Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] In the consulship of Lucius Genucius and Servius Cornelius there was respite from almost all foreign wars. Colonies were established at Sora and at Alba.

Albam in Aequos sex milia colonorum scripta: Sora agri Volsci fuerat sed possederant Samnites; eo quattuor milia hominum missa. Eodem anno Arpinatibus Trebulanisque civitas data. Frusinates tertia parte agri damnati, quod Hernicos ab eis sollicitatos compertum, capitaque coniurationis eius quaestione ab consulibus ex senatus consulto habita virgis caesi ac securi percussi.

For Alba among the Aequians, six thousand colonists were enrolled: Sora had been of the Volscian territory, but the Samnites had possessed it; thither four thousand men were sent. In the same year citizenship was granted to the Arpinates and the Trebulani. The Frusinates were condemned in a third part of their land, because it was found that the Hernici had been solicited by them, and the heads of that conspiracy, an inquiry having been held by the consuls in accordance with a decree of the senate, were beaten with rods and struck with the axe.

Tamen ne prorsus imbellem agerent annum, parva expeditio in Umbria facta est, quod nuntiabatur ex spelunca quadam excursiones armatorum in agros fieri. In eam speluncam penetratum cum signis est et ex ea, loco obscuro, multa volnera accepta maximeque lapidum ictu, donec altero specus eius ore—nam pervius erat—invento utraeque fauces congestis lignis accensae. Ita intus fumo acvapore ad duo milia armatorum, ruentia novissime in ipsas flammas, dum evadere tendunt, absumpta.

Nevertheless, lest they spend the year entirely unwarlike, a small expedition was made in Umbria, because it was reported that from a certain cave excursions of armed men were being made into the fields. Into that cave they advanced with their standards, and from it, being a dark place, many wounds were received, especially from the impact of stones, until the other mouth of the cave—for it was pervious—was found, and both mouths, with wood heaped up, were set alight. Thus inside, by smoke and vapor, about two thousand armed men—rushing at the last into the very flames as they strove to escape—were consumed.

M. Livio Dentre Aemilio consulibus redintegratum Aequicum bellum. Coloniam aegre patientes velut arcem suis finibus impositam, summa vi expugnare adorti ab ipsis colonis pelluntur. Ceterum tantum Romae terrorem fecere, quia vix credibile erat tam adfectis rebus solos per se Aequos ad bellum coortos, ut tumultus eius causa dictator diceretur C. Iunius Bubulcus.

In the consulship of M. Livius Denter and <M.> Aemilius the Aequian war was renewed. Hardly tolerating the colony, as though a citadel imposed upon their own borders, they attempted to storm it with utmost force, but are driven off by the colonists themselves. However, they created such terror at Rome—because it was scarcely believable, with affairs so impaired, that the Aequi alone had on their own arisen to war—that, on account of this tumult, a dictator was appointed: C. Junius Bubulcus.

Cum M. Titinio magistro equitum profectus primo congressu Aequos subegit ac die octavo triumphans in urbem cum redisset aedem Salutis, quam consul voverat censor locaverat, dictator dedicavit.

Setting out with M. Titinius, master of horse, he subdued the Aequians at the first encounter; and on the eighth day, returning to the city in triumph, the dictator dedicated the temple of Salus, which the consul had vowed and the censor had contracted for.

[2] Eodem anno classis Graecorum Cleonymo duce Lacedaemonio ad Italiae litora adpulsa Thurias urbem in Sallentinis cepit. Adversus hunc hostem consul Aemilius missus proelio uno fugatum compulit in naves; Thuriae redditae veteri cultori Sallentinoque agro pax parta.—Iunium Bubulcum dictatorem missum in Sallentinos in quibusdam annalibus invenio et Cleonymum, priusquam confligendum esset cum Romanis, Italia excessisse—.

[2] In the same year a fleet of the Greeks, with Cleonymus the Lacedaemonian as leader, put in at Italy’s shores and captured the city of Thuria among the Sallentines. Against this enemy the consul Aemilius was sent; in a single battle he routed them and drove them to their ships; Thuria was restored to its old inhabitant, and peace was procured for the Sallentine territory.—I find in certain annals that Junius Bubulcus was sent as dictator against the Sallentines, and that Cleonymus, before there had to be a conflict with the Romans, withdrew from Italy—.

Circumvectus inde Brundisii promunturium medioque sinu Hadriatico ventis latus, cum laeva importuosa Italiae litora, dextra Illyrii Liburnique et Histri, gentes ferae et magna ex parte latrociniis maritimis infames, terrerent, penitus ad litora Venetorum pervenit. Expositis paucis qui loca explorarent, cum audisset tenue praetentum litus esse, quod transgressis stagna ab tergo sint inrigua aestibus maritimis, agros haud procul [proximos] campestres cerni, ulteriora colles videri; esse ostium fluminis praealti quo circumagi naves in stationem tutam <possint> [vidisse],— Meduacus amnis erat—, eo invectam classem subire flumine adverso iussit. Gravissimas navium non pertulit alueus fluminis; in leviora navigia transgressa multitudo armatorum ad frequentes agros tribus maritimis Patavinorum vicis colentibus eam oram pervenit.

Having coasted thence around the promontory of Brundisium and, in the middle of the Hadriatic gulf, exposed to the winds, while on the left the harborless shores of Italy, on the right the Illyrians, Liburnians, and Histri—fierce peoples and in great part infamous for maritime brigandage—were terrifying, he came all the way to the shores of the Veneti. Putting ashore a few to reconnoiter the places, when he had heard that a narrow shore was stretched out in front, which, once crossed, has lagoons behind irrigated by the sea-tides; that fields not far [proximos] off are seen level, and farther in hills are seen; that there is the mouth of a very deep river by which the ships might be conducted around into a safe station <possint> [vidisse],—it was the river Meduacus—he ordered the fleet, carried thither, to go up the river against the current. The channel of the river did not bear the heaviest of the ships; the multitude of armed men, having transferred into lighter craft, reached the thickly peopled fields, where three maritime villages of the Patavini were cultivating that shore.

Ibi egressi praesidio levi navibus relicto vicos expugnant, inflammant tecta, hominum pecudumque praedas agunt, et dulcedine praedandi longius usque a navibus procedunt.

There, having disembarked, with a light guard left to the ships, they storm the villages, inflame the roofs, drive off booty of men and cattle, and, by the sweetness of plundering, proceed farther and farther from the ships.

Haec ubi Patavium sunt nuntiata—semper autem eos in armis accolae Galli habebant—in duas partes iuventutem dividunt. Altera in regionem qua effusa populatio nuntiabatur, altera, ne cui praedonum obvia fieret, altero itinere ad stationem navium—milia autem quattuordecim ab oppido aberat—ducta. In naves ignaris custodibus interemptis impetus factus territique nautae coguntur naves in alteram ripam amnis traicere.

When these things are reported to Patavium—however the neighboring Gauls always kept them under arms—they divide the youth into two parts. One part into the region where a widespread ravaging was being reported, the other, lest it should meet any of the raiders, by another route to the station of the ships—it was 14 miles from the town—is led. An attack is made upon the ships, the unsuspecting guards having been slain, and the terrified sailors are forced to ferry the ships to the other bank of the river.

Et in terra prosperum aeque in palatos praedatores proelium fuerat refugientibusque ad stationem Graecis Veneti obsistunt; ita in medio circumventi hostes caesique: pars capti classem indicant regemque Cleonymum tria milia abesse. Inde captivis proximo vico in custodiam datis pars fluviatiles naves, ad superanda vada stagnorum apte planis alveis fabricatas, pars captiva navigia armatis complent profectique ad classem immobiles naves et loca ignota plus quam hostem timentes circumvadunt; fugientesque in altum acrius quam repugnantes usque ad ostium amnis persecuti captis quibusdam incensisque navibus hostium, quas trepidatio in vada intulerat, victores revertuntur. Cleonymus vix quinta parte navium incolumi, nulla regione maris Hadriatici prospere adita discessit.

And on land as well there had been a successful battle against the scattered marauders; and as the Greeks were fleeing to their station, the Veneti stood in their way; thus the enemies, surrounded in the midst, were cut down: some of the captured disclose the fleet and that King Cleonymus is 3 miles away. Then, after the captives were handed over into custody in the nearest village, some take the riverine boats, constructed with flat bottoms, fitly made to surmount the shallows of the lagoons, others fill the captured craft with armed men; and setting out toward the fleet, they surround ships motionless and men fearing unknown places more than the enemy; and, having pursued those fleeing into the deep more hotly than those resisting, all the way to the mouth of the river, with some of the enemy’s ships captured and burned, which panic had driven into the shallows, the victors return. Cleonymus departed with scarcely a fifth part of his ships sound, having prosperously approached no region of the Adriatic Sea.

Rostra navium spoliaque Laconum, in aede Iunonis veteri fixa, multi supersunt qui viderunt Patavi. Monumentum navalis pugnae eo die quo pugnatum est quotannis sollemni certamine navium in oppidi medio exercetur.

The prows of the ships and the spoils of the Laconians, fastened in the old temple of Juno, many at Padua survive who have seen. A memorial of the naval battle is each year observed, on the day on which it was fought, by a solemn contest of ships in the center of the town.

[3] Eodem anno Romae cum Vestinis petentibus amicitiam ictum est foedus. Multiplex deinde exortus terror. Etruriam rebellare ab Arretinorum seditionibus motu orto nuntiabatur, ubi Cilnium genus praepotens divitiarum invidia pelli armis coeptum; simul Marsos agrum vi tueri, in quem colonia est Carseoli deducta [erat] quattuor milibus hominum scriptis.

[3] In the same year at Rome, with the Vestini seeking friendship, a treaty was struck. Then a manifold alarm arose. It was reported that Etruria was rebelling, a disturbance having sprung from the seditions of the Arretines, where the Cilnian house, prepotent, had begun to be driven out by arms through envy of its riches; at the same time that the Marsi were defending by force the territory into which a colony at Carseoli had been led with 4,000 enrolled men.

Itaque propter eos tumultus dictus M. Valerius Maximus dictator magistrum equitum sibi legit M. Aemilium Paulum.—id magis credo quam Q. Fabium ea aetate atque eis honoribus Valerio subiectum; ceterum ex Maximi cognomine ortum errorem haud abnuerim.—profectus dictator cum exercitu proelio uno Marsos fundit. Compulsis deinde in urbes munitas, Milioniam, Plestinam, Fresiliam intra dies paucos cepit et parte agri multatis Marsis foedus restituit. Tum in Etruscos versum bellum; et, cum dictator auspiciorum repetendorum causa profectus Romam esset, magister equitum pabulatum egressus ex insidiis circumvenitur signisque aliquot amissis foeda militum caede ac fuga in castra est compulsus.—Qui terror non eo tantum a Fabio abhorret quod, si qua alia arte cognomen suum aequavit, tum maxime bellicis laudibus, sed etiam quod memor Papirianae saeuitiae nunquam ut dictatoris iniussu dimicaret adduci potuisset.

Accordingly, on account of those tumults M. Valerius Maximus was named dictator; he chose for himself as master of the horse M. Aemilius Paulus.—I believe this rather than that Q. Fabius, at that age and with those honors, was made subordinate to Valerius; however, I would not deny that the error arose from the cognomen Maximus.—Setting out, the dictator with the army routs the Marsi in a single battle. When they were then driven into fortified towns, within a few days he took Milionia, Plestina, and Fresilia, and, the Marsi being mulcted of a part of their land, he restored the treaty. Then the war was turned against the Etruscans; and, when the dictator had set out to Rome for the sake of renewing the auspices, the master of the horse, having gone out to forage, was surrounded from ambush, and, with several standards lost, with foul slaughter and flight of the soldiers, was driven into the camp.—Which panic is far removed from Fabius not only because, if by any other art he made his cognomen good, then most of all by warlike praises, but also because, mindful of Papirian severity, he could never have been induced to fight without the dictator’s order.

[4] Nuntiata ea clades Romam maiorem quam res erat terrorem excivit; nam ut exercitu deleto ita iustitium indictum, custodiae in portis, vigiliae vicatim exactae, arma, tela in muros congesta. Omnibus iunioribus sacramento adactis dictator ad exercitum missus omnia spe tranquilliora et composita magistri equitum cura, castra in tutiorem locum redacta, cohortes quae signa amiserant extra vallum sine tentoriis destitutas invenit, exercitum avidum pugnae, quo maturius ignominia aboleretur. Itaque confestim castra inde in agrum Rusellanum promovit.

[4] When that disaster was announced at Rome, it stirred up a terror greater than the reality; for, as though the army had been destroyed, a iustitium was proclaimed, guards were posted at the gates, watches were enforced ward by ward, and arms and missiles were heaped upon the walls. With all the younger men put under oath, the dictator, sent to the army, found everything calmer than he had hoped and set in order by the care of the Master of Horse: the camp had been withdrawn to a safer place; the cohorts that had lost their standards he found left outside the rampart without tents; and the army eager for battle, that the disgrace might be effaced the sooner. Therefore at once he advanced the camp thence into the territory of Rusellae.

Eo et hostes secuti, quamquam ex bene gesta re summam et in aperto certamine virium spem habebant, tamen insidiis quoque, quas feliciter experti erant, hostem temptant. Tecta semiruta vici per vastationem agrorum deusti haud procul castris Romanorum aberant. Ibi abditis armatis pecus in conspectu praesidii Romani, cui praeerat Cn. Fulvius legatus, propulsum.

Thither the enemy also followed; although, from the well-conducted affair, they had the highest hope, and that in an open contest of strength, nevertheless they also try the enemy with ambushes, which they had experienced successfully. The half-ruined buildings of a village, burned through the devastation of the fields, were not far from the Roman camp. There, with armed men concealed, cattle were driven forward into the sight of the Roman garrison, which Cn. Fulvius, legate, commanded.

Ad quam inlecebram cum moveretur nemo ab Romana statione, pastorum unus progressus sub ipsas munitiones inclamat alios, cunctanter ab ruinis vici pecus propellentes, quid cessarent cum per media castra Romana tuto agere possent. Haec cum legato Caerites quidam interpretarentur et per omnes manipulos militum indignatio ingens esset nec tamen iniussu movere auderent, iubet peritos linguae attendere animum, pastorum sermo agresti an urbano propior esset. Cum referrent sonum linguae et corporum habitum et nitorem cultiora quam pastoralia esse, "ite igitur, dicite" inquit, "detegant nequiquam conditas insidias: omnia scire Romanum nec magis iam dolo capi quam armis vinci posse." Haec ubi audita sunt et ad eos qui consederant in insidiis perlata, consurrectum repente ex latebris est et in patentem ad conspectum undique campum prolata signa.

When to this allurement no one was moved from the Roman station, one of the shepherds, advancing right up to the fortifications, shouts to the others, who were hesitatingly driving the herd from the ruins of the village, asking why they delayed when they could drive safely through the very midst of the Roman camp. When certain Caerites interpreted these things to the legate, and there was great indignation through all the maniples of the soldiers, yet they did not dare to move without an order; he orders experts of the language to attend their mind, whether the speech of the shepherds were nearer to rustic or to urban. When they reported that the sound of the tongue and the bearing of their bodies and their neatness were more polished than pastoral, “Go then, say,” he says, “let them uncover the ambushes laid in vain: that the Roman knows everything and can now no more be taken by guile than conquered by arms.” When this was heard and carried to those who had taken their seat in ambush, they rose suddenly from their lairs and brought forth their standards into the open field, visible on every side.

Visa legato maior acies quam quae ab suo praesidio sustineri posset; itaque propere ad dictatorem auxilia accitum mittit; interea ipse impetus hostium sustinet.

To the legate the battle line seemed larger than what could be sustained by his own garrison; and so he quickly sends to the Dictator to summon reinforcements; meanwhile he himself sustains the enemy’s attacks.

[5] Nuntio allato dictator signa ferri ac sequi iubet armatos; sed celeriora prope omnia imperio erant; rapta extemplo signa armaque, et vix ab impetu et cursu tenebantur. Cum ira ab accepta nuper clade stimulabat, tum concitatior accidens clamor ab increscente certamine. urgent itaque alii alios hortanturque signiferos ut ocius eant.

[5] With the message brought, the dictator orders the standards to be borne and the armed men to follow; but almost everything was swifter than the command; the standards and arms were snatched up at once, and they were scarcely held back from a charge and a run. As anger from the disaster lately received was spurring them, so too a more impetuous shout, arising from the increasing combat. And so some press on others and urge the standard-bearers to go more quickly.

Quo magis festinantes videt dictator, eo impensius retentat agmen ac sensim incedere iubet. Etrusci contra, principio exciti pugnae, omnibus copiis aderant; et super alios alii nuntiant dictatori omnes legiones Etruscorum capessisse pugnam nec iam ab suis resisti posse, et ipse cernit ex superiore loco in quanto discrimine praesidium esset. Ceterum satis fretus esse etiam nunc tolerando certamini legatum nec se procul abesse periculi vindicem, quam maxime volt fatigari hostem ut integris adoriatur viribus fessos.

The more the dictator sees them hastening, the more earnestly he holds back the column and orders it to advance little by little. The Etruscans, on the contrary, roused at the beginning of the battle, were present with all their forces; and, one after another, messengers announce to the dictator that all the legions of the Etruscans have undertaken the fight and that his men can no longer offer resistance, and he himself from a higher position discerns in what a crisis the garrison is. However, sufficiently confident that the legate even now is holding out by enduring the contest, and that he himself, the deliverer from the danger, is not far off, he wishes the enemy to be worn out as much as possible, so that with unimpaired forces he may assail them fatigued.

Quamquam lente procedunt, iam tamen ad impetum capiundum, equiti utique, modicum erat spatium. Prima incedebant signa legionum, ne quid occultum aut repentinum hostis timeret; sed reliquerat intervalla inter ordines peditum, qua satis laxo spatio equi permitti possent. Pariter sustulit clamorem acies et emissus eques libero cursu in hostem invehitur incompositisque adversus equestrem procellam subitum pavorem offundit.

Although they advance slowly, now, however, there was only a modest space for taking up the charge—at any rate for the cavalry. The standards of the legions were advancing in front, so that the enemy might fear nothing hidden or sudden; but he had left intervals between the ranks of the infantry, through which the horses could be permitted with sufficiently loose space. The battle-line raised a shout together, and the cavalry, sent out, with free course, charges into the enemy and, upon men unarrayed against the cavalry tempest, pours sudden panic.

Itaque, ut prope serum auxilium iam paene circumventis, ita universa requies data est. Integri accepere pugnam nec ea ipsa longa aut anceps fuit. Fusi hostes castra repetunt inferentibusque iam signa Romanis cedunt et in ultimam castrorum partem conglobantur.

Therefore, although the succor was nearly too late for those now almost surrounded, yet a universal respite was granted. The fresh troops took up the fight, nor was that encounter itself long or indecisive. Routed, the enemy make for their camp, and as the Romans are now bearing in their standards, they give way and mass together in the farthest part of the camp.

Haerent fugientes in angustiis portarum; pars magna aggerem vallumque conscendit, si aut ex superiore loco tueri se aut superare aliqua et evadere posset. Forte quodam loco male densatus agger pondere superstantium in fossam procubuit atque ea, cum deos pandere viam fugae conclamassent, plures inermes quam armati evadunt.

Those fleeing cling in the straits of the gates; a great part climbs the embankment and the rampart, in hopes that either from the higher ground they might defend themselves, or somehow surmount and escape. By chance, at a certain spot, the embankment, ill-compacted, under the weight of those standing upon it, collapsed into the ditch; and at this, when they cried out that the gods were opening a way for flight, more unarmed than armed escape.

Hoc proelio fractae iterum Etruscorum vires, et pacto annuo stipendio et duum mensum frumento permissum ab dictatore ut de pace legatos mitterent Romam. Pax negata, indutiae biennii datae. Dictator triumphans in urbem rediit.—habeo auctores sine ullo memorabili proelio pacatam ab dictatore Etruriam esse seditionibus tantum Arretinorum compositis et Cilnio genere cum plebe in gratiam reducto.—consul ex dictatura factus M. Valerius.

In this battle the strength of the Etruscans was broken again, and, by agreement on an annual stipend and grain for two months, it was permitted by the dictator that they should send envoys to Rome concerning peace. Peace was denied; a truce of two years was granted. The dictator returned to the city in triumph.—I have authorities that, without any memorable battle, Etruria was pacified by the dictator, with only the seditions of the Arretines composed and the Cilnian house brought back into favor with the plebs.—From the dictatorship M. Valerius was made consul.

Non petentem atque adeo etiam absentem creatum tradidere quidam et per interregem ea comitia facta; id unum non ambigitur consulatum cum Apuleio Pansa gessisse.

Certain writers have handed down that he was elected though not a candidate, and indeed even while absent, and that those comitial elections were held by an interrex; this one thing is not disputed: that he held the consulship with Apuleius Pansa.

[6] M. Valerio et Q. Apuleio consulibus satis pacatae foris res fuere: Etruscum adversae belli res et indutiae quietum tenebant; Samnitem multorum annorum cladibus domitum hauddum foederis novi paenitebat; Romae quoque plebem quietam exonerata[m deducta] in colonias multitudo praestabat. Tamen ne undique tranquillae res essent, certamen iniectum inter primores civitatis, patricios plebeiosque, ab tribunis plebis Q. et Cn. Ogulniis, qui undique criminandorum patrum apud plebem occasionibus quaesitis, postquam alia frustra temptata erant, eam actionem susceperunt qua non infimam plebem accenderent sed ipsa capita plebis, consulares triumphalesque plebeios, quorum honoribus nihil praeter sacerdotia, quae nondum promiscua erant, deesset. Rogationem ergo promulgarunt ut, cum quattuor augures, quattuor pontifices ea tempestate essent placeretque augeri sacerdotum numerum, quattuor pontifices, quinque augures, de plebe omnes, adlegerentur.—quemadmodum ad quattuor augurum numerum nisi morte duorum id redigi collegium potuerit, non invenio, cum inter augures constet imparem numerum debere esse, ut tres antiquae tribus, Ramnes, Titienses, Luceres, suum quaeque augurem habeant aut, si pluribus sit opus, pari inter se numero sacerdotes multiplicent; sicut multiplicati sunt cum ad quattuor quinque adiecti novem numerum, ut terni in singulas essent, expleverunt.—ceterum quia de plebe adlegebantur, iuxta eam rem aegre passi patres quam cum consulatum volgari viderent.

[6] In the consulship of M. Valerius and Q. Apuleius, affairs abroad were quite pacified: the Etruscan, by the adverse fortunes of the war and by a truce, was held quiet; the Samnite, tamed by the disasters of many years, did not yet repent of the new treaty; at Rome too the plebs was quiet—the multitude, lightened [led out] into colonies, ensured it. Nevertheless, lest matters be tranquil on every side, a contest was thrown in among the foremost men of the state, patricians and plebeians, by the tribunes of the plebs Q. and Cn. Ogulnius, who, having sought opportunities on all sides for accusing the patres before the plebs, after other attempts had been made in vain, took up that proposal by which they would inflame not the lowest plebs, but the very heads of the plebs—the plebeian consulars and triumphals—from whose honors nothing was lacking except the priesthoods, which were not yet common to both orders. Therefore they published a bill that, since there were four augurs and four pontifices at that time, and it was pleasing that the number of priests be increased, four pontifices and five augurs, all from the plebs, should be co-opted.—How the college of augurs could have been reduced to the number of four unless by the death of two, I do not find, since among the augurs it is agreed that the number ought to be odd, so that the three ancient tribes, the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, each should have its own augur, or, if there is need of more, the priests be multiplied by equal numbers among themselves; just as they were multiplied when, to the four, five were added, they completed the number nine, so that there were three for each.—But, because men of the plebs were being co-opted, the patres took that matter as hard as when they saw the consulship made common.

Simulabant ad deos id magis quam ad se pertinere: ipsos visuros ne sacra sua polluantur; id se optare tantum ne qua in rem publicam clades veniat. Minus autem tetendere, adsueti iam in tali genere certaminum vinci; et cernebant adversarios non, id quod olim vix speraverint, adfectantes magnos honores sed omnia iam in quorum spem dubiam erat certatum adeptos, multiplices consulatus censurasque et triumphos.

They pretended that it pertained to the gods rather than to themselves: that the gods themselves would see to it that their sacra not be polluted; that they themselves only wished this—that no disaster come upon the Republic. Moreover, they strove less, now accustomed to be defeated in this kind of contests; and they perceived their adversaries not aspiring to great honors (that which once they had scarcely hoped for), but as having now obtained all the things for which the contest had been fought with doubtful hope—multiple consulships, censorships, and triumphs.

[7] Certatum tamen suadenda dissuadendaque lege inter Ap. Claudium maxime ferunt et inter P. Decium Murem. Qui cum eadem ferme de iure patrum ac plebis quae pro lege Licinia quondam contraque eam dicta erant cum plebeiis consulatus rogabatur disseruissent, rettulisse dicitur Decius parentis sui speciem, qualem eum multi qui in contione erant viderant, incinctum Gabino cultu super telum stantem, quo se habitu pro populo ac legionibus Romanis devovisset: tum P. Decium consulem purum piumque deis immortalibus visum aeque ac si T. Manlius collega eius devoveretur; eundem P. Decium qui sacra publica populi Romani faceret legi rite non potuisse? id esse periculum ne suas preces minus audirent di quam Ap. Claudi?

[7] Nevertheless, they report that the contest over the law to be advocated and to be dissuaded was chiefly between Ap. Claudius and P. Decius Mus. When they had discoursed almost the same things about the right of the patricians and of the plebs as had once been said for and against the Licinian law, when the consulship was being sought for the plebeians, Decius is said to have recalled the appearance of his father—such as many who were in the assembly had seen him—girded in Gabine attire, standing upon a spear, in which garb he had devoted himself for the Roman people and the legions: then that P. Decius, as consul, had appeared pure and pious to the immortal gods just as much as if T. Manlius, his colleague, were being devoted; and that this same P. Decius, who performs the public sacra of the Roman people, could not be duly chosen? That this is the danger, that the gods would hear his prayers less than those of Ap. Claudius?

castius eum sacra privata facere et religiosius deos colere quam se? quem paenitere votorum quae pro re publica nuncupaverint tot consules plebeii, tot dictatores, aut ad exercitus euntes aut inter ipsa bella? numerarentur duces eorum annorum, quibus plebeiorum ductu et auspicio res geri coeptae sint; numerarentur triumphi; iam ne nobilitatis quidem suae plebeios paenitere. Pro certo habere, si quod repens bellum oriatur, non plus spei fore senatui populoque Romano in patriciis quam in plebeiis ducibus.

to perform his private rites more chastely and to cultivate the gods more religiously than himself? the man who is sorry for the vows which so many plebeian consuls, so many dictators, have proclaimed for the commonwealth, either when going to the armies or in the very midst of wars? let the commanders be numbered of those years in which affairs began to be conducted under the duct and auspices of plebeians; let the triumphs be numbered; by now the plebeians are not even dissatisfied with their own nobility. hold it for certain that, if any sudden war should arise, there will be no more hope for the senate and Roman people in patrician than in plebeian leaders.

"Quod cum ita se habeat, cui deorum hominumue indignum videri potest" inquit, "eos viros, quos vos sellis curulibus, toga praetexta, tunica palmata, et toga picta et corona triumphali laureaque honoraritis, quorum domos spoliis hostium adfixis insignes inter alias feceritis, pontificalia atque auguralia insignia adicere? qui Iovis optimi maximi ornatu decoratus, curru aurato per urbem vectus in Capitolium ascenderit, is <non> conspiciatur cum capide ac lituo, <cum> capite velato victimam caedet auguriumue ex arce capiet? cuius <in> imaginis titulo consulatus censuraque et triumphus aequo animo legetur, si auguratum aut pontificatum adieceritis, non sustinebunt legentium oculi?

