The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  Now the enemy’s defences were made of wood, and he observed how each morning at daybreak a strong wind blew down from the mountains. So he equipped himself with a supply of flammable arrows, and, around sunrise, led his army forward. He ordered some of his soldiers to make a loud din and, from a different quarter, to launch a missile attack, while he, along with the men he had assigned to shoot the burning arrows, took their position on the side of the enemy’s camp where the wind usually blew with its greatest force. There he awaited his opportunity. When the fighting had begun and the sun rose and a strong wind began to set in, he gave the signal to commence, and the Romans launched countless firebrands against the enemy’s fortifications. Flames spread quickly in all directions as the fire was fed by the crowded timbers of the wooden barricade, nor did the Latins have any means at their disposal for warding off the flames or extinguishing them. Soon their camp was burning everywhere, and the Latins were forced into a small crowded space, until finally they had no choice but to make a charge against an enemy that was drawn up in battle formation immediately outside their camp. Few of the Latins or Volscians escaped, and fire continued to take the lives of those who were left behind in the camp, until it was put out by the Romans so they could set to plundering.

  35. After defeating the Latins, Camillus left his son, Lucius, in charge of the camp to keep guard over the prisoners and the spoil while he invaded the enemy’s territory. He captured the city of the Aequians, reduced the Volscians, then immediately led his army towards Sutrium, unaware of what had already happened there. Because he believed the Sutrians were still in danger and under siege by the Etruscans, he was rushing to their rescue. But the Sutrians had already surrendered their city to the enemy and been driven out, completely destitute, possessing nothing but the clothes they wore. When Camillus met them, they were dragging along their wives and children and bewailing their misfortune. At the sight of this Camillus was struck with compassion, and he noticed how his soldiers, as the Sutrians reached out and clung to them, wept and expressed anger at what had taken place. He decided not to delay the Etruscans’ punishment and so marched directly to Sutrium on that very day, reasoning that men who had just captured a rich and prosperous city and expelled the vanquished, and who did not expect any enemies to launch an attack, would be utterly undisciplined and unprotected when he arrived. And he was right. Not only did he pass through the city’s territory undetected, he actually appeared at the gates and took possession of the city’s walls before his enemy realized what had happened. Not a single guard had been posted, since they had all instead occupied houses throughout the city and begun feasting and drinking. When finally they perceived that the city now belonged to the Romans, they were so gorged with food and drink that most of them did not even try to flee. Instead, they simply sat where they were, awaiting a base and disgraceful end, or surrendered themselves to the Romans. In this way the city of Sutrium was captured twice in a single day, and it happened that those who had seized it then lost it, and those who had lost it regained it, all owing to the actions of Camillus.

  36. For these victories he was awarded a triumph, which brought him no less favour and credit than his two previous ones, for even those who were disposed to envy him and attribute his successes to good fortune instead of valour now had no choice but to ascribe his glorious reputation to his ability and energy. Of all his rivals and detractors, none was more distinguished than Marcus Manlius, the man who had been first to repel the Gauls from Rome’s citadel when they launched their night attack on the Capitol, and who for this reason was called Capitolinus.119 This man deemed himself the foremost citizen in Rome, yet he was unable to surpass Camillus’ brilliant reputation. As a result, he turned to the tried and true course of anyone seeking to establish a tyranny: he began to curry the favour of the multitude, especially of men who were in debt, whom he sometimes aided by pleading their cases against creditors, but at other times went so far as to rescue by force, thereby preventing their coming to trial at all. In a short time he had acquired a massive following among the poor, whose audacity and violence in the forum so frightened the best citizens that Quintus Capitolinus was appointed dictator120 in order to restore order. He threw Manlius into prison, but in reaction the people put on the garb of mourners, a thing which is done by the Romans only in times of serious public calamities. The senate, fearing an insurrection, ordered Manlius’ release, but afterwards he was no better for his ordeal. In fact, he incited the multitude even more violently than before and filled the city with sedition. It was at this moment that Camillus was again elected consular tribune.121

