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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [23.1] The consuls who next took over the annual and legal magistracy were Appius Claudius Sabinus and Publius Servilius Priscus. They saw, rightly, that to render the highest service to the state they must divert the uproar in the city to foreign wars; and they were arranging that one of them should lead an expedition against the Volscian nation, with the purpose both of taking revenge on them for the aid they had sent to the Latins against the Romans and of forestalling their preparations, which as yet were not far advanced. For they too were reported to be enrolling an army with the greatest diligence and sending ambassadors to the neighbouring nations to invite them to enter into alliance with them, since they had learned that the plebeians were standing aloof from the patricians and thought that it would not be difficult to captured a city suffering from civil war.

  [2] ἐπὶ τούτους δὴ στρατιὰν ἐξάγειν βουλευσάμενοι καὶ δόξαντες ἅπασι τοῖς συνέδροις ὀρθῶς βεβουλεῦσθαι προεῖπον ἥκειν ἅπασι τοῖς ἐν ἀκμῇ χρόνον ὁρίσαντες, ἐν ᾧ τὴν καταγραφὴν [p. 296] τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἔμελλον ποιεῖσθαι. ὡς δ᾽ οὐχ ὑπήκουον αὐτοῖς οἱ δημοτικοὶ καλούμενοι πολλάκις ἐπὶ τὸν στρατιωτικὸν ὅρκον, οὐκέτι τὴν αὐτὴν ἑκάτερος εἶχε γνώμην, ἀλλ᾽ ἔνθεν ἀρξάμενοι διεστήκεσάν τε καὶ τἀναντία πράττοντες ἀλλήλοις παρὰ πάντα τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς χρόνον διετέλεσαν.

  [2] The consuls, therefore, having resolved to lead an expedition against this people, and their resolution being approved of by the whole senate, they ordered all the men of military age to present themselves on the day they had appointed for making the levies of troops. But when the plebeians, though repeatedly summoned to take the military oath, would not obey the consuls, these were no longer both of the same mind, but beginning from this point, they were divided and continued to oppose one another during the whole time of their magistracy.

  [3] Σερουιλίῳ μὲν γὰρ ἐδόκει τὴν ἐπιεικεστέραν τῶν ὁδῶν πορεύεσθαι τῇ Μανίου Οὐαλερίου γνώμῃ τοῦ δημοτικωτάτου προσθεμένῳ, ὃς ἠξίου τὴν ἀρχὴν ἰάσεσθαι τῆς στάσεως μάλιστα μὲν ἄφεσιν ἢ μείωσιν τῶν χρεῶν ψηφισαμένους, εἰ δὲ μήγε κώλυσιν τῆς ἀπαγωγῆς τῶν ὑπερημέρων κατὰ τὸ παρόν, παρακλήσει τε μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνάγκῃ τοὺς πένητας ἐπὶ τὸν στρατιωτικὸν ὅρκον ἄγειν καὶ τὰς τιμωρίας κατὰ τῶν ἀπειθούντων μὴ χαλεπὰς ποιεῖσθαι καὶ ἀπαραιτήτους, ὡς ἐν ὁμονοούσῃ πόλει, μετρίας δέ τινας καὶ ἐπιεικεῖς: κίνδυνον γὰρ ἂν εἶναι, μὴ πρὸς ἀπόνοιαν τράπωνται συνελθόντες εἰς ταὐτὸν ἄνθρωποι τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἐνδεεῖς ἀναγκαζόμενοι στρατεύεσθαι τέλεσιν οἰκείοις.

  [3] For Servilius thought they ought to take the milder course, thereby adhering to the opinion of Manius Valerius, the most democratic of the senators, who advised them to cure the cause of the sedition, preferably by decreeing an abolition or diminution of the debts, or, failing that, by forbidding for the time being the haling to prison of the debtors whose obligations were overdue, and advised them to encourage rather than compel the poor to take the military oath, and not to make the penalties against the disobedient severe and inexorable, but moderate and mild. For there was danger, he said, that men in want of the daily necessities of life, if compelled to serve at their own expense, might get together and adopt some desperate course.