"Since this is so," he says, "to which of gods or men can it seem unworthy to add pontifical and augural insignia to those men whom you have honored with curule chairs, the toga praetexta, the tunica palmata, and the toga picta, and with the triumphal crown and laurel, whose houses you have made conspicuous among others by affixing the spoils of enemies? He who, adorned with the adornment of Jupiter Best and Greatest, borne through the city in a gilded chariot, has ascended the Capitol—shall he not be seen with the capis and the lituus, with head veiled shall he slay a victim and take augury from the citadel? On whose image’s title the consulship and the censorship and the triumph will be read with equanimity—if you add the augurate or the pontificate, will the eyes of the readers not endure it?"

equidem—pace dixerim deum—eos nos iam populi Romani beneficio esse spero, qui sacerdotiis non minus reddamus dignatione nostra honoris quam acceperimus et deorum magis quam nostra causa expetamus ut quos privatim colimus publice colamus.

indeed—if I may say it with the gods’ leave—I hope that we, now by the benefit of the Roman people, are such men as to render to the priesthoods no less of honor by our own dignity than we have received, and to seek them more for the gods’ sake than for our own, so that those whom we venerate privately we may venerate publicly.

[8] Quid autem ego sic adhuc egi, tamquam integra sit causa patriciorum de sacerdotiis et non iam in possessione unius amplissimi simus sacerdotii? decemuiros sacris faciundis, carminum Sibyllae ac fatorum populi huius interpretes, antistites eosdem Apollinaris sacri caerimoniarumque aliarum plebeios videmus; nec aut tum patriciis ulla iniuria facta est, cum duumviris sacris faciundis adiectus est propter plebeios numerus, et nunc tribunus, vir fortis ac strenuus, quinque augurum loca, quattuor pontificum adiecit, in quae plebeii nominentur, non ut vos, Appi, vestro loco pellant sed ut adiuvent vos homines plebeii divinis quoque rebus procurandis, sicut in ceteris humanis pro parte virili adiuvant. Noli erubescere, Appi, collegam in sacerdotio habere, quem in censura, quem in consulatu collegam habere potuisti, cuius tam dictatoris magister equitum quam magistri equitum dictator esse potes.

[8] But why have I so far proceeded as though the case of the patricians regarding priesthoods were intact, and we were not already in possession of one most ample priesthood? We see the decemvirs for performing sacred rites, interpreters of the Sibyl’s songs and of the fates of this people, the same men priests (antistites) of the Apolline sacred and of other ceremonies, to be plebeian; nor then was any injury done to the patricians, when to the duumvirs for performing sacred rites the number was increased on behalf of the plebeians; and now the tribune, a brave and strenuous man, has added five places of augurs, four of pontiffs, into which plebeians are to be nominated—not that they may drive you, Appius, from your place, but that plebeian men may aid you also in administering divine matters, just as in the rest of human affairs they help to the measure of their manly part. Do not be ashamed, Appius, to have as a colleague in the priesthood one whom you could have as a colleague in the censorship, as a colleague in the consulship, and of whom you can be as well the master of horse to a dictator as the dictator to a master of horse.

Sabinum advenam, principem nobilitati vestrae, seu Attium Clausum seu Ap. Claudium mavoltis, illi antiqui patricii in suum numerum acceperunt: ne fastidieris nos in sacerdotum numerum accipere. Multa nobiscum decora adferimus, immo omnia eadem quae vos superbos fecerunt. L. Sextius primus de plebe consul est factus, C. Licinius Stolo primus magister equitum, C. Marcius Rutulus primus et dictator et censor, Q. Publilius Philo primus praetor.

The Sabine newcomer, a leader for your nobility, whether you prefer Attius Clausus or Ap. Claudius, those ancient patricians admitted into their own number: do not disdain to admit us into the number of priests. Many honors we bring with us, nay rather all the same things which made you proud. L. Sextius was the first consul from the plebs, C. Licinius Stolo the first master of horse, C. Marcius Rutulus the first both dictator and censor, Q. Publilius Philo the first praetor.

Semper ista audita sunt eadem penes vos auspicia esse, vos solos gentem habere, vos solos iustum imperium et auspicium domi militiaeque; aeque adhuc prosperum plebeium et patricium fuit porroque erit. En unquam fando audistis patricios primo esse factos non de caelo demissos sed qui patrem ciere possent, id est, nihil ultra quam ingenuos? consulem iam patrem ciere possum auumque iam poterit filius meus.

Those same assertions have always been heard: that the auspices are in your hands, that you alone possess the gens, that you alone have the lawful imperium and the auspices both at home and in the field; thus far the plebeian and the patrician alike have been prosperous, and so they will be hereafter. Pray, have you ever heard in report that the patricians were at the first made not as if dropped from heaven, but as those who could “cite a father,” that is, nothing more than freeborn? I can now “cite” a consul as father, and my son will already be able to “cite” a grandfather.

Nihil est aliud in re, Quirites, nisi ut omnia negata adipiscamur; certamen tantum patricii petunt nec curant quem eventum certaminum habeant. Ego hanc legem, quod bonum faustum felixque sit vobis ac rei publicae, uti rogas, iubendam censeo."

Nothing else is at issue, Quirites, except that we may obtain all the things denied; the patricians seek only a contest and do not care what outcome the contests may have. I am of the opinion that this law—may it be good, auspicious, and fortunate for you and for the Republic—should be ordered as you ask."

[9] Vocare tribus extemplo populus iubebat apparebatque accipi legem; ille tamen dies intercessione est sublatus. Postero die deterritis tribunis ingenti consensu accepta est. Pontifices creantur suasor legis P. Decius Mus P. Sempronius Sophus C. Marcius Rutulus M. Livius Denter; quinque augures item de plebe, C. Genucius P. Aelius Paetus M. Minucius Faesus C. Marcius T. Publilius.

[9] The people ordered the tribes to be called at once, and it was apparent that the law would be accepted; nevertheless that day was removed by an intercession. On the following day, with the tribunes deterred, it was accepted with a huge consensus. Pontiffs are elected: the advocate of the law, Publius Decius Mus, Publius Sempronius Sophus, Gaius Marcius Rutulus, Marcus Livius Denter; likewise five augurs too from the plebs, Gaius Genucius, Publius Aelius Paetus, Marcus Minucius Faesus, Gaius Marcius, Titus Publilius.

Ita octo pontificum, novem augurum numerus factus.

Thus the number of pontiffs was made eight, of augurs nine.

Eodem anno M. Valerius consul de provocatione legem tulit diligentius sanctam. Tertio ea tum post reges exactos lata est, semper a familia eadem. Causam renovandae saepius haud aliam fuisse reor quam quod plus paucorum opes quam libertas plebis poterat.

In the same year, M. Valerius, consul, carried a law concerning provocatio (appeal), more strictly sanctioned. It was then passed for the third time since the kings were driven out, always by the same family. I reckon the cause of its being renewed so often to have been no other than that the resources of a few could do more than the liberty of the plebs.

Porcia tamen lex sola pro tergo civium lata videtur, quod gravi poena, si quis verberasset necassetve civem Romanum, sanxit; Valeria lex cum eum qui provocasset virgis caedi securique necari vetuisset, si quis adversus ea fecisset, nihil ultra quam "improbe factum" adiecit. Id, qui tum pudor hominum erat, visum, credo, vinclum satis validum legis: nunc vix serio ita minetur quisquam.

Nevertheless the Porcian Law alone seems to have been passed on behalf of the citizens’ backs, since it ordained with a grave penalty that, if anyone had beaten or had slain a Roman citizen, he should be punished; the Valerian Law, although it had forbidden that one who had appealed be beaten with rods and be killed with the axe, if anyone had acted adverse to these, added nothing beyond “it was done improperly.” That, given what men’s pudor then was, seemed, I believe, a bond of law strong enough: now scarcely would anyone thus threaten in earnest.

Bellum ab eodem consule haudquaquam memorabile adversus rebellantes Aequos, cum praeter animos feroces nihil ex antiqua fortuna haberent, gestum est. Alter consul Appuleius in Umbria Nequinum oppidum circumsedit. Locus erat arduus atque in parte una praeceps, ubi nunc Narnia sita est, nec vi nec munimento capi poterat.

A war by the same consul, by no means memorable, was waged against the rebelling Aequi, since, besides fierce spirits, they had nothing of their former fortune. The other consul, Appuleius, besieged the town of Nequinum in Umbria. The place was steep and in one part precipitous, where now Narnia is situated, and it could be taken neither by force nor by siegework.

Itaque eam infectam rem M. Fulvius Paetus T. Manlius Torquatus novi consules acceperunt.

Therefore the new consuls, Marcus Fulvius Paetus and Titus Manlius Torquatus, took over that matter still unfinished.

In eum annum cum Q. Fabium consulem non petentem omnes dicerent centuriae, ipsum auctorem fuisse Macer Licinius ac Tubero tradunt differendi sibi consulatus in bellicosiorem annum: eo anno maiori se usui rei publicae fore urbano gesto magistratu; ita nec dissimulantem quid mallet nec petentem tamen, aedilem curulem cum L. Papirio Cursore factum. Id ne pro certo ponerem vetustior annalium auctor Piso effecit, qui eo anno aediles curules fuisse tradit Cn. Domitium Cn. Filium Caluinum et Sp. Carvilium Q. Filium Maximum. Id credo cognomen errorem in aedilibus fecisse secutamque fabulam mixtam ex aediliciis et consularibus comitiis, convenientem errori.

For that year, when all the centuries were naming Q. Fabius as consul, though he was not seeking it, Macer Licinius and Tubero hand down that he himself was the author of deferring his own consulship to a more warlike year: that in that year he would be of greater use to the commonwealth by holding an urban magistracy; thus, neither dissembling what he preferred nor yet canvassing, he was made curule aedile with L. Papirius Cursor. But that I should not set this down as certain, the older annalist Piso has brought about, who reports that in that year the curule aediles were Cn. Domitius, son of Cn., Calvinus, and Sp. Carvilius, son of Q., Maximus. This, I believe, the cognomen produced the error about the aediles, and a story followed, mixed from the aedilician and consular comitia, consonant with the mistake.

Et lustrum eo anno conditum a P. Sempronio Sopho et P. Sulpicio Saverrione censoribus tribusque additae duae, Aniensis ac Terentina. Haec Romae gesta.

And the lustrum in that year was concluded by the censors Publius Sempronius Sophus and Publius Sulpicius Saverrio, and to the tribes two were added, the Aniensis and the Terentina. These things were done at Rome.

[10] Ceterum ad Nequinum oppidum cum segni obsidione tempus tereretur, duo ex oppidanis, quorum erant aedificia iuncta muro, specu facto ad stationes Romanas itinere occulto perveniunt; inde ad consulem deducti praesidium armatum se intra moenia et muros accepturos confirmant. Nec aspernanda res visa neque incaute credenda. Cum altero eorum—nam alter obses retentus—duo exploratores per cuniculum missi; per quos satis comperta re trecenti armati transfuga duce in urbem ingressi nocte portam, quae proxima erat, cepere.

[10] But at the town of Nequinum, when time was being wasted by a sluggish siege, two of the townsmen, whose buildings were joined to the wall, with a cavern dug reached the Roman pickets by a hidden route; from there, led to the consul, they affirmed that they would admit an armed garrison within the ramparts and walls. The proposal seemed neither to be spurned nor to be believed incautiously. With one of them—for the other was kept as a hostage—two scouts were sent through the tunnel; through them, the matter being sufficiently ascertained, three hundred armed men, with the defector as leader, entered the city and by night seized the gate which was closest.

Qua refracta consul exercitusque Romanus sine certamine urbem invasere. Ita Nequinum in dicionem populi Romani venit. Colonia eo adversus Umbros missa a flumine Narnia appellata; exercitus cum magna praeda Romam reductus.

When this was broken open, the consul and the Roman army, without a pitched fight, invaded the city. Thus Nequinum came into the dominion of the Roman people. A colony was sent there against the Umbrians, named Narnia from the river; the army was led back to Rome with great spoils.

Eodem anno ab Etruscis adversus indutias paratum bellum; sed eos alia molientes Gallorum ingens exercitus fines ingressus paulisper a proposito avertit. Pecunia deinde, qua multum poterant, freti, socios ex hostibus facere Gallos conantur ut eo adiuncto exercitu cum Romanis bellarent. De societate haud abnuunt barbari: de mercede agitur.

In the same year a war was prepared by the Etruscans in violation of the truce; but while they were contriving other things, a vast army of Gauls, having entered their borders, for a little while averted them from their purpose. Then, relying on money, in which they were very powerful, they try to make allies out of enemies—the Gauls—so that, with that army joined, they might wage war with the Romans. As to the alliance, the barbarians do not refuse; the matter at issue is the pay.

Qua pacta acceptaque cum parata cetera ad bellum essent sequique Etruscus iuberet, infitias eunt mercedem se belli Romanis inferendi pactos: quidquid acceperint accepisse, ne agrum Etruscum vastarent armisque lacesserent cultores; militaturos tamen se, si utique Etrusci velint, sed nulla alia mercede quam ut in partem agri accipiantur tandemque aliqua sede certa consistant. Multa de eo concilia populorum Etruriae habita nec perfici quicquam potuit, non tam quia imminui agrum quam quia accolas sibi quisque adiungere tam efferatae gentis homines horrebat. Ita dimissi Galli pecuniam ingentem sine labore ac periculo partam rettulerunt.

When these terms had been compacted and accepted, and since the other things for war were prepared and the Etruscan was ordering them to follow, they deny that they had bargained for a wage to bring war upon the Romans: whatever they had received, they had received it so that they would not devastate the Etruscan land nor provoke its cultivators with arms; they would, however, do military service, if in any case the Etruscans wish, but on no other pay than that they be admitted into a share of the land and at length settle in some fixed seat. Many councils of the peoples of Etruria were held on this matter, and nothing could be brought to completion, not so much because the land would be diminished as because each man shuddered to add to himself as neighbors men of so savage a nation. Thus the Gauls, dismissed, carried back an immense sum of money obtained without toil and danger.

Romae terrorem praebuit fama Gallici tumultus ad bellum Etruscum adiecti; eo minus cunctanter foedus ictum cum Picenti populo est.

At Rome the rumor of a Gallic tumult, added to the Etruscan war, afforded terror; all the less hesitantly, therefore, a treaty was struck with the Picentine people.

[11] T. Manlio consuli provincia Etruria sorte evenit; qui vixdum ingressus hostium fines, cum exerceretur inter equites, ab rapido cursu circumagendo equo effusus extemplo prope exspiravit; tertius ab eo casu dies finis vitae consuli fuit. Quo velut omine belli accepto deos pro se commisisse bellum memorantes Etrusci sustulere animos. Romae cum desiderio viri tum incommoditate temporis tristis nuntius fuit.

[11] To the consul T. Manlius the province Etruria fell by lot; and he, scarcely having entered the enemy’s borders, while he was exercising among the cavalry, in wheeling his horse at a rapid course was thrown and straightway almost expired; the third day from that mishap was the end of life for the consul. This, received as a kind of omen of the war, the Etruscans, declaring that the gods had engaged to wage the war on their behalf, took as heartening and lifted their spirits. At Rome the message was sad both from longing for the man and from the untimeliness of the moment.

Consulis subrogandi comitia ex sententia principum habita: M. Valerium consulem omnes [sententiae] centuriae[que] dixere, ut patres ab iubendo dictatore deterruerint, quem senatus dictatorem dici iussurus fuerat. Tum extemplo in Etruriam ad legiones proficisci iussit. Adventus eius compressit Etruscos adeo ut nemo extra munimenta egredi auderet timorque ipsorum obsidioni similis esset; neque illos novus consul vastandis agris urendisque tectis, cum passim non villae solum sed frequentes quoque vici incendiis fumarent, elicere ad certamen potuit.

The comitia for substituting a consul were held in accordance with the opinion of the leading men: all the [votes] and centuries[and] declared M. Valerius consul, so that the fathers were deterred from ordering a dictator, whom the senate had been about to order to be named dictator. Then at once he ordered a setting out into Etruria to the legions. His arrival repressed the Etruscans to such a degree that no one dared to go out beyond the fortifications, and their fear was like to a siege; nor could the new consul, by ravaging the fields and burning the roofs, when everywhere not only farmhouses but also thickly settled villages were smoking with fires, elicit them to a contest.

Cum hoc segnius bellum opinione esset, alterius belli, quod multis in vicem cladibus haud immerito terribile erat, fama, Picentium novorum sociorum indicio, exorta est: Samnites arma et rebellionem spectare seque ab iis sollicitatos esse. Picentibus gratiae actae et magna pars curae patribus ab Etruria in Samnites versa est.

Since this war was more sluggish than expected, the report of another war—quite rightly terrible because of many mutual disasters—arose, from the disclosure of the Picentes, the new allies: that the Samnites were looking to arms and rebellion, and that they themselves had been solicited by them. Thanks were given to the Picentes, and a great part of the senators’ concern was turned from Etruria to the Samnites.

Caritas etiam annonae sollicitam civitatem habuit ventumque ad inopiae ultimum foret, ut scripsere quibus aedilem fuisse eo anno Fabium Maximum placet, ni eius viri cura, qualis in bellicis rebus multis tempestatibus fuerat, talis domi tum in annonae dispensatione praeparando ac convehendo frumento fuisset.

Even the dearness of the grain-supply held the commonwealth anxious, and it would have come to the utmost extremity of want—as those have written who are pleased to say that Fabius Maximus was aedile in that year—had not that man’s care, such as it had been on many occasions in military matters, been the same at home then in the dispensation of the grain-supply, in preparing and conveying grain.

Eo anno—nec traditur causa—interregnum initum. Interreges fuere Ap. Claudius, dein P. Sulpicius. Is comitia consularia habuit; creavit L. Cornelium Scipionem Cn. Fulvium consules.

That year—and the cause is not handed down—an interregnum was entered upon. The interreges were Ap. Claudius, then P. Sulpicius. He held the consular elections; he created L. Cornelius Scipio and Cn. Fulvius consuls.

Principio huius anni oratores Lucanorum ad novos consules venerunt questum, quia condicionibus perlicere se nequiverint ad societatem armorum, Samnites infesto exercitu ingressos fines suos vastare belloque ad bellum cogere. Lucano populo satis superque erratum quondam: nunc ita obstinatos animos esse ut omnia ferre ac pati tolerabilius ducant quam ut unquam postea nomen Romanum violent. Orare patres ut et Lucanos in fidem accipiant et vim atque iniuriam ab se Samnitium arceant; se, quamquam bello cum Samnitibus suscepto necessaria iam facta adversus Romanos fides sit, tamen obsides dare paratos esse.

At the beginning of this year envoys of the Lucanians came to the new consuls to lodge a complaint, because, since they had not been able by conditions to entice them into a partnership in arms, the Samnites, with a hostile army, had entered their borders, were devastating them, and were compelling war by war. By the Lucanian people it had been erred enough and to spare once; now their minds were so obstinate that they reckoned it more tolerable to bear and to suffer all things than ever thereafter to violate the Roman name. They begged the Fathers both to receive the Lucanians into their faith and to ward off from them the force and the injury of the Samnites; that they, although, with war undertaken with the Samnites, loyalty against the Romans had now been made necessary, nevertheless were ready to give hostages.

[12] Brevis consultatio senatus fuit; ad unum omnes iungendum foedus cum Lucanis resque repetendas ab Samnitibus censent. Benigne responsum Lucanis ictumque foedus. Fetiales missi, qui Samnitem decedere agro sociorum ac deducere exercitum finibus Lucanis iuberent; quibus obviam missi ab Samnitibus qui denuntiarent, si quod adissent in Samnio concilium, haud inviolatos abituros.

[12] The consultation of the senate was brief; to a man they decree that a treaty be joined with the Lucanians and that restitution be demanded from the Samnites. A kindly answer was given to the Lucanians, and a treaty was struck. The Fetials were sent to order the Samnites to withdraw from the land of the allies and to draw off their army from the Lucanian borders; against them there were sent by the Samnites men to give warning that, if they should attend any council in Samnium, they would not depart unviolated.

Haec postquam audita sunt Romae, bellum Samnitibus et patres censuerunt et populus iussit.

After these things were heard at Rome, both the Fathers decreed war against the Samnites and the People ordered it.

Consules inter se provincias partiti sunt: Scipioni Etruria, Fulvio Samnites obuenerunt, diversique ad suum quisque bellum proficiscuntur. Scipioni segne bellum et simile prioris anni militiae exspectanti hostes ad Volaterras instructo agmine occurrerunt. Pugnatum maiore parte diei magna utrimque caede; nox incertis qua data victoria esset intervenit.

The consuls divided the provinces among themselves: Etruria fell to Scipio, the Samnites to Fulvius, and, setting out in different directions, each went to his own war. While Scipio was expecting a sluggish war, similar to the campaign of the previous year, the enemy met him at Volaterrae with the column drawn up in battle array. The fighting lasted for the greater part of the day, with great slaughter on both sides; night intervened, and it was uncertain to whom the victory had been given.

Lux insequens victorem victumque ostendit; nam Etrusci silentio noctis castra reliquerunt. Romanus egressus in aciem, ubi profectione hostium concessam victoriam videt, progressus ad castra vacuis cum plurima praeda—nam et statiua et trepide deserta fuerant—potitur. Inde in Faliscum agrum copiis reductis, cum impedimenta Faleriis cum modico praesidio reliquisset, expedito agmine ad populandos hostium fines incedit.

The following light showed both victor and vanquished; for the Etruscans had left their camp in the silence of the night. The Roman, having gone out into the battle line, when he sees that by the enemy’s departure victory was conceded, advances to the camp and takes possession of it, empty and with very abundant booty—for even the standing quarters had been deserted, and in panic—. Thence, with the forces led back into Faliscan territory, after he had left the baggage-train at Falerii with a modest garrison, he proceeds with an unencumbered column to plunder the enemy’s borders.

Omnia ferro ignique vastantur; praedae undique actae. Nec solum modo vastum hosti relictum sed castellis etiam vicisque inlatus ignis: urbibus oppugnandis temperatum, in quas timor Etruscos compulerat.

Everything is ravaged by iron and fire; plunder is driven in from every side. Nor was a wasteland only left to the enemy, but fire was also brought upon the forts and the villages; restraint was shown from besieging the cities, into which fear had compelled the Etruscans.

Cn. Fulvi consulis clara pugna in Samnio ad Bovianum haudquaquam ambiguae victoriae fuit. Bovianum inde adgressus nec ita multo post Aufidenam vi cepit.

The illustrious battle of the consul Cn. Fulvius in Samnium, at Bovianum, was by no means a doubtful victory. Thence he assaulted Bovianum, and not much later he took Aufidena by force.

[13] Eodem anno Carseolos colonia in agrum Aequicolorum deducta. Fulvius consul de Samnitibus triumphavit.

[13] In the same year a colony was led out to Carseoli into the territory of the Aequicolans. The consul Fulvius triumphed over the Samnites.

Cum comitia consularia instarent, fama exorta Etruscos Samnitesque ingentes conscribere exercitus; palam omnibus conciliis vexari principes Etruscorum, quod non Gallos quacumque condicione traxerint ad bellum; increpari magistratus Samnitium, quod exercitum adversus Lucanum hostem comparatum obiecerint Romanis; itaque suis sociorumque viribus consurgere hostes ad bellum et haudquaquam pari defungendum esse certamine. Hic terror, cum illustres viri consulatum peterent, omnes in Q. Fabium Maximum primo non petentem, deinde, ut inclinata studia vidit, etiam recusantem convertit: quid se iam senem ac perfunctum laboribus laborumque praemiis sollicitarent? nec corporis nec animi vigorem remanere eundem, et fortunam ipsam vereri, ne cui deorum nimia iam in se et constantior quam velint humanae res videatur.

When the consular elections were drawing near, a rumor arose that the Etruscans and the Samnites were enrolling vast armies; in all their councils, openly, the leading men of the Etruscans were harassed because they had not drawn the Gauls into the war on whatever terms; the magistrates of the Samnites were rebuked because they had thrown against the Romans an army that had been prepared against the Lucanian enemy; and so the enemies, by their own forces and those of their allies, were rising for war, and the contest would by no means be met on equal terms. This alarm, while illustrious men were seeking the consulship, turned everyone toward Q. Fabius Maximus—at first not a candidate, then, when he saw the sympathies inclining, even refusing: why, they were troubling him now an old man and one who had gone through both toils and the prizes of toils? Neither in body nor in mind did the same vigor remain, and he even feared Fortune herself, lest to any of the gods she seem already too lavish toward him, and more constant than human affairs would wish.

Et se gloriae seniorum succrevisse et ad suam gloriam consurgentes alios laetum adspicere; nec honores magnos fortissimis viris Romae nec honoribus deesse fortes viros. Acuebat hac moderatione tam iusta studia; quae verecundia legum restinguenda ratus, legem recitari iussit, qua intra decem annos eundem consulem refici non liceret. Vix prae strepitu audita lex est tribunique plebis nihil id impedimenti futurum aiebant; se ad populum laturos uti legibus solveretur.

And that he had grown up to the glory of the seniors and looked gladly upon others rising to their own glory; that neither were great honors lacking to the bravest men at Rome nor brave men to honors. By this so just moderation he sharpened the enthusiasms; but thinking that these were to be quenched by reverence for the laws, he ordered the law to be recited, by which it was not permitted that the same man be re-elected consul within ten years. The law was scarcely heard for the din, and the tribunes of the plebs said that would be no impediment; they would bring it before the people that he be released from the laws.

Et ille quidem in recusando perstabat: quid ergo attineret leges ferri, quibus per eosdem qui tulissent fraus fieret? iam regi leges, non regere. Populus nihilo minus suffragia inibat et, ut quaeque intro vocata erat centuria, consulem haud dubie Fabium dicebat.

And he indeed persisted in refusing: what, then, was the point of passing laws, by which through the very same men who had passed them a fraud would be committed? now the laws were being ruled, not ruling. The people nonetheless proceeded to the suffrages, and, as each century was called in, declared Fabius, without a doubt, consul.

Tum demum consensu civitatis victus, "dei approbent" inquit, "quod agitis acturique estis, Quirites. Ceterum, quoniam in me quod vos voltis facturi estis, in collega sit meae apud vos gratiae locus: P. Decium, expertum mihi concordi collegio virum, dignum vobis, dignum parente suo, quaeso mecum consulem faciatis". Iusta suffragatio visa. Omnes quae supererant centuriae Q. Fabium P. Decium consules dixere.

Then at last, overcome by the consensus of the citizenry, “may the gods approve,” he says, “what you are doing and are going to do, Quirites. For the rest, since as to me you are going to do what you wish, let there be room with you for my favor in the matter of my colleague: P. Decius, a man whom I have found in harmonious collegiality, worthy of you, worthy of his father, I beg you to make consul together with me.” The recommendation seemed just. All the centuries that remained declared Q. Fabius and P. Decius consuls.

Eo anno plerisque dies dicta ab aedilibus, quia plus quam quod lege finitum erat agri possiderent; nec quisquam ferme est purgatus vinculumque ingens immodicae cupiditatis iniectum est.

In that year for very many a day was appointed by the aediles, because they possessed more land than what had been defined by law; and hardly anyone was cleared, and a huge fetter was cast upon immoderate cupidity.

