The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  81. ‘Then … this notion’: Homer, Odyssey 18.158 and 21.1.

  82. ‘Then … men might say’: A slight misquotation of Homer, Iliad 9.459–60.

  83. ‘Either … enjoined him to act’: Homer, Odyssey 9.339.

  84. ‘Then … stout heart’: Odyssey 9.299.

  85. ‘Such … strove for decision’: Homer, Iliad 1.188–9.

  86. ‘… but … upright resolve’: Iliad 6.161–2.

  87. Jupiter Capitolinus: This is the temple to Jupiter Best and Greatest, on the Capitoline Hill, which was central to Roman civic religion (Publicola 13–15).

  88. Publicola: He is the subject of Plutarch’s Publicola. It is obvious that Valeria is not truly integral to the story of Coriolanus and it has been suggested that she was introduced by the first-century BC historian Valerius Antias, whose history tended to aggrandize the Valerii: see T. P. Wiseman, Roman Drama and Roman History (1998), p. 88.

  89. daughters of the Sabines … peace: Valeria refers to the aftermath of the Rape of the Sabine Women (Romulus 19).

  90. Fortune of Women: The temple of the Fortune of Women (Fortuna Muliebris) was located 4 miles (6½ km) outside Rome on the Latin Way.

  91. ‘Women … pleasing to the gods’: This statue expresses itself differently at Moralia 318f–319a. Only one other statue in Plutarch speaks: the statue of Juno (Camillus 6).

  92. statues … takes place inside: See Moralia 397e–398b and 404b, where Plutarch discusses miraculous actions by statues.

  93. attributes of the divine … incredibility: Heracleitus of Ephesus (note 62), fr. 86 DK, also cited by Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 5.88.4. The original context of this fragment (and consequently the extent of its adaptation here by Plutarch) is far from clear (it is not obvious that ‘attributes of the divine’ was Heracleitus’ subject for ‘escapes’): see Kahn, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus, p. 212.

  94. wear mourning … mentioned in his Life: Numa 12.

  95. Aequians: Little is known of them, but they, like the Volscians (and at about the same time), pushed into Latium and fought a sequence of wars against the Romans.

  96. defeated by the Romans … obey her commands: The Volscians began to succumb to the Romans in the fourth century BC.

  CAMILLUS

  Further Reading

  There is no English commentary on the Life of Camillus. Nor has the work attracted much in the way of literary study: it figures mostly in historical inquiries or as an alternative account of the Camillus legend in historiographical treatments of Livy – or as a resource for antiquarian research. There is, however, a very useful Italian introduction with (remarkably detailed) commentary by C. Carena, M. Manfredini and L. Piccirilli (eds.), Le Vite di Temistocle e di Camillo (1983). The best investigations of this pairing are D. H. J. Larmour, ‘Making Parallels: Synkrisis and Plutarch’s Themistokles and Camillus’, in ANRW2.33.6 (1992), 4154–200, and T. Duff, ‘Plutarch’s Themistocles and Camillus’, in Humble, Plutarch’s Lives, pp. 45–86. Although rather dated, and exacting for non-experts, a good account of the development of the Camillus legend in Roman historiography is provided by A. Momigliano, ‘Camillus and Concord’, CQ 36 (1942), pp. 111–20. A. T. Grafton and N. M. Swerdlow, ‘Dates and Ominous Days in Ancient Historiography’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 51 (1988), pp. 14–42, illustrates the importance of antiquarian investigation in Camillus. The significance of the Capitoline – and of the physical city of Rome in general – to Roman mentalities is made clear by C. Edwards, Writing Rome: Textual Approaches to the City (1996). J. H. C. Williams, Beyond the Rubicon: Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy (2001), explains the Roman (and Greek) conceptions of Gauls and the various purposes, literary and cultural, to which Gauls were put. The Livian perspective is unpacked by C. Kraus, ‘ “No second Troy”: Topoi and refoundation in Livy, Book V’, TAPhA 124 (1994), pp. 267–89, while the reception of Camillus in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Appian and Cassius Dio is discussed by A. M. Gowing, ‘The Roman exempla tradition in imperial Greek historiography: the case of Camillus’, in A. Feldherr (ed.), A Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians (2009), pp. 332–61. G. Dumézil, Camillus: A Study of Indo-European Religion as Roman History (1980), investigates the underlying significance of the story of Camillus by way of comparative mythology.

