Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Liberi iam hinc populi Romani res pace belloque gestas, annuos magistratus, imperiaque legum potentiora quam hominum peragam. Quae libertas ut laetior esset proximi regis superbia fecerat. Nam priores ita regnarunt ut haud immerito omnes deinceps conditores partium certe urbis, quas novas ipsi sedes ab se auctae multitudinis addiderunt, numerentur; neque ambigitur quin Brutus idem qui tantum gloriae superbo exacto rege meruit pessimo publico id facturus fuerit, si libertatis immaturae cupidine priorum regum alicui regnum extorsisset.

[1] From this point, as a free people, I will set forth the affairs of the Roman People achieved in peace and in war, the annual magistracies, and the powers of the laws more potent than those of men. And that liberty the arrogance of the most recent king had made the more welcome. For the earlier kings so reigned that, not undeservedly, all in succession are counted as founders—at least of parts of the city—the new settlements which they themselves added for a multitude augmented by themselves; nor is it doubted that Brutus—the same man who, with the proud king expelled, earned so much glory—would have done that to the worst public effect, if, from desire for unripe liberty, he had wrested the kingship from any of the earlier kings.

Quid enim futurum fuit, si illa pastorum convenarumque plebs, transfuga ex suis populis, sub tutela inviolati templi aut libertatem aut certe impunitatem adepta, soluta regio metu agitari coepta esset tribuniciis procellis, et in aliena urbe cum patribus serere certamina, priusquam pignera coniugum ac liberorum caritasque ipsius soli, cui longo tempore adsuescitur, animos eorum consociasset? Dissipatae res nondum adultae discordia forent, quas fovit tranquilla moderatio imperii eoque nutriendo perduxit ut bonam frugem libertatis maturis iam viribus ferre possent. Libertatis autem originem inde magis quia annuum imperium consulare factum est quam quod deminutum quicquam sit ex regia potestate numeres.

For what would have come to pass, if that plebs of shepherds and convenae, deserters from their own peoples, having under the tutelage of an inviolate temple obtained either liberty or at least impunity, and freed from royal fear, had begun to be tossed by tribunician tempests, and to sow contests with the patres in another’s city, before the pledges of wives and children and the affection for the very soil, to which one grows accustomed over a long time, had united their spirits? The affairs, not yet adult, would have been scattered by discord—affairs which the tranquil moderation of imperium fostered and by nurturing thus brought it about that, with powers now mature, they could bear a good harvest of liberty. Moreover, you should reckon the origin of liberty to lie rather in this: that the consular imperium was made annual, than that anything was diminished from the royal potestas.

Omnia iura, omnia insignia primi consules tenuere; id modo cautum est ne, si ambo fasces haberent, duplicatus terror videretur. Brutus prior, concedente collega, fasces habuit; qui non acrior vindex libertatis fuerat quam deinde custos fuit. Omnium primum avidum novae libertatis populum, ne postmodum flecti precibus aut donis regiis posset, iure iurando adegit neminem Romae passuros regnare.

All rights, all insignia the first consuls held; only this was stipulated, lest, if both should bear the fasces, a duplicated terror might appear. Brutus, first, his colleague conceding, bore the fasces; who had been no fiercer an avenger of liberty than thereafter he was its guardian. First of all, he compelled the people, avid for their new liberty, by an oath, that they would suffer no one to reign at Rome, lest thereafter the people could be bent by entreaties or royal gifts.

Deinde quo plus virium in senatu frequentia etiam ordinis faceret, caedibus regis deminutum patrum numerum primoribus equestris gradus lectis ad trecentorum summam explevit, traditumque inde fertur ut in senatum vocarentur qui patres quique conscripti essent; conscriptos videlicet novum senatum, appellabant lectos. Id mirum quantum profuit ad concordiam civitatis iungendosque patribus plebis animos.