[14] Consules novi, Q. Fabius Maximus quartum et P. Decius Mus tertium, cum inter se agitarent uti alter Samnites hostes, alter Etruscos deligeret, quantaeque in hanc aut in illam provinciam copiae satis et uter ad utrum bellum dux idoneus magis esset, ab Sutrio et Nepete et Faleriis legati, auctores concilii Etruriae populorum de petenda pace haberi, totam belli molem in Samnium averterunt. Profecti consules, quo expeditiores commeatus essent et incertior hostis qua venturum bellum foret, Fabius per Soranum, Decius per Sidicinum agrum in Samnium legiones ducunt. ubi in hostium fines ventum est, uterque populabundus effuso agmine incedit.

[14] The new consuls, Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fourth time and Publius Decius Mus for the third, while they were debating between themselves that one should choose the Samnites as enemies, the other the Etruscans, how great forces would suffice for this or that province, and which of the two was the more suitable commander for which war, legates from Sutrium, Nepete, and Falerii—held to be the authors of the council of the peoples of Etruria on suing for peace—diverted the whole weight of the war into Samnium. The consuls set out, in order that the supply‑lines might be more unencumbered and the enemy more uncertain where the war would come; Fabius leads the legions through the Soranian territory, Decius through the Sidicine country into Samnium. When they came into the enemy’s borders, each advances ravaging, with his column poured out in loose order.

Explorant tamen latius quam populantur; igitur non fefellere ad Tifernum hostes in occulta valle instructi, quam ingressos Romanos superiore ex loco adoriri parabant. Fabius impedimentis in locum tutum remotis praesidioque modico imposito praemonitis militibus adesse certamen, quadrato agmine ad praedictas hostium latebras succedit. Samnites desperato improviso tumultu, quando in apertum semel discrimen evasura esset res, et ipsi acie iusta maluerunt concurrere.

Nevertheless they explore more widely than they ravage; accordingly they did not fail to detect that at Tifernum enemies, drawn up in a hidden valley, were preparing to attack the Romans, as they entered, from a higher position. Fabius, the baggage-train removed to a safe place and a modest garrison set over it, and the soldiers forewarned that a contest was at hand, with his column in a square formation advances to the aforesaid hiding-places of the enemy. The Samnites, the unforeseen tumult despaired of—since the affair was now going to break out once for all into open peril—preferred, they too, to clash in a regular line of battle.

Itaque in aequum descendunt ac fortunae se maiore animo quam spe committunt; ceterum, sive quia ex omnium Samnitium populis quodcumque roboris fuerat contraxerant seu quia discrimen summae rerum angebat animos, aliquantum quoque aperta pugna praebuerunt terroris.

Therefore they descend onto the level ground and commit themselves to Fortune with a spirit greater than hope; moreover, whether because from all the peoples of the Samnites they had concentrated whatever strength there had been, or because the crisis of their whole cause was anguishing their spirits, they even in open battle afforded a considerable measure of terror.

Fabius ubi nulla ex parte hostem loco moveri vidit, Maximum filium et M. Valerium tribunos militum, cum quibus ad primam aciem procurrerat, ire ad equites iubet et adhortari ut, si quando unquam equestri ope adiutam rem publicam meminerint, illo die adnitantur ut ordinis eius gloriam invictam praestent: peditum certamine immobilem hostem restare; omnem reliquam spem in impetu esse equitum. Et ipsos nominatim iuvenes, pari comitate utrumque, nunc laudibus, nunc promissis onerat. Ceterum + quando, ne ea quoque temptata vis proficeret, + consilio grassandum, si nihil vires iuvarent, ratus, Scipionem legatum hastatos primae legionis subtrahere ex acie et ad montes proximos quam posset occultissime circumducere iubet; inde ascensu abdito a conspectu erigere in montes agmen aversoque hosti ab tergo repente se ostendere.

When Fabius saw that the enemy could not be moved from their position from any quarter, he orders his son Maximus and M. Valerius, military tribunes, with whom he had run forward to the front line, to go to the cavalry and exhort them that, if ever they remember that the commonwealth has been aided by equestrian help, on that day they should strive to display the glory of that order unconquered: that in the contest of the foot the enemy remained immovable; that all remaining hope was in the charge of the horse. And the young men themselves, both alike with equal affability, he loads now with praises, now with promises. But, + since, in case even that force too, though attempted, should not avail, + thinking he must proceed by counsel, if strengths helped nothing, he orders Scipio the legate to withdraw the hastati of the first legion from the line and to lead them round to the nearest hills as secretly as he could; from there, by an ascent hidden from sight, to raise the column into the hills and, with the enemy turned the other way, suddenly to show themselves from the rear.

Equites ducibus tribunis haud multo plus hostibus quam suis, ex improviso ante signa evecti, praebuerunt tumultus. Adversus incitatas turmas stetit immota Samnitium acies nec parte ulla pelli aut perrumpi potuit; et postquam inritum inceptum erat, recepti post signa proelio excesserunt. Crevit ex eo hostium animus nec sustinere frons prima tam longum certamen increscentemque fiducia sui vim potuisset, ni secunda acies iussu consulis in primum successisset.

The cavalry, with the tribunes as leaders, having ridden out unexpectedly before the standards, created tumult—no much more to the enemies than to their own. Against the incited squadrons the Samnite battle line stood immobile and could not be driven back nor broken through in any part; and after the attempt had proved vain, once received behind the standards, they withdrew from the battle. From that the enemy’s spirit grew, and the foremost front could not have sustained so long a contest and a force increasing with self-confidence, had not the second line, by the consul’s order, moved up into the first.

Ibi integrae vires sistunt invehentem se iam Samnitem; et tempore inprovisa ex montibus signa clamorque sublatus non vero tantum metu terruere Samnitium animos; nam et Fabius Decium collegam appropinquare exclamavit, et pro se quisque miles adesse alterum consulem, adesse legiones gaudio alacres fremunt; errorque utilis Romanis oblatus fugae formidinisque Samnites implevit maxime territos ne ab altero exercitu integro intactoque fessi opprimerentur. Et quia passim in fugam dissipati sunt, minor caedes quam pro tanta victoria fuit: tria milia et quadringenti caesi, capti octingenti ferme et triginta; signa militaria capta tria et viginti.

There their intact forces halt the Samnite, now driving in; and at that moment the unexpected standards from the mountains and the shout raised did not indeed only terrify the spirits of the Samnites with fear; for Fabius cried out that his colleague Decius was approaching, and each soldier for his part, brisk with joy, roared that the other consul was present, that the legions were present; and an error advantageous to the Romans, once offered, filled the Samnites with flight and dread, especially as they were terrified lest, being weary, they should be overwhelmed by the other army, fresh and untouched. And because they were scattered everywhere in flight, the slaughter was less than in proportion to so great a victory: 3,400 were slain, about 830 were captured; 23 military standards were taken.

[15] Samnitibus Apuli se ante proelium coniunxissent, ni P. Decius consul iis ad Maleuentum castra obiecisset, extractos deinde ad certamen fudisset. Ibi quoque plus fugae fuit quam caedis; duo milia Apulorum caesa; spretoque eo hoste Decius in Samnium legiones duxit. Ibi duo consulares exercitus diversis vagati partibus omnia spatio quinque mensum evastarunt.

[15] The Apulians would have joined themselves to the Samnites before the battle, if P. Decius the consul had not thrown a camp in their way at Maleventum, and then, having drawn them out to an engagement, routed them. There too there was more flight than slaughter; two thousand Apulians were cut down; and, scorning that enemy, Decius led the legions into Samnium. There two consular armies, ranging about in different parts, devastated everything for the span of five months.

Quinque et quadraginta loca in Samnio fuere, in quibus Deci castra fuerunt, alterius consulis sex et octoginta; nec valli tantum ac fossarum vestigia relicta sed multo alia illis insigniora monumenta vastitatis circa regionumque depopulatarum. Fabius etiam urbem Cimetram cepit. Ibi capta armatorum duo milia nongenti, caesi pugnantes ferme nongenti triginta.

There were 45 places in Samnium in which Decius had camps; of the other consul, 86; and not only vestiges of rampart and ditches were left, but many other monuments of devastation much more conspicuous than those, and of regions depopulated round about. Fabius also captured the city Cimetra. There 2,900 armed men were taken, and about 930, fighting, were cut down.

Inde comitiorum causa Romam profectus maturavit eam rem agere. Cum primo vocatae Q. Fabium consulem dicerent omnes centuriae, Ap. Claudius, consularis candidatus, vir acer et ambitiosus, non sui magis honoris causa quam ut patricii reciperarent duo consularia loca, cum suis tum totius nobilitatis viribus incubuit ut se cum Q. Fabio consulem dicerent. Fabius primo de se eadem fere quae priore anno dicendo abnuere.

Thence, for the sake of the comitia, he set out for Rome and hastened to transact that business. When, at the first calling, all the centuries were declaring Quintus Fabius consul, Appius Claudius, a consular candidate, a keen and ambitious man, not so much for the sake of his own honor as that the patricians might recover the two consular places, pressed hard, with the forces both of his own partisans and of the whole nobility, that they should declare him consul with Quintus Fabius. Fabius at first, by speaking, declined for himself almost the same things as in the previous year.

Circumstare sellam omnis nobilitas; orare ut ex caeno plebeio consulatum extraheret maiestatemque pristinam cum honori tum patriciis gentibus redderet. Fabius silentio facto media oratione studia hominum sedavit; facturum enim se fuisse dixit ut duorum patriciorum nomina reciperet, si alium quam se consulem fieri videret; nunc se suam rationem comitiis, cum contra leges futurum sit, pessimo exemplo non habiturum. Ita L. Volumnius de plebe cum Ap. Claudio consul est factus, priore item consulatu inter se comparati.

All the nobility stood around the chair; they begged that he draw the consulship up out of the plebeian mire and restore the pristine majesty, both to the honor and to the patrician gentes. Fabius, silence having been made, calmed men’s partisanships in the midst of his speech; for he said he would have done this—that he would accept the names of two patricians—if he were to see someone other than himself being made consul; now he would not pursue his own candidature in the elections, since it would be against the laws, as a most pernicious precedent. Thus L. Volumnius of the plebs was made consul with Ap. Claudius, likewise paired with each other as in their earlier consulship.

Nobilitas obiectare Fabio fugisse eum Ap. Claudium collegam, eloquentia civilibusque artibus haud dubie praestantem.

The nobility would object to Fabius that he had shunned Ap. Claudius as a colleague, a man without doubt preeminent in eloquence and civil arts.

[16] Comitiis perfectis veteres consules iussi bellum in Samnio gerere prorogato in sex menses imperio. Itaque insequenti quoque anno L. Volumnio Ap. Claudio consulibus P. Decius, qui consul in Samnio relictus a collega fuerat, proconsul idem populari non destitit agros, donec Samnitium exercitum nusquam se proelio committentem postremo expulit finibus. Etruriam pulsi petierunt et, quod legationibus nequiquam saepe temptaverant, id se tanto agmine armatorum mixtis terrore precibus acturos efficacius rati, postulaverunt principum Etruriae concilium.

[16] With the comitia completed, the former consuls were ordered to wage war in Samnium, their imperium prorogued for six months. And so, in the following year as well, with L. Volumnius and Ap. Claudius as consuls, P. Decius, who as consul had been left in Samnium by his colleague, as proconsul did not cease to ravage the fields, until at last he drove the army of the Samnites—nowhere committing itself to battle—out of the borders. Driven out, they made for Etruria, and what they had often attempted in vain by embassies, that they thought they would carry out more effectively with so great a column of armed men, with entreaties mingled with terror; they demanded a council of the princes of Etruria.

Quo coacto, per quot annos pro libertate dimicent cum Romanis, exponunt: omnia expertos esse si suismet ipsorum viribus tolerare tantam molem belli possent; temptasse etiam haud magni momenti finitimarum gentium auxilia. Petisse pacem a populo Romano, cum bellum tolerare non possent; rebellasse, quod pax servientibus gravior quam liberis bellum esset; unam sibi spem reliquam in Etruscis restare. Scire gentem Italiae opulentissimam armis, viris, pecunia esse; habere accolas Gallos, inter ferrum et arma natos, feroces cum suopte ingenio tum adversus Romanum populum, quem captum a se auroque redemptum, haud vana iactantes, memorent.

When this had been convened, they set forth for how many years they have been fighting for liberty against the Romans: that they had tried everything—whether by their own very forces they could tolerate so great a mass of war; that they had also attempted the aids of neighboring nations, of no great moment. They had sought peace from the Roman People when they could not bear the war; they had rebelled, because peace is heavier for the enslaved than war for the free; that a single remaining hope was left to them in the Etruscans. They knew that nation to be the most opulent in Italy in arms, in men, and in money; that they have as neighbors the Gauls, born among iron and arms, fierce both by their own nature and against the Roman People, whom—boasting not in vain—they recount to have been captured by themselves and ransomed with gold.

Nihil abesse, si sit animus Etruscis qui Porsinnae quondam maioribusque eorum fuerit, quin Romanos omni agro cis Tiberim pulsos dimicare pro salute sua non de intolerando Italiae regno cogant. Samnitem illis exercitum paratum, instructum armis, stipendio venisse, et confestim secuturos, vel si ad ipsam Romanam urbem oppugnandam ducant.

Nothing is lacking—if the Etruscans have the spirit that once was Porsinna’s and their ancestors’—to compel the Romans, driven out of all the territory on this side of the Tiber, to contend for their own safety, not for an intolerable dominion over Italy. For them a Samnite army, prepared and equipped with arms, has come on stipend, and the Gauls will straightway follow, even if they are led to assault the Roman city itself.

[17] Haec eos in Etruria iactantes molientesque bellum domi Romanum urebat. Nam P. Decius, ubi comperit per exploratores profectum Samnitium exercitum, advocato consilio "quid per agros" inquit "vagamur vicatim circumferentes bellum? quin urbes et moenia adgredimur?

[17] While they, in Etruria, were vaunting these things and engineering war, at home a Roman was scorching them. For P. Decius, when he learned through explorers that the army of the Samnites had set out, with a council called he said, "Why are we wandering through the fields, carrying the war about by villages? Why do we not attack cities and ramparts?"

nullus iam exercitus Samnio praesidet; cessere finibus ac sibimet ipsi exsilium conscivere". Adprobantibus cunctis ad Murgantiam, validam urbem, oppugnandam ducit; tantusque ardor militum fuit et caritate ducis et spe maioris quam ex agrestibus populationibus praedae ut uno die vi atque armis urbem caperent. Ibi duo milia Samnitium et centum pugnantes circumventi captique et alia praeda ingens capta est. Quae ne impedimentis gravibus agmen oneraret, convocari milites Decius iubet.

"no army now presides over Samnium; they have withdrawn from the borders and have resolved upon exile for themselves." With all approving, he leads to Murgantia, a strong city, to be assaulted; and so great was the ardor of the soldiers, both from affection for their leader and from hope of booty greater than from rustic depredations, that in one day, by force and arms, they took the city. There two thousand Samnites and one hundred fighting men were surrounded and captured, and other immense booty was taken. In order that these things might not burden the column with heavy impedimenta, Decius orders the soldiers to be called together.

"Hacine" inquit "victoria sola aut hac praeda contenti estis futuri? voltis vos pro virtute spes gerere? Omnes Samnitium urbes fortunaeque in urbibus relictae vestrae sunt, quando legiones eorum tot proeliis fusas postremo finibus expulistis.

"With this," he said, "victory alone, or with this booty, are you going to be content? Do you wish to entertain hopes in proportion to your virtue? All the cities of the Samnites and the fortunes left in the cities are yours, since you have routed their legions in so many battles and at last driven them from their borders."

Vendite ista et inlicite lucro mercatorem ut sequatur agmen; ego subinde suggeram quae vendatis. Ad Romuleam urbem hinc eamus, ubi vos labor haud maior, praeda maior manet."

Sell those items, and lure the merchant with profit to follow the column; I will from time to time provide what you are to sell. To the Romulean city let us go from here, where for you the labor is no greater, the booty greater, awaits."

Diuendita praeda ultro adhortantes imperatorem ad Romuleam pergunt. Ibi quoque sine opere, sine tormentis, simul admota sunt signa, nulla vi deterriti a muris, qua cuique proximum fuit, scalis raptim admotis in moenia evasere. Captum oppidum ac direptum est; ad duo milia et trecenti occisi et sex milia hominum capta, et miles ingenti praeda potitus, quam vendere sicut priorem coactus; Ferentinum inde, quamquam nihil quietis dabatur, tamen summa alacritate est ductus.

With the booty sold off, they proceed to Romulea, themselves further exhorting the commander. There too, without earthworks, without siege‑engines, as soon as the standards were brought up, undeterred from the walls by any force, each where it was nearest to him, with ladders quickly brought up, they got over into the walls. The town was captured and sacked; about two thousand three hundred were killed and six thousand people taken, and the soldier came into possession of enormous booty, which he was forced to sell as he had the former; from there to Ferentinum—although no rest was granted—yet the army was led with the utmost alacrity.

Ceterum ibi plus laboris ac periculi fuit: et defensa summa vi moenia sunt et locus erat munimento naturaque tutus; sed evicit omnia adsuetus praedae miles. Ad tria milia hostium circa muros caesa; praeda militis fuit. Huius oppugnatarum urbium decoris pars maior in quibusdam annalibus ad Maximum trahitur; Murgantiam ab Decio, a Fabio Ferentinum Romuleamque oppugnatas tradunt.

However, there the labor and peril were greater: the walls were defended with the utmost force, and the site was safe by fortification and by nature; but the soldier accustomed to booty overcame all. About three thousand of the enemy were cut down around the walls; the booty was the soldier’s. The larger share of the credit for these assaulted cities is, in certain annals, ascribed to Maximus; they relate that Murgantia was attacked by Decius, and Ferentinum and Romulea by Fabius.

Sunt qui novorum consulum hanc gloriam faciant, quidam non amborum sed alterius, L. Volumni: ei Samnium provinciam evenisse.

There are those who ascribe this glory to the new consuls, some not to both but to one, L. Volumnius: to him the province of Samnium fell.

[18] Dum ea in Samnio cuiuscumque ductu auspicioque geruntur, Romanis in Etruria interim bellum ingens multis ex gentibus concitur, cuius auctor Gellius Egnatius ex Samnitibus erat. Tusci fere omnes consciverant bellum; traxerat contagio proximos Umbriae populos et Gallica auxilia mercede sollicitabantur; omnis ea multitudo ad castra Samnitium conveniebat. Qui tumultus repens postquam est Romam perlatus, cum iam L. Volumnius consul cum legione secunda ac tertia sociorumque milibus quindecim profectus in Samnium esset, Ap. Claudium primo quoque tempore in Etruriam ire placuit.

[18] While those things in Samnium, under whatever command and auspices, are being carried on, meanwhile against the Romans in Etruria a huge war is being stirred up from many nations, whose author was Gellius Egnatius from among the Samnites. Nearly all the Etruscans had decreed war; the contagion had drawn in the neighboring peoples of Umbria, and Gallic auxiliaries were being solicited for pay; all that multitude was assembling at the camp of the Samnites. After this sudden tumult was conveyed to Rome, since already the consul L. Volumnius, with the second and third legion and fifteen thousand of the allies, had set out into Samnium, it was decided that Ap. Claudius should go into Etruria at the earliest possible time.

Duae Romanae legiones secutae, prima et quarta, et sociorum duodecim milia; castra haud procul ab hoste posita.

Two Roman legions followed, the first and the fourth, and twelve thousand of the allies; the camp was pitched not far from the enemy.

Ceterum magis eo profectum est quod mature ventum erat ut quosdam spectantes iam arma Etruriae populos metus Romani nominis comprimeret, quam quod ductu consulis quicquam ibi satis scite aut fortunate gestum sit: multa proelia locis et temporibus iniquis commissa spesque in dies graviorem hostem faciebat, et iam prope erat ut nec duci milites nec militibus dux satis fideret. Litteras ad collegam accersendum ex Samnio missas in trinis annalibus invenio; piget tamen in certo ponere, cum ea ipsa inter consules populi Romani, iam iterum eodem honore fungentes, disceptatio fuerit, Appio abnuente missas, Volumnio adfirmante Appi se litteris accitum. Iam Volumnius in Samnio tria castella ceperat, in quibus ad tria milia hostium caesa erant, dimidium fere eius captum, et Lucanorum seditiones a plebeiis et egentibus ducibus ortas summa optimatium voluntate per Q. Fabium, pro consule missum eo cum vetere exercitu, compresserat.

However, the outcome was more to this effect—that, because arrival had been made in good time, the fear of the Roman name restrained certain peoples of Etruria who were already looking toward arms—than that anything there was conducted with sufficient skill or good fortune under the consul’s leadership: many battles were joined in places and at times unfavorable, and hope was making the enemy more formidable by the day, and it was now close to the point that neither did the soldiers sufficiently trust the leader nor the leader the soldiers. I find in three annals that letters were sent to summon his colleague from Samnium; yet I am loath to set it down as certain, since that very matter was a dispute between the consuls of the Roman people, already for a second time discharging the same office, Appius denying that they had been sent, Volumnius affirming that he had been summoned by Appius’s letters. By now Volumnius in Samnium had taken three forts, in which about 3,000 of the enemy had been cut down, nearly half of that number captured, and he had suppressed the seditions of the Lucanians, arisen from plebeian and needy leaders, with the fullest goodwill of the optimates, through Q. Fabius, sent thither as proconsul with the veteran army.

Decio populandos hostium agros relinquit, ipse cum suis copiis in Etruriam ad collegam pergit. Quem advenientem laeti omnes accepere: Appium ex conscientia sua credo animum habuisse—haud immerito iratum si nihil scripserat, inliberali et ingrato animo, si eguerat ope, dissimulantem. Vix enim salute mutua reddita, cum obviam egressus esset, "satin salue" inquit, "L. Volumni?

He leaves to Decius the ravaging of the enemy fields; he himself with his own forces proceeds into Etruria to his colleague. All gladly received him as he arrived: I believe that Appius, from his own conscience, had this disposition—justly angry if he had written nothing; dissembling with an illiberal and ungrateful spirit if he had needed help. For scarcely had the mutual greeting been returned, when, having gone out to meet him, he said, “Are you quite well, L. Volumnius?”

ut sese in Samnio res habent? quae te causa ut provincia tua excederes induxit?" Volumnius in Samnio res prosperas esse ait, litteris eius accitum venisse; quae si falsae fuerint nec usus sui sit in Etruriam, extemplo conversis signis abiturum. "Tu vero abeas" inquit, "neque te quisquam moratur; etenim minime consentaneum est, cum bello tuo forsitan vix sufficias, huc te ad opem ferendam aliis gloriari venisse." Bene, hercules, verteret, dicere Volumnius; malle frustra operam insumptam quam quicquam incidisse cur non satis esset Etruriae unus consularis exercitus.

"How do affairs stand in Samnium? What cause induced you to depart from your province?" Volumnius says that affairs in Samnium are prosperous, that he had come summoned by his letters; if these should be false and there is no use for him in Etruria, he will depart immediately, with the standards reversed. "Do you indeed go away," he says, "nor does anyone detain you; for it is most incongruent that, when you perhaps scarcely suffice for your own war, you came here to vaunt that you were bringing aid to others." "Well then, by Hercules, it would turn out well," says Volumnius; he would prefer effort to have been spent in vain rather than that anything should have occurred why one consular army was not sufficient for Etruria.

[19] Digredientes iam consules legati tribunique ex Appiano exercitu circumsistunt. Pars imperatorem suum orare ne collegae auxilium, quod acciendum ultro fuerit, sua sponte oblatam sperneretur; plures abeunti Volumnio obsistere; obtestari ne pravo cum collega certamine rem publicam prodat: si qua clades incidisset, desertori magis quam deserto noxae fore; eo rem adductam ut omne rei bene aut secus gestae in Etruria decus dedecusque ad L. Volumnium sit delegatum; neminem quaesiturum quae verba Appi sed quae fortuna exercitus fuerit; dimitti ab Appio eum sed a re publica et ab exercitu retineri; experiretur modo voluntatem militum.

[19] As the consuls were now departing, the legates and tribunes from the Appian army surround them. Some beg their commander not to let the aid for his colleague—which, though it ought to have been summoned, had been proffered unbidden—be spurned; more of them oppose Volumnius as he is going away; they adjure him not to betray the commonwealth by a crooked contest with his colleague: if any disaster should occur, the guilt would fall more upon the deserter than upon the deserted; the matter had been brought to this point, that all the honor and dishonor of what was done well or otherwise in Etruria had been delegated to L. Volumnius; no one would inquire what the words of Appius were, but what the fortune of the army had been; he was dismissed by Appius, but retained by the commonwealth and by the army; let him only test the will of the soldiers.

Haec monendo obtestandoque prope restitantes consules in contionem pertraxerunt. Ibi orationes longiores habitae in eandem ferme sententiam, in quam inter paucos certatum verbis fuerat; et cum Volumnius, causa superior, ne infacundus quidem adversus eximiam eloquentiam collegae visus esset, cavillansque Appius sibi acceptum referre diceret debere, quod ex muto atque elingui facundum etiam consulem haberent—priore consulatu, primis utique mensibus, hiscere eum nequisse, nunc iam populares orationes serere—, "quam mallem" inquit Volumnius, "tu a me strenue facere quam ego abs te scite loqui didicissem." Postremo condicionem ferre, quae decretura sit, non orator—neque enim id desiderare rem publicam—sed imperator uter sit melior. Etruriam et Samnium provincias esse; utram mallet eligeret; suo exercitu se vel in Etruria vel in Samnio rem gesturum.

By admonishing and beseeching, they dragged the consuls, who were almost resisting, into a public assembly. There longer orations were delivered to almost the same purport as that in which the contest in words had been among a few; and although Volumnius, the stronger in the case, seemed not even ineloquent against his colleague’s exceptional eloquence, Appius, cavilling, said he ought to credit it to himself that from a mute and tongueless man they now had even an eloquent consul—for in his earlier consulship, especially in the first months, he had been unable to open his mouth, but now already he was sowing popular harangues. “How much I would prefer,” said Volumnius, “that you had learned from me to act vigorously, rather than that I had learned from you to speak cleverly.” Finally, let the condition to be decided be not who is the better orator—for the commonwealth does not desire that—but which is the better imperator. Etruria and Samnium were the provinces; let him choose whichever he preferred; he would, with his own army, conduct the business either in Etruria or in Samnium.

Tum militum clamor ortus, ut simul ambo bellum Etruscum susciperent. Quo animadverso consensu Volumnius "quoniam in collegae voluntate interpretanda" inquit "erravi, non committam ut quid vos velitis obscurum sit: manere an abire me velitis clamore significate." Tum vero tantus est clamor exortus ut hostes e castris exciret. Armis arreptis in aciem descendunt.

Then a clamor of the soldiers arose, that both together should undertake the Etruscan war. Noticing this consensus, Volumnius said, "since I erred in interpreting my colleague’s will, I will not allow that what you wish be obscure: signify by a shout whether you wish me to remain or to depart." Then indeed so great a clamor arose as to rouse the enemies from their camp. With arms snatched up, they descend into the line of battle.

Et Volumnius signa canere ac vexilla efferri castris iussit; Appium addubitasse ferunt cernentem seu pugnante seu quieto se fore collegae victoriam; deinde veritum ne suae quoque legiones Volumnium sequerentur, et ipsum flagitantibus suis signum dedisse.

And Volumnius ordered the standards to sound and the banners to be carried out from the camp; they report that Appius hesitated, perceiving that whether he fought or kept quiet the victory would be his colleague’s; then, fearing lest his own legions too would follow Volumnius, he himself also gave the signal at the demand of his men.

