[89.1] When the Romans also came out and drew up their forces, a sharp engagement ensued, not only of the horse, but of the foot and the light-armed troops as well, all showing equal ardour and experience and every man placing his hopes of victory in himself alone. [2] At last, however, the bodies of the dead on both sides lay in great numbers where they had fallen at the posts assigned to them, and the men who were barely alive were even more numerous than the dead, while those who still continued the fight and faced its dangers were but few, and even these were unable to perform the tasks of war; for their shields, because of the multitude of spears that had stuck in them, weighed down their left arms and would not permit them to sustain the enemy’s onsets, and their daggers had their edges blunted or in some cases were entirely shattered and no longer of any use, and the great weariness of the men, who had fought the whole day, slackened their sinews and weakened their blows, and sweat, thirst, and want of breath afflicted both armies, as is wont to happen when men fight long in the stifling heat of summer. Thus the battle came to an end that was anything but remarkable; but both sides, as soon as their generals ordered a retreat to be sounded, gladly returned to their camps. After that neither army any longer ventured out for battle, but lying over against one another, they kept watch on each other’s movements when any detachments went out for supplies. [3] It was believed, however, according to the report common in Rome, that the tendency, though it was then in their power to conquer, deliberately refused to perform any brilliant action because of hatred for the consul and the resentment they felt against the patricians for having played a tricking of them in the matter of the allotment of land. Indeed, the soldiers themselves, in letters they sent to their friends, accused the consul of being unfit to command.
While these things were happening in the camp, in Rome itself many prodigies in the way of unusual voices and sights occurred as indications of divine wrath. [4] And they all pointed to this conclusion, as the augurs and the interpreters of religious matters declared, after pooling their experiences, that some of the gods were angered because they were not receiving their customary honours, as their rites were not being performed in a pure and holy manner. Thereupon strict inquiry was made by everyone, and at last information was given to the pontiffs that one of the virgins who guarded the sacred fire, Opimia by name, had lost her virginity and was polluting the holy rites. [5] The pontiffs, having by tortures and other proofs found that the information was true, took from her head the fillets, and solemnly conducting her through the Forum, buried her alive inside the city walls. As for the two men who were convicted of violating her, they ordered them to be scourged in public and then put to death at once. Thereupon the sacrifices and the auguries became favourable, as if the gods had given up their anger against them.
[90.1] When the time for the election of magistrates arrived and the consuls had returned to Rome, there was great rivalry and marshalling of forces between the populace and the patricians concerning the persons who were to receive the chief magistracy. For the patricians desired to promote to the consulship those of the younger men who were energetic and least inclined to favour the plebeians; and at their behest the son of the Appius Claudius who was regarded as the greatest enemy of the plebeians stood for the office, a man full of arrogance and daring and by reason of his friends and clients the most powerful man of his age. The populace, on their part, named from among the older men who had already given proof of their reasonableness those who were likely to consult the common good, and desired to make them consuls. The magistrates also were divided and sought to invalidate one another’s authority. [2] For whenever the consuls called an assembly of the multitude, to announce the candidates for the consulship, the tribunes, by virtue of their power to intervene, would dismiss the comitia; and whenever the tribunes, in turn, called an assembly of the people to elect magistrates, the consuls, who had the power of calling the centuries together and of taking their votes, would not permit them to proceed. There were mutual accusations and continual skirmishes between them, each side uniting in factional groups, with the result that even angry blows were exchanged and the sedition stopped little short of armed violence. [3] The senate, being informed of all this, deliberated for a long time how it should deal with the situation, being neither able to force the populace to submit or willing to yield. The bolder opinion in that body was for appointing a dictator, whomever they should considered to be the best, for the purpose of the election, and that the one receiving this power should banish the trouble-makers from the state, and if the former magistrates had been guilty of any error, that he should correct it, and then, after establishing the form of government he desired, should hand over the magistracies to the best men. [4] The more moderate opinion was for choosing oldest and most honoured senators as interreges to have charge of the election and see that it was carried out in the best manner, just as elections were formerly carried out upon the demise of their kings. The latter opinion having been approved by the majority, Aulus Sempronius Atratinus was appointed interrex by the senate and all the other magistracies were suspended. [5] After he had administered the commonwealth without any sedition for as many days as it was lawful, he appointed another interrex, according to their custom, naming Spurius Larcius. And Larcius, summoning the centuriate assembly and taking their votes according to the valuation of their property, named for consuls, with the approval of both sides, Gaius Julius, surnamed Iulus, one of the men friendly to the populace and, to serve for the second time, Quintus Fabius, the son of Caeso, who belonged to the aristocratic party. [6] The populace, who had suffered naught at his hands in the former consulship, permitted him to obtain this power for the second time because they hated Appius and were greatly pleased that he seemed to have been deprived of an honour; while those in authority, having succeeded in advancing to the consulship a man of action and one who would show no weakness toward the populace, thought the dissension had taken a course favourable to their designs.
