[25.1] Much time being consumed in this wrangling, one of the consuls, Servilius (for it had fallen to his lot to conduct the campaign), having, by much entreating and courting of the populace, prevailed upon them to assist in the war, took the field with an army not raised by a compulsory levy but consisting of volunteers, as the times required. Meanwhile the Volscians were still employed in their preparations and neither expected that the Romans, divided into factions as they were and engaged in mutual animosities, would march against them with an army, nor thought they would come to close quarters with any who attacked them, but imagined that they themselves were at full liberty to begin the war whenever they thought fit. [2] But when they found themselves attacked and perceived that they must attack in turn, then at last the oldest among them, alarmed by the speed of the Romans, came out of their cities with olive branches and surrendered themselves to Servilius, to be treated as he should think fit for their offences. And he, taking from them provisions and clothing for his army and choosing out of the most prominent families three hundred men to serve as hostages, departed, assuming that the war was ended. [3] In reality, however, this was not an end of the war, but rather a postponement, as it were, and an opportunity for those who had been surprised by the unexpected invasion to make their preparations; and the Roman army was no sooner gone than the Volscians again turned their attention to war by fortifying their towns and reinforcing the garrisons of any other places that were suitable to afford them security. The Hernicans and the Sabines assisted them openly in their hazardous venture, and many others secretly; but the Latins, when ambassadors went to them to ask for their assistance, bound the men and carried them to Rome. [4] The senate, in return for the Latins’ steadfast adherence to their alliance and still more for the eagerness they showed to take part in the war (for they were ready to assist them of their own accord), granted to them a favour they thought they desired above all things but were ashamed to ask for, which was to release without ransom the prisoners they had taken from them during the wars, the number of whom amounted to almost six thousand, and that the gift might, so far as possible, take on a lustre becoming to their kinship, they clothed them all with the apparel proper to free men. As to the Latins’ offer of assistance, the senate told them they had no need of it, since the national forces of Rome were sufficient to punish those who revolted. After they had given this answer to the Latins they voted for the war against the Volscians.
[26.1] While the senate was still sitting and considering what forces were to be taken into the field, an elderly man appeared in the Forum, dressed in rags, with his beard and hair grown long, and crying out, he called upon the citizens for assistance. And when all who were near flocked to him, he placed himself where he could be clearly seen by many and said: “Having been born free, and having served in all the campaigns while I was of military age, and fought in twenty-eight battles and often been awarded prizes for valour in the wars; then, when the oppressive times came that were reducing the commonwealth to the last straits, having been forced to contract a debt to pay the contributions levied upon me; and finally, when my farm was raided by the enemy and my property in the city exhausted owing to the scarcity of provisions, having no means with which to discharge my debt, I was carried away as a slave by the money-lender, together with my two sons; and when my master ordered me to perform some difficult task and I protested against it, I was given a great many lashes with the whip.” [2] With these words he threw off his rags and showed his breast covered with wounds and his back still bleeding from the stripes. This raising a general clamour and lamentation on the part of all present, the senate adjourned and throughout the entire city the poor were running about, each bewailing his own misfortunes and imploring the assistance of the neighbours. At the same time all who had been enslaved for their debts rushed out of the houses of the money-lenders with their hair grown long and most of them in chains and fetters; and none dared to lay hold on them, and if anyone so much as touched them, he was forcibly torn in pieces, [3] such was the madness possessing the people at that time, and presently the Forum was full of debtors who had broken loose from their chains. Appius, therefore, fearing to be attacked by the populace, since he had been the cause of the evils and all this trouble was believed to be due to him, fled from the Forum. But Servilius, throwing off his purple-bordered robe and casting himself in tears at the feet of each of the plebeians, with difficulty prevailed upon them to remain quiet that day, and to come back the next day, assuring them that the senate would take some care of their interests. Having said this, he ordered the herald to make proclamation that no money-lender should be permitted to hale any citizen to prison for a private debt till the senate should come to a decision concerning them, and that all present might go with impunity whithersoever they pleased. Thus he allayed the tumult.
[27.1] Accordingly, they left the Forum for that time. But the next day there appeared, not only the inhabitants of the city, but also the plebeians from the neighbouring country districts and the Forum was crowded by break of day. The senate having been assembled to consider what was to be done about the situation, Appius proceeded to call his colleague a flatterer of the people and the leader of the poor in their madness, while Servilius called Appius harsh and arrogant and the cause of the present evils in the state; and there was no end to their wrangling. [2] In the meantime some horsemen of the Latins came riding full speed into the Forum announcing that the enemy had taken the field with a great army and were already upon their own borders. Such were the tidings they brought. Thereupon the patricians and the whole body of the knights, together with all who were wealthy or of distinguished ancestry, since they had a great deal at stake, armed themselves in all haste. [3] But the poor among them, and particularly such as were hard pressed by debt, neither took up arms nor offered any other assistance to the common cause, but were pleased and received the news of the foreign war as an answer to their prayers, believing that it would free them from their present evils. To those who besought them to lend their aid they showed their chains and fetters and asked them in derision whether it was worth their while to make war in order to preserve those blessings; and many even ventured to say that it was better for them to be slaves to the Volscians than to bear the abuses of the patricians. And the city was filled with wailing, tumult, and all sorts of womanish lamentations.