Ab neutra parte satis commode instructi fuerunt; nam et Samnitium dux Gellius Egnatius pabulatum cum cohortibus paucis ierat suoque impetu magis milites quam cuiusquam ductu aut imperio pugnam capessebant et Romani exercitus nec pariter ambo ducti nec satis temporis ad instruendum fuit. Prius concurrit Volumnius quam Appius ad hostem perveniret; itaque fronte inaequali concursum est; et velut sorte quadam mutante adsuetos inter se hostes Etrusci Volumnio, Samnites parumper cunctati, quia dux aberat, Appio occurrere. Dicitur Appius in medio pugnae discrimine, ita ut inter prima signa manibus ad caelum sublatis conspiceretur, ita precatus esse: "Bellona, si hodie nobis victoriam duis, ast ego tibi templum voveo." Haec precatus velut instigante dea et ipse collegae et exercitus virtutem aequavit ducis: imperatoria opera exsequuntur et milites; ne ab altera parte prius victoria incipiat adnituntur.

From neither side were they drawn up quite commodiously; for the Samnites’ leader, Gellius Egnatius, had gone out to forage with a few cohorts, and by their own impetus rather than by anyone’s guidance or command the soldiers were taking up the fight; and the Roman armies were not both led in together, nor was there sufficient time for deployment. Volumnius ran in to clash before Appius reached the enemy; and so they met with an unequal front; and, as if by a certain lot that shifted things, the Etruscans, long-accustomed foes, encountered Volumnius, while the Samnites, hesitating for a short while because their leader was absent, met Appius. Appius is said, in the very crisis of the battle, in such a way that he was visible among the foremost standards with his hands lifted to heaven, to have prayed thus: “Bellona, if today you grant us victory, then I for my part vow you a temple.” Having prayed this, as though the goddess were instigating him, he himself matched his colleague and the army in the valor of a leader: the soldiers, too, perform imperatorial tasks, and they strive lest victory should begin on the other side first.

Ergo fundunt fugantque hostes, maiorem molem haud facile sustinentes quam cum qua manus conserere adsueti fuerant. urgendo cedentes insequendoque effusos compulere ad castra; ibi interventu Gelli cohortiumque Sabellarum paulisper recruduit pugna. His quoque mox fusis iam a victoribus castra oppugnabantur; et cum Volumnius ipse portae signa inferret, Appius Bellonam victricem identidem celebrans accenderet militum animos, per vallum, per fossas inruperunt.

Therefore they rout and put the enemies to flight, not easily sustaining a greater mass than that with which they had been accustomed to engage hand to hand. By pressing those who were yielding and by pursuing the scattered, they compelled them to the camp; there, by the intervention of Gellius and of the Sabellian cohorts, the fight recrudesced for a little while. These too soon routed, now the camp was being assaulted by the victors; and when Volumnius himself was bringing the standards up to the gate, and Appius, repeatedly celebrating Bellona the Victress, was kindling the soldiers’ spirits, they burst in through the rampart, through the ditches.

Castra capta direptaque; praeda ingens parta et militi concessa est. Septem milia octingenti hostium occisi, duo milia et centum viginti capti.

The camp was taken and sacked; vast booty was obtained and granted to the soldiery. 7,800 of the enemy were slain, 2,120 captured.

[20] Dum ambo consules omnisque Romana vis in Etruscum bellum magis inclinat, in Samnio novi exercitus exorti ad populandos imperii Romani fines per Vescinos in Campaniam Falernumque agrum transcendunt ingentesque praedas faciunt. Volumnium magnis itineribus in Samnium redeuntem—iam enim Fabio Decioque prorogati imperii finis aderat —fama de Samnitium exercitu populationibusque Campani agri ad tuendos socios convertit. ut in Calenum [agrum] venit, et ipse cernit recentia cladis vestigia et Caleni narrant tantum iam praedae hostes trahere ut vix explicare agmen possint; itaque iam propalam duces loqui extemplo eundum in Samnium esse, ut relicta ibi praeda in expeditionem redeant nec tam oneratum agmen dimicationibus committant.

[20] While both consuls and all the Roman force are inclining more toward the Etruscan war, in Samnium new armies having arisen to lay waste the borders of the Roman empire cross through the Vescini into Campania and the Falernian territory and make enormous booty. Volumnius, returning into Samnium by forced marches—for already for Fabius and Decius the end of their prorogated imperium was at hand—was turned by report about the Samnite army and the depredations of the Campanian field to protect the allies. When he came into the Calenian [territory], he himself discerns the fresh traces of the disaster, and the Caleni report that the enemies are already dragging so much booty that they can scarcely unfold their column; and so now openly the leaders say that they must go at once into Samnium, so that, the booty left there, they may return to the expedition and not commit so burdened a column to engagements.

Ea quamquam similia veris erant, certius tamen exploranda ratus dimittit equites, qui vagos praedatores in agro palantes intercipiant; ex quibus inquirendo cognoscit ad Volturnum flumen sedere hostem, inde tertia vigilia moturum; iter in Samnium esse.

Although these things were like the truth, yet, thinking they must be explored more surely, he sends out cavalry to intercept roving marauders straggling in the fields; by inquiring of them he learns that the enemy is encamped by the Volturnus River, and will move thence at the third watch; that the march is into Samnium.

His satis exploratis profectus tanto intervallo ab hostibus consedit ut nec adventus suus propinquitate nimia nosci posset et egredientem e castris hostem opprimeret. Aliquanto ante lucem ad castra accessit gnarosque Oscae linguae exploratum quid agatur mittit. Intermixti hostibus, quod facile erat in nocturna trepidatione, cognoscunt infrequentia armatis signa egressa, praedam praedaeque custodes exire, immobile agmen et sua quemque molientem nullo [inter alios] consensu nec satis certo imperio.

With these matters sufficiently reconnoitered, he set out and encamped at such an interval from the enemies that his arrival could not be detected by excessive proximity, and he might overwhelm the enemy as it went out from its camp. Somewhat before dawn he approached the camp and sent men acquainted with the Oscan language to reconnoiter what was being done. Intermixed with the enemies, which was easy in the nocturnal trepidation, they learn that the standards, scant of armed escort, had gone out, that the plunder and the guardians of the plunder were going out, the column immobile, and each man busy at his own tasks, with no consensus [among others] and no sufficiently definite command.

Tempus adgrediendi aptissimum visum est; et iam lux appetebat; itaque signa canere iussit agmenque hostium adgreditur. Samnites praeda impediti, infrequentes armati, pars addere gradum ac prae se agere praedam, pars stare incerti utrum progredi an regredi in castra tutius foret; inter cunctationem opprimuntur et Romani iam transcenderant vallum caedesque ac tumultus erat in castris. Samnitium agmen, praeterquam hostili tumultu, captivorum etiam repentina defectione turbatum erat, qui partim ipsi soluti vinctos soluebant, partim arma in sarcinis deligata rapiebant tumultumque proelio ipso terribiliorem intermixti agmini praebebant.

It seemed the most suitable time for attacking; and now the light was drawing near; accordingly he ordered the signals to be sounded and attacked the enemy column. The Samnites, encumbered with booty, with few under arms, some hastened their pace and drove the plunder before them, others stood still, uncertain whether it would be safer to advance or to return to camp; amid their hesitation they were overwhelmed, and the Romans had already crossed the rampart, and there was slaughter and tumult in the camp. The column of the Samnites, besides the hostile tumult, was also thrown into disorder by the sudden defection of the captives, who, some, once freed themselves, were unbinding the bound, others were snatching up the arms tied upon the packs, and, mingled with the column, were creating a tumult more terrible than the battle itself.

Memorandum deinde edidere facinus; nam Staium Minatium ducem adeuntem ordines hortantemque invadunt; dissipatis inde equitibus qui cum eo aderant ipsum circumsistunt insidentemque equo captum ad consulem Romanum rapiunt. Revocata eo tumultu prima signa Samnitium proeliumque iam profligatum integratum est; nec diutius sustineri potuit. Caesa ad sex milia hominum, duo milia et quingenti capti—in eis tribuni militum quattuor—signa militaria triginta, et, quod laetissimum victoribus fuit, captivorum recepta septem milia et quadringenti, <et> praeda ingens sociorum; accitique edicto domini ad res suas noscendas recipiendasque praestituta die.

They then produced a deed to be remembered; for they assail Staius Minatius, the commander, as he was approaching the ranks and exhorting them; then, having scattered the cavalry who were with him, they surround him himself, and, seizing him as he sat his horse, drag him off to the Roman consul. By that tumult the front standards of the Samnites were recalled and the battle, already all but won, was renewed; nor could it be held out much longer. About 6,000 men were cut down, 2,500 were captured—in these four military tribunes—30 military standards; and, what was most gladdening to the victors, 7,400 of the captives were recovered, <et> an immense booty of the allies; and the masters were summoned by edict to identify and reclaim their property on an appointed day.

Quarum rerum non exstitit dominus, militi concessae; coactique vendere praedam ne alibi quam in armis animum haberent.

The things for which no owner appeared were granted to the soldiery; and they were compelled to sell the booty, that they might have their mind on nothing but arms.

[21] Magnum ea populatio Campani agri tumultum Romae praebuerat; et per eos forte dies ex Etruria allatum erat post deductum inde Volumnianum exercitum Etruriam concitam in arma et Gellium Egnatium, Samnitium ducem, et Umbros ad defectionem vocari et Gallos pretio ingenti sollicitari. His nuntiis senatus conterritus iustitium indici, dilectum omnis generis hominum haberi iussit. Nec ingenui modo aut iuniores sacramento adacti sunt sed seniorum etiam cohortes factae libertinique centuriati; et defendendae urbis consilia agitabantur summaeque rerum praetor P. Sempronius praeerat.

[21] That devastation of the Campanian field had provided great tumult at Rome; and in those same days it had been reported from Etruria that, after the Volumnian army was led away from there, Etruria was stirred to arms, with Gellius Egnatius, the leader of the Samnites, summoning the Umbrians to defection, and the Gauls being solicited with an enormous price. Terrified by these messages, the senate ordered a suspension of public business to be declared, and a levy to be held of every kind of men. Not only the freeborn or the younger men were bound by the oath, but cohorts of the older men were also formed and the freedmen were centuriated; and plans for defending the city were being discussed, and P. Sempronius, the praetor, had charge of the supreme control of affairs.

Ceterum parte curae exonerarunt senatum L. Volumni consulis litterae, quibus caesos fusosque populatores Campaniae cognitum est. Itaque et supplicationes ob rem bene gestam consulis nomine decernunt et iustitium remittitur quod fuerat dies duodeviginti; supplicatioque perlaeta fuit.

However, the letters of the consul L. Volumnius relieved the senate of part of its anxiety, by which it was learned that the devastators of Campania had been cut down and routed. Therefore they also decree thanksgivings in the consul’s name on account of the affair well conducted, and the iustitium, which had lasted eighteen days, is lifted; and the thanksgiving was very joyful.

Tum de praesidio regionis depopulatae ab Samnitibus agitari coeptum; itaque placuit ut duae coloniae circa Vescinum et Falernum agrum deducerentur, una ad ostium Liris fluuii, quae Minturnae appellata, altera in saltu Vescino, Falernum contingente agrum, ubi Sinope dicitur Graeca urbs fuisse, Sinuessa deinde ab colonis Romanis appellata. Tribunis plebis negotium datum est, ut plebei scito iuberetur P. Sempronius praetor triumviros in ea loca colonis deducendis creare; nec qui nomina darent facile inveniebantur, quia in stationem se prope perpetuam infestae regionis, non in agros mitti rebantur.

Then they began to deliberate about a garrison for the region devastated by the Samnites; and so it was resolved that two colonies should be led out around the Vescinian and Falernian country, one at the mouth of the river Liris, which was called Minturnae, the other in the Vescinian woodland, touching the Falernian land, where Sinope, a Greek city, is said to have been, then called Sinuessa by Roman colonists. The business was given to the tribunes of the plebs, that by a plebiscite it should be ordered that the praetor P. Sempronius create triumvirs for leading colonists to those places; nor were those who would give in their names easily found, because they thought they were being sent into an almost perpetual outpost of a hostile region, not into fields.

Avertit ab eis curis senatum Etruriae ingravescens bellum et crebrae litterae Appi monentis ne regionis eius motum neglegerent: quattuor gentes conferre arma, Etruscos, Samnites, Umbros, Gallos; iam castra bifariam facta esse, quia unus locus capere tantam multitudinem non possit. Ob haec et—iam appetebat tempus—comitiorum causa L. Volumnius consul Romam revocatus; qui priusquam ad suffragium centurias vocaret, in contionem advocato populo multa de magnitudine belli Etrusci disseruit: iam tum, cum ipse ibi cum collega rem pariter gesserit, fuisse tantum bellum ut nec duce uno nec exercitu geri potuerit; accessisse postea dici Umbros et ingentem exercitum Gallorum; adversus quattuor populos duces consules illo die deligi meminissent. Se, nisi confideret eum consensu populi Romani consulem declaratum iri qui haud dubie tum primus omnium ductor habeatur, dictatorem fuisse extemplo dicturum.

The Senate was diverted from those concerns by the worsening war in Etruria and by frequent letters from Appius warning them not to neglect the movement in that region: that four nations were bringing their arms together—the Etruscans, Samnites, Umbrians, Gauls; that already camps had been made in two places, because one place could not contain so great a multitude. On account of these things and—now the time was approaching—for the purpose of the elections, L. Volumnius the consul was recalled to Rome; and before he called the centuries to the suffrage, with the people summoned into an assembly he discoursed at length about the magnitude of the Etruscan war: already then, when he himself had managed the matter there together with his colleague, the war had been so great that it could not have been conducted by one leader nor by one army; afterwards, the Umbrians and a huge army of Gauls were reported to have been added; they should remember that against four peoples leaders, the consuls, were being chosen that day. He said that, unless he trusted that by the consensus of the Roman people that man would be declared consul who is without doubt then held the foremost leader of all, he would straightway have named a dictator.

[22] Nemini dubium erat quin Fabius quintum omnium consensu destinaretur; eumque et praerogativae et primo vocatae omnes centuriae consulem cum L. Volumnio dicebant. Fabi oratio fuit, qualis biennio ante; deinde, ut vincebatur consensu, versa postremo ad collegam P. Decium poscendum: id senectuti suae adminiculum fore. Censura duobusque consulatibus simul gestis expertum se nihil concordi collegio firmius ad rem publicam tuendam esse.

[22] To no one was it doubtful that Fabius would be designated a fifth time by the consensus of all; and both the prerogative century and all the centuries first called were declaring him consul with L. Volumnius. Fabius’s speech was as it had been two years earlier; then, since he was being overcome by the consensus, it turned at last to requesting P. Decius as colleague: that would be a prop to his old age. With the censorship and two consulships exercised together, he had found that nothing was more firm for guarding the commonwealth than a harmonious colleagueship.

Nouo imperii socio vix iam adsuescere senilem animum posse; cum moribus notis facilius se communicaturum consilia. Subscripsit orationi eius consul cum meritis P. Deci laudibus, tum quae ex concordia consultum bona quaeque ex discordia mala in administratione rerum militarium evenirent memorando, quam prope ultimum discrimen suis et collegae certaminibus nuper ventum foret admonendo: Decium Fabiumque qui uno animo, una mente viverent esse praeterea viros natos militiae, factis magnos, ad verborum linguaeque certamina rudes. Ea ingenia consularia esse: callidos sollertesque, iuris atque eloquentiae consultos, qualis Ap. Claudius esset, urbi ac foro praesides habendos praetoresque ad reddenda iura creandos esse.

That a senile mind could now scarcely accustom itself to a new partner in command; that with known habits he would more easily communicate his counsels. The consul subscribed to his speech, both with well‑earned praises of P. Decius, and by recalling what goods ensue from concord and what evils from discord in the administration of military affairs, reminding how near to the ultimate crisis it had lately come through his and his colleague’s contests: that Decius and Fabius, who lived with one spirit, one mind, were moreover men born for soldiery, great in deeds, untrained for contests of words and of the tongue. Such were the consular talents; whereas the shrewd and adroit, versed in law and eloquence, such as Ap. Claudius was, should be kept as governors for the city and the forum, and be created praetors for rendering justice.

His agendis dies est consumptus. Postridie ad praescriptum consulis et consularia et praetoria comitia habita. Consules creati Q. Fabius et P. Decius, Ap. Claudius praetor, omnes absentes; et L. Volumnio ex senatus consulto et scito plebis prorogatum in annum imperium est.

With these matters being transacted, the day was consumed. On the next day, in accordance with the consul’s prescription, both the consular and the praetorian comitia were held. Q. Fabius and P. Decius were created consuls, Ap. Claudius praetor, all absent; and to L. Volumnius, by decree of the senate and plebiscite, the imperium was prorogued for a year.

[23] Eo anno prodigia multa fuerunt, quorum averruncandorum causa supplicationes in biduum senatus decrevit; publice vinum ac tus praebitum; supplicatum iere frequentes viri feminaeque. Insignem supplicationem fecit certamen in sacello Pudicitiae Patriciae, quae in foro bovario est ad aedem rotundam Herculis, inter matronas ortum. Verginiam Auli filiam, patriciam plebeio nuptam, L. Volumnio consuli, matronae quod e patribus enupsisset sacris arcuerant.

[23] In that year there were many prodigies, for the sake of averting which the senate decreed supplications for two days; wine and incense were provided at public expense; men and women went to supplicate in great numbers. A contest among the matrons, arising in the shrine of Patrician Pudicitia, which is in the Forum Boarium by the round temple of Hercules, made the supplication notable. The matrons had barred Virginia, daughter of Aulus, a patrician married to a plebeian, Lucius Volumnius the consul, from the sacred rites because she had married out from the patricians.

Brevis altercatio inde ex iracundia muliebri in contentionem animorum exarsit, cum se Verginia et patriciam et pudicam in Patriciae Pudicitiae templum ingressam, ut uni nuptam ad quem virgo deducta sit, nec se viri honorumue eius ac rerum gestarum paenitere <ex> vero gloriaretur. Facto deinde egregio magnifica verba adauxit. In vico Longo ubi habitabat, ex parte aedium quod satis esset loci modico sacello exclusit aramque ibi posuit et convocatis plebeiis matronis conquesta iniuriam patriciarum, "hanc ego aram" inquit "Pudicitiae Plebeiae dedico; vosque hortor ut, quod certamen virtutis viros in hac civitate tenet, hoc pudicitiae inter matronas sit detisque operam ut haec ara quam illa, si quid potest, sanctius et a castioribus coli dicatur." Eodem ferme ritu et haec ara quo illa antiquior culta est, ut nulla nisi spectatae pudicitiae matrona et quae uni viro nupta fuisset ius sacrificandi haberet; volgata dein religio a pollutis, nec matronis solum sed omnis ordinis feminis, postremo in oblivionem venit.

From a brief altercation, then, out of womanly irascibility, a contention of spirits flared up, when Verginia asserted that she, both patrician and pudica, had entered the temple of Patrician Pudicitia, as one wed to a single husband to whom she had been led as a maiden, nor did she repent of her husband or of his honors and deeds, and she boasted <ex> truly. Then, by a distinguished deed she augmented her magnificent words. In the Vicus Longus, where she lived, she shut off from a part of her house as much space as would be sufficient for a modest little shrine and there set up an altar; and, the plebeian matrons having been called together, after complaining of the injury from the patrician women, she said: “This altar I dedicate to Plebeian Pudicitia; and I exhort you that, just as a contest of virtus holds the men in this city, so let this be, of pudicitia, among the matrons; and give your effort that this altar may be said to be tended, if anything can be, more sacredly and by more chaste women than that one.” By nearly the same rite this altar was cultivated as that older one: namely, that no matron except of approved pudicitia and who had been married to one man should have the right of sacrificing. Then the observance, made common by the polluted—women not of the matrons only but of every order—at last fell into oblivion.

Eodem anno Cn. et Q. Ogulnii aediles curules aliquot feneratoribus diem dixerunt; quorum bonis multatis ex eo quod in publicum redactum est aenea in Capitolio limina et trium mensarum argentea vasa in cella Iovis Iovemque in culmine cum quadrigis et ad ficum Ruminalem simulacra infantium conditorum urbis sub uberibus lupae posuerunt semitamque saxo quadrato a Capena porta ad Martis straverunt. Et ab aedilibus plebeiis L. Aelio Paeto et C. Fulvio Curuo ex multaticia item pecunia, quam exegerunt pecuariis damnatis, ludi facti pateraeque aureae ad Cereris positae.

In the same year Cn. and Q. Ogulnii, curule aediles, named a day for several moneylenders; and from the property of those who were mulcted, out of what was brought into the public treasury, they set up bronze thresholds on the Capitol, and in the cella of Jupiter silver vessels for three tables, and a Jupiter on the roof-peak with a quadriga; and at the Ruminal fig-tree they placed the images of the infant founders of the City beneath the teats of the she-wolf, and they paved a footpath with squared stone from the Capena Gate to the Temple of Mars. And by the plebeian aediles L. Aelius Paetus and C. Fulvius Curvus, likewise from fine-money which they exacted from condemned graziers, games were held and golden bowls were set up at Ceres.

[24] Q. inde Fabius quintum et P. Decius quartum consulatum ineunt, tribus consulatibus censuraque collegae, nec gloria magis rerum, quae ingens erat, quam concordia inter se clari. Quae ne perpetua esset, ordinum magis quam ipsorum inter se certamen intervenisse reor, patriciis tendentibus ut Fabius + in + Etruriam extra ordinem provinciam haberet, plebeiis auctoribus Decio ut ad sortem rem vocaret. Fuit certe contentio in senatu et, postquam ibi Fabius plus poterat, revocata res ad populum est.

[24] Then Q. Fabius entered upon a fifth, and P. Decius a fourth, consulship, his colleague having three consulships and the censorship; and they were renowned not more for the glory of their deeds—which was immense—than for their concord with one another. That this might not be perpetual, I judge that a contest intervened of the orders rather than between themselves, the patricians striving that Fabius should have Etruria as his province outside the regular order, the plebeians urging Decius to refer the matter to the lot. There was certainly contention in the senate, and, after Fabius had more influence there, the matter was called back to the people.

In contione, ut inter militares viros et factis potius quam dictis fretos, pauca verba habita. Fabius, quam arborem conseuisset, sub ea legere alium fructum indignum esse dicere; se aperuisse Ciminiam silvam viamque per devios saltus Romano bello fecisse. Quid se id aetatis sollicitassent, si alio duce gesturi bellum essent?

In the assembly, as among military men and trusting rather in deeds than in words, few words were spoken. Fabius said it was unworthy that, beneath the tree he had planted, another should gather the fruit; that he had opened the Ciminian Forest and made a way through devious passes for Roman warfare. Why, at his time of life, had they troubled him, if they were going to wage war under another leader?

nimirum adversarium se, non socium imperii legisse—sensim exprobrat—et invidisse Decium concordibus collegis tribus. Postremo se tendere nihil ultra quam ut, si dignum provincia ducerent, in eam mitterent; in senatus arbitrio se fuisse et in potestate populi futurum. P. Decius senatus iniuriam querebatur: quoad potuerint, patres adnisos ne plebeiis aditus ad magnos honores esset; postquam ipsa virtus pervicerit ne in ullo genere hominum inhonorata esset, quaeri quemadmodum inrita sint non suffragia modo populi sed arbitria etiam fortunae et in paucorum potestatem vertantur.

Clearly—he gradually reproaches—they have chosen me as an adversary, not a partner in imperium, and they have begrudged Decius to three harmonious colleagues. Finally, he presses for nothing beyond this: that, if they should deem him worthy of a province, they send him to it; that he has been in the discretion of the senate and will be in the power of the people. Publius Decius complained of the senate’s injury: that, so long as they could, the patres strove that there be no access for plebeians to great honors; after virtue itself has prevailed that in no order of men should it be without honor, it is now contrived how not only the people’s suffrages but even the adjudications of Fortune are to be nullified and turned into the power of a few.

Omnes ante se consules sortitos provincias esse: nunc extra sortem Fabio senatum provinciam dare,—si honoris eius causa, ita eum de se deque re publica meritum esse ut faveat Q. Fabi gloriae quae modo non sua contumelia splendeat. Cui autem dubium esse, ubi unum bellum sit asperum ac difficile, cum id alteri extra sortem mandetur, quin alter consul pro supervacaneo atque inutili habeatur? gloriari Fabium rebus in Etruria gestis; velle et P. Decium gloriari; et forsitan, quem ille obrutum ignem reliquerit, ita ut totiens novum ex improviso incendium daret, eum se exstincturum.

All the consuls before him had obtained their provinces by lot: now, outside the lot, the senate is giving a province to Fabius—if for the sake of that honor, let him have so deserved of himself and of the commonwealth that he favor the glory of Q. Fabius, which just now well-nigh shines not without an affront to himself. But who could doubt that, when there is one war harsh and difficult, since that is entrusted to the one outside the lot, the other consul is held as supervacaneous and useless? Fabius boasts of the deeds achieved in Etruria; P. Decius too wishes to boast; and perhaps the fire which that man left buried, so as to give so often a new blaze unexpectedly, he himself will extinguish.

Postremo se collegae honores praemiaque concessurum verecundia aetatis eius maiestatisque; cum periculum, cum dimicatio proposita sit, neque cedere sua sponte neque cessurum. Et si nihil aliud ex eo certamine tulerit, illud certe laturum ut quod populi sit populus iubeat potius quam patres gratificentur. Iovem optimum maximum deosque immortales se precari, ut ita sortem aequam sibi cum collega dent si eandem virtutem felicitatemque in bello administrando daturi sint.

Finally, that he would concede to his colleague the honors and rewards, out of deference to his age and majesty; but when peril, when a pitched contest is set forth, he would neither give way of his own accord nor would he yield. And if he should carry off nothing else from that contest, he would at least carry off this: that what belongs to the people the people should command, rather than that the senators should gratify it as a favor. He prays Jupiter Best and Greatest and the immortal gods to grant him an equal lot with his colleague, if they are going to give the same virtue and felicity in administering the war.

Certe et id natura aequum et exemplo utile esse et ad famam populi Romani pertinere, eos consules esse quorum utrolibet duce bellum Etruscum geri recte possit. Fabius nihil aliud precatus populum Romanum quam ut, priusquam intro vocarentur ad suffragium tribus, Ap. Claudi praetoris allatas ex Etruria litteras audirent, comitio abiit. Nec minore populi consensu quam senatus provincia Etruria extra sortem Fabio decreta est.

Certainly this too is by nature equitable, useful as an example, and pertains to the fame of the Roman people: that those be consuls under either of whose leadership the Etruscan war can rightly be conducted. Fabius asked nothing else of the Roman people than that, before the tribes were called inside to cast their vote, they should hear the letters brought from Etruria by the praetor Ap. Claudius; he went to the comitium. And by no less a consensus of the people than of the senate, the province of Etruria was assigned to Fabius outside the lot.

[25] Concursus inde ad consulem factus omnium ferme iuniorum et pro se quisque nomina dabant; tanta cupido erat sub eo duce stipendia faciendi. Qua circumfusus turba "quattuor milia" inquit, "peditum et sescentos equites dumtaxat scribere in animo est; hodierno et crastino die qui nomina dederitis mecum ducam. Maiori mihi curae est ut omnes locupletes reducam quam ut multis rem geram militibus." Profectus apto exercitu et eo plus fiduciae ac spei gerente quod non desiderata multitudo erat, ad oppidum Aharnam, unde haud procul hostes erant, ad castra Appi praetoris pergit.

[25] From there a concourse was made upon the consul by almost all the younger men, and each on his own behalf was giving in his name; so great was the desire to do military service under that leader. Surrounded by such a crowd he said, "I have it in mind to enroll only four thousand infantry and six hundred horsemen; today and tomorrow, those of you who shall have given in your names I will lead with me. It is of greater concern to me to bring all back wealthy than to conduct the affair with many soldiers." Having set out with a fit army—and it carried so much the more confidence and hope because there was no felt need of a greater multitude—he proceeds to the town Aharnam, from where the enemy were not far, to the camp of Appius the praetor.