[91.1] During the consulship of these men the Aequians, making a raid into the territory of the Latins after the manner of brigands, carried off a great number of slaves and cattle; and the people of Tyrrhenia called the Veientes injured a large part of the Roman territory by their forays. The senate voted to put off the war against the Aequians to another time, but to demand satisfaction of the Veientes. The Aequians, accordingly, since their first attempts had been successful and there appeared to be no one to prevent their further operations, grew elated with an unreasoning boldness, and resolving no longer to send out a mere marauding expedition, marched with a large force to Ortona and took it by storm; then, after plundering everything both in the country and in the city, they returned home with rich booty. [2] As for the Veientes, they returned answer to the ambassadors who came from Rome that those who were ravaging their country were not from their city, but from the other Tyrrhenian cities, and then dismissed them without giving them any satisfaction; and the ambassadors fell in with the Veientes as these were driving off booty from the Roman territory. The senate, learning of these things from the ambassadors, voted to declare war against the Veientes and that both consuls should lead out the army. [3] There was a controversy, to be sure, over the decree, and there were many who opposed engaging in the war and reminded the plebeians of the allotment of land, of which they had been defrauded after a vain hope, though the senate had passed the decree four years before; and they declared that there would be a general war if all Tyrrhenia by common consent should assist their countrymen. [4] However, the arguments of the seditious speakers did not prevail, but the populace also confirmed the decree of the senate, following the opinion and advice of Spurius Larcius. Thereupon the consuls marched out with their forces and encamped apart at no great distance from the city; but after they had remained there a good many days and the enemy did not lead their forces out to meet them, they ravaged as large a part of their country as they could and then returned home with the army. Nothing else worthy of notice happened
during their consulship.
BOOK IX
[1.1] The following year, a dispute having arisen between the populace and the senate concerning the men who were to be elected consuls, the senators demanding that both men promoted to that magistracy should be of the aristocratic party and the populace demanding that they be chosen from among such as were agreeable to them, after an obstinate struggle they finally convinced each other that a consul should be chosen from each party. Thus Caeso Fabius, who had accused Cassius of aiming at a tyranny, was elected consul, for the second time, on the part of the senate, and Spurius Furius on the part of the populace, in the seventy-fifth Olympiad, Calliades being archon at Athens, at the time when Xerxes made his expedition against Greece. [2] They had no sooner taken office than ambassadors of the Latins came to the senate asking them to send to them one of the consuls with an army to put a check to the insolence of the Aequians, and at the same time word was brought that all Tyrrhenia was aroused and would soon go to war. For that nation had been convened in a general assembly and at the urgent solicitation of the Veientes for aid in their war against the Romans had passed a decree that any of the Tyrrhenians who so desired might take part in the campaign; and it was a sufficiently strong body of men that voluntarily aided the Veientes in the war. Upon learning of this the authorities in Rome resolved to raise armies and also that both consuls should take the field, one to make war on the Aequians and to aid the Latins, and the other to march with his forces against Tyrrhenia. [3] All this was opposed by Spurius Icilius, one of the tribunes, who, assembling the populace every day, demanded of the senate the performance of its promises relating to the allotment of land and said that he would allow none of their decrees, whether they concerned military or civil affairs, to take effect unless they should first appoint the decemvir so fix the boundaries of the public land and divide it among the people as they had promised. [4] When the senate was at a loss and did not know what to do, Appius Claudius suggested that they should consider how the other tribunes might be brought to dissent from Icilius, pointing out that there is no other method of putting an end to the power of a tribune who opposes and obstructs the decrees of the senate, since his person is sacred and this authority of his legal, than for another of the men of equal rank and possessing the same power to oppose him and to order to be done what the other tries to obstruct. [5] And he advised all succeeding consuls to do this and to consider how they might always have some of the tribunes well disposed and friendly to them, saying that only method of destroying the power of the college was to sow dissension among its members.
[2.1] When Appius had expressed this opinion, both the consuls and the more influential of the others, believing his advice to be sound, courted the other four tribunes so effectually as to make them well disposed toward the senate. [2] These for a time endeavoured by argument to persuade Icilius to desist from his course with respect to the allotment of land till the wars should come to an end. But when he kept opposing them and swore that he would continue to do so, and had the assurance to make a rather insolent remark in the presence of the populace to the effect that he had rather see the Tyrrhenians and their other enemies masters of the city than leave unpunished those who were occupying public land, they thought they had got an excellent opportunity for opposing so great insolence both by their words and by their acts, and since even the populace showed displeasure at his remark, they said they interposed their veto; and they openly pursued such measures as were agreeable to both the senate and the consuls. Thus Icilius being deserted by his colleagues, no longer had any authority. [3] After this the army was raised and everything that was necessary for the war was supplied, partly from public and partly from private sources, with all possible alacrity; and the consuls, having drawn lots for the armies, set out in haste, Spurius Furius marching against the cities of the Aequians and Caeso Fabius against the Tyrrhenians. [4] In the case of Spurius everything succeeded according to his wish, the enemy not daring to come to an engagement, so that in this expedition he had the opportunity of taking much booty in both money and slaves. For he overran almost all the territory that the enemy possessed, carrying and driving off everything, and he gave all the spoils to the soldiers. [5] Though he had been regarded even before this time as a friend of the people, he gained the favour of the multitude still more by his conduct in this command; and when the season for military operations was over, he brought his army home intact and unscathed, and made the fatherland rich with the money he had taken.
