Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [26.1] When the Alban observed that Tullus had already won a brilliant victory, he also marched down from the heights with his own troops and pursued those of the Fidenates who were fleeing, in order that he might be seen by all the Romans performing some part of the duty of an ally; and he destroyed many of the enemy who had become dispersed in the left. [2] Tullus, though he understood his purpose and understood his double treachery, thought he ought to utter no reproaches for the present till he should have the man in his power, but addressing himself to many of those who were present, he pretended to applaud the Alban’s withdrawal to the heights, as if it had been prompted by the best motive; and sending a party of horse to him, he requested him to give the final proof of his zeal by hunting down and slaying the many Fidenates who had been unable to get inside the walls and were dispersed about the country. [3] And Fufetius, imagining that he had succeeded in one of his two hopes and that Tullus was unacquainted with his treachery, rejoiced, and riding over the plains for a considerable time, he cut down all whom he found; but when the sun was now set, he returned from the pursuit with his horsemen to the Roman camp and passed the following night in making merry with his friends.

  [4] Tullus remained in the camp of the Veientes till the first watch and questioned the most prominent of the prisoners concerning the leaders of the revolt; and when he learned that Mettius Fufetius, the Alban, was also one of the conspirators and considered that his actions agreed with the information of the prisoners, he mounted his horse, and taking with him the most faithful of his friends, rode off to Rome. [5] Then, sending to the houses of the senators, he assembled them before midnight and informed them of the treachery of the Alban, producing the prisoners as witnesses, and informed them of the stratagem by which he himself had outwitted both their enemies and the Fidenates. And he asked them, now that the war was ended in the most successful manner, to consider the problems that remained — how the traitors ought to be punished and the city of Alba rendered more circumspect for the future. [6] That the authors of these wicked designs should be punished seemed to all both just and necessary, but how this was to be most easily and safely accomplished was a problem that caused them great perplexity. For they thought it obviously impossible to put to death a great number of brave Albans in a secret and clandestine manner, whereas, if they should attempt openly to apprehend and punish the guilty, they assumed that the Albans would not permit it but would rush to arms; and they were unwilling to carry on war at the same time with the Fidenates and Tyrrhenians and with the Albans, who had come to them as allies. While they were in this perplexity, Tullus delivered the final opinion, which met with the approval of all; but of this I shall speak presently.

  [27] The distance between Fidenae and Rome being forty stades, Tullus rode full speed to the camp, and sending for Marcus Horatius, the survivor of the triplets, before it was quite day, he commanded him to take the flower of the cavalry and infantry, and proceeding to Alba, to enter the city as a friend, and then, as soon as he had secured the submission of the inhabitants, to raze the city to the foundations without sparing a single building, whether private or public, except the temples; but as for the citizens, he was neither to kill nor injure any of them, but to permit them to retain their possessions. [2] After sending him on his way he assembled the tribunes and centurions, and having acquainted them with the resolutions of the senate, he placed them as a guard about his person. Soon after, the Alban came, pretending to express his joy over their common victory and to congratulate Tullus upon it. The latter, still concealing his intention, commended him and declared he was deserving of great rewards; at the same time he asked him to write down the names of such of the other Albans also as had performed any notable exploit in the battle and to bring the list to him, in order that they also might get their share of the fruits of victory. [3] Mettius, accordingly, greatly pleased at this, entered upon a tablet and gave to him a list of his most intimate friends who had been the accomplices in his secret designs. Then the Roman king ordered all the troops to come to an assembly after first laying aside their arms. And when they assembled he ordered the Alban general together with his tribunes and centurions to stand directly beside the tribunal; next to these the rest of the Albans were to take their place in the assembly, drawn up in their ranks, and behind the Albans the remainder of the allied forces, while outside of them all he stationed Romans, including the most resolute, with swords concealed under their garments. When he thought he had his foes where he wanted them, he rose up and spoke as follows:

