy, and bidding him on the very first opportunity render 
 aid to his colleague. 
 
 Harassed by a combination of many anxieties, he at once 
 
 ' Malta.— D. O. ' Now Monteleone.— D. O. 
 
28o LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 put his troops on shipboard and sent them up the Adriatic 
 to Ariminum, while to his Heutenant Sextus Pompeius he as- 
 signed the defence of the country round Vibo and of the 
 shores of Italy with five-and-twenty war-ships. He made up 
 the fleet of Marcus ^milius, the prsetor, to fifty vessels. As 
 soon as he had settled the afifairs of Sicily, he went in person, 
 cruising along the Italian coast, with ten ships to Ariminum.^ 
 Thence he set out with his army for the river Trebia and 
 joined his colleague. 
 
 Both consuls and all the available strength of Rome were 
 now opposed to Hannibal, a plain proof that either the Roman 
 Empire could be defended by these forces or that no other 
 troops remained. Still, one of the consuls, disheartened by a 
 single cavalry action and the wound he had received, wished 
 to defer battle. The other, whose courage was unbroken and 
 spirits high, would not brook delay. 
 
 The country between the Trebia and the Po was then in- 
 habited by the Gauls, who during this struggle between two 
 overwhelmingly powerful nations showed no decided bias, 
 and had an eye undoubtedly to the favour of the conqueror. 
 Provided only they remained quiet, the Romans were well 
 satisfied, but the Carthaginians were greatly mortified, re- 
 peatedly declaring that they had come at the invitation of the 
 Gauls to set them free. Resentment, and the wish to support 
 their soldiers on the plunder, suggested the sending of five 
 thousand infantry and a thousand horse, Numidians for the 
 most part, with some Gauls interspersed among them, to lay 
 waste the whole country, district after district as far as the 
 banks of the Po. In their sore need of help the Gauls, though 
 hitherto they had maintained an undecided attitude, were 
 driven to turn from the authors of this wrong to those who 
 would, they hoped, avenge it. They sent envoys to the con- 
 sul, imploring Roman aid for a country suffering grievously 
 from the too faithful loyalty of its inhabitants. Neither the 
 ground nor the occasion for interference approved itself to 
 Cornelius, and he suspected the nation for its many acts of 
 faithlessness, but above all, if other memories had faded in a 
 forgotten past, for the recent treachery of the Boii. Sem- 
 pronius, on the contrary, held that the defence of the first who 
 needed succour was the surest bond for the preservation of 
 the loyalty of the allies. While his colleague hesitated, he sent 
 his own cavalry with a thousand infantry attached to it, almost 
 all light-armed, to protect the territory of the Gauls beyond 
 the Trebia. Suddenly attacking the dispersed and disorderly 
 
 ' Rimini.— D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i8] RASHNESS OF SEMPRONIUS 281 
 
 pillagers, who were also for the most part encumbered with 
 booty, they caused an intense panic, slaying them and driv- 
 ing them before them to their camps and outposts. Driven 
 back by the numbers that sallied forth, they renewed the fight 
 when re-enforced by their own men. With varying fortune 
 of battle they pursued and retired, and left the action unde- 
 cided at last. But the enemy's loss was the heavier, and the 
 honour of victory rested with the Romans. 
 
 No one, indeed, thought their success greater and more 
 complete than the consul himself. He was transported with 
 joy at having been victorious with the very arm, the cavalry, 
 with which the other consul had been beaten. The spirits 
 of the soldiers, he was sure, were restored and revived, and no 
 one but his colleague wished to defer the action, and he, ailing 
 as he was, more in mind than body, shrank from battle and 
 the steel, as he thought of his wound. But they must not let 
 themselves sink into a sick man's languor. What good was 
 there in further delay and waste of time? Where is the third 
 consul and the third army we are waiting for? The Cartha- 
 ginian camp is in Italy, almost within sight of Rome. It is 
 not Sicily or Sardinia, already lost to the conquered, it is not 
 Spain this side of the Ebro which is threatened; it is from 
 their native soil, from the land in which they were born, that 
 the Romans are to be driven. " What a sigh," he exclaimed, 
 " would our fathers heave, they who were wont to fight round 
 the walls of Carthage, were they to see us, their offspring, two 
 consuls and two consular armies cowering within their camp 
 in the heart of Italy, while the Carthaginian has brought under 
 his sway all the country between the Alps and the Apen- 
 nines?" Such was the language, vehement almost as a popu- 
 lar harangue, which he would pour forth as he sat by his ailing 
 comrade, or in the headquarters. He was goaded on too by 
 the near approach of the elections, and by the fear that the 
 war, with its opportunity of securing all the glory for himself, 
 while his colleague was disabled, would be postponed till new 
 consuls came into office. Accordingly, he bade the soldiers 
 prepare for the coming battle, while Cornelius in vain dis- 
 sented. 
 
 Hannibal, seeing clearly what was best for his foe, had 
 hardly a hope that the consuls would act at all rashly or im- 
 prudently. But now being well aware that the temper of one 
 of them, as he knew at first by report, and subsequently by 
 experience, was impetuous and headstrong, and surmising 
 that it was the more so after the successful skirmish with his 
 pillaging parties, he felt sure that the happy opportunity for 
 
282 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 action was at hand. Anxiously and intently did he watch that 
 he might not let the moment slip, while the enemy's soldiery 
 were raw recruits, while the better of the generals was disabled 
 by his wound, and while the courage of the Gauls was in its 
 freshness. Their numerous host, he knew, would follow him 
 with less alacrity the further they were dragged from their 
 homes. For these, and like reasons, he hoped the battle was at 
 hand, and he was eager to force it, if there was any hesitation. 
 When the Gauls who acted as his spies (as Gauls were serving 
 in both camps, these could be most safely employed to give 
 the knowledge he desired) had brought back word that the 
 Romans were ready for battle, he proceeded to look out a 
 position for an ambuscade. 
 
 Between the armies was a stream closed in by very high 
 banks, and by an overgrowth on either side of marshy grass, 
 and of the underwood and bramble bushes that usually spread 
 themselves over uncultivated ground. Hannibal himself rode 
 round the place and saw with his own eyes that it afforded 
 ample cover for the concealment even of cavalry. " This," 
 said he to his brother Mago, " will be the spot for you to 
 occupy. Pick out a hundred men from our entire infantry, 
 and as many from the cavalry, and come with them to me in 
 the first watch of the night; now it is time to refresh your- 
 selves." So saying, he dismissed his staff. Mago soon ar- 
 rived with his picked men. " I see before me," said Hannibal, 
 " a band of heroes; but that you may be strong in numbers 
 as well as in courage, choose each of you nine men like him- 
 self from the squadrons and the companies. Mago will show 
 you the place where you are to lie hid; you have an enemy 
 blind to these stratagems of war." Having then dismissed 
 Mago with his thousand horse and thousand foot, Hannibal 
 at dawn ordered his Numidian cavalry to cross the Trebia 
 and ride up to the gates of the enemy's camp. There by dis- 
 charging missiles at the sentries they were to lure the enemy 
 to an engagement, and then, the battle once begun, grad- 
 ually to draw him after them to their side of the river. Such 
 were his orders to the Numidians. The other infantry and 
 cavalry officers were directed to see that all the men had a 
 meal, and then to await the signal, armed, and with horses 
 saddled. 
 
 Eager for battle, for his purpose was already fixed, Sem- 
 pronius, on the first alarm caused by the Numidians, led out 
 the whole of his cavalry, the arm in which he had peculiar 
 confidence, then six thousand infantry, and at last his entire 
 army. It happened to be winter, and a snowy day; the region, 
 
B. C. 2i8] BATTLE OF THE TREBIA 283 
 
 too, lies between the Alps and the Apennines, and the neigh- 
 bourhood of rivers and marshes renders it intensely cold. 
 And then as the men and the horses had to be hurriedly 
 marched out without a previous meal, and with no protection 
 against the cold, there was no warmth in them, and as they 
 approached the river, more and more piercingly did the frosty 
 air blow in their faces. As soon as they plunged into the 
 water in pursuit of the retreating Numidians (and it was breast- 
 high from having been swollen by rain in the night) their 
 limbs grew stififer and stiffer, so that when they stepped out 
 of it, they had hardly strength to grasp their weapons, and 
 grew faint from fatigue and from hunger also as the day 
 wore on. 
 
 Hannibal's soldiers meanwhile had had fires lit before their 
 tents; oil was distributed among the companies with which 
 to make their limbs supple, and they had enjoyed a leisurely 
 meal. As soon as the news came that the enemy had crossed 
 the river, they armed themselves and marched out to battle 
 in full vigour of heart and frame. His Balearic slingers, to 
 the number of about eight thousand, all light-armed, Hanni- 
 bal posted in front of the standards, next his heavy-armed 
 infantry — the strength and stay of his army. His flanks he 
 covered with ten thousand cavalry, and placed his elephants in 
 two divisions on either flank. 
 
 The consul, seeing that his cavalry were pursuing in loose 
 order and were confronted unexpectedly by a sudden resist- 
 ance from the Numidians, gave the signal for retreat, recalled 
 his men, and received them within his infantry. Of Romans 
 there were eighteen thousand; of the Latin allies, twenty 
 thousand, and some auxiliaries of the Cenomani, the only 
 Gallic tribe which had stood firm to its loyalty. Such were 
 the forces which met in action. The slingers began the battle, 
 but as they were encountered by the superior strength of the 
 infantry, these light troops were suddenly withdrawn to the 
 wings, the result being that the Roman cavalry was at once 
 hard pressed. Even before, four thousand troopers could by 
 themselves barely hold their ground against ten thousand, 
 most of whom were fresh while they were fatigued, and now 
 they were overwhelmed, so to say, by a cloud of missiles from 
 the Baliares. Then, too, the elephants, towering conspicu- 
 ously as they did on the flanks, and scaring the horses by their 
 appearance and above all by their strange smell, caused wide- 
 spread panic. The contending infantry were well matched 
 as to courage but not as to physical strength, which indeed 
 the Carthaginians, who had just refreshed themselves, had 
 
284 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 brought in full vigour into the battle. The Romans, on the 
 other hand, had hungry, weary frames, stiff and benumbed 
 with cold. Still, their courage would have held out had they 
 had to fight only with infantry. But the Baliares, after driv- 
 ing back the cavalry, kept up a discharge of missiles on the 
 Roman flanks, and the elephants had now thrown themselves 
 into the midst of the infantry, while Mago and his Numidians, 
 the moment the army had unawares passed their ambush, 
 started up in the rear, spreading terrible confusion and panic. 
 Yet with all these horrors around them, the ranks stood firm 
 some time, even against the elephants, contrary to all expecta- 
 tion. Some light-armed troops, posted for the purpose, drove 
 them off with showers of darts and then pursued them. 
 
 In their confusion they were beginning to rush wildly at 
 their own men, when Hannibal ordered them to be driven 
 from the centre to the extreme left against the Gallic auxili- 
 aries. Among these they created at once a very decided panic, 
 and fresh fear fell on the Romans as soon as they saw their 
 auxiliaries routed. They now stood fighting in a circular for- 
 mation, when nearly ten thousand men, who could find no other 
 way of escape, brolce through the centre of the African troops, 
 where this had been strengthened by some Gallic auxiliaries, 
 making great slaughter among the enemy. Cut off by the 
 river from return into their camp, and not being able to see for 
 the rain where they could help their comrades, they marched 
 straight to Placentia. Then followed rush after rush in all di- 
 rections; some made for the river and were swept away in its 
 eddies, or were cut down by the enemy as they hesitated to 
 plunge into the stream. Such as were dispersed in flight over 
 the country followed the track of the main body in its retreat, 
 and made for Placentia. Others there were to whom dread 
 of the enemy gave courage to plunge into the river, which 
 they crossed, and arrived at the camp. A storm of mingled 
 rain and snow with an unendurable intensitv of cold destroyed 
 many of the men and of the beasts of burden, and almost all 
 the elephants. 
 
 The Trebia was the final limit of the Carthaginian pursuit. 
 They returned to their camp so benumbed with'cold that they 
 hardly felt the joy of victory. Consequently on the next night, 
 when the camp garrison and the other survivors, mainly 
 wounded men, crossed the Trebia on rafts, the enemy either 
 perceived nothing, or, not being able to move from fatigue and 
 wounds, they pretended to perceive nothing. Thus, unmo- 
 lested by the Carthaginians, the consul Scipio marched his 
 army in perfect quiet to Placentia, whence he crossed the ?o 
 
ITALY AT THE TIME OF THE 
 SECOND PUNIC WAR. 
 
B. C. 2i8] IN WINTER QUARTERS 285 
 
 to Cremona, that a single colony might be spared the burden 
 of two armies in winter quarters. 
 
 At Rome such a panic followed on this disaster that peo- 
 ple imagined that the enemy would at once appear before 
 the city in battle array, and that there was no hope, or any 
 means of repelling his attack from their walls and gates — 
 one consul having been beaten at the Ticinus, the other hav- 
 ing been recalled from Sicily; and now, with two consuls and 
 two consular armies defeated, what other generals or legions 
 had they to summon to the rescue? In the midst of their 
 alarm the consul Sempronius arrived. At great risk he had 
 made his way through the enemy's cavalry, who were scour- 
 ing the country for plunder, relying on audacity rather than 
 on skill or any hope of eluding them or chance, should he 
 fail to elude, of successful resistance. The one thing which 
 at the moment was felt to be most important, he did ; he 
 held the elections for consuls, and then went back to his 
 winter camp. Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius were ap- 
 pointed consuls. 
 
 Meanwhile there was no peace or rest for the Romans, 
 even in their winter camp. Everywhere the Numidian cavalry 
 scoured the country, or where the ground was too difficult 
 for them, the Celtiberi and Lusitani.^ Consequently, all sup- 
 plies were cut ofif, except such as were brought up the Po by 
 vessels. Near Placentia stood Emporium; the place had been 
 fortified with great labour, and was held by a strong garrison. 
 In the hope of storming the fortress, Hannibal set out with 
 some cavalry and light-armed troops. It was in the conceal- 
 ment of his design that he mainly rested his confidence of 
 success, but though he attacked by night, he was not unper- 
 ceived by the sentries. A shout was instantly raised, so loud 
 as to be heard at Placentia. At daybreak the consul was on 
 the spot with his cavalry, his legions having had orders to 
 follow in fighting order. Meantime a cavalry action was 
 fought, in which a panic seized the enemy, because Hannibal 
 left the field wounded, and so the position was brilliantly de- 
 fended. 
 
 Thence, after a few days' rest, before his wound was thor- 
 oughly cured, Hannibal marched on Victumviss to attack the 
 place. It had been fortified by the Romans as a magazine 
 depot during the Gallic war, and a mixed multitude had 
 flocked to it from all the neighbouring tribes. Many more had 
 now been driven into it out of the rural districts by fear of 
 the enemy's ravages. It was a gathering thus composed that, 
 
 ' Spanish tribes. — B. O. 
 
286 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 218 
 
 with hearts kindled by the report of the brave defence of the 
 fort near Placentia, flew to arms, and went forth to meet Han- 
 nibal. More like a crowd than an army, they encountered 
 him on his march; and as on one side there was nothing but 
 a disorderly throng, while on the other was a general who 
 trusted his soldiers and soldiers who trusted their general, 
 upward of thirty-five thousand were routed by a handful of 
 men. Next day there was a surrender, and a garrison was ad- 
 mitted within the walls. The moment they obeyed the order to 
 give up their arms, the conquerors received a signal to plunder 
 the town, as if they had stormed it, and not a dreadful deed, 
 which under such circumstances historians usually think 
 worthy of note, was left unperpetrated. Every kind of outrage 
 that lust, cruelty, and brutal insolence could suggest was prac- 
 tised on the miserable inhabitants. Such were Hannibal's 
 winter expeditions. 
 
 For a brief space, while the cold was intolerable, the sol- 
 diers were allowed rest. At the first dubious signs of spring 
 Hannibal quitted his winter quarters, and led them into Etru- 
 ria with the design of attaching that people to himself, by 
 force or by persuasion, as he had attached the Gauls and 
 Ligurians. While he was crossing the Apennines, he was 
 assailed by a tempest so fierce that it almost exceeded the 
 horrors of the Alps. A storm of wind and rain was driving 
 straight into the men's faces. At first they halted, as they 
 had either to drop their weapons, or, if they still struggled 
 on against it, were caught by the whirlwind and dashed to 
 the earth. Then finding that it actually stopped their breath 
 and prevented respiration, they sat down for a few moments 
 with their backs to the wind. And now the whole heaven 
 resounded with awful rumblings, and amid terrific peals 
 flashed out the lightnings. Blinded and deafened, all stood 
 dumb with fear, till at last, as the rain was exhausted and the 
 fury of the gale became in consequence the more intense, it 
 seemed a necessity to encamp on the spot where they were 
 thus overtaken. This indeed was, as it were, to begin their 
 toils anew, for they could unfurl nothing and fix nothing, or 
 what they had fixed did not keep its place, everything being 
 rent and swept away by the wind. Soon the moisture which 
 the air held aloft, froze in the cold of the mountain heights, 
 and discharged such a shower of snow and hail, that the men, 
 ceasing all efifort, threw themselves to the earth, buried under 
 their coverings rather than protected by them. Then fol- 
 lowed a frost so intense that any one who in this miserable 
 wreck of men and beasts sought to raise and lift himself was 
 
B. C. 2i8] FIGHT AT HANNIBAL'S CAMP 287 
 
 long unable to do so; his sinews were paralyzed with cold 
 so that he could hardly bend his limbs. After a while they 
 began at last to stir themselves into movement and to recover 
 their spirits; here and there a few fires were lit, and the utterly 
 helpless sought relief from their comrades. Two days they 
 lingered on the spot, like a besieged garrison. Many beasts 
 of burden, and seven of the elephants which had survived the 
 battle on the Trebia, perished. 
 
 Descending from the Apennines,^ Hannibal moved his 
 camp back toward Placentia, halting after an advance of about 
 ten miles. Next day he marched against the enemy with 
 twelve thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry, and Sem- 
 pronius, who by this time had returned from Rome, did not 
 refuse battle. That day the two camps were separated by an 
 interval of three miles ; on the morrow the armies fought with 
 the greatest courage, the result being doubtful. At the first 
 onset the arms of Rome were so superior as not only to pre- 
 vail in the field, but even to drive the routed enemy to his 
 camp, which itself they attacked. Hannibal, after posting a 
 few defenders on the ramparts and at the camp gates, retired 
 the rest of his troops in close order into the centre of his 
 camp, bidding them attentively await the signal for a sortie. 
 It was now about the ninth hour of the day, and the Roman 
 general, whose men had wearied themselves in vain, seeing 
 that there was no hope of taking the camp, gave the signal 
 for retreat. When Hannibal knew this, and saw that the at- 
 tack had slackened and that retreat had begun, he hurled 
 his cavalry right and left against the enemy, and sallied in 
 person from the centre of his camp with the whole strength 
 of his infantry. Seldom had there been a fiercer fight, and 
 the destruction of one army would have rendered it more 
 memorable had the light allowed it to have been considerably 
 prolonged. Night, however, abruptly terminated an action 
 begun with prodigious ardour. The slaughter was conse- 
 quently less terrible than the fighting, and as the success was 
 almost evenly balanced, the two sides quitted the field with 
 equal loss. No more than six hundred infantry and half as 
 many cavalry fell on either side, but the Roman loss was out 
 of proportion to their numbers, for several men of equestrian 
 rank, five military tribunes, and three commanding officers 
 of the allies were slain. 
 
 Immediately after the battle Hannibal retired to Liguria, 
 Sempronius to Luca. As Hannibal was on his way to Liguria, 
 two Roman quaestors, Caius Fulvius and Lucius Lucretius, 
 
 ' On the same side. — D. O. 
 
288 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 who had been treacherously intercepted, along with two mili- 
 tary tribunes and five men of equestrian rank, nearly all sons 
 of senators, were surrendered to him, that he might have a. 
 better assurance of a secure peace and alliance with the Li- 
 gurians. 
 
 During these events in Italy, Cneius Cornelius Scipio had 
 been despatched with a fleet and an army to Spain. Starting 
 from the mouth of the Rhone, he sailed round the Pyrenees 
 and brought his ships to anchor at Emporias ; ^ there he dis- 
 embarked his army, and beginning with the Lacetani, while 
 he renewed old as well as formed new alliances, he brought 
 under Roman dominion the entire coast as far as the river 
 Ebro. The character for clemency thus acquired spread not 
 only among the maritime population, but even to the wilder 
 tribes in the interior and among the mountains. With these 
 he secured not simply peace, but also an armed alliance, and 
 some strong auxiliary cohorts were levied from among them. 
 Hanno's province was on this side the Ebro. He had been 
 left by Hannibal to defend this district. Feeling that he must 
 meet the danger before the whole country was lost, he en- 
 camped within sight of the enemy and led out his men for 
 battle. The Roman, too, thought that there ought to be no 
 delay about fighting, for he knew that he would have to en- 
 counter Hanno and Hasdrubal, and he preferred to deal with 
 them separately rather than united. Nor did the battle prove 
 a severe contest. Six thousand of the enemy were slain and 
 two thousand captured with the camp garrison; for both the 
 camp was stormed and the general himself made prisoner with 
 several of his chief officers. Cissis, a town near the camp, 
 was also stormed. The spoil of this place indeed consisted 
 of things of small value, rude household furniture and some 
 worthless slaves. The camp really enriched the soldiers. It 
 was the camp not of the defeated army alone, but also of that 
 which was now serving with Hannibal in Italy, almost every- 
 thing of value having been left on the Spanish side of the 
 Pyrenees, that his troops on their march might have no bur- 
 densome baggage. 
 
 Before any certain tidings of this defeat had reached him, 
 Hasdrubal had crossed the Ebro with eight thousand infantry 
 and a thousand cavalry, meaning, it seemed, to oppose the 
 Romans immediately on their arrival. But when he heard 
 of the ruinous disaster at Cissis and the loss of the camp, he 
 directed his march toward the sea. In the neighbourhood of 
 
 ' At the head of the Gulf of Rosas, the Mediterranean end of the Pyre- 
 nees. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i8] VARYING SUCCESSES IN SPAIN 289 
 
 Tarraco ^ our marines and seamen were roaming all over the 
 country, success as usual producing carelessness. Sending 
 out his cavalry far and wide, Hasdrubal drove them to their 
 ships with great slaughter and yet greater panic. But not 
 daring to linger in the neighbourhood, lest Scipio should 
 swoop down on him, he retired to the farther side of the Ebro. 
 Scipio too, who, on the rumour of a new enemy, had advanced 
 by forced marches, returned with his fleet to Emporiae, after 
 executing a few of the captains of the ships and leaving a mod- 
 erate garrison at Tarraco. Almost instantly on his departure 
 Hasdrubal appeared, stirred to revolt the Ilergetes, who had 
 given hostages to Scipio, and, taking with him the youth of 
 that tribe, ravaged the lands of the allies who remained loyal 
 to Rome. This roused Scipio from his winter quarters, and 
 Hasdrubal again withdrew from the whole country on this 
 side of the Ebro. Scipio marched his army to the tribe of the 
 Ilergetes, now abandoned by the instigator of their revolt. 
 Having driven them all into Atanagrum, their principal town, 
 he besieged the place, and within a few days received them 
 under the protection and jurisdiction of Rome, after fining 
 them in money and exacting more hostages than before. 
 
 He next entered the territory of the Ausetani, near the 
 Ebro, themselves also allies of the Carthaginians. He be- 
 sieged their capital, and when the Lacetani were marching 
 by night to help their neighbours, he intercepted them by an 
 ambuscade near the town which they were about to enter. 
 Upward of twelve thousand were slain; nearly all the sur- 
 vivors stripped themselves of their arms and fled to their 
 homes, after wandering hither and thither through the coun- 
 try. As for the besieged, their sole defence was the bad weath- 
 er, which much embarrassed their assailants. The siege 
 lasted thirty days, during which the snow lay on the ground 
 to a depth of seldom less than four feet, and it had so com- 
 pletely buried the Roman siege-works and mantlets that of 
 itself alone it was a protection against the fiery missiles dis- 
 charged from time to time by the enemy. At last their chief, 
 Amusicus, having made his escape to Hasdrubal, they sur- 
 rendered, agreeing to make a payment of twenty silver talents. 
 The army returned into its winter quarters at Tarraco. 
 
 At Rome, or in the neighbourhood, many portents oc- 
 curred that winter, or, as often happens, when once men's 
 minds are affected by religious fears, many were reported and 
 thoughtlessly believed. These, among others, were related: 
 A child, six months old, of free-born parents, had shouted 
 
 ' Tarragona. 
 19 
 
290 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 218 
 
 " Triumph ! " ; in the cattle-market an ox mounted of its own 
 accord to a third story, from which it threw itself, in alarm 
 at the commotion of the inhabitants; phantom ships had been 
 seen glittering in the sky; the Temple of Hope in the vege- 
 table market had been struck by lightning; at Lanuvium a 
 spear had moved of itself; a crow had flown down on the 
 Temple of Juno, and perched on the very shrine of the god- 
 dess; at several places in the country round Amiternum had 
 been seen figures like men in white clothing, whom, however, 
 nobody actually met; in Picenum there had been a shower of 
 stones; at Caere the sacred tablets had shrunk; and in Gaul 
 a wolf had carried ofif a sentry's sword, first pulling it out of 
 its sheath. As to the other portents, the College of the Ten ^ 
 were bidden to consult the sacred books, but for the shower 
 of stones at Picenum a holy feast of nine days was proclaimed, 
 and then, for the expiation of others, almost all the citizens 
 busied themselves with sacrifices. First of all, the city was 
 purified, and victims of the larger sort were offered to such 
 deities as the sacred books directed. An offering of forty 
 pounds' weight of gold was conveyed to Lanuvium for Juno, 
 and a bronze statue was also dedicated by the married women 
 to Juno of the Aventine. At Caere, where the sacred tablets 
 had shrunk, orders were given for a festival of the gods, and 
 on Mount Algidus there were to be public prayers to Fortune. 
 At Rome, too, there was a sacred feast for the youth and a sup- 
 plication at the Temple of Hercules, which was specially named, 
 and the same for all the citizens at all the prescribed shrines. 
 To the Guardian Spirit of the city were sacrificed five victims 
 of the larger sort, and the praetor, Caius Atilius Soranus, was 
 directed to vow certain offerings, should the state continue in 
 its present positon for ten years. These ceremonies and vows, 
 performed in obedience to the Sibylline books, greatly re- 
 lieved men's minds of their religious fears. 
 
 One of the consuls-elect, Flaminius, to whom the lot had 
 given command of the legions in winter quarters at Placentia, 
 sent orders by a despatch to the consul there that these troops 
 were to be in camp at Ariminum on the isth of March. It 
 was his intention to enter on his consulship in his province, for 
 he well remembered his old quarrels with the senate, first 
 when he was tribune, then when he was consul and they 
 sought to deprive him of his consulship, lastly when his tri- 
 umph was refused. He was hated, too, by the senators, in 
 consequence of an unprecedented bill which Quintus Claudius, 
 
 ' The Decemviri Sacrorum, wlio had charge of the SibvUine books. — 
 D. O. 6 / 
 
B. C. 2i8] EVENTS AT ROME 29 1 
 
 as tribune, had introduced in defiance of the senate by the sup- 
 port of Flaminivis alone among its members. The bill for- 
 bade any senator or senator's son to possess a sea-going 
 vessel of more than three hundred amphoras' burden. This 
 was thought sufScient for the conveyance of produce from 
 their estates, all trade profit being regarded as discreditable 
 for a senator. The matter was discussed in a very sharp de- 
 bate, and had earned for him, as the supporter of the bill, 
 much dislike from the nobility, while it gave him popularity 
 with the commons and thereby a second consulship. Think- 
 ing, therefore, that they would detain him at Rome by falsi- 
 fying the auspices, by delays arising out of the Latin festival, 
 and other hindrances that lay in a consul's way, he left on a 
 pretended journey, and went away secretly as a private citizen 
 to his province. 
 
 As soon as this was made public, it stirred fresh wrath among 
 the already angry senators. " Flaminius," they said, " is now 
 making war not only on the senate, but even on the immortal 
 gods. When he was previously elected consul without due 
 auspices, and we recalled him from the field of battle, he was 
 disobedient both to God and man. Now, conscious of having 
 despised them, he has fled away from the Capitol and the sa- 
 cred recital of the usual vows. He is unwilling on his day of 
 taking office to approach the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Max- 
 imus, to see and consult the senate which hates him, and which 
 he himself alone of their members hates, to proclaim the Latin 
 festival and ofifer on the mount the customary sacrifices to 
 Jupiter Latialis, to go with due auspices to the Capitol to 
 recite the vows, and thence to his province in his general's 
 cloak with lictors about him. He has left Rome like a camp- 
 follower, with no official badge, without a lictor, secretly, 
 stealthily, just as if he were quitting his country to become an 
 exile. He supposes doubtless that it is more consistent with 
 the dignity of the empire for him to enter on his office at 
 Ariminum than at Rome, and to assume his official robe in 
 some wayside inn rather than before his own hearth." 
 
 All maintained that he ought to be recalled, nay, even 
 dragged back, and forced to perform in person every duty 
 owing to God and man before he went to the army in his 
 province. It was decided to despatch envoys; but the men 
 sent on this errand, Quintus Terentius and Marcus Antistius, 
 had no more effect on him than had the despatches of the 
 senate in his previous consulship. He entered on his office in 
 the course of a few days. A calf which he was offering, and 
 which was already wounded, broke loose from the grasp of the 
 
292 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 218 
 
 sacrificing priests, sprinkling several of the bystanders with its 
 blood. At a distance from the altar, where no one knew what 
 caused the commotion, there was still greater panic and ex- 
 citement. It was regarded by many as an omen of very fear- 
 ful import. Flaminius then received two legions from Sem- 
 pronius, the consul of the previous year, and two more from 
 Caius Atilius, the praetor, and began to lead his army through 
 the passes of the Apennines into Etruria. 
 
BOOK XXII 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED) 
 
 IT was nearly spring when Hannibal moved out of his win- 
 ter quarters. He had before attempted to cross the Apen- 
 nines, but in vain, so intolerable was the cold; and his 
 
 sojourn had been prolonged amid extreme peril and appre- 
 hension. The Gauls had been attracted by the hope of spoil 
 and rapine; but when they found that instead of their plun- 
 dering their neighbours, their own country was made the 
 battle-field, and that it was burdened by the winter quarters 
 of the two armies, they transferred their hatred from the 
 Romans to Hannibal. Again and again plots were hatched 
 by the chiefs against his life; again and again he was saved 
 by their treachery to each other, and they revealed their 
 conspiracies with the same levity with which they had con- 
 spired. He would also change now his dress, now his wig, 
 and found protection in thus confusing his assailants. How- 
 ever, these fears were another reason for his early movement 
 out of winter quarters. 
 
 About the same time, on the 15th of March, the con- 
 sul, Cneius Servilius, entered on his office at Rome. When he 
 submitted to the senate his proposals for the year, their angry 
 feeling against Caius Flaminius broke out afresh. " We have 
 made two consuls," they exclaimed, " but we have only one. 
 What legal authority, what religious sanction ^ does this man 
 possess? It is from his home, from the hearth of the state 
 and of the family ; it is after keeping the Latin Feast,- and 
 sacrificing on the Alban Hill, and praying with all due so- 
 lemnity, that the new magistrate takes this sanction with him. 
 No such sanction can attend a private person; the man who 
 
 ' Unless the auspices were properly taken at Rome the administration 
 was not considered to be placed under divine protection. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Said to have been instituted by the last Tarquin in honour of Jupiter 
 Latiaris, to commemorate the alliance between Rome and the Latins. It 
 lasted six days, and the consuls could not legally take the field until they 
 had celebrated it. — D. O. 
 
 293 
 
294 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 has started without it can not acquire it afresh in its fulness on 
 a foreign soil." 
 
 These fears were increased by the tidings of marvels which 
 now came from many places at once. Some soldiers' spears 
 in Sicily had burst into a blaze; so too in Sardinia had the 
 stafif which an officer held in his hand as he went his rounds 
 inspecting the sentries on the wall ; two shields had sweated 
 blood; certain soldiers had been struck by lightning; there 
 had been seen an eclipse of the sun ; at Pr^neste blazing 
 stones had fallen from the sky ; at Arpi shields had been seen 
 in the sky, and the sun had seemed to fight with the moon ; 
 at Capua two moons had risen in the daytime ; the stream at 
 Caere had flowed half blood ; gouts of blood had been seen on 
 the water that dripped from the spring of Hercules ; reapers 
 in the fields near Antium had seen the ears fall all bloody into 
 the basket ; at Falerii the sky had seemed parted by a huge 
 cleft, while an overpowering light shone forth from the open- 
 ing ; certain oracle tablets had spontaneously shrunk, and on 
 one that fell out were the words " Mars shakes his spear " ; 
 at the same time, at Rome, sweat came out on the statue of 
 Mars that stands in the Appian Road by the images of the 
 wolves ; ^ at Capua the sky had seemed to be on fire, and a 
 moon to fall in the midst of a shower. Then men began to 
 believe less solemn marvels. Some persons had had goats be- 
 come sheep ; a hen had changed into a cock, and a cock into 
 a hen. The consul gave the whole story at length, as it had 
 been told him, at the same time introducing into the senate 
 those who vouched for it, and asked the opinion of the house 
 on the religious aspect of the matter. 
 
 It was resolved that such expiation should be made as 
 these portents demanded, with victims, some of which should 
 be full-grown, some sucklings ; that public prayer should be 
 offered during three days at every shrine. Everything else 
 was to be done, after the College of the Ten had inspected the 
 holy books, in such fashion as they might declare from the 
 prophecies to be pleasing to the gods. They ordered that the 
 first ofifering, of gold weighing fifty pounds, should be made 
 to Jupiter, that to Juno and Minerva offerings of silver should 
 be presented ; that full-grown victims should be sacrificed to 
 Juno the Queen on the Aventine Hill, and to Juno the Pre- 
 server at Lanuvium ; that the matrons, collecting a sum of 
 money, as much as it might be convenient for each to con- 
 tribute, should carry it as an offering to Juno the Queen on the 
 Aventine ; that a religious feast should be held, and that even 
 
 ' Just outside of what is now the Porta San Sebastiano. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 217] IN THE MARSHES OF THE ARNO 295 
 
 the very freedwomen should raise contributions according to 
 their means for a gift to the goddess Feronia. After all this the 
 College of the Ten sacrificed full-grown victims in the market- 
 place at Ardea. Last of all, as late as December, a sacrifice was 
 made at the Temple of Saturn in Rome ; '^ a religious feast was 
 ordered (furnished by the senators) and a public banquet ; and 
 a festival of Saturn to last a day and a night proclaimed 
 throughout Rome. This day the people were enjoined to 
 keep and observe as a holiday forever. 
 
 While the consul was busy at Rome propitiating the gods 
 and holding a levy, Hannibal, who had quitted his winter 
 quarters, heard that the consul Flaminius had already reached 
 Arretium.^ Accordingly, though another route, longer indeed 
 but more convenient, was open to him, he took the nearer way 
 across the marshes of the Arno, which happened at the time 
 to be more flooded than usual. He arranged that the Spanish 
 and African soldiers, who were the whole strength of his vet- 
 eran army, should go first, taking in their columns their own 
 baggage, that wherever they might be compelled to halt, sup- 
 plies might not fail them ; the Gauls were to follow, occupying 
 the middle of the line of march ; last were to come the cavalry ; 
 after these Mago with some light Numidian troopers was to 
 close up the line, and especially to keep the Gauls together, if, 
 weary of the long and toilsome march (and this is a thing 
 which they are ill fitted to endure), they began to straggle or 
 halt. The first columns, wherever the guides led the way, 
 through deep and almost bottomless pools of the river, nearly 
 swallowed up in the mud and plunging into the water, still fol- 
 lowed the standards. The Gauls could not recover their foot- 
 ing when they slipped, nor extricate themselves from the 
 pools ; without spirit to eke out their strength, without hope 
 to eke out their spirit, some just dragged along their weary 
 limbs, others fainted in sheer despair and lay dying amid 
 crowds of dying horses. Of all things it was the want of sleep, 
 and this they had to endure for four days and three nights, 
 that most exhausted them. The floods were everywhere, and 
 not a spot of dry ground could be found where they might 
 rest their weary bodies. They could only pile up the baggage 
 in the water and lie down on the top ; or the heaps of horses 
 that had perished all along the line of march just appeared 
 above the water and supplied the necessary place where they 
 might snatch a few moments' repose. Hannibal himself, 
 whose eyes suffered from the trying weather of the spring, 
 with its great variations of heat and cold, rode on the one ele- 
 
 ' In the Forum, where its ruins now stand. — D. O. ' Arezzo.— D. O. 
 
2q6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 phant which was left, that he might be as high as possible 
 above the water. But long watches, together with the damps 
 of night and the moist climate, affected his head ; there was 
 no place or time for the application of remedies, and he lost 
 one of his eyes. 
 
 At last he struggled out of the marshes, after losmg amid 
 horrible misery a multitude of men and horses, and pitched his 
 camp on the first spot of dry ground that he reached. Here 
 he learned from the scouts whom he had sent forward that the 
 Roman army lay round the walls of Arretium. From that 
 time he continued to acquaint himself by the most diligent in- 
 quiry with all particulars, the consul's plans, his temper, the 
 geography of the country, his movements, his facilities for pro- 
 curing supplies, everything in fact which it might serve him to 
 know. The district was one of the most fertile in Italy, the 
 Etrurian plain lying between F^sulae ^ and Arretium, a coun- 
 try rich in corn and cattle and all kinds of wealth. 
 
 Flaminius, full of the fierce memories of his first consul- 
 ship, stood little in awe not merely of the laws and of the dig- 
 nity of the senators, but even of the gods. The good fortune 
 which had given him success at home and in the field, had 
 fostered this natural recklessness. It was plain, then, that one 
 who was equally careless of God and man would be utterly 
 rash and headstrong. That he might yield the sooner to his 
 special failings, the Carthaginian general laid his plans to har- 
 ass and provoke him. He marched on Fassulas, leaving his 
 enemy on the left, made his way, plundering as he went, 
 through the heart of Etruria, and making the consul behold 
 from afar all the devastation which fire and sword could pos- 
 sibly spread. 
 
 Flaminius, who had the enemy sat still would not have sat 
 still himself, now saw the possessions of the allies pillaged 
 almost under his eyes, and regarded it as a personal disgrace 
 that the Carthaginian chief should rove at his will through the 
 very heart of Italy and march unopposed to assault the very 
 walls of Rome. Every other voice in the council of war was 
 raised for a policy of safety rather than of display. " Wait 
 for your colleague," they said ; " when your armies are united, 
 you may conduct your campaign on one common purpose and 
 plan ; meanwhile the cavalry and the light-armed auxiliaries 
 must check the enemy in their wild license of plunder." 
 
 Full of fury, Flaminius rushed out of the council. He 
 ordered the trumpets to give the signal for march and battle, 
 crying : " We are to sit, I suppose, before the walls of Arreti- 
 
 ' A suburb of Florence. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 217] FLAMINIUS ENTRAPPED BY HANNIRAL 297 
 
 um, because our country and our home are here. Hannibal we 
 let slip out of our hands, and let him ravage Italy and plunder 
 and approach the very walls of Rome, but we are not to move 
 hence till the senate send to Arretium for Flaminius, just as 
 in old days they sent to Veil for CamiUus ! " With these fierce 
 words on his lips he ordered the standard to be pulled out of 
 the ground with all haste, and himself leaped upon his horse, 
 when lo ! in a moment the horse fell, throwing the consul over 
 his head. Amid the terror of all who stood near — for this was 
 an ill omen for the beginning of a campaign — came a message 
 to say that the standard could not be wrenched from the 
 ground, though the standard-bearer had exerted all his 
 strength. Turning to the messenger, the consul said : " Per- 
 haps you bring me a despatch from the senate, forbidding me 
 to fight. Go, tell them to dig the standard out, if their hands 
 are so numb v\'ith fear that they can not wrench it up." The 
 army then began its march. The superior officers, not to 
 speak of their having dissented from the plan, were alarmed 
 by these two portents ; the soldiers generally were delighted 
 with their headstrong chief. Full of confidence, they thought 
 little on what their confidence was founded. 
 
 Hannibal devastated with all the horrors of war the coun- 
 try betvi^een Cortona and Lake Trasumennus, seeking to in- 
 furiate the Romans into avenging the sufferings of their allies. 
 They had now reached a spot made for an ambuscade, where 
 the lake comes up close under the hills of Cortona. Between 
 them is nothing but a very narrow road, for which room seems 
 to have been purposely left. Farther on is some compara- 
 tively broad level ground. From this rise the hills, and here 
 in the open plain Hannibal pitched a camp for himself and his 
 African and Spanish troops only ; his slingers and other light- 
 armed troops he marched to the rear of the hills ; his cavalry 
 he stationed at the mouth of the defile, behind some rising 
 ground which conveniently sheltered them. When the Ro- 
 mans had once entered the pass and the cavalry had barred 
 the way, all would be hemmed in by the lake and the hills. 
 
 Flaminius had reached the lake at sunset the day before. 
 On the morrow, without reconnoitring and while the light was 
 still uncertain, he traversed the narrow pass. As his army 
 began to deploy into the widening plain, he could see only that 
 part of the enemy's force which was in front of him ; he knew 
 nothing of the ambuscade in his rear and above his head. The 
 Carthaginian saw his wish accomplished. He had his enemy 
 shut in by the lake and the hills and surrounded by his own 
 troops. He gave the signal for a general charge, and the at- 
 
298 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 tacking columns flung themselves on the nearest pomts. To 
 the Romans the attack was all the more sudden and unex- 
 pected because the mist from the lake lay thicker on the plams 
 than on the heights, while the hostile columns on the various 
 hills had been quite visible to each other and had therefore 
 advanced in concert. As for the Romans, with the shout of 
 battle rising all round them, before they could see plainly, 
 they found themselves surrounded, and fighting begun in their 
 front and their flanks before they could form in order, get 
 ready their arms, or draw their swords. 
 
 Amid universal panic the consul showed all the courage 
 that could be expected in circumstances so alarming. The 
 broken ranks, in which every one was turning to catch the dis- 
 cordant shouts, he re-formed as well as time and place per- 
 mitted, and, as far as his presence or his voice could reach, 
 bade his men stand their ground and fight. " It is not by 
 prayers," he cried, " or entreaties to the gods, but by strength 
 and courage that you must win your way out. The sword 
 cuts a path through the midst of the battle ; and where there 
 is the less fear, there for the most part is the less danger." 
 But, such were the uproar and confusion, neither encourage- 
 ments nor commands could be heard ; so far were the men 
 from knowing their standards, their ranks, or their places, that 
 they had scarcely presence of mind to snatch up their arms 
 and prepare them for the fight, and some found them an over- 
 whelming burden rather than a protection. So dense too was 
 the mist that the ear was of more service than the eye. The 
 groans of the wounded, the sound of blows on body or armour, 
 the mingled shouts of triumph or panic, made them turn an 
 eager gaze this way and that. Some would rush in their flight 
 on a dense knot of combatants and become entangled in the 
 mass ; others returning to the battle would be carried away 
 by the crowd of fugitives. But after a while, when charges 
 had been vainly tried in every direction, when it was seen that 
 the hills and the lake shut them in on either side, and the hos- 
 tile lines in front and rear, when it was manifest that the only 
 hope of safety lay in their own right hands and swords, then 
 every man began to look to himself for guidance and for en- 
 couragement, and there began afresh what was indeed a new 
 battle. No battle was it with its three ranks of combatants, its 
 vanguard before the standards and its second line fighting 
 behind them, with every soldier in his own legion, cohort, 
 or company : chance massed them together, and each man's 
 impulse assigned him his post, whether in the van or rear. So 
 fierce was their excitement, so intent were they on the battle 
 
B. C. 217] BATTLE OF LAKE TRASUMENNUS 299 
 
 that not one of the combatants felt the earthquake which laid 
 whole quarters of many Italian cities in ruins, changed the 
 channels of rapid streams, drove the sea far up into rivers, 
 and brought down enormous land-slides from the hills. 
 
 For nearly three hours they fought, fiercely everywhere, 
 but with especial rage and fury round the consul. It was to 
 him that the flower of the army attached themselves. He, 
 wherever he found his troops hard pressed or distressed, was 
 indefatigable in giving help ; conspicuous in his splendid arms, 
 the enemy assailed and his fellow-Romans defended him with 
 all their might. At last an Insubrian trooper (his name was 
 Ducarius), recognising him also by his face, cried to his com- 
 rades : " See ! this is the map who slaughtered our legions, and 
 laid waste our fields and our city ; I will offer him as a sacri- 
 fice to the shades of my countrymen whom he so foully slew." 
 Putting spurs to his horse, he charged through the thickest 
 of the enemy, struck down the armour-bearer who threw him- 
 self in the way of his furious advance, and ran the consul 
 through with his lance. When he would have stripped the 
 body, some veterans thrust their shields between and hin- 
 dered him. 
 
 Then began the flight of a great part of the army. And 
 now neither lake nor mountain checked their rush of panic ; 
 by every defile and height they sought blindly to escape, and 
 arms and men were heaped upon each other. Many, finding 
 no possibility of flight, waded into the shallows at the edge of 
 the lake, advanced until they had only head and shoulders 
 above the water, and at last drowned themselves. Some in 
 the frenzy of panic endeavoured to escape by swimming ; but 
 the endeavour was endless and hopeless, and they either sank 
 in the depths when their courage failed them, or they wearied 
 themselves in vain till they could hardly struggle back to the 
 shallows, where they were slaughtered in crowds by the ene- 
 my's cavalry which had now entered the water. Nearly six 
 thousand men of the vanguard made a determined rush 
 through the enemy, and got clear out of the defile, knowing 
 nothing of what was happening behind them. Halting on 
 some high ground, they could only hear the shouts of men 
 and clashing of arms, but could not learn or see for the mist 
 how the day was going. It was when the battle was decided 
 that the increasing heat of the sun scattered the mist and 
 cleared the sky. The bright light that now rested on hill and 
 plain showed a ruinous defeat and a Roman army shamefully 
 routed. Fearing that they might be seen in the distance and 
 that the cavalry might be sent against them, they took up their 
 
jOO LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 standards and hurried away with all the speed they could. 
 The next day, finding their situation generally desperate, and 
 starvation also imminent, they capitulated to MaharbaV who 
 had overtaken them with the whole of his cavalry, and who 
 pledged his word that if they would surrender their arms, they 
 should go free, each man having a single garment. The 
 promise was kept with Punic faith by Hannibal, who put them 
 all in chains. 
 
 Such was the famous fight at Trasumennus, memorable as 
 few other disasters of the Roman people have been. Fifteen 
 thousand men fell in the battle ; ten thousand, flying in all di- 
 rections over Etruria, made by different roads for Rome. Of 
 the enemy two thousand five hundred fell in the battle. Many 
 died afterward of their wounds. Other authors speak of a loss 
 on both sides many times greater. I am myself adverse to 
 the idle exaggeration to which writers are so commonly in- 
 clined, and I have here follov/ed as my best authority Fabius, 
 who was actually contemporary with the war. Hannibal 
 released without ransom all the prisoners who claimed Latin 
 citizenship ; the Romans he imprisoned. He had the corpses 
 of his own men separated from the vast heaps of dead, 
 and buried. Careful search was also made for the body of 
 Flaminius, to which he wished to pay due honour, but it could 
 not be found. 
 
 At Rome the first tidings of this disaster brought a terror- 
 stricken and tumultuous crowd into the forum. The ma- 
 trons wandered through the streets and asked all whom they 
 met what was this disaster of which news had just arrived, and 
 how the army had fared. A crowd, thick as a thronged as- 
 sembly, with eyes intent upon the senate-house, called aloud 
 for the magistrates, till at last, not long before sunset, the prae- 
 tor, Marcus Pomponius, said, " We have been beaten in a 
 great battle." Nothing more definite than this was said by 
 him ; but each man had reports without end to tell his neigh- 
 bour; and the news which they carried back to their homes 
 was that the consul had perished with a great part of his troops, 
 that the few who had survived were either dispersed through- 
 out Etruria, or taken prisoners by the enemy. 
 
 The mischances of the beaten army were not more numer- 
 
 ' Polybius and Livy are at variance as to the scene of this battle, the 
 former making the Roman army to have turned from the lake into the 
 defile of Passignano before the attack was delivered. They would then 
 have had the Carthaginians in their rear. I have walked over the ground, 
 and am strongly inclined to side with the Roman historian. The topo- 
 graphical conditions apply perfectly if we take the hill on which Tuoro 
 now stands as the centre of the Carthaginian position. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 217] THE NEWS AT ROME 301 
 
 ous than the anxieties which distracted the minds of those 
 whose relatives had served under Flaminius. All were utterly 
 ignorant how this or that kinsman had fared ; no one even 
 quite knew what to hope or to fear. On the morrow, and for 
 some days after, there stood at the gates a crowd in which the 
 women even outnumbered the men, waiting to see their rela- 
 tives or hear some tidings about them. They thronged round 
 all whom they met, with incessant questions, and could not 
 tear themselves away, least of all leave any acquaintance, till 
 they had heard the whole story to an end. Dififerent indeed 
 were their looks as they turned away from the tale which had 
 filled them either with joy or grief, and friends crowded round 
 to congratulate or console them as they returned to their 
 homes. The women were most conspicuous for their trans- 
 ports and their grief. Within one of the very gates, a woman 
 unexpectedly meeting a son who had escaped, died, it is said, 
 in his embrace ; another who had had false tidings of her son's 
 death and sat sorrowing at home, expired from excessive joy 
 when she caught sight of him entering the house. The prae- 
 tors for some days kept the senate in constant session from 
 sunrise to sunset, deliberating who was to lead an army, and 
 what army was to be led against the victorious foe. 
 
 Before any definite plans could be formed, there came 
 without warning news of another disaster. Four thousand 
 cavalry, sent with the consul Servilius under the command of 
 the pro-praetor Caius Centenius to the help of Flaminius, had 
 been surrounded by Hannibal in Umbria, into which country 
 they had marched on hearing of the battle at Trasumennus. 
 The tidings of this occurrence affected men very variously. 
 Some, whose thoughts were wholly occupied by the greater 
 trouble, counted this fresh loss of a body of cavalry a mere trifle 
 in comparison with the previous disasters ; others felt that this 
 incident could not be taken as standing by itself. In a weak- 
 ened frame the most insignificant thing is felt as things far 
 more serious are not felt in the healthy ; so, they argued, any 
 loss that falls upon a suffering and weakened state must be 
 estimated not by its intrinsic magnitude, but by the impaired 
 strength, which can endure nothing that would increase its 
 burden. The country hastily betook itself to a remedy which 
 had not been either wanted or employed for many years, the 
 creation of a dictator. But the consul was absent, and it was 
 the consul only, it would seem, who could create him ; it was 
 no easy matter to send him a messenger or a letter with the 
 Carthaginian army in possession of Italy ; nor could the sen- 
 ate make a dictator without consulting the people. In the 
 
302 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 end a step wholly unprecedented was taken. The people 
 created Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator, and Marcus Mmu- 
 cius Rufus master of the horse. The senate charged them 
 to strengthen the walls and towers of the city, to put gar- 
 risons in whatever places they thought best, and to break 
 down the bridges over the rivers. Italy they could not de- 
 fend, but they could still fight for their city and their homes. 
 
 Hannibal marched straight through Umbria to Spoletum,^ 
 From this place he was repulsed with great loss, when, after 
 devastating the country, he attempted the city by assault. It 
 was not one of the largest colonies, and having tried its 
 strength with such ill success, he was led to reflect what a vast 
 undertaking Rome itself would be. Accordingly, he turned 
 aside to the territory of Picenum, a country abounding in 
 produce of every kind, and richly stored with property which 
 the rapacious and needy soldiery plundered with eagerness. 
 There he kept his army stationary for a few days, refreshing 
 his men, exhausted by winter marches, by their passage 
 through the marshes, and by a battle, which, however success- 
 ful in its issue, had been no slight or easy struggle. A short 
 rest was enough for a soldiery which loved plunder and ravage 
 more than ease and repose. Then moving forward he wasted 
 the district of Prsetutia and Hadria, and next the country of 
 the Marsi, Marrucini, and Peligni, with the region round Arpi 
 and Luceria, near the borders of Apulia.^ The consul Cn. 
 Servilius had had meanwhile some slight engagements with 
 the Gauls, and had stormed one town of no note. When he 
 heard that the other consul with his army had perished, he 
 trembled for his country's safety, and resolving not to be ab- 
 sent in its hour of peril, marched rapidly to Rome. 
 
 On the day that Q. Fabius Maximus, who was now dicta- 
 tor for the second time, entered upon his office, he convoked 
 the senate. He began with mention of the gods ; it was, he 
 proved to the senators, in neglect of religious rites and aus- 
 pices rather than in rashness and want of skill that the error of 
 Flaminius had lain, and Heaven itself, he urged, must be asked 
 how the anger of Heaven could be propitiated. He thus pre- 
 vailed upon them to do what is scarcely ever done except when 
 the most sinister marvels have been observed, to order the Ten 
 to consult the books of the Sibyl. They inspected the volumes 
 of destiny, and reported to the senate that, seeing that a vow to 
 jNIars was the cause of the war, this vow, not having been duly 
 performed, must be performed anew and on a larger scale, 
 ' Spoleto.— D. O. 
 ' He marched southward along the coast of the Adriatic. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] FABIUS MAXIMUS MADE DICTATOR 303 
 
 that games of the first class must be vowed to Jupiter, a tem- 
 ple to Venus of Eryx and another to Reason, that there must 
 be a pubHc supphcation and a banquet of the gods and a holy 
 spring vowed, if the arms of Rome should be found to have 
 prospered and the state to remain in the same position which it 
 had occupied before the war. The senate, knowing that Fabius 
 would be occupied with the business of the campaign, directed 
 the prstor, Marcus ^milius, who had been nominated by the 
 College of Pontifi^s, to see all things speedily done. 
 
 These resolutions of the senate duly passed, Lucius Cor- 
 nelius Lentulus, chief pontiff, declared (for the prstor had the 
 advice of the Sacred College) that the people must be con- 
 sulted about the holy spring. Without the people's consent 
 it could not, he said, be vowed. The question was put to the 
 people in these words : " Is it your will and pleasure that it 
 shall be done as is hereinafter set forth ? If the common weal 
 of the Roman people and of the Quirites be kept, according to 
 my wish and prayer, whole and safe for the five years next fol- 
 lowing in these wars, to wit, the war that now is with the peo- 
 ple of Carthage, and the wars that now are with the Gauls 
 dwelling on the hither side of the Alps, then the Roman people 
 and the Quirites give as a free gift all the increase in the 
 spring next following of swine, sheep, goats, cattle, not being 
 already consecrated, to be sacrificed to Jupiter, on and after 
 the day which the said senate and people shall appoint. And 
 whosoever shall sacrifice, he may sacrifice whensoever and 
 after what order it shall please him. In what manner soever 
 he shall sacrifice, it shall be counted duly done. If that which 
 should be sacrificed die, then shall it be counted as a thing un- 
 consecrated, and the man shall be free. If any one should 
 hurt or slay a consecrated thing, not knowing, he shall be in- 
 nocent. If aught should be stolen, the people shall be free 
 and also he from whom it hath been stolen. If a man shall 
 sacrifice on an inauspicious day ^ not knowing, he shall be in- 
 nocent. If he shall sacrifice by day or by night, if he shall 
 sacrifice, being a slave or free, it shall be counted duly done. 
 If aught shall be sacrificed before that the senate and the peo- 
 ple shall have ordered such sacrifices, the people shall be free 
 and acquitted therefrom." For the same reason games of the 
 first class were vowed at a cost of three hundred and thirty 
 thousand three hundred and thirty-three brass pieces and a 
 third, with three hundred oxen besides to Jupiter, and white 
 oxen and the other customary victims to many other deities. 
 
 ' Literally : "black day." These were for the most part anniversaries 
 of national misfortunes. — D. O. 
 
304 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 When the vows had been duly made, a public supplication 
 was ordered, to join in which not only the population of the 
 city came with their wives and children, but also the coun- 
 try folk, whom the public troubles were now beginning 
 to touch in some of their interests. Then a sacred banquet 
 was held for three days, under the care of ten ecclesiastical 
 commissioners. Six banqueting tables were publicly exhib- 
 ited, to Jupiter and Juno one, a second to Neptune and Mi- 
 nerva, a third to Mars and Venus, a fourth to Apollo and 
 Diana, a fifth to Vulcan and Vesta, a sixth to Mercury and 
 Ceres. ^ Then the two temples were vowed, that to Venus of 
 Eryx by the dictator, Q. Fabius Maximus, because it had been 
 given forth from the books of destiny that the vow should be 
 made by him who held the supreme authority in the state ; that 
 to Reason by the pr^tor, T. Otacilius. 
 
 The duties of religion thus discharged, the dictator brought 
 the state of the war and of the country before the senate, 
 which had to determine what and how many should be the 
 legions with which the victorious enemy must be met. It 
 was resolved that he should take over the army of the consul 
 Servilius, should enlist into the cavalry and infantry as many 
 citizens and aUies as he thought fit, and should generally act as 
 he considered best for the good of the state. Fabius said that 
 he should add two legions to the army of Servilius. These 
 the master of the horse was to levy, and the dictator named 
 a day on which they were to assemble at Tibur.- He made 
 proclamation that all inhabitants of unfortified towns and 
 stations should remove into places of safety, that all the popu- 
 lation of the country through which Hannibal was likely to 
 pass should desert it, first burning all buildings and destroy- 
 ing all crops, that he might find no supplies. He then marched 
 along the Flaminian Road ^ to meet the consul. 
 
 On reaching the Tiber, near Ocriculum, he came in view of 
 the army and saw the consul advancing toward him with some 
 cavalry ; upon this he sent his apparitor with a message to 
 the consul that he was to come to the dictator without his lie- 
 tors. The consul obeyed him, and their meeting produced a 
 vast impression on citizens and allies, who had almost for- 
 gotten what this obsolete office of dictator meant. Then came 
 despatches from Rome with news that some merchantmen, 
 
 ' The twelve " dei consentes " who formed the Council of Jove — D O 
 
 ^ Tivoli.— D. O. 
 
 ' Built by the late consul, Flaminius. It ran from the Porta Ratu- 
 mena just under the north slope of the citadel northeastward along 
 Tibur.— D. O. 
 
B. C. 217] TACTICS OF FABIUS 305 
 
 carrying stores from Ostia to the army in Spain, had been 
 taken by a Carthaginian fleet near the harbour of Cosa. Fa- 
 bius immediately ordered the consul to start for Ostia, to man 
 any ships that might be there or at Rome with soldiers and 
 seamen, to pursue the enemy's fleet, and to protect the coasts 
 of Italy. A vast number of men had been enlisted at Rome. 
 Even freedmen, having children and being of the military age, 
 had taken the oath. Out of these city troops such as were 
 under thirty-five were sent to man the ships, others were left 
 to garrison the city. 
 
 The dictator took over the consul's army from the hands of 
 Fulvius Flaccus, second in command, and then, traversing the 
 Sabine country, came to Tibur, where he had commanded the 
 new levies to meet by a certain day. From Tibur he marched 
 to Praeneste, and so, by cross ways, to the Latin Road ; and 
 then, always reconnoitring his ground most carefully, ad- 
 vanced against the enemy, resolved nowhere to risk anything 
 more than necessity might compel. The first day that he 
 pitched his camp in sight of the enemy (the place was not far 
 from Arpi),^ Hannibal, without a moment's delay, led out his 
 men and offered battle. When he saw that all was quiet in the 
 Roman army, and that there was no sign of any stir in their 
 camp, he returned to his quarters, loudly exclaiming that at 
 last the martial spirit of Rome was broken — they had made 
 open confession of defeat and yielded the palm of glory and 
 valour. But in his heart was a secret fear that he had now to 
 deal with a general very dififerent from Flaminius or Sem- 
 pronius, and that, taught by disasters, the Romans had at last 
 found a general equal to himself. He felt at once afraid of 
 the wariness of the new dictator ; of his firmness he had not 
 yet made trial, and so began to harass and provoke him by 
 repeatedly moving his camp and wasting under his eyes the 
 territory of the allies. At one time he would make a rapid 
 march and disappear ; at another he would make a sudden 
 halt, concealed in some winding road, where he hoped that 
 he might catch his antagonist descending to the plain. Fa- 
 bius continued to move his forces along high ground, preserv- 
 ing a moderate distance from the enem)', neither letting him 
 out of his sight nor encountering him. He kept his soldiers 
 within their camp, unless they were required for some neces- 
 sary service. When they went in quest of forage or wood, it 
 was not in small parties or at random. Pickets of cavalry and 
 light troops were told off and kept in readiness to meet sud- 
 den alarms, a constant protection to his own troops, a con- 
 
 ' Near Foggia, in Apulia. — D. O. 
 
3o6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 stant terror to the vagrant marauders of the enemy. He re- 
 fused to stake his all on the hazard of a general engagement, 
 but slight enounters, of little importance with a refuge so 
 near, could be easily ventured on ; and a soldiery demoralized 
 by former disasters were thus habituated to think more hope- 
 fully of their own courage and good luck. But these sober 
 counsels found an adversary not only in Hannibal, but quite 
 as much in his own master of the horse, who, headstrong and 
 rash in counsel and intemperate in speech, was kept from ruin- 
 ing his country only by the want of power. First to a few lis- 
 teners, then openly before the ranks of the army, he stigmatized 
 his commander as more indolent than deliberate, more cow- 
 ardly than cautious, fastening on him failings which were akin 
 to his real virtues, and seeking to exalt himself by lowering 
 his chief — a vile art, which has often thriven by a too success- 
 ful practice. 
 
 Hannibal passed from the territory of the Hirpini into Sam- 
 nium, ravaged the country round Beneventum, and took the 
 town of Telesia, still purposely provoking the Roman general, 
 in the hope that the insults and injuries inflicted on the allies 
 might rouse him into fighting a pitched battle. Among the 
 crowd of Italian allies who had been taken prisoners at Trasu- 
 mennus by Hannibal and set at liberty, were three Campanian 
 knights, whom the Carthaginians had then won over, by liberal 
 gifts and promises, to undertake the task of conciliating to 
 him the affections of their countrymen. They now came and 
 told him that if he would move his army into Campania, he 
 would have an opportunity of securing Capua ; ^ the matter 
 seemed too important for the authority on which it rested ; 
 Hannibal now doubted, now believed, but was so far moved 
 as to make his way from Campania into Samnium. His in- 
 formants he sent away with repeated warnings that they must 
 give some substantial proof of their promises, and with in- 
 structions to return to him with a more numerous company, 
 some of whom must be men of importance. He gave per- 
 sonal orders to the guide to take him to the territory of Casi- 
 num, those who knew the country having informed him that 
 by occupying that pass he could close the outlet by which the 
 Romans might send help to their allies. But the Carthagin- 
 ian pronunciation was so different from the Latin, that the 
 guide mistook Casinum - for Casilinum,^ and Hannibal, taken 
 
 ' The ancient city stood where the town of S. Maria di Capua Vetere 
 now stands. — D. O. 
 
 ' Now Casino. It lay in the mountains near the southern border of 
 Latium. — D. O. ' The modern Capua, — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] MINUCIUS ADDRESSES THE SOLDIERS 307 
 
 out of his intended rovite, came down through Alhfae, CalHfe, 
 and Cales/ on the plains of Stella. When he looked round on 
 the country, which is shut in by hills and rivers, he sent for 
 the guide and asked him where in the world he was. The man 
 told him that he would have his quarters that day at Casilinum. 
 Then at last he discovered the mistake, and heard that Casi- 
 num was far away in another direction. The guide was 
 scourged and crucified, to terrify his fellows. Hannibal then 
 fortified his camp, and sent out Maharbal with his cavalry to 
 plunder the Falernian Plain.- His ravages extended as far 
 as the Baths of Sinuessa. Great was the damage, but yet 
 greater and more widespread were the panic and terror caused 
 by the Numidian horsemen ; but though war raged all around 
 them, all its terrors failed to shake the loyalty of our allies. 
 The truth was that they were under a righteous and moderate 
 rule, and they yielded — and this is the only true bond of loy- 
 alty — a willing obedience to their betters. 
 
 But when Hannibal had encamped by the Vulturnus, and 
 the fairest lands of Italy were being wasted by fire, and the 
 smoke of burning houses went up in every direction, then the 
 mutinous spirit almost broke out afresh in the army which 
 Fabius was leading along the ridge of the Massic range. For 
 some days, indeed, the troops had been quiet ; the army had 
 been marching more rapidly than usual, and they had fancied 
 that this haste was to save Campania from ravage. But when 
 they reached the last spur on the Massic range and saw 
 the enemy beneath them burning every building in the Faler- 
 nian district, or belonging to the citizens of Sinuessa, and yet 
 heard not a word about fighting, then Minucius broke forth : 
 " Have we come hither to see, as though it were some delight- 
 ful spectacle, our allies wasted by fire and sword ? Are we not 
 ashamed to think — if of none else — yet at least of these fellow- 
 citizens of ours, whom our fathers sent to colonize Sinuessa, 
 and so protect this region from Samnite enemies ; and now it 
 is not the Samnite from beyond the border, but the Cartha- 
 ginian from beyond the sea that has been allowed by our de- 
 lays and our indolence to make his way hither from the very 
 ends of the earth ? We have so degenerated from our fathers 
 that we calmly see the very country, by whose shores they 
 thought it an insult to our power for a Carthaginian fleet to 
 cruise, crowded with enemies, savages from Numidia and 
 Mauretania. We, too, who the other day, in our wrath that 
 Saguntum should be assailed, appealed not only to men, but to 
 
 ' The modern village of Calvi occupies its site. — D. O. 
 ' It lay along the valley of the Volturnus. — D. O. 
 
3o8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 Heaven and the faith of treaties, now idly gaze on Hannibal as 
 he climbs the walls of a colony of Rome. The smoke from 
 burning houses and fields is blown into our eyes and faces; 
 our ears are deafened with the clamour of allies who cry for 
 help to us even more than to the gods. And we are leading 
 our army, as if they were cattle, through summer pastures and 
 out-of-the-way tracks, hiding ourselves in mists and forests. 
 If Marcus Furius had thought to recover our capital from the 
 Gauls by this plan of wandering over pastures and hills by 
 which this new Camillus, this wonderful dictator, who has 
 been found for us in our troubles, is seeking to save Italy from 
 Hannibal, Rome would now be a city of the Gauls ; and much 
 I fear that, if we thus linger, our fathers saved it again and 
 again for Hannibal and the Carthaginians. But that true man 
 and true Roman, as soon as tidings came to Veii that he 
 had been named dictator at the instance of the senate, and bid- 
 ding of the people, though Janiculum was quite high enough 
 for him to sit and survey the enemy, came down to the plain, 
 and slaughtered the legions of the Gaul on that very day in 
 the middle of the city where now stand the Gauls' ' Tombs,' 
 and on the next day between Rome and Gabii. What? when 
 many years after this we were sent under the yoke at the Cau- 
 dine Forks by our Samnite foes, was it, pray, by wandering 
 over the Samnite hills, or by assailing and beleaguering Lu- 
 ceria, and by challenging the victorious enemy that L. Papirius 
 Cursor shook the yoke from ofif Roman necks and placed 
 it on the haughty Samnite ? What was it a few years ago but 
 speedy action that gave Caius Lutatius his victory ? The very 
 day after catching sight of the enemy, he destroyed their fleet,^ 
 burdened as it was with stores, and hampered with its own 
 tackling and equipment. It is folly to think that the war can 
 be finished by sitting still and praying. You must take your 
 arms; you must go down to the plain; you must meet the 
 enemy man to man. It is by boldness and action that the 
 power of Rome has grown, not by these counsels of indolence, 
 which only cowards call caution." 
 
 A throng of tribunes and Roman knights crowded round 
 Minucius as he played the popular orator, and his fierce words 
 reached even to the ears of the soldiers. All showed plainly 
 enough that, if the matter could have been put to a vote of 
 the army, they would have had Minucius rather than Fabius 
 for their leader. 
 