Paucis citra milibus lignatores ei cum praesidio occurrunt; qui ut lictores praegredi viderunt Fabiumque esse consulem accepere, laeti atque alacres dis populoque Romano grates agunt quod eum sibi imperatorem misissent. Circumfusi deinde cum consulem salutarent, quaerit Fabius quo pergerent, respondentibusque lignatum se ire, "ain tandem?" inquit, "num castra vallata non habetis?" Ad hoc cum succlamatum esset duplici quidem vallo et fossa et tamen in ingenti metu esse, "habetis igitur" inquit, "adfatim lignorum; redite et vellite vallum". Redeunt in castra terroremque ibi vellentes vallum et iis qui in castris remanserant militibus et ipsi Appio fecerunt; tum pro se quisque alii aliis dicere consulis se Q. Fabi facere iussu. Postero inde die castra mota et Appius praetor Romam dimissus.

A few miles this side, woodcutters with an escort met him; and when they saw the lictors going before and learned that Fabius was the consul, joyful and elated they gave thanks to the gods and the Roman people because they had sent him to them as commander. Then, surrounding him as they greeted the consul, Fabius asks where they are going; and when they replied that they were going to gather wood, “Really?” he said, “have you not your camp palisaded?” When there was a shout back to this effect—that indeed with a double rampart and ditch, and yet they were in immense fear—“Then,” he says, “you have wood enough; go back and pull up the palisade.” They return to the camp, and by pulling up the palisade there they caused alarm both for the soldiers who had remained in the camp and for Appius himself; then, each man in his turn, some told others that they were doing it by order of the consul Q. Fabius. On the next day from there the camp was moved, and the praetor Appius was sent to Rome.

Inde nusquam stativa Romanis fuere. Negabat utile esse uno loco sedere exercitum; itineribus ac mutatione locorum mobiliorem ac salubriorem esse; fiebant autem itinera quanta fieri sinebat hiemps hauddum exacta.

From then on the Romans had nowhere any standing-camp. He said it was not useful for the army to sit in one place; by marches and a change of locations it was more mobile and more salubrious; and the marches were made as great as the not-yet-complete winter allowed.

Vere inde primo relicta secunda legione ad Clusium, quod Camars olim appellabant, praepositoque castris L. Scipione pro praetore Romam ipse ad consultandum de bello rediit, sive ipse sponte sua, quia bellum ei maius in conspectu erat quam quantum esse famae crediderat sive senatus consulto accitus; nam in utrumque auctores sunt. Ab Ap. Claudio praetore retractum quidam videri volunt, cum in senatu et apud populum, id quod per litteras adsidue fecerat, terrorem belli Etrusci augeret: non suffecturum ducem unum nec exercitum unum adversus quattuor populos; periculum esse, sive iuncti unum premant sive diversi gerant bellum, ne ad omnia simul obire unus non possit. Duas se ibi legiones Romanas reliquisse et minus quinque milia peditum equitumque cum Fabio venisse.

Thence at the beginning of spring, leaving the second legion at Clusium, which they once called Camars, and with L. Scipio set over the camp as pro-praetor, he himself returned to Rome to consult about the war, either of his own accord—because the war was greater in his sight than he had believed it to be from report—or summoned by decree of the senate; for there are authorities for both. Some wish it to appear that he was drawn back by the praetor Ap. Claudius, when, in the senate and before the people—just as he had continually done by letters—he was increasing the terror of the Etruscan war: that one commander would not suffice nor one army against four peoples; that there was danger, whether united they press one point or conduct the war separately, lest one man be unable to attend to all things at once. He said that he had left two Roman legions there and that fewer than five thousand infantry and cavalry had come with Fabius.

Sibi placere P. Decium consulem primo quoque tempore in Etruriam ad collegam proficisci, L. Volumnio Samnium provinciam dari; si consul malit in suam provinciam ire, Volumnium in Etruriam ad consulem cum exercitu iusto consulari proficisci. Cum magnam partem moveret oratio praetoris, P. Decium censuisse ferunt, ut omnia integra ac libera Q. Fabio servarentur, donec vel ipse, si per commodum rei publicae posset, Romam venisset vel aliquem ex legatis misisset, a quo disceret senatus quantum in Etruria belli esset quantisque administrandum copiis et quot per duces esset.

It pleased him that P. Decius, the consul, at the earliest possible time set out into Etruria to his colleague, that L. Volumnius be given Samnium as his province; if the consul preferred to go into his own province, that Volumnius proceed into Etruria to the consul with a regular consular army. Since the praetor’s speech moved the greater part, they report that P. Decius gave his opinion that all things be preserved intact and left free to Q. Fabius, until either he himself, if it could be done with advantage to the commonwealth, should come to Rome, or had sent one of his legates, from whom the senate might learn how much war there was in Etruria, with how great forces it must be administered, and under how many commanders it should be.

[26] Fabius, ut Romam rediit, et in senatu et productus ad populum mediam orationem habuit, ut nec augere nec minuere videretur belli famam magisque in altero adsumendo duce aliorum indulgere timori quam suo aut rei publicae periculo consulere: ceterum si sibi adiutorem belli sociumque imperii darent, quonam modo se oblivisci P. Deci consulis per tot collegia experti posse? Neminem omnium secum coniungi malle; et copiarum satis sibi cum P. Decio et nunquam nimium hostium fore. Sin collega quid aliud malit, at sibi L. Volumnium darent adiutorem.

[26] When Fabius returned to Rome, both in the senate and when brought before the people he took a middle course in his speech, so that he seemed neither to augment nor to diminish the report of the war, and that, in taking on a second leader, he was rather indulging others’ fear than consulting for any danger to himself or to the commonwealth. But if they were to give him a helper in the war and a partner in command, in what way could he forget P. Decius, a consul, tested through so many collegiates? Of all men he would prefer to have no one joined with him more than P. Decius; and with P. Decius he would have troops enough, and there would never be too many enemies. But if his colleague should prefer something else, then let them give to him L. Volumnius as helper.

Omnium rerum arbitrium et a populo et a senatu et ab ipso collega Fabio permissum est; et cum P. Decius se in Samnium vel in Etruriam proficisci paratum esse ostendisset, tanta laetitia ac gratulatio fuit ut praeciperetur victoria animis triumphusque non bellum decretum consulibus videretur.

The discretion in all matters was entrusted both by the people and by the senate and by his colleague Fabius himself; and when P. Decius showed that he was prepared to set out into Samnium or into Etruria, there was such joy and congratulation that victory was anticipated in their spirits, and it seemed that a triumph, not a war, had been decreed to the consuls.

Invenio apud quosdam extemplo consulatu inito profectos in Etruriam Fabium Deciumque sine ulla mentione sortis provinciarum certaminumque inter collegas quae exposui. Sunt <qui>, quibus ne haec quidem <certamina> exponere satis fuerit, adiecerint et Appi criminationes de Fabio absente ad populum et pertinaciam adversus praesentem consulem praetoris contentionemque aliam inter collegas tendente Decio ut suae quisque provinciae sortem tueretur. Constare res incipit ex eo tempore quo profecti ambo consules ad bellum sunt.

I find with certain writers that, immediately on the consulship being entered upon, Fabius and Decius set out into Etruria, without any mention of the allotment of provinces and of the contests between the colleagues which I have set forth. There are <those> for whom not even to set forth these <contests> was enough; they have added also Appius’s accusations before the people concerning Fabius in his absence, and the praetor’s obstinacy against the consul when present, and another contention between the colleagues, with Decius pressing that each should maintain the lot of his own province. The matter begins to be established from the time when both consuls set out to the war.

Ceterum antequam consules in Etruriam pervenirent, Senones Galli multitudine ingenti ad Clusium venerunt legionem Romanam castraque oppugnaturi. Scipio, qui castris praeerat, loco adiuvandam paucitatem suorum militum ratus, in collem, qui inter urbem et castra erat, aciem erexit; sed, ut in re subita, parum explorato itinere ad iugum perrexit, quod hostes ceperant parte alia adgressi. Ita caesa ab tergo legio atque in medio, cum hostis undique urgeret, circumventa.

But before the consuls could arrive in Etruria, the Senonian Gauls came to Clusium with an immense multitude, intending to assault a Roman legion and the camp. Scipio, who was in command of the camp, thinking that by the position he could aid the fewness of his own soldiers, drew up the battle line on a hill which was between the city and the camp; but, as in a sudden emergency, with the route insufficiently explored he proceeded to the ridge, which the enemy had seized, having approached from the other side. Thus the legion, cut down from the rear and in the middle, with the enemy pressing from every side, was surrounded.

Deletam quoque ibi legionem, ita ut nuntius non superesset, quidam auctores sunt, nec ante ad consules, qui iam haud procul a Clusio aberant, famam eius cladis perlatam quam in conspectu fuere Gallorum equites, pectoribus equorum suspensa gestantes capita et lanceis infixa ouantesque moris sui carmine.—sunt qui Umbros fuisse non Gallos tradant, nec tantum cladis acceptum et circumventis pabulatoribus cum L. Manlio Torquato legato Scipionem propraetorem subsidium e castris tulisse victoresque Umbros redintegrato proelio victos esse captivosque eis ac praedam ademptam. Similius vero est a Gallo hoste quam Umbro eam cladem acceptam, quod cum saepe alias tum eo anno Gallici tumultus praecipuus terror civitatem tenuit.—itaque praeterquam quod ambo consules profecti ad bellum erant cum quattuor legionibus et magno equitatu Romano Campanisque mille equitibus delectis, ad id bellum missis, et sociorum nominisque Latini maiore exercitu quam Romano, alii duo exercitus haud procul urbe Etruriae oppositi, unus in Falisco, alter in Vaticano agro. Cn. Fulvius et L. Postumius Megellus, propraetores ambo, statiua in eis locis habere iussi.

There are some authorities that the legion too was wiped out there, to such a degree that no messenger survived, and that the report of that disaster did not reach the consuls, who were already not far from Clusium, before the horsemen of the Gauls were in sight, carrying heads hung from the chests of their horses and fixed on lances, and ovant with a song of their custom.—there are those who hand down that they were Umbrians, not Gauls, and that not so great a loss was incurred, and that, when the foragers were surrounded, Scipio the propraetor together with L. Manlius Torquatus the legate brought relief from the camp, and that the victorious Umbrians, the battle having been renewed, were defeated, and captives and booty were taken away from them. More plausible indeed is that that disaster was received from a Gaulish enemy rather than an Umbrian, because, as often otherwise, so in that year the exceptional terror of a Gallic tumult held the state.—and so, besides the fact that both consuls had set out to the war with four legions and a great Roman cavalry and with 1,000 chosen Campanian horsemen, sent to that war, and with an army of the allies and of the Latin name greater than the Roman, two other armies were posted not far from the city, on the Etrurian side, one in the Faliscan, the other in the Vatican territory. Cn. Fulvius and L. Postumius Megellus, both propraetors, were ordered to hold stationary camps in those places.

[27] Consules ad hostes transgresso Appennino in agrum Sentinatem pervenerunt; ibi quattuor milium ferme intervallo castra posita. Inter hostes deinde consultationes habitae atque ita convenit ne unis castris miscerentur omnes neue in aciem descenderet simul; Samnitibus Galli, Etruscis Umbri adiecti. Dies indicta pugnae; Samniti Gallisque delegata pugna; inter ipsum certamen Etrusci Umbrique iussi castra Romana oppugnare.

[27] The consuls, with the Apennine crossed, came into the Sentinate territory; there the camps were pitched at an interval of about four miles. Then consultations were held among the enemies, and it was agreed thus that they should not all be mingled in one camp nor descend into the battle-line together; to the Samnites the Gauls were added, to the Etruscans the Umbrians. A day was proclaimed for battle; the combat was assigned to the Samnites and Gauls; during the very contest the Etruscans and Umbrians were ordered to assault the Roman camp.

Haec consilia turbarunt transfugae Clusini tres clam nocte ad Fabium consulem transgressi, qui editis hostium consiliis dimissi cum donis, ut subinde ut quaeque res noua decreta esset exploratum perferrent. Consules Fulvio ut ex Falisco, Postumio ut ex Vaticano exercitum ad Clusium admoveant summaque vi fines hostium depopulentur, scribunt. Huius populationis fama Etruscos ex agro Sentinate ad suos fines tuendos movit.

These counsels were thrown into confusion by three Clusine deserters, who by night secretly crossed over to the consul Fabius; after divulging the enemy’s plans they were dismissed with gifts, so that, from time to time, whenever any fresh measure was decreed, they might carry back intelligence after reconnaissance. The consuls write to Fulvius to move the army from the Faliscan country, and to Postumius to move it from the Vatican, to Clusium, and with the utmost force to lay waste the enemy’s borders. The report of this devastation moved the Etruscans from the territory of Sentinum to defend their own frontiers.

Instare inde consules, ut absentibus iis pugnaretur. Per biduum lacessiere proelio hostem; biduo nihil dignum dictu actum; pauci utrimque cecidere, magisque inritati sunt ad iustum certamen animi quam ad discrimen summa rerum adducta. Tertio die descensum in campum omnibus copiis est.

Then the consuls pressed on, so that, with them absent, battle might be fought. For two days they provoked the enemy to combat; in those two days nothing worthy of mention was done; a few fell on both sides, and the spirits were more irritated toward a pitched contest than was the sum of affairs brought to a decision. On the third day they descended into the plain with all their forces.

Cum instructae acies starent, cerva fugiens lupum e montibus exacta per campos inter duas acies decurrit; inde diversae ferae, cerva ad Gallos, lupus ad Romanos cursum deflexit. Lupo data inter ordines via; cervam Galli confixere. Tum ex antesignanis Romanus miles "illac fuga" inquit "et caedes vertit, ubi sacram Dianae feram iacentem videtis; hinc victor Martius lupus, integer et intactus, gentis nos Martiae et conditoris nostri admonuit."

When the drawn-up battle-lines were standing, a hind fleeing a wolf, driven out from the mountains, ran down through the fields between the two battle-lines; then the diverse wild beasts deflected their course: the hind to the Gauls, the wolf to the Romans. A way was given to the wolf between the ranks; the Gauls transfixed the hind. Then from the front-ranks a Roman soldier said, "That way flight and slaughter will turn, where you see the sacred beast of Diana lying; from here the victorious Martial wolf, whole and intact, has reminded us of our Martial race and of our founder."

Dextro cornu Galli, sinistro Samnites constiterunt. Adversus Samnites Q. Fabius primam ac tertiam legionem pro dextro cornu, adversus Gallos pro sinistro Decius quintam et sextam instruxit; secunda et quarta cum L. Volumnio proconsule in Samnio gerebant bellum. Primo concursu adeo aequis viribus gesta res est ut, si adfuissent Etrusci et Umbri aut in acie aut in castris, qvocumque se inclinassent, accipienda clades fuerit.

On the right wing the Gauls took their stand, on the left the Samnites. Against the Samnites, Quintus Fabius drew up the 1st and 3rd legions for the right wing; against the Gauls, for the left, Decius drew up the 5th and 6th; the 2nd and 4th were waging war in Samnium with Lucius Volumnius, proconsul. At the first clash the action was conducted with such equal forces that, if the Etruscans and Umbrians had been present either in the battle-line or in the camp, to whichever side they had inclined, a defeat would have had to be accepted.

[28] Ceterum quamquam communis adhuc Mars belli erat necdum discrimen fortuna fecerat qua datura vires esset, haudquaquam similis pugna in dextro laevoque cornu erat. Romani apud Fabium arcebant magis quam inferebant pugnam extrahebaturque in quam maxime serum diei certamen, quia ita persuasum erat duci et Samnites et Gallos primo impetu feroces esse, quos sustinere satis sit; longiore certamine sensim residere Samnitium animos, Gallorum quidem etiam corpora intolerantissima laboris atque aestus fluere, primaque eorum proelia plus quam virorum, postrema minus quam feminarum esse. In id tempus igitur, quo vinci solebat hostis, quam integerrimas vires militi servabat.

[28] However, although the Mars of the war was still common and Fortune had not yet made a crisis as to where she would give strength, by no means was the fight alike on the right and left wing. The Romans under Fabius were warding off the battle rather than bringing it in, and the contest was being drawn out into as late an hour of the day as possible, because the commander was persuaded that both the Samnites and the Gauls are fierce in the first onset, whom it is enough to withstand; in a longer contest the spirits of the Samnites sink little by little, while the bodies of the Gauls, most intolerant of toil and heat, even melt away, and their first battles are more than those of men, their last less than those of women. Therefore for that time at which the enemy was accustomed to be conquered, he kept the soldiers’ strength as intact as possible.

Ferocior Decius et aetate et vigore animi, quantumcumque virium habuit certamine primo effudit. Et quia lentior videbatur pedestris pugna, equitatum in pugnam concitat et ipse fortissimae iuvenum turmae immixtus orat proceres iuventutis, in hostem ut secum impetum faciant: duplicem illorum gloriam fore, si ab laevo cornu et ab equite victoria incipiat. Bis avertere Gallicum equitatum; iterum longius evectos et iam inter media peditum agmina proelium cientes novum pugnae conterruit genus; essedis carrisque superstans armatus hostis ingenti sonitu equorum rotarumque advenit et insolitos eius tumultus Romanorum conterruit equos.

Decius, more ferocious both in age and in vigor of spirit, poured out, in the first encounter, whatever strength he had. And because the pedestrian—i.e., infantry—fight seemed slower, he spurred the cavalry into battle, and he himself, mingled with the bravest squadron of the youths, beseeches the nobles of the youth to make an assault upon the enemy with him: their glory would be double, if victory should begin from the left wing and from the cavalry. Twice they drove back the Gallic horse; but when, carried farther a second time and now calling the fight amid the very ranks of the infantry, a new kind of combat terrified them: the enemy, armed and standing upon war-chariots and wagons, came with the immense din of horses and wheels, and the unusual tumults of it frightened the horses of the Romans.

Ita victorem equitatum velut lymphaticus pavor dissipat; sternit inde ruentes equos virosque improvida fuga. Turbata hinc etiam signa legionum multique impetu equorum ac vehiculorum raptorum per agmen obtriti antesignani; et insecuta, simul territos hostes vidit, Gallica acies nullum spatium respirandi recipiendique se dedit. Vociferari Decius quo fugerent quamue in fuga spem haberent; obsistere cedentibus ac revocare fusos; deinde, ut nulla vi perculsos sustinere poterat, patrem P. Decium nomine compellans, "quid ultra moror" inquit "familiare fatum?

Thus, a frenzied panic scatters the victorious cavalry; then heedless flight lays low the horses and the men who were rushing forward. From this, too, the standards of the legions were thrown into disorder, and many front-rankers were crushed by the onrush of horses and of vehicles swept through the column; and the Gallic battle-line, following up, as soon as it saw the enemy terrified, granted no space for breathing or for recovering themselves. Decius kept shouting where they were fleeing, or what hope they had in flight; he tried to stand in the way of those giving ground and to call back the routed; then, since by no force could he sustain men who were smitten, addressing his father P. Decius by name, he said, “Why do I any longer delay the familiar fate?”

Datum hoc nostro generi est ut luendis periculis publicis piacula simus. Iam ego mecum hostium legiones mactandas Telluri ac Dis Manibus dabo."

It is granted to our line that we be piacular offerings for the expiation of public perils. Now I will devote, along with myself, the legions of the enemy to Earth and to the Di Manes, to be sacrificed."

Haec locutus M. Livium pontificem, quem descendens in aciem digredi vetuerat ab se, praeire iussit verba quibus se legionesque hostium pro exercitu populi Romani Quiritium devoveret. Devotus inde eadem precatione eodemque habitu quo pater P. Decius ad Veserim bello Latino se iusserat devoveri, cum secundum sollemnes precationes adiecisset prae se agere sese formidinem ac fugam caedemque ac cruorem, caelestium inferorum iras, contacturum funebribus diris signa tela arma hostium, locumque eundem suae pestis ac Gallorum ac Samnitium fore,—haec exsecratus in se hostesque, qua confertissimam cernebat Gallorum aciem, concitat equum inferensque se ipse infestis telis est interfectus.

Having spoken these things, he ordered M. Livius the pontifex—whom, as he was descending into the battle line, he had forbidden to depart from him—to prompt the words by which he might devote himself and the legions of the enemy for the army of the Roman People, the Quirites. Then, devoted with the same prayer and in the same garb in which his father, P. Decius, at the Veseris in the Latin War had ordered himself to be devoted, when, in accordance with the solemn prayers, he had added that he was driving before him fear and flight, slaughter and blood, the wrath of the celestial and infernal gods; that he would touch with funereal dire curses the standards, missiles, and arms of the enemy; and that the same place would be the site of destruction for himself and for the Gauls and the Samnites,—having imprecated these things upon himself and the foes, where he saw the most crowded line of the Gauls, he spurred his horse, and, thrusting himself in, was himself slain by hostile weapons.

[29] Vix humanae inde opis videri pugna potuit. Romani duce amisso, quae res terrori alias esse solet, sistere fugam ac nouam de integro velle instaurare pugnam; Galli et maxime globus circumstans consulis corpus velut alienata mente vana in cassum iactare tela; torpere quidam et nec pugnae meminisse nec fugae. At ex parte altera pontifex Livius, cui lictores Decius tradiderat iusseratque pro praetore esse, vociferari vicisse Romanos defunctos consulis fato; Gallos Samnitesque Telluris Matris ac Deorum Manium esse; rapere ad se ac vocare Decium devotam secum aciem furiarumque ac formidinis plena omnia ad hostes esse.

[29] From there the battle could scarcely seem of human agency. The Romans, with their leader lost—which thing is wont otherwise to be a cause of terror—checked their flight and wanted to renew the fight afresh; the Gauls, and especially the mass surrounding the consul’s body, as if with a mind alienated, were hurling their missiles idly and to no purpose; some were benumbed and remembered neither fighting nor flight. But on the other side the pontifex Livius, to whom Decius had handed over the lictors and had ordered to be in place of a praetor, cried out that the Romans had won through the fate fulfilled of the consul; that the Gauls and Samnites belonged to Mother Earth and to the Gods of the Manes; that Decius was snatching to himself and summoning the line devoted along with him, and that all things were full of Furies and Fear for the enemies.

Superveniunt deinde his restituentibus pugnam L. Cornelius Scipio et C. Marcius, cum subsidiis ex novissima acie iussu Q. Fabi consulis ad praesidium collegae missi. Ibi auditur P. Deci eventus, ingens hortamen ad omnia pro re publica audenda. Itaque cum Galli structis ante se scutis conferti starent nec facilis pede conlato videretur pugna, iussu legatorum collecta humi pila, quae strata inter duas acies iacebant, atque in testudinem hostium coniecta; quibus plerisque in scuta verutisque raris in corpora ipsa fixis sternitur cuneus ita ut magna pars integris corporibus attoniti conciderent.

Then, while these were restoring the fight, Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Gaius Marcius arrive, with reserves from the rearmost line, sent by order of Quintus Fabius the consul to the protection of their colleague. There the outcome of Publius Decius is heard—a huge encouragement to dare everything for the commonwealth. And so, since the Gauls stood packed with shields arrayed before them and the fight did not seem easy at close quarters, by command of the legates the pila, which lay strewn between the two battle lines, were gathered from the ground and hurled into the enemy’s testudo; with most of these fixed in the shields, and the veruta only rarely in the bodies themselves, the wedge was laid low, so that a great part, their bodies uninjured, fell down stunned.

Haec in sinistro cornu Romanorum fortuna variaverat.

Thus, on the Romans’ left wing, fortune had fluctuated.

Fabius in dextro primo, ut ante dictum est, cunctando extraxerat diem; dein, postquam nec clamor hostium nec impetus nec tela missa eandem vim habere visa, praefectis equitum iussis ad latus Samnitium circumducere alas, ut signo dato in transversos quanto maximo possent impetu incurrerent, sensim suos signa inferre iussit et commovere hostem. Postquam non resisti vidit et haud dubiam lassitudinem esse, tum collectis omnibus subsidiis, quae ad id tempus reservaverat, et legiones concitavit et signum ad invadendos hostes equitibus dedit. Nec sustinuerunt Samnites impetum praeterque aciem ipsam Gallorum relictis in dimicatione sociis ad castra effuso cursu ferebantur: Galli testudine facta conferti stabant.

Fabius on the right at first, as said before, by delaying drew out the day; then, after neither the shout of the enemy nor their impetus nor the missiles hurled seemed to have the same force, having ordered the prefects of cavalry to lead the wings around to the flank of the Samnites, so that, when the signal was given, they might charge into their side with the greatest impetus they could, he gradually ordered his men to bring up the standards and to stir the enemy. After he saw that there was no resistance and that there was an unmistakable fatigue, then, gathering all the reserves which he had kept until that time, he set the legions in motion and gave the signal to the horsemen to invade the enemy. The Samnites did not withstand the attack, and, past even the very battle-line of the Gauls, leaving their allies in the struggle, they were carried at a headlong run toward the camp: the Gauls, a tortoise having been made, stood packed.

Tum Fabius audita morte collegae Campanorum alam, quingentos fere equites, excedere acie iubet et circumvectos ab tergo Gallicam invadere aciem; tertiae deinde legionis subsequi principes et, qua turbatum agmen hostium viderent impetu equitum, instare ac territos caedere. Ipse aedem Iovi Victori spoliaque hostium cum vovisset, ad castra Samnitium perrexit, quo multitudo omnis consternata agebatur. Sub ipso vallo, quia tantam multitudinem portae non recepere, temptata ab exclusis turba suorum pugna est; ibi Gellius Egnatius, imperator Samnitium, cecidit; compulsi deinde intra vallum Samnites parvoque certamine capta castra et Galli ab tergo circumventi.

Then Fabius, on hearing of his colleague’s death, orders the Campanian wing, about five hundred horsemen, to leave the battle-line and, having ridden around, to attack the Gallic line from the rear; then he bids the principes of the Third Legion to follow up and, wherever they should see the enemy’s column thrown into turmoil by the cavalry’s charge, to press them and cut down the terrified. He himself, after vowing a temple to Jupiter Victor and the spoils of the enemy, proceeded to the camp of the Samnites, whither the whole multitude, panic-stricken, was being driven. Under the very rampart, because the gates could not admit so great a multitude, an engagement was attempted by a crowd of their own who were shut out; there Gellius Egnatius, commander of the Samnites, fell; then the Samnites were forced within the rampart, and with little struggle the camp was taken, and the Gauls were surrounded from the rear.

Caesa eo die hostium viginti quinque milia, octo capta; nec incruenta victoria fuit; nam ex P. Deci exercitu caesa septem milia, ex Fabi mille septingenti. Fabius dimissis ad quaerendum collegae corpus spolia hostium coniecta in aceruum Iovi Victori cremavit. Consulis corpus eo die, quia obrutum superstratis Gallorum cumulis erat, inveniri non potuit; postero die inventum relatumque est cum multis militum lacrimis.

On that day twenty-five thousand of the enemy were cut down, eight thousand captured; nor was the victory bloodless, for from Publius Decius’s army seven thousand were slain, from Fabius’s one thousand seven hundred. Fabius, after sending men to search for his colleague’s body, burned to Jupiter Victor the spoils of the enemy, heaped together in a pile. The consul’s body that day could not be found, because it was buried under heaps of Gauls piled above; on the following day it was found and borne back with many tears of the soldiers.

Intermissa inde omnium aliarum rerum cura Fabius collegae funus omni honore laudibusque meritis celebrat.

Thereupon, with the care of all other matters set aside, Fabius celebrated his colleague’s funeral with every honor and with praises deserved.

