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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [37.1] The fifth year after the expulsion of the king occurred the sixty-ninth Olympiad, at which Ischomachus of Croton won the foot-race for the second time, Acestorides being archon at Athens, and Marcus Valerius, brother of Valerius Publicola, and Publius Postumius, surnamed Tubertus, consuls at Rome. [2] In their consulship another war awaited the Romans, this one stirred up by their nearest neighbours. It began with acts of brigandage and developed into many important engagements; however, it ended in an honourable peace in the third consulship after this one, having been carried on during that whole interval without intermission. For some of the Sabines, deciding that the commonwealth was weakened by the defeat she had received from the Tyrrhenians and would never be able to recover her ancient prestige, attacked those who came down into the wood fields from the strongholds by organizing bands of robbers, and they caused many injuries to the husbandmen. [3] For these acts the Romans, sending an embassy before resorting to arms, sought satisfaction and demanded that for the future they should commit no lawless acts against those who cultivated the land; and having received a haughty answer, they declared war against them. First an expedition was conducted by one of the consuls, who with the horse and the flower of the light-armed foot fell suddenly upon those who were laying waste the country; and there was great slaughter among the many men surprised most their plundering, as may well be imagined, since they were keeping no order and had no warning of the attack. [4] Afterwards, when the Sabines sent a large army against them commanded by a general experienced in war, the Romans made another expedition against them with all their forces, led by both consuls. Postumius encamped on heights near Rome, fearing lest some sudden attempt might be made upon the city by the exiles; and Valerius posted himself not far from the enemy, on the bank of the river Anio, which after passing through the city of Tibur pours in a vast torrent from a high rock, and running through the plain belonging to both the Sabines and the Romans, serves as a boundary to both their territories, after which this river, which is fair to look upon and sweet to drink, mingles its stream with the Tiber.

  [38.1] On the other side of the river was placed the camp of the Sabines, this too at no great distance from the stream, upon a gently sloping hill that was not very strongly situated. At first both armies observed one another with caution and were unwilling to cross the river and begin an engagement. But after a time they were no longer guided by reason and a prudent regard for their advantage, but becoming inflamed with anger and rivalry, they joined battle. [2] For, going to the river for water and leading their horses there to drink, they advanced a good way into the stream, which was then low, not yet being swollen with the winter’s rains, so that they crossed it without having the water much above their knees. And first, when a skirmish occurred between small parties, some ran out of each camp to assist their comrades, then others again from one camp or the other to aid those who were being overpowered. And at times the Romans forced the Sabines back from the river, at times the Sabines kept the Romans from it. [3] Then, after many had been killed and wounded and a spirit of rivalry had possessed them all, as is apt to happen when skirmishes occur on the spur of the moment, the generals of both armies felt the same eagerness to cross the river. [4] But the Roman consul got the start of the enemy, and after getting his army across, was already close upon the Sabines while they were still arming themselves and taking their positions. However, they too were not backward in engaging, but, elated with a contempt of their foes, since they were not going to fight against both consuls nor the whole Roman army, they joined battle with all the boldness and eagerness imaginable.

  [39.1] A vigorous action ensuing and the right wing of the Romans, commanded by the consul, attacking the enemy and gaining ground, while their left was already in difficulties and being forced towards the river by the enemy, the consul, who commanded the other camp, being informed of what was passing, proceeded to lead out his army. [2] And while he himself with the solid ranks of the foot followed at a normal pace, he sent ahead in all haste his legate, Spurius Larcius, who had been consul the year before, together with all the horse. Larcius, urging the horse forward at full speed, crossed the river with ease, as no one opposed him, and riding past the right wing of the enemy, charged the Sabine horse in fact; and there and then occurred a severe battle between the horse on both sides, who fought hand-to-hand for a long time. [3] In the mean time Postumius also drew near the combatants with the foot, and attacking that of the enemy, killed many in the conflict and threw the rest into confusion. And if night had not intervened, the whole army of the Sabines, being surrounded by the Romans, who had now become superior in horse, would have been totally destroyed. But as it was, the darkness saved those who fled from the battle unarmed and few in number, and brought them home in safety. The consuls, without meeting any resistance, made themselves masters of their camp, which had been abandoned by the troops inside as soon as they saw the rout of their own army; and, capturing much booty there, which they permitted the soldiers to drive or carry away, they returned home with their forces. [4] Then for the first time the commonwealth, recovering from the defeat received at the hands of the Tyrrhenians, recovered its former spirit and dared as before to aim at the supremacy over its neighbours. The Romans decreed a triumph jointly to both the consuls, and, as a special gratification to one of them, Valerius, ordered that a site should be given him for his habitation on the best part of the Palatine Hill and that the cost of the building should be defrayed from the public treasury. The folding doors of this house, near which stands the brazen bull, are the only doors in Rome either of public or private buildings that open outwards.