 Fabius had to be on his guard against his own men just 
 
 ' At the yEgusan Islands. The victory ended the first Punic war.— 
 
B. C. 217] SURROUNDING THE ENEMY 
 
 309 
 
 as much as against the enemy, and made them feel that they 
 could not conquer his resolution. Though he knew well that 
 his policy of delay was odious, not only in his own camp, but 
 also at Rome, yet he steadfastly adhered to the same plan of 
 action, and so let the summer wear away, till Hannibal, losing 
 all hope of the pitched battle, which he had made every effort 
 to bring on, began to look out for a place for winter quarters, 
 the country which he occupied being one of temporary rather 
 than permanent plenty, a land of orchards and vineyards 
 planted rather for pleasure than utility. Fabius learned all 
 this from his scouts. When he was quite sure that Hannibal 
 meant to leave the Falernian country by the same passes by 
 which he had entered it, he occupied Mount Callicula and 
 Casilinum in some force. The town of Casilinum is divided 
 into two parts by the river Vulturnus, and thus separates the 
 Falernian country from Campania. His main army he led 
 back along the same range, while he sent L. Hostilius Man- 
 cinus to reconnoitre with five hundred cavalry of the allies. 
 Mancinus was one of the crowd of youths who frequently 
 listened to the fierce harangues of the master of the horse. 
 At first he moved simply as the leader of a reconnaissance, 
 watching the enemy from a place of safety, but when he saw 
 the Numidian troops scattered everywhere in the villages, and 
 even cut off a few of them by a sudden surprise, he was at 
 once full of the thought of battle, and wholly forgot the dic- 
 tator's instructions, which were that he should advance as far 
 as he safely could, but should retreat before he could be seen 
 by the enemy. The Numidians, now attacking, now retreat- 
 ing, drew him on, his men and horses alike exhausted, to the 
 very rampart of their camp. Here Carthalo, who was in 
 supreme command of the cavalry, charged at full gallop, 
 sent his adversay flying before he came within javelin throw, 
 and followed the fugitives for five miles continuously. When 
 Mancinus saw that the enemy would not desist from the pur- 
 suit, and that he had no hope of escaping, he encouraged his 
 men, and turned to fight, though in no respect was he a match 
 for his foe. And so he and the best of his troopers were sur- 
 rounded and slain; the others made their escape in wild con- 
 fusion, first to Cales, and thence by tracks which were scarcely 
 passable to the dictator's army. 
 
 It so happened that Minucius had that day rejoined Fabius. 
 He had been sent to post a force in the pass above Tarra- 
 cina, where it contracts into a gorge close upon the sea. This 
 was to prevent the Carthaginian from making his way along 
 the Appian Road into the country round Rome. Having 
 
3IO LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 217 
 
 united their forces, the dictator and the master of the horse 
 moved their camp down from the hills on to the road along 
 which Hannibal would have to march.^ The distance between 
 them and the enemy was two miles. 
 
 The following day the Carthaginian army occupied the 
 whole space between the two camps. The Romans had taken 
 up a position close under their intrenchments. Though it cer- 
 tainly gave them an advantage, yet the Carthaginians ad- 
 vanced with their light cavalry to provoke a battle. They 
 fought, alternately charging and retreating. The Roman 
 army kept its ground. The conflict was protracted, and more 
 to the satisfaction of Fabius than of Hannibal. Two hundred 
 of the Romans, eight hundred of the enemy fell. 
 
 Hannibal now seemed shut in. The road to Casilinum was 
 blocked; and while there were Capua, and Samnium, and 
 wealthy allies without end in their rear to furnish the Romans 
 with supplies, the Carthaginians would have to winter amid 
 the rocks of Formiae, the sands and inarshes of Liternum, and 
 in wild forests. Flannibal was quite aware that he was being 
 met by a stategy like his own, as he could not escape by way 
 of Casilinum, but must make for the hills and cross the ridge 
 of Callicula, before the Romans could attack his army, shut 
 in as it was by the valleys. Accordingly, to deceive his foe, 
 he contrived an optical illusion of most alarming appearance, 
 and resolved to move stealthily up the hills at nightfall. The 
 deception was thus arranged : Firewood was collected from all 
 the country round, and bundles of twigs and dry fagots were 
 fastened to the horns of oxen, of which he had many, from the 
 plundered rural districts, both broken and unbroken to the 
 plough. Upward of two thousand oxen were thus treated, 
 and Hasdrubal was intrusted with the business of driving this 
 herd, with their horns alight, on to the hills, more particu- 
 larly, if he could, to those above the passes occupied by the 
 enemy. 
 
 In the dusk of evening, he silently struck his camp; the 
 oxen were driven a little in front of the standards. When 
 they reached the foot of the mountain, where the roads nar- 
 rowed, the signal was immediately given to hurry the herd 
 with their horns alight up the slope of the hills. They rushed 
 on, goaded into madness by the terror of the frames which 
 flashed from their heads, and by the heat which soon reached 
 the flesh at the root of their horns. At this sudden rush all the 
 
 ' It would seem that Fabius, having secured the passes to the north 
 and east, had encamped his main army in the plain in the rear of the 
 Carthaginians. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] HANNIBAL ESCAPES BY STRATEGY 311 
 
 thickets seemed to be in a blaze, and the very woods and 
 mountains to have been fired ; and when the beasts vainly 
 shook their heads, it seemed as if men were running about 
 in every direction. The troops posted in the pass, seeing fires 
 on the hill-tops and above them, fancied that they had been 
 surrounded, and left their position. They made for the loftiest 
 heights as being their safest route, for it was there that the 
 fewest flashes of light were visible ; but even there they fell 
 in with some of the oxen which had strayed from their herd. 
 When they saw them at a distance, they stood thunderstruck 
 at what seemed to be the miracle of oxen breathing fire. As 
 soon as it was seen to be nothing but a human contrivance, 
 they suspected some deep stratagem and fled in wilder con- 
 fusion than ever. They also fell in with some of the enemy's 
 light-armed troops, but both sides were equally afraid in the 
 darkness to attack, and so they remained until dawn. Mean- 
 while Hannibal had led his whole army through the pass, cut- 
 ting off, as he went, some of his opponents, and pitched his 
 camp in the territory of Allifse.^ 
 
 Fabius heard the uproar, but suspecting some stratagem, 
 and in any case averse to fighting by night, he kept his men 
 within their lines. At dawn there was skirmishing under the 
 ridge of the hill, where the Romans cut off some light troops 
 from the main body, and would have easily beaten them, as 
 they were somewhat superior in number, but for the appear- 
 ance of a Spanish cohort, which Hannibal had sent back to 
 provide for the emergency. The Spaniards were more used to 
 hills; what with their nimble frames and suitable arms, they 
 were lighter and so better able than the Romans to fight 
 among crags and rocks, and they easily baffled in such en- 
 counters their lowland foe, with his heavy armour and sta- 
 tionary tactics. After a conflict that was anything but even, 
 they parted, the Spaniards almost all unhurt, the Romans with 
 considerable loss, and so made each for their camp. 
 
 Fabius also moved his camp, and traversing the pass, oc- 
 cupied a strong and elevated position above Allifse. Upon 
 this Hannibal made a feint as if he intended to advance on 
 Rome through Samnium, and turned back, ravaging as he 
 went, to the Pelignian country.^ Fabius marched along the 
 heights, keeping between the enemy's army and the capital, 
 neither avoiding nor attacking him. Leaving the Peligni, 
 Hannibal altered his route and fell back into Apulia to Gere- 
 
 ' North of Beneventum in Samnium. — D. O. 
 
 ' Under the east slope of the Apennines, between Lake Fucino and the 
 Adriatic— D. O. 
 
312 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 onium,^ a town which its inhabitants had deserted in alarm 
 at the fall of a great part of their walls. The dictator fortified 
 a camp in the district of Larinum. From this place he was 
 summoned to Rome on religious business. By advice, and 
 even by entreaties, as well as by his actual authority, he urged 
 the master of the horse to trust to prudence rather than to 
 fortune, and to take himself rather than a Sempronius or a 
 Flaminius as his model of a general. " He must not fancy," 
 he said, " that nothing had been achieved when a summer 
 had been nearly spent in baffling the enemy; the physician 
 often accomplished more by doing nothing than by movement 
 and action. It was no small matter that they had ceased to 
 be vanquished by an enemy who had vanquished them so 
 often, and had begun to breathe again after incessant dis- 
 asters." After impressing these counsels, but all to no pur- 
 pose, on the master of the horse, he set out for Rome. 
 
 In the beginning of the summer in which all this happened 
 hostilities commenced in Spain both by land and sea. Has- 
 drubal added ten ships to the fleet which he had received from 
 his brother ready equipped for action. He gave Himilco 
 a squadron of forty ships, and then, starting from New Car- 
 thage, he advanced with his ships close to land and his army 
 on the shore, prepared to give battle to the enemy in what- 
 ever form he might encounter him. At first Cn. Scipio, on 
 hearing that the enemy had moved out of his winter quarters, 
 had the same intention. But second thoughts made him 
 shrink from a battle on land, so great was the fame of the 
 enemy's new auxiliaries; and embarking some of his picked 
 troops he went to meet the enemy with a squadron of five- 
 and-thirty ships. On the day after leaving Tarraco he reached 
 an anchorage ten miles distant from the mouth of the Ebro. 
 He had sent in advance two Massilian vessels to reconnoitre. 
 These brought back news that the fleet of the Carthaginians 
 was at anchor in the mouth of the river, and their camp pitched 
 on the banks. 
 
 Scipio weighed anchor and advanced against the enemy, 
 hoping to take him unaware and unprepared, and to crush him 
 in the panic of a general attack. There are many towers in 
 Spain built on high ground, which they use both as watch- 
 towers and as defences against robbers. From one of these 
 the hostile fleet was first descried, and the signal given to 
 Hasdrubal. Thus it was on land and in the camp that the 
 alarm first arose, not by the sea or among the ships, where 
 no one could yet hear the dash of the oar, or any other sound 
 
 ' On the border of Samnium and Picinum. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] NAVAL VICTORY IN SPAIN 313 
 
 of the kind, and the projecting cHfifs did not allow the fleet to 
 be seen. Of a sudden horseman after horseman despatched 
 by Hasdrubal ordered the men, who were wandering about 
 the shore or sleeping in their tents, thinking of anything 
 rather than of the enemy and of a battle to be fought that very 
 day, to instantly man their ships and arm themselves ; the 
 Roman fleet, it was said, was close to the harbour. Troopers 
 were sent hither and thither with these orders. Soon Has- 
 drubal himself came up with his whole army. All was uproar 
 and confusion ; rowers and sailors rushed together into the 
 ships, which seemed to be flying from the shore rather than 
 going into battle. Before all were well on board, some unfas- 
 tened their hawsers and drifted toward their anchors ; ^ others, 
 to have nothing to check them, cut the anchor ropes. Every- 
 thing was done with excessive haste and hurry; the prepara- 
 tions of the soldiers hindered the sailors in their work; the 
 panic of the sailors prevented the soldiers from arming them- 
 selves or preparing for battle. By this time the Romans were 
 more than approaching; they were bringing their ships 
 straight to the attack. The Carthaginians were confounded 
 quite as much by their own disorder as by the assault of the 
 enemy; after essaying to fight, rather than fighting, they 
 turned their ships to fly; they could not, of course, get into 
 the mouth of the river in their rear, with so widely extended 
 a line, and so many crowding in together. Accordingly, they 
 drove their ships ashore in every direction, and then, plung- 
 ing into the shallows or jumping on to dry land, armed or 
 unarmed, they made their escape to the ranks of friendly 
 troops drawn up along the shore. However, in the first onset 
 two Carthaginian ships were taken and four sunk. 
 
 The Romans, though the enemy was master on shore, and 
 though they saw the hostile lines extended along the coast, 
 pursued without hesitation the routed fleet. To the stern of 
 every ship which had not shattered its bows on the shore or 
 wedged its keel in the sand they fastened ropes, and so dragged 
 them out to sea. Out of the forty they captured twenty-five. 
 
 However, the best part of their victory was not this, but 
 that by one slight affair they became masters of all the sea 
 that washes that coast. After this the fleet sailed to Onusa 
 and there they made a descent. They stormed and sacked 
 the city, and then made for New Carthage, ravaged all the 
 country round it, and even set fire to the dwellings that ad- 
 joined the walls and the gates. From Carthage the fleet went 
 
 ' The sterns of ships in port were fastened by hawsers to the shore. 
 Their prows pointing seaward were anchored in that position. — D. O. 
 
314 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 laden with booty to Longuntica, where there was a vast quan- 
 tity of esparto grass/ which Hasdrubal had collected for the 
 use of his fleet. They removed as much as they wanted and 
 set fire to the rest. Nor did they only cruise along the main- 
 land ; they even crossed to the island of Ebusus.= Here for 
 two days they assaulted with all their might, but in vain, the 
 capital town of the island. Finding that they were wasting 
 time on what they could not hope to accomplish, they took 
 to plundering the country, sacked and burned several villages, 
 and got back to their ships with more plunder than they had 
 collected from the mainland. Here envoys from the Balearic 
 Islands came to Scipio to ask for peace. From this point the 
 fleet turned back, and they returned to the eastern side of the 
 province, whither assembled envoys from all the tribes near 
 the Ebro and from many that dwelt in remotest Spain. The 
 tribes who were really brought under the sway of Rome and 
 gave hostages were more than one hundred and twenty. The 
 Romans now felt fairly confident of the power of their army 
 and marched as far as the pass of Castulo.^ Hasdrubal re- 
 tired to Lusitania,* where he was nearer to the Atlantic. 
 
 After this it seemed likely that the rest of the summer would 
 pass quietly, and so it would have as far as the Carthaginians 
 were concerned. But the Spanish temper is always restless 
 and eager for change, and, besides this, Mandonius and In- 
 dibilis, formerly prince of the Ilergetes, as soon as the Romans 
 had retired from the pass to the coast, called their tribesmen 
 to arms and came intent on plunder into the peaceful territory 
 of Rome's allies. Scipio sent against them some light-armed 
 auxiliaries under the command of a military tribune, who 
 routed them — they were but an undisciplined rabble — after a 
 slight engagement, killing some, capturing others, and dis- 
 arming many of the rest. The outbreak, however, induced 
 Hasdrubal to stay his march toward the Atlantic coast, and 
 return to the west bank of the Ebro, where he might defend 
 his allies. The Carthaginian camp was pitched in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Ilergavonia; that of the Romans at Nova Classis, 
 when fresh news changed all at once the seat of war. The 
 Celtiberi, who were the leading tribe of their part of Spain, 
 had sent ambassadors and given hostages to the Romans, and 
 now at the bidding of an envoy from Scipio, they took up 
 arms and invaded with a powerful armv the province of New 
 Carthage. They took three towns by storm; and then fought 
 
 ' Used like hemp.— D, O. 
 
 ' The nearest of the Balearic Islands. — D. O. 
 
 ' On the Guadalqiiiver, about fifty miles above Cordova. — D. O. 
 
 * Approximately Portugal. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] THE CRAFTINESS OF ABELUX 315 
 
 two brilliantly successful battles with Hasdrubal himself, kill- 
 ing fifteen thousand of the enemy and capturing four thou- 
 sand, together with many standards. 
 
 This was the state of affairs in Spain when Publius Scipio 
 came into the province. The senate had prolonged his com- 
 mand after the end of his consulship, and sent him with thirty 
 ships of war, eight thousand soldiers, and a great supply of 
 provisions. The fleet with its huge array of transports was 
 descried at a great distance, and excited the liveliest joy among 
 citizens and allies when it ended its voyage in the harbour of 
 Tarraco. Scipio landed his troops there and marched to join 
 his brother. Thenceforward the two carried on the campaign 
 with one heart and purpose. As the Carthaginians were oc- 
 cupied with the Celtiberi, they did not hesitate to cross the 
 Ebro, and not seeing an enemy, continued to advance on 
 Saguntum, to which place it was reported that the hostages 
 from the whole of Spain had been transferred by Hannibal, 
 and were there kept in the citadel by but a small guard. It 
 was only this pledge that stayed the universal inclination of 
 the Spanish tribes toward alliance with Rome. They feared 
 lest the guilt of their defection should be expiated by the blood 
 of their children. 
 
 From this difficulty Spain was freed by the policy, inglori- 
 ous rather than honourable, of one man. Abelux was a noble 
 Spaniard at Saguntum. Once he had been loyal to Carthage; 
 but now — and such characters are common among barbarians 
 — with a change of fortune he had changed his allegiance. 
 Feeling that a deserter who went over to the enemy with 
 nothing valuable to betray, brought nothing but his one 
 worthless and disreputable person, he aimed at being as profit- 
 able as possible to his new allies. After anxiously consider- 
 ing everything that fortune could possibly put within his reach, 
 he turned his thoughts by preference to delivering up the host- 
 ages, the one thing, he knew, which would win for Rome the 
 friendship of the Spanish chiefs. Knowing, however, that 
 the keeper of the hostages would do nothing but at the bid- 
 ding of Bostar the governor, he brought his arts to bear on 
 Bostar himself. Bostar had established a camp outside the 
 town, quite on the shore, to close against the Romans any 
 approach on that side. Here Abelux took him aside, and ex- 
 plained to him, as he might to a stranger, the aspect of affairs. 
 " Hitherto," he said, " fear had held the inclinations of the 
 Spaniards in check, because the Romans have been far away; 
 now the Roman camps have been advanced to the west of the 
 Ebro and afford safe shelter and refuge to all who desire a 
 
3i6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 change. The men who are no longer ruled by fear, you must 
 bind by kindness and favours." 
 
 Bostar was astonished, and wished to know what this un- 
 expected and all-important concession could be. "Send back," 
 said Abelux, " the hostages to their states. This will be agree- 
 able to the parents personally, who have great weight in 
 their own states, and agreeable to the tribes generally. Every 
 one likes to be treated with confidence; to trust a man's loy- 
 alty often binds that loyalty the faster. I claim for myself the 
 office of restoring the hostages to their homes; I would ex- 
 pend all possible pains to carry out my plan and add to an act 
 that is graceful in itself all the grace that I can." 
 
 Abelux satisfied Bostar, who had scarcely the average 
 shrewdness of a Carthaginian, and then made his way secretly 
 by night to the Roman outposts, where he met some Spanish 
 auxiliaries, who conducted him to Scipio. To him he ex- 
 plained his proposal, gave and received a promise of friend- 
 ship, arranged a time and place for handing over the hostages, 
 and so returned to Saguntum. The next day he spent with 
 Bostar in receiving instructions for the business in hand. 
 From the governor he went to those who had the custody 
 of the boys, and set out at the exact hour on which he had 
 agreed with the enemy, having arranged to travel by night, 
 for the purpose, he said, of eluding their watch. Thus he 
 led the party, unknowingly, as it seemed, into a trap which 
 his own craft had prepared. They were conducted into the 
 Roman camp, and the whole business of restoring the hostages 
 to their friends, as had been arranged with Bostar, was car- 
 ried out in exactly the same way as if the thing were being 
 done in the name of Carthage. Yet though the favour was the 
 same, Rome earned considerably more gratitude than Car- 
 thage would have done. Carthage they had found tyrannical 
 and haughty in the day of prosperity, and they might well 
 believe that it was disaster and fear that had softened her; 
 Rome, a stranger before, on her very first introduction to 
 them began with an act of kindness and generosity, and the 
 sagacious Abelux seemed to have had good reason for chang- 
 ing his friends. All now began with surprising unanimity 
 to meditate revolt; and an insurrection would have broken 
 out at once but for the interruption of winter, which compelled 
 both Romans and Carthaginians to seek shelter. 
 
 So much for what happened in Spain in the second sum- 
 mer of the Punic war. In Italy Fabius's wise policy of delay 
 had stayed for a while Rome's disasters. It was a policy that 
 gave Hannibal no little anxiety, seeing, as he did, that at 
 
B. C. 217] CONTEMPT FOR FABIUS'S POLICY 317 
 
 length the Romans had chosen to direct their arms a man 
 who fought on system, not by chance; but among his own 
 countrymen, soldiers as well as civilians, it was held in con- 
 tempt, certainly after the master of the horse had in his ab- 
 sence rashly ventured a battle with a result which it would be 
 more correct to call fortunate than successful. Two circum- 
 stances increased the dictator's unpopularity. One was due 
 to the falsehood and craft of Hannibal. Deserters had pointed 
 out to him the dictator's estate, and he had given orders that, 
 while everything round it was levelled to the ground, it should 
 be kept safe from fire and sword and all hostile violence, hop- 
 ing that this forbearance might be thought the consideration 
 for some secret agreement. The other was the result of the 
 dictator's own action — action possibly doubtful for a time, as 
 he had not waited for the senate's sanction, but finally beyond 
 all question turning out very much to his credit. In the ex- 
 change of prisoners it had been agreed between the two gen- 
 erals, following the precedent of the first Punic war, that the 
 side which had more to receive than to hand over should 
 make good as much as two pounds and a half of silver for 
 every man. The Romans had received back two hundred and 
 forty-seven more prisoners than the Carthaginians; finding 
 that after frequent debate on the matter there was delay in 
 voting the money due for these men, because he had not con- 
 sulted the senate, he sent his son Quintus to Rome, sold the 
 estate which the enemy had spared, and discharged the public 
 obligation at his own cost. 
 
 Hannibal was in a stationary camp before the walls of 
 Gereonium, a city which he had taken and burned, but in which 
 he had left a few houses to serve as barns. He sent out two 
 divisions of his army to collect corn, and remained himself 
 with a third division in readiness to move, thus at once pro- 
 tecting his camp and watching against any attack that might 
 be made on his foraging parties. 
 
 At this time the Roman army was in the country of Lari- 
 num,^ Minucius, master of the horse, being in command, the 
 dictator, as I have already said, having started for Rome. The 
 camp, pitched hitherto on the hills, on high and secure ground, 
 was now brought down to the plain, and more energetic 
 measures, suited to the temper of the new general, were dis- 
 cussed for attacking the scattered foragers or the enemy's 
 lines, left as they were with a slender garrison. Hannibal 
 did not fail to perceive that a change of plans had followed a 
 change of generals, and that the foe was likely to show more 
 
 ' Between Gereonium and the Adriatic. — D. O. 
 
3i8 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 217 
 
 dash than caution. Very strangely, he now, though the enemy 
 was so near, sent out a third of his troops to forage, and kept 
 two thirds in his camp. Next he moved the camp itself nearer 
 to the Romans, about two miles away from Gereonium, on to 
 some rising ground within their sight, to make it plain to them 
 that he was bent on protecting- his foragers, should an attack 
 be threatened. From this point he saw some high ground 
 yet nearer and actually overhanging the Roman camp. Should 
 he move on it in the broad light of day, it was certain that the 
 enemy, having a shorter space to traverse, would get the start 
 of him; he sent therefore some Numidians who occupied it 
 under cover of darkness. 
 
 Next day the Romans, despising the scanty numbers that 
 held the place, attacked them, drove them out, and moved 
 thither their own camp. There was now but a very small 
 space between one rampart and the other, and this was almost 
 wholly occupied by Roman troops. At the same time some 
 cavalry and light-armed soldiers darted out against the for- 
 agers from the side that was farthest from Hannibal's camp 
 and made a great rout and slaughter in their scattered ranks. 
 And Hannibal did not venture to fight a battle, for a great 
 part of his army was away, and his force was so scanty that 
 he could scarcely protect his camp should it be attacked. He 
 now began to adopt the tactics of Fabius, to sit still and to 
 delay, and retired his men to his first camp outside Gere- 
 onium. Some authorities have it that a regular battle was 
 fought; that at the first encounter the Carthaginians were 
 driven in confusion to their camp; that the Romans in their 
 turn were panic-stricken by a sudden sally, and that the day 
 was finally won by the arrival of a Samnite officer, Numerius 
 Decimius. Numerius, whose birth and wealth made him the 
 first man not only in Bovianum, his native place, but in the 
 whole of Samnium, was marching eight thousand infantry 
 and five hundred cavalry into the camp by order of the dic- 
 tator; he could now be seen by Hannibal in his rear, and pre- 
 sented the appearance of re-enforcements coming from Rome 
 with Fabius. Hannibal, fearing some stratagem, drew back 
 his troops ; the Romans pursued, and, with the help of the 
 Samnites, stormed that same day two redoubts. Of the enemy 
 there fell six thousand, of the Romans five thousand men; but 
 though the loss on both sides was so nearly equal, a foolish 
 report of a splendid victory was sent to Rome with a despatch 
 from the master of the horse that was yet more foolish. 
 
 These matters were often debated both in the senate and 
 in the assembly of the people. When, amid the universal joy, 
 
B. C. 217] THE COMMAND DIVIDED 
 
 319 
 
 the dictator alone would believe neither report nor despatch, 
 and declared that, allowing all to be true, he was more afraid 
 of successes than reverses, then Marcus Metilius, tribune of 
 the people, spoke out. " This," he said, " really can not be 
 endured, that the dictator should not only have set himself, 
 when he was with the army, against any attempt at success, 
 but should also, when he is not with it, set himself against 
 a success actually achieved; that, in his tedious campaigning, 
 he should purposely waste time to keep himself longer in 
 office and to enjoy a monopoly of power both at Rome and in 
 the field. One consul has fallen in battle, the other has been 
 banished far away from Italy under the pretence that he is to 
 pursue the Carthaginian fleet. The two praetors are employed 
 in Sicily and Sardinia, though there is now no need for a 
 praetor in either province. Marcus Minucius, the master of 
 the horse, is almost kept in prison that he may not even see 
 the enemy or do any of a soldier's business. Good heavens! 
 it is not only Samnium, which indeed we have given up to 
 Carthage just as much as if it were Spain beyond the Ebro, 
 but Campania and the country round Cales and Falerii that 
 have been ravaged, while the dictator sits still at Casilinum 
 and employs the legions of the Roman people in protecting 
 his own estate. An army eager to fight and a master of the 
 horse have been almost shut up within their intrenchments; 
 their arms have been taken from them, just as if they had been 
 prisoners from the enemy. At length, when the dictator left 
 them, they marched out of their lines, like men released from 
 a siege, and routed and put to flight the enemy. For these 
 reasons were the old spirit present to the commons of Rome, 
 I should have boldly proposed that Quintus Fabius be de- 
 posed. As it is, I shall offer a strictly moderate resolution, 
 equalizing the power of the dictator and the master of the 
 horse. Even if this is carried, Fabius must not join the army 
 till he has appointed a consul in the room of Caius Flaminius." 
 The dictator abstained from all public speeches on behalf 
 of a most unpopular policy. Even in the senate he was heard 
 with disfavour when he extolled the skill of Hannibal, and 
 maintained that the disasters of the last two years had been in- 
 curred through the rashness and inexperience of our generals, 
 and that the master of the horse would have to answer to him 
 for having fought in disobedience to his commands. " If," he 
 said, " I am supreme in command and counsel, I will soon 
 make men know that, with a good general, fortune is of little 
 account, that good sense and sound judgment carry the day, 
 and that it is far more glorious to have kept an army safe at a 
 
320 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 217 
 
 critical moment and without disgrace than to have slain many 
 thousands of the enemy." But he urged these arguments to 
 no purpose; and so, after appointing Marcus Atilius Regulus 
 consul, as he did not wish to stay himself and wrangle about 
 claims to power, he left for the army by night. 
 
 There was an assembly of the commons at dawn. Silent 
 ill-feeling toward the dictator and a liking for the master of 
 the horse were strong in the public mind, but men hardly 
 dared to come forward and advocate what was really popu- 
 lar.^ Thus the motion, though it found abundant favour, still 
 wanted supporters. One man a.lone was found to argue for 
 the bill, Caius Terentius Varro, prjetor of the year before, a 
 man of birth not only humble but positively mean. It was 
 said that his father had been a butcher, who sold his own 
 goods by retail, and who had employed this very son in the 
 menial employments of his trade. 
 
 Growing to manhood, he found in the money left by his 
 father the hope of rising from these sordid gains to a nobler 
 position; the advocate's gown suited his taste; noisy declama- 
 tions and causes for ignoble clients brought him first to notori- 
 ety and afterward to public office. Becoming qujestor, once 
 plebeian and once curule sedile, and at last praetor, he was now 
 even raising his aspirations to the consulship. With no small 
 cunning he sought to win the people's favour out of the dis- 
 like felt for the dictator, and secured for himself all the popu- 
 larity of the resolution. 
 
 All men, whether at Rome or in the army, whether friends 
 or foes, took the bill as an intentional insult to the dictator. 
 Not so the dictator himself. In the same dignified spirit in 
 which he had borne the charges made against him before the 
 populace, he now bore the wrong which the commons inflicted 
 in their rage. The despatch from the senate announcing the 
 equalization of military authority reached him on his way. 
 Confident that the commander's skill could not be equalized 
 along with the right to command, he returned to the army 
 with a soul that neither his fellow-citizens nor the enemy could 
 subdue. 
 
 As for Minucius, success and popularity had already made 
 him scarcely endurable, and now he began to boast without 
 restraint or modesty that he had vanqui'shed Fabius quite as 
 much as he had vanquished Hannibal. " This marvellous 
 general discovered in our trouble to be a match for Hannibal, 
 this supreme commander, this dictator has been put on a level 
 with me, his inferior, his master of the horse made such by 
 ' As being entirely unprecedented. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] HANNIBAL SETS A TRAP FOR MINUCIUS 321 
 
 the will of the people, though there is no precedent for it in 
 our history, and though in Rome the master of the horse has 
 been wont to tremble and quake at the axes and rods of the 
 dictator. So brilliantly conspicuous have been my good for- 
 tune and valour. It is for me therefore to follow out my 
 destiny, if the dictator persists in a delay and an inaction on 
 which gods and men alike have pronounced sentence." 
 
 Accordingly, on the first day that he met Quintus Fabius, 
 he declared that the first thing to be settled was how they were 
 to exercise the divided command. His own opinion was that 
 the supreme authority and command should rest with them on 
 alternate days, or for some settled time, if a longer period 
 seemed preferable. They would thus be a match for the 
 enemy not only in strategy, but also in actual force, should 
 any opportunity for action present itself. This plan in nowise 
 approved itself to Fabius. Everything, he saw, would thus 
 be at the mercy of any mischance that might befall his col- 
 league's rashness. His command had been shared, not taken 
 from him; he would never willingly relinquish the duty of 
 prudently directing matters, as far as might be; he would 
 share the troops with him rather than periods or days of 
 command, and would save by his counsels what he could, 
 since he might not save all. He had his way, and the legions 
 were divided between the two, as was the regular practice 
 with the consuls. The first and fourth fell to Minucius, the 
 second and third to Fabius. They also made an equal division 
 of the cavalry, of the allies, and of the Latin auxiliaries. The 
 master of the horse also chose to have a separate camp. 
 
 Hannibal was now doubly delighted, and not a single 
 movement of his foe escaped him. The deserters told him 
 much, and he learned much from his own spies. He would 
 entrap in his own fashion the frank rashness of Minucius, 
 while the experienced Fabius had lost half of his strength. 
 There was some rising ground between the camp of Minucius 
 and that of the Carthaginians, and it was clear that whoever 
 should occupy it would thereby make the enemy's position 
 less favourable. It was not so much Hannibal's desire to gain 
 this without fighting, though that would have been worth the 
 attempt, as to find in it the occasion of a battle with Minucius, 
 who would, he was quite sure, sally forth to oppose him. All 
 the ground between them seemed at first sight useless for 
 purposes of ambush. Not only had it no vestige of wood 
 about it, but it was without even a covering of brambles. In 
 reality, nature made it to conceal an ambush, all the more 
 because no hidden danger could be feared in so bare a valley. 
 
322 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 217 
 
 In its windings were caverns, some of them large enough to 
 hold two hundred armed men. Into these hiding-places, 
 wherever there was one which could be conveniently occupied, 
 he introduced five thousand infantry and cavalry. Still in so 
 exposed a valley the stratagem might be discovered by the 
 incautious movement of a single soldier, or by the gleam of 
 arms, and he therefore sent a few troops at early dawn to oc- 
 cupy the hill mentioned before, and so to distract the atten- 
 tion of the enemy. To see them was to conceive at once a 
 contempt for their scanty numbers. Every man begged for 
 the task of dislodging the enemy and occupying the place. 
 Conspicuous among these senseless braggarts was the general 
 himself, as he called his men to arms and assailed the enemy 
 with idle threats. First he sent his light troops, then his cav- 
 alry in close array; at last, seeing that the enemy were re- 
 ceiving re-enforcements, he advanced with his legions in order 
 of battle. 
 
 Hannibal, too, as the conflict waxed fiercer and his troops 
 were hard pressed, sent again and again infantry and cavalry 
 to their support, till his line of battle was complete, and both 
 sides were fighting with th^r whole strength. First of all 
 the Roman light-armed troops, attacking, as they did, from 
 below an elevation already occupied, were repulsed and thrust 
 back, carrying panic with them into the cavalry behind and 
 flying till they reached the standards of the legions. It was 
 the infantry that alone stood firm amid the rout and seemed 
 likely, if once they had had to fight a regular battle in the face 
 of the enemy, to be quite a match for him. The successful 
 action of a few days before had given them abundance of 
 courage; but the ambushed troops unexpectedly rose upon 
 them, charged them on the flank and in the rear, and spread 
 such confusion and panic that they lost all heart for fighting 
 and all hope of escape. 
 
 Fabius first heard the cry of terror; then saw from afar 
 the broken lines. " It is true," he cried, " disaster has over- 
 taken rashness, but not sooner than I feared. They made 
 him equal to Fabius, but he sees that Hannibal is his supe- 
 rior both in courage and in good fortune. Another time, 
 however, will do for angry reproof and censure ; now ad- 
 vance the standards beyond the ramparts. Let us wring from 
 the enemy his victory, from our countrymen the confession 
 of error." 
 
 Many had already fallen and many were looking for the 
 chance to fly, when the army of Fabius, as suddenly as if it 
 had dropped from heaven, appeared to help them. Before 
 
B. C. 217] FABIUS TO THE RESCUE 323 
 
 javelins were thrown or swords crossed, it checked the 
 Romans in their lieadlong flight, the enemy in the fierce eager- 
 ness of their attack. Where the ranks had been broken and 
 the men scattered hither and thither, they hurried from all 
 sides to the unbroken line; larger bodies had retreated to- 
 gether, these now wheeled round to face the enemy in a cir- 
 cular formation, sometimes slowly retiring, sometimes standing 
 in firm and close array. By the time that the beaten army 
 and the unbroken army had all but combined into a single 
 force and were advancing against the enemy, Hannibal gave 
 the signal for retreat, thus openly confessing that, as he had 
 conquered Minucius, so he had himself been worsted by 
 Fabius. 
 
 Returning to the camp late on this day of checkered for- 
 tune, Minucius assembled his troops. " Soldiers," he said, 
 " I have often heard that the best man is he who can tell us 
 himself what is the right thing; that next comes he who listens 
 to good advice; and that he who can not advise himself or 
 submit to another, has the meanest capacity of all. Since the 
 best blessing of heart and understanding has been denied us, 
 let us hold fast that next best gift which is between the two, 
 and while we learn to rule, make up our minds to obey the 
 wise. Let us join our camp to the camp of Fabius. When 
 we have carried our standards to his headquarters, and I have 
 given him the title of parent, so well deserved by the service 
 which he has done us, and by his high position, you, my sol- 
 diers, will salute as the authors of your freedom the men 
 whose right hands and swords lately saved you. So this day 
 will give us, if nothing else, yet at least the credit of having 
 grateful hearts." 
 
 The signal was given, and proclamation made to collect 
 the camp equipage. Then they started and marched in regu- 
 lar array to the dictator's camp, much to his wonder and that 
 of those who stood round him. When the standards were set 
 up before the hustings, the master of the horse stepped for- 
 ward and called Fabius by the name of " father," while the 
 whole array saluted as " authors of their freedom " the sol- 
 diers as they stood grouped around their commander. " Dic- 
 tator," he said, " I have put thee on a level with my parents 
 by this name, and it is all that speech can do; but while I 
 owe to them life only, to thee I owe the safety of myself and 
 of all these. Therefore I am the first to reject and repeal that 
 decree which has been to me a burden rather than an honour, 
 and praying that this act may be prospered to thee and me 
 and to these thy armies, the preserver and the preserved alike, 
 
324 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 217 
 
 I put myself again under thy command and fortunes, and re- 
 store to thee these standards and legions. Forgive us, I pray, 
 and allow me to keep my mastership of the horse, and each 
 of these his several rank." 
 
 There was a general clasping of hands; and when the as- 
 sembly was dismissed, the soldiers were kindly and hospitably 
 invited by strangers as well as friends. Thus a day which but 
 a few hours before had been full of sorrow and almost of un- 
 speakable disaster became a day of merriment. In Rome, as 
 soon as the news of this incident arrived, followed and con- 
 firmed by letters, not only from the generals but from many 
 persons in either army, every one joined in extolling Maximus 
 to the skies. Hannibal and the Carthaginians equally ad- 
 mired him. They felt at last that it was with Romans and 
 in Italy that they were fighting. For the last two years they 
 had so despised both the generals and the soldiers of Rome 
 that they could scarcely believe themselves to be fighting with 
 that same people of whom they had heard so terrible a report 
 from their fathers. Hannibal, too, they say, exclaimed, as he 
 was returning from the field, " At last the cloud which has 
 been dwelling so long upon the hills has burst upon us in 
 storm and rain." 
 
 While these events were occurring in Italy, the consul 
 Cneius Servilius Geminus, with a fleet of one hundred and 
 twenty ships sailed round the coasts of Sardinia and Corsica, 
 received hostages from both islands, and then crossed over to 
 Africa. Before landing on the mainland, he ravaged the island 
 of Menige, and received ten talents of silver from the inhabit- 
 ants of Cercina,^ as a consideration for not devastating their 
 territory also. He then passed over to the African coast and 
 landed his forces. The soldiers and seamen were now taken 
 to ravage the country, and dispersed themselves just as if they 
 were plundering an uninhabited island. This recklessness 
 drew them into ambuscades; they were straggling, and the 
 enemy was compact; they knew nothing of the country, and 
 the enemy knew it well : finally they were driven back to their 
 ships with heavy loss and great disgrace. As many as a thou- 
 sand men, and among them the quaestor Sempronius Blaesus, 
 perished. The fleet then hurriedly leaving a coast crowded 
 with foes, sailed to Sicily, and was handed over at Lilybseum 
 to the praetor Titus Otacilius, whose second in command, Pub- 
 lius Sura, was to take it back to Rome. The consul himself 
 went overland through Sicily, and crossed the strait to Italy. 
 A despatch from Fabius had summoned him and his colleague, 
 
 ' Both in the Gulf of Cabes.— D. O. 
 
B.C. 217] THE ARMIES IN WINTER QUARTERS 325 
 
 Marcus Atilius, that they might take his army off his hands, 
 as his six months' command was now nearly at an end. 
 
 Almost all the annalists relate that Fabius was dictator 
 when he conducted his campaign against Hannibal. Coelius 
 adds that he was the first dictator created by the people. But 
 it has escaped Ccelius and the other writers that the surviving 
 consul, Cneius Servilius, who was then far away in the prov- 
 ince of Gaul, alone had the right of naming a dictator; that the 
 country, terror-stricken by disaster, would not endure the 
 delay, and had recourse to the plan of creating by popular 
 election a pro-dictator; and that his achievements, the great 
 distinction that he won as a general, and an exaggerated ac- 
 count of his honours in after generations, easily led to the 
 belief that he had been dictator, when really he had been but 
 pro-dictator. 
 
 Atilius took command of the army of Fabius, and Geminus 
 Servilius of that of Minucius. They fortified their winter 
 camp in good time, and were thoroughly agreed in employing 
 the tactics of Fabius for what was left of the autumn cam- 
 paign. Whenever Hannibal sallied out to collect supplies, 
 they were ready to meet him at this place and at that; they 
 harassed his march, they cut off stragglers; but the hazard 
 of a general engagement, which the enemy sought in every 
 possible way to bring on, they declined. Hannibal was re- 
 duced to such extreme want that he would have gone back to 
 Gaul, but that his retreat would have looked like a flight, and 
 he had no hope of supporting his army in this country were 
 the next consuls to follow the same tactics. 
 
 When winter had brought the war to a standstill at Gere- 
 onium, envoys from Naples came to Rome. They brought 
 into the senate-house forty very heavy bowls of gold, and 
 spoke to the following effect: "We know that the treasury 
 of the Roman people is being exhausted by the war. Seeing, 
 then, that you are fighting just as much for the cities and 
 lands of the allies as for the capital and citadel of Italy, Rome, 
 and your own empire, the men of Naples hold it right to give 
 to the help of the Roman people the gold which has been 
 left them by their ancestors alike for the adornment of their 
 temples, or for a reserve in case of need. Had we thought 
 that our own services were of any worth, we should have 
 offered them with the same readiness. The senate and people 
 of Rome will best please us by looking on all the possessions 
 of the men of Naples as their own, and by deigning to receive 
 from them a gift to which the good-will of those who freely 
 offer it rather than its actual magnitude gives greatness and 
 
326 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 dignity." The envoys were thanked for their munificence and 
 zeal, and the lightest of the bowls was accepted. 
 
 About this time a Carthaginian spy who had eluded cap- 
 ture for two years was caught in Rome and dismissed with 
 his hands lopped ofif. Twenty-five slaves were crucified for 
 having conspired in the Campus Martius, the informer being 
 rewarded with his liberty and twenty thousand sesterces. An 
 embassy was sent to Philip, King of Macedon, to demand the 
 extradition of Demetrius of Pharos, who had taken refuge 
 with him after his defeat; another to the Ligures to expostu- 
 late with them for helping the Carthaginians with money and 
 men, and also to observe from the immediate neighbourhood 
 what was going on among the Boii and the Insubres. Envoys 
 also were sent to King Pineus in Illyria to demand the tribute, 
 the time for which had expired, or, if he wished payment to 
 be postponed, to receive hostages. Crushing as was the pres- 
 sure of the war upon our shoulders, yet nothing in any coun- 
 try, however remote, escaped the diligent care of Rome. Re- 
 ligious scruples also arose because the Temple of Concord 
 which the praetor, Lucius Manlius, had vowed two years be- 
 fore in Gaul on the occasion of a mutiny, had not been con- 
 tracted for up to that time. Two commissioners, Caius Pupius 
 and Casso Quinctius Flamininus, were appointed for the pur- 
 pose by Marcus ^milius, prsetor of the city, and contracted 
 for the building of the temple in the citadel.^ 
 
 This same prsetor also in obedience to a resolution of the 
 senate sent letters to the consuls to the efifect that if they 
 thought fit one of them should come to Rome to hold the elec- 
 tion for new consuls, and that any day they might wish should 
 be fixed for the assembly. The consuls replied that they could 
 not without damage to the public interests leave the neigh- 
 bourhood of the enemy, and that therefore the elections should 
 be held by an interrex in preference to calling away either of 
 the consuls from the seat of war. It seemed to the senate more 
 in order that a dictator should be named by the consul for 
 the purpose of holding the election. Lucius Veturius Philo 
 was so named, and appointed Manius Pomponius Matho his 
 master of the horse. There was some legal flaw in these ap- 
 pointments, and they were ordered fourteen days afterward 
 to abdicate their offices, and an interregnum was the result. 
 
 The consuls had their command prolonged for a year.^ 
 The senate named as interrex first Caius Claudius Cento, son 
 
 • Or rather on the slope of and backed up against the Capitoline Hill. 
 ' As proconsuls. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE WINTER AT ROME 327 
 
 of Appius of that name, and after him, PubUus Cornelius Asi- 
 na. During the latter's term of office the elections were held, 
 and fiercely contested between patricians and plebeians. The 
 lower orders were striving to elevate to the consulship Caius 
 Terentius Varro, a man of their own class, who had ingrati- 
 ated himself with them by his invectives against the nobles, 
 and the arts which win popularity, and who, since the shock 
 which he had given to the position and power of the dictator 
 Fabius, had found in another man's unpopularity a certain dis- 
 tinction for himself. The patricians opposed him with all 
 their might, fearing lest men should find in such attacks a 
 common road to equality. Quintus Baebius Herennius, trib- 
 une of the commons, a kinsman of Varro, inveighed not only 
 against the senate, but also against the augurs, because they 
 had forbidden the dictator to complete the elections, seeking 
 at their expense that which might win favour for his own 
 candidate. " It is the nobles," he cried, " eager for war as 
 they have long been, who brought Hannibal into Italy ; it is 
 they who, when the struggle might be ended, wickedly pro- 
 longed the war. When it had been proved by the success of 
 Minucius during the absence of Fabius that four legions com- 
 bined could fight with advantage, two legions were sent for 
 the enemy to slaughter, and then, rescued from slaughter, to 
 gain the titles of father and protector for the man who kept the 
 Romans from victory before he kept them from defeat. After 
 this the consuls followed the tactics of Fabius and protracted 
 the war which they might have finished. This is the compact 
 which all the nobles have made among themselves ; we shall 
 not see the end of the war till we raise to the consulship a real 
 plebeian, that is, a man from the ranks ; for our plebeian no- 
 bility ^ have now been initiated into the patrician religious 
 ritual, and have learned to despise the commons ever since they 
 ceased to be despised by the patricians. Who does not see 
 that their aim and object have been to bring about an inter- 
 regnum, that the elections may be controlled by the patri- 
 cians ? ^ This was what the consuls had in view in lingering 
 with the army, this was the reason why, when they had re- 
 luctantly named a dictator to conduct the elections, they had 
 fought hard to get this dictator's appointment pronounced 
 irregular by the augurs. They have their interregnum, then ; 
 but one consulship certainly belongs to the commons of 
 Rome ; " the people would use it freely and give it to the man 
 
 " The conscript! who had been added to the senate. — D. O. 
 ' Interreges were always patricians. — D. O. 
 ' By the Licinian law, passed 367 B. c. — D. O. 
 
328 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 who would prefer winning an early victory to holding a long 
 command." 
 
 With such oratory the commons were wrought to fury. 
 Three patricians were candidates, Publius Cornelius Merenda, 
 Lucius Manlius Vulso, Marcus ^mihus Lepidus, and two 
 men of ennobled plebeian families, Caius Atilius Serranus, and 
 Quintus ^lius Paetus, one of whom was pontiff and the other 
 augur, but the single consul elected^ was Caius Terentius, who 
 had therefore to preside over the election of a colleague. By 
 this time the nobles had found that their candidates were not 
 strong enough. They induced Lucius ^milius Paulus, after 
 a long and earnest resistance, to stand. He had been consul 
 with Marcus Livius, and had escaped half ruined from the con- 
 demnation which had overtaken his colleague and himself, 
 and he was no friend to the commons. On the next election 
 day, all Varro's opponents retiring, ^milius was appointed 
 rather as a rival to thwart him than as a colleague. The elec- 
 tion of praetors was next held ; Manius Pomponius Matho and 
 Publius Furius Philus were appointed. To Philus was al- 
 lotted the jurisdiction of praetor of the city ; to Pomponius the 
 jurisdiction over causes between citizens and aliens. Two 
 more praetors were appointed, Marcus Claudius Marcellus for 
 Sicily, and Lucius Postumius Albinus for Gaul. All these 
 magistrates were appointed in their absence. Not one, except 
 the consul Terentius, had any office committed to him which 
 he had not held before, and not a few gallant and ener- 
 getic men were passed over, because at such a crisis it was 
 thought that no one should be trusted with an office to which 
 he was new. 
 
 The armies also were increased. But as to what additional 
 forces of infantry and cavalry were raised, my authorities vary 
 so much, both as to the number and the class of troops, that 
 I have not ventured to speak with any certainty. Some say 
 that ten thousand fresh troops were levied by way of re-en- 
 forcement ; others that four new legions were enrolled, so 
 that there should be an available force of eight legions ; they 
 say also that the number of the infantry and the cavalry in each 
 legion was augmented, a thousand foot and a hundred horse 
 being added to each, so that a legion now had five thousand 
 foot and three hundred horse, the allies supplying double the 
 number of cavalry and the same number of infantry. It is 
 affirmed by some writers that there were eighty-seven thou- 
 sand two hundred armed men in the Roman camp when Can- 
 nae was fought. All indeed agree that things were done with 
 
 ' None of the others received enough votes. — D. O. 
 
E. C. 2i6] AID SENT BY KING HIERO 329 
 
 more vigour and energy than in former years, because the 
 dictator had given them the hope that the enemy miglit be 
 conquered. 
 
 But before the new legions marched from Rome, the Col- 
 lege of the Ten were directed to consult and examine the 
 sacred books on account of the general terror which certain 
 new portents had caused. It was declared that both at Rome, 
 on Mount Aventine, and at Aricia, and at the same hour, there 
 had fallen a shower of stones ; that statues in the Sabine coun- 
 try had dripped plentifully with blood, and that cold water had 
 flowed from a hot spring. And indeed the frequent repetition 
 of this portent was peculiarly alarming. In the vaulted street 
 which used to lead to the Campus several men were struck 
 and killed by lightning. These portents were expiated as the 
 books directed. Envoys from Paestum^ brought bowls of gold 
 to Rome. They received a vote of thanks, as had the people 
 of Naples, but the gold was not accepted. 
 
 About the same time there arrived at Ostia a fleet from 
 King Hiero with a great supply of provisions. The envoys 
 were introduced into the senate and spoke to this efTect : " The 
 news of the destruction of the consul Caius Flaminius and his 
 army was so grievous to King Hiero that he could not have 
 been more troubled by any disaster to himself and his realm. 
 And so, though he is well aware that the greatness of the Ro- 
 man people is almost more worthy of admiration in disaster 
 than in success, yet he has sent everything with which good 
 and loyal allies are wont to supply the needs of war, and he 
 earnestly entreats the senate not to refuse to accept them. 
 First of all, for good fortune's sake, we bring a golden statue 
 of Victory, weighing two hundred and twenty pounds. Ac- 
 cept it, and keep it, and reckon it as your own forever. We 
 have also brought three hundred thousand pecks of wheat, 
 and two hundred thousand of barley, lest supplies should fail 
 you, and we will bring in all that you want besides to any point 
 you may command. The king knows that the Roman people 
 use no infantry or cavalry that is not Roman, or of the Latin 
 nation, yet he has seen in the camps of Rome light-armed 
 troops even of foreign race. He has sent, therefore, a thou- 
 sand archers and slingers, a force well fitted to cope with the 
 islanders and Moors and other tribes who fight with missiles." 
 The envoys added the suggestion that the praetor command- 
 ing in Sicily should cross over with a fleet to Africa. The 
 
 ' First a Greek, later a Roman, colony on the coast, about fifty miles 
 south of Naples. The ruined temples there are the finest remains of the 
 kind outside of Athens. — D. O. 
 
330 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 enemy, with war in their own borders, would be less free to 
 send re-enforcements to Hannibal. 
 
 The senate replied that Hiero was an honest man and an 
 admirable ally, who had been consistently loyal from the day 
 that he became the friend of the Roman people, and had mu- 
 nificently helped the commonwealth of Rome at all times and 
 in all places. This loyalty was as dear to the Roman people 
 as it deserved to be. They had not accepted the gold that had 
 been offered by certain nations, though they accepted the kind- 
 ness of the act. But they did accept, for good fortune's sake, 
 the statue of Victory, and gave and consecrated to the goddess 
 a seat in the Capitol, the temple of almighty and most merciful 
 Jupiter. "Solemnly established of her own good-will and pleas- 
 ure in that citadel of Rome, she will ever be firm and steadfast 
 to the Roman people." The slingers, the archers, and the corn 
 were handed over to the consuls. Twenty-five ships of five 
 banks of oars were added to the fleet of one hundred and 
 twenty sail, which Titus Otacilius, the pro-prsetor, had in 
 Sicily, and leave was given him to cross over to Africa, if he 
 thought it for the public advantage. 
 
 The consuls, after completing their levy, delayed their de- 
 parture a few days till the soldiers from the allies and the Latin 
 nation should come in. Then — a thing never done before^ 
 the troops had the oath of allegiance administered to them by 
 the tribunes of the soldiers. Up to that time there had been 
 nothing but the obligation to assemble at the bidding of the 
 consuls and not to depart without their leave, and the custom, 
 when they were formed into their companies of a hundred and 
 their troops of ten, that the infantry soldiers of each company 
 and the horsemen of each troop swore to each other that they 
 would not leave their fellows for fear's sake or flight, nor quit 
 their ranks except to take up or seek a weapon, to strike a foe, 
 or to save a friend. From a voluntary agreement among them- 
 selves this was now changed into an oath regularly admin- 
 istered by the tribunes. 
 
 Before the army left Rome, the consul Varro delivered sev- 
 eral fierce harangues, in which he declared that on the very 
 day on which he saw the enemy he would finish this war, 
 which, brought as it had been into Italy by the nobles, would 
 cling to the vitals of the commonwealth, if it had more gen- 
 erals such as Fabius. His colleague Paulus spoke once, and 
 that on the day before he left the city, with words that were 
 more true than welcome. He said nothing harsh against 
 Varro, except this only, that he wondered how a general with- 
 out knowing anything of his own or the enemy's army, of the 
 
B. C. 2i6] FABIUS'S ADDRESS TO PAULUS 331 
 
 nature of the ground, or the geography of the country, could 
 be sure, while he was still a civilian in the city, what he would 
 have to do when he was a soldier, and could even predict the 
 day on which he would give battle to his foe. As for himself, 
 seeing that circumstances determine plans, rather than plans 
 circumstances, he would indulge in no premature anticipations, 
 and would hope that action cautiously and deliberately con- 
 ducted would end in success. Rashness, besides its folly, was 
 in this conjuncture peculiarly unfortunate. Evident as it 
 was that Paulus would voluntarily prefer counsels of safety 
 to counsels of haste, Quintus Fabius Maximus, wishing to 
 strengthen him in this resolve, thus addressed him, it is said, 
 on the eve of his departure : 
 
 " Had you a colleague like yourself, Lucius TEmilius — and 
 I would that it were so ! — or were you like your colleague, my 
 words would be superfluous. Were both of you good men, 
 you would do all that the common weal and your own honour 
 demanded ; were both of you bad men, you would neither lis- 
 ten to my words nor lay my counsels to heart. As it is, when 
 I see what your colleague is, and what you are, I speak, and 
 speak only to you, whose valour and patriotism must, I see, 
 be all in vain if one half of the commonwealth be helpless and 
 evil counsels have the same weight and authority as good. 
 You are mistaken, Paulus, if you think that you will not have 
 to contend quite as much with Terentius as with Hannibal. 
 I do not know whether you will not find this opponent more 
 dangerous to you than that open enemy. With the one you 
 will contend in the battle-field only ; with the other in every 
 place, at every time. Against Hannibal and his legions, you 
 will fight with your infantry and your cavalry ; Varro, when 
 in command, will assail you with your own troops. Heaven 
 forbid that I should trouble you with the sinister recollection 
 of Flaminius ! Yet, when he was consul, it was only in his 
 command and in the army that he began to show his insanity ; 
 this man, before he stood for the consulship, while he was 
 standing for it, and now that he is consul, before he has seen 
 the camp or the enemy, has played and is playing the madman. 
 If he could raise such storms among our civilians by bragging 
 of battle and battle-fields, what, think you, will he do with 
 armed men — young men, remember — in circumstances where 
 action follows immediately on speech ? Yet if he shall give 
 battle forthwith, as he declares he will do, then either I know 
 nothing of military art, of this kind of war, and of this enemy, 
 or some other place will be made yet more famous than Trasu- 
 mennus by our disasters. This is no time for boasting, when 
 
232 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 you only are here, and I, if I err, would rather err in despising 
 than in seeking fame ; but this is the simple truth. There is 
 but one method of fighting with Hannibal, and that is the 
 method which I followed. It is not only results that show us 
 this (fools are taught by results), but a reasoning which has 
 remained and must remain unchanged as long as circum- 
 stances shall continue the same. It is in Italy we are fighting, 
 in our own home, on our native soil ; countrymen and allies 
 are everywhere about us ; they help and will help us with arms, 
 men, horses, provisions (this proof of their loyalty they have 
 already given us in our adversity), while time makes us con- 
 tinually better, wiser, more steadfast. Hannibal, on the other 
 hand, is in a strange, a hostile country, where all is adverse 
 and unfriendly, far from his home and native land. Neither 
 by land nor sea can he find peace ; no cities, no fortified places 
 receive him ; he sees nothing anywhere to call his own ; he 
 lives from day to day on what he steals. Scarce a third of the 
 army with which he crossed the Ebro is left to him. He has 
 lost more by hunger than by the sword, and for the few that 
 remain he has not food enough. Do you doubt, then, that by 
 sitting still we shall conquer a man who grows feebler every 
 day, who has neither provisions nor re-enforcements nor 
 money? How long has he been sitting before the walls of 
 Gereonium, a poor fort in Apulia, as if they were the walls of 
 Carthage? But even before you I will not boast of myself. 
 See how the last consuls, Cneius Servilius and Atilius played 
 with him. This is the one path of safety, Paulus, and thus it 
 is your own countrymen, rather than the enemy, who will make 
 it difficult and dangerous for you. True, our own soldiers will 
 have the same wish as the enemy, and Varro, Roman consul 
 as he is, will desire exactly what Hannibal the Carthaginian 
 general desires. Singly you must resist the two commanders. 
 And you will resist, if you stand really firm against both 
 popular opinion and idle rumour, if neither the foolish vain- 
 glorying of your colleague nor your own undeserved disgrace 
 shall move you. Truth, they say, is too often eclipsed, but 
 never extinguished. He who spurns false glory, shall pos- 
 sess the true. Let them call you coward when you are cau- 
 tious, dilatory when you are deliberate, no soldier when you 
 show true strategy. I had rather that a skilful enemy should 
 fear than that a foolish friend should praise you. The man 
 who dares all risks, Hannibal will despise ; the man who does 
 nothing rashly, he will fear. I do not advise you to do noth- 
 ing; I advise you that, whatever you do, you let reason, not 
 fortune, guide you. Always keep yourself and your forces 
 
B. C. 2i6J PAULUS AND VARRO TAKE COMMAND 333 
 
 under your own control. Be always prepared, always on the 
 watch. Never miss your own opportunity ; never give an op- 
 portunity to the enemy. He who will not hurry, will find all 
 things clear, all things certain. Haste is both improvident 
 and blind." 
 
 The consul's reply was by no means in a cheerful tone. 
 He allowed that what Fabius said was true, but not that it was 
 easy to put into practice. A dictator had found his master of 
 the horse unmanageable. What power and influence would 
 a consul have to resist a turbulent and headstrong colleague ? 
 " In my first consulship," said Paulus, " I escaped, half con- 
 sumed, out of the fire of popular fury ; I wish that all things 
 may turn out well. If any disaster befall us, I shall sooner 
 trust my life to the weapons of the enemy than to the votes of 
 my enraged fellow-citizens." 
 
 It was, they say, with these words on his lips that Paulus 
 set out. He was attended by the leading patricians, the ple- 
 beian consul, by his own plebeian adherents, more conspicu- 
 ously honoured by numbers than by worth. When they 
 reached the camp, the old army was combined with the new ; 
 two camps were formed, the newer and weaker being nearer 
 to Hannibal, while the first retained the greater part of the 
 army and all the best troops. Marcus Atilius, consul of the 
 last year, pleaded his age, and was sent back to Rome ; Gemi- 
 nus Servilius was set to command a Roman legion and two 
 thousand cavalry and infantry of the allies in the smaller camp. 
 Hannibal, though perceiving that the hostile forces were half 
 as large again as before, was yet marvellously delighted at 
 the arrival of the consuls. Not only was there nothing left 
 out of the plunder that every day brought in, but there was 
 not even a place remaining to be plundered ; all the corn had 
 been carried into fortified towns as soon as the country grew 
 unsafe, so that, as was afterward discovered, scarce ten days' 
 supply of corn remained, and the Spaniards had arranged to 
 desert from sheer hunger, if only the Romans could have 
 waited for their full opportunity. 
 
 Chance gave encouragement to the rash and impetuous 
 temper of the consul in a confused skirmish that began in an 
 attempt to drive ofif some plunderers, followed by a hasty rush 
 of the soldiers without preparation or orders from their com- 
 manders, and the fortune of the day went against the Cartha- 
 ginians. As many as seventeen hundred fell ; of the Romans 
 and allies not more than a hundred were killed. The consul 
 Paulus, who was in command that day (the two consuls com- 
 manded alternately), checked the wild pursuit of the conquer- 
 
334 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C 216 
 
 ors, amid wrathful protestations from Varro, that they vyere 
 letting the enemy slip out of their hands, and that he might 
 have been thoroughly beaten had they not paused. Hannibal 
 was not much distressed at this loss. He rather believed that 
 it would be, so to speak, a bait to the rashness of the head- 
 strong consul and of the new soldiers especially. He knew 
 quite as much about his foe as he did about his own troops; 
 he knew that two men wholly unlike and without unity of pur- 
 pose were in command, and that nearly two thirds of the army 
 were recruits. It seemed to him that both time and place 
 favoured a stratagem. Making his soldiers carry with them 
 nothing but their arms, he quitted his camp, leaving it full of 
 property both public and private. He drew up his infantry in 
 concealment behind the hills on his left, and his cavalry on 
 the right ; and made the baggage pass up the valley between, 
 hoping to surprise the Romans while their thoughts and hands 
 were busied with the plunder of a camp which seemed to have 
 been deserted by the sudden flight of its occupants. Many 
 fires were left in the camp, intended to create the impression 
 that he had wished to keep the consuls where they were, till 
 he had got a long start in his retreat, just as he had deceived 
 Fabius the year before. 
 
 When day broke, the Romans saw with astonishment, first, 
 that the pickets were withdrawn, and then when they ap- 
 proached the camp, that there was an unusual stillness. As 
 soon as they were quite certain that it was deserted, there was 
 a rush to the headquarters of the consul,^ and a cry that the 
 enemy had fled in such haste that they had abandoned their 
 camp with the tents standing, and that to conceal their retreat, 
 many fires had been left burning. A loud shout was set up 
 that the consuls should at once order an advance and lead 
 them to pursue the enemy, and forthwith plunder the camp. 
 One of the consuls was nothing better than one of the mob 
 of soldiers. Paulus said again and again that they must be 
 prudent and cautious. At last, seeing no other way of hold- 
 ing his own against the mutineers and their leader, he sent 
 Marius Statilius with a Lucanian troop of horse under his com- 
 mand to reconnoitre. 
 
 Riding up to the gates and bidding the rest remain outside 
 the lines, Marius and two others entered the intrenchments, 
 and after carefully surveying every point, brought back word 
 that there was certainly some hidden danger ; that the fires that 
 had been left were on the side of the camp nearest to the Ro- 
 mans, the tents were open and everything of value was left per- 
 
 ' The consul in command on that day. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] MUTINY IN HANNIBAL'S ARMY 335 
 
 fectly accessible ; that he had even seen silver strewn at ran- 
 dom in some places along the paths, as if to invite plunder. 
 What was calculated to restrain the soldiers from their greed of 
 gain, only inflamed them. A shout arose that if the signal were 
 not given they would go without their generals ; but there was 
 a general forthcoming, for Varro immediately gave the signal 
 to start. Paulus, whose only wish was for delay, heard that the 
 auguries of the sacred chicken "■ did not sanction an advance, 
 and bade the fact be communicated to Varro just as he was 
 marching out of the camp-gates. Varro was greatly vexed, 
 but the recent disaster of Flaminius and the famous defeat of 
 the consul Claudius in the first Punic war,^ had impressed re- 
 ligious fears upon his mind. I may almost say that Heaven 
 itself that day postponed rather than averted the doom that 
 was hanging over the Romans. It so happened that while the 
 consul was bidding the soldiers retire into the camp and they 
 were refusing to obey him, two slave attendants, one belong- 
 ing to a trooper from Formise and the other to a trooper from 
 Sidicinum, who had been captured among the foragers by the 
 Numidians when Servilius and Atilius were consuls, that day 
 escaped to their old masters. They were brought to the con- 
 suls and told them that the whole army of Hannibal lay in 
 ambush behind the hills. Their opportune arrival restored 
 the authority of the consuls, though one consul, bent as he 
 was on popularity, had by an unprincipled indulgence im- 
 paired the dignity of his office.^ 
 
 Hannibal saw that the Romans had indeed moved rashly, 
 but were not yet venturing the last desperate risk, and he 
 returned disappointed to his camp, now that his stratagem was 
 discovered. He could not remain there many days, as provi- 
 sions were running short. Every day new plans suggested 
 themselves, not only among his troops, a miscellaneous crowd, 
 the refuse of the world, but to the general himself. Murmurs 
 that soon grew into loud clamours had been heard, demands 
 for overdue pay, and complaints first of scanty rations and 
 then of absolute famine ; rumours had spread that the merce- 
 naries, the Spaniards especially, had talked of changing sides, 
 and Hannibal himself was said to have sometimes had thoughts 
 of retreating into Gaul, hurrying away with his cavalry, but 
 leaving all his infantry behind. Such being the plans discussed 
 
 ' That is, they refused to eat the corn offered them. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Publius Claudius commanded the fleet at the battle of Drepanum. 
 When informed that the sacred chickens refused to eat he replied, " Then 
 they shall drink," and ordered them to be cast overboard forthwith. — D. O. 
 
 ' By his insubordination on his colleague's day of command. — D. O. 
 
336 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C, 216 
 
 and such the temper prevailing in the camp, he resolved to 
 move into Apulia, a warmer country, where the harvest would 
 be earlier; the greater too his distance from the enemy, the 
 more difficult would desertion be for the weaker spirits m his 
 army. He started during the night, leaving, as he had done 
 before, a few fires and tents to deceive the enemy. Fear of 
 some such stratagem as before would, he hoped, keep them 
 where they were. But when after a thorough exploration of 
 all the country beyond the camp, and on the other side of the 
 hills, by Statilius, the Lucanian officer mentioned already, it 
 was reported that the hostile army had been seen in the dis- 
 tance, the question of pursuit was at once debated. The two 
 consuls adhered to their former opinions, but as nearly all 
 voted with Varro, and no one, except the ex-consul Servilius, 
 with Paulus, the judgment of the majority prevailed, and the 
 army moved out, to make Cannae,^ for so destiny would have 
 it, famous forever for a great Roman defeat. Hannibal had 
 pitched his camp near that village, so as not to face the wind 
 called Vulturnus, which, blowing across plains parched with 
 drought, carries with it clouds of dust. The arrangement 
 was most convenient for the camp, and was afterward found to 
 be of similar advantage when they marshalled their troops for 
 battle. Their own faces were turned away and the wind did 
 but blow on their backs, while the enemy with whom they 
 were to fight was blinded by volumes of dust. 
 
 The consuls, after duly reconnoitring the roads, followed 
 the Carthaginians till they reached Cannse, where they had the 
 enemy in sight. They then intrenched and fortified two 
 camps, separating their forces by about the same distance as 
 before at Gereonium. The river Atffidus, which flowed near 
 both camps, furnished water to both armies, the soldiers ap- 
 proaching as they most conveniently could, not, however, with- 
 out some skirmishing. From the smaller camp, which had 
 been pitched on the farther side of the Aufidus, the Romans 
 procured water with less difficulty, as the opposite bank was 
 not held by any hostile force. Hannibal saw his hope accom- 
 plished, that the consuls would ofifer battle on ground made 
 for the action of cavalry, in which arm he was invincible. He 
 drew up his men, and sought to provoke his foe by throwing 
 forward his Numidian troopers. Then the Roman camp was 
 once more disturbed by mutiny among the troops and dis- 
 agreement between the consuls. Paulus taunted Varro with 
 the rashness of Sempronius and Flaminius ; Varro reproached 
 Paulus with copying Fabius, an example attractive to timid 
 
 ' Midway between Barletta and Canosa. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE ARMIES AT CANN^ 337 
 
 and indolent commanders, and called both gods and men to 
 witness that it was no fault of his if Hannibal had now a pre- 
 scriptive possession of Italy. " I," said he, " have my hands 
 tied and held fast by my colleague. My soldiers, furious and 
 eager to fight, are stripped of their swords and arms." Paulus 
 declared that if any disaster befell the legions recklessly thrown 
 and betrayed into battle without deliberation or forethought, 
 he would share all their fortunes, while holding himself free 
 from all blame. Let Varro look to it that they whose tongues 
 were so ready and so bold, had hands equally vigorous in the 
 day of battle. 
 
 While they thus wasted the time in disputing rather than 
 in deliberating, Hannibal, who had kept his lines drawn up 
 till late in the day, called back the rest of his troops into his 
 camp, but sent forward the Numidian cavalry across the river 
 to attack the water-parties from the smaller of the two Roman 
 camps. Coming on with shouting and uproar they sent the 
 undisciplined crowd flying before they had even reached the 
 bank, and rode on till they came on an outpost stationed 
 before the rampart and close to the very camp-gates. So 
 scandalous did it seem that a Roman camp should be alarmed 
 by some irregular auxiliaries that the only circumstance 
 which hindered the Romans from immediately crossing the 
 river and forming their line of battle was, that the supreme 
 command that day rested with Paulus. But the next day 
 Varro, without consulting his colleague, gave the signal to en- 
 gage,^ and drawing up his forces led them across the river. 
 Paulus followed him ; he could withhold his sanction from 
 the movement, but not his support. The river crossed, they 
 joined to their own the forces retained by them in the smaller 
 camp, and then formed their lines. On the right wing (the 
 one nearer to the river) they posted the Roman cavalry and 
 next the infantry. On the extreme flank of the left wing were 
 the allied cavalry, next the allied infantry, side by side with 
 the Roman legions in the centre. Slingers and other light- 
 armed auxiliaries made up the first line. Paulus commanded 
 the right wing ; Varro the left ; Geminius Servilius had charge 
 of the centre. 
 