  [28.1] “Romans and you others, both friends and allies, those who dared openly to make war against us, the Fidenates and their allies, have been punished by us with the aid of the gods, and either will cease for the future to trouble us or will receive an even severer chastisement than that they have just experienced. [2] It is now time, since our first enterprise has succeeded to our wish, to punish those other enemies also who ear the name of friends and were taken into this war to assist us in harrying our common foes, but have broken faith with us, and entering into secret treaties with those enemies, have attempted to destroy us all. [3] For these are much worse than open enemies and deserve a severer punishment, since it is both easy to guard against the latter when one is treacherously attacked and possible to repulse them when they are at grips as enemies, but when friends act the part of enemies it is neither easy to guard against them nor possible for those who are taken by surprise to repulse them. And such are the allies sent us by the city of Alba with treacherous intent, although they have received no injury from us but many considerable benefits. [4] For, as we are their colony, we have not wrested away any part of their dominion but have acquired our own strength and power from our own wars; and by making our city a bulwark against the greatest and most warlike nations we have effectually secured them from a war with the Tyrrhenians and Sabines. In the prosperity, therefore, of our city they above all others should have rejoiced, and have grieved at its adversity no less than at their own. [5] But they, it appears, continued not only to begrudge us the advantages we had but also to begrudge themselves the good fortune they enjoyed because of us, and at last, unable any longer to contain their festering hatred, they declared war against us. But finding us well prepared for the struggle and themselves, therefore, in no condition to do any harm, they invited us to a reconciliation and friendship and asked that our strife over the supremacy should be decided by three men from each city. These proposals also we accepted, and after winning in the combat became masters of their city. Well, then, what did we do after that? [6] Though it was in our power to take hostages from them, to leave a garrison in their city, to destroy some of the principal authors of the war between the two cities and to banish others, to change the form of their government according to our own interest, to punish them with the forfeiture of a part of their lands and effects, and — the thing that was easiest of all — to disarm them, by which means we should have strengthened our rule, we did not see fit to do any of these things, but, consulting our filial obligations to our mother-city rather than the security of our power and considering the good opinion of all the world as more important than our own private advantage, we allowed them to enjoy all that was theirs and permitted Mettius Fufetius, as being supposedly the best of the Albans — since they themselves had honoured him with the chief magistracy — to administer their affairs up to the present time.

  [7] “For which favours hear now what gratitude they showed, at a time when we needed the goodwill of our friends and allies more than ever. They made a secret compact with our common enemies by which they engaged to fall upon us in conjunction with them in the course of the battle; and when the two armies approached each other they deserted the post to which they had been assigned and made off for the hills near by at a run, eager to occupy the strong positions ahead of anyone else. [8] And if their attempt had succeeded according to their wish, nothing could have prevented us, surrounded at once by our enemies and by our friends, from being a
ll destroyed, and the fruit of the many battles we had fought for the sovereignty of our city from being lost in a single day. [9] But since their plan has miscarried, owing, in the first place, to the goodwill of the gods (for I at any rate ascribe all worthy achievements to them), and, second, to the stratagem I made use of, which contributed not a little to inspire the enemy with fear and you with confidence (for the statement I made during the battle, that the Albans were taking possession of the heights by my orders with a view of surrounding the enemy, was all a fiction and a stratagem contrived by myself), [10] since, I say, things have turned out to our advantage, we should not be the men we ought to be if we did not take revenge on these traitors. For, apart from the other ties which, by reason of their kinship to us, they ought to have preserved inviolate, they recently made a treaty with us confirmed by oaths, and then, without either fearing the gods whom they had made witnesses of the treaty or showing any regard for justice itself and the condemnation of men, or considering the greatness of the danger if their treachery should not succeed according to their wish, endeavoured to destroy us, who are both their colony and their benefactors, in the most miserable fashion, thus arraying themselves, though our founders, on the side of our most deadly foes and our greatest enemies.”

  [29.1] While he was thus speaking the Albans had recourse to lamentations and entreaties of every kind, the common people declaring that they had no knowledge of the intrigues of Mettius, and their commanders alleging that they had not learned of his secret plans till they were in the midst of the battle itself, when it was not in their power either to prevent his orders or to refuse obedience to them; and some even ascribed their action to the necessity imposed against their will by their affinity or kinship to the man. But the king, having commanded them to be silent, [2] addressed them thus:

  [2] “I, too, Albans, am not unaware of any of these things that you urge in your defence, but am of the opinion that the generality of you had no knowledge of this treachery, since secrets are not apt to be kept even for a moment when many share in the knowledge of them; and I also believe that only a small number of the tribunes and centurions were accomplices in the conspiracy formed against us, but that the greater part of them were deceived and forced into a position where they were compelled to act against their will. [3] Nevertheless, even if nothing of all this were true, but if all the Albans, as well you who are here present as those who are left in your city, had felt a desire to hurt us, and if you had not now for the first time, but long since, taken this resolution, yet on account of their kinship to you the Romans would feel under every necessity to bear even this injustice at your hands. [4] But against the possibility of your forming some wicked plot against us hereafter, as the result either of compulsion or deception on the part of the leaders of your state, there is but one precaution and provision, and that is for us all to become citizens of the same city and to regard one only as our fatherland, in whose prosperity and adversity everyone will have that share which Fortune allots to him. For so long as each of our two peoples decides what is advantageous and disadvantageous on the basis of a different judgment, as is now the case, the friendship between us will not be enduring, particularly when those who are the first to plot against the others are either to gain an advantage if they succeed, or, if they fail, are to be secured by their kinship from any serious retribution, while those against whom the attempt is made, if they are subdued, are to suffer the extreme penalties, and if they escape, are not, like enemies, to remember their wrongs — as has happened in the present instance.

