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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [50.1] The Nomentans also, having formed the same plans, met with the same fate. For they kept sending bands of robbers to pillage the fields of the Romans and openly became their enemies, relying upon the assistance of the Latins. But when Tarquinius set out against them and the aid from the Latins was too late in arriving, they were unable to resist so great a force by themselves, and coming out of the town with the tokens of suppliants, they surrendered. [2] The inhabitants of the city called Collatia undertook to try the fortune of battle with the Roman forces and for that purpose came out of their city; but being worsted in every engagement and having many of their men wounded, they were again forced to take refuge inside their walls, and they kept sending to the various Latin cities asking for assistance. But as these were too slow about relieving them and the enemy was attacking their walls in many places, they were at length obliged to deliver up their town. [3] They did not, however, meet with the same lenient treatment as had the Nomentans and Crustumerians, for the king disarmed them and fined them in a sum of money; and leaving a sufficient garrison in the city, he appointed his own nephew, Tarquinius Arruns, to rule over them with absolute power for life. This man, who had been born after the death both of his father Arruns and of his grandfather Demaratus, had inherited from neither the part of their respective fortunes which otherwise would have fallen to his share and for this reason he was surnamed Egerius or “the Indigent”; for that is the name the Romans give to poor men and beggars. But from the time when he took charge of this city both he himself and all his descendants were given the surname of Collatinus.

  [4] After the surrender of Collatia the king marched against the place called Corniculum; this also was a city of the Latin race. And having ravaged their territory in great security, since none offered to defend it, he encamped close by the city itself and invited the inhabitants to enter into a league of friendship. But since they were unwilling to come to terms, but relied on the strength of their walls and expected allies to come from many directions, he invested the city on all sides and assaulted the walls. [5] The Corniculans resisted long and bravely, inflicting numerous losses upon the besiegers, but becoming worn out with continual labour and no longer being unanimous (for some wished to deliver up the town and others to hold out to the last) and their distress being greatly increased by this very dissension, the town was taken by storm. [6] The bravest part of the people were slain fighting during the capture of the town, while the craven, who owed their preservation to their cowardice, were sold for slaves together with their wives and children; and the city was plundered by the conquerors and burned. [7] The Latins, resenting this proceeding, voted to lead a joint army against the Romans; and having raised a numerous force, they made an irruption into the most fruitful part of their country, carrying off thence many captives and possessing themselves of much booty. King Tarquinius marched out against them with his light troops who were ready for action, but too late to overtake them, he invaded their country and treated it in similar fashion. [8] Many other such reverses and successes happened alternately to each side in the expeditions they made against one another’s borders; and they fought one pitched battle with all their forces near the city of Fidenae, in which many fell on both sides though the Romans gained the victory and forced the Latins to abandon their camp by night and retire to their own cities.

  [51.1] After this engagement Tarquinius led his army in good order to their cities, making offers of friendship; and the Latins, since they had no national army assembled and no confidence in their own preparations, accepted his proposals. And some of them proceeded to surrender their cities, observing that in the case of the cities which were taken by storm the inhabitants were made slaves and the cities razed, while those which surrendered by capitulation were treated with no other severity than to be obliged to yield obedience to the conquerors. [2] First, then, Ficulea, a city of note, submitted to him upon fair terms, then Cameria; and their example was followed by some small towns and strong fortresses. [3] But the rest of the Latins, becoming alarmed at this and fearing that he would subjugate the whole nation, met together in their assembly at Ferentinum and voted, not only to lead out their own forces from every city, but also to call the strongest of the neighbouring peoples to their aid; and to that end they sent ambassadors to the Tyrrhenians and Sabines to ask for assistance. [4] The Sabines promised that as soon as they should hear that the Latins had invaded the territory of the Romans they too would take up arms and ravage that part of their territory which lay next to them; and the Tyrrhenians engaged to send to their assistance whatever forces they themselves should not need, though not all were of the same mind, but only five cities, namely, Clusium, Arretium, Volaterrae, Rusellae, and, in addition to these, Vetulonia.

  [52.1] The Latins, elated by these hopes, got ready a large army of their own forces and having added to it the troops from the Tyrrhenians, invaded the Roman territory; and at the same time the cities of the Sabine nation which had promise to take part with them in the war proceeded to lay waste the country that bordered their own. Thereupon the Roman king, who in the meantime had also got ready a large and excellent army, marched in haste against the enemy. [2] But thinking it unsafe to attack the Sabines and the Latins at the same time and to divide his forces into two bodies, he determined to lead his whole army against the Latins, and encamped near them. At first both sides were reluctant to hazard an engagement with all their forces, being alarmed at each other’s preparations; but the light-armed troops, coming down from their entrenchments, engaged in constant skirmishes with one another, generally without any advantage on either side. [3] After a time, however, these skirmishes produced a spirit of rivalry in both armies and each side supported its own men, at first in small numbers, but at last they were all forced to come out of their camps. The troops which now engaged, being used to fighting and being nearly equal in numbers, both foot and horse, animated by the same warlike ardour, and believing that they were running the supreme risk, fought on both sides with noteworthy bravery; and they separated, without a decision, when night overtook them. [4] But the different feelings of the two sides after the action made it clear which of them had fought better than their opponents. For on the next day the Latins stirred no more out of their camp, while the Roman king, leading out his troops into the plain, was ready to fight another engagement and for a long time kept his lines in battle formation. But when the enemy did not come out against him, he took the spoils from their dead, and carrying off his own dead, led his army with great exultation back to his own camp.