[30] Et in Etruria per eosdem dies ab Cn. Fulvio propraetore res ex sententia gesta et praeter ingentem inlatam populationibus agrorum hosti cladem pugnatum etiam egregie est Perusinorumque et Clusinorum caesa amplius milia tria et signa militaria ad viginti capta. Samnitium agmen cum per Paelignum agrum fugeret, circumventum a Paelignis est; ex milibus quinque ad mille caesi.

[30] And in Etruria, during those same days, under Gnaeus Fulvius the propraetor, the affair was carried through to satisfaction; and besides the huge calamity inflicted upon the enemy by depredations of their fields, there was also excellent fighting, and of the Perusini and the Clusini more than three thousand were cut down, and about twenty military standards were captured. The column of the Samnites, when it was fleeing through the territory of the Paeligni, was surrounded by the Paeligni; of five thousand, about a thousand were slain.

Magna eius diei, quo in Sentinati agro bellatum, fama est etiam vero stanti; sed superiecere quidam augendo fidem, qui in hostium exercitu peditum sexiens centena milia, equitum sex et quadraginta milia, mille carpentorum scripsere fuisse, scilicet cum Umbris Tuscisque, quos et ipsos pugnae adfuisse; et ut Romanorum quoque augerent copias, L. Volumnium pro consule ducem consulibus exercitumque eius legionibus consulum adiciunt. In pluribus annalibus duorum ea consulum propria victoria est, Volumnius in Samnio interim res gerit Samnitiumque exercitum in Tifernum montem compulsum, non deterritus iniquitate loci, fundit fugatque.

Great is the renown of that day on which battle was fought in the Sentinate field, even when one stands by the truth; but some have overlaid it by enlarging for credence, who wrote that in the enemy’s army there were infantry 600,000, cavalry 46,000, and 1,000 wagons—of course with Umbrians and Tuscans, whom they also assert to have been present at the fight; and, that they might augment the Romans’ forces as well, they add Lucius Volumnius, proconsul, as a commander to the consuls and append his army to the consuls’ legions. In most annals that victory is the peculiar achievement of the two consuls; Volumnius meanwhile conducts operations in Samnium and, the army of the Samnites having been driven onto Mount Tifernus, not deterred by the disadvantage of the ground, he routs and puts them to flight.

Q. Fabius Deciano exercitu relicto in Etruriae praesidio, suis legionibus deductis ad urbem de Gallis Etruscisque ac Samnitibus triumphavit. Milites triumphantem secuti sunt. Celebrata inconditis militaribus non magis victoria Q. Fabi quam mors praeclara P. Deci est excitataque memoria parentis, aequata eventu publico privatoque, filii laudibus.

Q. Fabius, with the Decian army left in Etruria as a garrison, having led his own legions down to the city, triumphed over the Gauls, Etruscans, and Samnites. The soldiers followed him as he triumphed. The celebration, in unpolished military songs, commemorated not so much the victory of Q. Fabius as the illustrious death of P. Decius; and the memory of the father was aroused, matched in public and private outcome by the son’s praises.

Data ex praeda militibus aeris octogeni bini sagaque et tunicae, praemia illa tempestate militiae haudquaquam spernenda.

From the booty there were given to the soldiers eighty asses apiece, and military cloaks and tunics—rewards of military service at that time by no means to be scorned.

[31] His ita rebus gestis nec in Samnitibus adhuc nec in Etruria pax erat; nam et Perusinis auctoribus post deduc tum ab consule exercitum rebellatum fuerat et Samnites praedatum in agrum Vescinum Formianumque et parte alia in Aeserninum quaeque Volturno adiacent flumini descendere. Adversus eos Ap. Claudius praetor cum exercitu Deciano missus. Fabius in Etruria rebellante denuo quattuor milia et quingentos Perusinorum occidit, cepit ad mille septingentos quadraginta, qui redempti singuli aeris trecentis decem; praeda alia omnis militibus concessa.

[31] With affairs thus conducted, neither among the Samnites as yet nor in Etruria was there peace; for, at the instigation of the Perusians, after the army had been led away by the consul, there was a renewed rebellion; and the Samnites descended to plunder into the Vescine and Formian territory, and in another quarter into the Aesernian country and to the places that lie adjacent to the river Volturnus. Against them Appius Claudius the praetor was sent with the Decian army. Fabius, Etruria rebelling anew, slew four thousand and five hundred of the Perusians, took one thousand seven hundred and forty prisoners, who were ransomed each at three hundred and ten asses; all other booty was granted to the soldiers.

Samnitium legiones, cum partem Ap. Claudius praetor, partem L. Volumnius pro consule sequeretur, in agrum Stellatem convenerunt; ibi ad Caiatiam omnes considunt et Appius Volumniusque castra coniungunt. Pugnatum infestissimis animis, hinc ira stimulante adversus rebellantes totiens, illinc ab ultima iam dimicantibus spe. Caesa ergo Samnitium sedecim milia trecenti, capta duo milia septingenti; ex Romano exercitu cecidere duo milia septingenti.

When the legions of the Samnites—part of them being pursued by Appius Claudius the praetor, part by Lucius Volumnius the proconsul—converged into the Stellate territory, there at Caiatia they all took up position, and Appius and Volumnius joined their camps. The fighting was with the most hostile animus: on this side, anger goading them against those so often rebelling; on that side, men contending now with last hope. Accordingly, of the Samnites 16,300 were cut down, 2,700 taken; from the Roman army 2,700 fell.

Felix annus bellicis rebus, pestilentia gravis prodigiisque sollicitus; nam et terram multifariam pluvisse et in exercitu Ap. Claudi plerosque fulminibus ictos nuntiatum est; librique ob haec aditi. Eo anno Q. Fabius Gurges consulis filius aliquot matronas ad populum stupri damnatas pecunia multavit; ex multaticio aere Veneris aedem quae prope Circum est faciendam curavit.

A fortunate year in warlike affairs, heavy with pestilence and made anxious by prodigies; for it was reported both that earth had rained in many places and that, in the army of Ap. Claudius, many were struck by lightning; and the Books were consulted on account of these things. In that year Q. Fabius Gurges, the consul’s son, mulcted in money several matrons who had been condemned before the people for unchastity; from the fine-money (mulct), he saw to the building of a temple of Venus which is near the Circus.

Supersunt etiam nunc Samnitium bella, quae continua per quartum iam volumen annumque sextum et quadragesimum a M. Valerio A. Cornelio consulibus, qui primi Samnio arma intulerunt, agimus; et ne tot annorum clades utriusque gentis laboresque actos nunc referam, quibus nequiverint tamen dura illa pectora vinci, proximo anno Samnites in Sentinati agro, in Paelignis, ad Tifernum, Stellatibus campis, suis ipsi legionibus, mixti alienis, ab quattuor exercitibus, quattuor ducibus Romanis caesi fuerant; imperatorem clarissimum gentis suae amiserant; socios belli, Etruscos, Umbros, Gallos, in eadem fortuna videbant qua ipsi erant; nec suis nec externis viribus iam stare poterant, tamen bello non abstinebant. Adeo ne infeliciter quidem defensae libertatis taedebat et vinci quam non temptare victoriam malebant. Quinam sit ille quem pigeat longinquitatis bellorum scribendo legendoque quae gerentes non fatigaverunt?

Even now the wars of the Samnites remain, which we have been handling continuously through now the fourth volume and the forty-sixth year from the consuls Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, who were the first to bring arms into Samnium; and so that I do not now recount the disasters of so many years and the labors undergone by both peoples, by which yet those hard hearts could not be conquered, in the previous year the Samnites, in the Sentinate territory, among the Paeligni, at Tifernum, in the Stellate plains, with their own legions themselves, mingled with outsiders, were cut down by four armies, under four Roman commanders; they had lost the most illustrious general of their nation; their allies in war—the Etruscans, Umbrians, Gauls—they saw in the same fortune in which they themselves were; by neither their own nor foreign forces could they now stand, yet they did not abstain from war. To such a degree that they were not even weary of a liberty defended unhappily, and they preferred to be conquered rather than not to attempt victory. Who, then, is there whom the long duration of wars would weary in writing and reading, which did not tire the men who were waging them?

[32] Q. Fabium P. Decium L. Postumius Megellus et M. Atilius Regulus consules secuti sunt. Samnium ambobus decreta provincia est, quia tres scriptos hostium exercitus, uno Etruriam, altero populationes Campaniae repeti, tertium tuendis parari finibus, fama erat. Postumium valetudo adversa Romae tenuit; Atilius extemplo profectus, ut in Samnio hostes—ita enim placuerat patribus—nondum egressos opprimeret.

[32] Q. Fabius, P. Decius, L. Postumius Megellus, and M. Atilius Regulus followed as consuls. Samnium was decreed as the province to both, because there was a report that three armies of the enemy had been enrolled, one to re-enter Etruria, another to renew the depredations of Campania, a third to be prepared for defending their borders. Adverse health kept Postumius at Rome; Atilius set out immediately, in order to crush the enemy in Samnium—not yet gone forth—for so it had pleased the Fathers.

Velut ex composito ibi obvium habuere hostem, ubi et intrare ipsi Samnitium agrum prohiberentur et egredi inde in pacata sociorumque populi Romani fines Samnitem prohiberent. Cum castra castris conlata essent, quod vix Romanus totiens victor auderet, ausi Samnites sunt —tantum desperatio ultima temeritatis facit—castra Romana oppugnare, et quamquam non venit ad finem tam audax inceptum, tamen haud omnino vanum fuit. Nebula erat ad multum diei densa adeo ut lucis usum eriperet non prospectu modo extra vallum adempto sed propinquo etiam congredientium inter se conspectu.

As if by prearrangement, they there met the enemy, where both they themselves were being prohibited from entering the Samnite land, and the Samnite was being prohibited from going out thence into the pacified borders of the allies of the Roman people. With camp set against camp, the Samnites dared —so much does last desperation make for temerity—assault the Roman camp; and although so audacious an undertaking did not come to its completion, yet it was not altogether vain. There was a fog for much of the day, dense to such a degree that it snatched away the use of the light, with not only the prospect beyond the rampart taken, but even the near-at-hand sight of those engaging with one another.

Hac velut latebra insidiarum freti Samnites vixdum satis certa luce et eam ipsam premente caligine ad stationem Romanam in porta segniter agentem vigilias perveniunt. Improviso oppressis nec animi satis ad resistendum nec virium fuit. Ab tergo castrorum decumana porta impetus factus; itaque captum quaestorium quaestorque ibi L. Opimius Pansa occisus.

Relying on this, as it were, a hiding-place of ambush, the Samnites, with the light scarcely yet sure and that very light pressed by gloom, came up to the Roman station at the gate, sluggishly conducting the watches. Taken by surprise and overwhelmed, they had neither spirit enough to resist nor strength. From the rear of the camp an assault was made at the decuman gate; and so the quaestorian headquarters were captured, and the quaestor there, L. Opimius Pansa, was slain.

Conclamatum inde ad arma.

Then a cry to arms was raised.

[33] Consul tumultu excitus cohortes duas sociorum, Lucanam Suessanamque, quae proximae forte erant, tueri praetorium iubet; manipulos legionum principali via inducit. Vixdum satis aptatis armis in ordines eunt et clamore magis quam oculis hostem noscunt nec quantus numerus sit aestimari potest. Cedunt primo incerti fortunae suae et hostem introrsum in media castra accipiunt; inde, cum consul vociferaretur expulsine extra vallum castra deinde sua oppugnaturi essent [rogitans], clamore sublato conixi primo resistunt, deinde inferunt pedem urgentque et impulsos semel terrore eodem [agunt] quo coeperunt expellunt extra portam vallumque.

[33] The consul, roused by the tumult, orders two cohorts of the allies, the Lucanian and the Suessanian, which by chance were nearest, to guard the praetorium; he leads the maniples of the legions into the principal street. Hardly with their arms sufficiently fitted do they go into ranks, and they recognize the enemy more by clamor than by their eyes, nor can it be estimated how great the number is. They give way at first, uncertain of their fortune, and admit the enemy inward into the middle of the camp; then, when the consul kept vociferating, [asking] whether, if they did not drive them out beyond the rampart, thereafter their own camp would be under assault, a shout having been raised, straining, at first they resist, then they advance, press hard, and, once they have driven them back, with the same terror they [drive] as they had begun they expel them beyond the gate and the rampart.

Inde pergere ac persequi, quia turbida lux metum circa insidiarum faciebat, non ausi, liberatis castris contenti receperunt se intra vallum trecentis ferme hostium occisis. Romanorum stationis primae [vigiliumque] et eorum qui circa quaestorium oppressi periere ad septingentos triginta.

From there to go on and to pursue, because the turbid light was creating fear of ambushes on every side, they did not dare; content with the camp having been freed, they withdrew within the rampart, with about three hundred of the enemy slain. Of the Romans, of the first station [and of the watches], and of those who were overpowered around the quaestorium, there perished to the number of seven hundred thirty.

Animos inde Samnitibus non infelix audacia auxit et non modo proferre inde castra Romanum sed ne pabulari quidem per agros suos patiebantur; retro in pacatum Soranum agrum pabulatores ibant. Quarum rerum fama, tumultuosior etiam quam res erant, perlata Romam coegit L. Postumium consulem vixdum validum proficisci ex urbe. Prius tamen quam exiret militibus edicto Soram iussis convenire ipse aedem Victoriae, quam aedilis curulis ex multaticia pecunia faciendam curaverat, dedicavit.

Then a not unsuccessful audacity augmented the spirits of the Samnites, and they permitted the Roman neither to advance his camp from there nor even to forage through their fields; the foragers were going back into the pacified Soranian country. The report of these things—more tumultuous even than the facts—carried to Rome compelled L. Postumius, the consul, scarcely yet sound, to set out from the city. Before, however, he departed, the soldiers having by edict been ordered to assemble at Sora, he himself dedicated the Temple of Victory, which, when curule aedile, he had taken care to have built from money derived from fines.

Ita ad exercitum profectus, ab Sora in Samnium ad castra collegae perrexit. Inde postquam Samnites diffisi duobus exercitibus resisti posse recesserunt, diversi consules ad vastandos agros urbesque oppugnandas discedunt.

Thus, having set out to the army, from Sora into Samnium he proceeded to his colleague’s camp. Then, after the Samnites, distrusting that it was possible to resist two armies, withdrew, the consuls, in different directions, depart to devastate the fields and to assault the cities.

[34] Postumius Milioniam oppugnare adortus vi primo atque impetu, dein postquam ea parum procedebant opere ac vineis demum iniunctis muro cepit. Ibi capta iam urbe ab hora quarta usque ad octavam fere horam omnibus partibus urbis diu incerto eventu pugnatum est; postremo potitur oppido Romanus. Samnitium caesi tria milia ducenti, capti quattuor milia septingenti praeter praedam aliam.

[34] Postumius, having begun to assault Milionia, at first by force and with an onset, then after these advanced too little, finally took it once siege-works and vineae (mantlets) had been applied to the wall. There, with the city now seized, from the fourth hour up to almost the eighth hour fighting was carried on in all parts of the city for a long time with the outcome uncertain; at last the Roman gains possession of the town. Of the Samnites, 3,200 were cut down; 4,700 were taken captive, besides other booty.

Inde Feritrum ductae legiones, unde oppidani cum omnibus rebus suis quae ferri agique potuerunt nocte per aversam portam silentio excesserunt. Igitur, simul advenit consul, primo ita compositus instructusque moenibus successit, tamquam idem quod ad Milioniam fuerat certaminis foret; deinde, ut silentium vastum in urbe nec arma nec viros in turribus ac muris vidit, avidum invadendi deserta moenia militem detinet, ne quam occultam in fraudem incautus rueret; duas turmas sociorum Latini nominis circumequitare moenia atque explorare omnia iubet. Equites portam unam alteramque eadem regione in propinquo patentes conspiciunt itineribusque iis vestigia nocturnae hostium fugae.

From there the legions were led to Feritrum, whence the townspeople, with all their goods which could be carried and driven, departed by night in silence through the back gate. Therefore, as soon as the consul arrived, at first thus composed and drawn up he advanced to the walls, as though the same kind of combat that had been at Milionia would be; then, when he saw a vast silence in the city, and neither arms nor men on the towers and walls, he restrains the soldier, eager to invade the deserted walls, lest, incautious, he should rush into some hidden fraud; he orders two troops of the allies of Latin name to ride around the walls and to explore everything. The horsemen see one gate and another standing open in the same quarter nearby, and on those roads the tracks of the enemy’s nocturnal flight.

Adequitant deinde sensim portis urbemque ex tuto rectis itineribus perviam conspiciunt et consuli referunt excessum urbe; solitudine haud dubia id perspicuum esse et recentibus vestigiis fugae ac strage rerum in trepidatione nocturna relictarum passim. His auditis consul ad eam partem urbis quam adierant equites circumducit agmen. Constitutis haud procul porta signis quinque equites iubet intrare urbem et modicum spatium progressos tres manere eodem loco si tuta videantur, duos explorata ad se referre.

Apace they ride up to the gates and discern that the city is passable from a safe approach by straight routes, and they report to the consul that there has been a departure from the city; that this is evident from the undoubted solitude, the fresh traces of flight, and the scattering everywhere of things left in nocturnal trepidation. On hearing this, the consul leads the column around to that part of the city which the horsemen (equites) had approached. With the standards set not far from the gate, he orders five horsemen to enter the city and, when they have advanced a short distance, three to remain in the same place if things seem safe, and two, after reconnoitering, to report back to him.

Qui ubi redierunt rettuleruntque eo se progressos unde in omnes partes circumspectus esset longe lateque silentium ac solitudinem vidisse, extemplo consul cohortes expeditas in urbem induxit, ceteros interim castra communire iussit. Ingressi milites refractis foribus paucos graves aetate aut invalidos inveniunt relictaque quae migratu difficilia essent. Ea direpta; et cognitum ex captivis est communi consilio aliquot circa urbes conscisse fugam; suos prima vigilia profectos; credere eandem in aliis urbibus solitudinem inventuros.

When they returned and reported that they had advanced to a point from which there was a prospect all around, that far and wide they had seen silence and solitude, at once the consul led light-armed cohorts into the city, and meanwhile ordered the rest to fortify the camp. The soldiers, having entered and the doors broken open, find a few burdened with age or invalids, and things left behind which would be difficult to carry in migration. These were plundered; and it was learned from captives that by common counsel several cities round about had taken to flight; that their own had set out at the first watch; that they believed they would find the same solitude in other cities.

Dictis captivorum fides exstitit; desertis oppidis consul potitur.

The captives’ statements proved true; with the towns deserted, the consul gains possession.

[35] Alteri consuli M. Atilio nequaquam tam facile bellum fuit. Cum ad Luceriam duceret legiones quam oppugnari ab Samnitibus audierat, ad finem Lucerinum ei hostis obvius fuit. Ibi ira vires aequavit; proelium varium et anceps fuit, tristius tamen eventu Romanis, et quia insueti erant vinci et quia digredientes magis quam in ipso certamine senserunt quantum in sua parte plus volnerum ac caedis fuisset.

[35] For the other consul, Marcus Atilius, the war was by no means so easy. When he was leading the legions to Luceria, which he had heard was being besieged by the Samnites, the enemy met him at the Lucerian boundary. There, anger equalized the forces; the battle was various and in suspense, yet with an issue more grievous for the Romans, both because they were unaccustomed to be conquered and because, departing rather than in the very contest, they perceived how much more of wounds and slaughter had been on their side.

Itaque is terror in castris ortus, qui si pugnantes cepisset, insignis accepta clades foret; tum quoque sollicita nox fuit iam invasurum castra Samnitem credentibus aut prima luce cum victoribus conserendas manus. Minus cladis, ceterum non plus animorum ad hostes erat. Ubi primum inluxit, abire sine certamine cupiunt.

And so such a terror arose in the camp that, if it had seized them while they were fighting, a signal defeat would have been incurred; then too the night was anxious, as they believed the Samnite was now about to invade the camp, or at first light they must join hands with the victors. There was less disaster, yet no greater spirit against the foe. As soon as it grew light, they desire to depart without an encounter.

Sed via una et ea ipsa praeter hostes erat; qua ingressi praebuere speciem recta tendentium ad castra oppugnanda. Consul arma capere milites iubet et sequi se extra vallum; legatis, tribunis, praefectis sociorum imperat quod apud quemque facto opus est. Omnes adfirmant se quidem omnia facturos sed militum iacere animos; tota nocte inter volnera et gemitus morientium vigilatum esse; si ante lucem ad castra ventum foret, tantum pavoris fuisse ut relicturi signa fuerint; nunc pudore a fuga contineri, alioqui pro victis esse.

But there was only one route, and that very one was past the enemy; upon entering it they presented the appearance of men making straight for the camp to attack it. The consul orders the soldiers to take up arms and follow him outside the rampart; he commands the legates, tribunes, and prefects of the allies as to what is needed to be done by each at his post. All affirm that they indeed will do everything, but that the spirits of the soldiers are prostrate; that they have kept watch the whole night amid wounds and the groans of the dying; that, if the camp had been reached before daylight, there had been so much terror that they would have abandoned the standards; that now they are restrained from flight by shame, otherwise they are as good as defeated.

Quae ubi consul accepit, sibimet ipsi circumeundos adloquendosque milites ratus, ut ad quosque venerat, cunctantes arma capere increpabat: quid cessarent tergiuersarenturque? hostem in castra venturum nisi illi extra castra exissent, et pro tentoriis suis pugnaturos si pro vallo nollent. Armatis ac dimicantibus dubiam victoriam esse; qui nudus atque inermis hostem maneat, ei aut mortem aut seruitutem patiendam.

When the consul had received these things, thinking that he himself ought to go around and address the soldiers, as he came to each he rebuked those delaying to take up arms: why were they lingering and tergiversating? The enemy would come into the camp unless they went outside the camp, and they would fight before their own tents if they were unwilling to fight at the rampart. For those who are armed and fighting, victory is doubtful; he who, naked and unarmed, awaits the enemy must endure either death or servitude.

Haec iurganti increpantique respondebant confectos se pugna hesterna esse; nec virium quicquam nec sanguinis superesse; maiorem multitudinem hostium apparere quam pridie fuerit. Inter haec appropinquabat agmen; et iam breviore intervallo certiora intuentes vallum secum portare Samnitem adfirmant nec dubium esse quin castra circumvallaturi sint. Tunc enimvero consul indignum facinus esse vociferari tantam contumeliam ignominiamque ab ignavissimo accipi hoste.

They answered to the one wrangling and upbraiding that they were worn out by yesterday’s battle; that no strength nor blood remained; that a greater multitude of enemies appeared than there had been the day before. Meanwhile the column was approaching; and now, at a shorter interval, beholding clearer realities, they affirm that the Samnites are carrying the palisade with them and that there is no doubt they are about to circumvallate the camp. Then indeed the consul vociferates that it is an unworthy deed, that so great a contumely and ignominy is being received from the most cowardly enemy.

"Etiamne circumsedebimur" inquit "in castris, ut fame potius per ignominiam quam ferro, si necesse est, per virtutem moriamur?" Facerent—quod di bene verterent—quod se dignum quisque ducerent; consulem M. Atilium vel solum, si nemo alius sequatur, iturum adversus hostes casurumque inter signa Samnitium potius quam circumvallari castra Romana videat. Dicta consulis legati tribunique et omnes turmae equitum et centuriones primorum ordinum approbavere. Tum pudore victus miles segniter arma capit, segniter e castris egreditur longo agmine nec continenti; maesti ac prope victi procedunt adversus hostem nec spe nec animo certiorem.

"Shall we even be blockaded," he says, "in camp, so that we may die by hunger with ignominy rather than by iron, if it must be, with valor?" Let them do—may the gods turn it well—what each deems worthy of himself; the consul M. Atilius, even alone, if no one else should follow, will go against the enemies and will fall among the standards of the Samnites rather than see the Roman camp circumvallated. The words of the consul were approved by the legates and the tribunes and all the squadrons of cavalry and the centurions of the first ranks. Then, overcome by shame, the soldier sluggishly takes up arms, sluggishly goes forth from the camp in a long column and not a compact one; sad and almost conquered they advance against the enemy with no assurance either in hope or in spirit.

Itaque simul conspecta sunt Romana signa, extemplo a primo Samnitium agmine ad novissimum fremitus perfertur exire, id quod timuerint, ad impediendum iter Romanos; nullam inde ne fugae quidem patere viam; illo loco aut cadendum esse aut stratis hostibus per corpora eorum evadendum.

Therefore, as soon as the Roman standards were sighted, instantly a rumble is borne from the first column of the Samnites to the rearmost: that the Romans were coming out—the very thing they had feared—to impede their march; that from there no way lay open, not even for flight; that in that place either they must fall, or, the enemies strewn, escape over their bodies.

[36] In medium sarcinas coniciunt; armati suis quisque ordinibus instruunt aciem. Iam exiguum inter duas acies erat spatium, et stabant exspectantes, dum ab hostibus prius impetus, prius clamor inciperet. Neutris animus est ad pugnandum, diversique integri atque intacti abissent, ni cedenti instaturum alterum timuissent.

[36] They throw the baggage into the middle; the armed men array the battle-line, each in his own ranks. Already the space between the two battle-lines was scant, and they stood waiting until from the enemies the impetus, the clamor, should begin first. Neither side had the spirit for fighting, and they would have gone apart whole and intact, had they not feared that the other would press upon the one who yielded.

Sua sponte inter inuitos tergiversantesque segnis pugna clamore incerto atque impari coepit; nec vestigio quisquam movebatur.

Spontaneously, among the unwilling and tergiversating, a sluggish battle began with an uncertain and unequal clamor; and no one moved a step.

Tum consul Romanus, ut rem excitaret, equitum paucas turmas extra ordinem immisit; quorum cum plerique delapsi ex equis essent, et alii turbati et a Samnitium acie ad opprimendos eos qui ceciderant et ad suos tuendos ab Romanis procursum est. Inde paulum inritata pugna est; sed aliquanto et impigre magis et plures procurrerant Samnites et turbatus eques sua ipse subsidia territis equis proculcavit. Hinc fuga coepta totam avertit aciem Romanam; iamque in terga fugientium Samnites pugnabant, cum consul equo praevectus ad portam castrorum ac statione equitum ibi opposita edictoque ut quicumque ad vallum tenderet, sive ille Romanus sive Samnis esset, pro hoste haberent, haec ipse minitans obstitit profuse tendentibus suis in castra.

Then the Roman consul, to rouse the action, sent in a few squadrons of cavalry out of line; when most of them had slipped from their horses and others were disordered, there was a dash forward both from the Samnite battle line to crush those who had fallen and from the Romans to protect their own. Then the fight was a little stirred; but the Samnites had run forward both somewhat more briskly and in greater numbers, and the disordered cavalry trampled down their own reserves with their terrified horses. From here the begun flight turned the whole Roman line aside; and now the Samnites were fighting upon the backs of the fugitives, when the consul, riding forward to the gate of the camp, and with a cavalry post set there in opposition, and with an edict that whoever made for the rampart, whether he were Roman or Samnite, they should hold as an enemy, threatening these very things himself, stood in the way of his men pouring profusely into the camp.

"Quo pergis" inquit, "miles? Et hic arma et viros invenies nec viuo consule tuo nisi victor castra intrabis; proinde elige cum cive an hoste pugnare malis." Haec dicente consule equites infestis cuspidibus circumfunduntur ac peditem in pugnam redire iubent. Non virtus solum consulis sed fors etiam adiuvit, quod non institerunt Samnites spatiumque circumagendi signa vertendique aciem a castris in hostem fuit.

"Where are you heading," he says, "soldier? Here too you will find arms and men, and with your consul alive you will not enter the camp unless as victor; therefore choose whether you prefer to fight with a citizen or with an enemy." While the consul was saying these things, the cavalry poured around them with hostile spearpoints and ordered the infantry to return to the fight. Not the valor of the consul alone but chance also aided, in that the Samnites did not press on, and there was room to wheel the standards and turn the battle line from the camp against the enemy.