[3.1] Caeso Fabius, the other consul, though as a general his performance was second to none, was nevertheless deprived of the praise that his achievements deserved, not through any fault of his own, but because he did not enjoy the goodwill of the plebeians from the time when he had denounced and put to death the consul Cassius for aiming at a tyranny. [2] For they never showed any alacrity either in those matters in which men under authority ought to yield a prompt obedience to the orders of their general, or when they should through eagerness and a sense of duty seize positions by force, or when it was necessary to occupy advantageous positions without the knowledge of the enemy, or in anything else from which the general would derive any honour and good repute. Most of their conduct, to be sure, by which they were continually insulting their general was neither very troublesome to him nor the occasion of any great harm to the commonwealth; but their final action brought no small danger and great disgrace to both. [3] For when the two armies had arrayed themselves in battle order in the space between the hills on which their camps were placed, using all the forces on either side, and the Romans had performed many gallant deeds and forced the enemy to begin flight, they neither pursued them as they retreated, notwithstanding the repeated exhortations of the general, nor were they willing to remain and think the enemy’s camp by siege; on the contrary, they left a glorious action unfinished and returned to their own camp. [4] And when some of the soldiers attempted to salute the consul as imperator, all the rest joined in a loud outcry, reproaching and taunting their commander with the loss of many of their brave comrades through his want of ability to command; and after many other insulting and indignant remarks they demanded that he break camp and lead them back to Rome, pretending that they would be unable, if the enemy attacked them, to sustain a second battle. [5] And they neither gave heed when their commander endeavoured to show them the error of their course, nor were moved by his entreaties when he turned to lamentations and supplications, nor were they alarmed by the violence of his threats when he made use of these too; but they continued exasperated in the face of all these appeals. Indeed, some of them were possessed with such a spirit of disobedience and such contempt for their general that they rose up about midnight and without orders from anyone proceeded to strike their tents, take up their arms, and carry off their wounded.
[4.1] When the general was informed of this, he was forced to give the command for all to depart, so great was his fear of their disobedience and audacity. And the soldiers retired with as great precipitation as if they were saving themselves from a rout, and reached the city about daybreak. The guards upon the walls, not knowing that it was an army of friends, began to arm themselves and call out to one another, while all the rest of the city was full of confusion and turmoil, as if some great disaster had occurred; and the guards did not open the gates to them till it was broad day and they could distinguish their own army. [2] Thus, in addition to the ignominy they incurred in deserting their camp, they also exposed themselves to great danger in returning in the dark through the enemy’s country, without observing any order. Certainly, if the Tyrrhenians had learned of it and had followed close on their heels as they departed, nothing could have prevented the army from being utterly destroyed. The motive of this unaccountable withdrawal or flight was, as I have said, the hatred of the populace against the general and the begrudging of any honour to him, lest he should be granted a triumph and so acquire the greatest glory. [3] The next day the Tyrrhenians, having learned of the withdraw
al of the Romans, stripped their dead, took up and carried off their wounded, and plundered all the stores they had left in their camp, which were very abundant as having been prepared for a long war; then, like conquerors, they laid waste the adjacent territory of the enemy, after which they returned home with their army.
[5.1] The succeeding consuls, Gnaeus Manlius and Marcus Fabius (the latter chosen for the second time), in pursuance of a decree of the senate ordering them to march against the Veientes with as large an army as they could raise, appointed a day for levying the troops. When Tiberius Pontificius, one of the tribunes, opposed them by forbidding the levy and called upon them to carry out the decree relating to the allotment of land, they courted some of his colleagues, as their predecessors had done, and thus divided the college of tribunes, after which they proceeded to carry out the will of the senate with full liberty. [2] The levy being completed in a few days, the consuls took the field against the enemy, each of them having with him two legions of Romans raised in the city itself a force no less numerous sent by their colonies and subjects. Indeed, there came to them from the Latin and the Hernican nations double the number of auxiliaries they had called for; they did not, however, make use of this entire force, by stating that they were very grateful for their zeal, they dismissed one half of the army that had been sent. [3] They also drew up before the city a third army, consisting of two legions of the younger men, to serve as a garrison for the country in case any other hostile force should unexpectedly make its appearance; the men who were above the military age but still had strength sufficient to bear arms they left in the city to guard the citadels and the walls.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 82