  [1] Ἀππίου δ᾽ ἦν γνώμη τοῦ κορυφαιοτάτου τῶν προεστηκότων τῆς ἀριστοκρατίας αὐστηρὰ καὶ αὐθάδης μηδὲν ἐνδιδόναι τῷ δήμῳ μαλακόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν συναλλαγμάτων τὰς ἀναπράξεις ἐπιτρέπειν τοῖς δεδανεικόσιν, ἐφ᾽ οἷς συνέβαλον δικαίοις ποιεῖσθαι, καὶ τὰ δικαστήρια καθίζειν, καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ πόλει μένοντα τῶν ὑπάτων κατὰ τοὺς πατρίους ἐθισμοὺς καὶ [p. 297] τὰς τιμωρίας, ἃς κατὰ τῶν ἐκλιπόντων οἱ περὶ αὐτῶν νόμοι δεδώκασιν, ἀναπράττεσθαι, εἴκειν δὲ τοῖς δημοτικοῖς μηδὲν ὅ τι μὴ δίκαιον μηδὲ δύναμιν αὐτοῖς συγκατασκευάζειν πονηράν.

  [24.1] But the opinion of Appius, the chief man among the leaders of the aristocracy, was harsh and arrogant. He advised that they should show no leniency toward the people in anything, but should even allow the money-lenders to enforce payment of the obligations upon the terms agreed upon, and should cause the courts of justice to sit, and that the consul who remained in the city should, in accordance with ancestral custom and usage, exact the punishments ordained by law against those who declined military service, and that they ought to yield to the people in nothing that was not just nor aid them in establishing a pernicious power.

  [2] καὶ γὰρ νῦν, ἔφη, πέρα τοῦ μετρίου τρυφῶσι τελῶν ἀφειμένοι, ὧν ἐτέλουν τοῖς βασιλεῦσι πρότερον, καὶ τῶν εἰς τὸ σῶμα τιμωριῶν, αἷς ἐκολάζοντο ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν, ὁπότε μὴ ταχέως ὑπηρετήσειάν τι τῶν ἐπιταττομένων, ἐλεύθεροι γεγονότες. ἐὰν δέ τι παρακινεῖν ἢ νεωτερίζειν προενεχθέντες ἐπιβάλωνται, κατείργωμεν αὐτοὺς τῷ σωφρονοῦντι μέρει τῆς πόλεως καὶ ὑγιαίνοντι πλείονι τοῦ νοσοῦντος φανησομένῳ.

  [2] “Why, even now,” he said, “they are pampered beyond all measure in consequence of having been relieved of the taxes they formerly paid to the kings and freed from the corporal punishments they received from them when they did not yield prompt obedience to any of their commands. But if they go further and attempt any disturbance or uprising, let us restrain them with the aid of the sober and sound element among the citizens, who will be found more numerous than the disaffected.

  [3] ὑπάρχει μέν γ᾽ ἡμῖν οὐ μικρὰ ἰσχὺς πρὸς τὰ πράγματα καὶ ἡ τῶν πατρικίων νεότης ἕτοιμος τὰ κελευόμενα ποιεῖν: μέγιστον δὲ πάντων ὅπλον καὶ δυσκαταγώνιστον, ᾧ χρώμενοι ῥᾳδίως ἐπικρατήσομεν τῶν δημοτικῶν, τὸ τῆς βουλῆς κράτος, ᾧ δεδιττόμεθα αὐτοὺς μετὰ τῶν νόμων ἱστάμενοι. ἐὰν δ᾽ ὑποκατακλινώμεθα αὐτοῖς τῆς ἀξιώσεως, πρῶτον αἰσχύνην ὀφλήσομεν, εἰ παρὸν ἐν ἀριστοκρατίᾳ πολιτεύεσθαι δήμῳ τὰ κοινὰ ἐπιτρέψομεν: ἔπειτα δ᾽ εἰς κίνδυνον οὐ τὸν ἐλάχιστον ἥξομεν, εἴ τις ἐκθεραπεύσας: αὐτὸν ἐξουσίαν κρείττονα τῶν νόμων κατασκευάσαιτο τυραννικὸς ἀνήρ, τὴν ἐλευθερίαν αὖθις ἀφαιρεθῆναι. τοιαῦτα [p. 298] διαφερομένων τῶν ὑπάτων κατὰ σφᾶς αὐτοὺς καὶ ὁπότε συναχθείη συνέδριον καὶ συλλαμβανόντων πολλῶν ἑκατέρῳ, ἡ μὲν βουλὴ φιλονεικίας καὶ θορύβους καὶ λόγους ἀκόσμους, οἷς ἀλλήλους προὐπηλάκιζον, ἀκούσασα, σωτήριον δὲ
βούλευμα οὐδὲν καθισταμένη, διελύετο.