  Notes to the Introduction to Camillus

  1. The Camillus legend is discussed by R. M. Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5 (1965), pp. 626–30, 669–71, 741–3, 750–51; Cornell, Beginnings of Rome, pp. 310–22; S. P. Oakley, A Commentary on Livy, Books 6–10, vol. 1 (1997), pp. 376–9; and Forsythe, Early Rome, pp. 251–67.

  2. This process is concisely reviewed in Momigliano, CQ 36, pp. 111–20 (with complete references to earlier scholarship on the matter).

  3. Momigliano, CQ 36, pp. 111–20; Ogilvie, Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5, pp. 736–7; and Cornell, Beginnings of Rome, pp. 316–18.

  4. There are useful discussions in C. A. Krauss, Livy: Ab Urbe Condita, Book VI (1994), pp. 24–7, and Oakley, Commentary on Livy, Books 6–10, vol. 2 (1998), pp. 35–7.

  5. In addition to Dion. Hal. and Livy, Diodorus 14.113–17 is an important source for the story of Camillus. Each of these writers relied on earlier accounts, now lost or known only by occasional citation.

  6. There is a good discussion of this matter in Cornell, Beginnings of Rome, pp. 316–17.

  7. For glimpses of rivals to Camillus, see Suetonius, Tiberius 3.2, and Strabo 5.2.3.

  8. See Williams, Beyond the Rubicon, pp. 170–82.

  9. See Edwards, Writing Rome, pp. 74–88.

  10. In general, see Cornell, Beginnings of Rome, pp. 313–18, and Williams, Beyond the Rubicon, pp. 140–84.

  11. Graeco-Roman stereotypes regarding Gauls are discussed by Williams, Beyond the Rubicon.

  12. The others are Alexander–Caesar, Phocion–Younger Cato and Pyrrhus–Marius.

  13. For instance, at ch. 17 (Dion. Hal. 13.12), ch. 27 (Dion. Hal. 13.7), ch. 32 (Dion. Hal. 14.2) and chs. 40–41 (Dion. Hal. 14.9).

  14. Cooperation and moderation are virtues prized by Plutarch: see Duff, Plutarch’s Lives, pp. 89–90 and 139–40. On the Conflict of the Orders, see Introduction to Coriolanus.

  15. For example, at Livy 6.38.5 Camillus is ‘filled with anger and with threats’ (plenus irae minarumque). In his Galba (ch. 29), Plutarch adduces Camillus as an example of a stern disciplinarian.

  16. See Pelling, P&H, pp. 365–6.

  17. See Introduction to Coriolanus and Jones, ‘Chronology’, pp. 106–14.

  18. See Moralia 809b–810a and 823f–825f. Important discussions of these virtues and their relevance to Plutarch’s cultural and political circumstances can be found in A. E. Wardman, Plutarch’s Lives (1974), pp. 57–63, Jones, P&R, pp. 111–21, and Duff, Plutarch’s Lives, pp. 89–94.

  19. See General Introduction IV.

  Notes to the Life of Camillus

  1. military tribunes with consular powers: From 444 to 367 the Romans frequently elected military tribunes with consular powers (consular tribunes) instead of consuls. The reasons for this practice elude us, but one ancient view (reflected here) connected the office with the Conflict of the Orders; unlike the consulship, plebeians as well as patricians could be elected consular tribunes. On the Conflict of the Orders, see Introduction to Coriolanus.

  2. six men instead of two: There were not invariably six consular tribunes, although that is the most frequently attested number.

  3. many different offices: In addition to the offices mentioned in this chapter, Camillus was censor (see below) and (mentioned only by Livy) interrex (on this office, see Marcellus 6) three times (in 396, 391 and 389).

  4. Furii … first of his line to win fame: There were already distinguished Furii by this point in Roman history. However, of Camillus’ immediate origins or family line nothing was preserved or fabricated in the historians on whom Plutarch relied.

  5. Postumius Tubertus: Aulus Postumius Tubertus was dictat
or in 431. Only Plutarch associates Camillus with this campaign.

  6. appointment as censor: In 403. The connection drawn by Plutarch here with events in 431 is tenuous.

  7. consular tribune for the second time: Camillus was consular tribune for the first time in 399, when he campaigned against the Falerians, and for the second time in 398, when he campaigned against the Capenates (see following notes).

  8. Falerians: The inhabitants of Falerii Veteres (modern Cività Castellana) – the major city of the Faliscans – were a people who dwelt north of Veii. The Falerians were part of the Faliscan people.

  9. Capenates: The people of ancient Capena (located not quite 3 miles or 5 km north of modern Capena); they were related in language and material culture to the Faliscans.