Then, in order that more strength might accrue to the senate from the very frequency of the order, he filled up the number of the Fathers, diminished by the king’s slaughters, to the total of three hundred by selecting leading men of the equestrian rank; and from then it is said to have been handed down that those who were Patres and those who were Conscripti were summoned into the senate: the conscripted, namely the new senate, they called the “selected.” That helped wonderfully toward the concord of the commonwealth and in joining the minds of the plebs to the Fathers.

[2] Rerum deinde divinarum habita cura; et quia quaedam publica sacra per ipsos reges factitata erant, necubi regum desiderium esset, regem sacrificolum creant. Id sacerdotium pontifici subiecere, ne additus nomini honos aliquid libertati, cuius tunc prima erat cura, officeret. Ac nescio an nimium undique eam minimisque rebus muniendo modum excesserint.

[2] Then care was taken for divine matters; and because certain public sacred rites had been regularly performed by the kings themselves, lest there be anywhere a yearning for the kings, they create a king-sacrificer. They subjected that priesthood to the Pontifex, lest the honor added to the name should in any way harm liberty, whose care was then foremost. And I do not know whether, by fortifying it on every side and in the very smallest matters, they exceeded the due measure.

Consulis enim alterius, cum nihil aliud offenderet, nomen invisum civitati fuit: nimium Tarquinios regno adsuesse; initium a Prisco factum; regnasse dein Ser. Tullium; ne intervallo quidem facto oblitum, tamquam alieni, regni, Superbum Tarquinium velut hereditatem gentis scelere ac vi repetisse; pulso Superbo penes Collatinum imperium esse. Nescire Tarquinios privatos vivere; non placere nomen, periculosum libertati esse.

For, as to the other consul, although nothing else gave offense, his name was hateful to the commonwealth: the Tarquins had grown too accustomed to kingship; the beginning was made by Priscus; thereafter Servius Tullius reigned; nor, even after an interval had been made, was it forgotten—as though the kingship were someone else’s—that Tarquinius Superbus, as if it were the inheritance of the gens, had sought it back by crime and by force; with Superbus expelled, the imperium was in the hands of Collatinus. The Tarquins do not know how to live as private men; the name does not please, it is dangerous to liberty.

Hinc primo sensim temptantium animos sermo per totam civitatem est datus, sollicitamque suspicione plebem Brutus ad contionem vocat. Ibi omnium primum ius iurandum populi recitat neminem regnare passuros nec esse Romae unde periculum libertati foret; id summa ope tuendum esse, neque ullam rem quae eo pertineat contemnendam. Invitum se dicere hominis causa, nec dicturum fuisse ni caritas rei publicae vinceret: non credere populum Romanum solidam libertatem reciperatam esse; regium genus, regium nomen non solum in civitate sed etiam in imperio esse; id officere, id obstare libertati.

From here, at first, little by little, talk was put out through the whole city to test men’s minds, and Brutus calls the plebs, anxious with suspicion, to an assembly. There, first of all, he recites the people’s oath: that they would suffer no one to reign, and that there should not be at Rome any source whence danger to liberty might arise; that this must be defended with the utmost effort, and that nothing which pertains thereto is to be contemned. That he speaks, he says, unwillingly on account of the man, and would not have spoken, had not love for the republic prevailed: that he does not believe the Roman people have recovered solid liberty; that a royal lineage, a royal name is not only in the city but even in the command of government; that this hinders, that this stands in the way of liberty.

"Hunc tu" inquit "tua voluntate, L. Tarquini, remove metum. Meminimus, fatemur: eiecisti reges; absolue beneficium tuum, aufer hinc regium nomen. Res tuas tibi non solum reddent cives tui auctore me, sed si quid deest munifice augebunt.

"This fear," he says, "do you, by your own will, Lucius Tarquinius, remove. We remember, we confess: you drove out the kings; complete your benefaction, remove from here the royal name. Your possessions your fellow citizens, with me as sponsor, will not only restore to you, but, if anything is lacking, they will munificently augment them.

