[60.1] Such was the end of Marcius, who was not only the greatest general of his age, but was superior to all the pleasures that dominate young men, and practised justice, not so much through compulsion of the law with its threat of punishment and against his will, but voluntarily and from a natural propensity to it. He did not regard it as a virtue to do no injustice, and not only was eager to abstain from all vice himself, but thought it his duty to compel others to do so too. [2] He was both high-minded and open-handed and most ready to relieve the wants of his friends as soon as he was informed of them. In his talent for public affairs he was inferior to none of the aristocratic party, and if the seditious element of the city had not hindered his measures, the Roman commonwealth would have received the greatest accession of power from those measures. But it was impossible that all the virtue should be found together in a human being’s nature, nor will anyone ever be created by Nature from mortal and perishable seed who is good in all respects.
[61.1] In any case the divinity who bestowed these virtues upon him added to them unfortunate blemishes and fatal flaws. For there was no mildness or cheerfulness in his character, no affability in greeting and addressing people that would win those whom he met, nor yet any disposition to conciliate or placate others when he was angry with them, nor that charm which adorns all human actions; but he was always harsh and severe. [2] And it was not alone these qualities that hurt him in the minds of many, but, most of all, his immoderate and inexorable sternness in the matter of justice and the observance of the laws, and a strictness which would make no concessions to reasonableness. Indeed, the dictum of the ancient philosophers seems to be true, that the moral virtues are means and not extremes, particularly in the case of justice. For by its nature it not only may fall short of the mean, but also may go beyond it, and is not profitable to its possessors, but is sometimes the cause of great calamities and leads to miserable deaths and irreparable disasters. [3] In the case of Marcius, at any rate, it was nothing else but his passion for exact and extreme justice that drove him from his country and deprived him of the enjoyment of all his other blessings. For when he ought to have made reasonable concessions to the plebeians, and by yielding somewhat to their desires to have gained the foremost place among them, he would not do so, by opposing them in everything that was not just he incurred their hatred and was banished by them. And when it was in his power to resign the command of the Volscian army the moment he had put an end to the war, and to remove his habitation to some other place till his country had granted him leave to return, instead of offering himself as a target for the plotting of his enemies and the folly of the masses, he did not think fit to do so; but regarding it as his duty to put his person at the disposal of those who had entrusted him with the command and after giving an account of his conduct during his generalship, if he were found guilty of any misconduct, to undergo the punishment ordained by the laws, he received a sorry reward for his extreme justice.
[62.1] Now if when the body perishes the soul also, whatever that is, perishes together with it and no longer exists anywhere, I do not see how I can conceive to seem to be happy who have received no advantage from their virtue but, on the contrary, have been undone by this very quality. Whereas, if our souls are perchance forever imperishable, as some think, or if they continue on for a time after their separation from the body, those of good men for a very long time and those of the wicked for a very short period, a sufficient reward for those who, though they have practised virtue, have suffered the enmity of Fortune, would seem to be the praise of the living and the continuance of their memory for the longest period of time. And that was the case with this man, [2] For not only the Volscians mourned his death and still hold him in honour as having proved himself one of the best of men, but the Romans also, when they were informed of his fate, looked upon it as a great calamity to the commonwealth and mourned for him both in private and in public; and their wives, as it is their custom to do at the loss of those who are nearest and dearest to them, laid aside their gold and purple and all their other adornment, and dressing themselves in black, mourned for him for the full period of a year. [3] And though nearly five hundred years have already elapsed since his death down to the present time, his memory has not become extinct, but he is still praised and celebrated by all as a pious and just man.
Thus ended the danger with which the Romans had been threatened by the expedition of the Volscians and Aequians under the command of Marcius, a danger that was greater than any to which they had ever been exposed before and came very near destroying the whole commonwealth from its foundations.
[63.1] A few days later the Romans took the field with a large army commanded by both consuls, and advancing to the confines of their own territory, encamped on two hills, each of the consuls placing his camp in the strongest position. Nevertheless, they accomplished nothing, either great or little, but returned unsuccessful, though excellent opportunities had been afforded them by the enemy for performing some gallant action. [2] It seems that even before their expedition the Volscians and the Aequians had led an army against the Roman territory, having resolved not to let the opportunity slip, but to attack their adversaries while they seemed to be sit panic-stricken; for they thought that in their fear they would surrender of their own accord. But quarrelling among themselves over the command, they rushed to arms, and falling upon one another, fought without keeping their ranks or receiving orders, but in confusion and disorder, so that many were killed on both sides; and if the sun had not set in time to prevent it, all their forces would have been utterly destroyed. But yielding reluctantly to the night which put an end to the quarrel, they separated and retired to their own camps; and rousing their forces at dawn, both sides returned home. [3] The consuls, though they learned both from deserters and from prisoners who had escaped during the action itself what fury and madness had possessed the enemy, neither embraced an opportunity so desirable when it offered, though they were no more than thirty stades distant, nor pursued them in their retreat — a situation in which their own troops, being fresh and following in good order, might easily have destroyed to a man those of the enemy, who were fatigued, wounded, reduced from a large to a small number, and were retiring in disorder. [4] But they too broke camp and returned to Rome, either being contented with the advantage Fortune had given them, or having no confidence in their troops, who were undisciplined, or considering it very important not to lose even a few of their own men. When they got back to Rome, however, they found themselves in great disgrace and had to bear the stigma of cowardice for their behaviour. And without undertaking any other expedition they surrendered their magistracy to their successors.