 At dawn, Hannibal, sending in advance his slingers and 
 light-armed troops, crossed the river, assigning each division 
 its position as it crossed. His Gallic and Spanish cavalry he 
 posted near the river bank on the left wing, facing the Roman 
 horse; the right wing was assigned to the Numidian cavalry; 
 the centre showed a strong force of infantry, having on either 
 
 ' This was a red flag hoisted above the general's tent. — D. O. 
 22 
 
338 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 side the African troops, with the Gauls and Spaniards between 
 them. These Africans might have been taken for a Roman 
 force; so largely were they equipped with weapons taken at 
 Trebia, and yet more at Trasumennus. The Gauls and Span- 
 iards had shields of very nearly the same shape, but their 
 swords were widely different in size and form, the Gauls hav- 
 ing them very long and pointless, while the Spaniards, who 
 were accustomed to assail the enemy with thrusts rather than 
 with blows, had them short, handy, and pointed. These na- 
 tions had a specially terrible appearance, so gigantic was their 
 stature and so strange their look. The Gauls were naked 
 above the navel; the Spaniards wore tunics of linen bordered 
 with purple, of a whiteness marvellously dazzling. The total 
 number of the infantry who were that day ranged in line was 
 forty thousand, that of the cavalry ten thousand. Hasdrubal 
 commanded the left wing; Maharbal the right; Hannibal him- 
 self, with his brother Mago, was in the centre. The sun — 
 whether the troops were purposely so placed, or whether it 
 was by chance — fell very conveniently sideways on both 
 armies, the Romans facing the south, the Carthaginians the 
 north. The wind (called Vulturnus by the natives of those 
 parts) blew straight against the Romans and whirled clouds 
 of dust into their faces till they could see nothing. 
 
 With a loud shout the auxiliaries charged, the light troops 
 thus beginning the battle. Next the Gallic and Spanish horse 
 of the left wing encountered the right wing of the Romans. 
 The fight was not at all like a cavalry engagement ; they had 
 to meet face to face; there was no room for manoeuvring, 
 shut in as they were by the river on one side and the lines of 
 infantry on the other. Both sides pushed straight forward till, 
 with their horses brought to a stand and crowded together 
 in a mass, each man seized his antagonist and strove to drag 
 him from his seat. The struggle now became mainly a strug- 
 gle of infantry; but the conflict was rather fierce than pro- 
 tracted. The Roman cavalry were defeated and put to flight. 
 Just before the encounter of the cavalry came to an end the 
 fight between the infantry began. The two sides were equal 
 in strength and courage, as long as the Gauls and Span- 
 iards kept their ranks unbroken ; at last the Romans, after 
 long and repeated efforts, broke, by their wedge-shaped front 
 and deep formation, the enemy's column, which, advanced 
 as it was from the rest of the line, was shallow and therefore 
 weak. Pursuing the broken and rapidly retreating foe, they 
 made their way without a halt through the rout of panic- 
 stricken fugitives till they reached, first, the centre of the 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE BATTLE OF CANN^ 
 
 339 
 
 line, and then, meeting with no check, the reserves of the 
 African troops. These had been stationed on the wings whicli 
 had been somewhat retired, while the centre, where the Gauls 
 and Spaniards had been posted, was proportionately advanced.^ 
 As that column fell back, the line became level; when they 
 pushed their retreat, they made a hollow in the centre. The 
 Africans now overlapped on either side, and as the Romans 
 rushed heedlessly into the intervening space, they first out- 
 flanked them and then, extending their own formation, ac- 
 tually hemmed in their rear. Upon this the Romans, who 
 had fought one battle to no purpose, quitted the Gauls and 
 Spaniards, whose rear they had been slaughtering, and began a 
 new conflict with the Africans, a conflict unfair, not only be- 
 cause they were shut in with foes all round them, but because 
 they were wearied, while the enemy was fresh and vigorous. 
 
 On the left wing of the Romans the cavalry of the allies 
 had been posted against the Numidians. Here, too, battle 
 had been joined, though with little spirit for a time, the first 
 movement being a Carthaginian stratagem. Nearly five hun- 
 dred Numidians who, besides their usual armour and missiles 
 had swords hidden under their cuirasses, rode out from their 
 own line with their shields slung behind their backs as though 
 they had been deserters, leaped in haste from their horses and 
 threw their shields and javelins at the feet of the Romans. 
 They were received into the centre of the line, taken to the 
 extreme rear, and bidden to keep their place behind. While 
 the battle spread from place to place, they remained motion- 
 less; but as soon as all eyes and thoughts were intent on the 
 conflict, they seized the shields which lay scattered everywhere 
 among the piles of dead, and fell on the Roman line from the 
 rear. They wounded the backs and legs of the men, and, 
 while they made a great slaughter, spread far greater panic 
 and confusion. While there was terror and flight on the 
 right, and in the centre an obstinate resistance, though with 
 little hope, Hasdrubal, who was in command in this quarter, 
 withdrew the Numidians from the centre, seeing that they 
 fought with but little spirit, and having sent them in all direc- 
 tions to pursue the enemy, re-enforced with the Spanish and 
 Gallic cavalry the African troops, wearied as they now were 
 with slaughter rather than with fighting.- 
 
 ' The Carthaginian line was drawn up in crescent formation, with the 
 centre purposely thinned. — D. O. 
 
 * The Gallic and Spanish horse had circled the Roman rear, and, hav- 
 ing broken the cavalry of the allies and sent the Numidians in pursuit, 
 they now fell upon the rear of the Roman centre. — D. O. 
 
340 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 Paulus was on the other side of the field.' He had been 
 seriously wounded at the very beginning of the battle by 
 a bullet from a sling, but yet he repeatedly encountered Han- 
 nibal with a compact body of troops, and at several points 
 restored the fortune of the day. He was protected by the 
 Roman cavalry, who at last sent away their horses when the 
 consul became too weak to manage his charger. Some one 
 told Hannibal that the consul had ordered the cavalry to dis- 
 mount. " He might better hand them over to me bound hand 
 and foot," said he. The horsemen fought on foot as men 
 were likely to fight, when, the victory of the enemy being 
 beyond all doubt, the vanquished preferred dying where they 
 stood to flight, and the victors, furious with those who de- 
 layed their triumph, slaughtered the foes whom they could 
 not move. Move them, however, they did — that is, a few 
 survivors, exhausted with wounds and fatigue. All were then 
 scattered, and such as were able sought to recover their horses 
 and fly. Cn. Lentulus, as he galloped by, saw the consul sit- 
 ting on a stone and covered with blood. " Lucius ^milius," 
 he cried, " the one man whom Heaven must regard as guilt- 
 less of this day's calamity, take this horse while you have 
 some strength left, and I am here to be with you, to lift you 
 to the saddle, and to defend you. Do not make this defeat 
 yet sadder by a consul's death. There are weeping and sor- 
 row enough without this." The consul replied: " 'Tis a brave 
 thought of thine, Cn. Cornelius; but waste not the few mo- 
 ments you have for escaping from the enemy in fruitless pity. 
 My public message to the senators is that they must fortify 
 Rome and make its garrison as strong as may be before the 
 victorious enemy arrives. My private message to Quintus 
 Fabius is that Lucius ^milius remembered his teaching in 
 life and death. As for me, let me breathe my last among my 
 slaughtered soldiers. I would not again leave my consulship 
 to answer for my life,^ nor would I stand up to accuse my col- 
 league, and by accusing another protect my own innocence." 
 
 While they thus talked together, they were overtaken, first 
 by a crowd of Roman fugitives and then by the enemy. These 
 last buried the consul under a shower of javelins, not knowing 
 who he was. Lentulus galloped ofif in the confusion. The 
 Romans now fled wildly in every direction. Seven thousand 
 men escaped into the smaller, ten thousand into the larger 
 camp, ten thousand more into the village of Cannae itself. 
 
 ' He had passed from the routed right coming to the centre. — D, O. 
 ' He had been tried after his former consulship for misappropriation 
 of plunder taken in the Illyrian war, — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE BATTLE OF CANN.E 341 
 
 These last were immediately surrounded by Carthalo and the 
 cavalry, for no fortification protected the place. The other 
 consul, who, whether by chance or of set purpose, had not 
 joined any large body of fugitives, fled with about five hun- 
 dred horsemen to Venusia. Forty-five thousand five hundred 
 infantry, two thousand seven hundred cavalry, and almost as 
 many more citizens and allies are said to have fallen. Among 
 these were the quaestors of both consuls, Lucius Atilius and 
 Furius Bibaculus, twenty-nine tribunes of the soldiers, not a 
 few ex-consuls, ex-prsetors, and ex-sediles (among them Cn. 
 Servilius and Marcus Minucius, who the year before had been 
 the master of the horse, and consul some years before that), 
 eighty who were either actual senators or had filled such 
 offices as made them eligible for the senate, and who had vol- 
 unteered to serve in the legions. In this battle three thou- 
 sand infantry and one thousand five hundred cavalry are said 
 to have been taken prisoners. 
 
 Such was the battle of Cannae, as famous as the disaster 
 at the AUia, and though less serious in its consequences, 
 thanks to the inaction of the enemy, yet in loss of men still 
 more ruinous and disgraceful. The flight at the Allia lost the 
 city but saved the army; at Cannse the consul who fled was 
 followed by barely fifty men; with the consul who perished, 
 perished nearly the whole army. 
 
 The two camps held a defenceless crowd with no one to 
 command them. The occupants of the larger camp sent a 
 messenger to their neighbours, suggesting that they should 
 come over to them, while night still kept the enemy wrapped 
 in the profound sleep that would follow battle and the joyous 
 banquets of conquerors; they might then unite in one body 
 and retreat to Canusium. Some wholly scorned the proposal. 
 " Why," said they, " do not the men who send for us come 
 themselves, being just as well able to effect the junction as 
 we? The fact is that the whole space between is crowded with 
 the enemy, and they had sooner expose the persons of others 
 to this deadly peril than their own." 
 
 Others did not so much disapprove of the proposal as want 
 courage to execute it. Then cried Publius Sempronius Tudi- 
 tanus, a tribune of the soldiers: " Would you sooner be taken 
 prisoners by this rapacious and cruel enemy, and have a price 
 put on your heads and your value determined by inquiries as 
 to whether you are Roman citizens or Latin allies, while others 
 are winning honours out of the miseries and insults you en- 
 dure? You would not suffer it if you are fellow-countrymen 
 of the consul, Lucius ^milius, who chose to die with hon- 
 
342 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 otir rather than live with disgrace, and of all those gallant 
 citizens who lie in heaps about him. Before day comes upon 
 us, before larger forces of the enemy intercept our way, let 
 us charge through this disorderly and undisciplined foe that 
 clamours at our gates. Courage and the sword can force 
 their way even through the densest enemy. Your column 
 can as easily scatter this loose disorganized array as if it op- 
 posed no resistance. Come, then, with me, all you who wish 
 yourselves and the commonwealth to be in safety." Saying 
 this, he drew his sword, formed a column, and passed through 
 the midst of the enemy. Seeing that the Numidians aimed 
 at their right sides, which were exposed, they changed their 
 shields to their right arms, and escaped to the number of six 
 hundred into the greater camp, and then, having been joined 
 by another considerable force, immediately made their way 
 to Canusium without loss. This action among the conquered 
 came more from the impulse which natural courage or acci- 
 dent supplied than from any concerted plan or any officer's 
 generalship. 
 
 Round the victorious Hannibal crowded his ofHcers with 
 congratulations and entreaties that now that this mighty war 
 was finished he should take what remained of that day and 
 the following night for rest, and give the same to his wearied 
 soldiers. Maharbal, the general of his cavalry, thought that 
 there should be no pause. " Nay," he cried, " that you may 
 know what has been achieved by this victory, you shall hold 
 a conqueror's feast within five days in the Capitol. Pursue 
 them; I will go before you with my cavalry, and they shall 
 know that you are come before they know you are coming." 
 Hannibal felt that his success was too great for him to be able 
 to realize it at the moment. " He commended," he said, 
 " Maharbal's zeal, but he must take time to deliberate." Ma- 
 harbal replied: "Well, the gods do not give all gifts to one 
 man. Hannibal, you know how to conquer; not how to use 
 a conquest." That day's delay is believed to have saved Rome 
 and its empire. 
 
 The next day, at daybreak, they issued forth to collect the 
 spoil and to gaze upon a scene of slaughter, at which even 
 a foe must have shuddered. Many thousands of the Roman 
 dead lay there, foot-soldiers and horsemen as chance had 
 thrown them together in the battle or the flight. Some were 
 cut down by the foe as they rose covered with blood from the 
 field of death, revived by the cold of the morning which had 
 closed their wounds. Some, v/ho were discovered lying alive, 
 but with the sinews of thighs and knees divided, bared their 
 
B. C. 2i6] AFTER THE BATTLE 
 
 343 
 
 necks and throats and begged the foe to shed what blood 
 yet remained to them. Others were found with their heads 
 buried in holes in the earth, and it was evident that they had 
 made these holes for themselves, had heaped up the soil on 
 their faces, and so suffocated themselves. Of all sights the 
 most striking was a Numidian who lay with a dead Roman 
 upon him; he was alive, but his ears and nose were mangled, 
 for with hands that were powerless to grasp a weapon, the 
 man's rage had turned to madness, and he had breathed his 
 last while he tore his enemy with his teeth. 
 
 Till a late hour of the day Hannibal was gathering in 
 the spoils. This done, he marched to attack the smaller camp. 
 His first act was to throw up an earthwork, and so shut them 
 ofif from the river. But the whole force, so worn out were 
 they with toil and sleeplessness and even wounds, surrendered 
 sooner than he had expected. It was agreed that they should 
 give up their horses and arms, should pay for every Roman 
 citizen three hundred " chariot " pieces,^ for every ally two 
 hundred, for every slave one hundred, and that, this ransom 
 discharged, they should depart with one garment apiece. They 
 admitted the enemy into their camp, and were all put under 
 arrest, the citizens and allies being kept separate. During the 
 delay thus caused, all who had strength and courage suffi- 
 cient — that is, about four thousand infantry and two hundred 
 cavalry — escaped from the greater camp and sought refuge, 
 some marching in column, others by twos and threes, across 
 country, a way quite as safe, into Canusium. The camp was 
 surrendered by the timid and disabled remainder on the same 
 terms as the other. The booty secured was immense, and the 
 whole of it was handed over to the troops, except the horses, 
 the prisoners, and any silver that was found. Most of this 
 was in the trappings of the horses; for of plate for the table 
 they used very little, at least when on service. Hannibal then 
 ordered that the bodies of his own dead should be brought 
 together for burial. It is said that there were as many as 
 eight thousand, all men of tried valour. Some writers say 
 that the body of the Roman consul was also found after search 
 and buried. 
 
 Those who had made their escape to Canusium, an Apulian 
 lady, named Busa, of distinguished family and great wealth, 
 supplied with food, clothing, and money for travelling, asking 
 from the people of Canusium for nothing beyond their bare 
 
 ' Most of the consular denarii (worth about seventeen cents) bore on 
 their reverse the device of a four-horse chariot (quadriga) or a two-horse 
 chariot (biga). — D. O. 
 
244 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 walls and roofs. For this munificence the senate voted her, 
 at the end of the war, public honours. 
 
 At Canusium there were four tribunes of the soldiers, 
 Fabius Maximus of the first legion (son of the Fabius who 
 had been dictator the year before), Publicius Bibulus, and 
 Publius Cornelius Scipio of the second legion, and, of the 
 third legion, Appius Claudius Pulcher, who had very recently 
 been sedile. The supreme command was unanimously as- 
 signed to Scipio, who was a very young man, and to Claudius. 
 They were holding council with a few friends about the state 
 of affairs, when Publius Furius Philus, whose father was an 
 ex-consul, said that it was idle for them to cling to utterly 
 ruined hopes. The state, he declared, was given over for lost. 
 Certain young nobles, with Lucius Caecilius Metellus at their 
 head, were thinking of frying beyond sea and deserting their 
 country for the service of some foreign king. In face of a 
 peril, terrible in itself, and coming with fresh force after so 
 many disasters, all present stood motionless in amazement and 
 stupefaction. They proposed that a council should be called 
 to consider the matter, but the young Scipio, Rome's pre- 
 destined champion in this war, declared that it was no time 
 for a council. " We must dare and act," he said, " not delib- 
 erate, in such awful calamity. Let all who desire the salva- 
 tion of their country, come armed with me. No camp is more 
 truly a camp of the enemy than that in which men have such 
 thoughts." He immediately started with a few followers for 
 the house of Metellus; there he found a gathering of the 
 youths of whom he had heard. Drawing his sword over the 
 heads of the conspirators, " It is my fixed resolve," he cried, 
 " as I will not myself desert the commonwealth of Rome, so 
 not to sufTer any other Roman citizen to desert it; if I know- 
 ingly fail therein, almighty and merciful Jupiter, smite me, 
 my house, and fortunes with utter destruction ! I insist that 
 you, Lucius Caecilius, and all others present, take this oath 
 after me. Whoever takes it not, may be sure this sword is 
 drawn against him." They were as frightened as if they saw 
 the victorious Hannibal before them, and to a man they swore 
 and delivered themselves to the custody of Scipio. 
 
 _ While this was passing at Canusium, the consul was re- 
 joined at Venusia ^ by as many as four thousand five hundred 
 infantry and cavalry, who had dispersed over the country in 
 flight. The people of Venusia distributed them among- various 
 households where they might find kindly welcome and re- 
 freshment. To each horseman they gave an outer and an 
 ' Modern Venosa. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] CONSTERNATION AT ROME 
 
 345 
 
 inner garment with twenty-five " chariot " pieces, to each foot- 
 soldier ten pieces and such arms as he lacked. Public and 
 private hospitality of every kind was shown to them; and the 
 town did its best not to let a lady of Canusium surpass the 
 people of Venusia in liberality. The growing numbers ^ made 
 the burden on Busa's kindness too heavy. There were now 
 as many as ten thousand men, and Appius and Scipio, on hear- 
 ing that the other consul was alive, sent to tell him what forces 
 of infantry and cavalry they had with them, and to ask him 
 at the same time whether he would have the army moved to 
 Venusia or remain at Canusium. Varro brought his own 
 troops to Canusium. There was now, at least, something like 
 a consul's army, which might be thought fit to defend itself 
 against the enemy behind walls, if not in the field. 
 
 At Rome report said that no such mere remnant of citi- 
 zens and allies survived, but that the army with the two con- 
 suls had been utterly destroyed, and that the whole force had 
 ceased to exist. Never before, with Rome itself still safe, had 
 there been such panic and confusion within our walls. I shall 
 decline the task of attempting a lengthened description which 
 could not but be far inferior to the truth. The year before 
 a consul with his army had perished at Trasumennus; it was 
 not wound after wound, but multiplied disasters that were 
 announced. Two consuls and the armies of two consuls had 
 perished. Rome had now no camp, no general, no soldiers. 
 Hannibal was master of Apulia, of Samnium, of nearly the 
 whole of Italy. Certainly there was not a nation in the world 
 which would not have been overwhelmed by such a weight 
 of calamity. Compare, for instance, the blow which the Car- 
 thaginians received in the sea-fight at the ^Egates Islands, a 
 blow which made them evacuate Sicily and Sardinia and allow 
 themselves to be burdened with indemnity and tribute; com- 
 pare again the defeat in Africa, by which Hannibal himself 
 was subsequently crushed. In no respect are they comparable 
 with Cannse, except because they were borne with less courage. 
 
 Marcus Furius Philus and Manius Pomponius, the prae- 
 tors, summoned the senate to meet in the Hall of Hostilius, 
 to deliberate about the defence of Rome. They felt, no doubt, 
 that now that our armies had perished, the enemy would ad- 
 vance to attack the city, the only warlike operation indeed 
 that remained. In the face of calamities as mysterious as they 
 were overwhelming, they could not even so much as form 
 a definite plan; their ears were deafened with the cries of wail- 
 ing women, for as nothing had been published, the living 
 ■ That is, at Canusium. — D. O. 
 
346 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 and the dead were indiscriminately bewailed in almost every 
 house. It was the opinion of Quintus Fabius Maximus that 
 some light horsemen should be sent along the Appian and 
 Latin roads to question any whom they might meet — and cer- 
 tainly stragglers from the rout would be found in all direc- 
 tions — what had happened to the consuls and their armies, 
 and, if Heaven in pity for the empire had left some remnant 
 of the Roman nation, where these forces were; where Hanni- 
 bal had gone after the battle, what he meditated, what he was 
 doing and likely to do? They must have young and energetic 
 men to discover these facts; the duty of the senators them- 
 selves — for there were but very few magistrates in the city — 
 would be to stop the confusion and the alarm at home; to 
 forbid the matrons from appearing in public, and to compel 
 them to keep themselves each in her own house; to prohibit 
 loud lamentations for the dead, to enforce silence throughout 
 the city, to see that all who brought news were taken to the 
 praetors, to wait at home for the bearer of tidings that affected 
 themselves, and to set sentinels at the gates who were to for- 
 bid all egress and make men see that their only hope of saving 
 their own lives lay in the safety of Rome and its walls. The 
 tumult once hushed, the senators should be summoned once 
 more to the house and consulted as to the defence of the city. 
 
 This motion was passed unanimously and without discus- 
 sion. The crowd was forced by the magistrates to leave the 
 forum, and the senators separated to quiet the uproar; not 
 till then did a despatch from the consul Caius Terentius arrive. 
 Lucius ^milius and his army, it said, had perished; the 
 writer himself was at Canusium, gathering the relics of this 
 terrible disaster, like the salvage from a shipwreck; he had 
 nearly ten thousand men without discipline or organization. 
 Hannibal was quiet at Cannae, trafficking about the ransoms 
 of the prisoners and the other booty in anything but the 
 spirit of a conqueror, in anything but the fashion of a great 
 general. 
 
 Then the names of the dead were communicated to their 
 families. So full was the city of lamentation that the yearly 
 festival of Ceres was dropped. It was not lawful for a mourner 
 to keep it, and there was not at that time a single matron 
 who was not a mourner. In the fear that for this same reason 
 other sacred rites, public or private, might be neglected, a 
 decree of the senate limited the mourning to thirty days. No 
 sooner had the uproar in the city been quieted, and the senate 
 again summoned to their chamber, than there came a despatch 
 from Lucius Otacilius, pro-praetor, to the effect that King 
 
B. C. 2i6] RECRUITING THE ARMY 347 
 
 Hiero's dominions were being ravaged by a Carthaginian 
 fleet; that tlie king had begged his lielp, and that he was in- 
 tending to give it, when news came that anotlier fleet was 
 stationed off the yEgates, ready equipped to attack Lilybseum 
 and another of the provinces of Rome, tlie moment the Car- 
 thaginians should find that he had gone to protect the Syra- 
 cusan coast. A fleet, therefore, was wanted if they meant to 
 shield their ally King Hiero of Sicily. 
 
 When the despatches from the consul and the praetor had 
 been read, they resolved that Marcus Claudius, who was in 
 command of the fleet stationed at Ostia, should be sent to the 
 army at Canusium, with a letter of instructions to the consul 
 that at the first opportunity, as far as it could be done with ad- 
 vantage to the state, he should come to Rome. The College 
 of the Ten were ordered to consult the books, and Quintus 
 Fabius Pictor was sent to the oracle at Delphi to inquire what 
 form of prayer and supplication might propitiate the gods, 
 and what was to be the end of all these fearful disasters. Mean- 
 while, in obedience to the books of fate, some unusual sacrifices 
 were offered. Among them were a man and a woman of 
 Gaul, and a man and a woman of Greece, who were buried 
 alive in the Ox-market in a stone-vaulted chamber, not then 
 for the first time polluted by what Roman feeling utterly 
 abhorred, human sacrifice. 
 
 The gods having been, as they thought, duly propitiated, 
 Marcus Claudius sent from Ostia to Rome for the defence of 
 the city fifteen hundred soldiers whom he had with him, en- 
 hsted for service in the fleet. He then sent on the naval (i. e., 
 the third) legion to Sidicinum, and handing over the fleet to 
 his colleague, Marcus Furius Philus, hastened, a few days 
 afterward, by forced marches to Canusium. After this Marcus 
 Junius was named dictator, and Titus Sempronius master of 
 the horse, by the authority of the senate, and these proclaimed 
 a levy, and enrolled all of seventeen years of age and upward, 
 and some yet younger. Four legions and a thousand cavalry 
 were thus raised. They also sent to the allies and to the Latin 
 nation for soldiers to be enlisted according to the treaty obli- 
 gations. Armour, weapons, and other necessaries were or- 
 dered to be in readiness, and old trophies won from enemies 
 were taken down from the temples and colonnades. The 
 scarcity of freemen and the pressure of necessity suggested a 
 new kind of levy. Eight thousand able-bodied young men 
 from among the slaves, after the question had been put indi- 
 vidually whether they were willing to serve, were purchased 
 and armed at the public cost. These troops had this to recom- 
 
348 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 mend them, that they rendered it possible to ransom prisoners 
 at a less cost. 
 
 Hannibal, after his great success at Cannse, was bent on 
 schemes which suited a conqueror rather than one who had 
 yet a war to wage. The prisoners were brought out and classi- 
 fied ; the allies, as he had done before at Trebia and Lake 
 Trasumennus, he dismissed with some kind words. The 
 Romans, too, he addressed, as he had never done before, in 
 quite gentle terms; he had no deadly feud, he said, with Rome; 
 he was fighting for freedom and empire. His fathers had 
 yielded to the valour of Rome; he was now doing his utmost 
 that Rome should yield in turn to his own valour and good 
 fortune. He would therefore give the prisoners an oppor- 
 tunity of ransoming themselves; the sum would be five hun- 
 dred " chariot " pieces for each horseman, three hundred for 
 each foot-soldier, one hundred for each slave. The price put 
 on the horsemen was somewhat larger than that which had 
 been agreed upon when they surrendered, but they joyfully 
 accepted any kind of terms which permitted them to treat. 
 It was resolved that they should themselves elect ten deputies, 
 who were to go to the senate at Rome. No security was 
 taken for their good faith, except an oath that they would 
 return. One Carthalo, a noble of Carthage, was sent with 
 them, bearing conditions of peace, if there should chance 
 to be any inclination in that direction. After they had left 
 the camp, one of their number, a man who had none of a 
 Roman's temper, pretending that he had forgotten something, 
 returned to the camp, so as to acquit himself of his oath, and 
 before night overtook his companions. As soon as it was an- 
 nounced that they were on their way to Rome, a lictor was 
 sent to meet Carthalo with a message that he was to quit 
 Roman territory before nightfall. 
 
 The dictator allowed the delegates of the prisoners to ad- 
 dress the senate. Their leader, Marcus Junius, spoke as fol- 
 lows: " No country, senators, as we all well know, has ever 
 held prisoners cheaper than has our own ; yet unless we are 
 too well satisfied with our own case, no prisoners have ever 
 fallen into the hands of the enemy who were less deserving 
 of neglect than we. We did not surrender our arms on the 
 field of battle from fear, but after prolonging our resistance 
 almost into the night, when we stood upon heaps of dead, we 
 retreated to our camp. During the remainder of that day and 
 during the night that followed, worn out as we were with toil 
 and wounds, we defended our intrenchments; the next day, 
 hemmed in by the victorious army, and shut oE from water, 
 
B. C. 2i6] DELEGATES FROM THE PRISONERS 
 
 349 
 
 seeing no hope of cutting a way through the dense ranks of 
 the foe, and thinking it no shame that with fifty thousand men 
 slain in the field there should be some remnant of Roman 
 soldiers from the fight of Cannse, then at last we agreed upon 
 a price at which we might be ransomed and released, and 
 surrendered the arms which could no longer give deliverance. 
 We had heard that your ancestors ransomed themselves from 
 the Gauls for gold, and that your fathers, sternly set as they 
 were against all conditions of peace, yet sent envoys to Taren- 
 tuni to treat for the ransoming of prisoners. Yet the disgrace 
 of our battle at Allia with the Gauls, and of our battle at 
 Heraclea with Pyrrhus, was not so much in the loss as in 
 the panic and flight of either day. The plains of Cannae are 
 covered with heaps of Roman dead, and we survive only be- 
 cause the enemy had not sword or strength to slaughter any 
 more. There are some, too, among us who were not even in 
 the battle, but were left to guard the camp, and came into 
 the hands of the enemy when the camp was surrendered. I 
 do not envy the fortune or position of any fellow-countrvman 
 or comrade, nor would I wish to exalt myself by depreciating 
 others; but — unless there is some prize for speed of foot and 
 for running — they who fled, without arms for the most part, 
 from the battle, nor stopped till they reached Canusium or 
 Venusia, can not justly put themselves above us, or boast that 
 the commonwealth finds more help in them than in us. But 
 you will employ both them (good and gallant soldiers, too) 
 and us, who will be yet more eager to serve our country, see- 
 ing that it is by your kindness that we shall have been ran- 
 somed and restored to that country. You are levying troops 
 from every age and class; I hear that eight thousand slaves 
 are being armed. There is the same number of us, and we 
 can be ransomed at a cost no greater than that for which 
 they are bought. Were I to compare our worth with theirs, 
 I should wrong the name of Rome. And there is another 
 point, senators, which I think you ought to consider in de- 
 ciding such a matter, should you incline to the sterner course, 
 and do it without regard for any deserving of ours, and that 
 is, who is the enemy to whom you leave us? Is it to a Pyrrhus 
 who treated his prisoners as guests? Or is it to a barbarian, 
 a Carthaginian, of whom one can scarcely imagine whether 
 he be more rapacious or more cruel? Could you see the 
 chains, the squalor, the hideous condition of your country- 
 men, verily the sight would not move you less than if, on the 
 other side, you looked on your slaughtered legions lying dead 
 on the plains of Cannae. You may behold the anxiety and 
 
350 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 216 
 
 the tears of the kinsmen who stand in the porch of your house 
 and await your answer. If they are so anxious, so troubled 
 for us and for those who are absent, what, think you, are the 
 thoughts of those whose life and Hberty are at stake? Good 
 God! if Hannibal should choose to belie his own nature, and 
 be merciful to us, yet we could not think our lives worth any- 
 thing to us, when you have thought us unworthy to be ran- 
 somed. In former days there returned to Rome certain pris- 
 oners whom Pyrrhus sent back without ransom; but they 
 returned with envoys, taken from the first men in the state, 
 who had been sent to ransom themselves. Can I return to my 
 country, I, a citizen, not valued at three hundred pieces of 
 money? "^ Every one has his own feelings, senators. That 
 my life and person are in peril, I know, but I am more trou- 
 bled by the peril to my character, if we are to depart con- 
 demned and repulsed by you; for that you spared the money 
 men will never believe." 
 
 As he ended, there rose from the crowd in the place of 
 assembly a doleful cry. They stretched out their hands to- 
 ward the senate-house, praying that their children, brothers, 
 kinsmen might be restored to them. Mingled with the crowd 
 of men were many women, brought thither by fear and af- 
 fection. All strangers were ordered to withdraw, and the 
 debate in the senate began. There was great diversity of 
 opinion ; some thought that the prisoners should be ransomed 
 at the cost of the state; others that no public expense should 
 be incurred, but that it should not be forbidden to ransom 
 them at the expense of private persons; that any one who 
 could not command the money at once, might have it lent to 
 him from the treasury, giving security to the state by bonds- 
 men and mortgages. At last Titus Manlius Torquatus, who 
 was old-fashioned, and, some thought, overstern in his sever- 
 ity, spoke, it is said, as follows : " If the envoys had been con- 
 tent with demanding on behalf of those who are in the ene- 
 my's hands that they should be ransomed, I should have 
 briefly stated my opinion, without a word of reproach against 
 any one of them. For surely you only needed to be reminded 
 that you must keep to the practice handed down from our 
 fathers for the setting an example necessary to preserve mili- 
 tary discipline. As it is, they have almost boasted that they 
 surrendered to the enemy, and claimed it as their right that 
 they should be preferred not only to the prisoners taken on 
 the field, but even to those who made their wav to Canusium 
 and Venusia, and to the consul Terentius Varro himself; and 
 
 ' About fifty dollars. 
 
B. C. 2i6] MANLIUS ADDRESSES THE SENATE 351 
 
 therefore I shall not let you, senators, remain in ignorance 
 of anything that was done there. I would that what I am 
 about to say before you I was saying at Canusium before the 
 army itself, the best possible witness to each man's bravery 
 or cowardice; or that at least Publius Sempronius himself 
 was here, for, had they taken him for their leader, they would 
 this day be soldiers in the camp of Rome, not prisoners in 
 the enemy's hand. The enemy was wearied with fighting, or 
 exhilarated with victory; many of them had actually gone 
 back to their camp; they had the whole night for breaking 
 away, and seven thousand armed men could have broken 
 away even through a dense array of the enemy; yet they 
 neither endeavoured to do this of themselves, nor chose to 
 follow the lead of another. Nearly all night long did Publius 
 Sempronius Tuditanus warn them and urge them without 
 ceasing to follow him while the enemy around the camp was 
 still weak, while quiet and silence still prevailed, while dark- 
 ness would shelter the attempt. Before dawn, he said, they 
 might reach a place of safety — the cities of our allies. If, as 
 Publius Decius,^ tribune of the soldiers, spake in Samnium 
 in the days of our grandfathers; if, as in the first Punic war, 
 when we ourselves were young men, Calpurnius Flamma,^ 
 spake to three hundred volunteers whom he was leading to 
 capture a height situated in the very midst of the foe, ' Let us 
 die, comrades, and deliver the blockaded legions from their 
 peril by our death ' — if, I say, Publius Sempronius had thus 
 spoken, I should take them neither for men nor Romans if he 
 had found no companions in his valour. But he shows you 
 
 ' P. Decius Mus served as tribune of the soldiers in the Samnite war, 
 343 B. c. In the mountain passes of Samnium the Roman consul had 
 allowed his army to be surrounded in a valley by the enemy. Destruc- 
 tion seemed inevitable ; when Decius offered, with the hastati and prin- 
 cipes of the legion, to seize a height which commanded the way by which 
 the Samnites were hastening down to attack the Roman army. Here he 
 maintained himself gallantly, while the Roman army gained the summit 
 of the mountain. In the ensuing night he persuaded his soldiers to follow 
 him and break through the Samnites who were encamped around him. 
 Succeeding in this brave attempt, he joined the consul and induced him 
 to make an immediate attack upon the enemy, which resulted in a bril- 
 liant victory. (See Livy vii, 34.) This Decius is the same who gave his 
 life, with heroic devotion, as the price of Roman victory in the great Latin 
 war, B. c. 340. — Chase's Livy. 
 
 '' Calpurnius Flamma was a tribune of the soldiers in the first Punic 
 war. A Roman consular army in Sicily having been led into a defile 
 where it found itself beset by the Carthaginians on the surrounding 
 heights, Calpurnius offered to draw the fire of the enemy by occupying a 
 hill in the pass, with the prospect of certain death for himself and the 
 soldiers who should follow him. While the Carthaginians were fighting 
 with him the Roman army escaped. — Chase's Livy. 
 
252 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 a way that leads to safety quite as much as to glory; he seeks 
 to bring you back to your country, to kinsfolk, wives, and 
 children. You have not the courage to be saved. What 
 would you do if you had to die for your country? Fifty thou- 
 sand countrymen and allies lie about you slain that very day. 
 If so many examples of valour stir you not, nothing ever 
 will stir you. If such a fearful slaughter does not make life 
 seem worthless to you, nothing ever will make it. Are you 
 free citizens, and possessed of full rights? You may hold 
 your country dear. Yes, you may hold it dear, while it is your 
 country and you its citizens. Too late you hold it dear, your 
 rights forfeited, your citizenship lost, yourselves turned into 
 Carthaginian slaves. Are you to return at the cost of a ran- 
 som to the position which only cowardice and wickedness 
 made you quit? To Publius Sempronius when he bade you 
 arm yourselves and follow him, you would not listen; you 
 listened to Hannibal when he bade you betray your camp and 
 deliver up your arms. As it is, I only charge them with cow- 
 ardice when I might charge them with crime. Not only did 
 they refuse to follow Sempronius when he gave them honour- 
 able advice, but they did their best" to obstruct and keep him 
 back till these gallant men drew their swords and chased the 
 cowards away. I say that Sempronius had to force his way 
 first through the ranks of his countrymen, then through the 
 ranks of the foe. Is our country to care for citizens of such 
 sort that, if all others had been like them, she could not count 
 on a single one of those who fought at Cannae as a citizen in- 
 deed? Out of seven thousand armed men there were six hun- 
 dred who dared to cut their way out, who returned to their 
 country with their arms and their freedom; and to these six 
 hundred the enemy made no resistance. How absolutely safe 
 would have been the path, think you, to a body consisting of 
 nearly two legions! And you would have to-day at Canusium 
 twenty thousand armed men, gallant and loyal. As it is, how 
 can these men be good and loyal citizens? Brave they do not 
 even themselves claim to be; unless, perhaps, some one can 
 believe that men who sought to prevent a sally, nevertheless 
 looked with favour on those who sallied, and that they do not 
 grudge them the deliverance and the glory that their valour 
 has won for them, knowing all the while that their own fear and 
 cowardice have brought on them an ignominious servitude. 
 They chose to hide in their tents waiting at once for the light 
 and the enemy, rather than to sally forth in the silence of night. 
 But, you will say, they had not the courage to sally from the 
 camp, yet they had courage enough to defend their camp brave- 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE RANSOM REFUSED 353 
 
 ly. Blockaded, I suppose, night and day, they defended the 
 rampart with their arms, and themselves behind the rampart. 
 At last, after reaching the extremity of daring and suffering, 
 lacking everything to support life, their famine-stricken limbs 
 refusing to bear the weight of their arms, they yielded to the 
 necessities of nature rather than to arms. At daybreak the 
 enemy approached the rampart; before eight o'clock, without 
 venturing on any conflict, they surrendered their arms and 
 themselves. Here, mark you, was their two days' soldiership. 
 When they ought to have stood on the field and fought, they 
 fled to the camp ; when they ought to have fought before their 
 rampart, they surrendered; in field and camp useless alike. 
 And is it you that I am to ransom? When it is your duty 
 to sally out of the camp, you hesitate and tarry; when you 
 are bound to stay and defend the camp, you surrender camp 
 and arms and yourselves to the enemy. I would as soon think 
 of ransoming them, senators, as I would of surrendering to 
 Hannibal the men who cut their way out of the camp through 
 the midst of the enemy, and by a supreme effort of valour 
 gave themselves back to their country." 
 
 Many of the senators had near relatives among the pris- 
 oners, but when Manlius had done speaking, in addition to 
 the precedent of Rome's immemorial severity in regard to 
 prisoners came the thought of the vast sum required. The 
 treasury must not be exhausted, for large sums had already 
 been spent in buying and arming slaves, and Hannibal, who 
 according to all report was in the utmost need, must not be 
 enriched. When the sad answer came that the prisoners 
 were not to be ransomed, adding a new grief to the old in 
 the loss of so many citizens, the people attended the envoys 
 to the gates with many tears and complaints. One of them 
 went to his home, as having acquitted himself of his oath by 
 the pretence of his return to the camp. When this became 
 known and reached the ears of the senate, they unanimously 
 voted that the man should be seized and taken under an escort 
 furnished by the state to Hannibal. 
 
 There are also other reports about the prisoners. It is said 
 that ten came first. There was some doubt in the senate 
 whether or no they were to be admitted into the city. They 
 were admitted on the condition that they were not to have a 
 hearing in the senate. While they tarried longer than any one 
 expected, three new envoys came, Lucius Scribonius, Caius 
 Calpurnius, and Lucius Manlius. Then at last, on the motion 
 of Scribonius, a tribune of the people, the question was raised 
 of ransoming the prisoners, and the senate decided against it. 
 23 
 
254 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 216 
 
 Upon this the three new envoys returned to Hannibal, but the 
 old envoys remained on the understanding that having re- 
 turned to Hannibal for the purpose of reviewing the names of 
 the prisoners, they were released from their obligation. There 
 was a fierce debate in the senate about them, and the pro- 
 posal to give them up was lost by a few votes. But as soon 
 as new censors came into office, so crushed were they under 
 every mark of censure and degradation, that some of them 
 at once committed suicide, and the rest for the remainder of 
 their lives shunned not merely the forum, but almost the very 
 light of day and the public streets. We may wonder why our 
 authorities differ so much from each other, more easily than 
 to determine what is true. 
 
 How greatly this disaster surpassed all previous disasters 
 is clearly shown by the fact that the loyalty of our allies, stead- 
 fast until that day, now began to waver, simply, indeed, be- 
 cause they despaired of the maintenance of our empire. The 
 following tribes revolted to the Carthaginians: the Atellani, 
 the Calatini, some of the Apulians, all the Samnites except 
 the Pentri, all the Bruttii and the Lucani. To these must be 
 added the Uzentini, nearly all the Greek cities of the coast, 
 Tarentum, Metapontum, Crotona, and Locri, and the whole 
 of Cisalpine Gaul.^ Yet all these disasters and defections never 
 made the Romans so much as mention peace, either before 
 the consul returned to Rome, or after his return had renewed 
 the remembrance of the terrible loss sustained. On this latter 
 occasion, indeed, such was the high spirit of the country, that 
 when the consul returned after this great disaster of which 
 he had himself been the chief cause, all classes went in crowds 
 to meet him, and he was publicly thanked because he had not 
 despaired of the commonwealth. Had he been a Carthaginian 
 general, they knew that there was no torture which he would 
 not have had to suffer. 
 
 ' These included the greater part of southern and northern Italy. All 
 that remained were the Latins, the Roman colonies, and a few allied 
 cities and tribes, — D. O. 
 
BOOK XXIII 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED) 
 
 HANNIBAL, immediately after the battle of Cannae and 
 the capture and plunder of the enemy's camp, had 
 moved from Apulia into Samnium. One Statins Tre- 
 bius had invited him into the country of the Hirpini, 
 promising to put Compsa into his hands. Trebius was a na- 
 tive of Compsa,^ and ranked as a noble among his fellow-citi- 
 zens, but he had formidable opponents in the faction of the 
 Mopsii,'' a family of influence through the favour of Rome. 
 After the news of the battle of Cannae, when Trebius had 
 begun to talk commonly of Hannibal's coming, the Mopsii 
 quitted the city, and the place was at once surrendered to the 
 Carthaginians and a garrison admitted. There Hannibal left 
 all his booty and his baggage; then dividing his army, he 
 instructed Mago to accept the alliance of all the towns in that 
 district which were revolting from Rome, and to force into 
 revolt such as refused, while he himself marched through 
 Campania toward the Lower Sea ^ with the intention of attack- 
 ing Naples, and so to possess himself of a city on the coast. 
 
 On entering Neapolitan territory he posted some of his 
 Numidians in ambuscade wherever he conveniently could (and 
 there are many deep lanes and unseen hollows), others he 
 ordered to ride up to the city gates, displaying in their front 
 the plunder driven out of the fields. As they seemed to be 
 neither numerous nor disciplined, a troop of cavalry charged 
 them, and then, as they designedly retreated, was drawn into 
 an ambuscade and surrounded. Not a man would have es- 
 
 ' Modern Conza. — D, O. 
 
 ' It was the aristocratic faction in the Italian cities that had been fos- 
 tered by and were faithful to Rome. Hannibal was naturally compelled 
 to look to the popular party and to a few disaffected nobles. This same 
 political line was drawn throughout all classical antiquity, and Rome's 
 policy stood her in good stead in the present emergency. — D. O. 
 
 ' That part of the Mediterranean bounded by Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, 
 and Corsica. — D. O. 
 
 355 
 
356 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 caped had not the proximity of the sea and some vessels near 
 the shore, fishing boats for the most part, afforded an escape 
 to such as could swim. But, as it was, some young nobles 
 were taken or slain in the skirmish, among them Hegeas, 
 the commander of the troop, who fell as he too rashly pur- 
 sued the retiring foe. The sight of walls by no means easy of 
 assault deterred the Carthaginians from attacking the town. 
 
 Hannibal next directed his march toward Capua, a city 
 demoralized by long prosperity and the bounty of nature, and, 
 most of all, where all was corruption, by the license of a popu- 
 lace that enjoyed a freedom totally without restraint. A cer- 
 tain Pacuvius Calavius had rendered the town senate servilely 
 submissive to himself and to the commons. The man was a 
 noble as well as a popular favourite, but he had gained his 
 influence by base intrigues. In the year of our disaster at 
 Trasumennus he held, as it chanced, the highest office. Con- 
 vinced that the populace, which had long hated the senate, 
 would seize the opportunity of revolution to venture on an 
 outrageous crime, that, should Hannibal march into the neigh- 
 bourhood with a victorious army, it would massacre the sena- 
 tors and betray Capua to the Carthaginians, this man, who, 
 bad as he was, was not wholly and utterly depraved, and would 
 rather rule in a flourishing than in a ruined state, and was 
 assured that no state deprived of its public council could flour- 
 ish, resorted to a policy, the design of which was, while retain- 
 ing a senate, to make it subservient to himself and to the 
 commons. 
 
 He summoned the senate, and began by telling them 
 that, were it not necessary, any scheme of revolt from the 
 Romans would be anything but acceptable to him, as he him- 
 self had children by the daughter of Appius Claudius, and had 
 given his only daughter in marriage to Marcus Livius at 
 Rome. " But," he added, " a far more serious and formidable 
 crisis is now impending. The populace are not simply think- 
 ing of a revolt which will sweep the senate out of the city, 
 but are bent on handing over to Hannibal and the Cartha- 
 ginians a city stripped of its leaders by a massacre of every 
 senator. I wish to rescue you from this peril, if only you will 
 let me, and, forgetting past political strifes, trust me." When 
 they all yielded under the constraint of terror, " I will confine 
 you," he said, " in the senate-house, and by expressing my 
 approval of designs which it would be vain for me to oppose, 
 just as if I were myself an accomplice in the meditated crime, 
 I will find a way of safety for vou. Take for this my word 
 any guarantee you please." Such guarantee having been 
 
B. C. 2i6] PACUVIUS AND THE CAPUAN SENATE 357 
 
 given, he went out, ordering the senate-house to be closed, 
 and leaving a military guard at the entrance so that no one 
 could enter or quit the chamber without his permission. 
 
 Then he summoned the townsfolk to an assembly. " You 
 have often wished, Campanians," he said, " that you had the 
 power of inflicting punishment on a wicked and infamous 
 senate. That power you now have, without tumultuously 
 storming, with the utmost peril to yourselves, the houses of 
 individual citizens, guarded, as they are, by a force of clients 
 or of slaves ; you have it in safe and uncontrolled possession. 
 Take them, as they are, shut up, all of them, in the senate- 
 house, alone, unarmed. But you must not do anything hur- 
 riedly or rashly. You shall have from me the right to pro- 
 nounce sentence of life and death on them, one by one, so 
 that each may pay the penalty he has deserved. But, above 
 all things, you ought to indulge your resentment only on the 
 condition of postponing it to your safety and your interest. 
 Of course you hate, so I suppose, these senators, yet do not 
 wish to be wholly without a senate, as you must have either 
 a king, detestable alternative, or else, as the only deliberative 
 assembly for a free state, a senate. Consequently, you must 
 do two things at once. You must rid yourselves of the old 
 senate and elect a new one. I will order the senators to be 
 summoned singly, and I will take your opinions as to their 
 fate. What you decide in each case shall be carried out; 
 but you must elect as a new senator in each one's room a 
 man of firmness and energy before you inflict punishment on 
 the guilty." 
 
 Pacuvius then sat down, and, throwing the names into an 
 urn, ordered the name which was first drawn by lot to be 
 called out, and the man himself to be led out of the senate- 
 house. As soon as the name was heard, every one on his own 
 account exclaimed that the man was bad and vile and deserved 
 punishment. Thereupon Pacuvius said: " I see what the opin- 
 ion is in this case. Choose, then, in the place of a bad and 
 vile man a good and upright senator." 
 
 At first there was a silence. They were at a loss to suggest 
 a better man. Then when somebody, throwing off his diffi- 
 dence, suggested a name, there instantly began a much louder 
 shouting, some declaring that they did not know the man, 
 others alleging against him various infamies, or low birth and 
 abject poverty, or some sort of disgraceful occupation or trade. 
 This was repeated with more violence when a second and a 
 third senator was summoned, and it was thus evident that 
 they disliked the man, but that no one was forthcoming to 
 
358 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 choose into his place. For there was no use in naming the 
 same persons already named, only to hear themselves insulted, 
 and the remainder were far more low-born and obscure than 
 those who first occurred to men's thoughts. And so the crowd 
 dispersed, saying that the evils best known were always the 
 most endurable, and insisting on the senators being released 
 from custody. 
 
 The senate, which was thus made to owe their lives to 
 Pacuvius, felt much more bound to him than to the commons, 
 and the man ruled by a consent that was now universal, with- 
 out the help of arms. The senators, from that time disre- 
 garding their traditions of dignity and freedom, flattered the 
 populace ; they would greet them, give them friendly invi- 
 tations, entertain them at splendid banquets, take up their 
 causes, range themselves on their side, and insure, by empan- 
 nelling favourable juries, that verdict which was the most ac- 
 ceptable and likeliest to win popularity with the lowest class. 
 In fact all business was now transacted in the senate just as if 
 the commons were there assembled. Thus a community 
 which had always been inclined to luxury, not simply from 
 some defect in character, but from an overflowing abundance 
 of pleasures and the charm of every delight which earth or 
 sea could furnish, became at last so thoroughly demoralized 
 by the indulgence of the leading citizens and the license 
 of the populace, that sensuality and extravagance passed all 
 bounds. 
 
 To this contempt of the laws, the magistrates, and the sen- 
 ate, there was added now, after the battle of Cannae, scorn of 
 that for which some respect had still remained, the Roman 
 power. One thing only delayed their revolt. An ancient 
 right of intermarriage had united many of their great and 
 powerful families with Rome, and among the many citizens that 
 served in Roman armies were three hundred knights, strong- 
 est bond of all, as being to a man the noblest of the Campani- 
 ans, whom the Romans had picked out and despatched to 
 garrison the cities of Sicily. Their parents and kinsfolk suc- 
 ceeded with difficulty in having an embassy sent to the Roman 
 consul. 
 
 The envoys found that the consul had not yet started for 
 Canusium, but was still at Venusia with a few half-armed fol- 
 lowers, the most pitiable object possible to good allies ; to the 
 arrogant and disloyal, such as were the Campanians, 'equally 
 despicable. The consul even increased the contempt felt for 
 himself and his fortunes by too openly and nakedly exposing 
 the disaster. When the envoys told him that the senate and 
 
B. C. 2i6] ENVOYS FROM THE CAMPANIANS 359 
 
 people of Campania were grieved that any calamity should 
 have befallen the Romans, and began to promise all things 
 needful for war, he replied : "When, men of Campania, you bid 
 us make requisitions on you for whatever we want for war, 
 you observe the usual form in addressing allies rather than 
 use language suitable to our present plight. For what has 
 been left us at Cannae that, as those who still possess some- 
 thing of their own, we could wish allies to make up the de- 
 ficiency? Are we to order infantry from you, as though we 
 had cavalry? Are we to say that we need money, as if that 
 was our only want ? Fortune has left nothing to make up. 
 Our legions, our cavalry, our arms, our standards, our horses, 
 our soldiers, our money, our supplies, were destroyed utterly 
 either on the field or in the two camps which we lost the next 
 day. So, men of Campania, it is not for you to help us in war, 
 but almost to undertake war for us. Bethink yourselves how, 
 when your panic-stricken ancestors in days of old were driven 
 within their walls and were in dread of the Sidicine^ as well as 
 the Samnite foe, we received them into alliance and saved them 
 at Saticula,^ and for nearly a hundred years, with varying for- 
 tune, bore the brunt of a war with the Samnites that was begun 
 on your behalf. Add to this recollection that, when you were 
 in our power, we gave you a treaty on equal terms, your own 
 laws ; finally, what, at any rate before the disaster of Cannae, 
 was the greatest of boons, we gave our Roman citizenship to 
 a large proportion of your citizens and shared it with you. 
 And so, Campanians, you ought to regard this disaster, which 
 we have sustained, as common to us both, and feel that you 
 have to defend a common fatherland. It is not with Samnites 
 or Etruscans that we have to do ; in that case the empire, if 
 wrested from us, would still remain in Italy. The Carthagin- 
 ian foe drags with him a soldiery that is not even native to 
 Africa, drags it from the remotest regions of the earth, from 
 the ocean straits and the Pillars of Hercules, a soldiery strange 
 to law, to compact, almost to human speech. Ruthless and 
 savage as they are by nature and habit, their leader has him- 
 self yet further brutalized them by making bridges and bar- 
 riers out of heaps of human bodies, and teaching them to feed 
 (I loathe to utter it) on human flesh.' That men fed on food 
 
 ' There is some mistake here, as the Capuans had aided the Sidicines 
 against the Samnites. — D. O. 
 
 ' The position of the Roman camp in Samnium at the outbreak of the 
 first Samnite \var. — D. O. 
 
 ' Stories rife among the vulgar. Livy makes Varro adopt them in his 
 character of demagogue. — D. O. 
 
360 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 so horrible, men whom it would be a sin even to touch, we 
 should regard and own as our masters ; that we should seek 
 our laws from Africa and Carthage and let Italy be a provmce 
 of the Numidians and Moors— who, if he were so much as 
 born in Italy, would not curse such a destiny? It will be a 
 glorious thing, men of Campania, for an empire which has 
 fallen by a Roman defeat to have been saved and recovered 
 by your loyalty, your might. Thirty thousand infantry, lour 
 thousand cavalry can, in my belief, be raised from Campania. 
 Already you have money and corn in abundance. If you 
 show a good faith equal to your resources, Hannibal will not 
 feel himself to be a conqueror nor the Romans to have been 
 conquered." 
 
 With this speech of the consul the envoys were dismissed. 
 As they were on their way home one of them, Vibius Virrius, 
 said that the time was come when the Campanians might not 
 only recover the territory which the Romans had taken from 
 them in past days, but even possess themselves of the empire 
 of Italy. " We shall conclude," he said, " a treaty with Han- 
 nibal on what terms we please, and there will be no question 
 that when the war is over and Hannibal returns victorious into 
 Africa, taking his army with him, the empire of Italy will be 
 left in the hands of the Campanians." All the envoys agreed 
 with what Vibius said, and gave such a report of their mission 
 that every one imagined that the name of Rome was utterly 
 effaced. 
 
 The commons and a majority of the senate began instantly 
 to think of a revolt. The persuasions of the older citizens, how- 
 ever, obtained a postponement for a few days. At last the 
 opinion of the majority prevailed, and the same envoys who 
 had gone to the Roman consul were to be sent to Hannibal. 
 In some histories I find it recorded that previous to their de- 
 parture and the final decision for revolt, envoys were sent by 
 the Campanians to Rome, with a demand that one consul 
 should be a Campanian if Rome desired aid for her empire. 
 There was a burst of indignation, and it was ordered that they 
 should be removed from the senate-house, and a lictor was 
 sent to conduct them out of the city and bid them tarry that 
 day outside Roman territory. But as this too closely re- 
 sembles a demand formerly made by the Latins, and as CecHus 
 and other writers had omitted it not without good reason, I 
 fear to give it as a well-authenticated story. 
 
 The envoys came to Hannibal and negotiated a peace with 
 him on the following terms : No Carthaginian general or 
 magistrate was to have any authority over a Campanian citi- 
 
B. C. 2i6] REVOLT OF THE CAMPANIANS 361 
 
 zen, and no Campanian citizen was to be called on for mili- 
 tary or any other service against his will. Capua was to have 
 its own laws and its own magistrates. The Carthaginians 
 were to hand over to the Campanians three hundred of their 
 Roman prisoners, such as the Campanians themselves might 
 choose ; these were to be exchanged for the Campanian 
 knights serving in Sicily. Such were the stipulated terms. 
 But the Campanians crowned this compact by the perpetration 
 of infamous outrages. The commanding officers of our allies 
 and other Roman citizens, some of whom were employed in 
 military service of some sort, others tied to the spot by private 
 affairs, were all suddenly seized by the populace, and at their 
 bidding shut up in the public baths, to be kept in safe custody, 
 it was alleged, but really to die a horrible death by suffocation 
 in the heated atmosphere. 
 
 Decius Magius, a man to the supremacy of whose influence 
 nothing was wanting but a rational temper in his fellow-citi- 
 zens, had opposed these proceedings as well as the despatch of 
 the embassy to the Carthaginians with all his might. As soon 
 as he heard that Hannibal was sending them a garrison, he 
 reminded them, as a parallel case, of the insolent tyranny of 
 Pyrrhus and of the pitiable servitude of the Tarentines. First 
 he publicly protested against the admission of the troops ; next 
 he insisted that, if admitted, they should either be driven out, 
 or better yet, if they had a mind to clear themselves of the 
 crime of revolt against ancient allies of kindred blood, they 
 should massacre the Carthaginian garrison and again submit 
 themselves to Rome. All this, and indeed it was not done in 
 secret, was reported to Hannibal. First, he sent messengers 
 to summon Magius to his presence in the camp ; then, upon 
 the haughty refusal of Magius on the ground that Hannibal 
 had no authority over a Campanian citizen, the Carthaginian, 
 roused to fury, ordered the man to be arrested, chained, and 
 dragged before him. Afterward fearing that violence might 
 lead to uproar, and the excitement of men's minds provoke 
 some rash conflict, he sent out in advance a message to Marius 
 Blossius, chief magistrate of Campania, that he would be at 
 Capua the next day, and started from the camp with a small 
 force. 
 
 Marius called an assembly and issued a proclamation that 
 the people were to go in a body with their wives and children 
 to meet Hannibal. All did so, not in mere obedience, but with 
 enthusiasm ; for the populace were well disposed to Hannibal 
 and were intensely eager to see a general now famous for so 
 many victories. Decius Magius did not go out to meet him. 
 
362 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 neither did he keep himself at home, as this would have im- 
 plied a fear of conscious guilt. He strolled leisurely up and 
 down the forum with his son and a few of his dependants, while 
 all the citizens were rushing excitedly to welcome and gaze on 
 Hannibal. On entering the town Hannibal at once demanded 
 a meeting of the senate. The leading Campanians implored 
 him not to transact any serious business that day, but to cele- 
 brate it with hearty joy, as the festal occasion of his arrival. 
 Though he was naturally impetuous in his wrath, yet, not 
 to begin by a refusal, he passed most of the day in viewing 
 the city. 
 
 He was entertained by Sthenius and Pacuvius, men dis- 
 tinguished by their rank and wealth. Pacuvius Calavius, of 
 whom I have already spoken as the leader of the party which 
 had dragged the country into the Carthaginian alliance, 
 brought his son, a young man, to the house. He had forced 
 him away from the companionship of Decius Magius, with 
 whom the youth had stood up for the Roman alliance in op- 
 position to the treaty with Carthage, and neither the changed 
 temper of the citizens nor the authority of his father had driven 
 him from his resolution. For this youth the father, by inter- 
 cessions rather than by apologies, now secured Hannibal's par- 
 don. Overcome by the entreaties and tears of the parent, 
 Hannibal gave orders that both son and father be invited to 
 dinner, though he had not intended that any Campanian 
 should be present at the entertainment except his hosts and 
 Vibellius Taurea, a man of fame as a soldier. 
 
 The feasting began early in the day, and the banquet was 
 not in Carthaginian fashion, or in conformity with military dis- 
 cipline, but both rich and luxurious, as might have been ex- 
 pected in a city and a house furnished with every allurement of 
 pleasure. One alone, the young Calavius, could not be urged 
 to drink, either by the solicitations of the host or even by the 
 occasional pressing of Hannibal ; he himself pleaded indis- 
 position, while his father gave as a further reason his very 
 natural excitement. About sunset Calavius left the banquet, 
 and was followed by his son. As soon as they reached a re- 
 tired spot (it was a garden at the back of the house), the son 
 said, " I suggest a plan, father, by means of which we Cam- 
 panians shall at once not only secure from the Romans pardon 
 for the error of our revolt to Hannibal, but shall also enjoy far 
 greater esteem and favour than ever in the past." Full of 
 amazement the father asked what the plan was, when the 
 youth threw back his toga from his shoulder, and exposed to 
 view a sword girt at his side. " Now," he exclaimed, " with 
 
B. C. 2i6] ATTEMPT ON HANNIBAL'S LIFE 363 
 
 the blood of Hannibal I will make a binding treaty with 
 Rome. I wished you to know this beforehand, should you 
 perchance prefer to be absent while the deed is done." 
 
 The old man, on hearing and seeing this, felt as if he were 
 witnessing the deed of which he was hearing, and was beside 
 himself with terror. " I implore and entreat you, son," he 
 said, " by every bond which unites a child to his parent not to 
 be bent on doing and suffering before a father's eyes all that 
 is unspeakably horrible. Did we but a few hours ago plight 
 our faith, swearing by every imaginable divinity, and joining 
 hand to hand, that we are now to leave a friendly conversation, 
 and in a moment arm against him hands bound by these sacred 
 pledges ? Do you rise from the hospitable table to which 
 you with only two other Campanians have been invited pur- 
 posely to stain that very table with the blood of your host? 
 Have I, a father, been able to obtain mercy from Hannibal for 
 my son, and can I not obtain mercy from that son for Hanni- 
 bal? But put aside all sacred ties, all good faith, all obliga- 
 tion, all sense of duty ; dare a deed unspeakably horrible, pro- 
 vided along with the guilt it does not bring ruin on us. Is it 
 alone that you mean to fall upon Hannibal ? What say you to 
 that crowded gathering of freemen and of slaves, to the gaze 
 of all eyes steadfastly bent on one man, to those many strong 
 hands? Will they be paralyzed at the moment of your mad 
 attempt? And the face of Hannibal himself, the face which 
 armed hosts can not confront, at which the people of Rome 
 quail, will you confront it? Suppose the absence of other 
 safeguards ; will you have the heart to strike down me, your 
 father, when I interpose my life to save that of Hannibal ? 
 Well, but it is through my breast that you must smite and 
 pierce him. Suffer yourself now to be dissuaded here rather 
 than to be vanquished there. Let my entreaties prevail with 
 you, as this day they have prevailed for you." 
 
 Then seeing the youth in tears he clasped him round the 
 waist, clung to him with kisses, and did not cease his entreaties 
 till he had constrained him to cast aside his sword, and to 
 pledge himself to do no such deed. Upon this the youth re- 
 plied : " As for myself, the duty I owe my country shall be paid 
 to my father. I sorrow for your lot, for you have to bear the 
 guilt of a thrice-betrayed country, betrayed first when you 
 prompted revolt from Rome, a second time when you prompt- 
 ed a peace with Hannibal ; a third time this day, when you are 
 an obstacle and a hindrance to the restoration of Capua to 
 the Romans. Receive this sword, my country, with which 
 I armed myself in your defence to enter this stronghold of an 
 
364 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 enemy, since a father wrests it from me." With these words, 
 he flung the sword over the hedge of the garden mto the pub- 
 he street, and that there might be no suspicion of the matter, 
 returned himself to the banquet. 
 
 Next day Hannibal attended a full meeting of the senate. 
 The first part of his address was very conciliatory and friendly. 
 In this he thanked the Campanians for having preferred his 
 friendship to alliance with Rome, and among other magnifi- 
 cent promises he assured them that Capua would soon be 
 the head of all Italy, and that even the Romans with its other 
 peoples would seek laws from their city. One man alone 
 was to have no part in the Carthaginian friendship and in the 
 treaty they had concluded with him, Decius Magius, a man 
 who was not and ought not to be called a Campanian. Of 
 that man he required the surrender, and in his own presence 
 his case must be considered and a resolution of the senate 
 be passed. 
 
 All voted for the proposal, though many were of opinion 
 that the man did not deserve such ruin, and that this was 
 no slight beginning toward breaking down the rights of free- 
 dom. Hannibal left the senate-house, and taking his seat on 
 the magistrate's bench, ordered Decius Magius to be arrested, 
 set at his feet, and put on his defence. When the man, who 
 still retained his high spirit, urged that by the terms of the 
 treaty this could not be insisted on, he was thrown into chains, 
 and orders were given that he should be conducted to the 
 camp, with a lictor behind him. So long as he was led along 
 with his head uncovered, he harangued incessantly as he 
 went, shouting to the crowds that gathered round him : " You 
 have, Campanians, the freedom which you sought. In the 
 middle of the forum, in broad daylight, under your eyes, I who 
 am inferior to no man of Campania, am dragged away in 
 chains to execution. What worse violence could be done if 
 Capua were a captured city? Go and meet Hannibal, deck 
 your streets and keep the day of his arrival as a holiday, so 
 that you may gaze on this triumph over your fellow-citizens." 
 
 As the mob seemed to be excited at these shouts of his, his 
 head was covered and orders were given to hurry him swiftly 
 outside the city gate. And so he was conducted to the camp, 
 and instantly put on board a vessel and despatched to Car- 
 thage. Even the senate, it was thought, if a disturbance in the 
 city were provoked by this shameful business, might repent of 
 having surrendered their chief man, and, should an embassy 
 be sent for his recovery, they would either have to ofifend their 
 new allies by refusing their first request, or else, by granting it. 
 
B. C. 2i6] CARTHAGE RECEIVES NEWS OF CANN^ 365 
 
 have to tolerate the presence of a leader of discord and dis- 
 order at Capua. 
 
 A storm drove the vessel to Cyrenae, which was then under 
 the rule of kings. Here Magius fled for refuge to the statue of 
 King Ptolemaeus,^ whence he was conveyed by guards to Alex- 
 andria into the king's presence. Having explained to Ptole- 
 mseus that he had been put in chains by Hannibal in violation 
 of the terms of a treaty, he was set at liberty and permission 
 to return to Rome or to Capua, as he chose, was granted him. 
 Magius said that Capua was not safe for him, while Rome, 
 during the war between the Romans and Campanians, would 
 be a home for a deserter rather than for a friendly visitor. 
 There was not a country wherein he would sooner live than 
 the realm of the prince in whom he had found the champion 
 and upholder of his freedom. 
 
 During these occurrences, Quintus Fabius Pictor, our en- 
 voy, returned from Delphi and read from a written document 
 the oracle's reply. The gods and goddesses to whom prayer 
 was to be made, and the mode of making it, were given. Next 
 it said : " If, Romans, you will do accordingly, your plight 
 will be better and easier, and your commonwealth will fare 
 more as you would wish, and victory in the war will be with 
 the people of Rome. When your state has prospered and has 
 been saved, send to the Pythian Apollo a gift out of the gains 
 you will have earned, and pay him honour out of the plunder, 
 the booty, and the spoils. Put wantonness far from you." 
 
 This translated from the Greek verses he read aloud, and 
 then he said that on leaving the oracle he at once offered 
 sacrifice to all these gods and goddesses with wine and in- 
 cense ; that the presiding priest of the temple had bidden him 
 go on board his ship with the same laurel garland which he 
 had worn when he visited the oracle and performed the sacri- 
 fice, and that, fulfilling all the directions prescribed him with 
 the most conscientious care and exactness, he had laid the 
 garland on the shrine of Apollo at Rome. The senate decided 
 that these sacred rites and prayers should be carefully per- 
 formed at Rom.e at the earliest opportunity. 
 
 During these proceedings in Rome and Italy, there had 
 arrived at Carthage with tidings of the victory at Cannae, 
 Mago, Hamilcar's son. He had not been despatched by his 
 brother from the actual battle-field, but had been detained 
 some days in receiving into alliance the Bruttian communities, 
 as one after another they revolted. As soon as a meeting of 
 the senate had been granted him, he recounted his brother's 
 
 ' Surnamed Philopater. — D. O. 
 
366 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 achievements in Italy, how he had fought battles with six gen- 
 erals, four being consuls, and two respectively a dictator and a 
 master of the horse, and with armies under consular com- 
 mand ; how he had slain over two hundred thousand men, 
 and taken over fifty thousand prisoners. Of the four consuls 
 two had fallen; of the two remaining one was wounded, and 
 the other, after losing his entire army, had barely escaped with 
 fifty men. The master of the horse had been routed and put 
 to flight; the dictator, as he had never trusted himself to 
 fight, was reputed a peerless general. The Bruttians and 
 Apulians, some of the Samnites and Lucanians, had revolted to 
 Carthage ; Capua, the head not only of Campania but even of 
 Italy after the prostration of Rome by the battle of Cannae, 
 had given itself up to Hannibal. For so many great victories 
 it was reasonable that there should be a formal thanksgiving 
 to the immortal gods. 
 