Amicus abi; exonera civitatem vano forsitan metu; ita persuasum est animis cum gente Tarquinia regnum hinc abiturum." Consuli primo tam novae rei ac subitae admiratio incluserat vocem; dicere deinde incipientem primores civitatis circumsistunt, eadem multis precibus orant. Et ceteri quidem movebant minus: postquam Sp. Lucretius, maior aetate ac dignitate, socer praeterea ipsius, agere varie rogando alternis suadendoque coepit ut vinci se consensu civitatis pateretur, timens consul ne postmodum privato sibi eadem illa cum bonorum amissione additaque alia insuper ignominia acciderent, abdicavit se consulatu rebusque suis omnibus Lavinium translatis civitate cessit. Brutus ex senatus consulto ad populum tulit ut omnes Tarquiniae gentis exsules essent; collegam sibi comitiis centuriatis creavit P. Valerium, quo adiutore reges eiecerat.

"Friend, go; exonerate the state from perhaps a vain fear; thus it is persuaded in minds that with the Tarquinian clan the kingship will depart from here." At first the marvel at a matter so new and sudden had shut in the consul’s voice; then, as he began to speak, the leading men of the state surrounded him and with many prayers begged the same thing. And the others indeed moved him less: after Sp. Lucretius, greater in age and dignity, moreover his own father-in-law, began to deal with him in various ways, by asking and in turn advising, that he allow himself to be overcome by the consensus of the state, the consul, fearing lest afterward, as a private man, those same things would befall him, along with the loss of his goods and, besides, some additional ignominy, abdicated himself from the consulship, and, all his property transferred to Lavinium, withdrew from the state. Brutus, in accordance with a decree of the senate, carried to the people that all of the Tarquinian clan should be exiles; he created for himself as colleague in the centuriate assemblies P. Valerius, by whose aid he had cast out the kings.

[3] Cum haud cuiquam in dubio esset bellum ab Tarquiniis imminere, id quidem spe omnium serius fuit; ceterum, id quod non timebant, per dolum ac proditionem prope libertas amissa est. Erant in Romana iuventute adulescentes aliquot, nec ii tenui loco orti, quorum in regno libido solutior fuerat, aequales sodalesque adulescentium Tarquiniorum, adsueti more regio vivere. Eam tum, aequato iure omnium, licentiam quaerentes, libertatem aliorum in suam vertisse servitutem inter se conquerebantur: regem hominem esse, a quo impetres, ubi ius, ubi iniuria opus sit; esse gratiae locum, esse beneficio; et irasci et ignoscere posse; inter amicum atque inimicum discrimen nosse; leges rem surdam, inexorabilem esse, salubriorem melioremque inopi quam potenti; nihil laxamenti nec veniae habere, si modum excesseris; periculosum esse in tot humanis erroribus sola innocentia vivere.

[3] Although it was in doubt for no one that war was looming from the Tarquins, that indeed was later than everyone had expected; however, that which they did not fear—by trick and treachery—liberty was nearly lost. There were in the Roman youth several young men, nor were they sprung from a low station, whose self-indulgence had been more unrestrained under the kingship, peers and comrades of the Tarquinian youths, accustomed to live in the royal manner. Then, with the right of all made equal, seeking that license, they complained among themselves that the freedom of others had been turned into their own servitude: that a king is a man, from whom you may obtain what is needed—whether right or wrong; that there is room for grace, there is for benefaction; that he can both be angry and forgive; that he knows the distinction between friend and enemy; that laws are a deaf thing, inexorable, more salubrious and better for the poor than for the powerful; that they have no relaxation nor pardon, if you have exceeded the measure; that it is perilous, amid so many human errors, to live by innocence alone.

Ita iam sua sponte aegris animis legati ab regibus superveniunt, sine mentione reditus bona tantum repetentes. Eorum verba postquam in senatu audita sunt, per aliquot dies ea consultatio tenuit, ne non reddita belli causa, reddita belli materia et adiumentum essent. Interim legati alia moliri; aperte bona repetentes clam reciperandi regni consilia struere; et tamquam ad id quod agi videbatur ambientes, nobilium adulescentium animos pertemptant.