[64.1] The next year Gaius Aquilius and Titus Siccius, men experienced in war, succeeded to the consulship. The senate, when the consuls had brought up the war for consideration, voted, first, to send an embassy to the Hernicans to demand, as from friends and allies, the customary satisfaction; for the commonwealth had suffered wrongs at their hands at the time of the attack of the Volscians and Aequians through brigandage and incursions into the part of the Roman territory that bordered on their own; and they voted further that while waiting to receive their answer the consuls should enrol all the forces they could, summon the allies by sending out embassies, and great ready corn, arms, money, and all the other things necessary for the war, by employing a large number of men and using haste. [2] When the ambassadors returned from the Hernicans, they reported to the senate the answer they had received from them, to the following effect: They denied that there had ever been a treaty between them and the Romans by act of the public, and they charged that the compact they had made with King Tarquinius had been dissolved both by his expulsion from power and by his death in a foreign land; but if any depredations had been committed or incursions made into the territory of the Romans by bands of robbers, they said these had not been made by the general consent of their nation, but were the misdeeds of individuals pursuing their private ends, and str
eet they were unable to deliver up to justice even the men who had done these things, since they claimed that they themselves had also suffered similar wrongs and had the same complaints to make; and they said that they cheerfully accepted the war. [3] The senate, upon hearing this, voted that the youth already enrolled should be divided into three bodies, and that with one of these the consul Gaius Aquilius should march against the army of the Hernicans (for these were already in arms), that Titus Siccius, the other consul, should lead the second against the Volscians, and that Spurius Larcius, who had been appointed prefect of the city by the consuls, should with the remaining third part defend the portion of the country that lay nearest to the city; that those who were above the military age but were still capable of bearing arms should be arrayed under their standards and guard the citadels of the city and the walls, to prevent any sudden attack by the enemy while all the youth were in the field, and that Aulus Sempronius Atratinus, one of the ex-consuls, should have the command of this force. These orders were presently carried out.
[65.1] Aquilius, one of the consuls, finding the army of the Hernicans waiting for him in the country of the Praenestines, encamped as near to them as he could, at a distance of a little more than two hundred stades from Rome. The second day after he had pitched his camp the Hernicans came out of their camp into the plain in order of battle and gave the signal for combat; whereupon Aquilius also marched out to meet them with his army duly drawn up and disposed in their several divisions. [2] When they drew near to one another, they uttered their war-cries and ran to the encounter; and first to engage were the light-armed men, who, fighting with javelins, arrows, and stones from their slings, gave one another many wounds. Next, horsemen clashed with horsemen, charging in troops, and infantry with infantry, fighting by cohorts. Then there was a glorious struggle as both armies fought stubbornly; and for a long time they stood firm, neither side yielding to the other the ground where they were posted. At length the Romans’ line began to be in distress, this being the first occasion in a long time that they had been forced to engaged in war. [3] Aquilius, observing this, ordered that the troops which were still fresh and were being reserved for this very purpose should come up to reinforce the parts of the line that were in distress and that the men who were wounded and exhausted should retire to the rear. The Hernicans, learning that their troops were being shifted, imagined that the Romans were beginning flight; and encouraging one another and closing their ranks, they fell upon those parts of the enemy’s army that were in motion, and the fresh troops of the Romans received their onset. Thus once more, as both sides fought stubbornly, there was a strenuous battle all over again; for the ranks of the Hernicans were also continually reinforced with fresh troops sent up by their generals to the parts of the line that were in distress. [4] At length, late in the afternoon, the consul, encouraging the horsemen now at least to acquit themselves as brave men, led the squadron in a charge at the enemy’s right wing. This, after resisting them for a short time, fell back, and a great slaughter ensued. While the Hernicans’ right wing was now in difficulties and no longer keeping its ranks, their left still held out and was superior to the Romans’ right; but in a short time this too gave way. [5] For Aquilius, taking with him the best of the youth, hastened to the rescue there also, and exhorting his men and calling by name upon those who had been wont to distinguish themselves in former battles, and seizing from their bearers the standards of any centuries that did not seem to be fighting resolutely, he hurled them into the midst of the enemy, in order that their fear of the punishment prescribed by the laws in the case of failure to recover the standards might compel them to be brave men; and he himself continually came to the relief of any part that was in distress, till he dislodged the other wing also from its position. Their flanks being now exposed, even the centre did not stand its ground. [6] It became a flight then for the Hernicans, a flight back to their camp in confusion and disorder; and the Romans pursued, cutting them down. Such ardour, indeed, came upon the Roman army in that struggle that some of the men endeavoured even to mount the ramparts of the enemy’s camp in the hope of taking it by storm. But the consul, perceiving that their ardour was hazardous and detrimental, ordered the signal for a retreat to be sounded and thus brought down from the ramparts against their will those who were coming to blows with the enemy; for he feared that they would be forced by the missiles hurled down upon them from above to retire with shame and great loss and would thus efface the glory of their earlier victory. On that occasion, then, it being now near sunset, the Romans made their camp rejoicing and singing songs of triumph.