Tum alii alios hortari ut repeterent pugnam; centuriones ab signiferis rapta signa inferre et ostendere suis paucos et ordinibus incompositis effuse venire hostes. Inter haec consul manus ad caelum attollens voce clara, ita ut exaudiretur, templum Iovi Statori vovet, si constitisset a fuga Romana acies redintegratoque proelio cecidisset vicissetque legiones Samnitium. Omnes undique adnisi ad restituendam pugnam, duces, milites, peditum equitumque vis.

Then some urged others to renew the fight; the centurions to bear forward the standards snatched from the standard-bearers and to show their men that the enemy were few and, with ranks disordered, were pouring on in a loose flood. Meanwhile the consul, lifting his hands to heaven with a clear voice, so as to be heard, vows a temple to Jupiter Stator, if the Roman battle-line should halt from flight and, the battle being renewed, should cut down and conquer the legions of the Samnites. On all sides all strove to restore the fight—leaders, soldiers, the force of foot and of horse.

Numen etiam deorum respexisse nomen Romanum visum; adeo facile inclinata res repulsique a castris hostes, mox etiam redacti ad eum locum in quo commissa pugna erat. Ibi obiacente sarcinarum cumulo, quas coniecerant in medium, haesere impediti; deinde, ne diriperentur res, orbem armatorum sarcinis circumdant. Tum vero eos a fronte urgere pedites, ab tergo circumvecti equites; ita in medio caesi captique.

It seemed that the divinity of the gods had also regarded the Roman name; to such a degree the situation was easily tilted and the enemies were repulsed from the camp, soon even driven back to the place where the battle had been joined. There, with a heap of baggage lying in the way, which they had thrown into the middle, they stuck fast, impeded; then, lest their goods be plundered, they surround the baggage with a ring of armed men. Then indeed the infantry pressed them from the front, the cavalry, having ridden around, from the rear; thus in the middle they were cut down and captured.

Captivorum numerus fuit septem milium octingentorum, qui omnes nudi sub iugum missi; caesos rettulere ad quattuor milia octingentos. Ne Romanis quidem laeta victoria fuit; recensente consule biduo acceptam cladem amissorum militum numerus relatus septem milium octingentorum.

The number of captives was 7,800, all of whom, naked, were sent under the yoke; the slain they reported as 4,800. Not even for the Romans was the victory joyous; with the consul reviewing over two days the disaster that had been sustained, the number of soldiers lost was reported as 7,800.

Dum haec in Apulia gerebantur, altero exercitu Samnites Interamnam, coloniam Romanam, quae via Latina est, occupare conati urbem non tenuerunt; agros depopulati cum praedam aliam inde mixtam hominum atque pecudum colonosque captos agerent, in victorem incidunt consulem ab Luceria redeuntem nec praedam solum amittunt sed ipsi longo atque impedito agmine incompositi caeduntur. Consul Interamnam edicto dominis ad res suas noscendas recipiendasque revocatis et exercitu ibi relicto comitiorum causa Romam est profectus. Cui de triumpho agenti negatus honos et ob amissa tot milia militum et quod captivos sine pactione sub iugum misisset.

While these things were being transacted in Apulia, the Samnites with another army tried to seize Interamna, a Roman colony which is on the Via Latina, but did not hold the city; after ravaging the fields, as they were driving off from there a booty made up of a mixed lot of men and cattle and the colonists taken captive, they ran into the consul returning as victor from Luceria, and they not only lose the plunder, but they themselves, in a long and encumbered column and out of order, are cut down. The consul at Interamna, after by an edict he had recalled the owners to identify and recover their property, and having left the army there, set out for Rome for the sake of the elections. When he pressed for a triumph, the honor was denied him both on account of so many thousands of soldiers lost and because he had sent the captives under the yoke without terms.

[37] Consul alter Postumius, quia in Samnitibus materia belli deerat, <in> Etruriam transducto exercitu, primum pervastaverat Volsiniensem agrum; dein cum egressis ad tuendos fines haud procul moenibus ipsorum depugnat; duo milia octingenti Etruscorum caesi; ceteros propinquitas urbis tutata est. In Rusellanum agrum exercitus traductus; ibi non agri tantum vastati sed oppidum etiam expugnatum; capta amplius duo milia hominum, minus duo milia circa muros caesa. Pax tamen clarior maiorque quam bellum in Etruria eo anno fuerat parta est.

[37] The other consul, Postumius, because among the Samnites the material for war was lacking, after leading the army into Etruria, first thoroughly devastated the Volsinian territory; then, when they came out to defend their borders, he fought it out not far from their own walls: 2,800 Etruscans were cut down; the rest were protected by the nearness of the city. The army was led into the Rusellan territory; there not only were the fields laid waste, but the town too was taken by storm; more than 2,000 people were captured, fewer than 2,000 were cut down around the walls. Nevertheless, in Etruria that year a peace was achieved more illustrious and greater than the war.

Tres validissimae urbes, Etruriae capita, Volsinii, Perusia, Arretium, pacem petiere; et vestimentis militum frumentoque pacti cum consule, ut mitti Romam oratores liceret, indutias in quadraginta annos impetraverunt. Multa praesens quingentum milium aeris in singulas civitates imposita.

Three very powerful cities, the capitals of Etruria—Volsinii, Perusia, Arretium—sought peace; and, having bargained with the consul for the soldiers’ clothing and for grain, that it be permitted to send envoys to Rome, they obtained a truce for 40 years. An immediate fine of 500,000 asses in bronze was imposed on each city.

Ob hasce res gestas consul cum triumphum ab senatu moris magis causa quam spe impetrandi petisset videretque alios quod tardius ab urbe exisset, alios quod iniussu senatus ex Samnio in Etruriam transisset, partim suos inimicos, partim collegae amicos ad solacium aequatae repulsae sibi quoque negare triumphum, "non ita" inquit, "patres conscripti, vestrae maiestatis meminero ut me consulem esse obliviscar. Eodem iure imperii quo bella gessi, bellis feliciter gestis, Samnio atque Etruria subactis, victoria et pace parta triumphabo." Ita senatum reliquit. Inde inter tribunos plebis contentio orta; pars intercessuros ne novo exemplo triumpharet aiebat, pars auxilio se adversus collegas triumphanti futuros.

On account of these exploits the consul, when he had asked a triumph from the senate more for the sake of custom than with hope of obtaining it, and saw that some—because he had set out from the city too late—others—because he had crossed from Samnium into Etruria without the senate’s order—partly his own enemies, partly friends of his colleague, were denying a triumph to him also, as a solace of a repulse equalized, said: "Not so, Conscript Fathers, shall I be mindful of your majesty as to forget that I am consul. By the same right of imperium by which I waged the wars—since the wars have been successfully conducted, Samnium and Etruria subdued, victory and peace achieved—I will triumph." Thus he left the senate. Then a contention arose among the tribunes of the plebs: some said they would intercede lest he triumph by a novel precedent, others declared that they would be an aid to him, as he triumphed, against their colleagues.

Iactata res ad populum est vocatusque eo consul cum M. Horatium L. Valerium consules, C. Marcium Rutulum nuper, patrem eius qui tunc censor esset, non ex auctoritate senatus sed iussu populi triumphasse diceret, adiciebat se quoque laturum fuisse ad populum, ni sciret mancipia nobilium, tribunos plebis, legem impedituros; voluntatem sibi ac fauorem consentientis populi pro omnibus iussis esse ac futura; posteroque die auxilio tribunorum plebis trium adversus intercessionem septem tribunorum et consensum senatus celebrante populo diem triumphavit.

The matter was brought before the people, and the consul, summoned there, when he said that, when Marcus Horatius and Lucius Valerius were consuls, Gaius Marcius Rutulus, the father of him who then was censor, had triumphed not by the authority of the senate but by the order of the people, added that he too would have brought it to the people, if he did not know that the mere chattels of the nobles, the tribunes of the plebs, would block the bill; that the will and favor of a consenting people were, and would be, for him in place of all decrees; and on the following day, with the aid of three tribunes of the plebs, against the intercession of seven tribunes and the concurrence of the senate, with the people celebrating the day, he celebrated his triumph.

Et huius anni parum constans memoria est. Postumium auctor est Claudius in Samnio captis aliquot urbibus in Apulia fusum fugatumque saucium ipsum cum paucis Luceriam compulsum: ab Atilio in Etruria res gestas eumque triumphasse. Fabius ambo consules in Samnio et ad Luceriam res gessisse scribit traductumque in Etruriam exercitum —sed ab utro consule non adiecit—et ad Luceriam utrimque multos occisos inque ea pugna Iovis Statoris aedem votam, ut Romulus ante voverat; sed fanum tantum, id est locus templo effatus, fuerat; ceterum hoc demum anno ut aedem etiam fieri senatus iuberet bis eiusdem voti damnata re publica in religionem venit.

And the record of this year is not very consistent. Claudius, with Postumius as his authority, asserts that, after several cities were captured in Samnium, he was routed and put to flight in Apulia and, wounded himself, was driven with a few men to Luceria: that in Etruria operations were conducted by Atilius, and that he triumphed. Fabius writes that both consuls conducted operations in Samnium and at Luceria and that the army was led across into Etruria—though he did not add by which consul—and that at Luceria many were slain on both sides, and that in that battle a temple of Jupiter Stator was vowed, as Romulus had vowed before; but it had been only a fanum, that is, a place declared as templum; however, only in this year did the matter pass into religious obligation, that the senate should order a temple also to be built, the commonwealth having been twice bound by the same vow.

[38] Sequitur hunc annum et consul insignis, L. Papirius Cursor, qua paterna gloria, qua sua, et bellum ingens victoriaque quantam de Samnitibus nemo ad eam diem praeter L. Papirium patrem consulis pepererat. Et forte eodem conatu apparatuque omni opulentia insignium armorum bellum adornaverant; et deorum etiam adhibuerunt opes ritu quodam sacramenti vetusto velut initiatis militibus, dilectu per omne Samnium habito noua lege, ut qui iuniorum non convenisset ad imperatorum edictum quique iniussu abisset caput Iovi sacraretur. Tum exercitus omnis Aquiloniam est indictus.

[38] Following this year there comes also a distinguished consul, L. Papirius Cursor, by his father’s glory and by his own, and a vast war, and a victory such as over the Samnites no one up to that day had achieved save L. Papirius, the consul’s father. And by chance with the same exertion and with every preparation, with the opulence of splendid insignia of arms, they had adorned the war; and they even enlisted the powers of the gods by a certain rite of an ancient sacrament, as though the soldiers were initiated, a levy having been held through all Samnium by a new law: that whoever of the juniors had not convened at the edict of the commanders, and whoever had departed without orders, his head should be consecrated to Jupiter. Then the whole army was summoned to Aquilonia.

Ad sexaginta milia militum quod roboris in Samnio erat convenerunt.

About sixty thousand soldiers—the strength that was in Samnium—assembled.

Ibi mediis fere castris locus est consaeptus cratibus pluteisque et linteis contectus, patens ducentos maxime pedes in omnes pariter partes. Ibi ex libro vetere linteo lecto sacrificatum sacerdote Ouio Paccio quodam, homine magno natu, qui se id sacrum petere adfirmabat ex vetusta Samnitium religione, qua quondam usi maiores eorum fuissent cum adimendae Etruscis Capuae clandestinum cepissent consilium. Sacrificio perfecto per viatorem imperator acciri iubebat nobilissimum quemque genere factisque; singuli introducebantur.

There, almost in the middle of the camp, a place was fenced with hurdles and mantelets and covered with linen cloths, extending at most 200 feet equally in all directions. There, after a reading from an old linen book, sacrifice was performed by a certain priest, Ovius Paccius, a man of great age, who affirmed that he derived that sacred rite from the ancient religion of the Samnites, which their ancestors had once employed when they had undertaken a clandestine plan for taking Capua from the Etruscans. The sacrifice completed, the commander, through a viator, ordered that each of the noblest by lineage and deeds be summoned; they were introduced one by one.

Erat cum alius apparatus sacri qui perfundere religione animum posset, tum in loco circa omni contecto arae in medio victimaeque circa caesae et circumstantes centuriones strictis gladiis. Admovebatur altaribus magis ut victima quam ut sacri particeps adigebaturque iure iurando quae visa auditaque in eo loco essent non enuntiaturum. Iurare cogebant diro quodam carmine, in exsecrationem capitis familiaeque et stirpis composito, nisi isset in proelium quo imperatores duxissent et si aut ipse ex acie fugisset aut si quem fugientem vidisset non extemplo occidisset.

There was, besides, another apparatus of the sacred rite which could suffuse the mind with religion: the place all around was covered, the altar in the middle, victims slaughtered round about, and centurions standing around with drawn swords. He was brought up to the altars more as a victim than as a participant in the rite, and was driven by an oath not to divulge the things seen and heard in that place. They forced him to swear by a certain dire chant, composed into a curse upon his head, his family, and his stock, unless he should go into battle wherever the commanders led; and that, if either he himself should flee from the battle line, or if he should see anyone fleeing and not immediately kill him.

Id primo quidam abnuentes iuraturos se obtruncati circa altaria sunt; iacentes deinde inter stragem victimarum documento ceteris fuere ne abnuerent. Primoribus Samnitium ea detestatione obstrictis, decem nominatis ab imperatore, eis dictum, ut vir virum legerent donec sedecim milium numerum confecissent. Ea legio linteata ab integumento consaepti, <in> quo sacrata nobilitas erat, appellata est; his arma insignia data et cristatae galeae, ut inter ceteros eminerent.

At first certain men, refusing to swear, were cut down around the altars; lying then amid the slaughter of the victims, they were a document for the rest not to refuse. When the foremost of the Samnites had been bound by that execration, with ten named by the commander, it was said to them that man should choose man until they had completed the number of 16,000. That legion was called the Linteate from the covering of the enclosure, <in> which the consecrated nobility was; to these were given insignia arms and crested helmets, so that they might stand out among the others.

Paulo plus viginti milium alius exercitus fuit nec corporum specie nec gloria belli nec apparatu linteatae legioni dispar. Hic hominum numerus, quod roboris erat, <ad> Aquiloniam consedit.

There was another army of a little more than 20,000, not unequal to the linen-clad legion in physique, in the glory of war, or in apparatus. This number of men, which was the strength, encamped at Aquilonia.

[39] Consules profecti ab urbe, prior Sp. Carvilius, cui veteres legiones, quas M. Atilius superioris anni consul in agro Interamnati reliquerat, decretae erant. Cum eis in Samnium profectus, dum hostes operati superstitionibus concilia secreta agunt, Amiternum oppidum de Samnitibus vi cepit. Caesa ibi milia hominum duo ferme atque octingenti, capta quattuor milia ducenti septuaginta.

[39] The consuls set out from the city, Spurius Carvilius first, to whom the veteran legions, which Marcus Atilius, consul of the previous year, had left in the Interamnian countryside, had been assigned. Setting out with them into Samnium, while the enemy, occupied with superstitions, were holding secret councils, he took by force the town of Amiternum from the Samnites. About 2,800 men were cut down there, and 4,270 were captured.

Papirius novo exercitu—ita enim decretum erat—scripto Duroniam urbem expugnavit; minus quam collega cepit hominum, plus aliquanto occidit; praeda opulenta utrobique est parta. Inde pervagati Samnium consules maxime depopulato Atinate agro, Carvilius ad Cominium, Papirius ad Aquiloniam, ubi summa rei Samnitium erat, pervenit. Ibi aliquamdiu nec cessatum ab armis est neque naviter pugnatum; lacessendo quietos, resistentibus cedendo, comminandoque magis quam inferendo pugnam dies absumebatur.

Papirius, with a new army—so it had been decreed—levied, stormed the city of Duronia; he captured fewer men than his colleague, he killed somewhat more; opulent spoils were won in both places. Thence, the consuls, having overrun Samnium, with the Atinate countryside especially laid waste, Carvilius reached Cominium, Papirius Aquilonia, where the main weight of the Samnite cause was. There for some time there was neither a cessation from arms nor brisk fighting; by provoking the quiet, by yielding to those who resisted, and by threatening rather than bringing on a battle, the days were being consumed.

Quodcum <que Comini> inciperetur remittereturque, omnium rerum etiam paruarum eventus proferebatur in dies. Altera Romana castra [quae] viginti milium spatio aberant, et absentis collegae consilia omnibus gerendis intererant rebus; intentiorque Carvilius, quo in maiore discrimine res vertebatur, in Aquiloniam quam ad Cominium quod obsidebat erat.

Whatever <at Cominium> was begun and then relaxed, the event of all things, even very small ones, was being brought to light day by day. The other Roman camp [which] was at a distance of twenty miles, and the counsels of the absent colleague took part in every matter to be carried out; and Carvilius was more intent on Aquilonia than on Cominium, which he was besieging, because the affair was turning to a greater crisis there.

L. Papirius, iam per omnia ad dimicandum satis paratus, nuntium ad collegam mittit sibi in animo esse postero die, si per auspicia liceret, confligere cum hoste; opus esse et illum quanta maxima vi posset Cominium oppugnare, ne quid laxamenti sit Samnitibus ad subsidia Aquiloniam mittenda. Diem ad proficiscendum nuntius habuit; nocte rediit approbare collegam consulta referens. Papirius nuntio misso extemplo contionem habuit; multa de universo genere belli, multa de praesenti hostium apparatu, vana magis specie quam efficaci ad eventum, disseruit: non enim cristas volnera facere; et per picta atque aurata scuta transire Romanum pilum et candore tunicarum fulgentem aciem ubi res ferro geratur cruentari.

L. Papirius, now in all respects sufficiently prepared for fighting, sends a messenger to his colleague that it is in his mind on the next day, if the auspices should permit, to engage with the enemy; it was necessary that he too should assault Cominium with the greatest force he could, lest there be any relaxation for the Samnites for sending reinforcements to Aquilonia. The messenger had the day for setting out; at night he returned, reporting that his colleague approved the plans. Papirius, the messenger having been sent, immediately held an assembly; he discoursed much about the whole kind of the war, much about the present apparatus of the enemy, more vain in appearance than effectual for the outcome: for it is not crests that make wounds; and the Roman pilum goes through painted and gilded shields, and the line, gleaming with the whiteness of their tunics, is bloodied where the matter is carried on with iron.

Auream olim atque argenteam Samnitium aciem a parente suo occidione occisam spoliaque ea honestiora victori hosti quam ipsis arma fuisse. Datum hoc forsan nomini familiaeque suae ut adversus maximos conatus Samnitium opponerentur duces spoliaque ea referrent quae insignia publicis etiam locis decorandis essent deos immortales adesse propter totiens petita foedera, totiens rupta; tum si qua coniectura mentis divinae sit, nulli unquam exercitui fuisse infestiores quam qui nefando sacro mixta hominum pecudumque caede respersus, ancipiti deum irae devotus, hinc foederum cum Romanis ictorum testes deos, hinc iuris iurandi adversus foedera suscepti exsecrationes horrens, inuitus iuraverit, oderit sacramentum, uno tempore deos, cives, hostes metuat.

The gold and silver battle-line of the Samnites was once slaughtered with utter slaughter by his father, and those spoils were more honorable to the victorious enemy than the arms themselves had been to them. Perhaps this has been granted to his name and family, that leaders should be set in opposition to the greatest endeavors of the Samnites, and that they should bring back those spoils which would be insignia even for adorning public places; that the immortal gods are present because of treaties so often sought, so often broken; then, if there is any conjecture of the divine mind, that to no army ever have they been more hostile than to that which, bespattered by an abominable sacred rite with a mixed slaughter of men and cattle, devoted to the two-edged wrath of the gods—on the one hand shuddering at the gods, witnesses of the treaties struck with the Romans, on the other hand shuddering at the execrations of the oath undertaken against the treaties—has sworn unwillingly, hates the sacrament, and at one and the same time fears the gods, its fellow citizens, and its enemies.

[40] Haec comperta perfugarum indiciis cum apud infensos iam sua sponte milites disseruisset, simul divinae humanaeque spei pleni clamore consentienti pugnam poscunt; paenitet in posterum diem dilatum certamen; moram diei noctisque oderunt. Tertia vigilia noctis iam relatis litteris a collega Papirius silentio surgit et pullarium in auspicium mittit. Nullum erat genus hominum in castris intactum cupiditate pugnae; summi infimique aeque intenti erant; dux militum, miles ducis ardorem spectabat.

[40] When, these things having been discovered by the indications of deserters, he had discoursed among the soldiers already hostile of their own accord, at once, full of divine and human hope alike, with a consenting shout they demand battle; they repent that the engagement was deferred to the next day; they hate the delay of day and night. In the third watch of the night, now that the letters had been brought back from his colleague, Papirius rises in silence and sends the pullarius to take the auspice. There was no class of men in the camp untouched by desire of battle; the highest and the lowest were equally intent; the leader watched the ardor of the soldiers, the soldier that of the leader.

Is ardor omnium etiam ad eos qui auspicio intererant pervenit; nam cum pulli non pascerentur, pullarius auspicium mentiri ausus tripudium solistimum consuli nuntiavit. Consul laetus auspicium egregium esse et deis auctoribus rem gesturos pronuntiat signumque pugnae proponit. Exeunti iam forte in aciem nuntiat perfuga viginti cohortes Samnitium—quadringenariae ferme erant—Cominium profectas.

That ardor of all reached even those who were taking part in the auspice; for when the chickens would not feed, the pullarius, daring to falsify the augury, announced to the consul a “tripudium solistimum.” The consul, glad, proclaims that the auspice is excellent and that they will conduct the affair with the gods as authors, and he sets forth the signal for battle. As he was already by chance going out into the battle-line, a deserter reports that twenty cohorts of the Samnites—each about four hundred strong—had set out for Cominium.

Quod ne ignoraret collega, extemplo nuntium mittit; ipse signa ocius proferri iubet. Subsidia suis quaeque locis et praefectos subsidiis attribuerat; dextro cornu L. Volumnium, sinistro L. Scipionem, equitibus legatos alios, C. Caedicium et <T.> Trebonium, praefecit; Sp. Nautium mulos detractis clitellis cum <tribus> cohortibus alariis in tumulum conspectum propere circumducere iubet atque inde inter ipsam dimicationem quanto maxime posset motu pulueris se ostendere.

So that his colleague might not be ignorant of it, he immediately sends a messenger; he himself orders the standards to be brought out more quickly. He had assigned the reserves to their several places, and prefects to the reserves; on the right wing he put L. Volumnius, on the left L. Scipio, and over the cavalry other legates, C. Caedicius and <T.> Trebonius; he orders Sp. Nautius to lead the pack-mules, their packsaddles removed, with <three> allied cohorts quickly around to a hill within sight, and from there, in the very heat of the encounter, to show themselves with as great a stirring of dust as he could.

Dum his intentus imperator erat, altercatio inter pullarios orta de auspicio eius diei exauditaque ab equitibus Romanis, qui rem haud spernendam rati Sp. Papirio, fratris filio consulis, ambigi de auspicio renuntiaverunt. Iuvenis ante doctrinam deos spernentem natus rem inquisitam ne quid incompertum deferret ad consulem detulit. Cui ille: "tu quidem macte virtute diligentiaque esto; ceterum qui auspicio adest, si quid falsi nuntiat, in semet ipsum religionem recipit; mihi quidem tripudium nuntiatum, populo Romano exercituique egregium auspicium est." Centurionibus deinde imperavit uti pullarios inter prima signa constituerent.

While the commander was intent on these matters, a quarrel arose among the pullarii about the auspice of that day and was overheard by Roman cavalrymen, who, thinking the affair not to be scorned, reported to Sp. Papirius, the consul’s brother’s son, that the auspice was in dispute. The young man, born to spurn the gods before instruction, had the matter inquired into and reported it to the consul, so that he might bring nothing unascertained. To him the consul said: “Do you indeed be increased in valor and diligence; moreover, he who is present at the auspice, if he announces anything false, takes the religious obligation upon himself; as for me, a tripudium having been announced is, for the Roman People and the army, an excellent auspice.” Then he ordered the centurions to station the pullarii among the foremost standards.

Promovent et Samnites signa; insequitur acies ornata armataque, ut hostibus quoque magnificum spectaculum esset. Priusquam clamor tolleretur concurrereturque, emisso temere pilo ictus pullarius ante signa cecidit; quod ubi consuli nuntiatum est, "di in proelio sunt" inquit; "habet poenam noxium caput." Ante consulem haec dicentem coruus voce clara occinuit; quo laetus augurio consul, adfirmans nunquam humanis rebus magis praesentes interfuisse deos, signa canere et clamorem tolli iussit.

The Samnites also advance their standards; a battle line, adorned and armed, follows, so that it might be a magnificent spectacle even to the enemies. Before the shout was raised and they ran together, with a spear rashly hurled the pullarius (keeper of the sacred chickens), struck, fell before the standards; when this was reported to the consul, “the gods are in the battle,” he said; “the guilty head has its punishment.” Before the consul was saying these things, a raven, with a clear voice, gave its cry; at which omen the consul, rejoicing, affirming that never had the gods been more present to human affairs, ordered the signals to be sounded and the shout to be raised.

[41] Proelium commissum atrox, ceterum longe disparibus animis. Romanos ira, spes, ardor certaminis avidos hostium sanguinis in proelium rapit; Samnitium magnam partem necessitas ac religio invitos magis resistere quam inferre pugnam cogit; nec sustinuissent primum clamorem atque impetum Romanorum, per aliquot iam annos vinci adsueti, ni potentior alius metus insidens pectoribus a fuga retineret. Quippe in oculis erat omnis ille occulti paratus sacri et armati sacerdotes et promiscua hominum pecudumque strages et respersae fando nefandoque sanguine arae et dira exsecratio ac furiale carmen, detestandae familiae stirpique compositum; iis vinculis fugae obstricti stabant civem magis quam hostem timentes.

[41] The battle was joined, atrocious, but with spirits far disparate. Rage, hope, the ardor of the contest sweep the Romans—avid for the enemy’s blood—into the fight; a great part of the Samnites necessity and religion compel, unwilling, rather to resist than to deliver battle; nor would they have withstood the first shout and onset of the Romans, accustomed now for several years to be conquered, had not another fear, more potent, settled on their breasts, held them back from flight. For indeed before their eyes was that whole clandestine preparation of the rite: the armed priests, the promiscuous slaughter of men and cattle, the altars spattered with blood speakable and unspeakable, and the dire execration and Furial chant, composed to devote to detestation the family and the lineage. Bound by those chains against flight they stood, fearing a fellow citizen more than an enemy.

Instare Romanus a cornu utroque, a media acie et caedere deorum hominumque attonitos metu; repugnatur segniter, ut ab iis quos timor moraretur a fuga.

The Roman presses on from each wing and from the center of the battle line, and cuts down those thunderstruck with fear of gods and men; resistance is sluggish, as by those whom fear keeps back from flight.

Iam prope ad signa caedes pervenerat, cum ex transverso pulvis velut ingentis agminis incessu motus apparuit; Sp. Nautius—Octavium Maecium quidam eum tradunt—dux alaribus cohortibus erat; pulverem maiorem quam pro numero excitabant; insidentes mulis calones frondosos ramos per terram trahebant. Arma signaque per turbidam lucem in primo apparebant; post altior densiorque pulvis equitum speciem cogentium agmen dabat fefellitque non Samnites modo sed etiam Romanos; et consul adfirmavit errorem clamitans inter prima signa ita ut vox etiam ad hostes accideret, captum Cominium, victorem collegam adesse; adniterentur vincere priusquam gloria alterius exercitus foret. Haec insidens equo; inde tribunis centurionibusque imperat ut viam equitibus patefaciant; ipse Trebonio Caedicioque praedixerat, ubi se cuspidem erectam quatientem vidissent, quanta maxima vi possent concitarent equites in hostem.