  [40.1] These men were succeeded in the consulship by Publius Valerius, surnamed Publicola, chosen to hold the office for the fourth time, and Titus Lucretius, now colleague to Valerius for the second time. In their consulship all the Sabines, holding a general assembly of their cities, resolved upon a war against the Romans, alleging that the treaty they had made with them was dissolved, since Tarquinius, to whom they had sworn their oaths, had been driven from power. [2] They had been induced to take this step by Sextus, one of the sons of Tarquinius, who by privately courting them and importuning the influential men in each city had roused them all to united hostility against the Romans, and had won over two cities, Fidenae and Cameria, detaching them from the Romans and persuading them to become allies of the Sabines. In return for these services they appointed him general with absolute power and gave him leave to raise forces in every city, looking upon the defeat they had received in the last engagement as due to the weakness of their army and the stupidity of their general. [3] While they were employed in these preparations, some good fortune, designing to balance the losses of the Romans with corresponding advantages, gave them, in place of the allies who had deserted them, an unexpected accession of strength from among their enemies, of the following nature: A certain man of the Sabine nation who lived in a city called Regillum, a man of good family and influential for his wealth, Titus Claudius by name, deserted to them, bringing with him many kinsmen and friends and a great number of clients, who removed with their whole households, not less than five hundred in all who were able to bear arms. The reason that compelled him to remove to Rome is said to have been this: [4] The men in power in the principal cities, being hostile to him because of their political rivalry, were bringing him to trial on a charge of treason, because he was not eager to make war against the Romans, but both in the general assembly alone opposed those who maintained that the treaty was dissolved, and would not permit the citizens of his own town to regard as valid the decrees which had been passed by the rest of the nation. [5] Dreading this trial, then, (for it was to be conduct by the other cities), he took his goods and his friends and came over to the Romans; and by adding no small weight to their cause he was looked upon as the principal instrument in the success of this war. In consideration of this, the senate and people enrolled him among the patricians and gave him leave to take as large a portion
of the city as he wished for building houses; they also granted to him from the public land the region that lay between Fidenae and Picetia, so that he could give allotments to all his followers. Out of these Sabines was formed in the course of time a tribe called the Claudian tribe, a name which it continued to preserve down to my time.

  [41.1] After all the necessary preparations had been made on both sides, the Sabines first led out their forces and formed two camps, one of which was in the open not far from Fidenae, and the other in Fidenae itself, to serve both as a guard for the citizens and as a refuge for those who lay encamped without the city, in case any disaster should befall them. Then, when the Roman consuls learned of the Sabines’ expedition against them, they too led out all their men of military age and encamped apart from each other, Valerius near the camp of the Sabines that lay in the open, and Lucretius not far distant, upon a hill from which the other camp was clearly in view. [2] It was the opinion of the Romans that the fate of the war would quickly be decided by an open battle; but the general of the Sabines, dreading to engage openly against the boldness and constancy of men prepared to face every danger, resolved to attack them by night, [3] and having prepared everything that would be of use for filling up the ditch and scaling the wall, he was intending, now that all was in readiness for the attack, to rouse up the flower of his army after the first watch and lead them against the entrenchments of the Romans. He also gave notice to the troops encamped in Fidenae that, as soon as they perceived that their comrades were come out of the camp, they also should march out of the city, with light equipment; and then, after setting ambuscades in suitable places, if any reinforcements should come to Valerius from the other army, they were to rise up and, getting behind them, attack them with shouts and a great din. [4] This was the plan of Sextus, who communicated it to his centurions; and when they also approved of it, he waited for the proper moment. But a deserter came to the Roman camp and informed the consul of the plan, and a little later a party of horse came in bringing some Sabine prisoners who had been captured while they were out to get wood. These, upon being questioned separately as to what their general was preparing to do, said that he was ordering ladders and gang-boards to be constructed; but where and when he proposed to make use of them, they professed not to know. [5] After learning this, Valerius sent his legate Larcius to the other camp to acquaint Lucretius, who had the command of it, with weight intention of the enemy and to advise him in what way they ought to attack the enemy. He himself summoned the tribunes and the centurions, and informing them of what he had learned both from the deserter and from the prisoners, exhorted them to acquit themselves as brave men, confident that they had got the best opportunity they could wish for to take a glorious revenge upon their enemies; and after advising them what each of them should do and giving the watchword, he dismissed them to their commands.