  [5] “Know, then, that the Romans last night came to the following resolutions, I myself having assembled the senate and proposed the decree: it is ordered that your city be demolished and that no buildings, either public or private, be left standing except the temples; [6] that all the inhabitants, while continuing in the possession of the allotments of land they now enjoy and being deprived of none of their slaves, cattle and other effects, reside henceforth at Rome; that such of your lands as belong to the public be divided among those of the Albans who have none, except the sacred possessions from which the sacrifices to the gods were provided; that I take charge of the construction of the houses in which you newcomers are to establish your homes, determining in what parts of the city they shall be, and assist the poorest among you in the expense of building; [7] that the mass of your population be incorporated with our plebeians and be distributed among the tribes and curiae, but that the following families be admitted to the senate, hold magistracies and be numbered with the patricians, to wit, the Julii, the Servilii, the Curiatii, the Quintilii, the Cloelii, the Geganii, and the Metilii; and that Mettius and his accomplices in the treachery suffer such punishments as we shall ordain when we come to sit in judgment upon each of the accused. For we shall deprive none of them either of a trial or of the privilege of making a defence.”

  [30.1] At these words of Tullus the poorer sort of the Albans were very well satisfied to become residents of Rome and to have lands allotted to them, and they received with loud acclaim the terms granted them. But those among them who were distinguished for their dignities and fortunes were grieved at the thought of having to leave the city of their birth and to abandon the hearths of their ancestors and pass the rest of their lives in a foreign country; nevertheless, being reduced to the last extremity, they could think of nothing to say. Tullus, seeing the disposition of the multitude, ordered Mettius to make his defence, if he wished to say anything in answer to the charges. [2] But he, unable to justify himself against the accusers and witnesses, said that the Alban senate had secretly given him these orders when he led his army forth to war, and he asked the Albans, for whom he had endeavoured to recover the supremacy, to come to his aid and to permit neither their city to be razed nor the most illustrious of the citizens to be haled to punishment. Upon this, a tumult arose in the assembly and, some of them rushing to arms, those who surrounded the multitude, upon a given signal, held up their swords. [3] And when all were terrified, Tullus rose up again and said: “It is no longer in your power, Albans, to act seditiously or even to make any false move. For if you dare attempt any disturbance, you shall all be slain by these troops (pointing to those who held their swords in their hands). Accept, then, the terms offered to you and become henceforth Romans. For you must do one of two things, either live at Rome or have no other country. [4] For early this morning Marcus Horatius set forth, sent by me, to raze your city to the foundations and to remove all the inhabitants to Rome. Knowing, then, that these orders are as good as executed already, cease to court destruction and do as you are bidden. As for Mettius Fufetius, who has not only laid snares for us in secret but even now has not hesitated to call the turbulent and seditious to arms, I shall punish him in such manner as his wicked and deceitful heart deserves.”

  [5] At these words, that part of the assembly which was in an irritated mood, cowered in fear, restrained by inevitable necessity. Fufetius alone still showed his resentment and cried out, appealing to the treaty which he himself was convicted of having violated, and even in his distress abated nothing of his boldness; but the lictors seized him at the command of King Tullus, and tearing off his clothes, scourged his body with many stripes. [6] After he had been sufficiently punished in this manner, they brought up two teams of horses and with long traces fastened his arms to one of them and his feet to the other; then, as the drivers urged their teams apart, the wretch was mangled upon the ground and, being dragged by the two teams in opposite directions, was soon torn apart. [7] This was the miserable and shameful end of Mettius Fufetius. For the trial of his friends and the accomplices of his treachery the king set up courts and put to death such of the accused as were found guilty, pursuant to the law respecting deserters and traitors.

  [31.1] In the meantime Marcus Horatius, who had been sent on with the picked troops to destroy Alba, having quickly made the march and finding the gates open and the walls unguarded, easily made himself master of the city. Then, assembli
ng the people, he informed them of everything which had happened during the battle and read to them the decree of the Roman senate. [2] And though the inhabitants had recourse to supplications and begged for time in which to send an embassy, he proceeded without any delay to raze the houses and walls and every other building, both public and private; but he conducted the inhabitants to Rome with great care, permitting them to take their animals and their goods with them. [3] And Tullus, upon arriving from the camp, distributed them among the Roman tribes and curiae, assisted them in building houses in such parts of the city as they themselves preferred, allotted a sufficient portion of the public lands to those of the labouring class, and by other acts of humanity relieved the needs of the multitude. [4] Thus the city of Alba, which had been built by Ascanius, the son whom Aeneas, Anchises’ son, had by Creusa, the daughter of Priam, after having stood for four hundred and eighty-seven years from its founding, during which time it had greatly increased in population, wealth and every form of prosperity, and after having colonized the thirty cities of the Latins and during all this time held the leadership of that nation, was destroyed by the last colony it had planted, and remains uninhabited to this day.