  Now when Manlius was brought to trial, the physical situation of the court proved detrimental to his prosecutors,122 for the very spot on the Capitol where Manlius had stood his ground on that night when fighting off the Gauls overlooked the forum, and the very sight of this place inspired pity. Manlius, too, stretched out his hands in this direction and wept as he recalled his contest there, all of which confounded his judges, who more than once adjourned his trial because, although they were unwilling to acquit him when the evidence of his guilt was unmistakable, at the same time they could not execute the law when, owing to the location of the court, the proof of his great deed was in plain view. Camillus recognized this and consequently moved the court outside the gate of the city to the Peteline Grove,123 a place with no view of the Capitol. There the prosecution made its case, and the memory of Manlius’ past heroism could no longer diminish the judges’ righteous anger against his current misdeeds. Manlius was consequently convicted, taken to the top of the Capitol and flung from the cliff, so that one and the same place became a memorial to his glory and disgrace. The Romans also razed his house and built in its place a temple to the goddess they call Moneta.124 They further decreed that thereafter no patrician should ever dwell on the Capitol.125

  37. For a sixth time Camillus was nominated as consular tribune,126 but he tried to decline the office on the grounds that he was advanced in years. Perhaps, too, he feared how, in the aftermath of anyone’s glorious success, other men often grow resentful and the gods often inflict retribution. His most obvious reason for refusing was his physical infirmity, for, at the time, he happened to be a sick man. The people, however, would not excuse him, crying out that their need was not for him actually to lead the cavalry or the legions into combat but rather for his counsel and instruction. Thus he was constrained to assume military command and immediately, in cooperation with another consular tribune, Lucius Furius,127 lead the army against the Praenestines128 and Volscians, who, with a large force, were ravaging the territory of Rome’s allies.

  Camillus led the army forth and made camp near the enemy, whom he thought it best to exhaust over an extended period of time, so that if a pitched battle should eventuate he could join in the fighting after he had recovered his health and strength. His colleague Lucius, however, was carried away by his passion for glory and so was impatient for combat, and in all the officers he excited the same fervour. Camillus, worried that it might appear that jealousy motivated him to deprive the young men of a glorious victory, reluctantly agreed that Lucius should take command, while he remained in camp, on account of his sickness, with only a few soldiers. But Lucius was reckless in command and quickly routed. When he learned that the Romans were in retreat, Camillus could not restrain himself but leapt from his sickbed and rushed with his soldiers to the gate of the camp. He forced his way through the fleeing Romans until he reached their pursuers. This inspired the men who had rushed past him to turn around and follow, while those still hurrying towards him from the battlefield halted and put themselves once more into battle formation, crying out to one another that they must not desert Camillus. In this way, the enemy’s pursuit was turned back.

  On the next day, Camillus led out the army, joined battle and won a complete victory, taking the enemy camp by charging into it at the same time as the enemy fled into it and killing most of them. After this, when he was informed that the c
ity of Satricum129 had been captured by the Etruscans, and its inhabitants – all of them now Romans – had been put to the sword, he sent the main body of the army, which comprised the heavy-infantry, back to Rome, while he led the youngest and most zealous of his men against the Etruscans who were still holding the city. He defeated them. Some he drove away, the rest he slew.

  38. In returning to Rome with an abundance of plunder, Camillus demonstrated how very wise the people had been when they had been unafraid of a general who, though old and unwell, nevertheless possessed experience and bravery, and when they had preferred him, despite his unwillingness and illness, to younger and more robust men who ardently sought the command. Consequently, when it was reported that the Tusculans130 were in revolt, Camillus was instructed to march out against them after he had chosen another of the consular tribunes as his colleague. Although each of them wanted the appointment and openly asked for it, Camillus selected Lucius Furius – to the surprise of everyone, for he was the man who had recently been so eager for combat, against the advice of Camillus, and had nearly lost the battle. But Camillus, it seems, wanted to obscure this man’s misfortune and to make an end to his shame, which is why he preferred him to all the others.