  [42.1] It was not yet midnight when the Sabine general roused up the flower of his army and led them to the enemy’s camp, after ordering them all to keep silence and to make no noise with their arms, that the enemy might not be apprised of their approach till they arrived at the entrenchments. When those in front drew near the camp and neither saw the lights of watch-fires nor heard the voices of sentinels, they thought the Romans guilty of great folly in leaving their sentry-posts unguarded and sleeping inside their camp; and they proceeded to fill up the ditches in many places with brushwood and to cross over without opposition. [2] But the Romans were lying in wait by companies between the ditches and the palisades, being unperceived by reason of the darkness; and they kept killing those of the enemy who crossed over, as soon as they came within reach. For some time the destruction of those who led the way was not perceived by their companions in the rear; but when it became light, upon the rising of the moon, and those who approached the ditch saw not only heaps of their own men lying dead near it but also strong bodies of the enemy advancing to attack them, they threw down their arms and fled. [3] Thereupon the Romans, giving a great shout, which was the signal to those in the other camp, rushed out upon them in a body. Lucretius, hearing the shout, sent the horse ahead to reconnoitre, lest there might be an ambuscade of the enemy, and he himself followed presently with the flower of the foot. [4] And at one and the same time the horse, meeting with those from Fidenae who were lying in ambush, put them to flight, and the foot pursued and slew those who had come to their camp but were now keeping neither their arms nor their ranks. In these actions about 13,500 of the Sabines and their allies were slain and 4200 were made prisoners; and their camp was taken the same day.

  [43.1] Fidenae after a few days’ siege was taken in that very part which was thought to be the most difficult of capture and was for that reason guarded by only a few men. Nevertheless, the inhabitants were not made slaves nor was the city demolished; nor were many people put to death after the city was taken. For the consuls thought that the seizing of their goods and their slaves and the loss of their men who had perished in the battle was a sufficient punishment for an erring city belonging to the same race, and that to prevent the captured from lightly resorting to arms again, a moderate precaution and one customary with the Romans would be to punish the authors of the revolt. [2] Having, therefore, assembled all the captured Fidenates in the forum and inveighed strongly against their folly, declaring that all of them, from youths to old men, deserved to be put to death, since they neither showed gratitude for the favours they received nor were chastened by their misfortunes, they ordered the most prominent of them to be scourged with rods and put to death in the sight of all; but the rest they permitted to live in the city as before, though they left a garrison, as large as the senate decided upon, to live in their midst; and taking away part of their land, they gave it to this garrison. After they had settled these matters, they returned home with the army from the enemy’s country and celebrated the triumph which the senate had voted to them. These were the achievements of their consulship.

  [44.1] When Publius Postumius, who was called Tubertus, had been chosen consul for the second time, and with him Agrippa Menenius, called Lanatus, the Sabines made a third incursion into the Roman territory with a larger army, before the Romans were aware of their setting out, and advanced up to the walls of Rome. In this incursion there was great loss of life on the side of the Romans, not only among the husbandmen, on whom the calamity fell suddenly and unexpectedly, before they could take refuge in the nearest fortresses, but also among those who were living in the city at the time. [2] For Postumius, one of the consuls, looking upon this insolence of the enemy as intolerable, hastily took the first men he came upon and marched out to the rescue with greater eagerness than prudence. The Sabines, seeing the Romans advance against them very contemptuously, without order and separated from one another, and wishing to increase their contempt, fell back at a fast walk, as if fleeing, till they came into thick woods where the rest of their army lay in wait. Then, facing about, they engaged with their pursuers, and at the same time the others came out of the wood with a great shout and fell upon them. [3] The Sabines, who were very numerous and were advancing in good order against men who were not keeping their ranks but were disordered and out of breath with running, killed such of them as came to close quarters, and when the rest turned to flight, they barred the roads leading to the city and hemmed them in on the unfortified ridge of a hill. Then, encamping near them (for night was now coming on), they kept guard throughout the whole night to prevent them from stealing away undiscovered. [4] When the news of this misfortune was brought to Rome, there was a great tumult and a rush to the walls, and fear on the part of all lest the enemy, elated by their success, should enter the city in the night. There were lamentations for the slain and compassion for the survivors, who, it was believed, would be promptly captured for want of provisions unless some assistance should reach them quickly. [5] That night, accordingly, they passed in a sorry state of mind and without sleep; but the next day the other consul, Menenius, having armed all the men of military age
, marched out with them in good order and discipline to the assistance of those upon the hill. When the Sabines saw them approaching, they remained no longer, but roused up their army and withdrew from the hill, feeling that their present good fortune was enough; and without tarrying much longer, they returned home in great elation, taking with them a rich booty in cattle, slaves, and money.