Now the slaughter had almost reached the standards, when from the flank a dust, stirred as by the advance of a huge column, appeared; Sp. Nautius—some hand him down as Octavius Maecius—was commander over the wing-cohorts; they were raising a dust greater than in proportion to their number; camp-servants, mounted on mules, were dragging leafy branches along the ground. Arms and standards were showing in front through the turbid light; behind, a higher and denser dust gave the appearance of horsemen compressing the column, and it deceived not the Samnites only but even the Romans; and the consul affirmed the error, shouting among the foremost standards in such a way that his voice even reached the enemies, that Cominium had been taken, that his colleague, victorious, was present; they should strive to conquer before the glory would belong to the other army. These things, seated on horseback; then he orders the tribunes and centurions to open a way for the cavalry; he himself had forewarned Trebonius and Caedicius, when they should see him shaking his spear-point upraised, to drive the horsemen against the enemy with the greatest force they could.

Ad nutum omnia, ut ex ante praeparato, fiunt; panduntur inter ordines viae; provolat eques atque infestis cuspidibus in medium agmen hostium ruit perrumpitque ordines quacumque impetum dedit. Instant Volumnius et Scipio et perculsos sternunt.

At a nod all things, as if from what had been prepared beforehand, are done; ways are opened between the ranks; the horseman flies forward and, with leveled spear-points, rushes into the midst of the enemy’s column and breaks through the ranks wherever he directed his attack. Volumnius and Scipio press on and lay low the panic-stricken.

Tum, iam deorum hominumque victa vi, funduntur linteatae cohortes; pariter iurati iniuratique fugiunt nec quemquam praeter hostes metuunt. Peditum agmen quod superfuit pugnae in castra aut Aquiloniam compulsum est; nobilitas equitesque Bovianum perfugerunt. Equites eques sequitur, peditem pedes; diversa cornua dextrum ad castra Samnitium, laevum ad urbem tendit.

Then, now overborne by the force of gods and men, the linen-clad cohorts are routed; alike the sworn and the unsworn flee, nor do they fear anyone except the enemies. The column of infantry that survived the fight was driven into the camp or to Aquilonia; the nobility and the cavalry took refuge at Bovianum. Horseman follows horseman, foot-soldier foot-soldier; the opposing wings head— the right to the camp of the Samnites, the left to the city.

Prior aliquanto Volumnius castra cepit; ad urbem Scipioni maiore resistitur vi, non quia plus animi victis est sed melius muri quam vallum armatos arcent; inde lapidibus propulsant hostem. Scipio, nisi in primo pavore priusquam colligerentur animi transacta res esset, lentiorem fore munitae urbis oppugnationem ratus, interrogat milites satin aequo animo paterentur ab altero cornu castra capta esse, se victores pelli a portis urbis. Reclamantibus universis primus ipse scuto super caput elato pergit ad portam; secuti alii testudine facta in urbem perrumpunt deturbatisque Samnitibus quae circa portam erant muri occupavere; penetrare in interiora urbis, quia pauci admodum erant, non audent.

Volumnius, somewhat earlier, captured the camp; at the city a greater force of resistance is offered to Scipio, not because there is more spirit in the vanquished, but because walls shut out armed men better than a rampart; from there they drive off the enemy with stones. Scipio, judging that the oppugnation of a fortified city would be slower unless the matter were carried through in the first panic before their spirits were collected, asks the soldiers whether they could bear with sufficiently even mind that on the other wing the camp had been taken, while they, victors, were being driven from the gates of the city. With all protesting, he himself first, his shield raised above his head, proceeds to the gate; others followed, a testudo formed, they break into the city, and with the Samnites dislodged they occupied the parts of the wall that were around the gate; to penetrate into the inner parts of the city, because they were very few, they do not dare.

[42] Haec primo ignorare consul et intentus recipiendo exercitui esse; iam enim praeceps in occasum sol erat et appetens nox periculosa et suspecta omnia etiam victoribus faciebat. Progressus longius ab dextra capta castra videt, ab laeva clamorem in urbe mixtum pugnantium ac paventium fremitu esse; et tum forte certamen ad portam erat. Advectus deinde equo propius, ut suos in muris videt nec iam integri quicquam esse, quoniam temeritate paucorum magnae rei parta occasio esset, acciri quas receperat copias signaque in urbem inferri iussit.

[42] At first the consul was unaware of these things and intent on receiving the army; for now the sun was headlong into its setting, and the approaching night was making all things perilous and suspect even for the victors. Having progressed farther, he sees on the right that the camp has been taken, on the left that there is a clamor in the city mixed with the roar of those fighting and panicking; and just then by chance the contest was at the gate. Then, carried nearer on horseback, when he sees his men on the walls and that now none were still unhurt, since by the temerity of a few an occasion for a great matter had been procured, he ordered the forces which he had taken back to be summoned and the standards to be borne into the city.

Ingressi proxima ex parte quia nox appropinquabat quieuere; nocte oppidum ab hostibus desertum est.

Having entered from the nearest side, because night was approaching, they rested; by night the town was deserted by the enemies.

Caesa illo die ad Aquiloniam Samnitium milia viginti trecenti quadraginta, capta tria milia octingenti et septuaginta, signa militaria nonaginta septem. Ceterum illud memoriae traditur non ferme alium ducem laetiorem in acie visum seu suopte ingenio seu fiducia bene gerundae rei. Ab eodem robore animi neque controverso auspicio revocari a proelio potuit et in ipso discrimine quo templa deis immortalibus voveri mos erat voverat Iovi Victori, si legiones hostium fudisset, pocillum mulsi priusquam temetum biberet sese facturum.

On that day at Aquilonia, 20,340 Samnites were cut down, 3,870 taken, and 97 military standards captured. Moreover, tradition hands down that scarcely any other leader was seen more cheerful in the battle-line, whether by his own very disposition or by confidence in the matter to be well conducted. From that same robustness of spirit he could not be called back from the battle even by a disputed auspice; and in the very crisis, at which it was the custom that temples be vowed to the immortal gods, he had vowed to Jupiter Victor that, if he should rout the enemy legions, he would make himself a little cup of mulsum before he drank strong wine.

Id votum dis cordi fuit et auspicia in bonum verterunt.

That vow was pleasing to the gods, and the auspices turned to good.

[43] Eadem fortuna ab altero consule ad Cominium gesta res. Prima luce ad moenia omnibus copiis admotis corona cinxit urbem subsidiaque firma ne qua eruptio fieret portis opposuit. Iam signum dantem eum nuntius a collega trepidus de viginti cohortium adventu et ab impetu moratus est et partem copiarum revocare instructam intentamque ad oppugnandum coegit.

[43] The same fortune: the affair was conducted by the other consul at Cominium. At first light, with all his forces brought up to the walls, he encircled the city with a ring and set firm reserves opposite the gates, lest any sally be made. Now, as he was already giving the signal, a messenger from his colleague, alarmed about the arrival of twenty cohorts, both checked him from the onset and compelled him to recall a part of the troops, drawn up and intent on storming.

D. Brutum Scaeuam legatum cum legione prima et decem cohortibus alariis equitatuque ire adversus subsidium hostium iussit: qvocumque in loco fuisset obvius, obsisteret ac moraretur manumque, si forte ita res posceret, conferret, modo ne ad Cominium eae copiae admoveri possent. Ipse scalas ferri ad muros ab omni parte urbis iussit ac testudine ad portas successit; simul et refringebantur portae et vis undique in muros fiebat. Samnites sicut, antequam in muris viderent armatos, satis animi habuerunt ad prohibendos urbis aditu hostes, ita, postquam iam non ex intervallo nec missilibus sed comminus gerebatur res et qui aegre successerant ex plano in muros, loco quem magis timuerant victo, facile in hostem imparem ex aequo pugnabant, relictis turribus murisque in forum omnes compulsi paulisper inde temptaverunt extremam pugnae fortunam; deinde abiectis armis ad undecim milia hominum et quadringenti in fidem consulis venerunt; caesa ad quattuor milia octingenti octoginta.

D. Brutus Scaeva, the legate, he ordered to go with the first legion and ten allied cohorts and the cavalry against the enemy’s relief-force: wherever he should have met it, he was to oppose and delay it and, if perchance the situation so demanded, to join battle—provided only that those troops could not be brought up to Cominium. He himself ordered ladders to be carried to the walls from every part of the city and advanced to the gates under a testudo; at the same time the gates were being broken open and an assault was being made upon the walls on every side. The Samnites, just as before they saw armed men upon the walls they had spirit enough to keep the enemies from access to the city, so, after the action was now being done not at a distance nor with missiles but hand-to-hand, and once men had with difficulty gained the walls from the plain—the position they had feared more being mastered—they (the Romans) fought easily on equal terms against an inferior foe; the towers and walls being abandoned, all were driven into the forum and from there for a little while tried the last hazard of the fight; then, with arms thrown down, about 11,400 men came into the trust of the consul; about 4,880 were cut down.

Sic ad Cominium, sic ad Aquiloniam gesta res; in medio inter duas urbes spatio, ubi tertia exspectata erat pugna, hostes non inventi. Septem milia passuum cum abessent a Cominio, revocati ab suis neutri proelio occurrerunt. Primis ferme tenebris, cum in conspectu iam castra, iam Aquiloniam habuissent, clamor eos utrimque par accidens sustinuit; deinde regione castrorum, quae incensa ab Romanis erant, flamma late fusa certioris cladis indicio progredi longius prohibuit; eo ipso loco temere sub armis strati passim inquietum omne tempus noctis exspectando timendoque lucem egere.

Thus at Cominium, thus at Aquilonia the affair was conducted; in the interval between the two cities, where a third battle had been expected, the enemy were not found. When they were seven miles distant from Cominium, recalled by their own side, neither of them came up to an engagement. At the first darkness, when they already had the camp, already Aquilonia, in sight, a shout, occurring from both sides alike, checked them; then from the direction of the camp, which had been set ablaze by the Romans, a flame poured wide, a clearer token of disaster, forbade them to advance farther; in that very place, scattered here and there, thrown down under arms at random, they spent the whole restless time of the night in awaiting and in fearing the light.

Prima luce incerti quam in partem intenderent iter repente in fugam consternantur conspecti ab equitibus, qui egressos nocte ab oppido Samnites persecuti viderant multitudinem non vallo, non stationibus firmatam. Conspecta et ex muris Aquiloniae ea multitudo erat iamque etiam legionariae cohortes sequebantur; ceterum nec pedes fugientes persequi potuit et ab equite novissimi agminis ducenti ferme et octoginta interfecti; arma multa pavidi ac signa militaria duodeviginti reliquere; alio agmine incolumi, ut ex tanta trepidatione, Bovianum perventum est.

At first light, uncertain to which direction they should aim their march, they were suddenly thrown into flight when they were spotted by the cavalry, who, having pursued, had seen that the Samnites, having gone out from the town by night, were a multitude secured neither by rampart nor by pickets. That multitude was also seen from the walls of Aquilonia, and now even the legionary cohorts were following; however, the infantry could not pursue the fugitives, and about 280 of the rearmost of the column were killed by the cavalry; panic-stricken, they left many arms and 18 military standards; with the other column intact, considering so great a panic, they reached Bovianum.

[44] Laetitiam utriusque exercitus Romani auxit et ab altera parte feliciter gesta res. uterque ex alterius sententia consul captum oppidum diripiendum militi dedit, exhaustis deinde tectis ignem iniecit; eodemque die Aquilonia et Cominium deflagravere et consules cum gratulatione mutua legionum suaque castra coniunxere. In conspectu duorum exercituum et Carvilius suos pro cuiusque merito laudavit donavitque et Papirius, apud quem multiplex in acie, circa castra, circa urbem fuerat certamen, Sp. Nautium, Sp. Papirium, fratris filium, et quattuor centuriones manipulumque hastatorum armillis aureisque coronis donavit, Nautium propter expeditionem qua magni agminis modo terruerat hostes, iuvenem Papirium propter nauatam cum equitatu et in proelio operam et nocte qua fugam infestam Samnitibus ab Aquilonia clam egressis fecit, centuriones militesque quia primi portam murumque Aquiloniae ceperant; equites omnes ob insignem multis locis operam corniculis armillisque argenteis donat.

[44] The joy of both Roman armies was increased also by the fact that on the other side the affair had been successfully carried out. Each consul, in accordance with the judgment of the other, gave the captured town over to the soldiers to plunder, and then, when the buildings had been emptied, set fire to them; and on that same day Aquilonia and Cominium burned down, and the consuls, with mutual congratulations of the legions, joined their camps. In the sight of the two armies both Carvilius praised and rewarded his men according to each man’s merit, and Papirius as well, in whose case the struggle had been manifold—in the battle-line, around the camp, around the city—bestowed bracelets and golden crowns upon Sp. Nautius, Sp. Papirius, his brother’s son, and four centurions and the maniple of hastati: Nautius for the raid by which he had terrified the enemy in the fashion of a great column, the young Papirius for the service rendered with the cavalry and in the battle, and on the night when he made the flight of the Samnites—who had slipped out secretly from Aquilonia—perilous; the centurions and soldiers because they were the first to seize the gate and wall of Aquilonia; he presents all the horsemen, on account of distinguished service in many places, with horn-badges and silver bracelets.

Consilium inde habitum [cum] iamne tempus esset deducendi ab Samnio exercitus aut utriusque aut certe alterius; optimum visum, quo magis fractae res Samnitium essent, eo pertinacius et infestius agere cetera et persequi ut perdomitum Samnium insequentibus consulibus tradi posset: quando iam nullus esset hostium exercitus qui signis conlatis dimicaturus videretur, unum superesse belli genus, urbium oppugnationes, quarum per excidia militem locupletare praeda et hostem pro aris ac focis dimicantem conficere possent. Itaque litteris missis ad senatum populumque Romanum de rebus ab se gestis diversi Papirius ad Saepinum, Carvilius ad Veliam oppugnandam legiones ducunt.

A council was then held [whether] it was now time to lead the armies away from Samnium, either both or at least one; it seemed best that, the more the fortunes of the Samnites were broken, the more pertinaciously and more hostilely to prosecute the rest and to pursue, so that Samnium, thoroughly subdued, might be handed over to the succeeding consuls: since now there was no enemy army that seemed likely to fight with standards joined, one kind of war remained—assaults on cities—by the destructions of which they could enrich the soldier with booty and dispatch the enemy fighting for their altars and hearths. And so, letters having been sent to the senate and the Roman people about the deeds done by them, they separated in different directions: Papirius leads the legions to Saepinum to besiege it, Carvilius to Velia for assault.

[45] Litterae consulum ingenti laetitia et in curia et in contione auditae, et quatridui supplicatione publicum gaudium privatis studiis celebratum est. Nec populo Romano magna solum sed peropportuna etiam ea victoria fuit, quia per idem forte tempus rebellasse Etruscos allatum est; subibat cogitatio animum quonam modo tolerabilis futura Etruria fuisset si quid in Samnio adversi evenisset, quae coniuratione Samnitium erecta, quoniam ambo consules omnisque Romana vis aversa in Samnium esset, occupationem populi Romani pro occasione rebellandi habuisset. Legationes sociorum, a M. Atilio praetore in senatum introductae, querebantur uri ac vastari agros a finitimis Etruscis quod desciscere a populo Romano nollent obtestabanturque patres conscriptos ut se a vi atque iniuria communium hostium tutarentur.

[45] The letters of the consuls were heard with immense joy both in the Curia and in the contio, and the public rejoicing was celebrated by a supplication of four days with private zeal. Nor was that victory only great for the Roman people, but also most opportune, because it was reported that at about the same time by chance the Etruscans had rebelled; a thought crept into the mind how tolerable Etruria would have been if anything adverse had happened in Samnium—Etruria which, lifted up by the conjuration of the Samnites, since both consuls and all Roman force were turned toward Samnium, would have taken the Roman people’s preoccupation as an occasion for rebelling. The embassies of the allies, introduced into the senate by M. Atilius the praetor, complained that their fields were being burned and ravaged by neighboring Etruscans because they were unwilling to secede from the Roman people, and they adjured the Conscript Fathers to protect them from the force and injury of the common enemies.

Responsum legatis curae senatui futurum ne socios fidei suae paeniteret: Etruscorum propediem eandem fortunam quam Samnitium fore. Segnius tamen, quod ad Etruriam attinebat, acta res esset, ni Faliscos quoque, qui per multos annos in amicitia fuerant, allatum foret arma Etruscis iunxisse. Huius propinquitas populi acuit curam patribus ut fetiales mittendos ad res repetendas censerent; quibus non redditis ex auctoritate patrum iussu populi bellum Faliscis indictum est iussique consules sortiri uter ex Samnio in Etruriam cum exercitu transiret.

Answer was given to the envoys that it would be a concern to the Senate that their allies should not repent of their faith; that the Etruscans would soon have the same fortune as the Samnites. More sluggishly, however, so far as Etruria was concerned, the matter would have been transacted, had it not been reported that the Faliscans too, who for many years had been in friendship, had joined arms with the Etruscans. The nearness of this people sharpened the concern of the fathers, so that they decreed that fetials be sent to demand back the things; when these were not returned, by authority of the senate and by order of the people war was declared against the Faliscans, and the consuls were ordered to cast lots which of them should pass from Samnium into Etruria with an army.

Iam Carvilius Veliam et Palumbinum et Herculaneum ex Samnitibus ceperat, Veliam intra paucos dies, Palumbinum eodem quo ad muros accessit. Ad Herculaneum etiam signis conlatis ancipiti proelio et cum maiore sua quam hostium iactura dimicavit; castris deinde positis moenibus hostem inclusit; oppugnatum oppidum captumque. In his tribus urbibus capta aut caesa ad decem milia hominum, ita ut parvo admodum plures caperentur.

By now Carvilius had taken Velia and Palumbinum and Herculaneum from the Samnites—Velia within a few days, Palumbinum on the very day he approached the walls. At Herculaneum also, with standards joined, he fought a doubtful battle, and with a greater loss of his own men than of the enemy; then, after the camp had been pitched, he shut the enemy up within their walls; the town was assaulted and captured. In these three cities about ten thousand men were taken or slain, such that by a very small margin more were captured.

Sortientibus provincias consulibus Etruria Carvilio evenit secundum vota militum, qui vim frigoris iam in Samnio non patiebantur. Papirio ad Saepinum maior vis hostium restitit. Saepe in acie, saepe in agmine, saepe circa ipsam urbem adversus eruptiones hostium pugnatum, nec obsidio sed bellum ex aequo erat; non enim muris magis se Samnites quam armis ac viris moenia tutabantur.

As the consuls were allotting the provinces, Etruria fell to Carvilius, in accordance with the soldiers’ wishes, who no longer were enduring the force of the cold in Samnium. At Saepinum, a greater strength of the enemy confronted Papirius. Often in the battle-line, often on the march, often around the city itself there was fighting against the enemy’s sallies, and it was not a siege but a war on equal terms; for the Samnites were defending their walls not so much by walls as by arms and men.

Tandem pugnando in obsidionem iustam coegit hostes obsidendoque vi atque operibus urbem expugnavit. Itaque ab ira plus caedis editum capta urbe; septem milia quadringenti caesi, capta minus tria milia hominum. Praeda, quae plurima fuit congestis Samnitium rebus in urbes paucas, militi concessa est.

At length, by fighting he forced the enemy into a regular siege, and by besieging, with force and with works, he stormed the city. And so, out of anger, more slaughter was wrought when the city was taken: 7,400 were slain, fewer than 3,000 persons were captured. The booty—which was very abundant, since the Samnites’ goods had been heaped into a few cities—was conceded to the soldiery.

[46] Nives iam omnia oppleverant nec durari extra tecta poterat; itaque consul exercitum de Samnio deduxit. Venienti Romam triumphus omnium consensu est delatus. Triumphavit in magistratu insigni, ut illorum temporum habitus erat, triumpho.

[46] The snows had now filled up everything, nor could one endure outside the roofs; and so the consul led the army down from Samnium. As he was coming to Rome, a triumph was conferred by the consensus of all. He triumphed while in magistracy with a distinguished triumph, as was the habit of those times.

Pedites equitesque insignes donis transiere ac transvecti sunt; multae civicae coronae vallaresque ac murales conspectae; inspectata spolia Samnitium et decore ac pulchritudine paternis spoliis, quae nota frequenti publicorum ornatu locorum erant, comparabantur; nobiles aliquot captivi, clari suis patrumque factis, ducti. Aeris gravis travecta viciens centum milia et quingenta triginta tria milia; id aes redactum ex captivis dicebatur; argenti, quod captum ex urbibus erat, pondo mille octingenta triginta. Omne aes argentumque in aerarium conditum, militibus nihil datum ex praeda est; auctaque ea invidia est ad plebem, quod tributum etiam in stipendium militum conlatum est cum, si spreta gloria fuisset captivae pecuniae in aerarium inlatae, et militi tum <donum> dari ex praeda et stipendium militare praestari potuisset.

The infantry and cavalry, distinguished by gifts, marched past and were conveyed; many civic crowns, vallary and mural, were seen; the spoils of the Samnites were inspected and were being compared in comeliness and beauty with the paternal spoils, which were well known from their frequent adornment of public places; several noble captives, renowned for their own and their fathers’ deeds, were led. Of heavy bronze there were transported 2,633,000; this bronze was said to have been realized from captives; of silver, which had been taken from cities, 1,830 pounds. All the bronze and silver was stored in the aerarium, and nothing from the booty was given to the soldiers; and that ill will toward the plebs was increased because a tax also was collected for the soldiers’ stipend, whereas, if the glory of having brought the captured money into the aerarium had been spurned, both then a <gift> could have been given to the soldier from the booty and the military stipend could have been furnished.

Aedem Quirini dedicavit—quam in ipsa dimicatione votam apud neminem veterem auctorem invenio, neque hercule tam exiguo tempore perficere potuisset—ab dictatore patre votam filius consul dedicavit exornavitque hostium spoliis; quorum tanta multitudo fuit ut non templum tantum forumque iis ornaretur sed sociis etiam coloniisque finitimis ad templorum locorumque publicorum ornatum dividerentur. Ab triumpho exercitum in agrum Vescinum, quia regio ea infesta ab Samnitibus erat, hibernatum duxit.

He dedicated the Temple of Quirinus—which I find in no ancient author to have been vowed in the very conflict, nor, by Hercules, could it have been completed in so short a time—the son, as consul, dedicated what had been vowed by his father as dictator and adorned it with the spoils of the enemy; of which there was such a multitude that not only the temple and the forum were adorned with them, but they were even distributed to the allies and neighboring colonies for the adornment of temples and public places. From the triumph he led the army into the Vescinian territory to winter, because that region was infested by the Samnites.

Inter haec Carvilius consul in Etruria Troilum primum oppugnare adortus quadringentos septuaginta ditissimos, pecunia grandi pactos ut abire inde liceret, dimisit; ceteram multitudinem oppidumque ipsum vi cepit. Inde quinque castella locis sita munitis expugnavit. Caesa ibi hostium duo milia quadringenti, minus duo milia capti.

Meanwhile, the consul Carvilius in Etruria, having first undertaken to attack Troilum, released 470 of the wealthiest, who had bargained for a great sum of money that it might be permitted them to depart from there; the rest of the multitude and the town itself he took by force. From there he stormed five forts set in fortified positions. There 2,400 of the enemy were cut down, fewer than 2,000 taken captive.

Et Faliscis pacem petentibus annuas indutias dedit, pactus centum milia gravis aeris et stipendium eius anni militibus. His rebus actis ad triumphum decessit, ut minus clarum de Samnitibus quam collegae triumphus fuerat, ita cumulo Etrusci belli aequatum. Aeris gravis tulit in aerarium trecenta octoginta milia; reliquo aere aedem Fortis Fortunae de manubiis faciendam locavit prope aedem eius deae ab rege Ser.

And to the Faliscans seeking peace he granted a truce for a year, having bargained for one hundred thousand of heavy bronze and the stipend of that year for the soldiers. With these matters transacted he departed for a triumph; though it was less renowned over the Samnites than his colleague’s triumph had been, yet it was made equal by the heap of the Etruscan war. He brought into the treasury three hundred eighty thousand of heavy bronze; with the remaining bronze he let out on contract the making of a temple of Fortis Fortuna from the spoils, near the temple of that goddess by King Ser.

Tullio dedicatam; et militibus ex praeda centenos binos asses et alterum tantum centurionibus atque equitibus, malignitate collegae gratius accipientibus munus, divisit. Favor consulis tutatus ad populum est L. Postumium legatum eius, qui dicta die a M. Scantio tribuno plebis fugerat in legatione, ut fama ferebat, populi iudicium; iactarique magis quam peragi accusatio eius poterat.

dedicated by Tullius; and to the soldiers from the booty he distributed two hundred asses apiece, and twice that amount to the centurions and the cavalrymen, who received the gift more gratefully because of his colleague’s malignity. The favor of the consul protected before the people L. Postumius, his legate, who, on the appointed day, had, as rumor reported, evaded the people’s judgment by means of an embassy procured by M. Scantius, tribune of the plebs; and his accusation could be bandied about rather than brought to completion.

[47] Exacto iam anno novi tribuni plebis magistratum inierant; hisque ipsis, quia vitio creati erant, quinque post dies alii suffecti. Lustrum conditum eo anno est a P. Cornelio Aruina C. Marcio Rutulo censoribus; censa capitum milia ducenta sexaginta duo trecenta viginti unum. Censores vicesimi sexti a primis censoribus, lustrum undevicesimum fuit.

[47] With the year now completed, new tribunes of the plebs had entered office; and these very men, because they had been elected with a flaw, five days later were replaced by others. The lustrum was concluded that year by the censors P. Cornelius Arvina and C. Marcius Rutilus; the number of heads counted was 262,321. The censors were the 26th from the first censors; the lustrum was the 19th.

Eodem anno coronati primum ob res bello bene gestas ludos Romanos spectarunt palmaeque tum primum translato e Graeco more victoribus datae. Eodem anno, ab aedilibus curulibus qui eos ludos fecerunt, damnatis aliquot pecuariis, via a Martis silice ad Bovillas perstrata est. Comitia consularia L. Papirius habuit; creavit consules Q. Fabium Maximi filium Gurgitem et D. Iunium Brutum Scaeuam.

In the same year those crowned for deeds well done in war for the first time looked on the Roman Games, and palms then for the first time, the custom translated from the Greek, were given to the victors. In the same year, by the curule aediles who produced those games, after several cattle-raisers had been condemned, the road from the Stone of Mars to Bovillae was paved. The consular elections were held by L. Papirius; he created as consuls Q. Fabius, Maximus’s son, Gurges, and D. Iunius Brutus Scaeva.

Ipse Papirius praetor factus.

Papirius himself was made praetor.

Multis rebus laetus annus vix ad solacium unius mali, pestilentiae urentis simul urbem atque agros, suffecit; portentoque iam similis clades erat, et libri aditi quinam finis aut quod remedium eius mali ab dis daretur. Inventum in libris Aesculapium ab Epidauro Romam arcessendum; neque eo anno, quia bello occupati consules erant, quicquam de ea re actum praeterquam quod unum diem Aesculapio supplicatio habita est.

A year happy in many matters scarcely sufficed as a solace for a single ill, a pestilence scorching the city and the fields at once; and the calamity was now like a portent, and the books were consulted as to what end or what remedy of that evil might be granted by the gods. It was found in the books that Aesculapius was to be summoned from Epidaurus to Rome; nor in that year, because the consuls were occupied with war, was anything done about that matter except that for one day a supplication was held to Aesculapius.