[18.1] These consuls were succeeded by Gaius Horatius and Titus Menenius in the seventy-sixth Olympiad (the one at which Scamander of Mitylene won the foot-race), when Phaedo was archon at Athens. The new consuls were at first hindered from transacting the public business by the domestic disturbance, the populace being exasperated and not permitting any other public business to be carried on until they should divide up among themselves the public land; but after a time the seditious and turbulent elements yielded to necessity and came in voluntarily to be enlisted. [2] For the eleven cities of the Tyrrhenians which had had no part in the peace, holding a general assembly, inveighed against the Veientes for having put an end to the war with the Romans without the general consent of the nation, and demanded that they do one of two things — either break the compact they had made with the Romans, or join with the Romans in making war upon the rest of the Tyrrhenians. [3] But the Veientes laid the blame for the peace upon necessity, and proposed that the assembly consider how they might break it with decency. Upon this someone suggested to them that they should make formal complaint of the erection of the frontier stronghold on the Cremera and of the failure of its garrison to withdraw from there, and then should first make an oral demand that they evacuate the place, and, if they refused, should lay siege to the fortress and make this action the beginning of the war. [4] Having agreed on this course, they left the assembly; and not long afterwards the Veientes sent ambassadors to the Fabii to demand from them the fortress, and all Tyrrhenia was in arms. The Romans, learning of these things through letters from the Fabii, resolved that both the consuls should take the field, one to command in the war that was coming upon them from Tyrrhenia and the other to prosecute the war which was still going on with the Volscians. [5] Horatius, accordingly, marched against the Volscians with two legions and an adequate force of the allies, and Menenius was preparing to set out against the Tyrrhenians with another force of equal size; but while he was making his preparations and losing time, the fortress on the Cremera was destroyed by the enemy and the entire Fabian clan perished. Concerning the disaster that befell these men two accounts are current, one less probable and the other coming nearer to the truth. I shall give them both as I have received them.
[19.1] Some say that when the time was at hand for a traditional sacrifice which devolved upon the Fabian clan, the men set out from the fortress, attended by a few clients, to perform the rites, and proceeded without reconnoitring the roads or marching ranged in centuries under their standards, but negligently and unguardedly as in time of peace and as if they were passing through friendly territory. [2] The Tyrrhenians, having learned of their departure in advance, placed one part of their army in ambush at a spot along the road, and followed son after with the rest of their forces in regular formation. When the Fabii drew near the ambuscade, the Tyrrhenians who were lying in wait there rose up and fell upon them, some in front and others in flank, and a little later the rest of the Tyrrhenian force attacked them from the rear; and surrounding them on all sides and shooting at them, some with slings, some with bows, and others hurling javelins and spears, they overwhelmed them all with the multitude of their missiles. [3] Now this account seems to me to be the less credible. For not only is it improbable that so many serving under the standards would have returned from the camp to the city because of a sacrifice without a decree from the senate, when the rites might have been performed by others of the same clan who were advanced in years; but even if they had all gone from the city and no part of the Fabian clan was left in their homes, it is improbable that all who held the fortress would have abandoned the guarding of it, since even three or four of them would have sufficed to return to Rome and perform the rites for the whole clan. For these reasons, then, this account has not seemed to me to be credible.
[20.1] The other account concerning the destruction of the Fabii and the capture of the fortress, which I regard as being nearer to the truth, is somewhat as follows. As the men went out frequently to forage and, encouraged by the continued success of their forays, advanced even farther, the Tyrrhenians got ready a numerous army and encamped in the near neighbourhood unperceived by the enemy. Then, sending out of their strongholds flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and drove of mares as if to pasture, they lured the garrison to these; and the men, coming out, seized the herdsmen and rounded up the cattle. [2] The Tyrrhenians kept doing this and drawing the enemy ever farther away from their camp; then, when they had destroyed in them all thought for their safety by enticing them with constant booty, they placed ambuscades at night in the most suitable positions, while others occupied the heights that commanded the plains. The next day, sending ahead a few armed men, as if to serve as a guard for the herdsmen, they drove out a large number of herds from their strongholds. [3] When word was brought to the Fabii that if they went over the neighbouring hills they would in a very short time find the plain covered with cattle of all sorts with a guard insufficient to defend them, they went out of the fortress, leaving an adequate garrison there. And covering the distance speedily in their eagerness, they appeared before the guards of the cattle in battle array. These did not await their attack, but fled, and the Fabii, thinking themselves now quite secure, set about seizing the herdsmen and rounding up the cattle. [4] Thereupon the Tyrrhenians, rising up from ambush in many places, fell upon them from all sides. The greater part of the Romans, being scattered and unable to assist one another, were killed upon the spot; but those who were in a body, being eager to reach a secure position and hastening toward the hills, fell into another ambuscade that lay concealed in the woods and glens. Here a sharp battle took place between them and there was great slaughter on both sides. But nevertheless they repulsed even these foes, and after filling the ravine with dead bodies, they ran up to the top of a hill that was not easy to take, and there passed the following night in want of the necessary provisions.