 Then in confirmation of such joyful intelligence, he bade 
 them pour on the threshold of the senate-house rings of gold 
 in so vast a heap as to make up, when measured, three pecks 
 and a half according to some authors. But the prevalent and 
 more probable report is that they did not exceed one peck. 
 Afterward he explained, to prove the disaster was yet greater 
 than it seemed, that only a knight, and of the knights only the 
 first in rank,^ wore this ornament. The drift of his speech was 
 that the nearer was Hannibal's prospect of ending the war, the 
 more ought they to support him with assistance of every kind. 
 He was fighting far from home in the heart of an enemy's 
 country ; there was a vast consumption of provisions and 
 money, and so many battles, though they had destroyed whole 
 armies of the enemy, had to some extent reduced the forces of 
 the conqueror as well. They ought therefore to send re-en- 
 forcements ; they ought to send money for pay and provisions 
 to troops which had deserved so well of the name of Carthage. 
 
 Amid the universal joy that followed Mago's words, Himil- 
 co, a man of the Barcine faction, who thought he saw room for 
 taunting Hanno, said : " Well, Hanno, do you still repent of 
 our having made war on the Romans? Bid us surrender 
 Hannibal ; tell us we are not to render thanks to the immortal 
 gods for such successes. Let us hear the voice of a Roman 
 senator in the Carthaginian assembly-house." Hanno re- 
 plied : " I would have been silent to-day, fellow-senators, 
 rather than say amid the common rejoicing of all what may 
 not be quite welcome to you. Now, however, when asked by 
 
 ' That is, the equites equo publico. The rest wore the iron ring of the 
 plebeians. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] HANNO HARANGUES THE SENATE 367 
 
 a senator whether I still repent of our having made war on 
 the Romans, you would see in me, were I to be silent, a tem- 
 per either haughty or servile. The first is the character of the 
 man who forgets the freedom of others ; the latter that of him 
 who forgets his own. 
 
 " My answer to Himilco," he went on to say, " is that I 
 have not ceased to repent of the war, and that I never shall 
 cease to find fault with your invincible general till I see the 
 war ended on some tolerable terms. Nothing, indeed, but a 
 new peace will terminate my regret for the peace of old days. 
 And so what Mago hast just boastfully told us to the present 
 delight of Himilco and Hannibal's other partisans, may de- 
 light me, because success in war, if we choose to use our 
 good fortune, will give us a more favourable peace. If, in- 
 deed, we let slip this opportunity when we may have the credit 
 of offering peace rather than of accepting it, I am afraid 
 that even this present rejoicing of ours will grow wanton and 
 end in vanity. And yet even now what does it mean? ' I 
 have destroyed whole armies of the enemy; send me soldiers.' 
 What else would you ask had you been beaten? ' I have taken 
 two of the enemy's camps, full, of course, of booty and pro- 
 visions; give me corn and money.' What else would you 
 want from us had you been despoiled and deprived of your 
 camp? And that I may not merely express my own surprise 
 at everything, let me say that I — for I, too, since I have an- 
 swered Himilco, have the fullest right to ask a question — 
 desire that either Himilco or Mago will answer me. The fight 
 at Cannae, you say, was almost the destruction of Rome's em- 
 pire, and all Italy is admitted to be in revolt. Has any nation 
 of Latin race revolted to us? has a single man of the five-and- 
 thirty Roman tribes deserted to Hannibal? " 
 
 Mago's reply was a denial in both cases. " Then," said 
 Hanno, " too many of the enemy still remain. But I should 
 like to know what is the temper, what the confidence of this 
 host." Mago said that of this he knew nothing. " Nothing 
 may be more easily known," was Hanno's answer. " Have 
 the Romans sent any envoys to Hannibal to treat for peace? 
 Have you had news of any mention at all of peace at Rome?" 
 
 To this again Mago said No. " Then we have," said 
 Hanno, " a war upon our hands just as fresh as on the day 
 when Hannibal crossed over into Italy. Many of us are still 
 alive to remember the frequent alternations of victory in the 
 former Punic war. Never did our fortunes seem more pros- 
 perous both by sea and land than previous to the consulship 
 of Caius Lutatius and Aulus Postumius. As soon as they were 
 
368 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 consuls, we were utterly defeated at the Agates Islands. And 
 if now, too (the gods avert the omen!), fortune somewhat 
 change, do you hope, when vanquished, for the peace which, 
 now that we are victorious, no one ofifers? I have indeed an 
 opinion to express, if the question is to be whether we are to 
 offer the enemy peace or to accept it; but if you mean to dis- 
 cuss Mago's demands, I maintain that we have no business 
 to send what he asks to a conquering army, still less ought 
 we to send it when they are deluding us with a vain and empty 
 hope." 
 
 A few only were impressed by Hanno's speech. His feud 
 with the Barcine family impaired the authority of his advice, 
 and the joy, too, which at the moment possessed all hearts 
 made their ears deaf to anything which might weaken the 
 grounds of their exultation. The war, they thought, would 
 soon be over, if they resolved to exert themselves a little. And 
 so with the heartiest unanimity a vote was carried in the 
 senate to send Hannibal, as re-enforcements, four thousand 
 Numidians, with forty elephants and a supply of money. An 
 officer with supreme powers was sent on at once with Mago 
 into Spain to raise twenty thousand infantry and four thou- 
 sand horse to fill up the ranks of the armies in Italy and 
 Spain. 
 
 All this, however, was done as tardily and languidly as 
 is usual in the midst of success. The plight of the Romans 
 as well as their natural energy kept them from being dilatory. 
 The consul failed not in any duty which he had to discharge, 
 and the dictator, Marcus Junius Pera, after due performance 
 of the sacred rites and the customary application to the popu- 
 lar assembly for permission to use a horse,^ not content with 
 the two city legions which the consuls had raised early in the 
 year, a levy of slaves and a muster of troops from Picenum 
 and Gaul, stooped to the last resource of a country almost past 
 hope, when honour must yield to necessity. He issued a 
 proclamation addressed to all who had committed capital 
 ofifences or who were in prison as convicted debtors, that such 
 of them as should serve as soldiers under him should by his 
 authority be released from punishment and debt. Six thou- 
 sand of these men he equipped out of the Gallic spoils, which 
 had been carried in the triumph of Caius Flaminius, and so 
 he marched from Rome with twenty-five thousand armed sol- 
 diers. 
 
 After receiving the submission of Capua and making an- 
 
 ' Zonaras says this could not be done except when the dictator was 
 about to take the field. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] MARCELLUS MARCHES TO NOLA 369 
 
 Other fruitless appeal to the hopes and fears of the Neapolitans, 
 Hannibal led his army into the country round Nola. His atti- 
 tude, indeed, was not immediately hostile, as he did not de- 
 spair of a voluntary surrender, but he meant, should they long 
 disappoint his hopes, to spare the people nothing in the way 
 of all possible suffering or terror. The senate, especially the 
 leading men, loyally adhered to their alliance with Rome; the 
 commons, as usual, were all for change and devoted to Hanni- 
 bal, while they let their thoughts dwell on the horror of rav- 
 aged fields and the many hardships and indignities they would 
 have to endure in a siege. Instigators of revolt, too, were not 
 wanting. Thus the senators, seized with apprehension that 
 if they openly stood their ground there was no possibility of 
 resisting the infuriated populace, found means to defer the 
 calamity by feigning compliance. They pretended that they 
 liked the notion of revolt to Hannibal, but that it was not 
 sufficiently definite on what terms they would be entering into 
 a new treaty and alliance. 
 
 Having thus secured some delay, they despatched envoys 
 with all speed to the Roman praetor, Marcellus, who was with 
 an army at Casilinum. They explained to him how extreme 
 was the jeopardy of the people of Nola; how their territory 
 was in the hands of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, how their 
 city would be his forthwith, unless they received aid. By 
 conceding a promise to the populace that they would revolt 
 when they wished, the senate had prevailed on them not to 
 rush into instant revolt. 
 
 Marcellus warmly praised the citizens of Nola, and bade 
 them delay matters by the same pretexts till his arrival. Mean- 
 while they were to conceal what had passed between them and 
 himself and all prospect of help from Rome. From Casilinum 
 he directed his march toward Caiatia,'^ whence, after crossing 
 the Vulturnus, he reached Nola through the district of Satic- 
 ula and Trebula over the hills above Suessula.- 
 
 On the arrival of the Roman praetor, the Carthaginian 
 quitted the territory of Nola and marched down to the sea, 
 close to Naples. He was eager to possess himself of a town 
 on the coast, that ships might have a safe passage from Africa; 
 but as soon as he heard that the place was held by a Roman 
 officer (Marcus Junius Silanus was there, invited by the citi- 
 zens themselves), he passed by Naples as he had Nola, and 
 
 ' Now Caiazzo. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Now Sessola. The text of this paragraph has been much ques- 
 tioned and more or less doctored to meet geographical conditions. 
 -D. O. 
 
 24 
 
370 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 made for Nuceria.^ For some time he besieged the place, fre- 
 quently attacking it, frequently addressing vain solicitations 
 now to the populace, now to the chief men, until at last he 
 obtained its surrender by famine on the understanding that 
 the inhabitants were to leave it without arms and with one 
 garment apiece. Then, inasmuch as from the first he had 
 wished to seem friendly to all Italians, except Romans, he 
 offered rewards and honours to those who remained and were 
 willing to serve under him. Not a man, however, did he 
 secure by this prospect. They all fled hither and thither, 
 wherever ties of friendship or the impulse of the moment urged 
 them, through the towns of Campania, to Nola and Naples 
 especially. About thirty senators, all, as it happened, of the 
 first rank, made for Capua, and finding themselves shut out 
 because they had closed their gates against Hannibal, took 
 refuge at Cumse. The spoil of Nuceria was given to the 
 soldiers; the city was plundered and burned. Marcellus held 
 Nola as much by the good-will of its leading men as by con- 
 fidence in his garrison. The populace he dreaded, and above 
 all one Lucius Bantius. The conscious guilt of attempted 
 revolt and fear inspired by the Roman praetor prompted this 
 man at one moment to betray his birthplace, at another, should 
 fortune fail him in this, to desert to the enemy. He was a 
 youth of spirit, and the noblest knight of the time among all 
 our allies. Hannibal had found him half dead at Cannae amid 
 a heap of slain; he had treated him kindly, had even made 
 him a present, and so sent him home. Gratitude for these 
 favours made him wish to hand over Nola to the control and 
 dominion of the Carthaginians, and the prstor saw that he 
 was restless and disquieted by thoughts of revolution. 
 
 As the man had to be either checked by punishment or 
 won by kindness, Marcellus thought it better that a brave and 
 energetic ally should be secured for himself than lost to the 
 enemy. He therefore invited him to his quarters and spoke 
 kindly to him. " You have a host of envious fellow-citizens," 
 he said, " and hence one may easily infer, what no citizen of 
 Nola has told me, how numerous have been your noble deeds 
 in war. However, if a man has once been a soldier in a Roman 
 camp, his valour can not remain hidden. Many who have 
 served with you tell me what a brave man you are, what 
 dangers you have repeatedly encountered for the safety and 
 honour of the Roman people, and how you never quitted the 
 field of Cannae till you were buried almost lifeless under a 
 falling mass of men, horses, and arms. And so. Heaven's 
 
 ' Now known as Nocera Inferiore. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] THE BATTLE AT NOLA 
 
 371 
 
 blessing on your valour. From me you shall have every 
 distinction and reward; and that you may be the oftener with 
 me, you shall see that this means both honour and advantage 
 to you." 
 
 The young man was delighted at these promises. Mar- 
 cellus presented him with a splendid charger, and bade his 
 quaestor count out for him five hundred silver coins. His 
 lictors had orders to allow him to visit him as often as he 
 pleased. This courtesy on the part of Marcellus so completely 
 subdued the temper of the high-spirited youth that from that 
 time Rome had not a braver and more loyal champion among 
 her allies. 
 
 Hannibal being once more before the gates of Nola (he 
 had again moved his camp thither from Nuceria), and the 
 populace once more thinking of revolt, Marcellus on the ene- 
 my's approach had retired within the walls. He did not fear 
 for his camp, but no opportunity of betraying the town would 
 he give to those too numerous citizens who were intent on 
 treachery. Both armies now began to array themselves for 
 battle, the Roman army before the walls of Nola, the Cartha- 
 ginians in front of their camp. Hence ensued skirmishes with 
 varying result between the town and the camp, as the generals 
 did not choose either to hold back the few soldiers who rashly 
 challenged their foes or to give the signal for a general en- 
 gagement. 
 
 Such being now the position day after day of the two 
 armies, the leading citizens of Nola told Marcellus that there 
 were nightly communications between the commons and the 
 Carthaginians, and that it had been decided to plunder the 
 baggage and property of the Roman troops as soon as they 
 marched out of the gates, then to close the gates and take 
 possession of the ramparts, intending to admit the Cartha- 
 ginians instead of the Romans the moment they had the con- 
 trol of their own affairs and of the town. Marcellus, on re- 
 ceiving this information, highly commended the senators of 
 Nola, and resolved to try the fortune of battle before any dis- 
 turbance broke out in the town. 
 
 He drew up his army in three divisions at three gates 
 facing the enemy, with orders that the baggage was to follow 
 close behind, and that the soldiers' servants, the sutlers, and 
 the invalids were each to carry a stake. At the middle gate 
 he posted the main strength of his legions and his Roman 
 cavalry, at the other two his raw recruits, his newly enlisted 
 men, and his light-armed troops. The inhabitants of Nola 
 were not allowed to approach the walls or the gates, and the 
 
372 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 force intended as a reserve was assigned to the baggage, so 
 that an attack might not be made on it when the legions were 
 engaged in the fight. 
 
 Thus drawn up they stood within the gates. Hannibal, 
 who, as he had done for several days, had his troops under 
 arms till a late hour, was at first astonished that the Roman 
 army did not march out of the city, and that not a single 
 armed soldier appeared on the walls. Concluding that the 
 secret of the communications had been betrayed, and that fear 
 kept his friends quiet, he sent back part of his troops to their 
 camp with orders to bring up to the front all the appliances for 
 an assault, as he was confident that, if he met hesitation with 
 prompt action, the populace would raise some disturbance in 
 the town. While all were hurrying in bustle and excitement 
 to their several posts amid the foremost standards and the front 
 line was approaching the wall, suddenly the gate was thrown 
 open, at the order of Marcellus the trumpet sounded the signal, 
 a shout was raised, and first the infantry and then the cavalry 
 flung themselves on the enemy with all the fury of their fiercest 
 attack. They had already carried terror and confusion enough 
 into the centre of his line, when from the two adjacent gates the 
 lieutenants, Valerius Flaccus and Caius Aurelius, burst upon 
 his flanks. Added to all this came a shout from the sutlers and 
 soldiers' servants and the rest of the crowd set to guard the 
 baggage. To the Carthaginians, who were specially scorn- 
 ful of the scanty numbers of the foe, this gave the sudden 
 semblance of an immense army. I would not myself venture 
 to affirm what some authors state, that two thousand eight 
 hundred of the enemy were slain, with a loss of not more 
 than five hundred Romans. However, whether the victory 
 was as great or less considerable, a mighty result, the great- 
 est perhaps throughout the war, was achieved that day. For 
 indeed not to be defeated by Hannibal was for the victors 
 on that occasion a harder matter than it was afterward to 
 defeat him.'^ 
 
 As soon as Hannibal, who had now lost all hope of pos- 
 sessing himself of Nola, had retired to Acerrse,^ Marcellus in- 
 stantly closed the city gates, setting guards at them that no 
 one might go out, and then held an inquiry in the forum on 
 
 ' As being the first occasion when the Romans broke the spell of Car- 
 thaginian fortune. As for this and many future victories there is reason 
 to believe them much exaggerated. Hannibal's presence in particular 
 being frequently inferred, perhaps in accordance with the Roman custom 
 of attributing victories and defeats to the auspices and hence to the per- 
 sons of absent consuls and emperors. — D. O. 
 
 ' Now Acerra. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] HANNIBAL AT CASILINUM 373 
 
 the men who had been in secret communication with the 
 enemy. More than seventy he convicted and beheaded ; their 
 property was by his order confiscated for the uses of the Ro- 
 man people ; the senate was invested with supreme authority, 
 and Marcellus marched out with his whole army and estab- 
 lished himself in a camp overlooking Suessula. 
 
 The Carthaginian at first attempted to persuade Acerrae 
 to a voluntary surrender, but on seeing that the inhabitants 
 were resolute, he prepared for a siege and an assault. The 
 townsfolk had more courage than strength. Despairing of 
 the defence of their city when they saw the blockade closing 
 round their walls, they stole away in the silence of night, be- 
 fore the circle was completed, through any gap in the lines or 
 at any negligently guarded point, and with or without the 
 track of roads to guide them they fled, as design or chance 
 suggested, to those cities of Campania which it was certain 
 had not thrown ofT their allegiance. 
 
 After plundering and burning Acerrse, Hannibal, who had 
 received intelligence from Casilinum that the Roman dictator 
 was advancing with his legions, and who feared some revolu- 
 tionary movement also in Capua with the enemy's camp in 
 such close proximity, marched his army to Casilinum. The 
 place was then held by five hundred citizens of Prsneste, and 
 with them were a few Romans and men of Latin nationality, 
 whom the news of the battle of Cannse had driven thither for 
 refuge. The levy at Prseneste not having been completed by 
 the proper day, these five hundred had left their homes too 
 late. They had reached Casilinum before the news of the de- 
 feat, and being there joined by other Romans and allies, they 
 had marched out of the town in considerable force, when 
 tidings of the battle turned them back to it. There, notwith- 
 standing the suspicions of the Campanians and their own 
 fears, they passed some days in securing themselves against 
 plots and in hatching plots in their turn, till they knew as a 
 certain fact that negotiations were on foot for the revolt of 
 Capua and the admission of Hannibal. Then they massacred 
 the townsfolk by night and seized the part of the city on this 
 side of the Vulturnus, the river which divides it. And so the 
 Romans had this force as a garrison at Casilinum. There was 
 also in addition a cohort from Perusia ^ of four hundred and 
 sixty men, driven to Casilinum by the same news which a 
 few days before had driven thither the men of Prseneste. 
 There were about enough armed soldiers to defend so small 
 an extent of walls, surrounded too as the place was on one 
 
 ' Now Perugia. — D. O. 
 
-„^ LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 side by a river. Want of corn, however, made the number 
 of men seem actually excessive. 
 
 As soon as Hannibal was within a moderate distance of 
 the place he sent forward some Gsetulians, under an officer 
 named Isalcas, with orders, first of all, in the event of a 
 friendly interview being possible, to coax the citizens with 
 kindly words into opening their gates and admitting a gar- 
 rison ; but, should they persist in obstinate resistance, to re- 
 sort to force and try an assault on any part of the city that 
 might be practicable. When they approached the walls, all 
 was silent, and it seemed a solitude. Fear, so the barbarian 
 thought, had driven them away, and he was preparing to 
 storm the gates and break down the barriers, when suddenly 
 they were thrown open, and two cohorts, drawn up inside for 
 this express purpose, burst forth with great uproar and made 
 havoc of the enemy. The foremost ranks having been thus 
 beaten back, Maharbal was despatched with a stronger force 
 of the best soldiers, but even he could not sustain the furious 
 onset of the cohorts. At last Hannibal pitched his camp be- 
 fore the walls, and, small as was the place and small the gar- 
 rison, prepared for an attack in full force, with his whole 
 army. While he was threatening and harassing the town, 
 having drawn his lines completely round the walls, he lost 
 several of his soldiers, and these his bravest men, struck down 
 from the ramparts and towers. Once, when the besiegers 
 in their turn attacked, he all but cut them ofT by confronting 
 them with a troop of elephants, and drove them back in confu- 
 sion to their walls with considerable loss for such a mere hand- 
 ful of men. More would have been slain had not night 
 stopped the fighting. 
 
 Next day the heart of every soldier was fired with ardour 
 for the assault ; the more so when a golden wreath was offered 
 for the first man on the ramparts, and when Hannibal him- 
 self taunted the captors of Saguntum with their tardy efforts 
 to storm a fortress which stood on level ground, and reminded 
 them one and all of Cannae, Trasumennus, and Trebia. The 
 regular siege-works and mines were then applied, nor did 
 the Roman allies fail to meet the various attempts of the 
 enemy with force and skill of every kind. The siege-works 
 they encountered with barriers for defence, and the hostile 
 mines they intercepted with counter-mines, thus opposing a 
 resistance to every open or secret attack, till actual shame 
 turned Hannibal from his purpose. He fortified a camp, leav- 
 ing in it a moderate force, that the siege might not be regarded 
 as abandoned, and retired into winter quarters at Capua. 
 
B. C. 2i6] HANNIBAL'S ARMY AT CAPUA 375 
 
 Here for most of the winter he had his army under cover. 
 Often and long had it steeled itself against every human hard- 
 ship, and of comfort it had had no trial or experience. And 
 thus the men whom no intensity of misery had conquered, were 
 now ruined by a superfluity of good things and an excess of 
 pleasure, all the more utterly, as from the novelty of these en- 
 joyments they plunged into them so greedily. Sloth, wine, 
 feasting, women, baths, and idle lounging, which, with daily 
 habit, became increasingly attractive, so enervated both body 
 and mind, that henceforth it was their past victories rather 
 than their present strength which saved them. This error of 
 the general was considered by good judges of the art of war 
 more fatal than his not having marched instantly from the field 
 of Cannae to Rome. Delay on that occasion could be thought 
 only to have deferred victory ; this blunder sacrificed, as it 
 seemed, the strength needful for victory. And so undoubt- 
 edly, just as if it had been another army with which he had 
 left Capua, Hannibal maintained afterward none of his old dis- 
 cipline. In fact, entanglements with women made many of his 
 men return thither, and the moment they began to serve under 
 canvas, and trenching and other military duties came upon 
 them, body and spirit alike gave way, as if they had been raw 
 recruits. From that time during the whole period of the 
 summer campaign, numbers would steal away from the ranks 
 without leave, and it was Capua, and Capua only, that was the 
 hiding-place of the deserters. 
 
 As winter gradually relaxed, Hannibal marched his sol- 
 diers out of their quarters, and went back to Casilinum. 
 Though there had been a cessation from all attacks on the 
 place, still the prolonged blockade had reduced the inhabitants 
 and the garrison to the extremity of want. The Roman camp 
 was under the command of Tiberius Sempronius, as the dicta- 
 tor had gone to Rome to renew the auspices. Marcellus was 
 himself eager to relieve the besieged, but he was detained alike 
 by the swollen waters of the river Vulturnus and the entrea- 
 ties of the citizens of Nola and Acerrae, who were in dread of 
 the Campanians, should the Roman force retire. Sempronius 
 merely watched Casilinum, without attempting any move- 
 ment, as the dictator's instructions were that he was not to en- 
 gage in any operations during his absence. Yet the news he 
 received from Casilinum was such as might easily overcome 
 the utmost patience. It appeared, in fact, that some, rather 
 than endure their hunger, had flung themselves from the walls, 
 while others stood on them unarmed, with their bare bodies 
 exposed to the blows of missiles. All this Sempronius bore 
 
376 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 with impatience. As he dared not fight without orders from 
 the dictator (though fight he saw he must, if he was openly to 
 get corn into the place), and as there was no other hope of 
 introducing corn secretly, he collected grain from all the 
 neighbouring country, filled a number of casks with it, and 
 sent a message to the commander at Casilinum to have any 
 casks stopped which the river floated down. The following 
 night, when all were watching the stream, intent on the hopes 
 held out by the Roman message, the casks floated down the 
 mid-channel of the river, and the corn was equally distributed 
 among the entire population. The same thing was done on 
 the next day and the day after. It was by night that the casks 
 were despatched, and by night that they arrived ; thus the 
 enemy's sentries were eluded. 
 
 After a time the river became more than usually rapid 
 from continuous rains, and drove the casks by a cross eddy 
 to the side guarded by the enemy. There they were seen, 
 stranded in beds of willow which grew on the banks, and the 
 matter being reported to Hannibal, he set a stricter watch, 
 so that nothing sent to the town down the Vulturnus might 
 escape him. Nevertheless, a vast quantity of walnuts, thrown 
 out of the Roman camp, and floated down the middle of the 
 stream, was caught in wicker nets. At last the inhabitants 
 were reduced to such want that they tried to chew leathern 
 thongs and the hides ofif their shields, steeped in hot water, 
 and scrupled not to devour mice, or, indeed, any living crea- 
 ture ; even every kind of grass and roots they tore up from 
 the bottom of their walls. The enemy, having ploughed up 
 all the grass-grown surface outside the ramparts, they sowed 
 it with rape, upon which Hannibal exclaimed, " Am I to sit 
 still before Casilinum till those seeds grow? " He who hither- 
 to had not listened to a word about terms, now at last allowed 
 them to discuss with him the ransom of free-born citizens. 
 Seven ounces of gold was the price agreed on for each. Hav- 
 ing received a guarantee of safety, they surrendered. They 
 were kept in chains till all the gold was paid. Then they were 
 allowed to go back in good faith. This is more probable than 
 that they were charged by the cavalry as they were leaving, 
 and cut to pieces. Most of them were natives of Praeneste. 
 Out of five hundred and seventy who were in the garrison, 
 somewhat less than half had perished by hunger or the sword ; 
 the rest returned in safety to Prseneste with their officer, Mar- 
 cus Anicius, who had formerly been a clerk. His statue com- 
 memorated the events, set up, as it was, in the forum at Prse- 
 neste, mailed, clad in a toga, and with the head covered, and 
 
B. C. 2i6] SURRENDER OF CASILINUM 377 
 
 there were three standards with this inscription on a bronze 
 plate : " Marcus Anicius vowed this vow for the soldiers who 
 served in garrison at Casilinum." The same inscription was 
 written under three standards deposited in the Temple of 
 Fortune. 
 
 The town of Casilinum was restored to the Campanians 
 and garrisoned by a force of seven hundred men from Hanni- 
 bal's army, that it might not be attacked by the Romans after 
 the withdrawal of the Carthaginians. The Roman senate 
 voted double pay and five years' exemption from service to 
 the soldiers from Prseneste. When the Roman franchise was 
 ofifered them for their valour, they elected to make no change 
 in their condition. History is less clear as to the treatment of 
 the citizens of Perusia, as no light is thrown upon it by any 
 monument of their own, or by any vote of the Romans. 
 
 At this same time the people of Petelia,^ the only Bruttian 
 community which had been steadfast to its friendship with 
 Rome, were assailed, not only by the Carthaginians, who were 
 in occupation of their country, but also by the other Bruttians, 
 from whose cause they had separated themselves. Being 
 quite unable to hold out against their troubles, they sent en- 
 voys to Rome to beg for protection. The entreaties and tears 
 of these men, who had burst into doleful complainings at the 
 doors of the senate-house, where they were told that they must 
 take care of themselves, moved the senators and the commons 
 to the deepest commiseration. Again the question was sub- 
 mitted to the senate by the praetor Marcus ^milius, and after 
 an anxious review of the resources of the empire, they were 
 constrained to confess that they had no longer any means 
 of protecting distant allies. They bade them return home; 
 they had done all that loyalty demanded ; and they must 
 now face their position, and do the best they could for them- 
 selves. 
 
 As soon as the result of the embassy was reported at Pete- 
 lia, such sudden grief and terror overwhelmed their senate, 
 that some proposed flight and the desertion of their city, each 
 man to escape as he could, while some were for joining the 
 other Bruttians, and through their intervention surrendering 
 to Hannibal. That party, however, prevailed which con- 
 tended that nothing was to be done hurriedly and rashly, and 
 that they ought to reconsider the matter. Next day it was 
 discussed with less agitation, and it was decided, through the 
 influence of the aristocracy, that everything was to be re- 
 
 ' North of Croton, near the Promontory of Crimesa, now Punta dell' 
 Alice.— D. O. 
 
378 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 moved from the country, and that the city and its walls were 
 to be strengthened for defence. 
 
 Despatches came to Rome about the same time from Sicily 
 and Sardinia. The despatch from Titus Otacilius, pro-praetor 
 of Sicily, was first read out before the senate. It statedthat 
 Lucius Furius, the prsetor, had arrived at Lilybaeum \yith a 
 fleet from Africa; that he was severely wounded and in the 
 utmost danger of his life; that the troops and seamen had 
 neither pay nor corn from day to day, and that there were no 
 means of furnishing it. He strongly advised them to send 
 such supplies as soon as possible, and if they thought fit, one 
 of the new praetors as successor to himself. 
 
 A despatch to much the same effect as to soldiers' pay and 
 corn was sent by Aulus Cornelius Mammula, pro-praetor of 
 Sardinia. Both he and Otacilius received for answer that 
 there were no means of sending either, and they were bidden 
 to do their best for their fleets and armies. Otacilius having 
 sent envoys to Hiero, the only remaining stay of the Roman 
 people, obtained from him as much money as he required for 
 pay, and corn for six months. Cornelius in Sardinia received 
 liberal contributions from the allied communities. At Rome, 
 too, in consequence of the scarcity of money, three finance- 
 commissioners were appointed on the proposal of Marcus 
 Minucius, tribune of the commons. They were Lucius ^Emil- 
 ius Papius, who had been consul and censor, Marcus Atilius 
 Regulus, who had been twice consul, and Lucius Scribonius 
 Libo, who was then tribune of the commons. Two commis- 
 sioners were also appointed, Marcus and Caius Atilius, for the 
 dedication of the Temple of Concord, which had been vowed 
 by the praetor Lucius Manlius. And there was an election of 
 three pontiffs, Quintus Caecilius Metellus, Quintus Fabius 
 Maximus, and Quintus Fabius Flaccus, into the places of 
 Publius Scantinius, who had died, of Lucius ^milius Paullus, 
 the consul, and Quintus ^lius Patus, both of whom had fallen 
 in the battle of Cannae. 
 
 The senators having, as far as it was possible for human 
 forethought, made up for the losses which fortune had inflicted 
 on them by a succession of disasters, began at last to look 
 anxiously to themselves, to the solitude of the senate-house, 
 and the scanty number of those who met for public business. 
 Indeed, since the consulship of Lucius iEmilius and Caius 
 Flaminius, the list of senators had not been revised, al- 
 though during those five years so large a number had been 
 swept off in the reverses of war, not to speak of ordinary casu- 
 alties to individuals. At the urgent demand of all, the'matter 
 
B. C. 2i6] FILLING UP THE SENATE 379 
 
 was brought forward for discussion by the praetor, Marcus 
 ^milius, the dictator having left Rome for the army immedi- 
 ately after the loss of Casilinum. Spurius Carvilius then in a 
 long speech deplored the paucity, or rather absolute dearth, 
 of citizens out of whom senators could be chosen, and went on 
 to say that, to fill up the number of the senate and to bind to 
 themselves more closely the Latin communities, he recom- 
 mended as a most important step the granting of the franchise 
 to two senators out of each of these communities, should the 
 Roman senate approve, and their election into the place of 
 deceased senators. 
 
 The senate heard the proposal with as much impatience as 
 they had formerly listened to the demand of the Latins them- 
 selves. A murmur of indignation ran through the whole sen- 
 ate-house, Manlius especially exclaiming, " Even now there is 
 a man of that same stock from which sprang that consul in 
 the days of old who threatened to slay with his own hand any 
 Latin whom he saw in the house." Quintus Fabius Maxi- 
 mus replied, that never had anything been mentioned in the 
 senate at a more inappropriate time than this allusion, cal- 
 culated, as it was, additionally to disturb the minds of the 
 allies, just while their temper was so undecided, and their loy- 
 alty was wavering ; that this rash speech of a single man ought 
 to be buried in a universal silence ; and indeed, if ever there 
 had been in the senate-house a secret so sacred as to require 
 silence, this above all things should be hidden, concealed, for- 
 gotten, regarded as unsaid. 
 
 This quashed all further mention of the subject. It was 
 decided to appoint, as dictator to revise the senatorian roll, a 
 man who had previously been censor, and indeed the oldest 
 of the ex-censors who were living. A vote was also passed to 
 summon the consul Caius Terentius to nominate the dictator. 
 Terentius hurried back to Rome by forced marches from 
 Apulia, where he left a garrison, and on the following night, 
 as was customary,^ he named Marcus Fabius Buteo dictator 
 for six months, without a master of the horse, in accordance 
 with the senate's resolution. 
 
 Having mounted the rostrum with his lictors, Fabius said : 
 " I do not approve of there being two dictators at one time, a 
 thing never done before, or of being dictator myself without 
 a master of the horse ; or of the censor's authority being cen- 
 tred in one man, in the same man indeed for a second time ; 
 
 ' The nomination of a dictator took place in the dead of night, ap- 
 parently without witnesses, so that no interruption might vitiate the 
 auspices. — D. O. 
 
38o LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 or of giving supreme power for six months to a dictator, unless 
 he is appointed to carry on the government. When any trans- 
 gression of due hmits has been occasioned by fate, circum- 
 stances, or necessity, I will myself fix a limit.^ I will not 
 remove from the senate any of those whom the censors, 
 Caius Flaminius and Lucius ^milius, chose into that body; 
 I shall merely require the names to be copied and read out, 
 as I do not wish a verdict or decision on a senator's character 
 to rest with one man. The places of deceased senators I will 
 so fill up as to show that I am guided by a preference of class 
 to class, not of individual to individual." 
 
 After reading out the list of the old senate, Fabius first 
 chose into the places of deceased members, all who sub- 
 sequently to the censorship of Lucius ^milius and Caius 
 Flaminius had held the higher curule offices, but had not yet 
 been admitted senators,' taking them in the order of their pre- 
 vious appointments ; then, such as had been sediles, tribunes 
 of the commons, and quaestors. Next, he made his selection 
 from those who had not indeed held office, but who had the 
 spoils of an enemy ^ set up in their houses, or who had obtained 
 a crown for saving a citizen's life. Having thus added to the 
 senate a hundred and seventy-seven members, he at once re- 
 tired from office, and stepped down from the rostrum a private 
 citizen, his lictors having had orders to depart. And then 
 he mingled with the groups of citizens who were transacting 
 their private business, purposely thus passing away the time 
 that he might not take them from the forum to escort him 
 home.* But notwithstanding this delay, men's interest in him 
 did not die away, and they attended him to his house in 
 crowds. On the following night the consul went back to his 
 army without informing the senate, that he might not be de- 
 tained at Rome on account of the elections. 
 
 Next day the senate, on being consulted by the prsetor, 
 Marcus Pomponius, passed a resolution to communicate with 
 the dictator and request that, if he thought it for the public 
 good, he would come to Rome with the master of the horse 
 and the praetor Marcus Marcellus to appoint new consuls. 
 The senators would then be able to learn from their own lips 
 what was the position of the state and to take measures ac- 
 cordingly. All came who were summoned, leaving behind 
 
 ' The text of this sentence is in dispute, and the suggested readings 
 are all vague and unsatisfactory. — D, O. 
 
 ' These were entitled to the honour. — D. O. 
 
 ' That is, slain by him in battle or single combat, D. O. 
 
 * A customary compliment. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 2i6] DEFEAT OF THE ARMY IN GAUL 381 
 
 them officers to command the legions. The dictator after a 
 few modest words about himself claimed most of the glory for 
 Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the master of the horse, and 
 then gave notice of the elections, in which were to be ap- 
 pointed consuls, Lucius Postumius, for a third time in his 
 absence, who then held the province of Gaul, and Tiberius 
 Sempronius Gracchus, who was master of the horse and 
 curule sedile. The new praetors were Marcus Valerius Lae- 
 vinus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, 
 and Quintus Mucius Scaevola. The dictator, having ap- 
 pointed these magistrates, returned to his army in winter 
 quarters at Teanum,^ leaving the master of the horse at Rome, 
 who being about to enter on office, might take the senate's 
 opinion as to the levy and equipment of armies for the com- 
 ing year. 
 
 Just when they were most busy with these matters, a fresh 
 disaster was reported, for fate heaped calamity on calamity 
 that year. Lucius Postumius, the consul elect, it was reported, 
 had been destroyed in Gaul, together with his army. He was 
 about to march his troops through a vast forest, which the 
 Gauls called Litana. On its right and left sides, along the 
 Roman route, the Gauls had cut the trees in such a manner 
 that though they would stand, if undisturbed, they must fall 
 at the impulse of a slight blow. Postumius had two Roman 
 legions, and had raised from the coasts of the Upper Sea such 
 a force of allies that he marched into the enemy's country 
 with twenty-five thousand armed men. Having posted them- 
 selves on the borders of the forest, the Gauls gave a push to 
 the outermost of the trees which they had undermined, the 
 moment the army entered the pass. C3ne tree fell on another, 
 itself insecure and barely standing, and arms, men, and horses, 
 were overwhelmed on both sides by the falling mass, so that 
 scarce ten men escaped. Most of them having been killed by 
 the trunks of the trees or by broken boughs, the Gauls who 
 occupied the whole forest in armed force, slaughtered the re- 
 mainder, whom the unexpected disaster had confounded. Out 
 of that vast host a few only were taken prisoners ; these were 
 making for a bridge over a river, and were intercepted by the 
 enemy, by whom the bridge had been previously secured. 
 There Postumius fell, fighting with all his might to save him- 
 self from capture. The Boii bore in triumph the spoils they 
 had taken from the general's person, and his head, which they 
 had cut off, to a temple reputed the most sacred in their coun- 
 try. Then having after their fashion cleared out the con- 
 
 ' Now Civitati. — D. O. 
 
382 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 tents of the head, they set the skull in gold, and it served them 
 as a sacred vessel for libations in their solemn rites. It was 
 also used as a drinking-cup by the priest and by the ministers 
 of the temple. The plunder too taken by the Gauls was as 
 great as their victory. For though most of the beasts were 
 crushed by the downfall of the trees, all else, as nothing was 
 lost in the confusion of flight, was found strewn along the line 
 where the army lay. 
 
 On the news of this calamity, the citizens were for many 
 days in such alarm that all shops were shut, and a solitude as 
 of night reigned through Rome. The senate assigned to the 
 sediles the business of going round the city and ordering the 
 shops to be opened, and the display of public grief to be with- 
 drawn from the streets. Tiberius Sempronius then called the 
 senate and spoke words of comfort and encouragement to the 
 senators. They who had not succumbed under the catastrophe 
 of Cann£e, he said, must not let themselves be cowed by smaller 
 misfortunes. If only matters went prosperously, as regarded 
 the Carthaginian foe and Hannibal, and this he hoped for 
 the future, the war with the Gauls might be safely disregarded 
 and deferred, and the avenging of their disastrous blunder 
 would rest with Heaven and with the Roman people. It was 
 the Carthaginian foe, and the armies with which they must 
 wage the war against him, which ought now to be the subject 
 of their deliberations and discussions. 
 
 Sempronius himself first stated in detail what infantry and 
 cavalry, what force of citizens and of allies, composed the dic- 
 tator's army. Marcellus next fully explained the total number 
 of his own troops. Inquiry was made of well-informed per- 
 sons as to the force which the consul, Caius Terentius, had in 
 Apulia. There was no attempt at calculating how consular 
 armies of adequate strength ^ for such a war were to be made 
 up, and it was therefore decided to let Gaul alone for that year, 
 notwithstanding that a just resentment suggested action. 
 The dictator's army was assigned to the consul. As for the 
 army of Marcellus, it was agreed that such of the soldiers as 
 had been in the flight at Cannae, should be transferred to Sicily 
 and serve there, as long as war continued in Italy. Thither 
 also all the feeblest men in the dictator's legions were to be 
 removed without any fixed period of service, except those who 
 had been through the prescribed number of campaigns. The 
 two city legions were given to the consul who should have 
 been elected in the room of Lucius Postumius. It was re- 
 
 ' That is, armies of two legions each with the regular quotas of allies. 
 — D. O. OH 
 
B. C. 2i6] STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SPAIN 383 
 
 solved to appoint him as soon as it could be done without dis- 
 regard of the auspices. Two legions likewise were to be sum- 
 moned from Sicily, each at the earliest opportunity, and out 
 of these the consul to whom might fall the command of the 
 city legions, was to take as many soldiers as he might require. 
 The consul, Caius Terentius, was to have his powers ex- 
 tended for the ensuing year, and there was to be no reduction 
 in the numbers of the army which he had for the defence of 
 Apulia. 
 
 During these movements and preparations in Italy, the 
 war in Spain went on as vigorously as ever. Up to this time, 
 however, it was favourable to the Romans. Publius and 
 Cneius Scipio had divided their forces, Cneius conducting 
 operations by land, Publius by sea. The Carthaginian gen- 
 eral, Hasdrubal, who distrusted his resources in both arms, 
 kept himself far away from the enemy, seeking safety in his 
 distance and in his position, till after long and urgent en- 
 treaty a re-enforcement of four thousand infantry and five hun- 
 dred cavalry was sent him from Africa. Thus at last with 
 hopes revived he moved his camp nearer the foe, and person- 
 ally directed the preparation and equipment of a fleet to de- 
 fend the islands and the coast. He was busily engaged in 
 carrying out this new movement when the desertion of his 
 ships'-captains struck him with dismay. He had censured 
 them severely for abandoning in panic his fleet on the Ebro, 
 and since that occasion they had never been really faithful 
 either to their commander or to the interests of Carthage. 
 These deserters had prompted a movement among the tribe 
 of the Tartesii,^ some of whose towns had at their instigation 
 revolted. One town they had themselves taken by assault. 
 The Carthaginian arms were now turned from the Romans 
 against this tribe, and Hasdrubal, having entered the enemy's 
 country with an invading army, resolved to attack Chalbus, a 
 renowned chief of the Tartesii, who with a strong force was 
 posted in his camp before the walls of the town which a few 
 days previously had been captured. Accordingly, he sent on 
 some light troops in advance to lure the enemy into fighting, 
 and scattered some of his infantry throughout the surrounding 
 country, to lay it waste and to intercept stragglers. Thus at 
 one and the same moment the camp was in commotion, and in 
 the country round there were flight and massacre. But after 
 a while, making their way back to the camp from all parts, 
 and by every road, they lost their fears so completely that they 
 had spirit enough not only to defend their lines but even to 
 
 ' The country near the lower course of the Bjetis. — D. O. 
 
3^4 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 216 
 
 challenge the enemy to battle. They rushed out of the camp 
 in armed array, dancing in their native fashion, and their sud- 
 den daring struck terror into the foe who but just before had 
 been himself the assailant. Hasdrubal upon this marched his 
 troops up a hill of moderate height, further protected by the 
 barrier of a stream, and hither he also withdrew the light- 
 armed detachment sent on in advance and his scattered cav- 
 alry. But as he did not trust much either to the hill or to the 
 river, he intrenched his camp. While this mutual fear lasted, 
 several skirmishes took place ; in these the Numidian trooper 
 was no match for the Spaniard, or the Moor with his dart for 
 his shield-bearing antagonist, who was as nimble as himself 
 and considerably his superior in resolute courage and endur- 
 ing strength. 
 
 Finding that they could not lure the Carthaginians into an 
 engagement by showing themselves before their camp, and 
 that to storm it was not easy, they took by assault the town of 
 Ascua, into which Hasdrubal on entering the enemy's ter- 
 ritory had conveyed corn and other supplies, and they pos- 
 sessed themselves of all the surrounding country. By this 
 time, whether on the march or in camp, they were no longer 
 under the restraint of authority. The heedlessness which, as 
 often happens, followed on success was perceived by Hasdru- 
 bal. He urged his men to fall on the enemy, all dispersed 
 and out of their ranks as they were, marched down the hill 
 and advanced on their camp in battle array. News of his near 
 approach was brought by bewildered fugitives from watch- 
 towers and sentry-posts, and there was a general call to arms. 
 Every man snatched up his weapons and rushed instantly into 
 battle, without order or signal or military formation. The 
 foremost were already in action, while others were running 
 up in bands, and others again had not yet quitted their camp. 
 At first, however, their very daring dismayed the enemy. 
 Soon finding that they had charged a dense mass, themselves 
 a mere handful, and that they were far too few to be safe, they 
 looked back, one on another, and, repulsed on every side, 
 formed in square. With limbs in close contact and arms 
 touching, and pressed into a confined space in which they had 
 scarcely room to move their weapons, they were hemmed in 
 by a circle of the enemy and cut down till late in the day. A 
 mere fraction of them made a rush out and fled to the forests 
 and mountains ; the camp too was abandoned in the same 
 panic, and the whole tribe the next day surrendered itself. 
 
 They did not long, however, remain at peace. Soon after- 
 ward instructions came from Carthage that Hasdrubal, at the 
 
B. C. 2i6] HASDRUBAL ORDERED TO ITALY 385 
 
 earliest opportunity, was to lead his army into Italy. The 
 news, as soon as it spread, turned nearly all men's sympathies 
 throughout Spain from Carthage to Rome. Hasdrubal ac- 
 cordingly at once sent a despatch to Carthage, explaining what 
 injury the rumour of his departure had caused. If he were 
 really to start on his march, he wrote, Spain would be Roman 
 territory before he crossed the Ebro. For not only had he 
 neither a force nor a general to leave in his place, but the Ro- 
 man commanders were such, that with equal strength it was 
 barely possible to resist them. So, if they had any care for 
 Spain, they must send some one to succeed him with a strong 
 army, and he too, even supposing that all went prosperously, 
 would find the province no light burden. 
 
 Though this despatch at first made a deep impression on 
 the Carthaginian senate, still, as Italy was first and chief in 
 their thoughts, they would have no change as regarded Has- 
 drubal and his troops. Himilco was sent with a thoroughly 
 efficient army and a re-enforced fleet to hold and secure Spain 
 by land and sea. As soon as he had crossed with his military 
 and naval armament, he fortified a camp, hauled his vessels 
 ashore and surrounded them with intrenchments. With some 
 picked cavalry and at all possible speed, he then made his way 
 to Hasdrubal, equally vigilant, whether the temper of the 
 tribes through which he passed was doubtful or hostile. Hav- 
 ing explained the orders and instructions of the senate, and 
 having been advised in turn how the war ought to be con- 
 ducted in Spain, he went back to his camp. His speed more 
 than anything else insured his safety, as he had got quite 
 clear from the country before the people could unite. 
 
 Hasdrubal did not move his camp till he had exacted con- 
 tributions in money from all the tribes under his control, for 
 he knew well that Hannibal had in some cases purchased his 
 passage for money, that he had procured his Gallic auxiliaries 
 simply by hiring them, and that had he attempted such a 
 march without any money he would hardly have penetrated as 
 far as the Alps. So he hurriedly called in money-contribu- 
 tions and marched down to the Ebro. 
 
 When the Carthaginian orders and the march of Hasdru- 
 bal came to the knowledge of the Romans, both the generals 
 at once put everything else aside, united their forces and pre- 
 pared to oppose and resist the enemy's plans. For they were 
 persuaded that should such a general as Hasdrubal with his 
 Spanish army effect a junction with Hannibal, himself alone a 
 foe against whom Italy could hardly stand, it would be the 
 end of Rome's empire. Harassed by such apprehensions, they 
 25 
 
gg LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216 
 
 drew their armies together on the Ebro. After crossing the 
 river and holding a long consultation whether they should con- 
 front the foe or be satisfied with keeping him from his pro- 
 posed march by attacking Carthaginian allies, they prepared 
 for an attempt on a town, named Ibera from the neighbouring 
 river then the richest in that part of the country. Hasdrubal 
 on being aware of this, instead of giving aid to his allies pro- 
 ceeded himself to advance to the attack of a town which had 
 lately put itself under Roman protection. So the Romans 
 abandoned the siege already begun, and turned their arms 
 against Hasdrubal himself. 
 
 For a few days the hostile camps were separated by an in- 
 terval of five miles, and there were some trifling skirmishes, 
 without, however, any marching out to battle. At last on one 
 and the same day, as though by concert, the signal for action 
 was given on both sides, and with all their forces they ad- 
 vanced into the open plain. The Roman army was drawn up 
 in three lines, part of the light troops being posted in front of 
 the first Hne and part behind the standards, while the cavalry 
 closed in the wings. Hasdrubal strengthened his centre with 
 Spaniards, placing his Carthaginians on the right wing, his 
 Africans and mercenary auxiliaries on the left. He stationed 
 Numidian troopers close to the Carthaginian infantry before 
 one wing, and the rest of his cavalry near the Africans in front 
 of the other. All his Numidians, however, were not posted on 
 the right wing; only those who, like the circus-riders, were 
 trained to control two horses, and who, when the battle was 
 at its hottest, would often leap in all their accoutrements from 
 the weary to the fresh steed ; such was their activity and so 
 well trained was their breed of horses. 
 
 It was thus that the armies were drawn up ; the hopes of 
 the generals on either side were almost equally confident, as 
 neither in numbers nor in the character of the troops was there 
 a decided superiority with either Romans or Carthaginians. 
 The spirit of the soldiery differed widely. The Romans, 
 though they were fighting far away from their country, had 
 easily been convinced by their officers that they were fighting 
 for Italy and Rome. Consequently, as if their return home 
 depended on the issue of the battle, they had resolved in their 
 hearts to conquer or die. Less resolute were the men in the 
 other army. Most of them were Spaniards, who would rather 
 be beaten in Spain than dragged victorious into Italy. And 
 so at the first onset, almost before the javelins had been 
 thrown, the centre retreated, and when the Romans charged 
 them with great impetuosity, turned and fled. The battle was 
 
SPAIN A T THE TIME OF THE 
 SECOND PUNIC WAR. 
 
B. C. 2i6] HASDRUBAL DEFEATED 387 
 
 quite as fierce on the wings. On this side the Carthaginian, 
 on that the African, pressed his attack, assaiHng in front and 
 rear an enemy almost surrounded. But the Roman army by 
 this time had gathered all its force into its centre, and was 
 sufficiently strong to drive back the enemy's wings. Thus 
 there were two distinct battles, in each of which the Romans, 
 being superior both in numbers and strength, when once the 
 enemy's centre had been broken, were decisively victori- 
 ous. A vast multitude fell on the field, and, but for the pre- 
 cipitate flight of the Spaniards almost before the action had 
 begun, there would have been very few survivors out of the 
 entire army. Between the cavalry there was absolutely no 
 fighting, for the Moors and Numidians, as soon as they saw 
 the centre give way, instantly took to headlong flight, leaving 
 the wings exposed, and even driving the elephants before 
 them. Hasdrubal remained on the field till all was over, and 
 then escaped with a handful of men out of the midst of the 
 slaughter. The Romans took and plundered the camp. This 
 battle secured for Rome the allegiance of any waverers in 
 Spain, while it did not leave Hasdrubal the hope of remaining 
 in the country with tolerable safety, much less of marching his 
 army into Italy. All this having been made known at Rome 
 by despatches from the Scipios, there was joy, not so much 
 at the victory as at the hindrance of Hasdrubal's passage into 
 Italy. 
 
 During these operations in Spain, Petelia in Bruttium was 
 stormed by Himilco, Hannibal's chief officer, within a few 
 months after the beginning of the siege. The victory cost the 
 Carthaginians much blood and many wounds, and it was the 
 force of hunger more than anything else which conquered the 
 besieged. After having devoured all their corn, and the flesh 
 of every species of quadruped, usual or unusual, they at last 
 prolonged life on hides of leather, on grass and roots and the 
 soft bark of trees, and leaves stripped from bushes. Nor were 
 they finally captured till they wanted strength to stand on the 
 walls and carry their arms. Having thus recovered Petelia, 
 the Carthaginian general marched his army to Consentia.'- 
 The place was less obstinately defended, and in a few days he 
 received its submission. 
 
 About the same time a Bruttian army invested Croton,^ a 
 Greek city, once mighty in arms and fighting-men, but then 
 brought so low by a succession of great disasters that less than 
 
 ' The capital of the Bruttii, now Cosenza. — D. O. 
 
 ' One of the most ancient and greatest of the Greelc colonies, now 
 Cotrone. — D. O. 
 
388 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 216-215 
 
 two thousand citizens of all ages still survived. A city thus 
 empty of defenders fell an easy prey to the enemy. The cita- 
 del only was saved, whither amid the confusion of the storm- 
 ing some filed out of the midst of the slaughter. Locri/ too, 
 where the populace was betrayed by the leading citizens, re- 
 volted to the Bruttians and Carthaginians. Rhegium ^ alone 
 in that part of the country persisted to the last in its loyalty to 
 Rome and retained its independence. The same inclination 
 to revolt likewise reached Sicily, and even the house of Hiero 
 did not keep itself wholly free from desertion. Gelon, the eld- 
 est son of the family, despising alike his father's old age and 
 the alliance of Rome, went over to the Carthaginians after the 
 defeat of Cannae, and would have disturbed Sicily had he not 
 been carried ofif, while he was arming the populace and excit- 
 ing our allies, by a death so timely that it actually threw sus- 
 picion on his father. 
 
 Such were the events of the year, with their various issues, 
 in Italy, Sicily, and Spain. At its close Quintus Fabius Maxi- 
 mus asked leave of the senate to dedicate the temple, which, 
 when dictator, he had vowed to Venus of Eryx. The senate 
 passed a resolution that Tiberius Sempronius, the consul 
 elect, should, as soon as he entered on ofifice, propose to the 
 commons a vote authorizing Quintus Fabius to be one of two 
 commissioners for the purpose of its dedication. In honour 
 also of Marcus ^milius Lepidus, who had twice been consul 
 and augur, his three sons, Lucius, Marcus, and Quintus, gave 
 in the forum a celebration of funeral games lasting three days, 
 with twenty-two pairs of gladiators. In their capacity of cu- 
 rule sediles, Caius Lsetorius and Tiberius Sempronius Grac- 
 chus, the consul elect, who during his aedileship had been 
 master of the horse, celebrated the Roman games, the cere- 
 mony occupying three days. The plebeian games ^ given by 
 the aediles Marcus Aurelius Cotta and Marcus Claudius Mar- 
 cellus were thrice solemnized.'' When the third year of the 
 Punic war came round, Tiberius Sempronius entered on his 
 ofifice as consul on the first of March. Quintus Fulvius Flac- 
 cus, who had previously been consul and censor, and Marcus 
 Valerius Laevinus, held respectively, as praetors, the home and 
 foreign jurisdiction. The provinces of Sicily and Sardinia 
 fell to Appius Claudius Pulcher and Quintus Mucins Scasvola. 
 
 ' Another Greek colony. — D. O. 
 ' Now Reggio. — D. O. 
 
 ' "The Roman Games" were held by the curule aediles in September, 
 "The Plebeian Games" by the plebeian aediles in November. — D. O. 
 ' Presumably on account of irregularities. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 215] PREPARATIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR 389 
 
 The commons voted to Marcellus all the powers of a consul, 
 as he alone of Roman generals since the disaster of Cannae 
 had conducted operations successfully in Italy. 
 
 The senate, the day on which they held their first delibera- 
 tion in the Capitol, passed a resolution that out of the double 
 tax demanded that year, half should at once be called in, and 
 that from this, immediate pay should be furnished to the sol- 
 diers, except to those who had served at Canna. With respect 
 to the armies, they decided that Tiberius Sempronius, the con- 
 sul, should appoint a day on which the two city legions should 
 muster at Cales, whence they were to be marched to Clau- 
 dius's camp on Suessula. The legions at that place, of which 
 the army at Cannae had mainly consisted, were to be transport- 
 ed under Appius Claudius, the praetor, into Sicily, and those 
 in Sicily were to be conveyed to Rome. Marcus Claudius 
 Marcellus was despatched to the army which on the day ap- 
 pointed was to assemble at Cales, having received orders to 
 march the city legions to Claudius's camp. Appius Claudius 
 sent Maecilius Croto, as his lieutenant, to take the command 
 of the old army and to conduct it to Sicily. 
 
 Men waited at first in silent expectation for the consul to 
 hold an election for the appointment of his colleague, but when 
 after a while they saw that Marcellus had been purposely, as it 
 were, sent out of the way, the very man whom above all others 
 they wished to be made consul that year for his brilliant 
 achievements when prstor, angry murmurs arose in the sen- 
 ate-house. The consul, on perceiving this, said, " Both meas- 
 ures, senators, were for the public advantage, the despatch of 
 Marcus Claudius to Campania for an exchange of armies, and 
 the not giving notice of the elections until he had returned 
 after the settlement of the business with which he was in- 
 trusted, so that you might have as consul the man demanded 
 by this crisis in public affairs and especially desired by your- 
 selves." Thus nothing was said about the elections till Mar- 
 cellus returned. 
 
 Meanwhile two commissioners were appointed, Quintus 
 Fabius Maximus and Titus Otacilius Crassus, for the dedica- 
 tion, respectively, of the Temples of Reason ^ and of Venus of 
 Eryx. Both stood on the Capitol, and were separated only by 
 a water channel. As to the three hundred Campanian knights 
 who after loyally serving their time in Sicily had come to 
 
 ' The translation, though fairly literal, is rather unfortunate in view 
 of the crazy goddess of the French Revolution. "The Roman Mens" 
 was the personification of mind, and the object of her worship was that 
 the citizens might be guided by right and justice. — D. O. 
 
390 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 Rome, a proposal was made to the commons that they should 
 be Roman citizens, and likewise burghers of Cumse, reckoning 
 from the day previous to the revolt of the Campanian com- 
 munity from Rome. What chiefly prompted the motion was 
 the assertion, of the men themselves, that they did not know 
 to what people they belonged, as they had left their old coun- 
 try and had not yet been duly admitted into that to which they 
 had returned. 
 
 As soon as Marcellus came back from the army, notice was 
 given of an election for the appointment of one consul in the 
 room of Lucius Postumius. Marcellus was chosen with the 
 utmost unanimity to enter on the office at once, but thunder 
 having been heard at the moment of his assumption of the con- 
 sulate, the augurs were summoned, and pronounced that there 
 was in their opinion a flaw in his election ; and the senators 
 generally gave out that the appointment, now for the first time, 
 of two plebeian consuls, was not acceptable to the gods. Mar- 
 cellus having abdicated office, there was elected in his place 
 Fabius Maximus, now consul for the third time. 
 
 That year the sea glowed like fire ; at Sinuessa a cow gave 
 birth to a colt ; at Lanuvium blood trickled down the statues 
 in the Temple of Juno Sospita, and round the temple there 
 was a rain of stones. For the last portent there was the usual 
 nine days' celebration of sacred rites, and the other prodigies 
 were duly expiated. 
 
 The consuls now divided the armies between them. The 
 army at Teanum, which had been under the dictator Marcus 
 Junius, fell to Fabius, Sempronius taking the command of the 
 volunteer slaves at that place, with twenty-five thousand of 
 our allies. To the praetor Marcus Valerius were assigned the 
 legions which had returned from Sicily, and Marcellus was 
 sent with a consul's powers to the army encamped at Sues- 
 sula for the protection of Nola. The praetors of Sicily and 
 Sardinia started for those provinces. Public notice was given 
 by the consuls that whenever they summoned a meeting of the 
 senate, the senators and all who had the privilege of speaking 
 in the house were to assemble at the Capena Gate. Those 
 prsetors whose business was the administration of justice held 
 their courts near the public reservoir; here all litigants were 
 directed to answer to their recognisances, and here law was 
 administered during the year. 
 
 Carthage, meanwhile, whence Mago, Hannibal's brother, 
 was on the point of crossing into Italy with twelve thousand 
 infantry, five hundred cavalry, twenty elephants, and a thou- 
 sand talents of silver, under a convoy of sixty war-ships, re- 
 
B. C. 215] THE COMMANDS ASSIGNED 391 
 
 ceived the news of her ill-successes in Spain and of the de- 
 fection of almost all the tribes in that country to Rome. Some 
 would have Mago with such a fleet and army give up Italy and 
 turn his attention to Spain, when suddenly the hope of recov- 
 ering Sardinia brightened the prospect. There was, they were 
 told, but a small Roman force there ; the old praetor, Aulus 
 Cornelius, who knew the province thoroughly, was leaving, 
 and a new governor was expected. Then, too, the hearts of 
 the people were weary of their long subjection ; last year the 
 government had been harsh and extortionate. They were 
 crushed by heavy taxes and unfair contributions of corn, and 
 nothing was wanting but a head to lead them in revolt. Such 
 was the report of a secret embassy sent by the chief inhabitants, 
 the scheme having been organized mainly by Hampsicora, who 
 was then by far the first man in influence and wealth. This 
 news coming almost at the same moment, both bewildered and 
 encouraged them. Mago was despatched with his fleet and 
 forces to Spain, and Hasdrubal, to whom they had voted an 
 army nearly equal to Mago's, was chosen to take the command 
 in Sardinia. 
 
 At Rome the consuls, after transacting all necessary busi- 
 ness in the city, at once bestirred themselves for war. Tibe- 
 rius Sempronius gave his soldiers notice of a day by which 
 they were to assemble at Sinuessa, and Ouintus Fabius, having 
 first consulted the senate, issued orders that every one was 
 to convey his corn from the fields into fortified towns before 
 the first of June. Whoever failed to do this was to have his 
 estate plundered, his slaves sold by auction, and his farm- 
 buildings burned. Even the praetors appointed to administer 
 justice were not exempted from military duties. The praetor 
 Valerius, it was decided, was to go to Apulia and succeed to 
 the command of the army of Terentius, and, as soon as the 
 legions from Sicily had arrived, he was to use them for the 
 defence of that district, and send the troops of Terentius to 
 Tarentum under one of his lieutenant-generals. Twenty-five 
 ships were also given him with which to guard the coast 
 between Brundisium and Tarentum. The praetor, Quintus 
 Fabius, had an equal number for the defence of the coasts in 
 the neighbourhood of Rome. To the pro-consul, Terentius 
 Varro, was assigned the business of levying troops in Picenum, 
 and of defending that country. Titus Otacilius, after dedi- 
 cating the Temple of Reason on the Capitol, was sent to Sicily 
 with the fullest powers, as admiral of the fleet. 
 
 All kings and nations were now attentively observing this 
 struggle between the two most powerful peoples of the world. 
 
2Q2 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 215 
 
 It was so especially with Philip, King of Macedon, because he 
 was comparatively near to Italy, being separated from it only 
 by the Ionian Sea. As soon as he heard by report that Han- 
 nibal had crossed the Alps, while rejoicing in the war that had 
 broken out between the Romans and the Carthagmians, his 
 mind wavered as to the nation with which he would prefer that 
 victory should rest, and he saw that their relative strength was 
 yet doubtful. When a third battle had been fought, and vic- 
 tory a third time was with the Carthaginians, he inclined to the 
 side of success, and sent envoys to Hannibal. Avoiding the 
 ports of Brundisium^ and Tarentum, because they were held by 
 Roman guard-ships, they landed at the Temple of Juno La- 
 cinia.^ Thence they made for Capua, through Apulia, and fell 
 into the midst of the Roman outposts. They were taken to 
 Marcus Valerius Lsevinus, the prsetor, who had his camp in 
 the neighbourhood of Nuceria. There the head of the em- 
 bassy, Xenophanes, boldly declared that he had been sent by 
 King Philip to contract friendship and alliance with the Roman 
 people, and that he had communications to make to the con- 
 suls and to the senate and people of Rome. Amid the revolts 
 of old allies, Valerius was overjoyed at a new alliance with so 
 illustrious a prince, and treated these enemies with all the 
 courtesy due to friends. He gave them an escort and guides 
 to show them the roads carefully and tell them what points and 
 what passes were in the occupation of the Romans or of ene- 
 mies. Xenophanes passed through the Roman posts into 
 Campania, and thence by the nearest route into Hannibal's 
 camp. With him he concluded a treaty and an alliance on the 
 following terms : King Philip, with as large a fleet as possible 
 (it seemed that he was about to equip two hundred ships), was 
 to cross into Italy and ravage the coasts ; he was to the best of 
 his power to make war by land and sea. The war over, all 
 Italy with Rome itself was to be the possession of the Cartha- 
 ginians and Hannibal, and all the spoil was to fall to Hannibal. 
 Italy being thoroughly conquered, they were to sail to Greece 
 and make war on such kings as they pleased. The states on 
 the mainland and the islands lying ofT Macedonia were to be- 
 long to Philip and his kingdom. 
 
 Such were the general terms of the treaty concluded be- 
 tween the Carthaginian leader and the Macedonian envoys. 
 Gisgo, Bostar, and Mago, who had been sent with them as 
 envoys to obtain the security of the king's own promise, came 
 
 ' Now Brindisi.— D, O. 
 
 ' Southeast of Crotona, on the promontory of Lacinium, now called 
 Capodelli Colonne, from the remains of the temple. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 215] CAPTURE OF THE MACEDONIAN ENVOYS 393 
 
 to the same place, the Temple of Juno Lacinia, where a ship 
 was waiting concealed. They had started, and were out at 
 sea, when they were espied by the Roman fleet that guarded 
 the shores of Calabria. Valerius Flaccus having despatched 
 some light vessels to pursue and bring back the ship, the 
 king's agents at first attempted flight, but as soon as they per- 
 ceived that they were inferior in speed, they gave themselves 
 up to the Romans, and were taken before the admiral of the 
 fleet. He asked them who they were, whence they came, and 
 whither they were going. Xenophanes, who hitherto had been 
 very lucky, began at first to make up a false story, how Philip 
 had sent him to the Romans, and that he had found his way to 
 Marcus Valerius, that being the only safe road. He had not 
 been able to traverse Campania, as it was beset with the ene- 
 my's forces. Before long, the Carthaginian dress and manner 
 of Hannibal's envoys made them suspected, and when they 
 were questioned, their speech betrayed them. Upon this, their 
 companions were taken aside and intimidated, and then a de- 
 spatch from Hannibal to Philip was also found, with the stipu- 
 lations between the Macedonian king and the Carthaginian 
 general. When all this was quite clear, it was thought best to 
 convey the prisoners and their company as soon as possible to 
 the senate or to the consuls, wherever they might be. For this 
 purpose five of the swiftest vessels were picked out, and Lucius 
 Valerius Antias was sent in command. He had instructions 
 to divide the envoys among all his ships, so as to have them 
 in separate custody, and to take care that there was no conver- 
 sation or communication of plans among them. 
 
 At this same time Cornelius Mammula, on leaving his prov- 
 ince of Sardinia, described at Rome the state of affairs in the 
 island. All were thinking, he said, of war and revolt ; Quin- 
 tus Mucius, his successor, having, on his arrival, caught, from 
 the unwholesome condition of the climate and the springs, 
 an illness that was troublesome on account of its tediousness 
 rather than on account of its danger, would long be unable 
 to sustain the burden of a war. The army, too, though strong 
 enough to garrison a peaceful province, was wholly unequal 
 to the war which seemed on the point of breaking out. It 
 was accordingly decreed by the senate that Quintus Fulvius 
 Flaccus should raise five thousand infantry with four hundred 
 cavalry, and arrange for the transport of this legion to Sar- 
 dinia at the earliest opportunity. He was to send with full 
 military powers any one whom he thought fit to conduct 
 operations till Mucius had recovered. Titus Manlius Tor- 
 quatus, who had been twice consul and censor, and who in 
 
3P4 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 215 
 
 his consulship had subdued Corsica, was despatched on this 
 business. About the same time, a fleet sent from Carthage 
 to Sardinia under the command of Hasdrubal, surnamed 
 Calvus, was shattered by a frightful storm and driven on the 
 Balearic Isles. The vessels were hauled ashore, and consider- 
 able time was lost while they were being repaired ; so severely 
 damaged were their hulls, as well as their rigging. 
 
 While the war in Italy after the battle of Canns somewhat 
 languished, as the strength of one side was broken and the 
 energies of the other were relaxed, the Campanians attempted 
 by themselves to get control over Cumse. First they sought 
 to lure the citizens into revolt from Rome. This not succeed- 
 ing, they devised a stratagem for reducing them. All the 
 Campanians held a sacrifice at regular intervals at Hamas. 
 They informed the people of Cumse that the Campanian senate 
 would attend the ceremony, and requested the presence of the 
 Cuman senate for joint deliberation, in order that both com- 
 munities might have the same allies and the same foes. They 
 should have, they said, an armed force on the spot, to guard 
 against any danger from Romans or Carthaginians. The 
 citizens of Cumae, though they suspected mischief, offered no 
 objection, thinking thus to veil a crafty plan of their own. 
 Meanwhile Tiberius Sempronius, the consul, after reviewing 
 his army at Sinuessa, it being there that it was bidden to as- 
 semble on the day fixed, crossed the river Vulturnus, and en- 
 camped near Liternum.'^ As there was nothing to do in the 
 camp, he compelled his soldiers to sally forth repeatedly in 
 battle array, that the raw recruits, who formed the chief part 
 of the slave volunteers, might be trained to follow the stand- 
 ards and to recognise their ranks in action. Amid all this, 
 it was the general's principal object, and he had instructed 
 his lieutenants and officers to the same effect, to have no 
 taunts flung at any one about his former condition, such as 
 might sow strife among the men. The veteran should allow 
 himself to stand on the same level with the recruit, the free 
 man with the slave, holding all sufficiently worthy and well 
 born to whom the people of Rome had intrusted their arms 
 and standards. The same fortune which had compelled this 
 state of things, compelled them to maintain its existence. 
 Such were the directions of the officers, and they were ob- 
 served by the soldiers with as much zeal as they were given. 
 And before long the hearts of all had grown together in a 
 union so harmonious that it was almost wholly forgotten what 
 a man's condition in life had been before he became a soldier. 
 