  10. Alban lake: The modern Lago Albano (or Lago di Castel Gondolfo), located far to the south of Veii in Latium, near the site of Alba Longa.

  11. a marvellous prodigy … autumn: This is cited by numerous sources. In Dion. Hal. (12.10) it occurs during the summer.

  12. envoys: Only Plutarch provides their names; their exact identification is uncertain. Cossius Licinius has been identified with Gnaeus Cornelius Cossus (consular tribune 406) or Publius Licinius Clavus (consular tribune 400); Valerius Potitus is either the consul of 410 or the consul of 392; Fabius Ambustus is either the consular tribune of 410 or the consular tribune of 406.

  13. Latin festivals: The Latin Festival (Feriae Latinae), in honour of Jupiter Latiaris, was associated with Alba Longa and the Alban Mount, hence its relevance to the prodigy of the Alban lake.

  14. necessary sacrifices: According to Livy (5.17.4), expiating the flawed Latin Festival entailed holding new elections, at which Camillus acted as an interrex.

  15. tenth year of the war … dictator: In 396.

  16. Cornelius Scipio: An imperial inscription names him Publius Cornelius Maluginensis.

  17. Mater Matuta: A divinity associated with fertility and childbirth. Her temple, elsewhere said to have been dedicated by Servius Tullius, was in the Forum Boarium. She was honoured in a festival known as the Matralia. This goddess was identified by some with Leucothea (e.g. Ovid, Fasti 6.545), a divinity who was early on (e.g. Homer, Odyssey 5.333) associated with Ino, the sister of Semele and so the aunt of Dionysus.

  18. the nursing of Dionysus … concubine: At Moralia 267e, Plutarch associates Ino’s nursing of Dionysus with the Romans’ prayers to Mater Matuta for the wellbeing of their sisters’ children, and at Moralia 267d he explains the violence done by worshippers to a slave girl by citing Ino’s jealousy of her husband’s slave.

  19. The Roman soldiers then seized the entrails … fable: In describing this same event, Livy (5.21.8) employs a technical term for cutting out sacred entrails – hostiae exta prosecuisset (to whoever ritually cut out these entrails) – which Plutarch seems to have misread as prosecutus esset (completed). Livy characterizes this episode as a fabula.

  20. burst into tears: The shedding of tears at the sight of a cataclysmic reversal of fortune displays sound Hellenic sensibilities and a correct understanding of the workings of history. Although the motif is old, its most influential instance was probably Polybius’ account of Scipio Aemilianus’ tears at the destruction of Carthage (38.21). Later historians, including Plutarch, put the effect to similar work (in this volume at Marcellus 19 and Aemilius Paullus 26). See further A. Rossi, Greece & Rome 47 (2000), pp. 56–66, and the essays by D. Lateiner and L. de Libero in T. Fögen, Tears in the Graeco-Roman World (2009).

  21. he turned himself to the right … adoration: Plutarch makes similar observations at Numa 14 and Marcellus 6.

  22. disaster: The word here translated disaster also means fall. Camillus’ slip is a very bad omen in Livy (5.21.16) and Dion. Hal. (12.16.4–5): in each account it presages a future disgrace for Camillus, and in Livy it foretells Rome’s destruction in the Gallic sack.

  23. remove the image of Juno … vowed: Livy (5.21.3) includes such a vow in advance of Camillus’ campaign against Veii, but Plutarch has made no prior mention of it.

  24. offered the goddess sacrifice … other gods of the city: This ritual was known as evocatio, whereby a foreign divinity was expected to abandon its original city and accept a new home in Rome. Veii’s Juno was installed in a temple on the Aventine, where she became Rome’s Juno Regina.

  25. Livy … says … come along with him: This is not what Livy reports: in his version (5.22.5), Camillus is not present; one of the youths sent to fetch the statue asks, as a joke, if it is willing to come along, and his companions join in to give the statue’s response – and only later, Livy insists, did the story emerge that the statue itself had spoken.

  26. phenomena … recorded: Plutarch also discusses miraculous actions by statues at Coriolanus 37–8.

  27. best … the avoidance of all extremes: Plutarch’s Greek here (to meden agan ariston) quotes the familiar inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi (Plato, Charmides 165a: meden agan – ‘nothing in excess’), and the sentiment is found in early poetry (Theognis 335 may be the earliest instance).

  28. celebrated his triumph … four white horses: Romulus (Propertius 4.1.32) and Julius Caesar (Cassius Dio 43.14.3) are also said to have celebrated triumphs in chariots drawn by four white horses, and in Ovid’s Fasti (6.724) the triumph of the dictator Aulus Postumius Tubertus (note 5) is distinguished by white horses (their number is not specified).