[21.1] The next day those who were holding the fortress, upon being informed of the disaster that had befallen their companions — namely, that the greater part of the army had been destroyed in their pursuit of plunder and the bravest of them were shut up and besieged on a lonely mountain, and that if some aid seems reach them promptly they would soon be destroyed for want of provisions — set out in haste, leaving very few in the fortress to guard it. These troops, before they could join their companions, were surrounded by the Tyrrhenians, who rushed down upon them from their strongholds; and though they displayed many feats of valour, they were in time all destroyed. [2] Not long afterwards those also who had seized the hill, being oppressed by both hunger and thirst, resolved to charge the enemy; and engaging, a few against many, they continued fighting from morning till night, and made so great a slaughter of the enemy that the heaps of dead bodies piled up in many places were a hindrance to them in fighting. Indeed, the Tyrrhenians had lost above a third part of their army, and fearing for the rest, they now gave the signal for a retreat and stopped fighting for a short time; and sending heralds to the men, they offered them their lives and a safe-conduct if they would lay down their arms and evacuate the fortress. [3] When the others refused their offer and chose the death befitting men of noble birth, the Tyrrhenians renewed the struggle, attacking them in relays, though no longer fighting at close quarters in hand-to-hand combat, but standing in a body and hurling javelins and stones at them from a distance; and the multitude of missiles was like a snow-storm. The Romans, massing by companies, rushed upon their foes, who did not stand their ground, and though they received many wounds from those surrounding them, they stood firm. [4] But when the swords of many had become useless, some having their edges blunted and others being broken, and the borders of their shields next the rims were hacked in pieces, and the men themselves were for the most part bled white and overwhelmed by missiles and their limbs paralysed by reason of the multitude of their wounds, the Tyrrhenians scorned them and came to close quarters. Then the Romans, rushing at them like wild beasts, seized their spears and broke them, grasped t
heir swords by the edges and wrenched them out of their hands, and twisting the bodies of their antagonists, fell with them to the ground, locked in close embrace, fighting with greater rage than strength. [5] Hence the enemy, astonished at their endurance and terrified at the madness that had seized them in their despair of life, no longer ventured to come to grips with them, but retiring again, stood in a body and hurled at them sticks, stones, and anything else they could lay their hands on, and at last buried them under the multitude of missiles. After destroying these men they ran to the fortress, carrying with them the heads of the most prominent, expecting to take the men there prisoners at their first onset. [6] However, the attempt did not turn out according to their hopes; for the men who had been left there, emulating the noble death of their comrades and kinsmen, came out of the fortress, though very few in number, and after fighting for a considerable time were all destroyed in the same manner as the others; and the place was empty of men when the Tyrrhenians took it. To me now this account appears much more credible than the former; but both of them are to be found in Roman writings of good authority.
[22.1] The addition to this account which has been made by certain writers, though neither true nor plausible, but invented by the multitude from some false report, does not deserve to be passed over without examination. For some report that after the three hundred and six Fabii had been slain, there was only one boy left out of the whole clan, thereby introducing a detail that is not only improbable, but even impossible; [2] for it is not possible that all the Fabii who went out to the fortress were unmarried and childless. For not only did the ancient law of the Romans oblige all of the proper age to marry, but they were forced also to rear all their children; and surely the Fabii would not have been the only persons to violate a law which had been observed by their ancestor down to their time. [3] But even if one were to admit this assumption, yet he would never make the further assumption that none of them had any brothers still in their childhood. Why, such institutions resemble myths and fictions of the stage! Besides, would not as many of their fathers as were still of an age to beget children, now that so great a desolation had come upon their clan, have begotten other children both willingly and unwillingly, in order that neither the sacrifices of their ancestors might be abandoned nor the great reputation of the clan be extinguished? [4] Unless, indeed, none even of their fathers were left and all the conditions which would render it impossible to perpetuate the clan combined together ink those three hundred and six men — namely, that they left behind them no infant children, no wives with child, no brothers still under age, no fathers in the prime of life. [5] Testing the story by such reasoning, I have come to the conclusion that it is not true, but that the following is the true account. Of the three brothers, Caeso, Quintus, and Marcus, who had been consuls for seven years in succession, I believe that Marcus left one young son, and that this boy was the one who is reported to have been the survivor of the Fabian house. [6] There is no reason why it should not have been because no one else of the clan became famous and illustrious except this one son, when he had grown to manhood, that most people came to hold the belief that he was the only survivor of the Fabian clan — not, indeed, that there was no other, but that there was none like those famous three — judging kinship on the basis of merit, not of birth. But enough on this subject.