Thus now, of their own accord, with minds sick at heart, legates from the kings arrive, without any mention of a return, demanding only the restitution of the goods. After their words were heard in the senate, for several days that deliberation held sway—lest, by not returning them, they should be the cause of war; by returning them, they would be the matter and the aid of war. Meanwhile the legates are contriving other things: openly demanding the goods, secretly they set up counsels for the recovery of the kingdom; and, as though courting that which seemed to be in hand, they thoroughly sound the minds of the young men of the nobility.

A quibus placide oratio accepta est, iis litteras ab Tarquiniis reddunt et de accipiendis clam nocte in urbem regibus conloquuntur.

By whom the oration was placidly received, to these they deliver letters from the Tarquins and confer about accepting the kings secretly by night into the city.

[4] Vitelliis Aquiliisque fratribus primo commissa res est. Vitelliorum soror consuli nupta Bruto erat, iamque ex eo matrimonio adulescentes erant liberi, Titus Tiberiusque; eos quoque in societatem consilii avunculi adsumunt. Praeterea aliquot nobiles adulescentes conscii adsumpti, quorum vetustate memoria abiit.

[4] The matter was first entrusted to the brothers, the Vitellii and the Aquilii. The sister of the Vitellii had been married to the consul Brutus, and already from that marriage there were adolescent children, Titus and Tiberius; them too they assume into the fellowship of their uncles’ counsel. Besides, several noble adolescents were assumed as privy accomplices, whose memory has departed through antiquity.

Interim cum in senatu vicisset sententia quae censebat reddenda bona, eamque ipsam causam morae in urbe haberent legati quod spatium ad vehicula comparanda a consulibus sumpsissent quibus regum asportarent res, omne id tempus cum coniuratis consultando absumunt, evincuntque instando ut litterae sibi ad Tarquinios darentur: nam aliter qui credituros eos non vana ab legatis super rebus tantis adferri? Datae litterae ut pignus fidei essent, manifestum facinus fecerunt. Nam cum pridie quam legati ad Tarquinios proficiscerentur cenatum forte apud Vitellios esset, coniuratique ibi, remotis arbitris, multa inter se de novo, ut fit, consilio egissent, sermonem eorum ex servis unus excepit, qui iam antea id senserat agi, sed eam occasionem, ut litterae legatis darentur quae deprehensae rem coarguere possent, exspectabat.

Meanwhile, since in the senate the opinion had prevailed which was advising that the goods be returned, and since the envoys were alleging that very cause of delay in the city—that they had taken from the consuls a span of time for procuring vehicles with which to asport the kings’ effects—they spend all that time consulting with the conspirators, and by pressing they prevail that letters be given to them for the Tarquins; for otherwise, who would believe that anything not idle was being brought by the legates about matters so weighty? The letters, given to be a pledge of good faith, made a manifest crime. For on the day before the envoys were to set out for the Tarquins, it happened there was a dinner at the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators there, the bystanders removed, as happens, discussed many things among themselves about the new counsel; one of the slaves caught their conversation, who already before had perceived that this was afoot, but was awaiting that opportunity—namely, that letters be given to the envoys which, seized, could convict the affair.

Postquam datas sensit, rem ad consules detulit. Consules ad deprehendendos legatos coniuratosque profecti domo sine tumultu rem omnem oppressere; litterarum in primis habita cura ne interciderent. Proditoribus extemplo in vincla coniectis, de legatis paululum addubitatum est; et quamquam visi sunt commisisse ut hostium loco essent, ius tamen gentium valuit.

After he perceived that they had been given, he reported the matter to the consuls. The consuls, having set out to apprehend the legates and the conspirators, from home, without tumult they suppressed the whole affair; care was taken, first of all, about the letters, that they might not be lost. The traitors having been cast straightway into chains, there was a little hesitation concerning the legates; and although they seemed to have committed an offense such that they were in the place of enemies, nevertheless the law of nations prevailed.