  [53.1] The Latins having received fresh aid from the Tyrrhenians during the days that followed, a second battle was fought, much greater than the former, in which King Tarquinius gained a most signal victory, the credit for which was allowed by all to belong to him personally. [2] For when the Roman line was already in distress and its close formation was being broken on the left wing, Tarquinius, as soon as he learned of this reverse to his forces (for he happened then to be fighting on the right wing), wheeling the best troops of horse about and taking along the flower of the foot, led them behind his own army and passing by the left wing, advanced even beyond the solid ranks of his line of battle. Then, wheeling his troops to the right and all clapping spurs to their horses, he charged the Tyrrhenians in flank (for these were fighting on the enemy’s right wing and had put to flight those who stood opposite to them), and by thus appearing to them unexpectedly he caused them great alarm and confusion. [3] In the meantime the Roman foot also, having recovered themselves from their earlier fear, advanced against the enemy; and thereupon there followed a great slaughter of the Tyrrhenians and the utter rout of their right wing. Tarquinius, having ordered the commanders of the infantry to follow in good order and slowly, led the cavalry himself at full speed to the enemy’s camp; and arriving there ahead of those who were endeavouring to save themselves from the rout, he captured the entrenchments at the very first onset. For the troops which had been left there, being neither aw
are as yet of the misfortune that had befallen their own men nor able, by reason of the suddenness of the attack, to recognize the cavalry that approached, permitted them to enter. [4] After the camp of the Latins had been taken, those of the enemy who were retiring thither from the rout of their army, as to a safe retreat, were slain by the cavalry, who had possessed themselves of it, while others, endeavouring to escape from the camp into the plain, were met by the serried ranks to Roman infantry and cut down; but the greater part of them, being crowded by one another and trodden under foot, perished on the palisades or in the trenches in the most miserable and ignoble manner. Consequently, those who were left alive, finding no means of saving themselves, were obliged to surrender to the conquerors. [5] Tarquinius, having taken possession of many prisoners and much booty, sold the former and granted the plunder of the camp to the soldiers.

  [54.1] After this success he led his army against the cities of the Latins, in order to reduce by battle those who would not voluntarily surrender to him; but he did not find it necessary to lay siege to any of them. For all had recourse to supplications and prayers, and sending ambassadors to him from the whole nation, they asked him to put an end to the war upon such conditions as he himself wished, and delivered up their cities to him. [2] The king, becoming master of their cities upon these terms, treated them all with the greatest clemency and moderation; for he neither put any of the Latins to death nor forced any into exile, nor laid a fine upon any of them, but allowed them to enjoy their lands and to retain their traditional forms of government. He did, however, order them to deliver up the deserters and captives to the Romans without ransom, to restore to their masters the slaves they had captured in their incursions, to repay the money they had taken from the husbandmen, and to make good every other damage or loss they had occasioned in their raids. [3] Upon their performing these commands they were to be friends and allies of the Romans, doing everything that they should command. This was the outcome of the war between the Romans and the Latins; and King Tarquinius celebrated the customary triumph for his victory in this war.

  [55.1] The following year he led his army against the Sabines, who had long since been aware of his purpose and preparations against them. They were unwilling, however, to let the war to be brought into their own country, but having got ready an adequate force in their turn, they were advancing to meet him. And upon the confines of their territory they engaged in a battle which lasted till night, neither army being victorious, but both suffering very severely. [2] At all events, during the following days neither the Sabine general nor the Roman king led his forces out of their entrenchments, but both broke camp and returned home without doing any injury to the other’s territory. The intention of both was the same, namely, to lead out a new and larger force against the other’s country at the beginning of spring. [3] After they had made all their preparations, the Sabines first took the field, strengthened with a sufficient body of Tyrrhenian auxiliaries, and encamped near Fidenae, at the confluence of the Anio and the Tiber rivers. They pitched two camps opposite and adjoining each other, the united stream of both rivers running between them, over which was built a wooden bridge resting on boats and rafts, thus affording quick communication between them and making them one camp. [4] Tarquinius, being informed of their irruption, marched out in his turn with the Roman army and pitched his camp a little above theirs, near the river Anio, upon a strongly situated hill. But though both armies had all the zeal imaginable for the war, no pitched battle, either great or small, occurred between them; for Tarquinius by a timely stratagem ruined all the plans of the Sabines and gained possession of both their camps. His stratagem was this:

  [56.1] He got together boats and rafts on the one side of the two rivers near which he himself lay encamped and filled them with dry sticks and brushwood, also with pitch and sulphur, and then waiting for a favourable wind, about the time of the morning watch he ordered the firewood to be set on fire and the boats and rafts turned adrift to drop downstream. These covered the intervening distance in a very short time, and being driven against the bridge, set fire to it in many places. [2] The Sabines, seeing a vast flame flare up on a sudden, ran to lend their assistance and tried all means possible to extinguish the fire. While they were thus employed Tarquinius arrived about dawn, leading the Roman army in order of battle, and attacked one of the camps; and since the greater part of the guards had left their posts to run to the fire, though some few turned and resisted, he gained possession of it without any trouble. [3] While these things were going on another part of the Roman army came up and took the other camp of the Sabines also, which lay on the other side of the river. This detachment, having been sent on ahead by Tarquinius about the first watch, had crossed in boats and rafts the river formed by the uniting of the two streams, at a place where their passage was not likely to be discovered by the Sabines, and had got near to the other camp at the same time that they saw the bridge on fire; for this was their signal for the attack. [4] Of those who were found in the camps some were slain by the Romans while fighting, but any others threw themselves into the confluence of the rivers, and being unable to get through the whirlpools, were swallowed up; and not a few of them perished in the flames while they were endeavouring to save the bridge. Tarquinius, having taken both camps, gave leave to the soldiers to divide among themselves the booty that was found in them; but the prisoners, who were very numerous, not only of the Sabines themselves but also of the Tyrrhenians, he carried to Rome, where he kept them under strict guard.

  [57.1] The Sabines, subdued by this calamity, grew sensible of their own weakness, and sending ambassadors, concluded a truce from the war for six years. But the Tyrrhenians, angered not only because they had been often defeated by the Romans, but also because Tarquinius had refused to restore to them the prisoners he held when they sent an embassy to demand them, but retained them as hostages, passed a vote that all the Tyrrhenian cities should carry on the war jointly against the Romans and that any city refusing to take part in the expedition should be excluded from their league. [2] After passing this vote they led out their forces and, crossing the Tiber, encamped near Fidenae. And having gained possession of that city by treachery, there being a sedition among the inhabitants, and having taken a great many prisoners and carried off much booty from the Roman territory, they returned home, leaving a sufficient garrison in Fidenae; for they thought this city would be an excellent base from which to carry on the war against the Romans. [3] But King Tarquinius, having for the ensuing year armed all the Romans and taken as many troops as he could get from his allies, led them out against the enemy at the beginning of spring, before the Tyrrhenians could be assembled from all their cities and march against him as they had done before. Then, having divided his whole army into two parts, he put himself at the head of the Roman troops and led them against the cities of the Tyrrhenians, while he gave the command of the allies, consisting chiefly of the Latins, to Egerius, his kinsman, and ordered him to march against the enemy in Fidenae. [4] This force of allies, through contempt of the enemy, placed their camp in an unsafe position near Fidenae and barely missed being totally destroyed; for the garrison in the town, having secretly sent for fresh aid from the Tyrrhenians and watched for a suitable occasion, sallied forth from the town and captured the enemy’s camp at the first onset, as it was carelessly guarded, and slew many of those who had gone out for forage. [5] But the army of Romans, commanded by Tarquinius, laid waste and ravaged the country of the Veientes and carried off much booty, and when numerous reinforcements assembled from all the Tyrrhenian cities to aid the Veientes, the Romans engaged them in battle and gained an incontestable victory. After this they marched through the enemy’s country, plundering it with impunity; and having taken many prisoners and much booty — for it was prosperous country — they returned home when the summer was now ending.

  [58.1] The Veientes, therefore, having suffered greatly from that battle, stirred no more out of their city but suffered their country to
be laid waste before their eyes. King Tarquinius made three incursions into their territory and for a period of three years deprived them of the produce of their land; but when he had laid waste the greater part of their country and was unable to do any further damage to it, he led his army against the city of the Caeretani, which earlier had been called Agylla while it was inhabited by the Pelasgians but after falling under the power of the Tyrrhenians had been renamed Caere, and was as flourishing and populous as any city in Tyrrhenia. [2] From this city a large army marched out to defend the country; but after destroying many of the enemy and losing still more of their own men they fled back into the city. The Romans, being masters of their country, which afforded them plenty of everything, continued there many days, and when it was time to depart they carried away all the booty they could and returned home. [3] Tarquinius, now that his expedition against the Veientes had succeeded according to his desire, led out his army against the enemies in Fidenae, wishing to drive out the garrison that was there and at the same time being anxious to punish those who had handed over the walls to the Tyrrhenians. Accordingly, not only a pitched battle took place between the Romans and those who sallied out of the city, but also sharp fighting in the attacks that were made upon the walls. [4] At any rate, the city was taken by storm, and the garrison, together with the rest of the Tyrrhenian prisoners, were kept in chains under a guard. As for those of the Fidenates who appeared to have been the authors of the revolt, some were scourged and beheaded in public and others were condemned to perpetual banishment; and their possessions were distributed by lot among those Romans who were left both as colonists and as a garrison for the city.