[23.1] After the Tyrrhenians, then, had destroyed the Fabii and taken the fortress on the Cremera, they led their forces against the other army of the Romans. It chanced that Menenius, one of the consuls, lay encamped not far away in an insecure position; and when the Fabian clan and their clients perished, he was only some thirty stades from the place where the disaster occurred — a circumstance which gave many people reason to believe that, though aware of the dire straits of the Fabii, he had shown no concern for them because of the envy he felt of their valour and reputation. [2] Accordingly, when he was later brought to trial by the tribunes, this was the chief ground for his condemnation. For the people of Rome deeply mourned their having shorn themselves of the valour of so many and so brave men and were severe and inexorable toward all whom they suspected of having been responsible for so great a calamity; and they regard the day on which the disaster occurred as black and inauspicious and will begin no useful labour on it, looking upon the disaster which then occurred on that day as a bad omen. [3] When the Tyrrhenians came near the Romans and observed the situation of their camp, which lay under a flank of a hill, they felt contempt for the inexperience of the general and gladly grasped the advantage presented to them by Fortune. They at once marched up the opposite side of the hill with their horse and gained the summit without opposition. Then, having possessed themselves of the height above the Romans, they made camp there, brought up the rest of their army in safety, and fortified the camp with a high palisade and a deep ditch. [4] Now if Menenius, when he perceived what an advantage he had given the enemy, had repented of his error and removed his army to a safer position, he would have been wise; but as it was, being ashamed to be thought to have made a mistake, and maintaining an obstinate front toward those who advised him to change his plans, he came a merited fall which brought disgrace as well. [5] For as the enemy were constantly sending out detachments from places that commanded his camp, they had many advantages, not only seizing the provisions which the merchants were bringing to the Romans, but also attacking his men as they went out for forage or for water; and it had come to the point where the consul did not have it in his power to choose either the time or the place of combat — which seems to be strong evidence of the inexperience of a general — whereas the Tyrrhenians could do both as they wished. [6] And not even then could Menenius bring himself to move his army away from there; but leading out the troops, he drew them up ready for battle, scorning all who offered salutary advice. The Tyrrhenians, looking upon the folly of the general as a piece of great good fortune, came down from their camp with numbers fully twice those of their foe. [7] When they engaged, there was a great slaughter of the Romans, who were unable to keep their ranks. For they were forced back by the Tyrrhenians, who not only had the terrain as an ally, but were also helped by the vigorous pressure of those who stood behind them, their army being drawn up with deep files. When the most prominent centurions had fallen, the rest of the Roman army gave way and fled to the camp; and the enemy pursued them, took away their standards, seized their wounded, and got possession of their dead. [8] Then they shut them up in their camp and besieged them; and delivering numerous attacks during all the rest of the day, without desisting even at night, they captured the camp, which the Romans had abandoned, and took many prisoners and a great quantity of booty; for those who fled had not been able to pack up their belongings, but were glad to escape with their bare lives, many not keeping even their arms.
[24.1] When those at Rome heard that their army was destroyed and their camp taken — the first who had saved themselves from the rout arrived while it was still deep night — they fell into great confusion, as may well be imagined; and expecting the enemy to come against them at any moment, they seized their arms and some formed a circle about the walls, others stationed themselves before the gates, and still others occupied the heights in the city. [2] There was a disorderly running to and fro throughout the entire city and a confused clamour; on the roofs of the houses were the members of each household, prepared to defend themselves and give battle; and an uninterrupted succession of torches, as it was in the night and dark, blazed through lanterns and from roofs, so many in number that to those seeing them at a distance it seemed to be one continuous blaze and gave the impression of a city on fire. [3] And if the Tyrrhenians at that time had scorned the booty to be got from the camp and had followed on the heels of the fleeing Romans, the whole army which had taken the field against them would have been destroyed; but as it was, by turning to plundering everything which had been left behind in the camp and to resting their bodies, they deprived themselves of a great opportunity for boasting. The next day the
y led their forces against Rome, and when they were about sixteen stades from the city, they occupied the mount called Janiculum, from which the city is in full view. And using that as a base of operations, they pillaged the territory of the Romans without hindrance, holding those in the city in great contempt, till the other consul, Horatius, appeared with the army which had been among the Volscians. [4] Then at last the Romans thought themselves safe, and arming the youth that were in the city, they took the field; and having not only in the first battle, which was fought at the distance of eight stades from the city near the temple of Hope, overcome their opponents and driven them back, but also, after that engagement, having fought brilliantly with them again near the gate called the Colline, when the Tyrrhenians had come against them with another and larger army, they recovered from their fear. Thus ended that year.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 85