 ' Tordi Patria.— D. O. 
 
B. C. 215] GRACCHUS ROUTS THE CAMPANIANS 395 
 
 Gracchus, while thus engaged, was informed by envoys 
 from Cumae of the nature of the embassy sent a few days before 
 by the Campanians, and of their own reply to it. A three 
 days' festival began from that date, and not only the Campa- 
 nian senate were to be present, but also their camp and army. 
 After ordering the people of Cumae to carry all their property 
 from the country into the city, and to keep within their walls, 
 Gracchus himself, on the day before the Campanians were to 
 hold their customary sacrifice, moved his camp to Cumae, from 
 which Hamae was distant about three miles. The Campani- 
 ans had already flocked thither in great numbers, as had been 
 arranged, and not far ofif, Marius Alfius, the Medixtuticus, 
 that is, the first magistrate in Campania, was secretly en- 
 camped with fourteen thousand armed men, more intent on 
 preparing the sacrifice and the stratagem that was to be exe- 
 cuted during the celebration than on fortifying his camp or 
 any military work. For three days the sacrifices went on at 
 Hamae. The rites were performed at night, but so as to be 
 completed before midnight. This was the moment of which 
 Gracchus resolved to take advantage. He posted sentries at 
 the gates, that no one might be able to disclose his plans, com- 
 pelled his soldiers to recruit their strength and give them- 
 selves to repose up to the tenth hour of the day, that they 
 might be ready to assemble at nightfall, and ordered the ad- 
 vance at the first watch. After marching in still silence, he 
 reached Hamae at midnight and burst at every gate simultane- 
 ously into the Campanian camp, negligently guarded, as was 
 to be expected, during a vigil. Some he slew as they lay 
 stretched in slumber, others as they were returning unarmed 
 from the celebration of the sacred rites. In that night's fray 
 fell more than two thousand men, with the commander 
 himself, Marius Alfius. Thirty-four military standards were 
 taken. ^ 
 
 Gracchus, after having possessed himself of the enemy's 
 camp at a loss of less than a hundred soldiers, quickly with- 
 drew to Cumas, as he feared danger from Hannibal, who was 
 encamped at Tifata ^ overlooking Capua. Nor was he misled 
 by his forecast of the future. As soon as the news of the dis- 
 aster reached Capua, Hannibal, who calculated on finding at 
 
 ' This seems to be one of those cases where the "more than Punic 
 perfidy" of the Romans depends for its justification on a hostile plot, 
 which is scarcely established. St. Bartholomew's Day is one of the many 
 historical instances of similar pleas, — D, O. 
 
 ' The highest of the sweep of mountains and hills that make an am- 
 phitheatre of the plain in which Capua stands. — D. O. 
 
396 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 Hamae an army chiefly composed of young soldiers and slaves, 
 flushed and insolent with success, plundering the vanquished 
 and carrying off spoil, hurried his men at quick march past 
 Capua, and gave orders that the Campanian fugitives whom 
 he met were to be conducted under escort to Capua and the 
 wounded conveyed in wagons. But he found at Hamae, the 
 camp evacuated by the enemy, nothing but traces of the recent 
 defeat and the bodies of his allies all around him. Some ad- 
 vised him to march at once on Cumse and attack the place. 
 Though this was what Hannibal very eagerly desired, so that 
 having failed at Naples he might at least possess himself of 
 one maritime town in Cumae, still, as his troops, marching out 
 hurriedly, had taken nothing but their arms with them, he 
 retired to his camp on Tifata. The following day, at the im- 
 portunate entreaties of the Campanians, he returned with all 
 appliances for the siege of Cumae. He completely ravaged 
 the country round it, and then established his camp a mile 
 from the city. Meanwhile Gracchus had halted, more from 
 shame at the thought of deserting in such a crisis allies who 
 were appealing to his good faith and that of the Roman people 
 than because he had much confidence in his troops, while 
 the other consul, Fabius, who had his camp at Cales, did not 
 dare to cross the river Vulturnus with his army. At first 
 he was giving his attention to a repetition of the auspices, 
 then to prodigies, which were reported in quick succession. 
 When he sought to expiate them, the augurs persisted in re- 
 plying that such omens were not easily averted. 
 
 While Fabius was detained by these causes, Gracchus was 
 being blockaded. He was now in fact threatened by siege- 
 works. A wooden tower had been advanced against the town, 
 and to confront it the Roman consul had raised another tower 
 somewhat loftier on the very walls. He used indeed the walls 
 which of themselves were sufficiently lofty, as a foundation, 
 into which he drove strong piles. From this tower the garri- 
 son at first defended the city and its fortifications with stones, 
 stakes, and other missiles. At last, when they saw that the 
 tower by being gradually advanced was close to the walls, 
 they flung on it with burning brands a huge mass of fire. 
 Terror-stricken at the flames, the host of armed soldiers threw 
 themselves headlong from the tower, and at that moment 
 there was a simultaneous sally from two gates of the town, 
 which routed the enemy's outposts and drove them into the 
 camp. Thus on that day the Carthaginian was more in the 
 plight of the besieged than of the besieger. As many as 
 thirteen hundred Carthaginians were slain, and fifty-nine taken 
 
B. C. 215] ROMAN SUCCESSES 397 
 
 prisoners. They were caught unawares, as they were keep- 
 ing guard carelessly and heedlessly near the walls and at their 
 posts, and dreading nothing so little as a sally. Before the 
 enemy could recover from their sudden panic, Gracchus gave 
 the signal of retreat, and withdrew his men within the walls. 
 
 Next day Hannibal, who thought that the consul elated by 
 his success would fight a regular battle, drew up his troops 
 between his camp and the city. Seeing, however, that not a 
 man stirred from his usual post of defence, and that there 
 was no thought of trusting presumptuous hopes, he returned 
 to Tifata, baffled in his purpose. At the very same time at 
 which the siege of Cumae was raised, Tiberius Sempronius, 
 surnamed Longus, fought a successful engagement at Gru- 
 mentum^ in Lucaniawith the Carthaginian general Hanno. He 
 slew more than two thousand of the enemy, with a loss of two 
 hundred and eighty soldiers, and captured upward of forty-one 
 standards. Driven out of Lucanian territory, Hanno retired 
 into Bruttium. Those towns, too, of the Hirpini which had 
 revolted from Rome were forcibly recovered by the praetor, 
 Marcus Valerius. Vercellius and Sicilius, the authors of the 
 revolt, were beheaded. More than a thousand prisoners were 
 sold by auction. The remainder of the booty was given up to 
 the soldiers, and the army marched back to Luceria. 
 
 During these operations in Lucania and in the country of 
 the Hirpini, the five ships which were conveying the captured 
 Macedonian and Carthaginian envoys to Rome, had sailed 
 round almost the whole coast of Italy from the Upper to the 
 Lower Sea. When they were passing Cumae, and it was not 
 distinctly known whether they belonged to the enemy or to 
 allies, Gracchus sent vessels from his fleet to meet them. As 
 soon as it had been ascertained by mutual inquiry that the 
 consul was at Cumae, the ships put into that place, the prison- 
 ers were taken to the consul, and their papers were placed in 
 his hands. Having read the letters from Philip and from 
 Hannibal, he sent them all under seal to the senate by land, 
 directing the envoys to be conveyed by ship. Almost on the 
 same day both letters and envoys reached Rome, and, when 
 upon inquiry, what they said was found to agree with the 
 documents, the first feeling of the senate was serious alarm 
 when they saw how formidable a war threatened them from 
 Macedonia, barely equal as they were to the burden of the war 
 with Carthage. Vet so far were they from succumbing, that 
 they instantly debated how they might keep off the enemy 
 from Italy by attacking him themselves. They gave orders 
 
 ' Now Saponara. — D. O. 
 
398 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 215 
 
 to put the prisoners in chains, and their attendants they sold 
 by auction, and then decided to get ready twenty vessels to 
 be added to the twenty-five already under the command of 
 Publius Valerius Flaccus. The vessels were equipped and 
 launched, the five which had conveyed the captive envoys 
 added to them, and thus a fleet of thirty ships sailed from Ostia 
 for Tarentum. Instructions were given to Publius Valerius 
 to put on shipboard Varro's troops, which were commanded 
 by Lucius Apustius, the governor of Tarentum, and, besides 
 guarding with a fleet of fifty vessels the shores of Italy, to 
 ascertain something about the war with Macedon. Should 
 Philip's designs correspond with the letters and the disclos- 
 ures of the envoys, Marcus Valerius, the praetor, was to be 
 informed by a despatch. He was then, after putting his army 
 under the command of his lieutenant, Lucius Apustius, to go 
 to the fleet at Tarentum, cross on the very first opportunity 
 into Macedonia, and use every effort to confine Philip within 
 his kingdom. For the maintenance of the fleet, and for the 
 war with Macedon, the same money was voted which had been 
 sent to Appius Claudius in Sicily to be paid to King Hiero. 
 The money was conveyed to Tarentum through the hands of 
 Lucius Apustius. Hiero at the same time sent two hundred 
 thousand pecks of wheat and a hundred thousand of barley. 
 
 While the Romans were thus planning and acting, a cap- 
 tured vessel, one of those which had been sent to Rome, es- 
 caped back to Philip. It thus became known to him that his 
 envoys and their despatches had been captured. As he knew 
 nothing of the compact which they had arranged with Hanni- 
 bal or of the message which Hannibal's envoys would have 
 brought him, he sent a second embassy with the same instruc- 
 tions. The envoys he sent to Hannibal were Heracleitus, sur- 
 named Scotinus,^ Crito of Bceotia, and Sositheus Magnes. 
 They were successful in taking and bringing back their mes- 
 sage, but summer passed away before the king could move or 
 attempt anything. Such was the effect of the capture of a 
 single vessel with the envoys in delaying the war now hanging 
 over the Romans. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Capua where Fabius had crossed 
 the Vulturnus, having at last completed his expiation of the 
 portents, both the consuls were carrying on operations. Com- 
 bulteria, Trebula,^ and Austicula, towns which had revolted to 
 the Carthaginian, were stormed by Fabius, and Hannibal's 
 garrisons in them with a great number of Campanians were 
 
 • Not the philosopher. — D. O. 
 ' Now Treglia.— D. O. 
 
B. C. 215] HASDRUBAL DEFEATED IN SARDINIA 399 
 
 made prisoners. At Nola, just as in the previous year, the 
 senate was on the side of the Romans, the commons on that 
 of Hannibal, and secret plots were being hatched to destroy 
 the principal citizens and to betray the town. To hinder the 
 success of these attempts, Fabius marched his army to a posi- 
 tion between Capua and Hannibal's camp on Tifata, and estab- 
 lished himself on Vesuvius in the camp of Claudius. Thence 
 he despatched the pro-consul, Marcus Marcellus, with the 
 force under his command, to garrison Nola. 
 
 In Sardinia, too, active operations, which had been 
 dropped when Quintus Mucius, the prsetor, was attacked by 
 serious illness, were commenced by Titus Manlius. Manlius 
 hauled his war-ships ashore at Carales,^ and after arming the 
 crews with the view of carrying on hostilities by land, and re- 
 ceiving command of the praetor's troops, made up his army to 
 twenty thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry. With 
 this force he invaded the enemy's territory, and encamped at 
 no great distance from the camp of Hampsicora. It happened 
 that Hampsicora had then marched into the country of the 
 Pelliti-Sardi to arm their youth and so increase his army. His 
 son, Hostus by name, commanded at the camp. With a 
 young man's confidence he rashly risked an engagement, in 
 which he was beaten and put to the rout, upward of three 
 thousand of the Sardi being slain in the battle and as many as 
 eight hundred made prisoners. The rest of the army, after 
 wandering in their flight over fields and forests, took refuge at 
 a town named Cornus,^ the capital of the district, whither, so 
 rumour said, their leader had escaped. This battle would 
 have ended the war in Sardinia, had not the Carthaginian fleet, 
 which had been driven by a storm on the Balearic Isles, arrived 
 under the command of Hasdrubal at the critical moment to 
 awaken hopes of renewing the struggle. 
 
 Manlius on hearing the report of the arrival of the Cartha- 
 ginian fleet, retired to Carafes, and thus an opportunity was 
 given to Hampsicora of joining the Carthaginians. Hasdru- 
 bal, having landed his troops, and sent the fleet back to Car- 
 thage, started with Hampsicora for his guide to plunder the 
 territories of Rome's allies, and he would have reached Carales 
 had not Manlius met him with his army and checked his wide- 
 ly-extended ravages. At first camp confronted . camp with 
 but a small space between them, and soon there were sorties 
 and some trifling skirmishes with varying results. At last 
 they went into action and fought a regular engagement at 
 
 ' The modern Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. — D. O. 
 ' On the west coast. — D. O. 
 
400 
 
 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 close quarters for four hours. Long did the Carthaginians 
 maintain a doubtful conflict, while the Sardi were, as usual, 
 easily beaten ; but ultimately they themselves, too, seeing the 
 general slaughter and flight of the Sardi around them, were 
 routed. But the moment they turned their backs, the Roman 
 wing, which had defeated the Sardi, wheeled round and 
 hemmed them in. It then became a massacre more than a 
 fight. Twelve thousand of the enemy were slain, of Sardi and 
 of Carthaginians ; about three thousand seven hundred were 
 taken prisoners, with twenty-seven military standards. 
 
 The battle was rendered especially famous and memorable 
 by the capture of Hasdrubal, the general, and of Hanno and 
 Mago, Carthaginian nobles. Mago was of the Barcine fam- 
 ily and was nearly related to Hannibal ; Hanno had headed the 
 rebellion of the Sardi, and was unquestionably the author of 
 the war. The fall, too, of the leaders of the Sardi contributed 
 equally to make this a glorious victory. Hampsicora's son 
 Hostus was slain on the field, and Hampsicora, who fled with a 
 few troopers, on hearing of his son's death in addition to the 
 ruin of his fortunes slew himself in the night, when no one 
 could interfere to hinder his purpose. The rest found refuge 
 as before in the town of Cornus. Manlius attacked it with his 
 victorious army and retook it in a few days. Then other 
 states which had revolted to Hampsicora and the Carthagin- 
 ians, gave hostages and surrendered. Having required them 
 to furnish tribute and corn according to their respective abili- 
 ties or past misconduct, Manlius marched his army back to 
 Carales. There he launched his ships of war, and having put 
 on board the troops he had brought with him, he sailed to 
 Rome and announced to the senate the thorough conquest of 
 Sardinia. The tribute he handed over to the quaestors, the 
 corn to the sediles, and the prisoners to the prjetor Fulvius. 
 
 About the same time the prjetor Titus Otacilius crossed 
 from Lilybseum ^ to Africa with a fleet of fifty ships. After 
 ravaging the Carthaginian territory he set sail for Sardinia, 
 whither Hasdrubal, as report said, had crossed from the Bale- 
 aric Isles, and fell in with his fleet as it was on its return to 
 Africa. A trifling engagement was fought in the open sea, 
 and Otacilius captured seven ships with their crews. As for 
 the rest, panic dispersed them as effectually as a storm would 
 have done. It happened, too, that about the same time Bo- 
 milcar arrived at Locri with some troops sent as re-enforce- 
 ments from Carthage, as well as some elephants and supplies. 
 Appius Claudius, with a view of falling on him unawares, 
 
 ' The western point of Sicily. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 215] MARCELLUS DEVASTATES SAMNIUM 401 
 
 rapidly marched his army to Messana under the pretext of 
 making a circuit of the province, and crossed to Locri with a 
 favourable tide. By this time Bomilcar had left to join Hanno 
 in Bruttium, and the Locrians closed their gates against the 
 Romans. Appius, after making a great efifort without any 
 result, returned to Messana. That same summer, Marcellus, 
 who was holding Nola with a garrison, made thence frequent 
 incursions into the territories of the Hirpini and of the Sam- 
 nites in Caudium. So utterly did he waste the whole country 
 with fire and sword as to revive throughout Samnium the 
 memory of ancient disasters. 
 
 Envoys were therefore instantly despatched by the two 
 peoples simultaneously to Hannibal. These addressed the 
 Carthaginian as follows : " In early days, Hannibal, we stood 
 alone by our own choice as enemies of Rome, as long as our 
 arms and our strength could defend us. When we lost con- 
 fidence in them, we allied ourselves with King Pyrrhus. He 
 abandoned us, and then we submitted to an inevitable peace, 
 in which we lived for nearly fifty years, till the time when you 
 entered Italy. You so endeared yourself to us, not so much 
 by your valour and success, as by your marked courtesy and 
 kindness toward our citizens whom you captured and restored 
 to us, that, while you, our friend, were safe and prosperous, 
 we feared, if I may say it without offence, not even the wrath 
 of Heaven, far less the Roman people. But now, while you are 
 not only safe and victorious, but actually present among us, 
 so that you might almost hear the wailings of our wives and 
 children, and behold our burning houses, we have suffered, we 
 protest, such repeated devastations this summer, that it would 
 seem that Marcellus and not Hannibal was the victor at Can- 
 nae, while the Romans boast that you have strength only for a 
 single blow and are then paralyzed, as if you had lost your 
 sting. For almost a hundred years we waged war with Rome, 
 without the aid of any foreign general or army, unless I except 
 those two years with Pyrrhus, though he did not so much de- 
 fend us with his own strength as re-enforce that strength out of 
 our own soldiery. I will not boast of our successes, how we 
 passed under the yoke two consuls and two consular armies, 
 or of other fortunate and glorious incidents in our history. 
 The sufferings and reverses of those days we can speak of 
 with less indignation than those which are now befalling us. 
 Great dictators with masters of the horse, two consuls, each 
 with a consular army, would then invade our territories ; first 
 duly reconnoitring, and posting their reserves, they marched 
 in regular array to ravage the country. But now we are the 
 26 
 
402 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 215 
 
 prey of one pro-prsetor and of a single garrison, small even for 
 the defence of Nola. It is not in military detachments but in 
 mere brigand fashion that they scour our lands, more heed- 
 lessly than if they were roving over Roman ground. And the 
 cause is this. You do not defend us yourself, and all our youth 
 who, were they at home, would protect us, are serving under 
 your standards. I should be mistaken in you and your army 
 did I not suppose that that which I know has routed and over- 
 thrown so many Roman hosts, must find it easy to crush these 
 roving plunderers of our country, who have straggled away 
 from their standards wherever any prospect, however idle, of 
 booty lures this or that man. They surely will be the prey of 
 a handful of Numidians, and you will have sent defence to us 
 and have taken it from Nola, if only you count those whom 
 you thought worthy to have as allies, not unworthy of the 
 protection which you promised them as such." 
 
 Hannibal replied that the Hirpini and Samnites did every- 
 thing at once. They told their calamities, asked help, and 
 complained of being unprotected and deserted. They ought 
 first to have told the facts, then to have asked aid ; and last of 
 all if they failed to get it, to have complained that they had im- 
 plored assistance in vain. He would not march his army into 
 the territory of the Hirpini and Samnites, lest he too might be 
 a burden on them, but into the country of the allies of Rome 
 that lay close at hand. By laying this waste he would both 
 enrich his army and also rid them of the presence of the enemy 
 by terror. As for the war with Rome, if Trasumennus was 
 a more famous battle than Trebia, and Cannse than Trasumen- 
 nus, he would soon eclipse the memory even of Cannae by a 
 greater and more glorious victory. 
 
 With this answer and some splendid presents Hannibal dis- 
 missed the envoys. Leaving a small force at Tifata, he him- 
 self began to advance with the rest of his army on Nola. 
 Thither also came Hanno from Bruttium with the re-enforce- 
 ments and elephants from Carthage. Having encamped at 
 no great distance, Hannibal found on inquiry that matters 
 were very different from what he had been told by the envoys 
 of his allies. None in fact of the operations of Marcellus were 
 such that it could be said that he had rashly put himself in 
 the power of fortune or of the enemy. It had been after care- 
 ful reconnoitring, in strong detachments, and with his retreat 
 secured, that he had gone out to plunder. Every care and 
 precaution had been taken, just as if he were fighting against 
 Hannibal in person. When he discovered that the enemy was 
 approaching, he kept his troops within the walls, and ordered 
 
B. C. 215] HANNIBAL INVESTS NOLA 403 
 
 the senators of Nola to walk up and down the ramparts and 
 observe all the enemy's proceedings in the neighbourhood. 
 Hanno, who had gone close to the walls, invited two of these, 
 Herennius Bassus and Herius Pettius, to a conference, and 
 when with the permission of Marcellus they had left the city, 
 he spoke to them through an interpreter. He extolled the 
 valour and success of Hannibal, while he depreciated the wan- 
 ing greatness and strength of the Roman people. Were these, 
 he said, what they had once been, still those who knew by ex- 
 perience how oppressive Rome's empire was to her allies, and 
 what indulgence Hannibal had shown even toward all his pris- 
 oners of Italian race, must prefer the Carthaginian alliance 
 and friendship to the Roman. If both consuls were with their 
 armies at Nola, they would after all be no more a match for 
 Hannibal than they had been at Canns. Much less could a 
 single praetor with a few new soldiers defend Nola. Whether 
 Hannibal should possess himself of the place by capture or by 
 surrender concerned them more than Hannibal. For, indeed, 
 he would possess himself of it, as he had of Capua and Nuceria. 
 But what a difference there was between the lot of Capua and 
 that of Nuceria, the citizens of Nola themselves knew, situated 
 as they were, almost half-way between those towns. He had no 
 wish to forecast what would befall the city if taken ; he pre- 
 ferred to pledge his word that, if they surrendered Marcellus 
 and his garrison and Nola, no one but themselves would de- 
 cide the terms on which they would enter into alliance and 
 friendship with Hannibal. 
 
 To this Herennius Bassus replied : " There has been a 
 friendship of many years between the people of Rome and 
 of Nola, of which hitherto neither has repented. Had we 
 thought that we should change our alliance when fortune 
 changed, it is now too late so to change it. Had we meant 
 surrender, we should not have summoned Roman aid. As it 
 is, there is a perfect bond of union between us and those who 
 have come to protect us, which will continue to the end." 
 
 This conference took from Hannibal all hopes of recover- 
 ing Nola by surrender. He therefore completely invested the 
 town with a view of a simultaneous attack on its walls from 
 every part. As soon as Marcellus saw that he was close to 
 the ramparts he drew up his troops within one of the gates and 
 burst out with great fury. Not a few were overthrown and 
 slain by this first onset ; soon there was a general rush to join 
 the combatants, whose strength being equalized, a terrible 
 fight began, which vtfould have been memorable as few battles 
 have been, had not a violent downpour of rain with tremen- 
 
404 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 dous storms put an end to the conflict. That day, after a par- 
 tial engagement, they retired in fierce excitement, the Romans 
 to the town, the Carthaginians to their camp. Of the latter, 
 however, there fell in the panic of the first attack not more 
 than thirty, of the Romans, not a man. The rain continued 
 without ceasing throughout the whole night till the third hour 
 of the following day. And so both sides, though eager for 
 battle, kept themselves that day within their intrenchments. 
 Three days afterward Hannibal sent part of his army on a 
 plundering expedition into the country round Nola. Mar- 
 cellus, perceiving this, at once led his troops to battle, and 
 Hannibal did not refuse the challenge. There was about a 
 mile between the city and the camp, and within that space (it 
 is all level ground round Nola) the armies met. A shout rose 
 from each, and summoned back to the battle now begun, the 
 nearest soldiers from the cohorts which had gone out into the 
 fields for plunder. The citizens of Nola swelled the Roman 
 ranks, and were warmly praised by Marcellus, who ordered 
 them to stand with the reserves and carry the wounded off the 
 field, but keep out of action, unless he gave them the signal to 
 engage. 
 
 The battle was undecided, the generals cheering on their 
 men, fighting to the utmost of their strength. Marcellus bade 
 them press hard an enemy who had been beaten three days pre- 
 viously, had been driven in flight a few days ago from Cumae, 
 and under his own leadership, though by other troops, had 
 been repulsed last year from Nola. Nor were they all, he said, 
 in the field ; some were roving for plunder throughout the 
 country. Even those who were engaged, were enervated by 
 the luxury of Campania, by wine and women, and had worn 
 themselves out by every debauchery during a whole winter. 
 Their old strength and vigour were gone ; the endurance of 
 the frames and hearts which had surmounted the heights of 
 the Pyrenees and of the Alps, had melted away. The present 
 combatants were but the remnant of those brave men, and 
 could scarce bear the burden of their arms or limbs. Capua 
 had been Hannibal's Cannse ; there had perished warlike 
 valour, military discipline, all glory of the past, all hope for 
 the future. 
 
 While Marcellus was rousing the courage of his soldiers 
 by these taunts against the enemy, Hannibal was upbraiding 
 his men with much harsher reproaches. " I recognise," he 
 said, " the same arms and standards which I saw and with 
 which I fought at Trebia, Trasumennus, and last of all at Can- 
 nae. But I protest that I marched into winter quarters at 
 
B.C. 215] HANNIBAL DEFEATED AT NOLA 405 
 
 Capua with one army and marched out of it with another. 
 Are you, whose attack two consular armies never once sus- 
 tained, barely a match for a Roman lieutenant and the onset of 
 a single legion and one division of allies ? Is Marcellus with 
 his raw recruits and his reserves of Nola townsfolk now again 
 challenging us with impunity ? Where is that soldier of mine 
 who dragged the consul Flaminius from his horse and struck 
 off his head? Where is the man who cut down Lucius Paullus 
 at Cannae? Are their swords now blunt ; are their right hands 
 paralyzed ? Or what other miracle explains it ? Once few in 
 number, you used to vanquish a superior host ; now yourselves 
 superior you barely resist a few. Brave in tongue, you boast- 
 ed that you would storm Rome, were you to be led thither. 
 See before you a less formidable enterprise. Here I wish to 
 test your strength and valour. Storm Nola, a city in a plain, 
 without defence of river or sea. When you have laden your- 
 selves with the booty and the spoils of so rich a town, I will 
 either lead you or follow you whither you please." 
 
 Neither words of encouragement nor reproach availed to 
 put resolution into their hearts. At every point they were 
 driven back, while the courage of the Romans rose, cheered 
 on, as it were, not only by their general, but by the people of 
 Nola, who with shouts, which testified to their good-will, 
 roused yet more the enthusiasm of battle. The Carthaginians 
 turned and were driven into their camp, but though the Ro- 
 man soldiers were eager to storm it, Marcellus led them back 
 to Nola amid great joy, and congratulations even from the 
 populace, which had previously inclined toward Carthage. 
 More than five thousand of the enemy were slain that day, six 
 hundred taken alive, with nineteen military standards and two 
 elephants. Of the Romans less than a thousand fell. The 
 next day was spent in an armistice by tacit consent, both sides 
 burying their slain in the battle. The spoils taken from the 
 enemy Marcellus burned as a vow to Vulcan.^ 
 
 Two days afterward, prompted, I imagine, by some resent- 
 ment, or by the hope of a more liberally rewarded warfare, two 
 hundred and seventy-two troopers, Numidians and Spaniards 
 intermixed, deserted to Marcellus. Of their brave and faithful 
 services the Romans often availed themselves during this war. 
 When it was over, the Spaniards had lands given 'them in 
 Spain, the Numidians in Africa, in recompense of their valour. 
 
 ' I am inclined to doubt Hannibal's presence at this battle, and to 
 believe the victory to have been vron over Hanno and his forces alone. 
 Otherwise the Carthaginian cause in Italy would have been lost then and 
 there.— D. O. 
 
4o6 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 Hannibal sent back Hanno from Nola to Bruttium with 
 the forces which he had brought with him, and went himself 
 into winter quarters in Apulia, encamping near Arpi. Quin- 
 tus Fabius, on hearing that he had marched into Apulia, col- 
 lected grain from Nola and Naples and stored it in the camp 
 on Suessula. Having then strengthened his lines and left 
 a force sufficient to defend his position throughout the winter, 
 he moved his camp nearer Capua, and wasted the territory of 
 the Campanians with fire and sword. At last the Campanians, 
 though they had absolutely no confidence in their strength, 
 were compelled to sally out from the city gates and establish 
 a camp upon ground in front of their town. They had in all 
 six thousand soldiers, the infantry utterly inefficient, but the 
 horse of good quality. Accordingly, they kept harassing the 
 enemy by cavalry skirmishes. Among their many distin- 
 guished troopers was one, Cerrinus Vibellius, surnamed Tau- 
 rea. He too was a citizen of Capua, and he was far the bravest 
 horse-soldier in all Campania. Indeed, when he served with 
 the Romans, there was but one Roman, Claudius Asellus, who 
 rivalled him in renown as a trooper. Taurea rode up to the 
 enemy's squadrons, and took a long survey of them. When at 
 length there was a hush, he asked : " Where is Claudius Asel- 
 lus ? He used to dispute with me in words the palm of valour ; 
 why should he not decide the matter by the sword, yielding 
 up the prize of victory if he is beaten, and taking it if he is 
 victorious ? " 
 
 This message having been deHvered to Asellus in the camp, 
 he merely waited a while to ask the consuls whether he was at 
 liberty, contrary to regulations, to fight an enemy who chal- 
 lenged him. On obtaining leave, he at once armed himself, 
 rode out in front of the sentries, and called Taurea by name, 
 bidding him to an encounter wherever he pleased. By this 
 time the Romans had poured out in multitudes, to witness the 
 combat, and the Campanians too were crowding the intrench- 
 ments of their camps and even their city walls, to look on 
 at a distance. The combatants, who had already given noto- 
 riety to the afTair by their speeches of defiance, now galloped 
 their horses at full speed, with spears in rest. There was 
 abundance of room, and they amused themselves by spinning 
 out a bloodless duel. At last the Campanian said to the Ro- 
 man, " This will be a contest between horses, not between 
 horsemen, unless we gallop our steeds down from the open 
 into this hollow lane, where, as there is no space for manoeu- 
 vring, we may fight at close quarters." Almost before he had 
 said the word Claudius had plunged with his horse into the 
 
B. C. 215] TAUREA AND CLAUDIUS ASELLUS 407 
 
 lane. Taurea, bolder in speech than in deed, retorted on him, 
 " I would not be an ass in a ditch." The saying subsequently 
 passed into a rustic proverb. Claudius rode along the lane 
 to a great distance, and meeting no enemy returned to the 
 open ground. He then went back victorious to his camp amid 
 great rejoicing and congratulation, denouncing the cowardice 
 of his foe. To this fight of the two cavalry soldiers is added 
 in some chronicles an incident certainly extraordinary, the 
 truth of which it is for common sense to decide. Claudius, it 
 is said, who followed up Taurea in his flight to the town, 
 rushed in at one of the enemy's gates which was open, and 
 rode out unhurt by another amid the helpless wonderment of 
 the foe. 
 
 The camp was now quiet, and the consul even shifted his 
 position some way back, that the Campanians might begin 
 their sowing. Nor did he do any injury to their lands until 
 the corn was high enough in blade to yield fodder. Then he 
 carried it to Claudius's camp on Suessula, and there estab- 
 lished his winter quarters. He ordered Marcellus, the pro- 
 consul, to retain a sufficient force at Nola for the defence of 
 the place, and sent away the rest of his troops to Rome, that 
 they might not be a burden to the allies and an expense to 
 the state. And Gracchus, having marched his legions from 
 Cumae to Luceria in Apulia, despatched the praetor, Marcus 
 Valerius, with the army he had at Luceria, to Brundisium, 
 with instructions to guard the shores of the Sallentine terri- 
 tory and take precautions in regard to Philip and the war with 
 Macedon. 
 
 At the end of the summer in which occurred the operations 
 we have described, came despatches from Publius and Cneius 
 Scipio, telling what great successes they had achieved in 
 Spain, but also stating that money was wanting for the sol- 
 diers' pay, and clothing and corn for the troops, and that the 
 seamen were quite destitute. As for the pay, if the treasury 
 were empty, they would themselves devise some plan of get- 
 ting it from the Spaniards, but they must certainly raise all 
 the other supplies from Rome, that being the only possible 
 way of retaining either the troops or the province. When the 
 despatch had been read, every one admitted the truth of the 
 statements and the justice of the request ; still, the thought 
 presented itself of the vast forces which they would have to 
 maintain by sea and land, and of the immense new fleet soon 
 to be equipped, should war break out with Macedon. Sicily 
 and Sardinia, which had paid tribute before the war, could 
 hardly support the armies which guarded these provinces, and 
 
4o8 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C 215 
 
 the expenses were furnished out of a citizens' tax. Not only- 
 had the number of the contributors of this tax been materially 
 diminished by those murderous defeats of our armies at Trasu- 
 mennus and Cannse, but even the few survivors, were they to 
 be burdened with an increased payment, would perish by an- 
 other destruction. Consequently, unless the state could be up- 
 held by credit, it would not be upheld by its resources. The 
 praetor Fulvius, it was said, must show himself in an assembly 
 of the people and point out to them the public necessities, and 
 invite those who had improved their properties by taking con- 
 tracts, to lend money for a time to the state, from which they 
 had enriched themselves, and arrange to furnish the army in 
 Spain with all that it needed, on the condition that, as soon as 
 there was money in the treasury, they should first be paid. 
 Such was the praetor's proclamation to the people, and he 
 named a day on which he would issue contracts for the supply 
 of clothing and corn to the army in Spain, and of whatever else 
 was necessary for the seamen. 
 
 As soon as the day arrived, three companies, each of nine- 
 teen members, came forward to take the contracts. They 
 made two demands. One was exemption from military serv- 
 ice while they were engaged on this public business ; another 
 was, that, for whatever they put on shipboard they were to be 
 insured at the risks of the state against storms or attacks of 
 the enemy. Both demands being granted, they took the con- 
 tracts, and the administration of the state was carried on with 
 private money. Such principles and such patriotism per- 
 vaded every class, almost without exception. 
 
 As all the contracts were taken with hearty good-will, so 
 they were performed with the most scrupulous fidelity, and 
 the armies supplied just as they would have been from the 
 overflowing exchequer of former days. When the supplies 
 arrived, the town of Iliturgi^ was being besieged by Hasdmbal, 
 Mago, and Hamilcar, son of Bomilcar, because it had revolted 
 to Rome. Between these three hostile camps the Scipios 
 made their way into the city of our allies after hard fighting 
 and great slaughter of the opposing army, and brought with 
 them corn of which there was an extreme scarcity. Then 
 after encouraging the townsfolk to defend their walls with the 
 same spirit with which they had seen the Roman army fight 
 on their behalf, they marched off to attack the principal camp 
 which was under the command of Hasdrubal. The two other 
 Carthaginian generals and their armies hastened to the spot, 
 
 ' On the north side of the Bajtis, between Corduba and Castulo ; after 
 ward called Forum Julium. 
 
B. C. 215] SUCCESSES IN SPAIN 409 
 
 seeing it was to be the scene of the decisive struggle. There 
 was a sally out of the camp, followed by a battle, and that day 
 sixty thousand of the enemy and sixteen thousand Romans 
 were engaged. So far, however, was the victory from being 
 doubtful that the Romans slew of the enemy a number exceed- 
 ing their own, taking more than three thousand prisoners, a 
 little under a thousand horses with fifty-nine standards, and 
 killing five elephants in the battle. On that day they captured 
 three camps. The siege of Iliturgi having thus been raised, 
 the Carthaginian armies were marched away to attack Inti- 
 bili, their losses having been made up out of the province, one 
 indeed which above all others was fond of fighting, if only 
 plunder or pay were to be got, and in which young men 
 abounded. Again a pitched battle was fought, the same for- 
 tune attending both sides. More than thirteen thousand of 
 the enemy fell and more than two thousand were taken pris- 
 oners, with forty-two standards and nine elephants. And now 
 indeed all the Spanish tribes revolted to Rome, and far greater 
 results were achieved that year in Spain than in Italy. 
 
BOOK XXIV 
 
 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (CONTINUED) 
 
 ON his return from Campania to Bruttium, Hanno, with 
 Bruttian help and guidance, sought to seize the Greek 
 towns. These remained loyal to the Roman alliance 
 all the more willingly because they saw that the Brut- 
 tians, whom they both hated and feared, were now on the side 
 of the Carthaginians. Rhegium was first attempted, arid sev- 
 eral days were spent there without result. Meanwhile the 
 people of Locri were hurriedly carrying from their fields into 
 the city their corn, wood, and other necessaries, anxious at the 
 same time that not a scrap of plunder might be left for the ene- 
 my. Every day a larger crowd poured out of the city gates, 
 till at last there were left in the town only those who were 
 pressed into the service of repairing the walls and gates and 
 carrying weapons to the ramparts. Against this promiscuous 
 multitude of all ages and ranks, as it straggled, mostly un- 
 armed, over the fields, the Carthaginian, Hamilcar, sent out 
 his cavalry, with orders to hurt nobody, but simply to scatter 
 them in flight and then intercept them with his troopers, so as 
 to cut them off from the city. The general himself, taking up 
 a position on high ground from which he could see the neigh- 
 bouring cavalry as well as the town, directed a Bruttian cohort 
 to advance up to the walls, summon the principal Locrian citi- 
 zens to a conference, and, should they promise friendship to 
 Hannibal, they were to encourage them to surrender the city. 
 As for the Bruttians in this conference, the Locrians believed 
 at first nothing that they said, but when the Carthaginians 
 showed themselves on the hills, and a few fugitives brought the 
 news that all the rest of the population was at the enemy's 
 mercy, they were overwhelmed with terror, and replied that 
 they would consult the popular assembly. Instantly a meet- 
 ing was summoned. All the meaner sort were for a new gov- 
 ernment and a new alliance, and those whose kinsfolk had been 
 intercepted by the enemy outside the walls felt themselves as 
 much pledged as if they had given hostages. A few, indeed, 
 
 410 
 
B. C. 215] CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE GREEK CITIES 411 
 
 in their hearts approved a steadfast loyalty, but they had not 
 the courage to maintain it. And so, with an apparently un- 
 hesitating assent, surrender was made to the Carthaginians. 
 Lucius Atilius, commander of the garrison, and the Roman 
 soldiers under him, were secretly taken down to the port and 
 put on shipboard to be conveyed to Rhegium, and then they 
 admitted Hamilcar and the Carthaginians into the town, on 
 condition that a treaty was to be at once concluded on equi- 
 table terms. Faith in the matter was all but broken with the 
 party making the surrender, as the Carthaginians complained 
 that they had treacherously let the Romans depart, while the 
 Locrians pleaded that they had themselves escaped. Some 
 cavalry went in pursuit, in case the tide in the straits might 
 possibly delay the vessels or carry them back to land. Those 
 indeed whom they pursued, they failed to overtake, but they 
 saw some other ships crossing the straits from Messana to 
 Rhegium. These carried Roman soldiers whom Claudius, 
 the praetor, had despatched to garrison the city. So the Car- 
 thaginians at once withdrew from Rhegium. By Hannibal's 
 orders peace was granted to the Locrians. They were to live 
 independent, under their own laws ; their city was to be open 
 to the Carthaginians, but its port was to be under Locrian 
 control ; there was to be an alliance, with the understanding 
 that Carthaginians and Locrians were to help each other both 
 in peace and war. 
 
 Thus the Carthaginians returned from the straits, amid 
 angry complaints from the Bruttians at their having left Rhe- 
 gium and Locri unmolested. The plunder of these cities the 
 Bruttians had fully counted on for themselves. So on their 
 own account they levied and equipped fifteen thousand of their 
 own youth and marched to attack Croton, also a Greek city on 
 the coast. They would secure, they thought, a vast accession 
 to their resources by possessing themselves of a town on the 
 sea, with a harbour and strong fortifications. But, as they 
 could not quite venture to summon the Carthaginians to their 
 aid, they were harassed by the apprehension that they might 
 seem to be attempting something not for the benefit of their 
 allies. Then, too, should the Carthaginian again be the ne- 
 gotiator of a peace rather than their helper in war, an attack 
 on the independence of Croton would, they feared, be as use- 
 less as had previously been the attack on Locri. Hence they 
 thought it best to send envoys to Hannibal and obtain from 
 him a guarantee that Croton, when reconquered, should be- 
 long to the Bruttians. 
 
 Hannibal replied that the question was one for those on the 
 
412 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 spot, and he referred them to Hanno. From Hanno no defi- 
 nite answer was received. It was not indeed the wish of the 
 Carthaginians to see a famous and wealthy city plundered, and 
 they hoped that, when the Bruttians attacked it, as it was evi- 
 dent that they neither approved nor aided the attack, its citi- 
 zens would revolt to them the sooner. 
 
 Among the people of Croton there was no unity of policy 
 or of feeling. One and the same disease, so to say, had fas- 
 tened on all the Italian states, strife between the commons and 
 the aristocracy, the senate favouring Rome, while the com- 
 mons were for throwing themselves into the hands of the Car- 
 thaginians. Of this dissension in the city the Bruttians were 
 informed by a deserter. One, Aristomachus, he said, was the 
 popular leader and advised surrender. In so vast a city, with 
 wide and scattered fortifications, the sentries and guards of 
 the senators were but few, and wherever men of the popular 
 party were on duty, there was free entrance. Under the ad- 
 vice and leading of the deserter, the Bruttians regularly in- 
 vested the town. At the first assault, they were admitted by 
 the commons, and secured every part except the citadel. This 
 was held by the aristocracy, who had already prepared it as a 
 place of refuge against such a contingency. Thither also 
 Aristomachus fled, representing that he had advised the sur- 
 render of the town to the Carthaginians and not to the Brut- 
 tians. 
 
 Before Pyrrhus's invasion of Italy the city of Croton had 
 a wall of twelve miles circuit. After the desolation caused by 
 that war barely half the space was inhabited. The river, whose 
 waters had flowed through the middle of the town, now flowed 
 outside the district occupied by houses, and the citadel was at 
 a distance from the inhabited part. Six miles from the city 
 was a famous temple, more famous indeed than the city itself, 
 dedicated to Juno Lacinia and reverenced by all the neigh- 
 bouring peoples. There, in the middle of a grove, densely 
 grown and closed in by stately fir-trees, were rich pastures, 
 where cattle of all kinds, sacred to the goddess, fed without a 
 shepherd. The various flocks went forth separately and re- 
 turned at night to their stalls, never harmed by the stealthy at- 
 tacks of wild beasts or the craft of man. Hence great profits 
 were derived from the cattle, and out of them was made and 
 dedicated a pillar of solid gold. The temple too became re- 
 nowned for its wealth as well as for its sanctity. Miracles are 
 commonly attributed to such famous spots. There is a story 
 of an altar at the porch of the temple, the ashes of which are 
 never disturbed by any breeze. 
 
B.C. 215] CROTON ABANDONED 413 
 
 The citadel of Croton, which on one side overhung the sea, 
 while on the other it faced landward, was in old days protected 
 merely by its natural situation, but subsequently it was like- 
 wise inclosed by a wall at the part where, from the rocks 
 behind, Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, had once taken it by 
 stratagem. This fortress, safe enough, as was thought, was 
 now held by the Crotoniat aristocracy, whom their own people 
 along with the Bruttians were beleaguring. At last the Brut- 
 tians, seeing that it was impregnable to their attacks, out of 
 sheer necessity implored the aid of Hanno. He endeavoured 
 to force the Crotoniats to a surrender, stipulating that they 
 would allow the admission of a Bruttian colony, and so recover 
 its ancient populousness for a city which wars had wasted and 
 desolated. But on not one of the citizens, except Aristo- 
 machus, had he any effect. They declared they would perish 
 sooner than be confounded with Bruttians and have to ac- 
 cept strange ceremonies, customs and laws, and ultimately 
 even a strange language. Aristomachus himself alone de- 
 serted to Hanno, finding that his arguments could not induce 
 his companions to surrender, and that he could not get a 
 chance of betraying the citadel, as he had betrayed the town. 
 Soon afterward some Locrian envoys, having with Hanno's 
 permission entered the citadel, urged the occupants to let 
 themselves be transferred to Locri instead of resolving to face 
 the last extremity. They had previously obtained leave to 
 make the offer from Hannibal, to whom they had despatched 
 an embassy. Thus Croton was abandoned, and the inhabit- 
 ants were marched down to the sea and put on shipboard. 
 The entire population took their departure to Locri. 
 
 In Apulia even the winter did not pass quietly between the 
 Romans and Hannibal. The consul Sempronius wintered at 
 Luceria, Hannibal not far from Arpi. Some slight skirmishes 
 occurred between them, as occasion ofifered, or as this or that 
 side^saw an opportunity. In these the Romans improved daily, 
 becoming more cautious and more proof against stratagem. 
 
 In Sicily Hiero's death had made a complete change for 
 the Romans. The throne had passed to Hieronymus his 
 grandson, a boy little likely to bear liberty, much less absolute 
 power, with moderation. Eagerly did guardians and friends 
 lay hold of such a temper, to hurry it into every excess. 
 Hiero, it is said, foreseeing that this would be so in the future, 
 wished in his extreme old age to leave Syracuse free, and not 
 to let a kingdom, which had been won and consolidated by 
 merit, be ruined by the ridiculous follies of a youthful despot. 
 But his purpose met with the most determined resistance from 
 
414 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 his daughters, who thought that while the boy would have the 
 name of king, the control of everything would rest with them- 
 selves and their husbands, Andranodorus and Zoippus, whom 
 Hiero intended to leave his principal guardians. It was not 
 easy for a man in his ninetieth year, who was plied day and 
 night by women's flatteries, to exercise his mind freely and 
 make private matters subordinate to public considerations. 
 And so he left the boy fifteen guardians, and implored them 
 on his death-bed to maintain inviolate that loyalty which for 
 fifty years he had himself observed toward the people of Rome, 
 and to resolve that the lad should, above all things, tread in his 
 footsteps and follow the ways in which he had been trained. 
 
 Such were Hiero's instructions. As soon as he had 
 breathed his last, his will was produced by the guardians, and 
 the boy, then about fifteen years, was set before a public as- 
 sembly, where a few, placed here and there to lead cheers of 
 applause, expressed approval of the document, while the rest, 
 as if they had lost a father and their country was orphaned, 
 saw terror everywhere. Meantime the king's funeral was 
 celebrated with more love and afifection on the part of the citi- 
 zens than regard from his own kin. Then the other guardians 
 were put aside by Andranodorus, who kept repeating that 
 Hieronymus was now a young man and capable of reigning. 
 By himself abdicating the guardianship which he shared with 
 several others, he concentrated in his own person the influence 
 of all. 
 
 Even a good and self-controlled prince would not have 
 easily found favour with the Syracusans, had he come after the 
 extreme popularity of Hiero. As a fact, however, Hierony- 
 mus apparently wished to deepen their regret for his grand- 
 father by his own vices, and at his very first appearance let 
 them see how different everything was. Those who for so 
 many years had never seen Hiero and his son Gelon distin- 
 guished by dress or any other outward badge from the other 
 citizens, now beheld a purple robe, a diadem and an armed 
 body-guard, and even occasionally saw the king issue from his 
 palace with carriages drawn by four white horses, after the 
 fashion of the tyrant Dionysius. This haughty state and 
 style were accompanied by a corresponding contempt for all 
 men, by ears contemptuously deaf to entreaty and an insulting 
 tongue, by denial of access, not only to strangers but also to 
 his guardians, by monstrous lusts, and by an inhuman cruelty. 
 Consequently, there was such universal terror that some of the 
 guardians forestalled the horrors of execution by suicide or 
 flight. Three of them, who alone could enter the palace with 
 
B.C. 215] CHARACTER OF HIERONYMXJS 415 
 
 some familiarity, Andranodorus and Zoippus, Hiero's sons- 
 in-law, and a certain Thraso, commanded indeed not much at- 
 tention on other matters, but, as the first two inclined to Car- 
 thage, while Thraso was for alliance with Rome, they now and 
 then by their quarrels and party strife attracted to themselves 
 the notice of the young prince. Meanwhile a conspiracy 
 directed against the tyrant's life was disclosed by a soldier's 
 servant, a lad of the same age as Hieronymus and accustomed 
 from boyhood to all the privileges of familiarity. 
 
 The informer could name only one of the conspirators, 
 Theodotus, by whom he had himself been solicited. The man 
 was instandy arrested and delivered up to Andranodorus to 
 be tortured, but though he unhesitatingly confessed about 
 himself, he was silent about his accomplices. At last, when 
 torn by every torture too dreadful for human endurance, pre- 
 tending that he was conquered by his sufferings, he aimed his 
 disclosure not at the really guilty, but at the innocent, falsely 
 asserting that Thraso was the author of the plot, and that they 
 never would have dared such an attempt but for their reliance 
 on so powerful a leader. He named, too, men continually at 
 the tyrant's side, men who occurred to him as the cheapest vic- 
 tims, while amid his anguish and groans he was concocting his 
 story. Thraso's name rendered the disclosure particularly 
 probable to the tyrant's mind. He was therefore at once 
 given up to punishment, and in his penalty were included the 
 rest, all as innocent as he. Of his accomplices not a single 
 man hid himself or fled, all the time that their partner in the 
 plot was being tortured ; such was their confidence in the hon- 
 our and fidelity of Theodotus, and such Theodotus's own reso- 
 lution in keeping his secret. 
 
 The sole tie of friendship with Rome was gone now that 
 Thraso was out of the way, and there was at once a decided 
 tendency to revolt. Envoys were despatched to Hannibal, and 
 he sent back along with a nobly-born youth, Hannibal by 
 name, Hippocrates and Epicydes, natives of Carthage, who 
 while originally descended from a grandfather exiled from 
 Syracuse, were on the mother's side Carthaginians. Through 
 them an alliance was formed between Hannibal and the Syra- 
 cusan tyrant, with whom they remained, with Hannibal's con- 
 sent. Appius Claudius, the praetor, who had the province of 
 Sicily, on hearing this, at once sent envoys to Hieronymus. 
 The envoys said they came to renew the alliance which had 
 existed with his grandfather, but they were heard and dis- 
 missed with ridicule, Hieronymus asking them in jest how 
 they had fared in the battle of Cannae. He could hardly be- 
 
4i6 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 lieve, he said, the story of Hannibal's envoys, and he wished 
 to know the truth, that he might make his plans accordmgly, 
 as to whose prospects he should attach himself. The Rornans 
 told him that they would come back, when he began to listen 
 seriously to such communications, and warning rather than 
 begging him not to break faith with them lightly, took their 
 departure. 
 
 Hieronymus now sent an embassy to Carthage to conclude 
 a treaty based on his alliance with Hannibal. It was stipu- 
 lated that, when they had driven the Romans out of Sicily, 
 which would soon be accomplished by sending a fleet and an 
 army, the river Himera, which about divides the island, should 
 be the boundary between the Syracusan and Carthaginian 
 dominions. Hieronymus, puffed up by the flatteries of the 
 people, who bade him remember not only Hiero, but likewise 
 King Pyrrhus, his maternal grandfather, soon a.fterward sent 
 a second embassy, to express his opinion that in fairness all 
 Sicily ought to be ceded to him, while the empire of Italy 
 might be claimed as a right by the Carthaginians. This fickle- 
 ness and boastful temper in a headstrong boy excited no sur- 
 prise and called forth no censure from the Carthaginians, 
 who cared only to detach him from the Romans. 
 
 Everything, however, with him was tending to a swift de- 
 struction. He had sent forward Hippocrates and Epicydes 
 with two thousand armed men each, to make attempts on the 
 towns held by Roman garrisons, while he himself with the rest 
 of his army, consisting of about fifteen thousand infantry and 
 cavalry, had started for Leontini.^ The conspirators, all of 
 whom happened to be soldiers, took possession of an empty 
 house, overlooking a narrow street along which the king used 
 to go to the forum. There all but one man stood ready armed, 
 awaiting his passage, and to that man (Dinomenes was his 
 name), as he was in the body-guard, was assigned the part of 
 detaining on some pretext the rear of the procession, the mo- 
 ment the king approached the door of the house. All was 
 done as had been arranged. Dinomenes, pretending to disen- 
 tangle his foot from a knot fastened round it, stopped the 
 throng, and caused such a gap in it that the king, attacked as 
 he passed, without any armed attendants, was stabbed with 
 several wounds before succour could arrive. Shouts and up- 
 roar reached the ears of the others, and a shower of darts was 
 discharged at Dinomenes, who, it was now clearly seen, was 
 stopping the way. Yet he escaped them with but two wounds. 
 The flight of the body-guard followed the instant they saw the 
 
 ' Now Lentini. It lies a short distance northwest of Syracuse.— D. 0. 
 
B.C. 215] ASSASSINATION OF HIERONYMUS 417 
 
 king prostrate. Some of the assassins hurried to the forum, 
 and found a people overjoyed at their freedom ; some went to 
 Syracuse, to forestall the designs of Andranodorus and the 
 other royal ministers. 
 
 In this critical state of affairs, Appius Claudius, seeing war 
 starting up at his doors, informed the senate by letter that 
 Sicily was attaching itself to the Carthaginians and to Han- 
 nibal. He himself, to check the Syracusan plans, concen- 
 trated all his garrison forces on the boundary-line between 
 the Roman province and the king's territory. At the year's 
 close Quintus Fabius, by the authority of the senate, fortified 
 and garrisoned Puteoli,^ which during the war had begun to 
 be used largely as a market. Then he went to Rome for the 
 elections, of which he gave notice by proclamation for the 
 first election-day he could fix. He went straight from his 
 journey past the city into the Campus Martins. That day the 
 first voting fell to the lot of the junior century of the tribe of 
 Anio,^ and this nominated to the consulate Titus Otacilius and 
 Marcus ^Emilius Regillus. Thereupon Quintus Fabius, as 
 soon as there was silence, made the following speech : 
 
 " If we had peace in Italy, or war with an enemy who 
 allowed somewhat wide room for carelessness, he who should 
 put any obstacle in the way of your partialities when you go 
 to the poll to confer office on whom you choose, would in 
 my opinion be quite unmindful of your freedom. When, how- 
 ever, we know that in this war, with this enemy, no general 
 has ever blundered without terrible disaster to us, you ought 
 to begin your voting for the election of consuls with as much 
 care as you go armed to the battle-field. Every one should 
 say to himself, ' I nominate a consul who is a match for Han- 
 nibal.' This year at Capua, Vibellius Taurea of Campania, 
 a knight of the first rank, challenged us, and he was met by a 
 Roman knight of the first rank, Asellus Claudius. Against a 
 Gaul who in old days challenged us on the bridge over the 
 Anio our fathers sent Titus Manlius, in the pride of his 
 strength and courage. It was for the same reason, not many 
 years afterward, I must maintain, that you had no distrust of 
 Marcus Valerius, when he armed himself for the combat 
 against a Gaul who challenged us in like fashion. As we de- 
 sire to have infantry and cavalry superior to the enemy, or at 
 least his match, so let us look out a commander-in-chief who 
 is a match for the enemy's general. Even when we have 
 
 ' Now Pozzuoli, a few miles north of Naples. — D. O. 
 * This chance of the first vote seems to have decided the consular elec- 
 tions more frequently than the mere circumstance would warrant. — D. O. 
 27 
 
4i8 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 215 
 
 chosen the first general in our state, a man hastily selected 
 and appointed for a year will be pitted against a veteran officer 
 always in command, who has none of the restraints of either 
 time or law to hinder him from doing and directing everything 
 just as the exigencies of war require. With us, on the other 
 hand, the year closes in the midst of our preparations, and 
 when we are only beginning our work. 
 
 " I have said enough to show what kind of men you ought 
 to appoint consuls. It remains for me to say a few words about 
 those in whose favour the first vote has been given. Marcus 
 ^milius Regillus is the priest of Quirinus, and we can not let 
 him leave his sacred duties or keep him at home without 
 neglecting either what is due to the gods or what is due to 
 the war. Otacilius is the husband of my sister's daughter, by 
 whom he has children. Still, what you have done for me 
 and my forefathers is such that I must hold the public in- 
 terest dearer than my private connections. Any sailor or pas- 
 senger can steer a ship in a calm sea, but when a furious tem- 
 pest has burst forth and the ship is hurried along by the gale 
 through troubled waters, then there is need of a good man 
 and a pilot. We are not sailing over a tranquil sea, but have 
 already been all but sunk by several storms, and therefore you 
 ought with the utmost care to consider and take thought who 
 is to sit at the helm. 
 
 " We have tried you, Otacilius, in a comparatively small 
 matter. You have certainly given us no proof why we should 
 trust you in a greater. This year we equipped a fleet which 
 you commanded, with three objects. It was to ravage the 
 coast of Africa ; to protect for us the shores of Italy ; above 
 all, it was to hinder the transport of re-enforcements with 
 money and supplies for Hannibal. Appoint Otacilius consul, 
 if he has rendered, I do not say all, but some one of these serv- 
 ices to his country. If, while you commanded the fleet, any 
 help from home reached Hannibal safe and entire, just as if 
 there were peace at sea ; if, again, the coast of Italy has been 
 this year more dangerous than that of Africa, what can you say 
 for pitting you, above all men, as our general, against Hanni- 
 bal? If you were consul, we should think it necessary to 
 nominate a dictator after the example of our fathers. Nor 
 could you feel angry at some one of our Roman citizens being 
 esteemed superior in war to yourself. It is no man's interest 
 more than your own, Otacilius, that a burden should not be 
 laid on your shoulders which would crush you.— I most de- 
 cidedly advise you, fellow-citizens, that in the very same spirit 
 in which, were you standing armed for battle, you would 
 
B. C. 214] FABIUS AND MARCELLUS RE-ELECTED 419 
 
 choose two commanders, under whose leadership and guid- 
 ance you would wish to fight, so you should choose your con- 
 suls to-day ; men to whom your children are to swear the 
 oath, at whose bidding they are to muster, under whose eye 
 and direction they are to serve. The lake of Trasumennus 
 and the field of Cannae are melancholy examples to recall, 
 but they are also a salutary warning to beware of like dis- 
 aster. — Herald, summon back to the poll the juniors of the 
 tribe of Anio." 
 
 As Titus Otacilius meanwhile kept furiously exclaiming 
 and roaring out at Fabius that he wanted his own consulship 
 prolonged, the consul ordered the lictors to step up to him. 
 Having gone straight from his journey to the Campus Mar- 
 tius, he had not entered the city, and so he reminded Otacilius 
 that the rods were still carried before him, together with the 
 axes.^ Again the first century went to the poll, and bestowed 
 the consulship on Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth 
 and on Marcus Marcellus for the third time. The rest of the 
 centuries, without a difference, nominated the same men. One 
 praetor too was re-elected, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. Among 
 the others were appointed Titus Otacilius Crassus for the 
 second time, Quintus Fabius, the consul's son, at the time 
 curule jedile, and Publius Cornelius Lentulus. As soon as the 
 elections for praetors were over, the senate passed a resolu- 
 tion assigning the city jurisdiction with extraordinary powers 
 to Quintus Fulvius, and he was specially to have the control 
 of the Capitol, when the consuls had gone to the war. There 
 were great floods twice that year, and the Tiber overflowed 
 the district with a terrible ruin of houses and destruction both 
 of cattle and human beings. 
 
 It was in the fifth year of the second Punic war that Quin- 
 tus Fabius Maximus for the fourth, and Marcus Marcellus for 
 the third time entered on the consulship, attracting to them- 
 selves in an unusual degree the sympathies of the citizens. 
 For many years there had not been such a pair of consuls. 
 Old men recalled how in like manner Maximus Rullus and 
 Publius Decius had been nominated consuls for the war with 
 the Gauls, and subsequently Papirius and Carvilius, to oppose 
 the Samnites and Bruttians with the peoples of Lucania and 
 Tarentum. Marcellus, being with the army, was appointed 
 consul in his absence; Fabius, who was present, and himself 
 holding the elections, had his consulship prolonged. The 
 crisis and the exigencies of war, involving peril to the state's 
 existence, rendered it impossible for any one to criticise the 
 ' That is, that what was practically martial law still pertained. — D. O. 
 
420 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 precedent, or to suspect the consul of ambition. Indeed, they 
 rather praised his magnanimity ; for knowing, as he did, that 
 the state needed a supremely able commander, and that he was 
 unquestionably such himself, he thought less of any personal 
 unpopularity which might arise out of his election than of the 
 interests of the country. 
 
 On the day on which the consuls entered on office the 
 senate was convoked in the Capitol. First of all it was de- 
 cided that the consuls were to determine by lot or by arrange- 
 ment between themselves, previous to their departure for the 
 army, which of them should hold the elections for the ap- 
 pointment of censors. All who were with the troops had their 
 commands prolonged, and orders to remain in their respective 
 provinces were given to Tiberius Gracchus in Luceria, where 
 he was with an army of volunteer slaves, to Terentius Varro 
 in Picenum, and to Manlius Pomponius in the country of the 
 Gauls. Among the prsetors of the past year Quintus Mucius 
 was to have, as pro-praetor, the province of Sardinia, and Mar- 
 cus Valerius was to be near Brundisium to have charge of the 
 coast and keep a vigilant eye on all the movements of Philip, 
 King of Macedon. To Publius Cornelius Lentulus, as prajtor. 
 Sicily was assigned as his province, and to Titus Otacilius the 
 fleet, which he had commanded in the previous year against 
 the Carthaginians. 
 
 Several portents were announced that year. The more 
 they were believed by simple-minded and pious people, the 
 more numerous were the reports of them. At Lanuvium, 
 within the Temple of Juno Sospita, crows, it was said, had 
 built a nest ; in Apulia a palm with green leaves had caught 
 fire ; at Mantua an overflow of the waters of the river Mincius 
 had had the appearance of blood ; at Cales it had rained chalk, 
 and at Rome blood in the cattle-market ; in the Insteian quar- 
 ter an underground spring had burst forth with such a gush 
 of water that some jars and casks on the spot were overturned 
 and swept away, as it were by the force of a torrent ; lightning 
 had struck a public hall on the Capitol, a temple of Vulcan 
 in the Campus Martins, a walnut-tree and a public road in the 
 Sabine country, as well as the city wall and a gate at Gabii. 
 Soon there was talk of other miraculous occurrences. The 
 spear of Mars at Praeneste had moved of its own accord; an 
 ox in Sicily had spoken ; a child in its mother's womb in the 
 Marrucine country had shouted " Ho, triumph! "; a woman at 
 Spoletum had been turned into a man ; an altar had been 
 seen in the sky at Hadria, with forms of men round it in white 
 apparel. And even at Rome itself, within the city, a swarm 
 
B. C. 214] PRODIGIES AT ROME 421 
 
 of bees had been seen in the forum, and immediately after- 
 ward, some persons declaring that they beheld armed legions 
 on the Janiculum, roused the citizens to arms. Those who 
 were on the Janiculum at the time declared that no one had 
 been seen there except the ordinary inhabitants of the hill. 
 For these portents expiation was made with victims of the 
 larger kind by direction of the diviners, and a day of public 
 prayer was appointed to all the gods who had shrines at 
 Rome. 
 
 Having done all that was proper to make peace with 
 Heaven, the consuls took the senate's opinion on the public 
 policy, the conduct of the war, the required amount, and the 
 disposal of the military forces. It was decided to carry on the 
 war with eighteen legions. Each consul was to have two for 
 himself. Gaul, Sicily, and Sardinia were to be held each with 
 two legions ; Quintus Fabius the praetor was to have two for 
 the charge of Apulia, and Tiberius Gracchus two of volunteer 
 slaves in the neighbourhood of Luceria. One was to be left 
 for Caius Terentus, the pro-consul, in Picenum, one for Mar- 
 cus Valerius with the fleet near Brundisium, and two were to 
 garrison Rome. To make up the full number it was neces- 
 sary to levy six new legions. These the consuls were directed 
 to raise at the earliest opportunity, as well as to equip a fleet, 
 so that with the ships stationed off the coast of Calabria the 
 fleet that year would be made up to a hundred and fifty war 
 ships. 
 
 The troops having been levied, and a hundred new vessels 
 launched, Quintus Fabius held elections for the appointment 
 of censors. Marcus Atilius Regulus and Publius Furius 
 Philus were appointed. As rumours of the war in Sicily 
 gained ground, Titus Otacilius received orders to proceed 
 thither with his fleet. Sailors were wanting, and so the con- 
 suls, by direction of a resolution of the senate, issued an edict 
 to the effect that all persons who themselves or whose fathers 
 in the censorship of Lucius ^milius and Caius Flaminius had 
 been assessed from five thousand to ten thousand denarii, or 
 whose property had subsequently reached that amount, should 
 furnish one sailor, with six months' pay ; those whose assess- 
 ment was from ten thousand to thirty thousand denarii, three 
 sailors, with a year's pay ; those above thirty thousand up to 
 a hundred thousand, five sailors ; those above a hundred 
 thousand, seven sailors. Senators were to furnish eight, with 
 a year's pay. Sailors were supplied in accordance with this 
 edict; they were armed and equipped by their masters, and 
 embarked with ready-cooked rations for thirty days. This 
 
422 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 was the first occasion on which a Roman fleet was manned 
 with seamen furnished at private cost.^ 
 
 These unusually great preparations especially alarmed the 
 people of Campania, who feared that the Romans would begin 
 the year's campaign with the siege of Capua. So they sent 
 envoys to Hannibal, imploring him to advance with his army 
 to Capua, as new armies were being levied at Rome to attack 
 the city, no other defection having so greatly provoked the 
 wrath of the Romans. With such agitation did they report 
 the news that Hannibal, assured that he must be prompt or 
 the Romans would forestall him, quitted Arpi and established 
 himself in his old camp at Tifata, overlooking Capua. From 
 Tifata, where he left some Numidian and Spanish troops as a 
 defence both for his camp and for Capua, he marched with 
 the rest of his army to Lake Avernus, on the pretext of offering 
 sacrifice, but really to make an attempt on Puteoli and its gar- 
 rison. Fabius, on being informed that Hannibal had moved 
 from Arpi and was going back into Campania, marched night 
 and day without intermission, and returned to his army. He 
 also directed Tiberius Gracchus to bring up his forces from 
 Luceria, and Quintus Fabius, the praetor, the consul's son, to 
 take the place of Gracchus in those parts. At the same time 
 two praetors started for Sicily, Publius Cornelius to command 
 the army, and Otacilius to have charge of the coast and of the 
 marine. The other praetors went to their respective prov- 
 inces. Those whose term of office had been extended, were 
 appointed to the same countries as in the past year. 
 
 While Hannibal was at Lake Avernus, five young nobles 
 from Tarentum came to him. They had been taken prisoners, 
 some at Lake Trasumennus,the others at Cannas, and had been 
 sent to their homes with the courteous treatment which the 
 Carthaginians had uniformly shown to all the Roman allies. 
 They told Hannibal that out of gratitude for his kindness they 
 had prevailed on a majority of the young men of Tarentum to 
 prefer his friendship and alliance to that of Rome. As envoys 
 sent by their fellow-townsmen they begged Hannibal to march 
 his army closer to Tarentum. Only let his banners and his 
 camp be seen from Tarentum, and the city would come over 
 to him without a moment's delay. The commons were under 
 the control of the younger men, and the government was in 
 the hands of the commons. Hannibal praised them warmly, 
 loaded them with splendid gifts, and bade them return home 
 and mature their plans. He would be with them himself at 
 
 ' The sailors and marines were always enlisted from the lower classes. 
 These, however, appear to have been slaves. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMIES. 423 
 
 the right moment. With this assurance he dismissed the 
 Tarentine envoys. 
 
 Meanwhile he was himself full of eagerness to secure Ta- 
 rentum. It was, he saw, a rich and noble city, situated too on 
 the coast, and most conveniently for Macedonia; and that 
 King Philip could make for this port, were he to cross into 
 Italy, as the Romans held Brundisium. So, having finished 
 the sacrifice he had come to offer, and ravaged during his stay 
 the country round Cumse as far as the promontory of Mise- 
 num, he suddenly moved his army toward Puteoli, to sur- 
 prise the Roman garrison. It consisted of six thousand men, 
 and the place was defended by fortifications, as well as natu- 
 rally strong. Here the Carthaginian lingered three days. He 
 attempted every part of the fortress without any success, and 
 then, more out of rage than with any hope of becoming mas- 
 ter of the city, marched to plunder the district round Naples. 
 His arrival in a country bordering on their own stirred the 
 populace of Nola, who had long disliked the Romans and 
 been at feud with the senate of their state. Envoys accord- 
 ingly came to invite Hannibal with a confident promise of 
 the surrender of the town. Their design was anticipated by 
 Marcellus, who was summoned by the principal citizens. In 
 one day he reached Suessula from Cales, although the river 
 Vulturnus had delayed his passage. On the following night 
 he threw into Nola six thousand infantry and three hundred 
 cavalry as a protection to the senate. While the consul was 
 doing everything with promptness to secure the place against 
 attack, Hannibal was frittering away his time ; as he had twice 
 already made the same attempt without success, it became 
 rather slow to put faith in the people of Nola. 
 