  29. 8 talents of gold: An Attic talent (the measure Plutarch has in mind) weighed approximately 26 kilograms or 50 pounds.

  30. public encomium: The first woman known to have received a public funeral oration was Popilia in 102. She was eulogized by her son, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, who was consul in that year (Cicero, On the Ideal Orator 2.11.44). Livy (5.50.7) explains the matrons’ honour differently.

  31. three of the noblest men: Lucius Valerius Potitus (consular tribune in 414), Lucius Sergius (consular tribune in 397) and Aulus Manlius (consular tribune in 405).

  32. Aeolian islands … pirates: Lipara (modern Lipari) is the largest of the Aeolian islands (modern Isole Eolie) in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily. Lipara pursued an aggressively independent naval policy: Liparians are sometimes described as pirates (so, in relating this episode, Livy 5.28.2–4).

  33. dedication: This dedication was kept in the treasury at Delphi that belonged to the city of Massilia (modern Marseilles) (Diodorus 1.93.4; Appian, Italy 8.3).

  34. Timesitheus … honoured by the Romans: When the Romans annexed Lipara in 252, the descendants of Timesitheus preserved their privileges (Diodorus 14.93).

  35. circumstances that required … proven by experience: Plutarch adds this comment in order to explain how Camillus won election despite his unpopularity. This was Camillus’ third election as consular tribune (in 394).

  36. remedy … humours from the state: Plutarch also employs this metaphor from medicine at Numa 8 and Coriolanus 12. It is adapted from Plato, Republic 372e.

  37. indictment … prosecutor was Lucius Apuleius: The trial is dated to 391. Pliny (Natural History 34.13) names the quaestor Spurius Carvilius as Camillus’ prosecutor.

  38. like Achilles … laid curses … left the city: See Homer, Iliad 1.233–44, where Achilles, insulted by Agamemnon, withdraws from battle and urges the gods to bring misfortune on his fellow Achaeans so that they will appreciate how greatly they require his valour.

  39. asses … denarius: See General Introduction VI.

  40. Julius: Gaius Julius Jullus was elected censor in 393 and died in 392.

  41. Marcus Caedicius: A name suitable for a recipient of a prophecy of disaster (caedes in Latin). This divinity will receive cult status as Aius Locutius at ch. 30.

  42. Gauls … Celtic people: For Graeco-Roman ideas about Gauls, see Introduction. Plutarch, like other Greek writers, tends to use Gaul and Celt interchangeably.

  43. Rhipaean mountains: Their identity varies considerably in our Greek sources, and the geographer Strabo (8.295 and 29
9) goes so far as to deny their existence.

  44. Senones … Bituriges: The Senones inhabited what is now Champagne and southern Burgundy; the Bituriges, parts of the Loire valley. Each name here is, owing to the condition of the manuscripts, somewhat conjectural.

  45. taste for wine: In their excessive fondness for wine the Gauls exhibit their (stereotypical) incapacity to control their appetites.

  46. Arruns … into Italy: This story was known to Polybius and the Elder Cato and variations of it are told by Livy (5.33.1–4) and Dion. Hal. (13.10). In Livy, Arruns is a citizen of Clusium and this story is (tentatively) linked to the Gallic sack of Rome.

  47. Adria: Or Atria (modern Atri), then a coastal city but now, however, more than 12 miles (19 km) from the sea, lies in the Po valley and was possibly originally a Greek city that fell under Etruscan control. It was, from the sixth century BC, an important port city.

  48. Etruscan Sea: The Tyrrhenian (i.e. Etruscan) Sea.

  49. eighteen … cities: Livy (5.33.9) mentions twelve cities.

  50. those events took place long ago: Plutarch’s chronology is unclear; he does not connect the story of Arruns with the fall of Rome and sets the Gauls’ conquest of the Etruscan cities in the distant past, yet it is the Gallic invasion of Etruria that here (and traditionally) leads to the capture of Rome. A more detailed (though not for that reason more reliable) account is provided by Livy 5.34–5.

  51. Clusium: Modern Chiusi.

  52. Three men of the Fabii: Quintus Fabius Ambustus (consular tribune in 390), Kaeso Fabius (consular tribune in 404) and Numerius Fabius (consular tribune in 406), but there are difficulties attending these identifications.

  53. the Fidenates: The people of Fidenae (modern Castel Giubileo), which was conquered by Rome in 498.