  The Tusculans made an ingenious attempt to rectify their transgression once they learned that Camillus was advancing against them. They filled their lands with farmers and shepherds, as if it were a time of peace, they kept open the gates of their city and their children continued studying their lessons. As for the urban populace, craftsmen made a show of plying their trades in the shops while the wealthier citizens strolled about in the forum, clad in their ordinary garments, and the magistrates busied themselves in assigning quarters for the Romans, all as if no one expected any danger or was conscious of having done anything wrong. None of these exertions on the part of the Tusculans induced Camillus to doubt that they had in fact acted treasonably. Still, they earned his compassion because, although guilty of treason, they had repented of it. So he ordered them to go to the senate to try to persuade that body to put aside its anger. He even helped them to win the senate’s forgiveness, with the result that the city was entirely absolved of its guilt and admitted to Roman citizenship. These were Camillus’ most illustrious achievements when he was consular tribune for the sixth time.

  39. After these events, the city was disturbed by a radical controversy,131 incited by Licinius Stolo, that put the senate at odds with the people, who were demanding that in the coming consular elections one of the two consuls must be a plebeian instead of both being patrician. Tribunes of the people were then elected, but consular elections were thwarted by the multitude.132 Because there were no magistrates, public business became increasingly confused and disorderly, which led the senate, very much against the wishes of the people, to appoint Camillus dictator for the fourth time.133 Nor was Camillus eager to hold this office, for he did not want to find himself opposing men whose extensive military service entitled them to point out how, serving side by side with them in war, he had accomplished far greater things than he had in politics when cooperating with the patricians. Furthermore, they claimed, the patricians were motivated by nothing other than envy when they selected him as dictator, for they expected that he would crush the people, should he prevail, or, if he failed, be crushed by them. Camillus nevertheless made an attempt to ward off present evils. When he learned the day on which the tribunes intended to put their legislation to a vote, he issued a proclamation for a general mustering of the army and ordered the people, under threat of heavy fines should anyone disobey, to leave the forum and to assemble on the Campus Martius. In retaliation, the tribunes resisted his threats by making a solemn oath to fine him 50,000 silver drachmas unless he stopped trying to steal the people’s right to vote for this law. As a consequence of this – whether it was because he feared a second banishment and condemnation, thinking such a thing wholly unsuitable for a man of his age and accomplishments, or because he was powerless, even if he wished it, to overcome the might of the people, which had become so strong as to be invincible – Camillus withdrew to his house, and, after pretending for some days to be ill, resigned his office.

  The senate then appointed another dictator,134 who, after selecting as his master of the horse the very Stolo who was leading the sedition, allowed the enactment of a law that was most unwelcome to the patricians, for it forbade anyone’s possessing more than 500 iugera of land.135 At that time Stolo was highly esteemed on account of this legislative success, but, somewhat later, he was found to have in his possession more land than he had permitted others to have, and so had to pay the penalty fixed by his own law.

  40. Strife over the election of consuls persisted, which remained the main difficulty – indeed, the fundamental and most troubling controversy in the senate’s disagreements with the people at this time. Then news reached the city, by reliable reports, that the Celts had again advanced from the Adriatic Sea and were descending on Rome in vast numbers. The realities of this invasion came hard on the heels of its report, for the countryside was ravaged and those who could not easily escape to Rome fled into the mountains. This terror brought an end to faction: the rich in cooperation with the poor, and the senate in concert with the people, all unanimously agreed that Camillus be appointed dictator for the fifth time.136 He was by now very old – he was nearly eighty – but because he recognized the crisis and the danger facing Rome, he neither asked to be excused, as before, nor did he offer any pretexts. Instead, he immediately accepted the command and began levying troops.