[28.1] The senators, seeing these things, begged of the other consul, Servilius, who seemed in the present juncture to have greater credit with the multitude, to come to the aid of the country. And he, calling the people together in the Forum, showed them that the urgency of the moment no longer admitted of quarrels among the citizens, and he asked them for the time being to march against the enemy with united purpose and not to view with indifference the overthrow of their country, in which were the gods of their fathers and the sepulchres of each man’s ancestors, both of which are most precious in the eyes of all men; he begged them to show respect for their parents, who would be unable because of age to defend themselves, to have pity on their wives, who would soon be forced to submit to dreadful and intolerable outrages, and especially to show compassion for their infant children, who, after being reared for very different expectations, would be exposed to pitiless insults and abuses. [2] And when by a common effort they had averted the present danger, then would be the time, he said, to consider in what manner they should make their government fair, impartial and salutary to all, one in which neither the poor would plot against the possessions of the rich nor the latter insult those in humbler circumstances — for such behaviour was anything but becoming to citizens — but in which not only the needy should receive some assistance from the state, but the money-lenders too, at least those who were suffering injustice, should receive moderate relief, and thus the greatest of human blessings and the preserver of harmony in all states, good faith in the observance of contracts, would not be destroyed totally and forever in Rome alone. [3] After saying this and everything else that the occ
asion required, he spoke finally in his own behalf, about the goodwill which he had ever shown toward the people, and asked them to serve with him in this expedition in return for his zeal in their behalf; for the oversight of the city had been entrusted to his colleague and the command in war conferred upon himself, these duties having been determined for them by lot. He said also that the senate had promised him to confirm whatever agreements he should make with the people, and that he had promised the senate to persuade the people not to betray their country to the enemy.
[29.1] Having said this, he ordered the herald to make proclamation that no person should be permitted to seize, sell, or retain as pledges the houses of those Romans who should march out with him against the enemy, or hale their family to prison for any debt, and that none should hinder any one who desired from taking part in the campaign; but as for those who should fail to serve, the money-lenders should have the right to compel them to pay their debts according to the terms which they had each advanced their money. When the poor heard this, they straightway consented, and all showed great ardour for the war, some induced by hopes of booty and others out of gratitude to the general, but the greater part to escape from Appius and the abusive treatment to which those who stayed in the city would be exposed.
[2] Servilius, having taken command of the army, lost no time, but marched with great expedition, that he might engage the enemy before they could invade the Romans’ territory. And finding them encamped in the Pomptine district, pillaging the country of the Latins because these had refused their request to assist them in the war, he encamped in the late afternoon near a hill distant about twenty stades from the enemy’s camp. And in the night his army was attacked by the Volscians, who thought they were few in number, tired out, as was to be expected after a long march, and lacking in zeal by reason of the disturbances raised by the poor over their debts, which seemed then to be at their height. [3] Servilius defended himself in his camp as long as the night lasted, but as soon as it was day, and he learned that the enemy were employed in pillaging the country without observing any order, he ordered several small gates of the camp to be opened secretly, and at a single signal hurled his army against the foe. When this blow fell suddenly and unexpectedly upon the Volscians, some few of them stood their ground, and fighting close to their camp, were cut down; but the rest, fleeing precipitately and losing many of their companions, got back safely inside the camp, the greater part of them being wounded and having lost their arms. [4] When the Romans, following close upon their heels, surrounded their camp, they made only a short defence and then delivered up the camp, which was full of slaves, cattle, arms and all sorts of military stores. There were also many free men taken in it, some of them being Volscians themselves and others belonging to the nations which had assisted them; and along with these a great quantity of valuables, such as gold and silver, and apparel, as if the richest city had been taken. All of this Servilius permitted the soldiers to divide among themselves, that every man might share in the booty, and he ordered them to bring no part of it into the treasury. Then, having set fire to the camp, he marched with his army to Suessa Pometia, which lay close by. For not only because of its size and the number of its inhabitants, but also because of its fame and riches, it far surpassed any city in that region and was the leader, so to speak, of the nation. [5] Investing this place and calling off his army neither by day nor by night, in order that the enemy might not have a moment’s rest either in taking sleep or in gaining a respite from fighting, he wore them down by famine, helplessness and lack of reinforcements, and captured them in a short time, putting to death all the inhabitants who had reached manhood. And having given permission to the soldiers to pillage the effects that were found there also, he marched against the rest of the enemy’s cities, none of the Volscians being able any longer to oppose him.