 The consul, Quintus Fabius, about this same time marched 
 to attack Casilinum, which was held by a Carthaginian gar- 
 rison, while, almost as if by mutual arrangement, Hanno on one 
 side advanced from Bruttium with a large force of infantry 
 and cavalry on Beneventum, and Gracchus on the other side 
 approached the place from Luceria. The latter was the first 
 to enter the town. Soon afterward, hearing that Hanno had 
 encamped about three miles from it by the river Caloris, and 
 was ravaging the country, he too quitted the walls and took up 
 a position about a mile from the enemy. There he harangued 
 his troops. His legions were to a great extent made up of 
 volunteer slaves, who preferred silently earning their free- 
 dom by another year's service to demanding it publicly. Yet, 
 as he left his winter quarters, he had heard murmurs among 
 the soldiers on their march, who asked whether they were 
 
424 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 never to serve as free men. He had told the senate by letter 
 that the question was not so much what the men wanted as 
 what they had deserved, adding that up to that day he had had 
 from them good and brave services, and that all they wanted 
 to make them the equal to a regular soldier was their free- 
 dom. Leave was given him to do in the matter whatever 
 he thought was for the state's interest. Accordingly, before he 
 engaged the enemy, he publicly gave out that the long-hoped- 
 for opportunity of winning their freedom had arrived. Next 
 day he would fight a pitched battle in the clear, open plain, 
 where, without any fear of ambuscades, matters could be de- 
 cided by genuine valour. Whoever brought back the head of 
 an enemy, should at once by his order be a free man ; but any 
 one who quitted his post should suffer the death of a slave. 
 Every man's fortune was in his own hand ; their freedom would 
 be guaranteed, not by himself only, but by the consul, Marcus 
 Marcellus, and the entire senate, whom he had consulted re- 
 specting it, and who had allowed him to decide. 
 
 Gracchus then read out to them the consul's despatch and 
 the senate's resolution. Thereupon they raised a shout of 
 hearty approval, clamouring for battle, and furiously insisting 
 that he should forthwith give the signal. Gracchus, having 
 given out that he would fight next day, dismissed the assem- 
 bly. The men were overjoyed, especially those who were to 
 have their freedom as the reward of one day's good service, 
 and spent their remaining time in getting their arms in 
 readiness. 
 
 Next day, as soon as the signal began to sound, they were 
 the very first to assemble, prepared and armed, at the gen- 
 eral's tent. With sunrise Gracchus led out his army to battle, 
 The enemy too showed no hesitation about fighting. He had 
 seventeen thousand infantry, chiefly Bruttians and Lucanians, 
 and twelve hundred cavalry, a very few of whom were Italians, 
 the rest being almost all Numidians and Moors. The fight was 
 both fierce and long, and for four hours hung in suspense. 
 Nothing proved more disadvantageous to the Romans than 
 that the enemy's heads had been made the price of freedom. 
 The moment a soldier had promptly slain his foe, he first 
 wasted his time in labouring to cut of? the head amid the 
 crowd and confusion ; then, as his right hand was occupied 
 in holding the head, he who had been the bravest ceased to 
 be a fighter, and so the battle was left in the hands of the 
 slow and timid. Gracchus, on being told by the officers that 
 not a man of the enemy was now being wounded where he 
 stood, but only those who had fallen were beino- beheaded, 
 
B.C. 214] THE ROMANS VICTORIOUS 425 
 
 and that the soldiers carried heads in their right hands instead 
 of swords, at once had the order given that they were to fling 
 away the heads and rush on the enemy. " Their valour," 
 he said, " was sufficiently clear and conspicuous, and free- 
 dom would be a certainty to such brave men." The battle 
 was then renewed, and the cavalry too charged the enemy. 
 The Numidians promptly met them, and, as the fight of the 
 cavalry v\'as now as fierce as that of the infantry, the result 
 again became doubtful. The generals on either side heaped 
 reproaches on their foe, the Roman taunting the Bruttians 
 and Lucanians with having been repeatedly beaten and con- 
 quered by his ancestors, while the Carthaginian talked of 
 Roman slaves and soldiers fresh from a slave's prison, till at 
 last Gracchus gave out that they must not hope for freedom, 
 unless on that very day the enemy were routed and put to 
 flight. 
 
 At these words their hearts were finally roused, and again 
 raising a shout, like different men, they threw themselves with 
 such force on the enemy that further resistance was impossible. 
 First the Carthaginian troops before the standards, then the 
 soldiers immediately round them, fell into disorder, and at last 
 their whole army was broken. Then there was unmistakable 
 flight, and a rush of fugitives into the camp, in such panic 
 and confusion that even at the camp gates and ramparts not 
 a man stood his ground, and the Romans, who pursued in 
 almost unbroken order, began another fresh battle within the 
 enemy's intrenchments. As the fighting was confined to a 
 narrow space, the slaughter was all the more dreadful. It 
 was helped on, too, by some prisoners who, snatching up 
 swords amid the confusion and forming themselves into a 
 body, cut down the Carthaginians in the rear and hindered 
 their flight. Thus, out of so numerous an army, barely two 
 thousand men, chiefly cavalry, escaped with their commander ; 
 all the rest were slain or captured. Thirty-eight standards 
 were also taken. 
 
 Of the victors about two thousand fell. All the spoil, ex- 
 cept the prisoners, was given to the soldiers, any cattle being 
 also excepted which should be recognised by the owners with- 
 in thirty days. When they had returned to the camp, laden 
 with booty, about four thousand of the volunteer slaves, who 
 had fought rather feebly, and had not broken into the enemy's 
 lines with their comrades, fearing punishment, posted them- 
 selves on a hill not far from the camp. Next day they were 
 marched down by their officers, and came, the last of all, to a 
 gathering of the men, which Gracchus had summoned. The 
 
426 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 pro-consul first rewarded with military gifts the old soldiers 
 according to their respective courage and good service in the 
 late action; then, as regarded the volunteer slaves, he said 
 that he wished to praise all, worthy and unworthy alike, rather 
 than on that day to punish a single man. " I bid you all be 
 free," he added, " and may this be for the good, the prosperity, 
 and the happiness of the state, as well as of yourselves ! " 
 
 A shout of intense and eager joy was raised at these words, 
 while the men one moment embraced and congratulated each 
 other, and the next lifted their hands to heaven with a prayer 
 for every blessing on the Roman people and on Gracchus 
 himself. Gracchus then replied : " Before placing you all on 
 the equal footing of freedom, I was unwilling to distinguish 
 any of you as brave or as cowardly soldiers. Now as the 
 state's promise has been already fulfilled, that all distinction 
 between courage and cowardice may not be obliterated, I re- 
 quire you to give in to me the names of the men who, remem- 
 bering that they had shrunk from the conflict, so lately seceded 
 from us. I will call them one by one and bind them by an 
 oath, that, those only excepted who shall have the excuse of 
 illness, so long as they serve in war, they will take their meat 
 and drink standing, and not otherwise. This penalty you will 
 bear with resignation, if you reflect that you could not possibly 
 have been branded with any lighter mark for cowardice." 
 
 He then gave them orders to gather up the camp furniture. 
 The soldiers carrying or driving their spoil with mirth and 
 jests came again to Beneventum, so full of frolic that they 
 seemed to be returning from a banquet or some great festival 
 rather than from a battle-field. All the people of Beneventum 
 poured out in a crowd and met them at the gates, embracing 
 and congratulating the men and offering them hospitality. 
 Every citizen had prepared a feast in the open court of his 
 house ; to this he invited the soldiers and implored Gracchus 
 to allow them to feast. Gracchus gave permission, on the un- 
 derstanding that they all feasted in public, every man at his 
 own door. All things necessary were brought forth. Wear- 
 ing the cap of liberty ^ or with heads wreathed with white 
 wool, the volunteer slaves feasted, some reclining, others 
 standing and serving and eating at the same time. It seemed 
 a suitable thing for Gracchus to order, as he did on his re- 
 turn to Rome, that a picture of that celebrated day should be 
 painted in the Temple of Liberty, which his father had had 
 
 ' The pileus was shaped like the modern liberty cap, which is derived 
 therefrom. Shaving the head and donning it were parts of the ceremony 
 of emancipation. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] HANNIBAL REPULSED AT NOLA 
 
 427 
 
 built on the Aventine out of money from state fines and had 
 then dedicated. 
 
 During these proceedings at Beneventum, Hannibal, after 
 ravaging the whole country round Naples, moved his camp 
 to Nola. As soon as the consul knew of his approach, he sent 
 for Pomponius, the pro-prsetor, with the army which was in 
 camp overlooking Suessula, and prepared to meet the foe and 
 to fight without any delay. In the silence of night, through 
 the gate that was farthest from the enemy, he sent out Caius 
 Claudius Nero with the main strength of the cavalry. Nero 
 had orders to ride stealthily round the enemy's army and fol- 
 low them up slowly, and throw himself on their rear, as soon 
 as he saw the battle begun. This he failed to accomplish, 
 whether from mistaking the way or from want of time is un- 
 certain. The action began in his absence, and though the 
 Romans had unquestionably the advantage, yet, as the cavalry 
 did not show themselves at the right moment, the arrange- 
 ments for the day were disturbed. Marcellus dared not pursue 
 his foe as he retired, and gave the signal for retreat. But more 
 than ten thousand of the enemy are said to have been slain 
 that day; of the Romans less than four hundred. Toward 
 sunset Nero, with horses and men wearied by a useless march 
 of a day and a night, without so much as having seen the 
 enemy, began to return, and was very heavily censured by the 
 consul, who declared that it was through him that they had 
 not repaid the foe for the defeat of Cannae. Next day the 
 Romans marched out to battle, while the Carthaginians kept 
 themselves within their camp, thus silently confessing their 
 own defeat. The third day Hannibal, who had now relin- 
 quished all hope of possessing himself of Nola, an attempt in 
 which he had never been successful, started in the silence of 
 night for Tarentum, where he sav*' a better prospect of a treach- 
 erous surrender. 
 
 The Romans conducted their affairs at home with quite 
 as much spirit as in the camp. The censors, who from the 
 poverty of the exchequer were entirely free from all business 
 connected with building contracts, turned their attention to 
 controlling morals and punishing the evil ways which had 
 ■ arisen out of war, just as various ills are naturally developed 
 in the body by long disease. First they summoned all who 
 were said to have deserted the state after the battle of Cannje, 
 and to have wished to leave Italy. Of these the chief, Lucius 
 Csecilius Metellus, happened then to be quaestor. He and 
 the others charged with the same offence were ordered to take 
 their trial, and as they could not clear themselves, sentence 
 
428 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. c. 214 
 
 was pronounced that they had held language and made 
 speeches to the injury of the state with the object of organ- 
 izing a conspiracy for the abandonment of Italy. Next were 
 summoned the ingenious persons who sought to explain away 
 an oath : all the prisoners who thought that by stealthily steal- 
 ing back into Hannibal's camp they had redeemed their sworn 
 promise to return. As many of these and of those before- 
 mentioned as had a horse at the state's expense were deprived 
 of it. They were also expelled from their tribe and were all 
 disfranchised. 
 
 The attention of the censors was not, however, confined to 
 the regulation of the senate and of the knights. They erased 
 from the list of the " juniors " ^ the names of all who had not 
 completed four years' service, unless they had had proper dis- 
 charge on the excuse of illness. More than two thousand of 
 such names were included among the disfranchised, and all 
 were expelled from their tribes. To this cruelly severe action 
 of the censors was added a harsh resolution of the senate. 
 All whom the censors had degraded were to serve on foot and 
 be sent to Sicily with what remained of the army at Cannje. 
 This class of soldiers was not to finish its term of service till 
 the enemy had been driven out of Italy. 
 
 Although the censors from the poverty of the exchequer 
 still held aloof from all contracts for the repair of sacred build- 
 ings, for the furnishing horses for the state carriages and from 
 similar things, persons used to the taking of such public con- 
 tracts flocked to them in numbers. They earnestly implored 
 the_ censors to transact business and to give out contracts just 
 as if there had been money in the exchequer. No one they 
 said, would make a claim on the exchequer till the war was 
 over. Next came the owners of the slaves whom Tiberius 
 bempromus had manumitted at Beneventum They said that 
 they had had notice from the three commissioners of finances 
 that they were to receive the value of their slaves, but that thev 
 would not take the money till the war was at an end There 
 bemg this zealous disposition on the part of the commons to 
 relieve the necessities of the exchequer, the money first of 
 wards and then of widows also began to be deposited, and 
 those who paid m this money felt assured that thev could not 
 
 fllh f T''' f . ^ f.n'^PP'y '^ '"°''^ P'°"^ly than to the good 
 faith of the state. Whatever was bought or provided oSt of 
 
 • Each tribe contained ten centuries, being one of "<ieniores- anH one 
 were^dh'Jel Th:Tatr°' ?''^,'^r7>'""y '^'--s into wh7ch the dt z^n 
 Tarj^erVice _D o '"''"^"^ '^°'' ^^^o were within the age of mili- 
 
B. C. 214] CASILINUM TAKEN BY THE ROMANS 429 
 
 it for the wards or widows, was paid for by a note of credit 
 from the quaestor. This generous spirit among private citi- 
 zens spread from the city to the camp ; not a horse-soldier, 
 not a centurion, would accept pay, and any man who took it 
 they tauntingly called a mercenary. 
 
 The consul Quintus Fabius had his camp at Casilinum. 
 The place was held by a garrison of two thousand Campanians 
 and seven hundred of Hannibal's soldiers, under the command 
 of Statins Metius, sent thither by Cneius Magius Atellanus, 
 who that year was supreme magistrate, and who had been 
 arming the slaves and populace indiscriminately, intending 
 to attack the Roman camp while the consul was intent on the 
 siege of Casilinum. Nothing of all this escaped Fabius. He 
 therefore sent to his colleague at Nola, saying that, while he 
 was besieging Casilinum, there must be another army to op- 
 pose the Campanians; either he should come himself, leaving 
 a moderate force at Nola, or if he were detained at Nola and 
 still felt uneasy about Hannibal's movements, he would him- 
 self summon to his aid the pro-consul Tiberius Gracchus from 
 Beneventum. 
 
 Marcellus, on receiving this message, left two thousand 
 troops in garrison at Nola, and marched with the rest of his 
 army to Casilinum. The Campanians, who were beginning to 
 bestir themselves, became quiet on his arrival. And so Casili- 
 num now came to be besieged by the two consuls. Fabius, 
 finding that the Roman soldiers suffered continual losses in 
 heedlessly approaching the walls, and that his attempts had 
 but little success, thought it best, as matters of more impor- 
 tance were pressing them, to retire and abandon an under- 
 taking, small in itself, but quite as difficult as some great enter- 
 prise. Marcellus, however, urged that, though there were 
 many things which a great general ought not to attempt, yet 
 he must not relinquish an attempt once made, as the world's 
 opinion has great weight, for good or ill. He thus maintained 
 his point — that the attempt should not be abandoned. Mant- 
 lets, with every variety of engineering work and machinery, 
 were now applied to the place, and the Campanians implored 
 Fabius to let them depart in safety to Capua. A few had 
 passed out, when Marcellus seized the gate by which they were 
 leaving, and then began an indiscriminate and universal 
 slaughter, first, near the gate, and soon afterward in the town, 
 into which the besiegers had rushed. About fifty Campanians, 
 who were the first to leave, fled to Fabius for refuge, and 
 under his protection reached Capua. While these conferences 
 and protracted appeals for protection were going on, Casili- 
 
430 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 num, at a favourable moment, was taken.^ The captives, such 
 as were Campanians, and all who were Hannibal's soldiers, 
 were sent to Rome, and there imprisoned, while the mass of 
 the townsfolk were scattered among the neighbouring popu- 
 lations to be under surveillance. 
 
 At the very time that the Romans, after their success, with- 
 drew from Casilinum, Gracchus despatched some cohorts, 
 which he had levied in Lucania, under the command of an 
 officer of allies, on a marauding expedition into the enemy's 
 territory. They had dispersed far and wide, when Hanno fell 
 on them and repaid his foe with a defeat nearly as complete as 
 he had himself sustained at Beneventum. He then retired 
 rapidly into Bruttium, to avoid the pursuit of Gracchus. As 
 to the consuls, Marcellus returned, whence he came, to Nola, 
 while Fabius marched into Samnium, to ravage the district, 
 and to recover by arms the revolted cities. Caudium in Sam- 
 nium was cruelly devastated; far and wide was the country 
 fired, and the cattle and inhabitants carried off as booty. 
 Many towns were taken by assault, Compulteria, Telesia,^ 
 Compsa, Fugifute, and Orbitanium. Blanda in Lucania, and 
 i^icse ^ in Apulia, were stormed. In these cities five- and- twenty 
 thousand of the enemy were captured or slain. Three hundred 
 deserters were recovered ; these were sent to Rome by the 
 consul, and were, without exception, scourged in the comi- 
 tium, and then flung from the rock. All this was done by 
 Quintus Fabius in the course of a few days. 
 
 Marcellus was detained by illness from further action at 
 Nola. Meanwhile, Quintus Fabius, the praetor, who had 
 charge of the country round Luceria, took by storm the town 
 Acuca, and established a permanent camp at Ardaneae. Dur- 
 ing these operations of the Romans in other parts, Hannibal 
 had pushed on to Tarentum, utterly destroying everything 
 in his line of march. Arrived, at last, in Tarentine territory, 
 his army began to advance peacefully, injuring nothing, and 
 nowhere quitting its proper route. This was clearly done, 
 not from any moderation in soldiers or general, but only to 
 win the good-will of the Tarentines. When he came almost 
 close to the walls, there was no movement, as he expected, 
 at the sight of his vanguard, and he encamped about a mile 
 
 ' This rather involved paragraph seems to cover a breach of faith on 
 the part of the Romans such as Livy has not even ventured to allege 
 against Hannibal. The character of Marcellus was, in fact, an exaggera- 
 tion of typical Roman traits, good and bad. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Near the modern Telese. — D. O. 
 
 ' Now Troja. The exact location of the rest of these towns is prob- 
 lematical.— D. O. ^ 
 
B. C. 214] HANNIBAL AT TARENTUM 431 
 
 from the city. Three days before Hannibal approached the 
 walls of Tarentum, Marcus Livius had been sent by the pro- 
 praetor Marcus Valerius, commander of the fleet at Brun- 
 disium. He had organized a band of the young nobles, and 
 posted guards, as circumstances required, at all the gates and 
 walls of the city, and by his unflagging vigilance night and 
 day gave neither enemies nor doubtful friends an opportunity 
 of attempting anything. Hannibal, therefore, after uselessly 
 passing some days at the place, as none of those who had paid 
 him a visit at the Lake of Avernus either came themselves or 
 sent him any message or letter, saw that he had been led 
 thither by an idle promise, and moved his camp. Even now 
 he did not injure the Tarentine territory, still clinging to the 
 hope of shaking their loyalty, though his pretended mildness 
 had as yet done him no good. On reaching Salapia,^ as mid- 
 summer was past, and he liked the place for winter quarters, 
 he collected stores of corn from the country round Metapon- 
 tum and Heraclea. His Numidians and Moors were de- 
 spatched on plundering raids through the Sallentine terri- 
 tory, and the downs bordering on Apulia. Here they did not 
 get much booty; it was chiefly herds of horses which they 
 drove off. Of these, about four thousand were distributed 
 among the cavalry to be broken in. 
 
 As the Romans saw that a war which could not possibly 
 be neglected was about to break out in Sicily, and that the 
 tyrant's death had given the Syracusans enterprising leaders 
 rather than led to any change in policy or in public feeling, 
 they assigned the province to one of the consuls, Marcus 
 Marcellus. The murder of Hieronymus was instantly followed 
 by a mutiny among the soldiers at Leontini, and fierce shout- 
 ings that the king's death must be expiated by the blood of 
 the conspirators. But soon the continually repeated phrase 
 " restored freedom," welcome to the ear, the hope of largess 
 out of the royal treasure, and of military service under better 
 leaders, as well as the story of the foul crimes and fouler 
 passions of the tyrant, so wrought on their minds, that the 
 body of the king, so lately the object of their regret, was suf- 
 fered by them to lie unburied. While the rest of the conspira- 
 tors remained on the spot to secure the control of the army, 
 two, Theodotus and Sosis, hurried with all possible speed on 
 the king's horses to Syracuse, bent on the immediate over- 
 throw of the royal minister, who as yet knew nothing. Not 
 only, however, were they forestalled by rumour, and in such 
 matters nothing flies more quickly, but also by a messenger 
 ' Now Salpi.— D. O. 
 
432 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 from among the king's slaves. And so Andranodorus had 
 secured with garrisons both the island,^ the citadel, and every 
 other convenient position he could. 
 
 The sun had set, and the light was quite dim, when The- 
 odotus and Sosis rode into the Hexapylon.^ Displaying the 
 king's blood-stained robe and the crown that had adorned his 
 head, they rode through the Tycha, and summoning the peo- 
 ple to liberty and to arms, bade them assemble in the Achra- 
 dina. Some of the multitude rushed into the streets, some 
 stood in the doorways, others looked out from the windows of 
 their houses, asking incessantly what had occurred. Lights 
 were flaring everywhere, and the whole city was in an up- 
 roar; armed men were gathering in the open spaces, while an 
 unarmed crowd tore down from the Temple of Olympian 
 Jupiter the spoils taken from Gauls and Illyrians, which Hiero 
 had received as a present from the Roman people, and had 
 nailed to the walls. All the time they prayed Jupiter that of 
 his good-will and favour he would grant them the use of those 
 sacred arms, with which to arm themselves in defence of their 
 country, their temples, and their freedom. The multitude also 
 mingled with the guards stationed in the principal districts 
 of the city. Andranodorus had, among other points, posted 
 garrisons in the public granaries in the island. This place, 
 walled in with square stone blocks, and fortified like a castle, 
 was now seized by the band of youth assigned for its defence, 
 and a message was sent to the Achradina that the granaries 
 and the corn were in the possession of the senate.^ 
 
 ' Ortygia.— D. O. 
 
 ' A six-gated tower that formed part of the city wall. — D. O. 
 
 ' Syracuse consisted of four quarters, each in itself a city. They were 
 known as the Island, Tycha, Achradina, and Neapolis. 
 
 The best and fullest description of Syracuse, as it was in the first cen- 
 tury B. c, still a great and magnificent city, though with its old glories 
 greatly diminished, is given us by Cicero, in his oration against Verres. 
 
 " Syracuse, you have often heard, is the largest and finest of Greek 
 cities. So indeed it is. It stands in a particularly strong position, and, 
 whether you approach it by sea or land, it is singularly beautiful to be- 
 hold. It has two harbours, almost surrounded by the buildings of the 
 city, and thus forming with it one object to the eye of the spectator. 
 They have separate entrances, but they join and meet at the point far- 
 thest from the open sea. At this point is the part of the town called the 
 Island, divided from the mainland by a narrow strait, but connected 
 with it by a bridge. So large is the city that it may be said to consist of 
 four cities. One of these is the Island, already mentioned, which is sur- 
 rounded by the two harbours, and juts out toward the mouth of each of 
 them. Here is what was once the palace of King Hiero, and is now the 
 residence of our pra:tors. Here also are several temples, two of which are 
 conspicuously magnificent — one a Temple of Diana, the other of Minerva, 
 which was very richly adorned before the coming of Verres. At the ex- 
 
B.C. 214] THE REVOLUTION AT SYRACUSE 433 
 
 At daybreak all the citizens, armed and unarmed, assem- 
 bled in the Achradina, at the senate-house. There, before the 
 altar of Concord, situate in the place, one of the leading men, 
 Polyjenus by name, delivered a speech, which was both frank 
 and moderate.^ " Men," he said, " who have experienced 
 servitude and its humiliations are hot against an evil which 
 they know well. What mischiefs are introduced by civil dis- 
 cord you Syracusans have heard from your forefathers, rather 
 than actually witnessed. I praise you for taking up arms so 
 promptly; I shall praise you still more if you do not use 
 them, unless driven by extreme necessity. At this crisis it will 
 be well to send envoys to Andranodorus, to warn him that 
 he submit himself to the senate and the people, open the gates 
 of the island, and surrender the fort. Should he wish to make 
 a regency held in trust for another into a tyranny of his own, 
 I, for my part, am in favour of our claiming back our liberties 
 much more fiercely from Andranodorus than from Hierony- 
 mus." 
 
 After this speech the envoys were despatched. Then began 
 a sitting of the senate. This, though during Hiero's reign it 
 had continued to be the state council, had never been con- 
 vened or consulted after his death until that day. Andrano- 
 dorus, on the arrival of the deputies, was alarmed by the 
 unanimity of the citizens, and by the fact that not only were 
 other parts of the city in military occupation, but also that 
 the most strongly fortified part of the island had been sur- 
 rendered and was in hostile hands. But his wife, Damarata, 
 Hiero's daughter, with the spirit of a queen and the arrogance 
 of a woman still swelling within her, called him away from 
 the envoys, and reminded him of a saying often in the mouth 
 of the tyrant Dionysius. One ought to leave a tyrant's throne, 
 he would say, dragged by the heels, and not mounted on a 
 horse. It was easy, at any moment a man pleased, to retire 
 
 tremity of this same Island is a fresli-water fountain, named Arethusa, 
 of extraordinary size, and full of fish ; the waves of the sea would com- 
 pletely overflow it, were it not protected from them by a stone barrier. 
 The second city at Syracuse is called Achradina. This contains a very 
 large forum, very beautiful porticoes, a richly-adorned public hall, a spa- 
 cious senate-house, and a noble Temple of Jupiter Olympus. The re- 
 mainder of this city consists of one broad street and several cross-streets 
 of private houses. The third city is called Tycha, because it contained 
 an ancient Temple of Fortune, as well as a very large gymnasium and 
 several sacred buildings. It is the most thickly-inhabited quarter. The 
 fourth city, Neapolis, as it is called, is that which was last built. At its 
 highest point is a spacious theatre ; it contains also two very fine temples, 
 one of Ceres, the other of Libera, and a statue of Apollo, known by the 
 name of Temenites, of great size and beauty, which Verres would not 
 have hesitated to carry off, had he been able to remove it." — W. J. B. 
 28 
 
434 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 from holding a great position ; to create and win that position 
 was arduous and difficult. " Make the envoys," said Damarata 
 to her husband, "give you a little time for deliberation; use 
 that for getting soldiers from Leontini, and all will be in your 
 power, if you promise them the royal treasures." 
 
 These feminine counsels Andranodorus neither wholly re- 
 jected nor immediately accepted. He thought there was a 
 safer way of securing power by yielding for the present to the 
 exigencies of the crisis. So he bade the envoys take word 
 back that he would submit himself to the senate and people. 
 Next day, at dawn, he threw open the gates of the island, and 
 entered the forum in the Achradina. There he mounted the 
 altar of Concord, from which the day before Polyasnus had 
 delivered his harangue, and began a speech, in which first 
 he apologized for his indecision. He had kept the gates shut, 
 he told them, not to separate his own interests from those of 
 the state, but because he feared as to where bloodshed might 
 end when swords were once drawn, and doubted whether they 
 would be satisfied with the tyrant's death, sufficient though 
 it was for freedom, or whether all who were connected with 
 the palace by kinship or marriage, or in some official capacity, 
 would be slaughtered, as being chargeable with another man's 
 guilt. As soon as he saw that those who had freed their coun- 
 try were resolved to keep it free, and that all were consulting 
 for the common welfare, he no longer hesitated to give back 
 to his country his person and all things intrusted to his pro- 
 tection, inasmuch as the man who had intrusted them to him 
 had been destroyed by his own infatuation. Then turning to 
 the tyrant's assassins, and addressing Theodotus and Sosis 
 by name, he said : " You have done a memorable deed. But, 
 be assured, your glory is only begun; it is not yet complete. 
 The greatest peril awaits us of a free state degenerating into 
 a savage community unless you study peace and unity." 
 
 After this speech, he threw down at their feet the keys of 
 the gates and of the royal treasury. That day, after the assem- 
 bly had broken up, the people in their joy gathered, with 
 wives and children, around all the shrines of the gods. Next 
 day was held a meeting for the election of praetors. Andrano- 
 dorus was one of the first appointed. The majority of the rest 
 had been among the assassins of the tyrant, and two, Sopater 
 and Dinomenes, were elected in their absence. These men, 
 on hearing what had taken place at Syracuse, conveyed to that 
 city the royal treasure at Leontini, and handed it over to 
 financial officials appointed for the purpose. The same was 
 done with the treasures in the island and the Achradina ; and 
 
B. C. 214] THE REVOLUTION AT SYRACUSE 435 
 
 that portion of the wall which fenced of? the island by a need- 
 lessly strong barrier from the rest of the city, was, by general 
 consent, demolished. All their other proceedings, too, were 
 in accordance with this bias of the popular mind toward 
 freedom. 
 
 Hippocrates and Epicydes when the news of the tyrant's 
 death was known, which Hippocrates had sought to conceal, 
 by actually killing the bearer of the tidings, found themselves 
 deserted by the soldiers, and returned to Syracuse, their safest 
 course, as they thought, under existing circumstances. That 
 they might show themselves there without being suspected 
 of seeking an oportunity for revolution, they first approached 
 the praetors, and through them the senate. Hannibal, they 
 affirmed, had sent them to Hieronymus as to a friend and 
 ally; they had obeyed the rule of the man to whom their 
 commander wished them to be subject; now they desired 
 to return to Hannibal. As, however, the journey was not 
 safe while Roman troops were wandering over the whole of 
 Sicily, they begged to be allowed something of an escort to 
 conduct them to Locri in Italy. The Syracusans would thus, 
 by a trifling service, lay Hannibal under a great obligation. 
 
 Their request was readily granted. The departure of the 
 king's generals, needy and daring men, as well as masters of 
 the art of war, was what was desired. But Hippocrates and 
 Epicydes did not carry out their purpose as promptly as the 
 urgency of the business suggested. Meanwhile, some young 
 men, soldiers themselves and intimate associates of the sol- 
 diers, went now among these, now among the deserters, 
 most of whom were Roman seamen, and then again even 
 among the lowest class of the populace, spreading calumnies 
 against the senate and the aristocracy. These, they said, were 
 secretly plotting and contriving to get Syracuse under the 
 power of Rome on the pretext of a restored alliance, and then 
 the faction which had been the authors of the new treaty 
 would be their masters. 
 
 A daily increasing multitude, ready to hear and believe 
 all this, flocked to Syracuse, and gave not only Epicydes but 
 also Andranodorus hopes of a revolution. The latter was 
 at last quite wearied out by his wife's speeches. Now, she 
 would repeat, now was the time to seize the government, while 
 all was in the confusion caused by a new and ill-regulated 
 liberty, while a soldiery that had fattened on the royal pay 
 was still in evidence, and leaders sent by Hannibal and well 
 known to the troops were able to help his enterprise. He 
 communicated his plans to Themistus, the husband of Gelon's 
 
436 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 daughter, and a few days afterward incautiously disclosed them 
 to one Ariston, a tragic actor, to whom he had been wont to 
 intrust also other secrets. Ariston was a man of respectable 
 family and position, which were not disgraced by his profes- 
 sion, as nothing of that kind is a matter of shame to a Greek/ 
 So, thinking that the loyalty he owed his country ought to 
 be his first consideration, he laid the information before the 
 praetors. As soon as they had ascertained by decisive evidence 
 that it was no mere idle tale, they consulted the older senators, 
 and having, with their sanction, placed a guard at the doors, 
 they slew Andranodorus and Themistus as they entered the 
 senate-house. Confusion followed a deed to all appearance 
 unusually atrocious, and of which others did not know the 
 motive, but at last silence was obtained, and the informer was 
 conducted into the chamber. 
 
 The man told the whole story in its proper order, how the 
 beginning of the conspiracy dated from the marriage of 
 Gelon's daughter, Harmonia, to Themistus ; how some African 
 and Spanish auxiliaries had been put in readiness for the mas- 
 sacre of the praetors and chief citizens; how it had been openly 
 announced that the property of these men would be given to 
 their murderers; how a band of mercenaries accustomed to 
 obey the biddings of Andranodorus had been already pro- 
 vided for a second seizure of the island. Lastly, he put before 
 their eyes every detail, how each conspirator was engaged, 
 and the whole conspiracy itself, with its array of armed men. 
 The senate then felt that the victims had deserved their death 
 as much as had Hieronymus. The cries of a bewildered mob, 
 all uncertain as to the facts, were heard at the doors, but as 
 they shouted their savage threats at the entrance of the cham- 
 ber, they were so awe-struck by the sight of the bodies of the 
 conspirators that they silently accompanied the calmer portion 
 of the populace to a public assembly. Sopater was instructed 
 by the senate and his colleagues to address them. 
 
 He began with the past life of the conspirators, just as if 
 he was formally accusing them, and contended that of all the 
 wicked and impious deeds done since the death of Hiero, 
 Andranodorus and Themistus had been the authors. " What," 
 he asked, " could a boy like Hieronymus, barely entering upon 
 youth, have done of his own accord? Guardians and tutors 
 
 ' This was only true of the Greeks in what was now the beginning of 
 their decadence. Through all the classical world at its best the actor's 
 profession was held suited only to the lowest, and at Rome, even so late 
 as the corrupt days of Nero, no act of that insane prince created greater 
 scandal than his assumption of the role of a public singer. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] MURDER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY 437 
 
 had, in fact, reigned while another bore the odium, and there- 
 fore they ought to have perished either before Hieronymus, 
 or at any rate along with him. Yet these men, long ago des- 
 tined to the fate that they deserved, had plotted other new 
 crimes after the tyrant's death. This had been done openly 
 at first when Andranodorus shut the gates of the island, and 
 entered on the royal inheritance, claiming as a master what 
 he had held as a steward. Afterward, finding himself deserted 
 by the occupants of the island, and beleaguered by all the citi- 
 zens as soon as they had possession of the Achradina, he had 
 begun secretly and treacherously to grasp at the sovereignty 
 which he had in vain sought openly and publicly; and, when 
 he who had plotted against freedom was chosen praetor among 
 those who had given this freedom to their country, even fa- 
 vour and promotion could not turn him from his purpose. 
 The truth was that wives of royal birth had inspired them with 
 royal arrogance, for one had married Hiero's, the other 
 Gelon's, daughter." 
 
 At these words there was a shout from every part of the 
 assembly that neither of those women ought to live; that no 
 scion of a family of tyrants ought to survive. Such is the char- 
 acter of a mob; either they are abjectly submissive or inso- 
 lently domineering ; the liberty which lies between these two 
 extremes they can neither desire nor enjoy in moderation. 
 Generally, too, persons are found who minister indulgence 
 to their angry moods, and rouse their eager and intemperate 
 passion to bloodshed and slaughter. So it was on this occa- 
 sion. The praetors at once brought forward a motion, which 
 was accepted almost before it had been made, to have the 
 whole royal family put to death. Damarata and Harmonia, 
 the daughters of Hiero and Gelon, and the wives of Andra- 
 nodorus and Themistus, were executed by men sent by the 
 praetors for the purpose. 
 
 There was a daughter of Hiero, Heraclea, married to Zoip- 
 pus, who, having been sent by Hieronymus as an envoy to 
 King Ptolemy, had chosen voluntary exile. Knowing before- 
 hand that she, too, would receive a visit from the executioners, 
 she fled, with her two maiden daughters, to the shrine where 
 stood the household deities, her hair dishevelled, and her ap- 
 pearance in other respects most pitiable. To this appeal she 
 added also her entreaties. Invoking the memory of her father, 
 Hiero, and her brother, Gelon, she implored them not to 
 suffer an innocent woman to be destroyed by the furious 
 hatred provoked by Hieronymus. She had got nothing from 
 his reign but her husband's banishment; while he lived, her 
 
438 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 position had not been that of her sister's; neither, after his 
 death, had her interests been the same. Need she say that, 
 had the designs of Andranodorus succeeded, her sister would 
 have reigned with him, while she must have been a slave with 
 the rest? Should Zoippus be told that Hieronymus had been 
 slain and Syracuse set free, who could doubt that he would 
 instantly take ship and return to his country? How com- 
 pletely are men's hopes deceived! His country was indeed 
 free, but in it his wife and his children were struggling for life, 
 and yet how had they opposed freedom and law? What dan- 
 ger was there to any one from herself, a solitary woman, all 
 but a widow, or from girls living in orphanhood? They might 
 say that though they feared no danger from her, yet they 
 hated the royal family. Then let them banish her from Syra- 
 cuse and Sicily, and have her conveyed to Alexandria, the 
 wife to the husband, the daughters to the father. 
 
 She saw that their ears and hearts were closed to her, and 
 that a sword was being sharpened, that no time might be lost. 
 Then ceasing to entreat for herself, she was urgent in supplica- 
 tion that they would at least spare her daughters, as even 
 an enemy in his fury did not harm youth like theirs, and they 
 should not in their vengeance on tyrants imitate themselves the 
 crimes they hated. 
 
 While she was speaking, they dragged her from her sanc- 
 tuary and slew her; then they fell on the maidens, who were 
 sprinkled with their mother's blood. Grief and terror com- 
 bined had robbed them of reason, and, as if seized with frenzy, 
 they bounded from the shrine with such a rush that, had 
 escape into the street been possible for them, they would 
 have filled the city with their outcries. Even as it was, within 
 the confined space of the house, and amid a number of armed 
 men, they more than once eluded capture without injury to 
 their persons, and though the hands out of which they had to 
 struggle were many and strong, they tore themselves from 
 their grasp. At last, exhausted with wounds, while the whole 
 place reeked with their blood, they fell lifeless to the ground. 
 This pitiable end was made yet more pitiable by the circum- 
 stance that soon afterward there came a message, the result 
 of a sudden change to a more merciful mood, forbidding their 
 execution. After pity came anger that they had been so hasty 
 in punishment as to leave no room for repentance, no retreat 
 from their vindictive mood. And so the people fumed, and 
 insisted on an election to fill the places of Andranodorus and 
 Themistus, both of whom had been pr^tors, an election which 
 was by no means likely to be satisfactory to the prsetors. 
 
E. C. 214] NEW ELECTION OF PR.«:T0RS 
 
 439 
 
 On the day fixed for the election, to the surprise of all, one 
 man at the extremity of the crowd nominated Epicydes, and 
 another thereupon nominated Hippocrates. The voices then 
 became more frequent, and carried with them the unmistak- 
 able assent of the people. There was disorder, too, in the as- 
 sembly, in which were throngs of soldiers, as well as of citi- 
 zens, and with these were largely mingled deserters, who were 
 eager for a wholesale revolution. At first the praetors pre- 
 tended ignorance, and were bent on delaying matters, but at 
 last, yielding to the unanimous feeling, and dreading a riot, 
 they declared the men elected. 
 
 On being appointed they did not at once disclose their in- 
 tentions. Yet they took it ill that envoys had gone to Appius 
 Claudius to arrange a ten days' truce, and that, this having 
 been granted, others had been sent to negotiate a renewal of 
 the ancient treaty. The Romans had at the time a fleet of a 
 hundred vessels at Murgantia, and were awaiting the result of 
 the disturbances at Syracuse arising out of the murder of the 
 tyrants, and the effect on the people of their new and un- 
 wonted freedom. Meanwhile the Syracusan envoys had been 
 sent by Appius to Marcellus, who was on his way to Sicily, 
 and Marcellus, having heard the terms of peace, and thinking 
 that matters could be arranged, himself also despatched an 
 embassy to Syracuse, to discuss publicly with the praetors the 
 renewal of the treaty. And now there was by no means the 
 same quiet and tranquility in the city. As soon as news ar- 
 rived of a Carthaginian fleet being near Pachynus,^ Hippoc- 
 rates and Epicydes, throwing off all fear, pressed the accusa- 
 tion, now before the mercenary troops, now before the desert- 
 ers, that Syracuse was being betrayed to the Romans. And 
 when Appius began to have his fleet stationed at the mouth 
 of the harbour, thinking to encourage the adherence of the 
 other party, this gave a decisive assurance to what were ap- 
 parently idle charges. At first, too, there was a tumultu- 
 ous rush of the people to the shore to repel any attempt at 
 landing. 
 
 Amid all this confusion it was decided to summon the 
 citizens to an assembly. Some were for one course, others 
 for another, and they were on the verge of a riot, when Apol- 
 lonides, one of their chief men, addressed them in a speech 
 which, considering the occasion, was salutary. Never, he said, 
 had any state been nearer to ruin or to a prospect of safety. 
 Were all unanimously to lean either to Rome or to Carthage, 
 no state would be in a more fortunate or happy condition. 
 ' The southernmost point of Sicily. — D. O. 
 
440 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 But, should one party drag them one way, another another, 
 then war between the Carthaginians and Romans would not 
 be more frightful than that between the Syracusans them- 
 selves; for within the same walls each faction would have 
 its troops, its arms, and its officers. There ought, therefore, 
 to be a supreme effort to secure unanimity; the question which 
 alliance was the more advantageous, was far less important, 
 and of much lighter moment. Nevertheless, in choosing 
 allies, it would be better to follow the authority of Hiero 
 than that of Hieronymus, and prefer a friendship tried for 
 fifty years with happy results to one which was now strange 
 to them, and which in the past had been untrustworthy. 
 One thing, too, had an important bearing on their delibera- 
 tions. They could refuse peace to the Carthaginians without 
 having, at least in the immediate present, to be at war with 
 them. With the Romans they must at once be either at peace 
 or war. 
 
 The speech had all the more weight for seeming to show 
 little personal ambition or party spirit. To the praetors and 
 certain select senators were joined also some military advisers, 
 and the officers and commanders of the auxiliaries were called 
 into council. The matter was repeatedly discussed in fierce 
 debates, and at last, as there appeared to be no possible means 
 of waging war with Rome, it was decided to conclude a peace 
 and to send an embassy along with the Roman envoys to se- 
 cure its ratification. 
 
 Not very many days had elapsed when envoys came from 
 Leontini, imploring protection for their territory. This em- 
 bassy seemed to the Syracusans a particularly opportune 
 means of relieving themselves of a disorderly and tumultuous 
 mob, and of getting rid of its leaders. Hippocrates received 
 orders to march thither with the deserters, and these were 
 followed by many of the mercenaries, who made up the num- 
 ber to four thousand. It was an expedition welcome alike to 
 the senders and to the sent. The one hailed it as an opportu- 
 nity for those revolutionary schemes for which they had long 
 been craving; the others rejoiced at the thought that they had 
 cleared their city of its dregs. But they relieved it only for a 
 moment, to relapse, like a diseased body, into a more fatal 
 malady. Hippocrates began ravaging in stealthy raids the 
 borders of the Roman province ; afterward, when troops were 
 despatched by Appius to defend the lands of the allies, he 
 rnade a most murderous onslaught with all his forces on a 
 picket posted to oppose him. Marcellus, on receiving the 
 news, instantly sent envoys to Syracuse to say that the guar- 
 
B. C. 214] MARCELLUS TAKES LEONTINI 441 
 
 antees of peace had been destroyed, and that an occasion of 
 war would never be wanting, unless Hippocrates and Epicydes 
 were banished, not only from Syracuse, but from the whole 
 of Sicily. 
 
 Epicydes, unwilling either to be present where he might be 
 arraigned for the misdeeds of an absent brother, or to fail to 
 do his part to excite a war, went himself to Leontini, and, as 
 he saw that the citizens were sufficiently exasperated against 
 the Roman people, began to try to alienate them likewise 
 from the Syracusans. He told them that the Syracusans had 
 made peace with the Romans only on the condition that all 
 states which had been under the kings were also to be under 
 Syracusan subjection. They were now not satisfied with free- 
 dom, unless they could rule in kingly fashion and domineer. 
 They ought to have word sent back to them that the Leontines 
 also thought it right to be free. For it was in the streets of 
 their city that the tyrant had fallen ; it was there that the cry 
 of freedom had first been raised, and it was to Syracuse that 
 men flocked after the desertion of the royal leaders.^ That 
 part of the treaty, therefore, ought to be struck out, or the 
 treaty ought not to be accepted with such a condition. 
 
 The mass of the citizens were easily convinced. When 
 the Syracusan envoys complained of the slaughter of the 
 Roman detachment, and insisted on the departure of Hip- 
 pocrates and Epicydes to Locri, or wherever else they pleased, 
 provided only they quitted Sicily, they received a defiant an- 
 swer. They (the Leontines) had not authorized the Syracusans 
 to make peace with the Romans on their behalf, and they were 
 not bound by other peoples' treaties. The Syracusans re- 
 ported this answer to the Romans, and denied that the Leon- 
 tines were under their control. Consequently, they added, 
 the Romans might go to war with them without breaking the 
 treaty between Rome and themselves, nor would they fail to 
 do their part in that war, on condition, however, that, when 
 subdued, the Leontines were again to be under Syracusan sub- 
 jection, as had been stipulated in the peace. 
 
 Marcellus marched for Leontini with his entire army, and 
 summoned Appius also to attack in another quarter. He 
 found such ardour in his troops, from their rage at the slaugh- 
 ter of the detachment during negotiations for peace, that at 
 the very first assault the city was stormed. Hippocrates and 
 Epicydes, as soon as they saw the walls taken and the gates 
 broken open, betook themselves with a few followers to the 
 
 ' The translation is doubtful here, and it is more than possible that the 
 text is defective or corrupt. — D. O. 
 
442 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 citadel. Thence they fled secretly by night to Herbessus.^ 
 The Syracusans had started from home with eight thousand 
 armed men, and were met at the river Myla by news of the 
 capture of the city. As for the details, falsehood was mingled 
 with truth. There had been, the messenger said, an indis- 
 criminate slaughter of soldiers and of townsfolk, and he did 
 not believe that a single adult survived; the city had been 
 pillaged, and the property of the rich given away. 
 
 At these dreadful tidings the army halted. Amid universal 
 excitement the officers (these were Sosis and Dinomenes) con- 
 sulted what they were to do. A reasonable ground for panic 
 was lent to the falsehood by the fact that deserters to the num- 
 ber of two thousand had been scourged and slain by the axe of 
 the executioner. As it was, not a Leontine citizen, not a sol- 
 dier, had been harmed after the city's capture. All their prop- 
 erty had been restored to them, except what had perished in 
 the first confusion of the storming. The Syracusans could not 
 be induced to go to Leontini, complaining that their fellow- 
 soldiers had been betrayed to be slaughtered, or even to await 
 on the spot more certain intelligence. When the prsetors saw 
 an inclination to mutiny, but knew that the stir would not last 
 long if their leaders in folly were removed, they marched the 
 army to Megara.^ They themselves with a few cavalry pushed 
 on for Herbessus in the hope of securing the place by sur- 
 render amid a general panic. Finding their attempt frustrated, 
 and thinking they must use force, they moved their camp next 
 day from Megara, purposing to attack Herbessus with their 
 whole army. Hippocrates and Epicydes thought that their 
 only resource, though it was not at first sight a safe one, was to 
 give themselves up to the soldiers, who for the most part knew 
 them well and who were now infuriated by the rumour of their 
 comrades' slaughter. And so they went out to meet the army. 
 It happened that in the van were the standards of six hundred 
 Cretans who had served under them in the time of Hierony- 
 mus, and were under an obligation to Hannibal by whom they 
 had been taken prisoners at Trasumennus among the Roman 
 auxiliaries and then released. Hippocrates and Epicydes rec- 
 ognising them by their standards and the appearance of their 
 arms, held out olive-branches with other suppliant emblems, 
 imploring them to receive and protect them, and not deliver 
 
 ' This Herbessus (or Erbesus) was about twenty-five miles west of 
 Syracuse. There was another town of the same name near Agrigen- 
 tum.— D. O. 
 
 ' A seaport ten miles north of Syracuse and near the modern Agosta. 
 — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] REVOLT OF THE ARMY 443 
 
 them to the Syracusans by whom they would themselves be 
 soon surrendered to the Romans to be slaughtered. 
 
 They shouted in reply : " Be of good heart ; we will under- 
 go any fate with you ! " During the interview the standards 
 were halted, and the march of the army arrested, but the cause 
 of the delay had not yet reached the commanding officer. 
 When the report spread that Hippocrates and Epicydes were 
 there, and a cry rose from the whole army in hearty approval 
 of their presence, the praetors instantly rode to the van at full 
 gallop. "What is this behaviour?" they asked vehemently; 
 " what means this license of the Cretans in holding conferences 
 with the enemy, and letting them mingle in their ranks without 
 any authority from the praetors ? " They ordered Hippocrates 
 to be arrested and put in irons. The word was followed in- 
 stantly by clamour from the Cretans, which was soon taken 
 up by other soldiers, so that it was evident that the praetors, 
 if they persisted, had cause for alarm. Perplexed and doubtful 
 as to their position, they ordered a retreat to Megara, whence 
 they had come, and sent intelligence to Syracuse about their 
 present situation. Hippocrates, seeing that men's minds were 
 ready for any suspicion, employed a new artifice. He sent out 
 some Cretans to lurk in ambush about the roads, and then read 
 out a letter which he pretended to be an intercepted communi- 
 cation, but which he had composed himself. It was addressed, 
 " The praetors to the consul Marcellus." After the usual greet- 
 ing, it went on to say : " You have acted rightly and properly in 
 not sparing any one at Leontini. But all the mercenary sol- 
 diers are in the same case, and Syracuse will never be at peace 
 as long as there are any foreign auxiliaries either in the city 
 or in their army. Do your best, then, to get into your power 
 those who, with their praetors, are in camp at Megara, and 
 give final freedom to Syracuse by their execution." 
 
 When this letter had been read out, there was everywhere 
 a rush to arms, with such shouting that the praetors rode off 
 panic-stricken amid the disorder to Syracuse. Even their 
 flight did not stop the mutiny, and violent attacks were made 
 on the Syracusan soldiers. None of them would have been 
 spared, had not Epicydes and Hippocrates resisted the fury of 
 the mob. This they did, not out of compassion, or with any 
 humane purpose, but that they might not cut off from them- 
 selves all hope of return. In the soldiers themselves they 
 would thus have loyal adherents and hostages as well, while 
 they would secure the attachment of their kinsfolk and friends 
 in the first instance by this service, and afterward by keeping 
 them as a pledge. Knowing, as they did, by experience, how 
 
444 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 susceptible are the common people to any foolish and ground- 
 less excitement, they pitched on one of the soldiers who had 
 been besieged in Leontini, and engaged him to carry intelli- 
 gence to Syracuse corresponding with what had been falsely 
 reported at Myla. By declaring that he vouched for its truth, 
 and by relating things which were doubtful, as if he had wit- 
 nessed them, he was to rouse the fury of the citizens. 
 
 The man not only won the belief of the populace, but he 
 also profoundly impressed the senate, into whose chamber he 
 was introduced. Men by no means wanting in sense openly 
 avowed that it was very fortunate that the rapacity and cruelty 
 of the Romans had been unmasked at Leontini, and that, had 
 they entered Syracuse, they would have done the same or even 
 more hideous acts, inasmuch as their rapacity would have 
 found there a richer prize. All therefore agreed that they 
 ought to close the gates and guard the city, but all gave not 
 the same directions to their fears and hates. To the military 
 class and the majority of the population the name of Rome 
 was odious, while the praetors and a few of the aristocracy, 
 though the false intelligence had excited them, were for pro- 
 viding against a nearer and a more pressing danger. Already 
 Hippocrates and Epicydes were at the Hexapylon, and there 
 were incessant conversations among the relatives of the native 
 Syracusan soldiers in favour of opening the gates and letting 
 their common country be defended against a Roman attack. 
 
 One of the gates of the Hexapylon had now been opened, 
 and the soldiers were beginning to be admitted when the prae- 
 tors came up. First they tried to check them by commands 
 and threats, then by their influence, and at last, finding it all in 
 vain, regardless of their dignity they had recourse to entreaties, 
 and begged them not to betray their country to men who but 
 lately were the ministers of a tyrant and were now the cor- 
 rupters of the army. But the ears of the infuriated mob were 
 deaf to everything, and the efforts from within to break open 
 the gates were as violent as those from without, till all had 
 been forced and the army was admitted into every part of the 
 Hexapylon. 
 
 The praetors fled with the youth of the citizens to the 
 Achradina. Meanwhile the enemy's army was swollen by the 
 mercenary soldiers, the deserters, and all the late king's troops 
 which were at Syracuse. And consequently the Achradina was 
 taken at the first assault, and all the praetors but those who 
 escaped in the confusion were put to death. Night terminated 
 the massacres. Next day the slaves were called together to 
 receive the cap of freedom, and all prisoners were discharged. 
 
B. C. 214] ROMANS BESIEGE SYRACUSE ^45 
 
 Then this motley assemblage unanimously made Hippocrates 
 and Epicydes prjetors, and Syracuse after a brief gleam of 
 liberty fell back into its old servitude. 
 
 The Romans on receiving this news at once moved their 
 camp from Leontini to Syracuse. Some envoys, as it hap- 
 pened, sent by Appius, had passed through the harbour in a 
 five-banked vessel. A four-banked vessel which had been 
 previously despatched was seized as soon as it entered the har- 
 bour's mouth, and the envoys themselves escaped with diffi- 
 culty. And now even the laws of war as well as of peace were 
 abandoned, when the Roman army encamped at the Olym- 
 pium, which is a temple of Jupiter situated a mile and a half 
 from the city. From this place again it was decided to send 
 an embassy, but the embassy was prevented from entering 
 the city by Hippocrates and Epicydes, who came out to meet 
 it with their partisans. 
 
 The Roman spokesman said that they wished to bring relief 
 and aid, not war, to the people of Syracuse, alike to those who 
 had fled to them for refuge out of the midst of massacre, and to 
 those who under an overwhelming terror were enduring a 
 slavery more horrible than exile and even than death itself. 
 Nor would they allow the atrocious slaughter of their allies to 
 go unavenged. If, therefore, a safe return to their own coun- 
 try was open for the refugees, if the authors of the massacre 
 were surrendered, and freedom and law restored to Syracuse, 
 war was wholly unnecessary. If, however, all this was refused, 
 whoever might be the obstacle, on him the Romans would 
 make war to the uttermost. 
 
 Epicydes replied : " If you had had any message for us, we 
 would have given you an answer. The refugees can return 
 as soon as the government of Syracuse shall be in the hands 
 of those to whom you have come. Should the Romans be the 
 aggressors, you will soon learn by actual facts that it is by no 
 means the same thing to besiege Syracuse as to besiege Leon- 
 tini." He then left the envoys and closed the gates. 
 
 From that moment the siege of Syracuse began both by 
 land and sea, landward on the side of the Hexapylon, sea- 
 ward on that of the Achradina, the walls of which are washed 
 by the waves. The Romans having taken Leontini in the 
 panic of a first assault, felt confident that at some point they 
 would force an entrance into a wide and scattered city, and so 
 they brought up all the machinery employed in the attack of 
 fortified places. 
 
 An attempt made with such impetuous energy must have 
 secured success but for the presence at this crisis of one man 
 
446 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 at Syracuse. This was Archimedes, an unrivalled observer of 
 the heavens and the stars, and yet more wonderful as an in- 
 ventor and contriver of military works and engines by which 
 he could with the utmost ease baffle the enemy's most labori- 
 ous efforts. The wall which was drawn along hills of various 
 heights, lofty for the most part and difScult of approach, 
 though there was also some lower ground accessible from the 
 level of the valleys, he furnished with engines of every descrip- 
 tion, suited to the different localities. Marcellus assailed the 
 fortifications of the Achradina, which, as has been before said, 
 are washed by the sea, with sixty of his five-banked ships, 
 while from his other ships archers, slingers, and light infan- 
 try also, whose special missile is not readily launched by an 
 inexperienced hand,^ suffered scarcely a man to stand un- 
 wounded on the ramparts. As they wanted room to discharge 
 their missiles, they kept the vessels at a distance from the 
 walls. The five-banked ships were lashed together, two and 
 two, with their sides in close contact, oars on the inner side 
 having been removed, and then they were propelled by the 
 outer bank of oars, like one vessel, carrying on board towers 
 of several stories with other contrivances for breaking down 
 the fortifications. 
 
 To oppose this naval attacking force Archimedes set en- 
 gines of all sizes on the ramparts. Against the more distant 
 vessels he discharged stones of prodigious weight ; the nearer, 
 he assailed with missiles, lighter indeed, but all the more inces- 
 sant ; last, he opened numerous apertures, a cubit in diameter, 
 in the wall from the top to the bottom, that his men might 
 shower their darts on the enemy, themselves unwounded. 
 From a concealed position, through these apertures, they 
 galled the enemy, some with arrows, others with small so- 
 called " scorpions." ^ Some vessels came close in, so as to be 
 too near for the range of the engines ; on the bows of these 
 vessels was dropped from a crane projecting over the ramparts 
 an iron grappling-hook fastened to a strong chain, which be- 
 ing swiftly lowered to the ground by a ponderous leaden 
 weight, raised the prow high in air, and set the vessel on its 
 stern. The hook was then suddenly let go, and the vessel, to 
 the great consternation of the sailors, was dashed, as if it had 
 fallen from the walls, with such violence on the waves, that 
 even if it fell straight, it took in a quantity of water. Thus the 
 
 ' This passage has been differently rendered. I am inclined, however, 
 to construe it simply, and as referring merely to the light javelins, the 
 effective darting of which calls for peculiar skill and strength. — D. O. 
 
 * Probably a kind of cross-bow. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 214] HIMILCO LANDS IN SICILY 447 
 
 naval attack was foiled, and the besiegers turned all their 
 efforts to an assault in full force by land. 
 
 Here, too, however, every point had been furnished with 
 the same complete outfit of engines, to which Hiero had 
 for many years devoted time and money, and Archimedes his 
 singular skill. The nature of the ground too helped the de- 
 fence. The rock on which the foundations of the wall were 
 laid is for the most part so steep that not only the missiles dis- 
 charged from the engines, but everything tliat rolled down by 
 its own weight, fell with fatal effect on the enemy. The same 
 circumstance rendered the ascent hard to climb and the foot- 
 ing precarious. Finding therefore that every attempt cov- 
 ered them with ridicule, the besiegers held a council, in which 
 it was decided to abandon all further assaults, and to cut off by 
 a simple blockade the enemy's supplies by sea and land. 
 
 Marcellus meanwhile marched with about a third of his 
 army to recover the cities which had revolted to Carthage dur- 
 ing the late commotions. Helorus and Herbessus he recov- 
 ered by voluntary surrender. Megara, which he stormed, he 
 sacked and destroyed as a terror to all other Sicilians, espe- 
 cially the Syracusans. About the same time Himilco, who had 
 long been with his fleet off the promontory of Pachynus, landed 
 at Heraclea^ (also called Minoa), with twenty-five thousand in- 
 fantry, three thousand cavalry, and twelve elephants ; a much 
 larger force than he had previously had with his fleet off 
 Pachynus. The fact was that as soon as Hippocrates had 
 seized Syracuse, Himilco went to Carthage, and there, being 
 himself on the spot an influential adviser, and also backed 
 up by envoys from Hippocrates and by a letter from Hannibal, 
 in which it was said that the time had arrived for the recovery 
 of Sicily with the highest credit, he had easily prevailed on 
 the people to send across to Sicily as large a force as they could 
 of infantry and cavalry. On arriving he recovered Heraclea 
 and a few days afterward Agrigentum,^ thus kindling in other 
 states which sided with Carthage such hopes of expelling the 
 Romans from Sicily that at last even the besieged Syracusans 
 raised their spirits. Believing that a portion of their forces 
 sufficed for their city's safety, they divided among them the 
 operations of war, Epicydes being intrusted with the direction 
 of the defence, while Hippocrates was to join Himilco and 
 carry on the contest with the Roman consul. 
 
 With ten thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry Hip- 
 
 ' Near the river Halycus, one of the chief Carthaginian naval sta- 
 tions.— D. O. 
 
 ' Now Girgenti.— D. O. 
 
448 LIVVS ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 214 
 
 pocrates marched out of the city by night at a point left un- 
 guarded, and began to form a camp near the town of Acrillae. 
 While they were intrenching it, Marcellus came up on his way 
 back from Agrigentum, which he had found occupied, though 
 he had vainly put forth his utmost speed to get there before 
 the enemy. There was nothing which he less expected than 
 to be met at that time and place by a Syracusan army. Still, 
 being afraid of Himilco and the Carthaginians, for whom, with 
 the force he then had, he was by no means a match, he con- 
 tinued to advance with all possible vigilance, and with his 
 troops prepared for any emergency. 
 
 The precautions which he had so carefully taken against 
 the Carthaginians served him, as it happened, against the Sicil- 
 ians. He came on them, as they were intrenching their camp, 
 scattered, and in disorder, and for the most part tmarmed, and 
 cut off their entire infantry; their cavalry, after a slight skir- 
 mish, fled with Hippocrates to Acrse.^ 
 
 Having by this battle checked the disposition of the Sicil- 
 ians to revolt from Rome, Marcellus marched back to Syra- 
 cuse. A few days afterward Himilco, who had now been 
 joined by Hippocrates, encamped on the river Anapus ^ at 
 about eight miles distance. 
 
 About the same time fifty-five Carthaginian war-ships, 
 under Bomilcar as admiral, sailed into the great harbour of 
 Syracuse, and a Roman fleet too of thirty five-banked vessels 
 disembarked the first legion at Panormus.^ It might have 
 seemed that the war had been altogether diverted from Italy, 
 so intent was each nation on Sicily. The Roman legion which 
 had been landed at Panormus and was on its way to Syracuse, 
 Himilco counted on as his certain prey, but he was deceived as 
 to its route. The Carthaginian took his march inland, while 
 the legion, accompanied by the fleet, proceeded along the 
 coast and joined Appius Claudius, who had advanced to meet it 
 at Pachynus with a part of his army. 
 
 Not a moment longer did the Carthaginians remain at 
 Syracuse. Bomilcar had but little confidence in his fleet, as 
 the Romans had fully twice as many ships, and he saw, 
 too, that useless delay would do nothing but aggravate the 
 scarcity that distressed his allies. He therefore sailed out to 
 sea and crossed to Africa. Himilco too pursued Marcellus to 
 Syracuse without result, hoping for an opportunity of en- 
 gaging him before he was joined by a larger army. But find- 
 ing none, and seeing his enemy safe at Syracuse within forti- 
 
 ■ Now Palazzolo. — D. O. ' Now the Anapo. — D. O. 
 
 ' Now Palermo. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] HIMILCO WITHDRAWS FROM SYRACUSE 445 
 
 fied lines and in great strength, he moved away his camp, not 
 wishing to waste his time in idly watching him and looking on 
 at the blockade of his allies. Wherever he might be invited by 
 a prospect of revolt from Rome, there he meant to bring up 
 his army and give courage by his presence to those who fa- 
 voured his cause. First he recovered Murgantia, the citizens 
 of which betrayed the Roman garrison. Vast stores of grain 
 and supplies of all kinds had there been collected for the 
 Romans. 
 
 This revolt at once encouraged the hopes of other states. 
 Roman garrisons were either driven from their strongholds or 
 were treacherously overpowered. Enna,^ which stood on a 
 height of which every side was a precipice, was not only im- 
 pregnable from its position, but it had also in its citadel a strong 
 garrison commanded by a man not likely to fall a victim to any 
 plot. Lucius Pinarius was a fearless soldier, and one who de- 
 pended more on guarding himself against the possibility of be- 
 ing deceived than on the good faith of the Sicilians. And now 
 his vigilance in taking every imaginable precaution had been 
 quickened by hearing so continually of the betrayals and 
 revolts of cities and of slaughtered garrisons. So, night and 
 day alike, every point was watched and defended by guards 
 and sentries, and not a soldier laid aside his arms or quitted 
 his post. 
 
 Of all this the chief citizens of Enna, who had already been 
 treating with Himiico for the surrender of the garrison, were 
 well aware, and seeing that the Romans were not open to any 
 treacherous surprise, they decided that they must go to work 
 openly. The city and citadel, they said, ought to be in their 
 own control, if they had given themselves up to the Romans 
 to enjoy freedom as allies, and not to be in their keeping as 
 slaves. " We think it fair," said they, " that the keys of the 
 city gates should be returned to us. With good allies, their 
 own loyalty is the strongest bond. It is only if of our own 
 free will and without compulsion we continue in their friend- 
 ship, that the people and senate of Rome can be grateful 
 to us." 
 
 To this the Roman officer replied that he had been charged 
 with the city's defence by his commander-in-chief; that by him 
 he had been intrusted with the keys of the city gates and with 
 the custody of the citadel, and that he did not hold his trust by 
 his own will or that of the citizens of Enna, but from him who 
 had committed it to him. To quit one's post was with tlie 
 Romans a capital offence, a law to which fathers had given a 
 
 ' Now Castro Giovanni. — D. O. 
 29 
 
450 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 314 
 
 sanction by the execution even of their own children. The 
 consul Marcellus was not far off ; they should send envoys to 
 him, as the matter was for his jurisdiction and decision. 
 
 Their answer was a refusal to send envoys, and they sol- 
 emnly declared that if they could do nothing by words, they 
 would seek some means of vindicating their freedom. There- 
 upon Pinarius replied, that if they felt reluctance to send to 
 the consuls, they might at least allow him to meet the people 
 in assembly, so that it might be known whether those threats 
 expressed the mind of all the citizens, or of only a few. By 
 general consent an assembly was proclaimed for the follow- 
 ing day. 
 
 Pinarius, after this conference, retired to the citadel, and 
 called together his soldiers. " You have heard, I presume, 
 soldiers," he said, " how the Roman garrisons have been lately 
 surprised and overpowered by the Sicilians. This treachery 
 you have escaped, first through the good favour of the gods, 
 next through your own valour, and your persistent vigilance, 
 day and night, under arms. Would that it might be possible 
 to get through the future also without either enduring or per- 
 petrating unutterable horrors! This caution which we have 
 hitherto used has been directed against secret treachery ; but 
 as that is unsuccessful, they openly and publicly demand the 
 keys of the city gates. As soon as we have surrendered them, 
 Enna will at once be in the hands of the Carthaginians, and 
 we shall be massacred here more foully than the garrison at 
 Murgantia was massacred. With difficulty I have obtained a 
 single night for deliberation, in which I might inform you of 
 our imminent peril. At daybreak they are to hold an assem- 
 bly, with the object of accusing me and rousing the populace 
 against you. So on the morrow Enna will be deluged either 
 with your blood or with the blood of its citizens. If you are 
 forestalled, there is no hope for you ; if you forestall them, 
 there is no danger. The victory will be his who first draws 
 the sword. You must therefore await the signal ready armed 
 and with the keenest attention. I shall be at the assembly, 
 and I will spin out the time in talking and discussing, till all is 
 ready. When I give the signal by raising my gown, let me 
 hear you raise a general shout ; rush on the crowd and strike 
 down everything with the sword. See that no one survives 
 from whom we can fear either force or fraud. I pray you, 
 Mother Ceres and Proserpina, and all you other gods of the 
 upper and under worlds who haunt this city, and these sacred 
 lakes and groves, to stand by us, willing and propitious helpers, 
 if and if only we are forming this our plan to escape, not to in- 
 
B.C. 214] THE MASSACRE AT ENNA 45 1 
 
 flict, injury. I would say more to exhort you, soldiers, if you 
 were going to fight with armed men. But it will be unarmed 
 and unprepared men whom you will slaughter till you are 
 weary. And the consul's camp is in the neighbourhood, so 
 that we need fear nothing from Himilco and the Cartha- 
 ginians." 
 
 After thus exhorting them he dismissed them to seek re- 
 freshment and rest. Next day some posted themselves at 
 various points to block the streets and close all egress against 
 the citizens, while most of them gathered round the theatre or 
 on the ground above it, as they had been accustomed to be 
 spectators of the assemblies. The Roman commander was 
 then introduced to the people by the magistrates. He stated 
 that to the consul and not to himself belonged the rightful de- 
 cision of the matter, and repeated for the most part what he 
 had said the day before, and they, first with some hesitation, 
 then in increasing numbers, and at last with one voice, bade 
 him surrender the keys. As he hesitated and delayed, they 
 assailed him with savage threats, and it seemed that fatal 
 violence would not be deferred another instant. Then the 
 officer gave with his gown the signal that had been arranged. 
 His soldiers, long eager and prepared, raised a shout and 
 rushed down, some from above taking the assembly in its rear, 
 while others in close array barred every outlet of the theatre. 
 The people of Enna, pent up in the hollow, were cut down, 
 perishing in masses, not only by the sword, but by their own 
 efforts to flee, as they flung themselves over each other's heads, 
 and fell in heaps, the unhurt on the wounded, and the living on 
 the dead. Then followed a wild rush in all directions ; it was as 
 if the city had been stormed ; panic and slaughter were every- 
 where, for the soldiers' fury, though they were cutting down 
 an unarmed crowd, was no less fierce than if an equal peril 
 and the excitement of battle had stirred them up. Enna was 
 thus retained for Rome by an evil, but a necessary, deed. 
 