[66.1] The following night there was much noise and shouting heard in the camp of the Hernicans, and the lights of many torches were seen. For the enemy, despairing of being able to hold their own in another engagement, had resolved to leave their camp of their own accord; and this was the cause of the disorder and shouting. For they were fleeing with all the strength and speed which each man was capable of, calling to and being called by one another, without showing the least regard for the lamentations and entreaties of those who were being left behind on account of their wounds and sickness. [2] The Romans, who knew nothing of this but had been informed earlier by the prisoners that another army of Hernicans was intending to come to the aid of their countrymen, imagined that this shouting and tumult had been occasioned by the arrival of those reinforcements, and they accordingly took up their arms once more, and forming a circle about their entrenchments, for fear some attack might be made upon them in the night, they would now make a din by all clashing their weapons together at the same time and now raise their war-cry repeatedly as if they were going into battle. The Hernicans were greatly alarmed at this also, and believing themselves pursued by the enemy, dispersed and fled, some by one road and some by another. [3] When day came and the horse sent out to reconnoitre had reported to the Romans that not only was there no fresh force coming to the enemy’s assistance, but that even those who had been arrayed in battle the day before had fled, Aquilius marched out with his army and seized the enemy’s camp, which was full of beasts of burden, provisions, and arms, and also took captive their wounded, not fewer in number than those who had fled; and sending the horse in pursuit of such as were scattered along the roads and in the woods, he captured many of them. Thereafter he overran the Hernican’s territory and laid it waste with impunity, no one any longer daring to encounter him. These were the exploits of Aquilius.
[67.1] The other consul, Titus Siccius, who had been sent against the Volscians, took with him the flower of the army and made an irruption into the territory of Velitrae. For Tullus Attius, the Volscian general, was there with the most vigorous part of the army, which he had assembled with the intention of first harassing the Romans’ allies as Marcius had done when he began the war, thinking that the Romans still continued in the same state of fear and would not send any assistance to those who were incurring danger for their sake. As soon as the two armies were seen by and saw each other, they engaged without delay. [2] The ground between their camps on which the battle would have to take place was a rocky hill broken away in many parts of its circuit, where the horse could be of no use to either side. The Roman cavalry, observing this, thought it would be a shame for them to be present at the action without assisting in it; and coming to the consul in a body, they begged him to permit them to quit their horses and fight on foot, if this seemed best to him. [3] He commended them heartily, and ordering them to dismount, drew them up and kept them with him to observe any part of the line that might be hard pressed and to go to its relief; and they proved to be the cause of the very brilliant victory which the Romans then gained. For the foot on both sides were remarkably alike both in numbers and in armament, and were very similar in the tactical formation of their lines and in their experience in fighting, whether in attacking or retreating, or again in dealing blows or in warding them off. [4] For the Volscians had changed all their military tactics after securing Marcius as their comma
nder, and had adopted the customs of the Romans.
Accordingly, the legionaries of the two armies continued fighting the greater part of the day with equal success; and the unevenness of the terrain afforded each side many advantages against the other. The Roman horsemen having divided themselves into two bodies, one of these attacked the enemy’s right wing in flank, while the other, going round the hill, stormed across it against their rear. [5] Thereupon some of them hurled their spears at the Volscians, and others with their cavalry swords, which are longer than those of the infantry, struck all whom they encountered on the arms and slashed them down to the elbows, cutting off the forearms of many together with the clothing that covered them and their weapons of defence, and by inflicting deep wounds on the knees and ankles of many others, hurled them, no matter how firmly they had stood, half dead upon the ground. [6] And now danger encompassed the Volscians on every side, the foot pressing them in front and the horse on their flank in the rear; so that, after having displayed bravery beyond their strength and given many proofs of hardihood and experience, nearly all who held the right wing were cut down. When those arrayed in the centre and on the other wing saw their right wing broken and the Roman horse charging them in the same manner, they caused their files to countermarch and retired slowly to their camp; and the Roman horse followed, keeping their ranks.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 78