  [3] We have on hand for the task no slight strength in the patrician youth who are ready to obey our commands; but the great weapon of all, and one difficult to be resisted, with which we shall subdue the plebeians, is the power of the senate; with this let us overawe them, taking our stand on the side of the laws. But if we yield to their demand, in the first place, we shall incur disgrace by entrusting the government to the people when we have it in our power to live under an aristocracy; and secondly, we shall run no little danger of being deprived of our liberty again, in case some man inclined toward tyranny should win them over and acquire a power superior to the laws.” The consuls disputing in this manner, both by themselves alone and whenever the senate was assembled, and many siding with each, that body, after listening to their altercations and clamour and the unseemly speeches with which they abused one another, would adjourn without coming to any salutary decision.

  [1] διατριβομένου δ᾽ εἰς ταῦτα πολλοῦ χρόνου ὁ ἕτερος τῶν ὑπάτων Σερουίλιος: ἦν γὰρ ἡ στρατεία κατὰ κλῆρον ἐκείνῳ προσήκουσα: πολλῇ δεήσει καὶ θεραπείᾳ παρασκευασάμενος τὸ δημοτικὸν συνάρασθαι τοῦ πολέμου, δύναμιν ἔχων οὐκ ἐκ καταλόγου προσηναγκασμένην, ἀλλ᾽ ἑκούσιον, ὡς οἱ καιροὶ παρεκάλουν, ἐξῆλθεν ἐπὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἔτι τῶν Οὐολούσκων παρασκευαζομένων καὶ Ῥωμαίους μὲν οὔτε προσδεχομένων μετὰ δυνάμεως ἥξειν ἐπὶ σφᾶς, οὕτω στασιαστικῶς πολιτευομένους καὶ ἐχθρῶς ἔχοντας πρὸς ἀλλήλους, οὔτ᾽ εἰς χεῖρας ἥξειν τοῖς ἐπιοῦσιν οἰομένων: σφίσι δὲ πολλὴν ἐξουσίαν ὑπάρχειν ὁπότε βούλοιντο τοῦ

  [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] πολέμου ἄρχειν. ἐπειδὴ δ᾽ ᾔσθοντο πολεμεῖν δέον αὐτοὶ πολεμούμενοι, τότε δὴ καταπεπληγότες τὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων τάχος, ἱκετηρίας ἀναλαβόντες ἐκ τῶν πόλεων οἱ γεραίτατοι προῄεσαν ἐπιτρέποντες τῷ Σερουϊλίῳ [p. 299] χρῆσθαι σφίσιν ὡς ἡμαρτηκόσιν ὅ τι βούλοιτο. ὁ δὲ τροφὰς τῷ στρατεύματι παρ᾽ αὐτῶν λαβὼν ἐσθῆτάς τε καὶ τριακοσίους υἱοὺς εἰς ὁμηρείαν ἐκ τῶν ἐπιφανεστάτων οἴκων ἐπιλεξάμενος ᾤχετο, λελύσθαι τὸν πόλεμον ὑπολαβών.