 Marcellus, far from disapproving of this, gave up the spoil 
 of the city to his troops, in the belief that the Sicilians would 
 be frightened into refraining from treacherous betrayals of the 
 Roman garrisons. And, indeed, this blow falling on a city 
 that lies in the centre of Sicily, and is famous alike for the 
 natural defences which make its position conspicuous, and for 
 the associations which connect every spot with the legendary 
 Rape of Proserpine, was noised throughout the whole island 
 almost in a single day. By this infamous massacre had been 
 dishonoured, so all men felt, the dwelling, not of mortals only, 
 but of gods, and therefore those who had hitherto wavered, 
 
452 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 now revolted to the Carthaginians. Hippocrates and Himilco 
 betook themselves respectively to Murgantia and Agrigentum, 
 on finding that it was to no purpose that they had advanced 
 their forces at the invitation of the traitors to Enna. Mar- 
 cellus returned to Leontini ; there he left a small garrison, 
 after having conveyed to his camp grain and other supplies. 
 He then marched to the blockade of Syracuse, whence he had 
 sent Appius Claudius to Rome to stand for the consulate, ap- 
 pointing in his place Quintius Crispinus to have the charge of 
 the fleet and of the old camp. He himself meanwhile fortified 
 and established a winter camp, five miles from Hexapylon, in 
 a place called Leon. Such were the events which took place 
 in Sicily up to the beginning of the winter. 
 
 The same summer, too, a war which had been apprehended 
 for some time broke out with King Philip. Envoys came from 
 Oricum ^ to Marcus Valerius, the praetor who had charge of 
 the fleet off Brundisium and the neighbouring shores of Cala- 
 bria. They brought news, first, of an attempt made by Philip 
 on Apollonia,^ whither he had sailed up the river with a hun- 
 dred and twenty light two-oared vessels ; next, that, finding 
 success tardier than he had hoped, he had secretly by night 
 marched his army to Oricum, which city, standing as it did in 
 a plain, without the defence of walls or of an armed garrison, 
 had been overpowered at the first assault. With these tidings 
 they coupled a prayer for aid, begging Valerius to defend by 
 land and sea, against one who was an undoubted enemy of 
 Rome, the cities on the coast, which were being threatened 
 merely because they commanded the shores of Italy. 
 
 Marcus Valerius, leaving a force on the spot with Publius 
 Valerius, his lieutenant, arrived the next day at Oricum with 
 his fleet fully equipped and prepared, such of his troops as his 
 war-ships could not receive having been put on board transport 
 vessels. After a single engagement he retook the town, which 
 was held by a small garrison left there by Philip on his de- 
 parture. Envoys now came to him from ApoUonia, to say that 
 they were being besieged because they would not revolt from 
 Rome, and that, unless a Roman force were sent, they could no 
 longer resist the Macedonian attack. Valerius promised that 
 he would do as they wished, and despatched ten thousand 
 picked troops in his war-ships to the mouth of the river under 
 an officer of allies, Quintus Nsevius Crista, an energetic and 
 experienced soldier. Having landed his men, and sent the 
 ships back to the fleet at Oricum, his starting-point, Crista led 
 
 ■ Now Orico, near the mouth of the Aous. — D. O. 
 ' On the same river, about six miles inland. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 214] PHILIP DEFEATED AT APOLLONIA 453 
 
 his detachment along a road at a distance from the river, and 
 mostly free from the king's troops, and entered the city by 
 night, unperceived by any of the enemy. Next day they re- 
 mained quiet, while he was reviewing the youth of Apollonia, 
 and the strength and resources of the city. These, when seen 
 and examined, inspired him with sufficient courage, and hav- 
 ing also ascertained from his scouts the extreme carelessness 
 and negligence of the enemy, he marched out of the town 
 without the slightest noise in the stillness of night, and entered 
 the enemy's camp, which was so unguarded and open that it 
 was generally understood that a thousand men had passed the 
 line before any one was aware of it. Had they refrained from 
 slaughter, they might, it was certain, have reached the royal 
 tent. The enemy was aroused by the slaughter of those who 
 were nearest to the camp gate ; then followed such universal 
 terror and panic that, so far from a single man seizing his arms 
 and endeavouring to drive the foe out of the camp, the king 
 himself fled half naked, just as he was on awakening from sleep, 
 and, in a plight hardly fit for a soldier, much less for a king, 
 hurried to the river and his ships. Thither too rushed wildly 
 the rest of the crowd. Somewhat less than three thousand 
 men were either made prisoners or slain in the camp, but more 
 were captured than killed. 
 
 When the camp had been plundered, the citizens of Apol- 
 lonia brought back to their city the catapults, ballistas, and 
 other engines which had been provided for the siege of their 
 town, to defend its walls in the event of any like subsequent 
 emergency. All the rest of the booty was given up to the 
 Romans. When the news reached Oricum, Marcus Valerius 
 at once moved his fleet to the mouth of the river, that it might 
 not be possible for the king to make his escape on shipboard. 
 Philip accordingly having no confidence that he would be a 
 match for his foe in battle by land or sea, hauled his vessels 
 ashore or burned them, and hurried back overland to Mace- 
 donia with an army for the most part without arms or property. 
 The Roman fleet wintered with Marcus Valerius at Oricum. 
 
 The military operations of this year in Spain had no de- 
 cided result. Before the Romans could cross the Ebro, Mago 
 and Hasdrubal routed an immense host of Spaniards. Spain 
 west of the Ebro would have revolted from Rome had not 
 Scipio rapidly pushed his army across the river, and arrived at 
 the right moment, to confirm the wavering attachment of the 
 allies. First, the Romans established themselves at White 
 Camp, a spot made memorable by the fall of the great Hamil- 
 car. It was a fortified position, and stores of grain had there 
 
454 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 214 
 
 been previously collected. But, as the whole neighbourhood 
 swarmed with the enemy, whose cavalry had with impunity 
 harassed the Romans on their march, slaughtering as many as 
 two thousand loiterers or stragglers in the fields, the Romans 
 retired toward a quiet district, and fortified a camp at Mount 
 Victory. Thither came Cneius Scipio in full force, and Has- 
 drubal, too, the son of Gisgo, making in all three Carthaginian 
 generals, with an army in all respects complete. All three 
 now confronted the Roman camp from the opposite side of 
 the river. Publius Scipio went out unobserved with some 
 light troops to reconnoitre the surrounding country, but he 
 did not delude the enemy. He would have been overpowered 
 on open ground, had he not seized a neighbouring eminence. 
 There he was hemmed in, and released from blockade only 
 by his brother's arrival. 
 
 Castulo,^ a powerful and famous Spanish town, and so 
 closely allied to the Carthaginians that Hannibal married his 
 wife from it, revolted to Rome. The Carthaginians attempted 
 to storm Illiturgis, as there was a Roman garrison in the 
 place, and it seemed that they would reduce it without fail 
 by famine. Cneius Scipio set out with a legion lightly 
 equipped to bring succour to his allies and to the garrison, and 
 passing between the enemy's two camps entered the city, in 
 f^icting on them great loss. Next day he fought them in a 
 sortie that was equally successful. In the two engagements 
 more than twelve thousand of the enemy were slain ; more 
 than a thousand taken prisoners, with thirty-six standards. 
 And so they retired from Illiturgis. Then they began to be- 
 siege Bigerra,^ a city also in alliance with Rome. Cneius 
 Scipio came up and raised the blockade without fighting. 
 
 The Carthaginian camp was next moved to Munda,' and 
 thither the Romans instantly followed them. There was a 
 pitched battle of four hours, and the Romans were winning a 
 decisive victory, when the signal for retreat was given, because 
 Cneius Scipio had his thigh completely pierced by a javelin. 
 A panic seized the soldiers round him, who feared that the 
 wound might be mortal. But for this hindrance there was 
 no question that the Carthaginian camp would have been taken 
 that day. Their soldiers and their elephants too had already 
 been driven into their intrenchments, close to which thirty-nine 
 of the elephants had been transfixed by the Roman darts. It 
 is said that in this battle too there fell upward of twelve thou- 
 
 ' On the upper course of the BiEtis. — D. O. 
 
 ' Probably the modern Becerra. — D, O. 
 
 ^ Its location was probably not far from Corduba. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 214] SAGUNTUM RETAKEN BY THE ROMANS 455 
 
 sand men, and that nearly three thousand were made prisoners, 
 with fifty-seven standards. 
 
 The Carthaginians then retired to the town of Aurinx, 
 whither the Romans pursued them, taking advantage of their 
 terror. There again Scipio engaged them, being borne into 
 the battle on a litter. It was an undoubted victory, though 
 less by half fell of the enemy than in the previous battle ; far 
 fewer indeed surviving to fight. But it is the nature of this 
 people to renew and repair the losses of war, and when Mago, 
 the commander's brother, had been despatched to raise re- 
 cruits, they soon filled up the gaps in their army, and recover- 
 ing their courage ventured on a fresh contest. They had for 
 the most part new soldiers, and feeling themselves on a side 
 which within a few days had been so repeatedly vanquished, 
 they fought with the same spirit and same result as before. 
 More than eight thousand men were slain ; not less than a 
 thousand made prisoners with fifty-eight standards. The 
 spoil taken was chiefly Gallic, a profusion of golden chains and 
 bracelets. In this battle there also fell two renowned Gallic 
 chiefs, by name Moeniaccepto and Vismaro. Eight elephants 
 were taken and three killed. Now that they had won these 
 successes in Spain, the Romans at last felt shame at the town 
 of Saguntum, which had occasioned the war, having been for 
 nearly eight years in the enemy's power. So they retook the 
 place, after forcibly expelling the Carthaginian garrison, and 
 restored it to such of the old inhabitants as the violence of war 
 had spared. The Turdetani, who had involved them in hos- 
 tilities with the Carthaginians, they reduced to subjection, sold 
 them by public auction, and razed their city. 
 
 Such were the Roman operations in Spain during the 
 consulate of Quintus Fabius and Marcus Claudius. As soon 
 as new tribunes entered on their ofifice at Rome, the censors, 
 Publius Furius and Marcus Atilius, were at once summoned 
 by Lucius Metellus, one of the tribunes, to appear before the 
 popular assembly. Metellus had been quaestor in the previous 
 year, and had then been deprived by the censors of his horse, 
 removed from his tribe, and disfranchised, as having engaged 
 at Cannae in a conspiracy to abandon Italy. By the interven- 
 tion, however, of the other nine tribunes, the trial of the de- 
 fendants, while they were in office, was forbidden, and their 
 case was dismissed. They did not complete the census, Furius 
 being prevented by death, and Atilius retiring from office. 
 
 The consular elections were held by the consul Quintus 
 Fabius Maximus. Both consuls were elected in their ab- 
 sence — Quintus Fabius, the consul's son, and Tiberius Sem- 
 
456 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. c. 213 
 
 pronius Gracchus for the second time. The new prsetors were 
 Marcus AtiHus, PubHus Sempronius Tuditanus, Cneius Ful- 
 vius Centumalus, and Marcus ^milius Lepidus, of whom the 
 last three were at the time curule sediles. It is on record that 
 that year, for the first time, dramatic games lasting four days 
 were conducted by these officials. The sedile Tuditanus was 
 the man who escaped at Cannae through the midst of the ene- 
 my, while others were stupefied at the magnitude of the disas- 
 ter. The elections over, the consuls elect were, at the advice 
 of the consul Quintus Fabius, summoned to Rome, and then 
 entered on office. The senate was consulted by them as to the 
 war and the assignment of provinces to themselves and to 
 the prstors, and as to the command of the armies. 
 
 A distribution was accordingly made of the provinces and 
 armies. The war with Hannibal was intrusted to the consuls, 
 with two armies, one of which Sempronius himself had already 
 commanded, Fabius having the other. Each army consisted 
 of two legions. The prsetor Marcus yEmilius, who had the 
 jurisdiction over aliens, was to assign it to his colleague the 
 city praetor, Marcus Atilius, and have the province of Luceria 
 and the two legions which had been under the command of 
 Quintus Fabius, the present consul, when praetor. To Publius 
 Sempronius and Cneius Fulvius fell, respectively, as their 
 provinces, Ariminum ^ and Suessula, each having also two 
 legions. Fabius was to command the city legions, and Tudi- 
 tanus to have those of Manius Pomponius. Some commands 
 and provincial governorships were extended, Claudius retain- 
 ing Sicily within the boundaries which limited Hiero's king- 
 dom, while the old province was to be under Lentulus as pro- 
 praetor.^ Titus Otacilius had the fleet, to which no fresh troops 
 were added. Marcus Valerius had Greece and Macedonia 
 with the legion and fleet he commanded; Quintus Mucius 
 with his old army, consisting of two legions, kept Sardinia. 
 Caius Terentius retained Picenum with the legion already 
 under his command. A vote was carried to raise two addi- 
 tional city legions and twenty thousand allies. Such were the 
 generals, such the armies with which Rome's empire was 
 to be simultaneously defended against a number of attacks, 
 begun or threatened. 
 
 Having raised the two city legions and recruited others, the 
 consuls, before moving from Rome, expiated certain portents 
 of which they had received information. The city walls and 
 
 ' That is, Gallia, of which it was the chief Roman station. — D. O. 
 ' That is, Sicily was now divided into two provinces, the new one being 
 the realm of their former ally. — D. O. 
 
B.C. 213] ELECTIONS HELD 
 
 457 
 
 gates, and also a Temple of Jupiter at Aricia, had been struck 
 by lightning. Moreover, some illusions of the eye and ear had 
 been taken for realities : the semblance of war-ships, which 
 had no existence, had been seen on the river at Tarracina, and 
 at the Temple of Jupiter Vicilinus in the district of Compsa ^ 
 the clash of arms had been heard. The river at Amiternum 
 too had flowed with blood. These portents having been ex- 
 piated in obedience to a resolution of the pontiffs, the consuls 
 took their departure, Sempronius for Lucania, Fabius for 
 Apulia. The father ^ entered the camp at Suessula as his son's 
 lieutenant; the son went out to meet him preceded by the 
 lictors, who were silent out of respect for his high rank. The 
 old man rode past eleven of these officers, upon which the con- 
 sul bade the lictor at his side to mind his duty. The man 
 shouted to the rider to dismount, and then at last the father, 
 springing from his horse, exclaimed, " I wished to try you, 
 my son, and see whether you really knew that you were a 
 consul." 
 
 A native of Arpi,' Dasius Altinius, entered the camp secret- 
 ly by night with three slaves, and promised that for a reward 
 he would betray the town. Fabius having referred the matter 
 to a council, some were of opinion that he ought to be scourged 
 and executed as a deserter, a double-minded man, and conse- 
 quently a common enemy. After the disaster of Cannae he 
 had gone over to Hannibal and drawn Arpi into revolt, as if 
 good faith ought to stand or fall with success. Now that 
 Rome's power was, so to say, reviving, contrary to his hopes 
 and wishes, it would seem still baser to pay back with treachery 
 the victims of treachery in times past. The man who is per- 
 petually changing his side and his sympathies is an unfaithful 
 ally and a contemptible foe. Let him be added to the be- 
 trayers of Falerii and of Pyrrhus,* a third warning to all de- 
 serters. 
 
 To these arguments the consul's father, Fabius, replied : 
 " Men under the excitement of war forget the necessities of the 
 time, and pronounce freely their judgment on each case ex- 
 acdy as if they were at peace. Although we ought above all 
 things to strive and consider how, if possible, not a single ally 
 may revolt from the Roman people, you do not in fact con- 
 sider this, but contend for the duty of holding up as a warning 
 
 ' Apparently a surname of Jupiter among the Hirpini who inhabited 
 this district. — D. O. 
 
 ' Quintus Fabius Maximus, the former dictator. — D. O. 
 
 » In Apulia.— D. O. 
 
 ^ Alluding to the Falerian schoolmaster who offered to surrender his 
 pupils, and to the physician who offered to poison Pyrrhus. — D. O. 
 
458 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 213 
 
 any one who may repent and look back with regret on the old 
 alliance. If people are to be allowed to forsake Rome, but not 
 to return to her, who can doubt that Rome's empire will soon 
 be deserted by its allies, and will see every part of Italy united 
 by treaty to Carthage? Still, I am not the man to think that 
 we ought to put any faith in Altinius. I would follow a mid- 
 dle course, and for the present take him neither for a foe nor 
 for an ally. I should like to see him, while the war lasts, kept 
 in honourable custody near the camp in some state which we 
 can trust. The war over, we must then consider whether 
 punishment was the just due of his previous defection, or par- 
 don that of his subsequent return." 
 
 Fabius won their assent. The man was put in chains, and 
 both he and his companions became prisoners. He had 
 brought with him a very considerable weight of gold, and 
 this by express order was to be kept for him. At Cales he 
 had his liberty during the day under the surveillance of at- 
 tendants ; by night he was in confinement under their watch. 
 People began at first to miss him at his home at Arpi and to 
 inquire after him ; soon rumours spread through the whole 
 town and caused an uproar, men believing that they had lost 
 their chief citizen. In the dread of a revolution envoys were 
 instantly despatched to Hannibal. At this the Carthaginian 
 was by no means displeased, for he had long held the man in 
 suspicion, as one whose loyalty was doubtful, and now he had 
 got a pretext for seizing and selling the property of a particu- 
 larly rich citizen. But as he wished to seem to yield to anger 
 rather than to avarice, he added cruelty to rapacity. He sum- 
 moned to his camp the wife and children of Altinius, and hav- 
 ing held an inquiry, first into the circumstances of his flight, 
 then into the amount of gold and silver left in his house, and 
 ascertained all these particulars, he burned them alive. 
 
 Fabius quitted Suessula and first applied himself vigor- 
 ously to the siege of Arpi. He encamped about half a mile 
 from the city, and having taken a near view of the situation 
 of the city and its walls, he resolved to attack it by preference 
 where it was most strongly fortified, as being there most care- 
 lessly guarded. Having provided everything used in attack- 
 ing towns, he picked out the flower of the centurions from his 
 entire army, putting them under the command of tribunes, 
 gallant officers all of them, and assigning them six hundred 
 soldiers, a sufficiently large force, as he judged. They had 
 orders from him to bring up scaling-ladders to the place se- 
 lected, as soon as the signal of the fourth night watch had 
 sounded. The gate there was low and narrow, leading to an 
 
B.C. 213] FABIUS TAKES ARPI 450 
 
 unfrequented street through a deserted part of the town. 
 When they had scaled the gate with their ladders, they were 
 to hasten to the wall and forcibly break open the bars from 
 the inside, and as soon as they were in possession of a por- 
 tion of the town, they were to give a signal by trumpet for the 
 rest of the army to advance. Fabius assured them that he 
 would have everything prepared and ready. 
 
 All this was promptly done. What seemed likely to prove 
 a hindrance to the attempt mainly contributed to conceal it. 
 A storm which began at midnight drove the guards and sen- 
 tries to slip away from their post and seek shelter in the houses. 
 At first the loud sound of an unusually heavy rain drowned 
 the noise of the men who were working at the gate ; after- 
 ward, when it fell more softly and regularly on the ear, it 
 lulled many that heard it to slumber. As soon as the Romans 
 had possession of the gate, trumpeters were stationed at equal 
 intervals along the street and directed to sound a blast to give 
 notice to the consul. This having been done, as already ar- 
 ranged, he ordered a general advance, and shortly before dawn 
 entered the city through the gate that was broken down. 
 
 This at last awoke the enemy ; the storm too was now 
 abating, and day was breaking. Hannibal had a garrison in 
 the town of about five thousand men, and the citizens them- 
 selves had equipped three thousand soldiers. These were the 
 first set to oppose the enemy by the Carthaginians, who feared 
 treachery in their rear. The fight began in darkness and in 
 narrow streets, the Romans having occupied not only the 
 thoroughfares, but also the buildings which adjoined the gate, 
 to save themselves from being assailed and wounded from the 
 housetops. Some of the inhabitants and some of the Romans 
 recognised each other, and this gave rise to conversations in 
 which the Romans asked what the citizens wanted. What 
 offence had the Romans given them, or what had the Cartha- 
 ginians done for them that they, an Italian people, should be 
 waging war for aliens and barbarians against their old allies, 
 and endeavouring to make Italy pay taxes and tribute to 
 Africa? The people of Arpi excused themselves by saying 
 that they had been sold in utter ignorance by their chief citi- 
 zens to the Carthaginian ; that they had been, in fact, the prey 
 and the victims of a few men. A beginning once made, many 
 more took part in these conversations, till at last the governor 
 of Arpi was conducted by his fellow-citizens to the consul; 
 pledges were given amid the standards and the ranks, and the 
 towns-people suddenly turned their arms against the Cartha- 
 ginians in favour of Rome. Some Spaniards too, to the num- 
 
460 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [B. C. 213 
 
 ber of little less than a thousand, carried over their standards 
 to the consul, simply bargaining with him for the dismissal 
 of the Carthaginian garrison without injury. The city gates 
 were thrown open for the Carthaginian soldiers, who were let 
 go with an assurance of protection and reached Hannibal at 
 Salapia in safety. Arpi was restored to the Romans without 
 the destruction of a single life but that of one man, a traitor 
 long before, and recently a deserter. Orders were given that 
 the Spanish troops should be served with double rations, and 
 the state often availed itself of their brave and faithful service. 
 
 While one consul was in Apulia and the other in Lucania, 
 a hundred and twelve noble Campanian knights, who had 
 started from Capua by permission of the magistrates on the 
 pretext of plundering the enemy's territory, came to the 
 Roman camp overlooking Suessula. They told a sentry who 
 they were, and said that they wished to have an interview with 
 the praetor. Cneius Fulvius was in command of the camp, 
 and on his receiving the message he ordered twelve out of 
 their number to be conducted thither, unarmed. When he 
 heard their request (they asked merely that on the recovery 
 of Capua their property might be restored to them), he re- 
 ceived them all under his protection. The other praetor, Sem- 
 pronius Tuditanus, stormed the town of Aternum,'^ in which 
 more than seven thousand men were made prisoners, and a 
 considerable amount of copper and silver coin taken. 
 
 At Rome a dreadful fire lasted two nights and one entire 
 day. All between the Salinae and the Carmental gate, includ- 
 ing the yEquimselian and Jugarian quarters,^ was levelled to 
 the ground, together with the Temples of Fortune and of 
 Mother Matula: also outside the gate, the fire spread widely, 
 and destroyed many objects, both sacred and profane. 
 
 The same year the two Cornelii, Publius and Cneius, being 
 successful in Spain, where they recovered many old and won 
 some new allies, extended their designs to Africa. Syphax, 
 king of the Numidians, had suddenly become a foe to Car- 
 thage, and to him they despatched three centurions as en- 
 voys, to negotiate a friendship and alliance. He was to be 
 assured that, if he would persist in constant hostility to Car- 
 thage, he would have the thanks of the senate and people of 
 Rome, who would make an effort to repay his services at a 
 seasonable moment and with good interest. The barbarian 
 prince welcomed the embassy. He had a conversation with 
 
 ^ Now Pescara. — D. O. 
 
 ^ Practically all the river front from the base of the Aventine to that of 
 the Capitol. — D. O. 
 
B. C. 213] MASINISSA 461 
 
 the envoys on the science of war, and on hearing the talk of 
 the veterans he perceived, by comparing such a well-organized 
 system with his own, how many things there were of which he 
 knew nothing. Then, desirous of having their aid as good 
 and faithful allies, he first begged that two of the envoys might 
 report their negotiations to their commanding officers, one 
 remaining with him to be his instructor in military matters. 
 For his Numidian people did not understand infantry fighting, 
 and were skilled only with their horses. It was with these that 
 their forefathers from the earliest beginnings of their nation 
 had waged their wars, and it was to these that Numidians were 
 habituated from boyhood. But he had an enemy who trusted 
 to the might of his infantry, and if he wished to be his match 
 in solid strength, he must provide himself with men on foot, 
 and for this his kingdom had an abundant population. Of 
 the science of arming, equipping, and drilling them he was, 
 however, utterly ignorant ; just as in a casually collected 
 crowd, all was disorder and left to chance. 
 
 The envoys replied that they would do as he wished for 
 the present, and received a promise that, should their com- 
 mander not approve the result, the man was to be at once 
 sent back. Quintus Statorius was the name of the envoy who 
 stayed with the king. With the two Romans the Numidian 
 himself despatched envoys to put himself under the protection 
 of the Roman generals. He further gave these envoys in- 
 structions to forthwith encourage desertion among all Numid- 
 ians serving as auxiliaries in Carthaginian garrisons. Sta- 
 torius, out of the numerous youth of the country, raised a force 
 of infantry for the king. This he disciplined as nearly as pos- 
 sible in Roman fashion, teaching the men by drill and by 
 marching them under arms to follow the standards and keep 
 their ranks. So thoroughly did he habituate them to camp- 
 work and proper military duties, that the king soon had as 
 much confidence in his infantry as in his cavalry, and he de- 
 feated his Carthaginian enemy in a regular action in which 
 the armies met on level ground. To the Romans also in 
 Spain the visit of the king's envoys was of great service, as on 
 the rumour of their arrival, there began to be numerous de- 
 sertions on the part of the Numidians. It was thus that a 
 friendship was formed between Syphax and the Romans. The 
 Carthaginians, on hearing this, at once despatched an embassy 
 to Gala, a king who reigned in another part of Numidia, the 
 inhabitants of which are called Massyli. 
 
 Gala had a son Masinissa, seventeen years of age, yet a 
 youth of such character that it was already evident that he 
 
462 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY [b. C. 213 
 
 would make his kingdom larger and more powerful than what- 
 ever he might inherit. It was argued by the envoys that, as 
 Syphax had allied himself with Rome, to make himself more 
 formidable to the kings and nations of Africa, it would be 
 better for Gala in turn to join the Carthaginians as soon as 
 possible, before Syphax could cross into Spain or the Romans 
 into Africa. Syphax could be crushed, while as yet he had 
 nothing from his treaty with Rome except the name of it. 
 Gala, as his son insisted on the war, was easily persuaded to 
 send an army, which, united to the legions of Carthage, de- 
 feated Syphax in a great battle. Thirty thousand men, it is 
 said, fell in the action. Syphax fled from the field with a few 
 horsemen to the Maurusii, a remote tribe dwelling near the 
 ocean, opposite to Gades. His renown gathered the barba- 
 rians round him from all parts, and he soon equipped an im- 
 mense host. But before he could cross with it the narrow 
 strait which parted him from Spain, Masinissa arrived with 
 his victorious army. There, without any aid from Carthage, 
 he carried on the war by himself with Syphax and won great 
 glory. 
 
 Nothing memorable took place in Spain except that the 
 Roman generals secured for themselves the services of the 
 Celtiberian youth on the same terms for which an arrangement 
 had been made with the Carthaginians. They also sent more 
 than three hundred Spaniards of the highest rank into Italy, 
 to excite dissatisfaction among such of their countrymen as 
 were serving among Hannibal's auxiliaries. The only event 
 of the year in Spain remarkable enough to be recorded is, 
 that the Romans never had a single mercenary soldier in their 
 camp till they now had the Celtiberi.^ 
 
 ' There are several previous instances of the employment of mercena- 
 ries of special arms. Perhaps, hovvever, as G. C. Macaulay suggests, they 
 may not have been permitted to occupy a place in the legionary camp. — 
 D. O. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abelux, native of Saguntum, his 
 treachery to the Carthaginians, 
 
 315, 316. 
 
 Acerree, Hannibal retires to, 372 ; 
 takes and burns tlie city, 373. 
 
 Achradina, the, part of the city of 
 Syracuse, 432. 
 
 Acilius, 255. 
 
 Acrs, city in Sicily, 448. 
 
 Acrillas, Hippocrates encamps at, 
 448 ; his command defeated and 
 cut to pieces by Marcellus at, 
 448. 
 
 Actium, battle of, 22. 
 
 Acuca, town in Apulia, taken by 
 Fabius, 430. 
 
 jEbutius, Titus, consul, 93 ; mas- 
 ter of the horse, 94. 
 
 vEbutius, Lucius, consul, 154 ; dies 
 of the plague, 155. 
 
 J£.c2t, town in Apulia, stormed by 
 Fabius, 430. 
 
 Agates Islands, 243, 270, 278 ; 
 Carthaginian fleet sighted off 
 the, 347. 
 
 ^lius, Quintus, Paetus, candidate 
 for the consulship, 328 ; his death 
 at Cannae, 378, 
 
 jEmilius, Lucius, consul, defeats 
 the yEquans and Volscians, 121 ; 
 defeats the Etruscans at the Red 
 Rocks, 131. 
 
 ^milius, Lucius, Papius, finance 
 commissioner, 378. 
 
 ^milius, Lucius, Paulus, envoy to 
 Carthage, 249 ; in Spain and 
 Gaul, 251 ; returns to Rome, 252 ; 
 re-elected consul, 328 ; commis- 
 erated by Fabius on setting out 
 from the city, 331 ; his reply to 
 the speech of Fabius, 333 ; his 
 death at Cannae, 340. 
 
 iEmilius, Marcus, Lepidus. praetor 
 in Sicily at beginning of second 
 
 Punic war, 278 ; praetor, appoint- 
 ed to carry out ceremonies decreed 
 by the Sacred Books, 303 ; candi- 
 date for the consulship, 328 ; fu- 
 neral games for, by his three 
 sons, 3SS. 
 
 jEmilius, Marcus, Lepidus, praetor, 
 456. 
 
 ^milius, Marcus, Regillus, nomi- 
 nated for the consulship, is op- 
 posed by Fabius, 417. 
 
 yEmilius, Titus, consul, 143, 148 ; 
 lays waste the Sabine territory, 
 
 145- 
 
 yEneas, comes to Macedonia, i ; is 
 driven ashore at Sicily, i ; lands 
 in Italy, i ; defeats Etruscans and 
 Rutulians, 3 ; is killed in bat- 
 tle, 3. 
 
 ^neas Silvius, son of Silvius, 4. 
 
 yEquans, 62, 64, loS ; lay siege to 
 Ortona, 122 ; surprise Tusculum 
 by night, 174; are defeated and 
 sent under the yoke, 175 ; ad- 
 vance under Gracchus Cloelius 
 to Algidum, 177 ; sent under the 
 yoke by Lucius Quinctius Cincin- 
 natus, 181. 
 
 ^quimaelian quarter at Rome, fire 
 in the, 460. 
 
 yEquicolae, ancient nation, 39. 
 
 Africanus, son of Cornelius, 275 ; 
 saves his father, 275. 
 
 Agrarian law, first proposed, 119; 
 defeated, 121. 
 
 Agrigentum, city in Sicily, taken 
 by Himiico, 447. 
 
 Agrippa, son of Tiberinus, 4. 
 
 Agrippa Menenius. See Meneni- 
 us. 
 
 Alba, son of Latinus Silvius, 4. 
 
 Alba Longa, built by Ascanius, 3 ; 
 26, 27, 32 ; destruction of, 35 ; 
 prodigies at, 37. 
 
 463 
 
464 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Alban families enrolled among the 
 patricians, 36. 
 
 Albans, under Mettius, desert Tul- 
 lus, 33 ; moved to Rome by Tul- 
 lus, 35. 
 
 Albinus, Lucius, elected tribune of 
 the people, no. 
 
 Albula (Tiber), 3. 
 
 Alcon, a Saguntine, tries to nego- 
 tiate peace with Hannibal, 245 ; 
 deserts to Hannibal, 245. 
 
 Alexandria, 365. 
 
 Alfius, Marius, chief magistrate of 
 the Campanians, 395; his death at 
 Hamse, 395. 
 
 Algidum, city, 149 ; ambassadors 
 sent to the ^quans in camp at, 177. 
 
 Alimentus. See Cincius. 
 
 AUia, the disaster at the, defeat at 
 Cannae compared with, 341, 349. 
 
 Allies, waver in their fidelity to 
 Rome after the battle of Cannae, 
 and many tribes revolt, 354. 
 
 Allif^e, 307, 311. 
 
 Allobroges, Gallic tribe, 261 ; Han- 
 nibal settles a revolution among 
 the, 261. 
 
 Alorcus, a Spaniard, tries to nego- 
 tiate peace between Hannibal and 
 the Saguntines, 245-247. 
 
 Altinus, Dasius, of Arpi, his treach- 
 ery to the Carthaginians, 457 ; 
 wife and children of, burned alive 
 by Hannibal, 458. 
 
 Ambassadors sent to Athens to 
 study the Greek laws, 184. 
 
 Ameriola, taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Amulius, son of Proca, 4 ; drives out 
 Numitor and seizes the kingdom, 
 4 ; assassinated, 6. 
 
 Amusicus, chief of the Ausetani, es- 
 capes to Hasdrubal, 289. 
 
 Anapus, river in Sicily, Himilco en- 
 camps at, 448. 
 
 Ancilia, shields from heaven, 24. 
 
 Ancus Marcius, grandson of Numa 
 Pompilius, made king, 38; insti- 
 tutes religious and other rites, 38, 
 39 ; declares war on the Latins, 
 40; takes Politorium, 40 ; defeats 
 the Latins at Medullia, 40 ; death 
 of, 43. 
 
 Andranodorus, son-in-law of King 
 Hiero of Syracuse, guardian of 
 Hieronymus, 414, 432 ; surren- 
 ders the keys of the city, 434 ; 
 killed at the senate-house, 436. 
 
 Anicius, Marcus, oflScer of the Prae- 
 nestean citizens at Casilinum, 376. 
 
 Anio, river, 109. 
 
 Anio, tribe of, reproved by Fabius 
 at the elections, 417. 
 
 Annius, Marcus, land commission- 
 er, takes refuge at Mutina, 255. 
 
 Antenor, a Trojan, founds a city on 
 the Adriatic, i. 
 
 Antistius, Marcus, sent as envoy to 
 Flaminius at Placentia, 291. 
 
 Antium, city of the Volscians, no, 
 145 ; taken from the Volscians by 
 Titus Quinctius, 147 ; colony sent 
 to, 149 ; colonists conspire with 
 the Volscians and jEquans, 160. 
 
 Antonius, Titus, Merenda, elected 
 into the second college of decem- 
 virs, 188. 
 
 Apiolie, taken by Tarquin, 44. 
 
 Apollonides, citizen of Syracuse, ad- 
 dresses the mob, 439. 
 
 Appius Claudius See Claudius. 
 
 Appolonia, 452. 
 
 Apronius, Gains, elected tribune 
 after the return from the Sacred 
 Mount, 2og. 
 
 Apulia, 302 ; revolts to Hannibal, 
 354- 
 
 Apustius, Lucius, governor of Ta- 
 rentum, 398. 
 
 Aquilii, conspirators with the am- 
 bassadors from Tarquin, 75. 
 
 Aquilius, Gaius, consul, 119; de- 
 feats the Hernicans, 119. 
 
 Arbocala, a town of the Vaccaei, 238 ; 
 stormed by Hannibal, 238. 
 
 Archimedes, his inventions used in 
 the defence of Syracuse, 446. 
 
 Ardanae, in Apulia, Fabius estab- 
 lishes his camp at, 430. 
 
 Ardea, city of the Rutulians, 66, 
 note ; besieged by Lucius Tar- 
 quin, 67 ; citizens of, defrauded 
 by the Romans in a dispute with 
 Aricia, 229-231. 
 
 Argei, 25. 
 
 Aricia, 89, loi ; in dispute with Ar- 
 dea, 229-231 ; are defrauded by the 
 Roman assembly, 229-231. 
 
 Ariminium, 247 ; Sempronius ar- 
 rives at, 280. 
 
 Aristodemus, tyrant, 96 ; delays the 
 Roman corn ships at Cumae, in. 
 
 Aristomachus, citizen of Croton, his 
 treachery, 412. 
 
 Ariston, a tragic actor, gives infor- 
 
INDEX 
 
 465 
 
 mation of the plots of Andrano- 
 dorus and Themistus, 436. 
 
 Arpi, 305 ; Hannibal in winter quar- 
 ters at, 406, 413 ; taken by the 
 Romans, 458-460. 
 
 Arretium, 295. 
 
 Arruns Tarquin. See Tarquinius. 
 
 Arsian wood, 79. 
 
 Ascanius, son of jEneas, 3. 
 
 Ascua, Spanish town, 3S4, 
 
 Asellus, Claudius, his contest with 
 Vibellius Taurea, 406. 
 
 Asina, Cornelius, 255. 
 
 Asylum, established by Romulus, 
 10. 
 
 Atanagrum, town of the Ilergetes, 
 289 ; taken by Scipio, 289. 
 
 Atellani, revolt to Hannibal, 354. 
 
 Atemnates, 11 ; defeated by Romu- 
 lus, 13. 
 
 Aternius, Aulus, consul, 183 ; pa- 
 trician, elected tribune of the peo- 
 ple, 222. 
 
 Aternum, taken by the Romans, 460. 
 
 Atilius, Caius, Serranus, praetor, re- 
 enforces Manlius at Tannetum, 
 255 ; candidate for the consulship, 
 32S. 
 
 Atilius, Lucius, quaestor, killed at 
 Cannae, 341. 
 
 Atilius, Lucius, escapes with the 
 garrison from Locri, 411. 
 
 Atilius, Marcus, Regulus, consul, 
 320, 333 ; takes over the command 
 from Fabius, 325 ; finance commis- 
 sioner, 378 ; censor, 421 ; sum- 
 moned to trial by Metellus, 455 ; 
 praetor, 456. 
 
 Attus Navius, celebrated soothsay- 
 er, 44 ; put to the test by Tarquin, 
 44 ; statue of, 44. 
 
 Atys, son of Alba, 4. 
 
 Aufidus, river, 336. 
 
 Augustus, Emperor Caesar, 22. 
 
 Aulus Verginius. See Verginius. 
 
 Aurelius, Caius, 372. 
 
 Aurelius, Marcus, Cotta, aedile, 388. 
 
 Aurinx, Spanish town, 455. 
 
 Auruncans, 91 ; attack and burn the 
 Roman camp at Pometia, 92 ; de- 
 feated at Aricia, loi. 
 
 Ausetani, a Spanish tribe, reduced 
 by Hannibal, 254 ; surrender to 
 Scipio, 289. 
 
 Austicula, 398. 
 
 Aventinus, King, 4 ; gives name to 
 Aventine Hill, 4. 
 30 
 
 Aventine, 14, 24 ; assigned to the 
 Latins, 40 ; the army under Ver- 
 ginius occupy the, 204. 
 
 Avernus, Lake of, Hannibal at, 422, 
 431- 
 
 Baebius, Quintus, Tamphilus, envoy 
 to Hannibal and to Carthage, 240 ; 
 sent away by Hannibal, 242 ; at 
 Carthage, 242-244 ; returns to 
 Rome, 248 ; member of second 
 embassy to Carthage, 249 ; in 
 Spain and Gaul, 251 ; returns 
 home, 252. 
 
 Baebius, Quintus, Herennius, trib- 
 une, canvasses for Terentius and 
 inveighs against Fabius, 327. 
 
 Balearic Islands, envoys sent from 
 the, to Scipio to sue for peace, 
 314 ; Carthaginian fleet under 
 Hasdrubal wrecked at the, 394. 
 
 Bantius, Lucius, citizen of Nola, 
 won over to the Roman side by 
 the kindness of Marcellus, 370. 
 
 Barcine faction, political party in 
 Carthage, 235, 236, 366. 
 
 Bargusii, a Spanish tribe favour- 
 able to Rome, 251 ; reduced by 
 Hannibal, 254. 
 
 Bassus, Herennius, citizen of Nola, 
 his answer to Hanno, 403. 
 
 Beneventum, 306 ; Gracchus defeats 
 Hanno's army at, 423-425. 
 
 Bibaculus, Furius, 341. 
 
 Bibulus, Publicius, tribune of the 
 soldiers, 344. 
 
 Bigerra, Spanish town, 454. 
 
 Blaesus, Sempronius, quaestor, killed 
 in Africa, 324. 
 
 Blanda, town in Lucania, stormed 
 by Fabius, 430. 
 
 Blossius, Marius, chief magistrate 
 of Campania, 361. 
 
 Boii, Gallic tribe, revolt on hearing 
 of Hannibal's passage of the Ebro, 
 255 ; besiege Mutina, 255 ; offer 
 to guide Hannibal over the Alps, 
 260; defeat the army of Lucius 
 Postumius in Gaul, 381. 
 
 Bomilcar, commander of the Car- 
 thaginian fleet, lands at Locri 
 with re-enforcements for Hanni- 
 bal, 400 ; with a Carthaginian 
 fleet at Syracuse, 448 ; withdraws 
 with his fleet to Africa, 448. 
 
 Bostar, Carthaginian governor of 
 Saguntum, 315, 316. 
 
466 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Bostar, envoy from Hannibal to 
 Philip, 392 ; taken prisoner by 
 the Roman fleet, 393. 
 
 Bovianum, a town in Samnium, 318. 
 
 Brancus, king of the Allobroges, 
 reinstated by Hannibal, 261. 
 
 Bridge across the Tiber, first built, 4. 
 
 Brixian Gauls aid the Romans, 256. 
 
 Brundisinus, Dasius, gives up Clas- 
 tidium to Hannibal, 277. 
 
 Brundisium, 392. 
 
 Bruttii, revolt to Hannibal, 354. 
 
 Bruttians aid Hannibal against the 
 Greek cities, 410, 411. 
 
 Brutus, Lucius Junius, son of Tar- 
 quinia, 66 ; accompanies the Tar- 
 quinii to Delphi, 66 ; makes an 
 offering to Apollo, 66 ; his inter- 
 pretation of the oracle, 66 ; leads 
 the relatives of Lucretia to Rome 
 and incites a revolution, 69, 70 ; 
 is welcomed in the camp, 70 ; 
 elected consul, 71 ; institutes the 
 order of conscripti in the senate, 
 73 ; binds the people by an oath 
 not to suffer kings, 73 ; banishes 
 the Tarquinii from Rome, 74 ; pun- 
 ishes the conspirators, including 
 his two sons, with death for trea- 
 son, 77 ; death of, 79. 
 
 Busa, an Apulian lady at Canu- 
 sium, supplies the Roman refu- 
 gees with aid after Cannte, 343. 
 
 Cadiz. See Gades. 
 
 Csecilius, Lucius, Metellus, advises 
 the abandonment of Italy after the 
 battle of Cannae, 344 ; ordered to 
 trial, 427 ; summons the censors 
 while tribune, 355 ; pontiff, 378. 
 
 Csedicius, Lucius, tribune, 135. 
 
 Caenina, city of the Cseninenses, 
 taken by Romulus, 12. 
 
 Cseninenses assemble to view the 
 games, 11 ; make war on Rome, 
 12 ; are defeated and cut to pieces 
 by Romulus, 12 ; king of the, 
 killed by Romulus, 12. 
 
 Csere, an Etruscan town, 2, 70. 
 
 Caeso Quinctius. See Quinctius. 
 
 Caiatia, 369. 
 
 Calatini, revolt to Hannibal, 354. 
 
 Calavius, Pacuvius, gives over 
 Capua to Hannibal, 356-360 ; 
 banqueted by Hannibal, 362. 
 
 Calavius, young son of Pacuvius, 
 plots to take Hannibal's life, 362, 
 
 Cales, 307. 
 
 Calendar, as appointed by Numa, 
 23, note. 
 
 Callifae, town in Samnium, 307. 
 
 Caloris, river, 423. 
 
 Calpurnius, Caius, taken prisoner 
 at Cannae, envoy to Rome in be- 
 half of the prisoners, 353. 
 
 Calpurnius, Marcus, Flamma, 351. 
 
 Calvus. See Hasdrubal. 
 
 Camenae, 25. 
 
 Cameria, taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Camillus, conqueror of the Gauls, 
 308. 
 
 Campania, ravaged by Hannibal, 
 307. 
 
 Campanians, revolt to Hannibal, 
 terms of the surrender of Capua, 
 360, 361 ; send envoys to the Ro- 
 mans, 358. 
 
 Campus Martins, 52, 76. 
 
 Cannae, 336 ; Roman defeat at, 
 337-341 ; compared with the dis- 
 aster at the AUia, 341 ; report of 
 the battle at Rome, 345 ; com- 
 pared with other Roman and Car- 
 thaginian defeats, 345 ; news of, 
 received at Carthage, 365. 
 
 Canusium, escape from the Roman 
 camp to, after Cannae, 342 ; refu- 
 gees make their way to, 343. 
 
 Capena Gate, 390. 
 
 Capetus, son of Capys, King of 
 Rome, 4. 
 
 Capitol, seized by exiles and slaves 
 under Appius Herdonius, 165 ; 
 recovered by Valerius, aided by 
 the Tusculans, 169. 
 
 Capitolinus. See Quinctius. 
 
 Capua, 306 ; put into Hannibal's 
 hands by Pacuvius Calavius, 356- 
 360 ; Hannibal in winter quarters 
 at, and his army demoralized, 375, 
 
 Capys, son of Atys, 4. 
 
 Carales, in Sardinia, 399. 
 
 Carmenta, a prophetess, mother of 
 Evander, 8. 
 
 Carmental Gate, 131. 
 
 Carpetani, a Spanish tribe, 238 ; at- 
 tack Hannibal, 239 ; are defeated 
 and their country laid waste, 239 ; 
 infantry of, desert Hannibal, 254. 
 
 Cartala, a city of the Olcades, 238 ; 
 taken and plundered by Hanni- 
 bal, 238. 
 
 Carthage, greatness of the war be- 
 tween Rome and, 232 ; envoys 
 
INDEX 
 
 467 
 
 sent from Rome to, 240 ; second 
 embassy from Rome declare war 
 upon, 249, 250 ; news of the vic- 
 tory at Cannae received at, 365 ; 
 receives news of Spanish losses, 
 391. 
 
 Carthage, New, Hannibal takes up 
 winter quarters in, 238, 252 ; 
 country around ravaged by Cn. 
 Scipio, 312 ; invaded by the Celti- 
 beri, 314. 
 
 Carthalo, Carthaginian cavalry com- 
 mander, 309. 
 
 Carthalo, a Carthaginian noble, ac- 
 companies the envoys of the pris- 
 oners to Rome, 348. 
 
 Carvilius, Spurius, proposes that 
 senators be chosen from among 
 the allies, 379. 
 
 Casilinum, guide leads Hannibal 
 to, by mistake, 306 ; Hannibal be- 
 sieges, 373 ; horrors of the siege 
 at, 375 ; surrenders to Hannibal, 
 376 ; taken by Fabius and Mar- 
 cellus, 429 ; Quintus Fabius in 
 camp at, 429. 
 
 Casinum, town in Latium, con- 
 founded with Casilinum by Han- 
 nibal's guide, 306. 
 
 Cassius, Spurius, consul, 92, no, 
 iig ; appointed master of the 
 horse, 93 ; concludes a treaty with 
 the Latins, in ; condemned and 
 put to death, 120. 
 
 Castulo, pass of, occupied by Scipio 
 and his army, 314 ; Spanish town, 
 revolts to Rome, 454. 
 
 Castor, Temple of, dedicated, 121. 
 
 Caudium, in Samnium, ravaged by 
 Marcellus, 401 ; and by the prsetor 
 Fabius, 430. 
 
 Caudine Forks, 308. 
 
 Celeres, body-guard of Romulus, 18. 
 
 Celtiberi, Spanish tribe, 285 ; in- 
 vade province of New Carthage 
 and are victorious, 314 ; employed 
 as mercenaries by Rome, 462. 
 
 Cenomani, Gallic tribe loyal to 
 Rome, 283. 
 
 Census, established by Servius, 50. 
 
 Centenius, Caius, the pro-praetor, 
 his command surrounded and 
 taken prisoners in Umbria, 301. 
 
 Cercina, 324. 
 
 Ceres, consular decrees first depos- 
 ited at the temple of, 211 ; fes- 
 tival of, not celebrated, on ac- 
 
 count of severe loss at Cannse, 
 346- 
 
 Chalbus, chief of the Tartesii, 383. 
 
 Cincinnatus. See Quinctius. 
 
 Cincius, Lucius, Alimentus, Roman 
 historian, taken prisoner by Han- 
 nibal, 267. 
 
 Circe, the goddess, 58. 
 
 Circeii, colonists sent to, 65, note ; 
 taken by the Volscians, 116. 
 
 Circus Maximus, established by 
 Tarquin, 44. 
 
 Cisalpine Gaul revolts to Hanni- 
 bal, 354. 
 
 Cissus, Spanish town, scene of the 
 defeat of Hanno by Scipio, 288. 
 
 Clastidium, delivered over to Han- 
 nibal, 277. 
 
 Claudian tribe, origin of, 91. 
 
 Claudius, Appius, founder of the 
 Claudian tribe, 91 ; consul, 96 ; 
 his conduct toward the debtors, 
 98 ; with Servilius resigns the con- 
 sulship, 103 ; advises the senate 
 concerning the debtors, 105. 
 
 Claudius, Appius, son of Appius, 
 elected consul, 139; sent against 
 the Volscians, 141 ; his severity 
 with the army, 141 ; retreat of the 
 army under, 142 ; trial ordered 
 and postponed, 144 ; dies, 144. 
 
 Claudius, Appius, the decemvir, 
 elected to the first college of de- 
 cemvirs, 185 ; canvasses for re- 
 election, 187, 188 ; seizes Ver- 
 ginia, 197 ; and condemns her to 
 slavery, 201 ; flees from the fo- 
 rum, 203 ; brought to trial by 
 Verginius, 211 ; appeals to the 
 people but is cast into prison, 
 212, 213 ; takes his life the day 
 before his trial, 214. 
 
 Claudius, Appius, Pulcher, tribune 
 of the soldiers, 344 ; praetor, 381. 
 
 Claudius Asellus. See Asellus. 
 
 Claudius, Caius, Cento, interrex, 
 326. 
 
 Claudius, Caius, Nero, at Nola fails 
 in an attempt to attack Hanni- 
 bal's rear, 427. 
 
 Claudius, Gains, son of Appius, 
 consul, 165 ; appeals to the citi- 
 zens in behalf of his brother Ap- 
 pius Claudius, 214. 
 
 Claudius, Gains, uncle of Appius 
 the decemvir, addresses the sen- 
 ate, 193. 
 
468 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Claudius, Marcus, a dependant of 
 
 Appius, the claimant of Verginia, 
 
 197-202 ; condemned, goes into 
 
 exile at Tibur, 215. 
 Claudius, Marcus, Marcellus, sedile, 
 
 388. 
 Claudius, Quintus, a tribune, bill 
 
 introduced by, 290, 291. 
 Clausus, Attus, 91. See Appius 
 
 Claudius, 
 Cloelia, exploit of, 88 ; rewarded by 
 
 the state, 88. 
 Cloelii, Alban family enrolled 
 
 among the patricians by Tullus, 
 
 36. 
 Cloelius, Quintus, consul, 96. 
 Cloelius, Gracchus, chief man among 
 
 the jEquans, leads a hostile army 
 
 into Roman territory, 177. 
 Cluilian trench, 26. 
 Cluilius, Gaius, King of Alba, 25 ; 
 
 dies in his camp, 26. 
 Clusium, Etruscan town, 81, 82. 
 Coelian Mount, added to the city, 
 
 36 ; palace of Tullus, on the, 36. 
 Coelius, ancient historian, 325. 
 Collatia, taken from the Sabines, 
 
 46 ; home of Lucretia, 67. 
 CoUatinus Tarquinius. See Tar- 
 
 quinius. 
 CoUine gate, 85, 86. 
 Combulteria, 398. 
 Cominius, Postumus, consul, 92, 
 
 no. 
 Commons, secede to the Sacred 
 
 Mount, 109. 
 Compsa, town in Samnium, surren- 
 dered to Hannibal, 355 ; stormed 
 
 by Fabius, 430. 
 Concord, Temple of, contracted for, 
 
 326. 
 Conscripti, introduced by Brutus, 
 
 73- 
 
 Consentia, taken by the Cartha- 
 ginians, 387. 
 
 Considius, Quintus, tribune, ap- 
 points day of trial for Menenius, 
 134- 
 
 Consualia, games in honour of 
 Neptunus Equester, established 
 by Romulus, 11. 
 
 Consuls, first elected, 71 ; elected 
 after the resignation of the de- 
 cemvirs, 209, 210, note. 
 
 Contracts for supplying the army 
 taken by private citizens in Rome, 
 408. 
 
 Cora, 91, 97. 
 
 Corbio, taken by the Volscians, 117 ; 
 evacuated by the ^quans, 181 ; 
 attack on the garrison at, by the 
 ^quans, 182 ; razed by the con- 
 sul Horatius, 183. 
 
 Corioli, attacked, no; taken, in; 
 taken by the Volscians, 116. 
 
 Cornelius, Aulus, Mammula, pro- 
 prsetor of Sardinia, 378, 391. 
 
 Cornelius, Aulus, quaestor, appoints 
 day of trial for Marcus Volscius, 
 176. 
 
 Cornelius, Cneius, Lentulus, at the 
 battle of Cannae, 340. 
 
 Cornelius, Cneius, Scipio, sent by 
 his brother into Spain, 262; ar- 
 rives with his army at Emporiae, 
 288 ; defeats Hanno and takes the 
 Carthaginian camp, 288 ; defeats 
 the entire Carthaginian fleet near 
 the Ebro, 313; takes Onusa, New 
 Carthage, Longuntica, and Ebu- 
 sus, 314 ; wounded at Munda, 454. 
 
 Cornelius, Lucius, brother of Mar- 
 cus Cornelius, the decemvir, ad- 
 dresses the senate, 193. 
 
 Cornelius, Lucius, Lentulus, chief 
 pontiff, consults the people con- 
 cerning the keeping of the " holy- 
 spring," 303. 
 
 Cornelius, Lucius, Maluginensis, 
 consul, 173. 
 
 Cornelius, Marcus, elected into the 
 second college of decemvirs, 188. 
 
 Cornelius, Publius, Asina, inter- 
 rex, 327. 
 
 Cornelius, Publius, Lentulus, prae- 
 tor, 419. 
 
 Cornelius, Publius, Merenda, can- 
 didate for the consulship, 328. 
 
 Cornelius, Publius, Scipio, consul, 
 240, 247 ; Spain assigned to, 248 ; 
 sails from Rome, 256 ; arrives at 
 Massilia, 256 ; sends out recon- 
 noitring party along the Rhone, 
 257 ; goes with his army to Ge- 
 noa, 262 ; arrives at Placentia, 
 268 ; addresses his soldiers, 268 ; 
 moves his camp to the river Tre- 
 bia, 276 ; lands with his army in 
 Spain, 315. 
 
 Cornelius, Publius, Scipio, tribune 
 of the soldiers, 344 ; assigned 
 supreme command at Canusium, 
 after Cannae, 344. 
 
 Cornelius, Servius, consul, 120. 
 
INDEX 
 
 469 
 
 Cornelius, Servius, Flamen Quiri- 
 nalis, dies of the plague, 184. 
 
 Corniculum, taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Cornus, town in Sardinia, 399. 
 
 Corsi, 248. 
 
 Corsica, 324, 394. 
 
 Cossus, A. Cornelius, 13. 
 
 Cremera, river, scene of the defeat 
 and destruction of the Fabii by 
 the Veientines, 131. 
 
 Cremona, Roman colony, the Ro- 
 man army in, after the defeat at 
 the Trebia, 285. 
 
 Creusa, wife of ^Eneas before the 
 fall of Troy, 3. 
 
 Crispinus, Quintus, 452. 
 
 Crito, of Boeotia, envoy sent by 
 Philip to Hannibal, 398. 
 
 Croton, Greek town in Bruttium, 
 revolts to Hannibal, 354 ; taken 
 by the Bruttians and Carthagin- 
 ians, 387 ; attacked by the Brut- 
 tians, 411, 412 ; description of the 
 city, 412 ; citizens abandon and go 
 to Locri, 413. 
 
 Crustumerium, taken by Tarquin, 
 46 ; colony sent to, 13. 
 
 Crustumini, assemble to view the 
 games, 11; make war on Rome, 13 ; 
 are defeated by Romulus, 13. 
 
 Cumae, Grecian colony at, 8, note, 
 89, 96, 394 ; besieged by Hanni- 
 bal, 396; the siege raised, 397. 
 
 Cures, a Sabine city, home of Numa 
 Pompilius, 21. 
 
 Curia Hostilia, senate-house built 
 by TuUus, 36, note. 
 
 Curiatii, Horatii and, tradition of, 
 27-30. 
 
 Curiatii, Alban family enrolled 
 among the patricians by Tullus, 
 36. 
 
 Curiatius, Publius, consul, 184 ; 
 elected to the first college of de- 
 cemvirs, 185. 
 
 Curtius, Lacus, so called, 16, note. 
 
 Curtius, Mettius, leader of the Sa- 
 bines, 14. 
 
 Curule chair. 107, note, 
 
 Cyprian street, 57. 
 
 Cyrense, 365. 
 
 Damarata, daughter of Hiero, wife 
 of Andranodorus of Syracuse, 433 ; 
 executed by order of the Syracu- 
 san mob, 437. 
 
 Darius, 63, note. 
 
 Dasius Altinus, See Altinus. 
 
 Debtors, insurrection of the, 97-99. 
 
 Decemvirs, first elected, 185 ; draw 
 up the ten tables, 186 ; seek re- 
 appointment, 186, 187; assume 
 the lictors and authority of ten 
 kings, 188 ; summon the senate, 
 190 ; lead the armies against the 
 Sabines and ^quans, 195 , resign 
 their office upon a decree of the 
 senate, 208 ; go into exile, 215. 
 
 Decimus. See Numerius. 
 
 Decius Magius. See Magius. 
 
 Decius, Publius, Mus, his valour in 
 the Samnite war, 351, 419, 
 
 Delphi, oracle at, consulted by the 
 Tarquinii, 65 ; consulted after 
 Cannae, 347. 
 
 Demaratus, a Corinthian, father of 
 Tarquin, 41. 
 
 Demetrius, of Pharos, his extradi- 
 tion demanded from Philip of 
 Macedon, 326. 
 
 Diana, Temple of, at Ephesus, 53 ; 
 at Rome, 53, 57. 
 
 Dictator, first appointed, 93. 
 
 Diomenes, conspirator against Hie- 
 ronymus, 416 ; elected praetor of 
 Syracuse, 434. 
 
 Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, his cap- 
 ture of the citadel of Croton by 
 stratagem, 413 ; quoted by Dama- 
 rata, 433. 
 
 Druentia, river,the modern Durance, 
 Hannibal crosses the, 261, 262. 
 
 Ducarius, an Insubrian trooper, kills 
 the consul Flaminiusat the bat- 
 tle of Lake Trasumennus, 299. 
 
 Duellius, Marcus, tribune, 141 ; ap- 
 points a day of trial for Appius 
 Claudius, 143. 
 
 Duilius, Caeso, elected into the sec- 
 ond college of decemvirs, 188. 
 
 Duillius, Marcus, leads the people 
 from the Aventine to the Sacred 
 Mount, 206 ; elected tribune after 
 the return from the Sacred Mount, 
 209 ; orders a cessation of public 
 trials for one year, 215 ; success- 
 fully blocks the re-election of the 
 tribunes, 221, 222. 
 
 Ebro, river, boundary between Ro- 
 man and Carthaginian territory 
 in Spain, 236. 
 
 Ebusus, Island of, taken by Cn. 
 Scipio and the Roman fleet, 314. 
 
470 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Egeria, goddess, consulted by Nu- 
 
 ma, 22, 25. 
 Egerius, nephew of Tarquinius Pris- 
 cus, 41 ; left in command at Col- 
 latia, 46. 
 Emporiae, city in Spain, 288 ; Cneius 
 Cornelius Scipio arrives at, with 
 his army, 288. 
 
 Emporium, attacked by Hannibal, 
 285 ; Hannibal wounded at, 285. 
 
 Eneti (Veneti), a nation of north- 
 eastern Italy, I ; driven from 
 Paphlagonia, 2. 
 
 Enna, scene of the legend of the 
 Rape of Proserpine, 449-451 ; mas- 
 sacre of the citizens of, by the Ro- 
 man garrison under Lucius Pina- 
 rius, 449-451- 
 
 Epicydes, envoy sent by Hannibal 
 to Syracuse, 415 ; elected praetor 
 at Syracuse, 439 ; with Hippoc- 
 rates, takes possession of Syra- 
 cuse, 444 ; directs the defence of 
 Syracuse, 445. 
 
 Erbesus. See Herbessus. 
 
 Eryx, mountain in Sicily, scene of 
 Carthaginian defeat in first Punic 
 war, 243, 270; Venus of, temple 
 to, vowed, 304 ; dedicated by Fa- 
 bius Maximus, 389. 
 
 Esparto grass, 314. 
 
 Esquiline, 22 ; enlarged by Servius, 
 52 ; meetings of the commons 
 held on the, 103. 
 
 Esquiline gate, 85 ,223. 
 
 Etruscans, aid Turnus, 2 ; battle 
 with, 78 ; defeated at Aricia, 8g ; 
 defeat the consul Menenius, 133. 
 
 Euganei, driven out by Eneti and 
 Trojans, i. 
 
 Evander, an Acadian, 5 ; introduces 
 writing into Italy, 8. 
 
 Fabii, wounded distributed among 
 the, 129 ; the, undertake the Veien- 
 tine war as a family struggle, 130 ; 
 set out from Rome by the Car- 
 mental gate, 131 ; arrive at the 
 river Cremera, 131; devastate the 
 enemy's country, 131 ; are am- 
 bushed and cut to pieces by the 
 Veientines, 133. 
 
 Fabius, Ceeso, quaestor, 120, note ; 
 consul, 121 ; defeats the ^quans 
 and Volscians, 121; consul, 122, 
 I2g. 
 
 Fabius, Marcus, brother of Cfeso, 
 
 consul, 121, 123 ; refuses a tri- 
 umph, 128. 
 Fabius, Marcus, Buteo, appointed 
 dictator to revise the senatorial 
 roll, 379. 
 Fabius, Quintus, consul, I20, 122 ; 
 
 death of, 127. 
 Fabius, Quintus, Flaccus, pontiff, 
 
 378. 
 Fabius, Quintus, Maximus, envoy 
 to Carthage, 249 ; declares war in 
 the Carthaginian senate, 250 ; in 
 Spain and Gaul, 251 ; returns to 
 Rome, 252; made dictator, 302; or- 
 ders the Sacred Books consulted, 
 302 ; mutiny in his camp headed 
 by Minucius, 307 ; forced to share 
 the command with Minucius, 320 ; 
 comes to the rescue of Minucius, 
 321-323 ; receives Minucius back 
 into his camp, 323 ; gives over the 
 command to Servilius and Atilius, 
 325 ; reproves Terentius and ad- 
 vises ^milius on their setting out 
 from the city, 331 ; pontiff, 378 ; 
 dedicates the Temple of Venus of 
 Eryx, 389 ; consul third time, 390 ; 
 consul fourth time, 419. 
 Fabius Maximus, son of Q. Fabius 
 Maximus, tribune of the soldiers, 
 344 ; curule a:dile, 419 ; encamped 
 at Casilinum, 429 ; takes Casili- 
 nurn, 429 ; ravages the Samnite 
 territory and takes many towns, 
 430; elected consul, 455. 
 Fabius, Quintus, Pictor, Roman his- 
 torian contemporary with second 
 Punic war, 52, 65, 119 ; sent to 
 the oracle at Delphi after the bat- 
 tle of Cannae, 347 ; returns, 365. 
 Fabius, Quintus, Vibulanus, sole 
 survivor of the family after their 
 defeat at Cremera, elected consul, 
 148 ; sends colony to Antium, 
 149 ; consul, 149 ; defeats the 
 .^quans, 150, 151 ; prefect of the 
 city, opposes the Terentilian law, 
 158. 159 : consul, 173 ; marches 
 against Antium, defeats the Vol- 
 scians and takes their camp, 174; 
 goes to the aid of Tusculum, 175 ; 
 ambassador to the jEquans at Al- 
 gidum, 177 ; elected into the sec- 
 ond college of decemvirs, 188 ; 
 his degeneracy commented upon, 
 195- 
 Faesulae, 296. 
 
INDEX 
 
 471 
 
 Faith, festival to, instituted by Nu- 
 ma, 25. 
 
 Falernian plain, 307. 
 
 Famine at Rome, iii. 
 
 Faustulus, a shepherd, finds Romu- 
 lus and Remus, 5. 
 
 Ferentia, the grove of, 58 ; spring 
 of, 60. 
 
 Feronia, Temple of, 36. 
 
 Ficana, capture of, 40. 
 
 Ficulae, taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Ficulean Way, 206. 
 
 Fidense, city, 17, note. 
 
 Fidenates, a Roman colony, 32 ; re- 
 volts, 32 ; defeated by TuUus, 33. 
 
 Fire at Rome, 464. 
 
 Flaccus, Valerius, lieutenant, with 
 Marcellus at Nola, 372. 
 
 Flaminian Meadows, 209 ;• Circus, 
 2og ; Road, 306. 
 
 Flaminius, Caius, elected consul, 
 285 ; enters on his consulship in 
 his absence against the will of the 
 senators, and the auspices, 291 ; 
 his rashness, 297 ; he is entrapped 
 and defeated by Hannibal at Lake 
 Trasumennus, 297-300 ; killed at 
 the battle of Lake Trasumennus, 
 299. 
 
 Flamma, Marcus Calpurnius. (See 
 Calpurnius.) 
 
 Flavoleius, Marcus, a centurion, 
 swears to return victorious, 126. 
 
 Fufetius, Mettius, dictator of the 
 Albans, 26. 
 
 Fugifulae, town in Samnium, 
 stormed by F'abius, 430. 
 
 Fulvius, Caius, Roman quaestor, 
 taken prisoner by Hannibal, 287. 
 
 Fulvius, Cneius, Centumalus, prae- 
 tor, 456. 
 
 Fulvius, Quintus, Flaccus, prsetor, 
 381 ; re-elected, 419. 
 
 Furius, Agrippa, consul, 223 ; with 
 Capitolinus, defeats the ^quans 
 at Corbio, 227-229. 
 
 Furius, lieutenant, brother of Spu- 
 rius Furius, killed, 153. 
 
 Furius, Lucius, consul, 136 ; brought 
 to trial by the tribune Genucius, 
 136. 
 Furius, Lucius, praetor, wounded, 
 
 378. 
 Furius, Marcus, 308. 
 Furius, Publius, consul, 138 ; tri- 
 umvir for distributing the land at 
 Antium, 149. 
 
 Furius, Publius, Philo, praetor, 328, 
 344; summons the senate after 
 Canute, 345 ; censor, 421 ; sum- 
 moned to trial by Metellus, 455 ; 
 his death while augur, 455. 
 
 Furius, Quintus, chiet pontiff, holds 
 the election of tribunes at the 
 Aventine, 209. 
 
 Furius, Sextus, consul, 117, 122. 
 
 Furius, Spurius, Fusus, consul, 151 ; 
 defeated and besieged by the 
 ^quans, 152 ; wounded, 153 ; de- 
 fends Casso, 162. 
 
 Gabii, a city near Rome, 61 ; Tar- 
 quin attempts to take it and is re- 
 pulsed, 61 ; stratagem of Sextus 
 Tarquin against, 62-64. 
 
 " Gabii of the Pool," 61, note. 
 
 Gabinian road, 155. 
 
 Gades, modern Cadiz, 253 ; Hanni- 
 bal goes to pay a vow to Mel- 
 kanh at, 253. 
 
 Ga;tulians, 374. 
 
 Gains Cluilius, King of Alba, 25 ; 
 dies in his camp, 26. 
 
 Gala, king of the Massyli, father of 
 Masinissa, 461. 
 
 Gauls, their attitude toward Rome 
 at the beginning of the second 
 Punic war, 248 ; their answer to 
 the Roman ambassadors, 251 ; 
 gather at Ruscino to oppose Han- 
 nibal, 255 ; attack Manlius, 256 ; 
 two thousand desert to Hanni- 
 bal, 276 ; revolt to Hannibal, 
 354 ; Cisalpine, destroy a Roman 
 army in the forest called Litana, 
 381. 
 
 Geganii, Alban family enrolled 
 among the patricians by Tullus, 
 
 36. 
 
 Geganius, Marcus, Macerinus, con- 
 sul, 222. 
 
 Geganius, Titus, elected consul, 
 III. 
 
 Gelon, son of Hiero, revolts to the 
 Carthaginians, 388 ; his mysteri- 
 ous death, 388. 
 