[30.1] When the Volscians had been thus humbled by the Romans, the other consul, Appius Claudius, caused their hostages, three hundred men in all, to be brought into the Forum, and to the end that those who had once given the Romans hostages for their fidelity might beware of violating their treaties, he ordered them to be scourged in the sight of all and then beheaded. [2] And when his colleague returned a few days afterwards from his expedition and demanded the triumph usually granted by the senate to generals who had fought a brilliant battle, he opposed it, calling him a stirrer up of sedition and a partisan of a vicious form of government, and he charged him particularly with having brought no part of the spoils of war back to the public treasury, but with having instead made a present of it all to whom he thought fit; and he prevailed upon the senate not to grant him the triumph. Servilius, however, looking upon himself as insulted by the senate, behaved with an arrogance unusual to the Romans. For having assembled the people in the field before the city, he enumerated his achievements in the war, told them of the envy of his colleague and the contumelious treatment he had received from the senate, and declared that from his own deeds and from the army which had shared in the struggle he derived the authority to celebrate a triumph in honor of glorious and fortunate achievements. [3] Having prescription thus, he ordered the rods to be crowned, and then, having crowned himself and wearing the triumphal garb, he led the procession into the city attended by all the people; and ascending the Capitol, he performed his vows and consecrated the spoils. By this action he incurred the hatred of the patricians still further, but won the plebeians to himself.
[31.1] While the commonwealth was in such an unsettled condition a kind of truce that intervened on account of the traditional sacrifices, and the ensuing festivals, which were celebrated at lavish expense, restrained the sedition of the populace for the moment. While they were engaged in these celebrations the Sabines invaded them with a large force, having long waited for this opportunity. They began their march as soon as night came on, in order that they might get close to the city before those inside should be aware of their coming; and they might easily have conquered them if some of their light-armed men had not straggled from their places in the line and by attacking farm-houses given the alarm. [2] For an outcry arose at once and the husbandmen rushed inside the walls before the enemy approached the gates. Those in the city, learning of the invasion while they were witnessing the public entertainments and wearing the customary garlands, left the games and ran to arms. And, a sufficient army of volunteers rallying in good season about Servilius, he drew them up and with them fell upon the enemy, who were exhausted both by want of sleep and by weariness and were not expecting the attack of the Romans. [3] When the armies closed, a battle ensued which lacked order and discipline because of the eagerness of both sides, but, as if guided by some chance, they clashed line against line, company against company, or man against man, and the horse and foot fought promiscuously. And reinforcements came to both sides, as their cities were not far apart; these, by encouraging such of their comrades as were hard pressed, caused them to sustain the hardships of the struggle for a long time. After that the Romans, when the horse came to their assistance, once more prevailed over the Sabines, and having killed many of them, returned to the city with a great number of prisoners. Then, seeking out the Sabines who had come to Rome under the pretence of seeing the entertainments, while actually intending to seize in advance the strong places of the city in order to help their countrymen in their attack, as had been concerted between them, they threw them into prison. And having voted that the sacrifices, which had been interrupted by the war, should be performed with double magnificence, they were again passing the time in merriment.
[32.1] While they were celebrating these festivals, ambassadors came to them from the Auruncans, who inhabited the fairest plains of Campania. These, being introduced into the senate, demanded that the Romans should restore to them the country of the Volscians called Ecetrans, which they had taken from them and divided in allotments among the colonists they had sent thither to guard that people, and that they should withdraw their garrison from there; if they refuse
d to do so, they might expect the Auruncans to invade the territory of the Romans promptly to take revenge for the injuries they had done to their neighbours. [2] To these the Romans gave this answer: “Ambassadors, carry back the word to the Auruncans that we Romans think it right that whatever anyone possesses by having won it from the enemy through valour, he should leave to his posterity as being his own. And we are not afraid of war from the Auruncans, which will be neither the first nor the most formidable war we have been engaged in; indeed, it has always been our custom to fight with all men for the supremacy, and as we see that this will be a contest, as it were, of valour, we shall await it without trepidation.” [3] After this the Auruncans, who had set out from their own territory with a large army, and the Romans, with their own forces under the command of Servilius, met near the city of Aricia, which is distant one hundred and twenty stades from Rome; and each of them encamped on hills strongly situated, not far from one another. After they had fortified their camps they advanced to the plain for battle; and engaging early in the morning, they maintained the fight till noon, so that many were killed on both sides. For the Auruncans were a warlike nation and by their stature, their strength, and the fierceness of their looks, in which there was much of brute savagery, they were exceeding formidable.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 53