  [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] ἦν δ᾽ ἄρα τοῦτ᾽ οὐ λύσις, ἀναβολὴ δέ τις καὶ παρασκευῆς ἀφορμὴ τοῖς φθασθεῖσι τῷ παρ᾽ ἐλπίδα τῆς ἐφόδου, ἀπελθόντος τε τοῦ τῶν Ῥωμαίων στρατεύματος ἐξήπτοντο πάλιν οἱ Οὐολοῦσκοι τοῦ πολέμου τάς τε πόλεις φραξάμενοι, καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο χωρίον ἐπιτήδειον ἦν ἀσφάλειαν σφίσι παρασχεῖν διὰ φυλακῆς κρείττονος ἔχοντες: συνήπτοντο δ᾽ αὐτοῖς τοῦ κινδύνου φανερῶς μὲν Ἕρνικες καὶ Σαβῖνοι, κρύφα δὲ καὶ ἄλλων συχνοί. Λατῖνοι δὲ πρεσβείας πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ συμμαχίας αἴτησιν ἀφικομένης δήσαντες τοὺς ἄνδρας εἰς Ῥώμην ἤγαγον.

  [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] οἷς ἡ βουλὴ τῆς βεβαίου πίστεως χάριν ἀποδιδοῦσα καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον τῆς εἰς τὸν ἀγῶνα προθυμίας: ἕτοιμοι γὰρ ἦσαν ἑκούσιοι συμπολεμεῖν: ὃ μάλιστα μὲν βούλεσθαι αὐτοὺς ᾤετο, δι᾽ αἰσχύνης δ᾽ ἔχειν αἰτήσασθαι, τοῦτ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐχαρίσατο, τοὺς ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἁλόντας αὐτῶν ἑξακισχιλίων ὀλίγον ἀποδέοντας προῖκα δωρησαμένη καὶ ὡς ἂν μάλιστα κόσμον ἡ δωρεὰ προσήκοντα τῇ συγγενείᾳ λάβοι πάντας αὐτοὺς ἐσθῆσιν ἀμφιέσασα ἐλευθέροις σώμασι πρεπούσαις. τῆς δὲ συμμαχίας οὐδὲν αὑτῇ ἔφη δεῖν τῆς Λατίνων ἱκανὰς λέγουσα εἶναι τὰς οἰκείας τῇ Ῥώμῃ δυνάμεις ἀμύνασθαι τοὺς ἀφισταμένους. ταῦτ᾽ ἐκείνοις [p. 300] ἀποκριναμένη ψηφίζεται τὸν κατ᾽ Οὐολούσκων πόλεμον.

  [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.

  [1] ἔτι δ᾽ αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ βουλευτηρίῳ καθεζομένης καὶ τίνες εἶεν δυνάμεις τὰς ἐξελευσομένας σκοπούσης, εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἀνὴρ πρεσβύτερος ἐφάνη ῥάκος ἠμφιεσμένος, πώγωνα βαθὺν καθεικὼς καὶ κόμην βοῶν καὶ ἐπικαλούμενος τὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἐπικουρίαν. συνδραμόντος δὲ τοῦ πλησίον ὄχλου στάς, ὅθεν ἔμελλε πολλοῖς καταφανὴς ἔσεσθαι, ἔφη, γεννηθεὶς ἐλεύθερος, ἐστρατευμένος τὰς ἐν ἡλικίᾳ στρατείας, καὶ δυεῖν δεούσας τρι�
�κοντα μάχας ἀγωνισάμενος, καὶ ἀριστεῖα πολλάκις εἰληφὼς ἐκ τῶν πολέμων, ἐπειδὴ κατέσχον οἱ τὴν πόλιν εἰς τὰς ἐσχάτας ἄγοντες στενοχωρίας καιροί, χρέος ἠναγκάσθην λαβεῖν ἕνεκα τοῦ διαλῦσαι τὰς εἰσπραττομένας εἰσφοράς, ὡς τὸ μὲν χωρίον οἱ πολέμιοι κατέδραμον, τὰ δὲ κατὰ πόλιν αἱ σιτοδεῖαι κατανάλωσαν, ὅθεν διαλύσαιμί μου τὸ χρέος οὐκ ἔχων, ἀπήχθην δοῦλος ὑπὸ τοῦ δανειστοῦ σὺν τοῖς υἱοῖς δυσίν: ἐπιτάττοντος δὲ τοῦ δεσπότου τῶν οὐ ῥᾳδίων ἔργον τι ἀντειπὼν αὐτῷ πληγὰς ἔλαβον μάστιξι πάνυ πολλάς.

  [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.”