[5] De bonis regiis, quae reddi ante censuerant, res integra refertur ad patres. Ibi vicit ira; vetuere reddi, vetuere in publicum redigi. Diripienda plebi sunt data, ut contacta regia praeda spem in perpetuum cum iis pacis amitteret.

[5] About the royal goods, which they had formerly voted to be returned, the matter, unimpaired, is referred afresh to the Fathers. There anger prevailed; they forbade them to be returned, they forbade them to be brought into the public treasury. They were given to the plebs to be plundered, so that, having been in contact with royal prey, it would lose the hope of peace with them forever.

Ager Tarquiniorum qui inter urbem ac Tiberim fuit, consecratus Marti, Martius deinde campus fuit. Forte ibi tum seges farris dicitur fuisse matura messi. Quem campi fructum quia religiosum erat consumere, desectam cum stramento segetem magna vis hominum simul immissa corbibus fudere in Tiberim tenui fluentem aqua, ut mediis caloribus solet.

The field of the Tarquins, which was between the city and the Tiber, consecrated to Mars, thereafter was the Field of Mars. By chance there at that time a crop of far (spelt) is said to have been ripe for harvest. Because it was a matter of religion to consume that fruit of the field, the cut crop together with the straw, a great multitude of men, all at once, after it had been put into baskets, poured into the Tiber, which was flowing with scant water, as it is wont in the middle heats.

Ita in vadis haesitantes frumenti acervos sedisse inlitos limo; insulam inde paulatim, et aliis quae fert temere flumen eodem invectis, factam; postea credo additas moles manuque adiutum, ut tam eminens area firmaque templis quoque ac porticibus sustinendis esset. Direptis bonis regum damnati proditores sumptumque supplicium, conspectius eo quod poenae capiendae ministerium patri de liberis consulatus imposuit, et qui spectator erat amovendus, eum ipsum fortuna exactorem supplicii dedit. Stabant deligati ad palum nobilissimi iuvenes; sed a ceteris, velut ab ignotis capitibus, consulis liberi omnium in se averterant oculos, miserebatque non poenae magis homines quam sceleris quo poenam meriti essent: illos eo potissimum anno patriam liberatam, patrem liberatorem, consulatum ortum ex domo Iunia, patres, plebem, quidquid deorum hominumque Romanorum esset, induxisse in animum ut superbo quondam regi, tum infesto exsuli proderent.

Thus the heaps of grain, sticking in the shallows, are said to have settled, smeared with mud; from there an island was gradually made, and, with other things which the river carries at random likewise borne in to the same place; afterward, I believe, moles were added and it was assisted by hand, so that so eminent and firm an area might even be able to sustain temples and porticoes. With the goods of the kings plundered, the traitors were condemned and the punishment exacted, the more conspicuous because the consulship imposed upon a father, in the matter of his children, the ministry of taking the penalty; and him who ought to have been removed as a mere spectator, Fortune made that very man the exactor of the punishment. The most noble youths stood bound to the stake; but from the rest, as from unknown heads, the consul’s sons had turned all eyes upon themselves, and men felt pity not so much for the punishment as for the crime by which they had deserved the punishment: that they, in that very year—the fatherland freed, their father the liberator, the consulship arisen from the Junian house, the senators, the plebs, whatever of the gods and men of the Romans there was—had brought themselves to betray to the once haughty king, now a hostile exile.

Consules in sedem processere suam, missique lictores ad sumendum supplicium. Nudatos virgis caedunt securique feriunt, cum inter omne tempus pater voltusque et os eius spectaculo esset, eminente animo patrio inter publicae poenae ministerium. Secundum poenam nocentium, ut in utramque partem arcendis sceleribus exemplum nobile esset, praemium indici pecunia ex aerario, libertas et civitas data.