 Genua, modern Genoa, 262. 
 
 Genucius, Gnaeus, tribune, 136 ; 
 tries Furius and Manlius, 136 ; 
 murder of, 137. 
 
 Genucius, Titus, elected to the first 
 college of decemvirs, 185. 
 
 Genucius, Titus, tribune, appoints 
 day of trial for Menenius, 134. 
 
472 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Gereonium, town in Apulia, 311 ; 
 
 fortified as a base of supplies by 
 
 Hannibal, 311, 317. 
 Geryon, slain by Hercules, 7. 
 Gisgo, envoy from Hannibal to 
 
 Philip, 392 ; taken prisoner by the 
 
 Roman fleet, 393. 
 Gnaeus Marcius. See Marcius. 
 Goat's Pool, the, 18. 
 Gracchus, Titus Sempronius. See 
 
 Sempronius. 
 Great Games, 44. 
 Grumentum, in Lucania, Roman 
 
 success at, 397. 
 
 Hadria, district of, Hannibal in the, 
 302. 
 
 Hamae, 394 ; Campanian camp at, 
 taken by Gracchus, 395. 
 
 Hamilcar Barca, father of Hanni- 
 bal, 235 ; his plans at the time of 
 his death, 235 ; his death at White 
 Camp in Spain, 453. 
 
 Hamilcar, son of Bomilcar, his op- 
 erations against the Greek cities, 
 410. 
 
 Hamilcar, son of Gisgo, surrenders 
 Melita to the consul Semproni- 
 us, 279. 
 
 Hampsicora, citizen of Sardinia, 
 391 ; kills himself, 400. 
 
 Hannibal, as a child swears enmity 
 to Rome, 235 ; succeeds Hasdru- 
 bal in Spain, 236 ; his character, 
 237 ; early operations in Spain, 
 238-240 ; attacks Saguntum, 240 ; 
 wounded at Saguntum, 241 ; takes 
 Saguntum, 247 ; in winter quar- 
 ters at New Carthage, 252 ; as- 
 signs the army, 253 ; has a pro- 
 pitious vision, 254 ; crosses the 
 Ebro, 254 ; encamps at Iliberri, 
 255 ; reaches the territory of the 
 VolcjE, 257 ; defeats the Volcae 
 and crosses the Rhone, 258, 259 ; 
 addresses his soldiers after the 
 crossing of the Rhone, 260 ; set- 
 tles a revolution among the Allo- 
 broges, 261 ; crosses the Alps, 
 262-268 ; addresses his soldiers at 
 the Ticinus, 271 ; victorious at 
 the Ticinus, 275 ; bribes the gar- 
 rison of Clastidium to surrender, 
 277 ; defeats the consular armies 
 under Sempronius at the river 
 Trebia, 282-284 ; wounded in the 
 attack on Emporium, 285 ; at- 
 
 tempts to cross the Apennines 
 but is driven back by storms, 286 ; 
 plots against his life, 293 ; crosses 
 the marshes of the Arno, 295 ; and 
 loses one of his eyes, 296 ; en- 
 traps and defeats the Roman army 
 under Flaminius at the Lake Tra- 
 sumennus, 297-300 ; escapes Fabi- 
 us by a stratagem, 310, 311 ; sets a 
 trap for Minucius, who is rescued 
 by Fabius on the point of defeat, 
 321-323 ; fails in his attempt to 
 entrap ^milius and Terentius, 
 334. 335 ; moves his army to Can- 
 nee, 336 ; his complete defeat of 
 the Roman armies under ./^milius 
 and Terentius, 337-341 ; his un- 
 successful advance on Naples, 
 355 ; enters Capua, 361 ; defeated 
 at Nola by Marcellus, 371, 372 ; 
 besieges Casilinum, 373 ; his army 
 in winter quarters at Capua, 375 ; 
 invests Nola, 403 ; defeated at 
 Nola by Marcellus, 404, 405 ; is 
 repulsed at his camp before Nola 
 by Marcellus, 427 ; advances with 
 his army to Tarentum, 430 ; in 
 winter quarters at Salapia, 431. 
 
 Hannibal, a Carthaginian noble, 
 sent by Hannibal as an envoy to 
 Syracuse, 415. 
 
 Hanno, leader of the oligarchy at 
 Carthage, opposes Hannibal's be- 
 ing sent to Spain, 236 ; pleads for 
 the treaty in the Carthaginian 
 senate, 242-244 ; in favour of 
 peace after the battle of Cannae, 
 367. 
 
 Hanno, left in charge of the passes 
 of the Pyrenees, 254 ; defeated by 
 Cneius Cornelius Scipio and taken 
 prisoner, 288. 
 
 Hanno, son of Bomilcar, his serv- 
 ices at the passage of the Rhone, 
 258. 
 
 Hanno, Carthaginian noble, cap- 
 tured by the Romans in Sardinia, 
 400. 
 
 Harmonia, Gelon's daughter, wife 
 of Themistus, 436 ; executed by 
 order of the Syracusan mob, 437. 
 
 Hasdrubal Calvus, Carthaginian 
 commander, 394 ; sent against 
 Sardinia, 391 ; arrives in Sardin- 
 ia, 399 ; captured and his army 
 annihilated, 400. 
 
 Hasdrubal, brother of Hannibal, 
 
INDEX 
 
 473 
 
 assigned Spain as his province, 
 253 ; crosses the Ebro, 288 ; causes 
 a panic among the Roman marines 
 at Tarraco, 289 ; destruction of 
 his fleet, 313 ; retires to Lusitania, 
 314 ; desertion of his captains, 
 383 ; at war with the Tartesii, 
 384 ; ordered into Italy, 385 ; de- 
 feated at the Ebro by the Scipios, 
 
 387. 
 
 Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 
 235 ; advances the Carthaginian 
 interests in Spain, 235 ; is mur- 
 dered by a barbarian, 236 ; Ro- 
 man treaty with, 236, note, pages 
 233-234, 250. 
 
 Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, Cartha- 
 ginian commander in Spain, 454. 
 
 Hegeas, a Neapolitan noble, killed 
 in Hannibal's attack on Naples, 
 356. 
 
 Helorus, city in Sicily, taken by 
 Marcellus, 447. 
 
 Heraclea, daughter of Hiero, wife 
 of Zoippus, murdered with her 
 two daughters by the Syracusan 
 mob, 437, 438. 
 
 Heraclea, 21 ; battle at, with Pyr- 
 rhus, 349 ; Himilco lands at, 447. 
 
 Heracleitus, envoy sent by Philip to 
 Hannibal, 398. 
 
 Herbessus, 442 ; taken by Marcel- 
 lus, 447. 
 
 Hercules, tradition of, and Cacus, 
 7 ; sacrifices to, as instituted by 
 Evander, 7, 8. 
 
 Herdonius, Appius, a Sabine, with 
 exiles and slaves, seizes the Cap- 
 itol, 165 ; slain at the taking of 
 the Capitol, 169. 
 
 Herennius, 255. 
 
 Herraandica, a town of the Vaccsei, 
 238 ; stormed by Hannibal, 238. 
 
 Herminius, Titus, 83, 85, 86 ; his 
 death, 95 ; kills Mamilius, 95. 
 
 Herminius, Spurius, consul, 222. 
 
 Hernicans, 62, 97 ; defeated by 
 Aquilius, 119 ; treaty with the, 
 119 ; with the Latins, defeat the 
 jEquans and Volscians, 136 ; and 
 Latins, send a golden crown as a 
 gift to Jupiter, 213. 
 
 Herodotus, 63, note. 
 
 Hersilia, wife of Romulus, 13. 
 
 Hexapylon, 432. 
 
 Hiero, King of Syracuse, notifies the 
 praetor .(Emilius of the arrival of 
 
 the Carthaginian fleet, 278 ; sends 
 statue of Victory and supplies to 
 Rome, 329 ; furnishes pay and 
 provisions to the Roman fleet, 
 378 ; his death, 413. 
 
 Hieronymus, son-in-law of Hiero, 
 his nature and career upon his 
 accession to the throne of Sicily, 
 413 ; seeks an alliance with Han- 
 nibal, 415 ; assassinated by the 
 conspirators at Leontini, 416. 
 
 Himera, river in Sicily, 416. 
 
 Himilco, of the Barcine faction, 
 taunts Hanno in the Carthaginian 
 senate, 366 ; lands at Heraclea, in 
 Sicily, 447. 
 
 Hippocrates, envoy sent by Hanni- 
 bal to Syracuse, 415 ; with Epi- 
 cydes, takes possession of Syra- 
 cuse, 444 ; elected praetor at Syra- 
 cuse, 439. 
 
 Hirpini, towns of, recovered by 
 Marcus Valerius, 397 ; send en- 
 voys to Hannibal, 401. 
 
 Histri, 248. 
 
 Hope, Temple of, battle with the 
 Etruscans near the, 133. 
 
 Horatia, killed by her brother, 30 ; 
 tomb of, 32. 
 
 Horatii and Curiatii, tradition of, 
 27-30. 
 
 Horatius, returning home with the 
 spoils of the Curiatii, kills his sis- 
 ter at the gate Capena, 30 ; is tried 
 and acquitted on appeal, 31, 32. 
 
 Horatius Codes, story of his brave 
 keeping of the bridge, 82-84 \ 
 honoured by the state, 84. 
 
 Horatius, Gains, Pulvillus, consul, 
 133, 182 ; razes Corbio and takes 
 Ortona and Algidum from the 
 vEquans, 183 ; augur, dies of the 
 plague, 184. 
 
 Horatius, Marcus, defends Icilius 
 after the murder of Verginia, 202 ; 
 called for by the soldiers on the 
 Aventine, 205 ; sent as ambassa- 
 dor to the Sacred Mount, 207 ; 
 elected first consul after the fall 
 of the decemvirs, 209 ; sent against 
 the Sabines, 213 ; defeats them, 
 220 ; triumph, first decreed by the 
 people, 220 ; refuses re-election to 
 the consulship, 221. 
 
 Horatius, Marcus, Pulvillus, elected 
 consul, 81 ; dedicates the Temple 
 of Jupiter on the Capitoline, 81. 
 
474 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Hostilia, Curia, senate-house built 
 by Tullus, 36. 
 
 Hostilius, Hostius, a Roman gen- 
 eral, killed in battle with the Sa- 
 bines, 14. 
 
 Hostilius, Lucius, Mancinus, de- 
 feated in a cavalry skirmish, 309. 
 
 Hostus, son of Hampsicora, de- 
 feated, 399. 
 
 Human sacrifices offered in the Ox- 
 market, 347. 
 
 Ibera, Spanish town, 386. 
 
 Icilius, Spurius, tribune, 141. 
 
 Icilius, Lucius, betrothed of Ver- 
 ginia, 197 ; causes the secession of 
 the army among the Sabines, 205 ; 
 delivers the address to the am- 
 bassadors at the Sacred Mount, 
 207 ; elected tribune after the re- 
 turn from the Sacred Mount, 209 ; 
 proposes a triumph for Valerius 
 and Horatius, 220. 
 
 Ictumuli, town of the Insubrian 
 Gauls, 274. 
 
 Ilergavonia, 314. 
 
 Ilergetes, a Spanish tribe, 253 ; re- 
 duced by Hannibal, 254 ; revolt 
 to Hasdrubal, 289 ; are defeated 
 by Scipio, 289. 
 
 Iliberri, a Gallic town, Hannibal 
 encamps at, 255. 
 
 Iliturgi, the Scipios defeat the Car- 
 thaginian armies at, 408, 409, 454. 
 
 Illyrii, 248. 
 
 Indibilis, prince of the Ilergetes, 
 14; attacks Roman allies in Spain 
 and is defeated by Scipio, 314. 
 
 Insubres, Gallic tribe, at war with 
 the Taurini, 268 ; revolt on hear- 
 ing of Hannibal's passage of the 
 Ebro, 255. 
 
 Interregnum, first, 20. 
 
 Inuus, festival of Pan Lycfeus, so 
 called by the Romans, 5. 
 
 Isalcas, one of Hannibal's officers, 
 
 374- 
 
 Isfere, river, 261. 
 
 Island, the, part of the city of Syra- 
 cuse, 432. 
 
 lulus. See Ascanius. 
 
 Janus Quirinus, 39. 
 
 Janus, Temple of, built by Numa, 
 
 22 ; when closed, 22. 
 Janiculum, added to the city, 41 ; 
 
 surrounded by a wall, 41. 
 
 Julius, Gaius, consul, 122 ; elected 
 to the first college of decemvirs, 
 185 ; appoints a day of trial for 
 Publius Sestius, 186 ; sent as an 
 ambassador to the camp on the 
 Aventine after the murder of Ver- 
 ginia, 205. 
 
 Julius, Gaius, consul, 222. 
 
 Julius, Vopiscus, consul (disputed), 
 136. 
 
 Junius, Marcus, Pera, made dicta- 
 tor, 348 ; marches from Rome, 368. 
 
 Junius, Marcus, Silanus, Roman of- 
 ficer at Naples, 369, 
 
 Juno Lacinia, Temple of, 412. 
 
 Jupiter Elicius, altar to, dedicated 
 by Numa, 24. 
 
 Jupiter Feretrius, Temple of, vowed 
 by Romulus, 13 ; enlarged, 41. 
 
 Jupiter, flamen to, office discharged 
 by king, 23 ; perpetual priest ap- 
 pointed, 23. 
 
 Jupiter Indiges, name of .^neas, 3. 
 
 Jupiter Stator, Temple of, vowed by 
 Romulus, 14. 
 
 Jupiter, Temple of, Capitolinus, 
 foundations laid by Tarquin, 46 ; 
 foundation completed, 64. 
 
 Jupiter, temple to, vowed, 303. 
 
 Labici, taken by the Volscians, 
 117. 
 
 Lacetani, a Spanish tribe, reduced 
 by Hannibal, 254 ; renew Roman 
 alliance, 288 ; revolt, and are sub- 
 dued by Scipio, 289. 
 
 Lacinia, Temple of Juno, 392. 
 
 Laetorius, Caius, curule aedile, 388. 
 
 Laetorius, Marcus, centurion, dedi- 
 cates a Temple of Mercury, 102. 
 
 Lstorius, tribune, 139 ; defies the 
 consular authority and creates 
 disturbance in the assembly, 140. 
 
 Larentia, wife of Faustulus, brings 
 up Romulus and Remus, 5. 
 
 Larcius, Titus, consul, 92 ; ap- 
 pointed dictator, 93 ; consul, 96 ; 
 his opinion concerning the debt- 
 ors, 105. 
 
 Larcius, Spurius, 83, 85. 
 
 Larinum, 317. 
 
 Lars Porsina. See Porsina. 
 
 Lars Tolumnius, of Veil, 13. 
 
 Latin Feast, 293. 
 
 Latinius, Titus, a plebeian, dreams 
 of, and their consequences, 114. 
 
 Latins, first so called, 3. 
 
INDEX 
 
 475 
 
 Latin wars, 38, 40, 61, 94; peace 
 with the, 97 ; send offerings to 
 Jupiter Capitolinus, 97 ; with the 
 Hernicans, defeat the j?!)quans 
 and Volscians, 136 ; and Hernicans 
 send a golden crown as a gift to 
 Jupiter, 213. 
 
 Latinus, King of the Laurentines, i ; 
 makes an alliance with yEneas, 2 ; 
 is killed, 2. 
 
 Latinus Silvius, son of ^neas Sil- 
 vius, 4 ; sends out colonies, 4. 
 
 Laurentum, a province of ancient 
 Italy, I. 
 
 Lavinia, daughter of Latinus, wife 
 of ^neas, 2 ; regent of the Latin 
 state, 3. 
 
 Lavinium, city in Italy, founded by 
 jEneas, 2 ; treaty with, renewed, 
 16; taken by the Volscians, 117. 
 
 Law of appeal, passed by Valerius, 
 80. 
 
 Leontini, city in Sicily, Hieron- 
 ymus assassinated at, 416 ; 431, 
 440; Roman detachment massa- 
 cred at, 440 ; taken by the Ro- 
 mans, 441. 
 
 Lex Sacrata, passed, no, note ; re- 
 vived, 210. 
 
 Liberty, Temple of, 426. 
 
 Licinius, Caius, envoy to Carthage, 
 249; in Spain and Gaul, 251 ; re- 
 turns to Rome, 252. 
 
 Licinius, Gains, elected tribune of 
 the people, no. 
 
 Licinius, Spurius, a tribune of the 
 people, 122 ; forces the agrarian 
 law and is defeated by his col- 
 leagues, 122. 
 
 Lictors, first chosen, whence de- 
 rived, 9, 
 
 Ligures, embassy sent to the, 326. 
 
 Liguria, Hannibal in, 287. 
 
 Lilybaeum, promontory, in Sicily, 
 277 ; defeat of the Carthaginian 
 fleet at, 278 ; Roman fleet from 
 Africa arrives at, 378 ; Otacilius 
 crosses from, into Africa, 400. 
 
 Liparee Islands, Carthaginian ships 
 at the, 277. 
 
 Litana, forest, so called by the 
 Gauls, 381. 
 
 Liternum, 394. 
 
 Livius, Marcus, envoy to Carthage, 
 249; in Spain and Gaul, 251 ; re- 
 turns to Rome, 252 ; sent to the 
 defence of Tarentum, 431. 
 
 Locri, revolts to Hannibal, 354; ta- 
 ken by the Bruttians and Cartha- 
 ginians, 388 ; taken by Hanno, 
 410. 
 
 Longula, no, ii6. 
 
 Longuntica, Spanish town, taken 
 by Scipio and the Roman fleet, 
 314- 
 
 Lower Sea, 355. 
 
 Luca, Sempronius in, 287. 
 
 Lucani, revolt to Hannibal, 354. 
 
 Luceres, century of knights, en- 
 rolled by Romulus, 16, 44. 
 
 Luceria, Roman army in winter 
 quarters at, 406, 413 ; country 
 around, ravaged by Fabius, 430. 
 
 Lucius Tarquin. See Tarquinius. 
 
 Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, 67 ; 
 story of the rape of, 67-69 ; her 
 death, 69. 
 
 Lucretius, Lucius, quaestor, taken 
 prisoner by Hannibal, 287. 
 
 Lucretius, Lucius, Trincipitinus, 
 consul, 157 ; annihilates the pow- 
 er of the Volscians, 157, 158 ; tri- 
 umph of, 154 ; defends Caeso in 
 the assembly, 162. 
 
 Lucretius, Publius, prefect of the 
 city, 176. 
 
 Lucretius, Spurius, consul, 90. 
 
 Lucretius, Spurius, father of Lu- 
 cretia, 68, 74; elected consul, 80; 
 death of, 81. 
 
 Lucretius, Titus, consul, 81 ; consul 
 for second time, 91. 
 
 Lucumo. See Lucius Tarquinius 
 Priscus. 
 
 Lupercal, festival of the, 5. 
 
 Lusitani, Spanish tribe, 285. 
 
 Lusitania, Hasdrubal retires to, 314. 
 
 Lutatius, Caius, consul, concluded 
 the treaty of the first Punic war, 
 250 ; land commissioner, takes 
 refuge at Mutina, 255 ; his victory 
 at the jEgusan Islands in the first 
 Punic war, 308. 
 
 Macedonia, JEneas arrives in, i. 
 Magalus, chief of the Boii, 260 ; 
 
 offers to guide Hannibal across 
 
 the Alps, 260. 
 Magius, Cneius Atellanus, chief 
 
 magistrate of the Campanians, 
 
 429. 
 Magius, Decius, a citizen of Capua, 
 
 opposes Hannibal, 361 ; arrested 
 
 by Hannibal, 364 ; vessel on 
 
476 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 which he is being transported to 
 Carthage driven ashore at Cy- 
 renee, 365 ; accepts the protection 
 of King Ptolemaeus, 365. 
 
 Mago, brother of Hannibal, 2S2 ; 
 his part at Cannae, 338 ; returns 
 to Carthage with news of Cannae, 
 365 ; sent to Spain, 391. 
 
 Mago, Carthaginian noble, cap- 
 tured by the Romans in Sardinia, 
 400. 
 
 Mago, envoy from Hannibal to 
 Philip, 392 ; taken prisoner by the 
 Roman fleet, 393. 
 
 Maharbal, son of Himilco, left in 
 command at Saguntum, 245 ; gen- 
 eral of Hannibal's cavalry, ad- 
 vises him to march on Rome after 
 the battle of Cannae, 342. 
 
 Malitiosa, wood called, battle at, 
 Sabines defeated, 37. 
 
 Mamertine Prison built, 41. 
 
 Mamilius, Lucius, dictator at Tus- 
 culum, sends assistance to Rome, 
 168 ; citizenship granted to, 182. 
 
 Mamilius, Octavius, of Tusculum, 
 marries the daughter of Lucius 
 Tarquin, 58 ; Tarquin goes into 
 exile to, 90 ; forms confederacy 
 against Rome, 92 ; killed, 95. 
 
 Mandonis, a Spanish prince, 314 ; 
 attacks Roman allies in Spain, 
 
 314- 
 
 Manlius, Aulus, ambassador to 
 Athens to study the laws of So- 
 lon, 184 ; elected to the first col- 
 lege of decemvirs, 195. 
 
 Manlius, Gains, consul, 136 ; brought 
 to trial by the tribune Genucius, 
 136. 
 
 Manlius, Gnaeus, consul, 123; wound- 
 ed in battle, 127 ; death of, 128. 
 
 Manlius, Lucius, praetor, command- 
 er in Gaul, 249 ; marches to the 
 relief of Mutina, 256 ; attacked 
 by the Gauls, 256 ; encamps at 
 Tannetum, 256. 
 
 Manlius, Lucius Vulso, candidate 
 for the consulship, defeated, 328. 
 
 Manlius, Titus Torquatus, speaks 
 in the senate against ransoming 
 the Roman prisoners taken at 
 Cannae, 350; sent with an army 
 to Sardinia, 393 ; his operations 
 in Sardinia, 399. 
 
 Manilius, Sextus, elected tribune 
 at the Aventine, 206. 
 
 Manlius, Titus, consul, 22, 
 
 Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, 13, 
 note ; praetor for Sicily, 328 ; de- 
 feats Hannibal at Nola, 404, 405 ; 
 third time consul, 419 ; drives 
 Hannibal into his camp before 
 Nola, 427 ; comes to the re-en- 
 forcement of Fabius's army at 
 Casilinum, and aids in its cap- 
 ture, 429 ; assigned the province 
 of Sicily, 431, 445. 
 
 Marcius, Gnaeus, Coriolanus, no; 
 opposes the distribution of the 
 corn, 112 ; day of trial appointed 
 for, 113 ; exiled, 113 ; stirs up the 
 Volscians, 113 ; given command 
 of the Volscians, 116; retreats 
 from Rome at the solicitations of 
 his wife and mother, and dies in 
 disgrace, 119. 
 
 Marcus Laetorius. See Lastorius. 
 
 Marius, Statilius, 334. 
 
 Marrucini, Sabine tribe, 302. 
 
 Marsi, 302. 
 
 Mars, flamen for, 23. 
 
 Mars Gradivus, Salii for, duties of, 
 chosen by Numa, 24. 
 
 Massic range, 307. 
 
 Massilia, modern Marseilles, allies 
 of Rome, 252. 
 
 Masinissa, son of Gala, defeats 
 Syphax, 462. 
 
 Maso, Papirius. See Papirius. 
 
 Massyli, a Numidian tribe, 461. 
 
 Maurusii, a Numidian tribe, 462. 
 
 Maximus. See Fabius. 
 
 Mecilius, Lucius, tribune, 141. 
 
 Medixtuticus, chief magistrate of 
 the Campanians, 395. 
 
 Medullia, Latins defeated at, 40 ; 
 taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Megara, 442 ; sacked and destroyed 
 by Marcellus, 447. 
 
 Melita, Malta, 279. 
 
 Melkarth, Carthaginian divinity, 
 253, note. 
 
 Menige, island of, 324. 
 
 Menenius, Agrippa, consul, gl ; and 
 Publius, Postumius, triumph of, 
 92 ; addresses the commons at the 
 Sacred Mount, 109 ; brings the 
 commons back to the city, no ; 
 death of, in ; is buried by the 
 people, III. 
 
 Menenius, Gains, consul, 184. 
 
 Menenius, Titus, consul, 133 ; de- 
 feated by the Etruscans, 133 ; 
 
INDEX 
 
 477 
 
 tried, fined, and dies from the ef- 
 fects of the disgrace, 135. 
 
 Mercenaries, first employed, 462. 
 
 Mercuriales, 102, note. 
 
 Mercury, temple to, dedicated, 96 ; 
 dispute concerning the dedication 
 of a, I02. 
 
 Mesian forest, taken from the Vei- 
 entes, 41. 
 
 Messana, 277, 401. 
 
 Metapontum, 21 ; revolts to Hanni- 
 bal, 354. 
 
 Metellus. See Cfecilius. 
 
 Metilius, Marcus, tribune, 319; op 
 poses the policy of Fabius, 319 ; 
 proposes the division of the com- 
 mand, 319. 
 
 Metius, Statius, in command of the 
 Campanians and Carthaginian 
 garrison at Casilinum, 429. 
 
 Mettius Curtius, leader of the Sa- 
 bines, 14. 
 
 Mettius Fufetius, dictator of the Al- 
 bans, 26 ; his treachery to the Ro- 
 mans, 33 ; terrible death of, 35. 
 
 Mezentius, King of the Etruscans, 2. 
 
 Minoa. See Heraclea. 
 
 Minorum gentium, instituted by 
 Tarquin, 43. 
 
 Minucius, Lucius, consul, 177 ; be- 
 sieged in his camp, 178 ; elected 
 into the second college of decem- 
 virs, 188. 
 
 Minucius, Marcus, consul, 96, 112. 
 
 Minucius, Marcus, Rufus, master 
 of the horse, 302 ; opposes the 
 policy of Fabius, 307 ; wins a 
 trifling advantage over Hannibal 
 at Gereonium, 318 ; made equal 
 in command with Fabius, 320 ; 
 entrapped by Hannibal but saved 
 from defeat by the army of Fa- 
 bius, 321-323 ; returns with his 
 army to Fabius and relinquishes 
 the command, 323 ; death at Can- 
 nae, 341. 
 
 Minucius, Marcus, tribune, 378. 
 
 Minucius, Publius, consul, in. 
 
 Minucius, Quintus, consul, 182. 
 
 Mceniacoepto, Gallic chief, his death, 
 
 455- 
 Mopsii, noble family at Compsa, 
 
 355- 
 
 Mucian Meadows, why called, 88. 
 
 Mucins, Gains, exploit of, 86 ; after- 
 ward called Scsevola, 87 ; re- 
 warded by the state, 88. 
 
 Mucins, Quintus, Sca;vola, prretor, 
 3S1 ; has Sardinia as his province, 
 393. 
 
 Mucins, Quintus, 456. 
 
 Munda, Spanish town, Carthaginian 
 camp moved to, 454. 
 
 Murcia, Temple of, 41. 
 
 Murgantia, Roman fleet at, 439 ; re- 
 covered by Himilco through the 
 betrayal of its garrison, 449, 
 
 Mutina, modern Modena, 255 ; land 
 commissioners from Placentia and 
 Cremona take refuge at, 255 ; be- 
 sieged by the Boii, 255. 
 
 Njevian gate, 85, 86. 
 
 Naivius, Quintus, Crista, defeats 
 Philip of Macedon at Appolonia, 
 453- 
 
 Naples, envoys from, come to Rome 
 with gifts, 325 ; strength of the 
 city deters Hannibal from attack- 
 ing, 355- 
 
 Nautius, Gains, consul, 135, 177. 
 
 Nautius, Spurius, consul, 117. 
 
 New Street, 49, note. 
 
 Nobles, conspiracy of the young, 75. 
 
 Nola, citizens of, send ambassadors 
 to Marcellus, 369 ; Hannibal aban- 
 dons, 370 ; Hannibal repulsed by 
 Marcellus at, 371, 372 ; Hannibal 
 invests, 403 ; Hannibal defeated 
 by Marcellus at, 404, 405 ; party 
 in the town offer to surrender to 
 Hannibal, 423. 
 
 Nomentan Way, 206. 
 
 Nomentum, taken by Tarquin, 46. 
 
 Norba, colony of Rome, 112. 
 
 Nova Classis, 314. 
 
 Nuceria, Hannibal takes, 370. 
 
 Numa Pompilius, account of, 21 ; 
 is offered the kingdom, 21 ; con- 
 sults the auguries, 21 ; is made 
 king, 22 ; the works of, 22-25 ', 
 death of, 25. 
 
 Numa Marcius, son of Marcius, 
 pontiff, 24. 
 
 Numerius Decimius, a Samnite offi- 
 cer, 318. 
 
 Numicius, Titus, Priscus, consul, 
 145 ; marches against the Volsci- 
 ans, and drives them to Antium, 
 
 145- 
 Numicus, a river, 3. 
 Numidians, their stratagem at the 
 
 battle of Cannae, 339 ; desert to 
 
 Marcellus, 405. 
 
478 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Numitor, son of Proca, 4 ; made 
 king, 4; driven out by Amuli- 
 us, 4; is proclaimed King of 
 Alba, 6. 
 
 Numitorius, Lucius, tribune, 141. 
 
 Numitorius, Publius, great-uncle of 
 Verginia, 198 ; causes the seces- 
 sion of the army among the Sa- 
 bines, 295 ; elected tribune after 
 the return from the Sacred Mount, 
 209. 
 
 Oath of allegiance, first adminis- 
 tered to the soldiers by the trib- 
 unes, 330. 
 
 Ocriculum, 304. 
 
 Olcades, a Spanish tribe, 238. 
 
 Olympium, the. Temple of Jupiter 
 at Syracuse, Roman army at, 445. 
 
 Onusa, town in Spain, 254; taken 
 by Cneius Scipio and the Roman 
 fleet, 313. 
 
 Oppia, a vestal virgin, punished for 
 unchastity, 122. 
 
 Oppius, Gains, elected tribune after 
 the return from the Sacred Mount, 
 209. 
 
 Oppius, Marcus, elected tribune at 
 the Aventine, 206. 
 
 Oppius, Spurius, Cornicen, elected 
 into the second college of decem- 
 virs, 188 ; convenes the senate 
 after the murder of Verginia, 203 ; 
 day appointed for trial, 214 ; takes 
 his life in prison, 215. 
 
 Orbitaniura, town in Samnium, 
 stormed by Fabius, 430. 
 
 Oretani, a Spanish tribe, 245. 
 
 Oricum, 452 ; Roman fleet winters 
 
 at, 453- 
 
 Ortona, a Latin city, besieged by 
 the ^quans, 122. 
 
 Ostia, built, 41. 
 
 Otacilius, Lucius, 346. 
 
 Otacilius, Titus, Crassus, 324, 330, 
 378 ; dedicates Temple of Reason, 
 389 ; in Africa, 400 ; captures 
 seven ships of the Carthaginians, 
 400; nominated for the consul- 
 ship, is opposed by Fabius, 417 ; 
 commander of the fleet, 419, 456. 
 
 Pachynus, Carthaginian fleet at, 
 
 439-. 
 Pacuvius. See Calavius. 
 Paestum, envoys from, bring gifts 
 
 to Rome, 329. 
 
 Palatine Hill, derivation of name, 5. 
 
 Pan LycEeus, festival of, called 
 Inuus by the Romans, 5. 
 
 Panormus, in Sicily, Roman legion 
 landed at, 448. 
 
 Papirius, Lucius, Cursor, conqueror 
 of the Samnites, 308, 419. 
 
 Papirius, Caeso, Maso, 255. 
 
 Paphlygonia, Eneti driven from, i. 
 
 Pedum, taken by the Volscians, 117. 
 
 Peligni, 302, 311. 
 
 Pelliti-Sardi, Sardinian tribe, de- 
 feated, 399. 
 
 Pentri, the, Samnite tribe, faithful 
 to Rome, 354. 
 
 Periander of Corinth, 63, note, 
 
 Perusia, 373. 
 
 Petelia, loyal community of the 
 Bruttians, sends for aid, 377 ; 
 prepares for defence against Han- 
 nibal, 377 ; taken by the Cartha- 
 ginians, 387. 
 
 Pettius, Herius, citizen of Nola, 403. 
 
 Philip, King of Macedon, embassy 
 sent to, 326 ; sends envoys to 
 Hannibal, 392 ; his second em- 
 bassy to Hannibal, 398 ; war with, 
 452 ; defeated at Appolonia, 453 ; 
 hurries overland to Macedonia, 
 453- 
 
 Picenum, ravaged by Hannibal, 
 302. 
 
 Pictor, Fabius. See Fabius. 
 
 Pila Horatii, 31. 
 
 Pinarii, Potitii and, tradition of 
 the, 9. 
 
 Pinarius, Lucius, consul, 138. 
 
 Pinarius, Lucius, in command at 
 Enna, massacres its citizens and 
 saves the Roman garrison from 
 betrayal, 449-451. 
 
 Pineus, King of lUyria, envoys sent 
 to, 326. 
 
 Piso, Lucius Calpurnius, historian, 
 65, 109, 141. 
 
 Placentia, Roman colony, 255 ; army 
 in winter quarters at, 268, 290. 
 
 Plague at Rome, 155. 
 
 Po, river, colonies near the, 255 ; 
 Hannibal crosses the, 276. 
 
 Poenine, question whether Hanni- 
 bal crossed the Alps over this 
 range, 267. 
 
 Poeninus, a Gallic deity, 268. 
 
 Poetilius, Quintus, elected into the 
 second college of decemvirs, 188. 
 
 Politorium, taken by Ancus, 40; 
 
INDEX 
 
 479 
 
 taken a second time and destroyed, 
 40. 
 
 Polusca, city of the Volscians, no, 
 116. 
 
 Polyaenus, his advice to the citizens 
 of Syracuse, 433. 
 
 Pomerium, defined, 31, note, 52. 
 
 Pometia, Suessa, spoils of, conse- 
 crated to build temple to Jupiter, 
 61, 64; colony revolts to the Au- 
 runcans, 91 ; surrenders to Ver- 
 ginius andCassius, 92 ; taken and 
 plundered, loi. 
 
 Pompeius, Sextus, lieutenant, as- 
 signed territory of Vibo, 280. 
 
 Pomponius, Manius, Matho, Vetu- 
 rius's master of the horse, retires 
 on account of a flaw in the ap- 
 pointment, 326 ; praetor, 300, 328, 
 380 ; summons the senate after 
 Cannae, 345 ; re-enforces Marcel- 
 lus at Nola, 427. 
 
 Pomponius, Marcus, elected tribune 
 after the return from the Sacred 
 Mount, 209. 
 
 Pontifex Maximus, 102. 
 
 Pontiff, office instituted by Numa, 
 24. 
 
 Pontificius, Tiberius, tribune, 123. 
 
 Porsina, Lars, King of Clusium, 
 81 ; marches on Rome, 81 ; be- 
 sieges the city, 85 ; sends ambas- 
 sadors to Rome, 87 ; makes peace 
 and abandons the siege, 88 ; last- 
 ing peace with, 90. 
 
 Postumius, Aulus, Albus, consul, 
 151 ; ambassador to the ^quans 
 at Algidum, 177. 
 
 Postumius, Aulus, dictator, 94 ; 
 leads the Roman forces at Regil- 
 lus, 95 ; sent against the Sabines, 
 loi. 
 
 Postumius, Lucius, Albinus, praetor 
 for Gaul, 328. 
 
 Postumius, Lucius, in his ab- 
 sence elected consul for the third 
 time, 381 ; he and his army en- 
 trapped and cut to pieces in Gaul, 
 381. 
 
 Postumius, Publius, consul, 90, 91 ; 
 and Agrippa Menenius, triumph 
 of, 92. 
 
 Postumius, Spurius, Albus, consul, 
 149 ; ambassador to Athens to 
 study the laws of Solon, 184 ; 
 elected into the first college of de- 
 cemvirs, 185. 
 
 Potitii and Pinarii, tradition of 
 the, 9. 
 
 Praeneste, revolts from the Latins to 
 the Romans, 93 ; garrison of citi- 
 zens of, at Casilinura, 373 ; citi- 
 zens of, return after the capitula- 
 tion of Casilinum, 376. 
 
 Praetor, 210, note. 
 
 Praetutia, ravaged by Hannibal, 
 302. 
 
 Prisci Latini, 4. 
 
 Prisoners, delegates from the Ro- 
 man, after Cannae, 348 ; refused 
 ransom, 353. 
 
 Proca, King, 4. 
 
 Proculus Julius, his speech to the 
 people, 19. 
 
 Prodigies, 290, 294, 329, 390, 420, 
 457. 
 
 Proserpine, legendary scene of the 
 rape of, 451. 
 
 Ptolemaeus, 365. 
 
 Publicola. See Valerius, Publius. 
 
 Publilius, Volero, defies the consuls, 
 138 ; elected tribune, 138 ; pro- 
 poses election law, 139 ; re-elected 
 tribune, 139. 
 
 Pupius, Caius, appointed to con- 
 tract for the building of the Tem- 
 ple of Concord, 326. 
 
 Puteoli, 417, 422 ; Hannibal attacks, 
 unsuccessfully, 423. 
 
 Pylaemenes, leader of the Eneti, 
 killed at Troy, i. 
 
 Pyrenees, passes of, left in charge 
 of Hanno, 254. 
 
 Pyrrhus, King, 416. 
 
 Pythagoras, of Samos, in Italy, 21. 
 
 Pythian Apollo, consulted by Tar- 
 quin, 65 ; oracle of the, received 
 at Rome, 365. 
 
 Quinctian Meadows, 178. 
 Quinctii, Alban family enrolled 
 among the patricians by TuUus, 
 
 36 
 
 Quinctilius, Sextus, consul, 184 ; 
 dies of the plague, 184. 
 
 Quinctius, Caeso, description of, 
 161 ; obstructs the law, 162 ; is 
 summoned to trial, 162 ; is tried 
 and sent into exile, 163-164. 
 
 Quinctius, Caeso, Flaminius, ap- 
 pointed to contract for the build- 
 ing of the Temple of Concord, 
 326. 
 
 Quinctius, Lucius, Cincinnatus, de- 
 
48o 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 fends his son Cseso, 163 ; retires 
 to his cottage across the Tiber, 
 164; elected consul, 170; refuses 
 the consulship, 173 ; dictator, 178 ; 
 leaves his field to talce the office, 
 178-179 ; leads his army to the 
 relief of Minucius, 180; sends the 
 jEquans under the yoke, 181 ; en- 
 ters the city in triumph, 181-182. 
 
 Quinctius, Titus, Capitolinus, con- 
 sul, 139 ; pacifies the disturbance 
 raised by Appius and Laetorius, 
 140; sent againstthe^Equans, 141; 
 consul, 145 ; defeats the Volscians 
 and takes Antium, 147 ; triumvir 
 for distributing the land at Anti- 
 um, 149 ; consul for the second 
 time, 149 ; defeats the jEquans, 
 150; closes the lustrum, 151 ; sent 
 as pro-consul to the relief of Spu- 
 rius Furius, 152 ; defeats the 
 vEquans, 153, 154; consul for the 
 third time, 162 ; qujestor, 177 ; con- 
 sul for the fourth time, 223 ; ad- 
 dresses the assembly, 223-226 ; 
 defeats the jEquans at Corbio, 
 227-229. 
 
 Quintus Fabius Maximus. See Fa- 
 bius. 
 
 Quirinal Hill, taken into the city, 52. 
 
 Quirinus, flamen for, 23. 
 
 Quirites, how called, 16. 
 
 Quiritum, the fossa, built by An- 
 cus, 41. 
 
 Rabuleius, Manius, elected into the 
 second college of decemvirs, 188. 
 
 Racilia, wife of Cincinnatus, 179. 
 
 Ramnenses, century of knights, en- 
 rolled by Romulus, 16, 44. 
 
 Rea Silvia, daughter of Numitor, 4 ; 
 chosen Vestal Virgin, 4 ; shame 
 and death, 4. 
 
 Reason, temple to, vowed, 304 ; 
 dedication by Otacilius, 389, 391. 
 
 Regillus, Lake, battle of, 94. 
 
 Remus and Romulus, exposed, 5 ; 
 story of the youth of, 5 ; take the 
 auguries to determine who shall 
 build the new city, 7. 
 
 Remus, death of, different accounts 
 of the, 7. 
 
 Rex sacrificulus appointed, 73. 
 
 Rhegium, 388, 410. 
 
 Rhone, Hannibal's passage of the, 
 258, 259 ; cavalry engagement 
 near the, 259. 
 
 Roman games, 44. 
 
 Rome, founding of, 7. 
 
 Romilius, Titus, consul, 183 ; day 
 of trial appointed for, 183 ; tried 
 and condemned, 184; elected to 
 the first college of decemvirs, 185. 
 
 Romulus Silvius, son of Agrippa, 
 king, 4; killed by lightning, 4. 
 
 Romulus and Remus, exposed, 5 ; 
 story of the youth oif, 5 ; take the 
 auguries to determine who shall 
 build the new city, 7. 
 
 Romulus, builds the city, 7 ; slays 
 and strips the King of the Caeni- 
 nenses, 12 ; institutes the spolia 
 opima, 13 ; divides the people 
 into curije, 16 ; enrolls three cen- 
 turies of knights, 16 ; unites Ro- 
 mans and Sabines and with Ta- 
 tius rules jointly, 16 ; apotheosis 
 of, 18, 19 ; appears to Proculus 
 Julius, 19. 
 
 RuUus, Maximus, 419. 
 
 Ruminalis, sacred fig tree, 5. 
 
 Ruscino, a Gallic town, the Gauls 
 gatherat, to oppose Hannibal, 255. 
 
 Rutulians, a nation of Italy, attack 
 the Latins, 2 ; war with the, 66 ; 
 from Ardea, settlers at Sagun- 
 tum, 240. 
 
 Sabines, war with, 36, 45, 91, loi ; 
 rape of the, 11 ; driven back by 
 the Romans, are saved by the in- 
 terference of the Sabine women, 
 15 ; and Romans united under 
 Romulus and Tatius, 15 ; de- 
 feated at Malitiosa, 37 ; defeated 
 by Marcus Valerius, 107. 
 
 Sacred Banquet held, 304. 
 
 Sacred Mount, people secede to the, 
 after the murder of Verginia, 206 ; 
 return to the city from the, 209. 
 
 Saguntum, city in Spain, 240; at- 
 tacked by Hannibal, 240; send 
 envoys to Rome, 240 ; taken by 
 Hannibal, 247 ; retaken by the 
 Romans, 455. 
 
 Salapia, Hannibal in winter quar- 
 ters at, 431. 
 
 Salii of Mars Gradivus, 24. 
 
 Salyes, tribe of Gauls near Mas- 
 silia, 256. 
 
 Samnites, excepting the Pentri, re- 
 volt to Hannibal, 306, 354; send 
 envoys to Hannibal, 401. 
 
 Sardi, 248. 
 
INDEX 
 
 481 
 
 Sardinia, circumstances of the sur- 
 render of, 235 ; 233-234 ; note, 
 324, 378 ; Carthaginian forces sent 
 against, 391 ; operations of the 
 Roman army under Manlius in, 
 
 399- 
 
 Saticula, 359, 369. 
 
 Satricum, taken by the Volscians, 
 116. 
 
 Saturn, temple to, dedicated, 96. 
 
 Saturnalia, first appointed, 96. 
 
 Scaevola. See Mucius, Gaius. 
 
 Scantinius, Publius, his death, 378. 
 
 Scaptius, Publius, a plebeian, ad- 
 viser of the people in the affair 
 with Aricia, 229. 
 
 Scipio. See Cornelius. 
 
 Scotinus. See Heracleitus. 
 
 Scribonius, Lucius, Libo, 353 ; 
 finance commissioner, 378. 
 
 Secession of the commons, 109, 
 
 Seduni, Alpine tribe, 267. 
 
 Sempronius, Aulus, consul, g6, 112. 
 
 Sempronius, Publius, Tuditanus, 
 tribune of the soldiers, leads the 
 retreat to Canusium, 341 ; prsetor, 
 456. 
 
 Sempronius, Tiberius, Longus, con- 
 sul, 240, 247 ; Africa and Sicily 
 assigned to, 248 ; arrives at Mes- 
 sana, 279 ; joins Scipio at the 
 Trebia, 280 ; rashness of, 280- 
 282 ; defeated by Hannibal at the 
 river Trebia, 282-284 ; gains a 
 doubtful victory at Hannibal's 
 camp near Placentia, 287 ; defeats 
 Hanno at Grumentum, 397. 
 
 Sempronius, Tiberius, floats provi- 
 sions to the besieged Casilinum, 
 375; elected consul, 381 ; 388; de- 
 feats Hanno's army at Beneven- 
 tum, 423-425 ; frees the slaves in 
 his command, 425 ; consul second 
 time, 456. 
 
 Sempronius, Titus, Marcus Junius's 
 master of the horse, 347. 
 
 Senate, created by Romulus, 10. 
 
 Sergius, Marcus, elected into the 
 second college of decemvirs, 188. 
 
 Servian wall, built, 52, note. 
 
 Servilii, Alban family enrolled 
 among the patricians byTullus,36. 
 
 Servilius, Caius, Roman land com- 
 missioner at the Gallic colonies 
 on the Po, takes refuge at Muti- 
 na, 255, 
 
 Servilius, Cneius, Geminus, elected 
 
 31 
 
 consul, 285 ; enters upon his con- 
 sulship at Rome, 293 ; among the 
 Gauls, 302 ; marches hastily to 
 Rome upon hearing of the defeat 
 at Trasumennus, 302 ; his naval 
 campaign, 324; and defeat in 
 Africa, 324 ; takes over the com- 
 mand from Fabius, 325 ; com- 
 mands the centre at Cannae, 337 ; 
 his death at Cannae, 341. 
 
 Servilius, Gaius, consul, 131. 
 
 Servilius, Publius, consul, 96, 98, 
 99 ; pacifies the debtors, 100 ; 
 with Appius, resigns the consul- 
 ship, 103. 
 
 Servilius, Publius, 154; consul, dies 
 of the plague, 156. 
 
 Servilius, Quintus, consul, 145 ; rav- 
 ages the Sabine territory, 146 ; 
 consul, 149 ; sent against the 
 ^quans, his army is crippled by 
 illness, 149 ; prefect of the city, 
 151 ; quaestor, appoints day of 
 trial for Marcus Volscius, 176. 
 
 Servilius, Spurius, consul, 133 ; with 
 the aid of his colleague, defeats 
 the Etruscans at the Janiculum, 
 134 ; tried and acquitted, 135. 
 
 Servius TuUius, story of, 46-47 ; 
 takes possession of the kingdom, 
 49 ; establishes the census, 50 ; 
 commentaries of, 71- 
 
 Sestius, Publius, Capitolinus, con- 
 sul, 184 ; elected into the first col- 
 lege of decemvirs, 185 ; dead body 
 found in the house of, 186. 
 
 Sextus Tarquin. See Tarquinius, 
 
 Sibyline Books, consulted, 290, 294, 
 302. 
 
 Siccius, Gnaeus, tribune, 141 ; ap- 
 points a day of trial for Appius 
 Claudius, 143. 
 
 Siccius, Lucius, murdered at the 
 instigation of the decemvirs, 
 197. 
 
 Sicilius, leader of the revolt of the 
 Hirpini, beheaded by Marcus Va- 
 lerius, 397. 
 
 Sicinius, leads the secession of the 
 commons, 108, 109. 
 
 Sicily, ^neas in, i. 
 
 Sicinius, Gaius, elected tribune af- 
 ter the return from the Sacred 
 Mount, 209. 
 
 Sicinius, Titus, consul, 119. 
 
 Sidicinum, Sidicines. 347, 359- 
 
 Signia, colonists sent to, 65, note. 
 
482 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Silvius, son of Ascanius, 3 ; be- 
 comes king, 4. 
 
 Sinuessa, baths of, 307. 
 
 Slaves, and exiles seize the Capitol 
 under the command of Appius 
 Herdonius, 165 ; first levy of, 
 after the battle of Cannae, 347. 
 
 Sopater, 434 ; addresses the assem- 
 bly after the assassination of 
 Themistus and Andranodorus, 
 436. 
 
 Sororium Tigillum (Sister's Beam), 
 32. 
 
 Sosis, one of the conspirators against 
 Hieronymus, 431. 
 
 Sositheus Magnes, envoy sent by 
 Philip to Hannibal, 398. 
 
 Spain, division of, between Rome 
 and Carthage, 236. 
 
 Spoletum, Hannibal repulsed from, 
 with great loss, 302. 
 
 Spolia opima, gained by Romulus, 
 13 ; by Cossus, 13 ; by Marcellus, 
 13. 
 
 Spurius Lucretius. See Lucretius. 
 
 Statius, Titus, tribune, 135. 
 
 Statorius, Quintus, drills the Numi- 
 dian infantry under Syphax, 461. 
 
 Stella, plains of, 307. 
 
 Sthenius, Campanian noble, 362. 
 
 Stones, rain of, propitiatory for 
 rites instituted, 37. 
 
 Sublician bridge, 82. 
 
 Subura, 163, note. 
 
 Suessa Pometia. See Pometia. 
 
 Suessula, 369, 373 ; the army at, 390. 
 
 Sulpicius, Publius, Camerinus, am- 
 bassador to Athens to study the 
 laws of Solon, 184 ; elected to the 
 first college of decemvirs, 185 ; 
 sent as an ambassador to the 
 camp on the Aventine, after the 
 murder of Verginia, 205 ; in com- 
 mand of the cavalry at Corbio, 
 228. 
 
 Sulpicius, Servius, consul, 93 ; chief 
 priest of the curies, 156 ; dies of 
 the plague, 156. 
 
 Sulpicius, Servius, consul, i6o. 
 
 Suovetaurilia, rite called, 52, note. 
 
 Sura, Publius, 324. 
 
 Syracuse, revolution at, begins, 
 431 ; besieged by the Romans, 
 445- 
 
 Syphax, King of the Numidians, re- 
 volts to Rome. 460; defeated by 
 Masinissa, 461, 462, 
 
 Talassius, Roman nobleman, tradi- 
 tion of, II. 
 
 Tanaquil, wife of Tarquin, 42 ; 
 strategy of, 48. 
 
 Tannetum, district near the Po, 
 256 ; Manlius encamps at, 256. 
 
 Tarentum, modern Tarranto, 243 ; 
 revolts to Hannibal, 354 ; nobles 
 from, come to Hannibal, 422. 
 
 Tarpeia, tradition of, 14. 
 
 Tarpeius, Spurius, commander of 
 the Roman citadel, 14. 
 
 Tarpeius, Spurius, consul, 185 ; 
 sent as an ambassador to the 
 camp on the Aventine after the 
 murder of Verginia, 205 ; patri- 
 cian, elected tribune, 222. 
 
 Tarquinii, a city, 41. 
 
 Tarquinii, Lucius and Arruns, mar- 
 ried to the daughters of Servius, 
 50 ; Titus and Arruns, sent by 
 their father to consult the Delphi- 
 an oracle, 65 ; are banished, 70, 
 74. 
 
 Tarquinius, Arruns, brother of Tar- 
 quinius Priscus, 41. 
 
 Tarquinius, Arruns, son of Tar- 
 quinius Priscus, married to Tul- 
 lia, 50 ; murdered by his wife 
 Tullia, 54, 55. 
 
 Tarquinius, Arruns, son of Tar- 
 quinius Superbus, his death in 
 battle, 79 ; sent by his father to 
 consult the oracle at Delphi, 65. 
 
 Tarquinius, Lucius, Collatinus, son 
 of Egerius, husband of Lucretia, 
 67 ; with Brutus obtains the ban- 
 ishment of the kings, 6g, 70; 
 elected consul, 71 ; dissatisfaction 
 of the people with, 73 ; goes into 
 voluntary exile at the request of 
 the people, 74. 
 
 Tarquinius, Lucius, Priscus, how he 
 came to Rome, 41 ; obtains the 
 rule, 43 ; adds to the senate, 43 ; 
 establishes the Circus Maximus, 
 44 ; his wars, 43-46 ; works of 
 peace of, 46 ; assassination of, 48. 
 
 Tarquinius, Lucius, Superbus, son 
 of Tarquinius Priscus, 50; mar- 
 ries Tullia, 50; marries Tullia 
 the wife of his brother Arruns, 
 55; seizes the rule, 56; causes 
 the murder of Servius TuUius, 
 57 ; surnamed the Proud, 57 ; as- 
 sassinates Turnus Herdonius at 
 an assembly of the Latins, 58-60; 
 
INDEX 
 
 483 
 
 wars, 61-64 : employs the people 
 on public works, 65 ; sends colo- 
 nists to Signia and Circeii, 65, 
 note ; prodigy appears to, 65 ; 
 sends his two sons to consult the 
 Delphian oracle, 65 ; is banished, 
 70; goes into exile at Caere, 70; 
 stirs up the Etruscans against the 
 Romans, 78 ; goes into Tusculum, 
 go ; dies at Cumse, 96. 
 
 Tarquinius, Sextus, son of Tar- 
 quinius Priscus, tricks the Gabi- 
 ans, 62-64 ; wrongs Lucretia, 67- 
 69 ; slain at Gabii, 70. 
 
 Tarquinius, Titus, son of Tarquini- 
 us Superbus, sent by his father 
 to Delphi, 65. 
 
 Tarquintus, Lucius, master of the 
 horse, chosen by Cincinnatus, 179. 
 
 Tarracina, 309. 
 
 Tarraco, Roman marines at, sur- 
 prised by Hasdrubal, 289 ; Scipio 
 in winter quarters at, 289 ; Publi- 
 us Scipio arrives at, 315. 
 
 Tartesii, a Spanish tribe, at war 
 with Hasdrubal, 383 ; surrender 
 to Hasdrubal, 3S4. 
 
 Tatius, Titus, King of the Sabines, 
 12 ; slain at Lavinium by the Lau- 
 rentines, 16. 
 
 Taurea. See Vibellius. 
 
 Taurini, a Gallic tribe, 267. 
 
 Teanum, 381, 390. 
 
 Telesia, town in Samnium, 306; 
 stormed by Fabius, 430. 
 
 Tellenje. capture of, 40. 
 
 Tellus, Temple of, 120. 
 
 Ten tables, the, ratified by the as- 
 sembly, 186. 
 
 Terentilian law, proposed, 158 ; 
 abandoned, 159 ; brought forward 
 again, 159. 
 
 Terentilius, Titus, Harsa, tribune, 
 proposer of the Terentilian law, 
 158. 
 
 Terentius, Caius, Varro, his career 
 and character, 320 ; elected con- 
 sul, 328 ; reproved by Fabius on 
 setting out from the city, 331 ; 
 moves with the army to Cannae, 
 336 ; gives the signal to engage 
 contrary to the will of his col- 
 league, 337 ; flees to Venusia 
 after Cannae, 341, 344 ; in com- 
 mand in Picenum, 456. 
 
 Terentius, Quintus, sent as envoy 
 to Flaminius at Placentia, 291. 
 
 Terminus, god of boundaries, 64. 
 
 Themistus, plots with Andrano- 
 dorus, 435 ; is killed at the senate- 
 house, 436. 
 
 Theodotus, conspirator against Hie- 
 ronymus, 415, 431. 
 
 Thraso, guardian of Hieronymus, 
 415 ; falsely accused of treason 
 by Theodotus and punished, 415. 
 
 Thrasybulus of Miletus, 63, note. 
 
 Tiber (Albula), 3. 
 
 Tiberina, insula, story of the origin 
 of, 76. 
 
 Tiberinus, son of Capetus, 4 ; 
 drowned, 4 ; gives name to Ti- 
 ber, 4. 
 
 Tiberius, son of Brutus, 75 ; joins 
 the conspiracy with the Tarquins, 
 75 ; is punished with death for 
 treason by his father, 77. 
 
 Tibur, 304 ; army of Fabius assem- 
 bles at, 305. 
 
 Ticinus, river, Scipio encamps at 
 the river, 268 ; Romans defeated 
 by Hannibal at the, 275. 
 
 Tifata, range of hills near Capua, 
 occupied as a camp by Hannibal, 
 ,395- 
 
 Titienses, century of knights, en- 
 rolled by Romulus, 16, 44. 
 
 Titinius, Marcus, elected tribune 
 after the return from the Sacred 
 Mount, 209. 
 
 Titus Tatius, joint ruler with Rom- 
 ulus, 16. 
 
 Titus, son of Brutus, 75 ; joins the 
 conspiracy with the Tarquins, 75 ; 
 is punished with death for treason 
 by his father, 77, 
 
 Titus Vetusius. See Vetusius. 
 
 Trasumennus, Lake, Roman array 
 under Flaminius entrapped and 
 defeated by Hannibal at the, 297- 
 300 ; news of the battle at Rome, 
 301. 
 
 Treason, punishment for, 31. 
 
 Trebia, taken by the Volscians, 
 117; Roman camp removed to 
 the, 276 ; defeat of the Romans 
 at the, 282-284. 
 
 Trebius, Statius, citizen of Compsa, 
 
 355- 
 Trebonius, Lucius, tribune, is sur- 
 
 named Asper, 222. 
 Trebula, 369, 398. 
 Tribunes, first elected in the comi- 
 
 tia, 141 ; number increased to ten. 
 
484 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 183 ; military, ten, elected by the 
 army at Mount Aventine, 205 ; by 
 the army among the Sabines, 206 ; 
 elected, after the resignation of 
 the decemvirs, 209. 
 
 Tricastini, Gallic tribe, Hannibal 
 marches through their territory, 
 261. 
 
 Tricorii, a Gallic tribe, 261. 
 
 Trincipitinus. See Spurius Lucre- 
 tius. 
 
 Triumph, first decreed by the peo- 
 ple, to Valerius and Horatius, 
 220. 
 
 TuUia, wife of Arruns Tarquin, af- 
 terward of Lucius Tarquin, 54 ; 
 influences him to usurp the king- 
 dom, 55, 56 ; rides over the dead 
 body of her father, 57 ; her flight 
 from the city, 70. 
 
 Tullii, Alban family enrolled among 
 the patricians by TuUus, 36. 
 
 TuUius, Attius, chief man of the 
 Volscians, 113 ; conspires with 
 GnEeus Marcius, 113-115 ; stirs 
 up the Volscians to revolt, 116. 
 
 TuUius, Manius, consul, 93. 
 
 TuUus Hostilius, king, 25, 26, 27, 
 32i 33 ; punishes the treachery of 
 Mettius, 34; moves the Albans to 
 Rome and destroys their city, 35 ; 
 enrolls Alban families among the 
 patricians, 36 ; his palace on Coe- 
 lian Mount, 36 ; defeats the Sa- 
 bines at the wood Malitiosa, 37 ; 
 tragic death of, 38. 
 
 Turdetani, a Spanish tribe, 239. 
 
 Turnus, King of the Rutulians, 2. 
 
 Turnus Herdonius, of Aricia, 58 ; 
 harangues the Latins, 59 ; is as- 
 sassinated by Tarquin, 59, 60. 
 
 Tuscan Street, 90. 
 
 Tusculans send aid to Rome, to put 
 down the insurrection of slaves 
 under Herdonius, 169. 
 
 Twelve tables, the, engraved and 
 set up, 213. 
 
 Tycha, the, part of the city of Syra- 
 cuse, 432. 
 
 Ulysses, 58. 
 Urian Hill, 57. 
 
 Uzentini, Italian tribe, revolt to 
 Hannibal, 354. 
 
 VaccEei, a Spanish tribe, 238, 
 Valerius, Antias, historian, 154, 393. 
 
 Valerius, Lucius, Potitus, consul, 
 143 ; attacks the jEquans and 
 plunders their country, izj4 ; ar- 
 raigns the decemvirs in the sen- 
 ate, 192 ; defends Icilius after the 
 murder of Verginia, 202 ; called 
 for by the soldiers on Mount Aven- 
 tine, 205 ; sent as ambassador to 
 the Sacred Mount, 207 ; elected 
 first consul after the fall of the 
 decemvirs, 209 ; sent against the 
 .Aiquans, 213 ; gains a rich vic- 
 tory at Algidum, 218; first de- 
 creed a triumph by the people, 
 220 ; refuses re-election to the con- 
 sulship, 221. 
 
 Valerius, Lucius, quaestor, 120, and 
 note ; consul, 121. 
 
 Valerius, Manius, son of Marcus, 93. 
 
 Valerius, Marcus, brother of Publi- 
 cola, 94 ; killed, 94. 
 
 Valerius, Marcus, Laevinus, preetor, 
 381 ; pro-praetor, in command of 
 the fleet at Brundisium, 431 ; re- 
 takes Oricum from Philip, 452 ; 
 carries on the war against Mace- 
 don, 456. 
 
 Valerius, Marcus, son of Manius, 
 quaestor, 177 ; consul, 1S3, 
 
 Valerius, Marcus, son of Volesus, 
 consul, 90 ; dictator, 106 ; defeats 
 the Sabines, 107 ; enters Rome in 
 triumph, 107 ; pleads in the sen- 
 ate in behalf of the debtors, loS ; 
 resigns the dictatorship, 108 ; as 
 augur, dies of plague, 156. 
 
 Valerius, Publius, 452. 
 
 Valerius, Publius, Flaccus, envoy 
 to Hannibal and to Carthage, 
 240 ; sent away by Hannibal, 242 ; 
 reception at Carthage, 242-244 ; 
 returns from Carthage. 248. 
 
 Valerius, Publius, Publicola, son of 
 Volesus, 68 ; consul, 74 ; cele- 
 brates his triumph over the Etrus- 
 cans, 79 ; suspected by the peo- 
 ple, 79: surnamed Publicola, 80; 
 consul for the second time, 81 ; 
 consul for the third time, 90 ; con- 
 sul for the fourth time, 91 ; death 
 of, gi. 
 
 Valerius, Publius, Publicola, con- 
 sul, 135 ; defeats the Veientines 
 and Sabines at Veil, 136 ; inter- 
 rex, 157 ; consul, 165 ; addresses 
 the commons, 167 ; is killed at the 
 recovery of the Capitol, i6g. 
 
INDEX 
 
 485 
 
 Varro, Caius Terentius. See Te- 
 rentius. 
 
 Veientes, defeated by Romulus, 18; 
 one hundred years' truce with the, 
 18 ; war with the, 50, 122 ; threat- 
 en Rome, 122 ; routed by Fabius, 
 123 ; defeat the Fabii at the Cre- 
 mera, 133 ; granted forty years' 
 truce at their own request, 136. 
 
 Veii, an Etruscan city, 17, note. 
 
 Velia, Mount, 79. 
 
 Velitrse, the modern Velletri, 107 ; 
 taken from the Volscians, 107 ; 
 colonists sent to, from Rome, 107. 
 
 Veneti (Eneti), a nation of north- 
 eastern Italy, I. 
 
 Venus of Eryx. See Eryx. 
 
 Venusia, 341, 344 ; refugees at, after 
 Cannae, 344 ; liberality of the peo- 
 ple of, 345. 
 
 Veragri, Alpine tribe, 267. 
 
 Vercellius, 397. 
 
 Verginia, the story of her abduc- 
 tion and death, 197-202. 
 
 Verginius, Aulus, consul, 103, 133 ; 
 defeats the Etruscans at the Ja- 
 niculum, 134; consul, 145 ; trium- 
 vir for distributing the land at 
 Antium, 149. 
 
 Verginius, Aulus, tribune, sum- 
 mons Cseso to trial, 162. 
 
 Verginius, Lucius, father of Ver- 
 ginia, 197 ; summoned to the 
 city, 200 ; kills his daughter to 
 save her from Appius Claudius, 
 202 ; arrives at the camp, and 
 addresses the soldiers, 203-204 ; 
 tribune after the return from the 
 Sacred Mount, 209 ; appoints a. 
 day of trial for Appius Claudius, 
 211 ; remits the death penalty to 
 Marcus Claudius, 215. 
 
 Verginius, Opiter, consul, 92 ; at- 
 tacks Pometia, 92. 
 
 Verginius, Opiter, consul, 136. 
 
 Verginius, Proculus, consul, 119. 
 
 Verginius, Publius, his opinion 
 concerning the debtors, 105. 
 
 Verginius, Spurius, consul, 183. 
 
 Verginius, Titus, Cselimontanus, 
 consul, 222. 
 
 Verginius, Titus, Rutilus, augur, 
 dies of the plague, 156. 
 
 Vestal Virgins, punishment for un- 
 chastity, 4, note ; priesthood de- 
 rived from Alba, 23 ; provided for 
 by Numa, 23. 
 
 Veturia, mother of Gnceus Marcius 
 Coriolanus, 117; her mission to 
 the enemy, 118 ; and speech to 
 her son, 118. 
 
 Veturius, Gains, consul, 183 ; day 
 of trial appointed for, 183 ; tried 
 and condemned, 184 ; augur, 184. 
 
 Veturius, Lucius, elected to the first 
 college of decemvirs, 185. 
 
 Veturius, Lucius, Philo, appointed 
 dictator for holding consular elec- 
 tion, 326; dictatorship decided il- 
 legal, 326. 
 
 Veturius (or Vetusius), Titus, Gemi- 
 nus, consul, 157 ; routs the Vol- 
 scian invaders, 157 ; granted an 
 ovation, 159. 
 
 Vetusius, Gaius, consul, 93. 
 
 Vetusius, Titus, consul, 103. 
 
 Via Sacra, 89. 
 
 Vibellius, Cerrinus, Taurea, a fa- 
 mous Campanian soldier, his con- 
 test with Asellus, 406. 
 
 Vibo, Carthaginian fleet harass the 
 territory around, 279. 
 
 Vica Pota, Temple of, 80. 
 
 Victory, statue of, sent by Hiero to 
 Rome, 329 ; placed in the Temple 
 of Jupiter Capitolinus, 330. 
 
 Victory, Mount, in Spain, Roman 
 and Carthaginian armies at, 454. 
 
 Victumvije, attacked by Hannibal, 
 285 ; surrenders, 286. 
 
 Villius, Appius, elected tribune after 
 the return from the Sacred Mount, 
 209. 
 
 Viminal Hill, taken into the city, 52. 
 
 Vindicius, 77. 
 
 Vindicta, traditional origin of the 
 term, 77, note. 
 
 Virginius, Titus, consul, 129. 
 
 Viridomarus, chief of the Insubrian 
 Gauls, 13. 
 
 Virrius, Vibius, Campanian envoy 
 sent to Rome after Cannae, 360. 
 
 Vismaro, Gallic chief, his death, 
 
 455. 
 
 Vitellia, taken by the Volscians, 117. 
 
 Vitellii, conspirators with the am- 
 bassadors from Tarquin, 75. 
 
 Vocontii, a Gallic tribe, Hannibal 
 marches through their territory, 
 261. 
 
 Volcae, powerful Gallic tribe, 257 ; 
 oppose Hannibal's passage of the 
 Rhone, 257-258 ; are repulsed by 
 a stratagem, 258. 
 
486 
 
 LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY 
 
 Volciani, a Spanish tribe, 251 ; their 
 answer to the Roman ambassa- 
 dors, 251. 
 
 Volero Publilius. See Publilius. 
 
 Volesus, 93. 
 
 Volscians, 61, 96; defeated and cut 
 to pieces at Pometia, loi ; de- 
 feated at Velitrse, 106, 107 ; driven 
 from the public games at the in- 
 stigation of Attius Tullius, 115 ; 
 revolt under Tullius and Marcius, 
 116. 
 
 Volscius, Marcus, Fictor, testifies 
 against Cseso, 163 ; day of trial 
 for, appointed, 176 ; condemned 
 and sent into exile at Lavinium, 
 182. 
 
 Volumnia, wife of Gnaeus Marcius 
 Coriolanus, 117 ; goes to the camp 
 of the Volscians, 118. 
 
 Volumnius, Publius, consul, 159, 
 169 ; ambassador to the ^quans 
 at Algidum, 177. 
 
 Vulcan, isle of, Carthaginian ships 
 at the, 277. 
 
 Vulcan, spoils burned as a vow to, 
 405- 
 
 Vulturnus, the river, 307. 
 
 Vulturnus, wind called, 336 ; disad- 
 vantageous to the Romans in the 
 battle of Cannae, 338. 
 
 White Camp, scene of the death of 
 
 Hamilcar, 453. 
 Wicked Street, the, 57. 
 
 Xenophanes, head of the embassy 
 from Philip to Hannibal, 392 ; 
 taken prisoner by the Roman 
 fleet, 393. 
 
 Year, the, divided by Numa, 23. 
 
 Zacynthus, island of, 240. 
 Zoippus, son-in-law of Hiero and 
 
 guardian of Hieronymus, 414 ; 
 
 sent as an envoy to Ptolemy, goes 
 
 into voluntary exile, 437. 
 Zopyrus, 63, note. 
 
 THE END