  Camillus perceived that the barbarians’ effectiveness in combat depended chiefly on their use of swords, which, like all barbarians, they wielded without any skill. Instead, they hacked away at the shoulders and heads of their opponents. Consequently, he had helmets cast for his soldiers made entirely of iron and smooth on their surface, so that when the enemy’s swords struck them they would either glance off or be shattered. He also had his men’s shields fitted with bronze rims, because, being made of wood, they could not resist the enemy’s blows. Besides this, he trained his soldiers to fight by holding their long javelins in their hands, and, by thrusting them under the enemy’s swords, to parry their downward strokes.

  41. When the Gauls drew near Rome, they were laden with an abundance of spoil. They pitched their camp beside the River Anio.137 Camillus then led out his forces, but he posted them on a gently sloping hill marked by many hollows in which he concealed the bulk of his army. As for the troops the Gauls could see, they appeared to have positioned themselves at the top of the hill because they were frightened. Camillus wanted to reinforce this impression, and so he allowed the Gauls to go on plundering in the areas below his position, while he remained inactive behind his fortifications. This went on until he observed that some of the Gauls had gone out into the countryside to forage, while the rest stayed in their camp, spending their time in feasting and drinking. During the night, Camillus sent his light-armed troops forward, where they could hinder the barbarians as they tried to put themselves into battle formation and harass them as soon as they issued from their camp. At daybreak he led forth his infantry, whom he drew up into position on the plain below where the enemy could see that they were numerous and bold, not few and timid as the barbarians had supposed.

  This was the first blow to the confidence of the Celts, for they believed it was disgraceful if anyone other than themselves was first to launch an attack. Then the assault of the light-armed troops prevented the Gauls from getting into their usual array or finding their places in their regular platoons. Instead, they had to fight in complete chaos and disorder. Finally, when Camillus advanced with the infantry, the barbarians raised their swords and rushed into battle, but the Romans fought back with their javelins, while their iron armour withstood the blows of the enemy, actually bending back the edges of their weapons, which were made of soft and poorly tempered metal. Soon the Gauls’ swords were twisted and doubled, and their shields were pierced and weig
hed down by the javelins that were stuck in them. Therefore they tossed away their own weapons and tried to get hold of the Romans’ by grabbing their javelins in an attempt to snatch them away. The Romans, however, as soon as they saw that the enemy was defenceless, began to use their own swords, with the result that there was great slaughter in the front ranks of the Gauls, while the remainder scattered throughout the plain, for Camillus had already occupied the hilltops and highlands, and the Gauls knew that their camp could easily be taken because in their arrogance they had failed to fortify it.

  This battle is said to have been fought thirteen years after Rome was sacked,138 and for the Romans it ushered in genuine confidence where the Celts were concerned. Before this campaign, the Romans had been afraid of the barbarians, believing that their previous victory had been owing, not to their own prowess, but to the Gauls’ illness at the time as well as their surprising bad luck. So great had been the Romans’ fear that when they passed a law exempting priests from military service they excluded any war against the Gauls.139

  42. This was the last of Camillus’ military contests, for his capture of Velitrae140 was a mere pendant to this battle inasmuch as that city surrendered without a fight. The greatest of his political struggles, however, lay before him, and it was made all the more difficult by the assurance the people felt in the aftermath of their victory, for they now insisted on electing a consul from the ranks of the plebeians, contrary to the established law. This the senators opposed, and they would not allow Camillus to resign his dictatorship, hoping that, by dint of his authority and supreme power, he might prove better able to defend the aristocracy. While he was seated in the forum and conducting public business, however, an officer sent by the tribunes of the people commanded him to follow, and he actually put his hands on Camillus, as if he were going to drag him away. A hue and cry then filled the forum, like never before, as Camillus’ associates shoved the plebeian officer from the tribunal and the multitude below shouted for him to arrest the dictator. Camillus was at a loss what to do, but he did not abdicate his office. Instead, he led the senators into the senate-house, and, before entering, turned towards the Capitol and prayed that the gods might bring these present troubles to their happiest conclusion, vowing to build a temple to Concord when this disturbance had ended.