The consuls proceeded to their own seat, and lictors were sent to take the punishment. They beat the stripped with rods and smote with the axe, while throughout the whole time the father—his countenance and face—was a spectacle, his paternal spirit standing out amid the ministry of the public penalty. After the punishment of the guilty, so that in both directions there might be a noble example for deterring crimes, a reward was given to the informer: money from the treasury, and freedom and citizenship were granted.

Ille primum dicitur vindicta liberatus; quidam vindictae quoque nomen tractum ab illo putant; Vindicio ipsi nomen fuisse. Post illum observatum ut qui ita liberati essent in civitatem accepti viderentur.

He is said to have been the first to be freed by the vindicta; some even think that the name “vindicta” too was drawn from him; Vindicius was his own name. After him it was observed that those thus freed should be regarded as received into citizenship.

[6] His sicut acta erant nuntiatis incensus Tarquinius non dolore solum tantae ad inritum cadentis spei sed etiam odio iraque, postquam dolo viam obsaeptam vidit, bellum aperte moliendum ratus circumire supplex Etruriae urbes; orare maxime Veientes Tarquiniensesque, ne ex se ortum, eiusdem sanguinis, extorrem, egentem ex tanto modo regno cum liberis adulescentibus ante oculos suos perire sinerent: alios peregre in regnum Romam accitos: se regem, augentem bello Romanum imperium, a proximis scelerata coniuratione pulsum. Eos inter se, quia nemo unus satis dignus regno visus sit, partes regni rapuisse; bona sua diripienda populo dedisse, ne quis expers sceleris esset. Patriam se regnumque suum repetere et persequi ingratos cives velle.

[6] With these things reported just as they had been done, Tarquinius, incensed not only with grief at so great a hope falling to naught but also with hatred and wrath, after he saw the road blocked by deceit, thinking that war must be undertaken openly, resolved to go around as a suppliant the cities of Etruria; to beseech especially the Veientes and the Tarquinienses not to suffer one sprung from themselves, of the same blood, an exile, destitute from so great a kingship only just now, with adolescent sons, to perish before their eyes: that others had been summoned from abroad to the kingship at Rome; that he, a king, augmenting by war the Roman imperium, had been driven out by a criminal conspiracy of his nearest. That they among themselves, because no single man had seemed worthy enough of the kingship, had snatched the parts of the kingship; that they had given his goods to be plundered by the people, lest anyone be free from a share in the crime. That he wished to reclaim his fatherland and his own kingship and to pursue ungrateful citizens.

Ferrent opem, adiuvarent; suas quoque veteres iniurias ultum irent, totiens caesas legiones, agrum ademptum. Haec moverunt Veientes, ac pro se quisque Romano saltem duce ignominias demendas belloque amissa repetenda minaciter fremunt. Tarquinienses nomen ac cognatio movet: pulchrum videbatur suos Romae regnare.

Let them bring aid, let them help; let them go to avenge their own ancient injuries as well—legions so often cut down, land taken away. These things moved the Veientes, and each for his part they roar menacingly that ignominies must be removed and the things lost in war must be reclaimed, at least with a Roman leader. The Tarquinienses are moved by the name and kinship: it seemed fair that their own should reign at Rome.

Ita duo duarum civitatium exercitus ad repetendum regnum belloque persequendos Romanos secuti Tarquinium. Postquam in agrum Romanum ventum est, obviam hosti consules eunt. Valerius quadrato agmine peditem ducit: Brutus ad explorandum cum equitatu antecessit.

Thus the two armies of the two cities, to reclaim the kingship and to pursue the Romans with war, followed Tarquinius. After they had come into the Roman territory, the consuls go to meet the enemy. Valerius leads the infantry in a square formation; Brutus has gone on ahead with the cavalry to reconnoiter.

Eodem modo primus eques hostium agminis fuit; praeerat Arruns Tarquinius filius regis, rex ipse cum legionibus sequebatur. Arruns ubi ex lictoribus procul consulem esse, deinde iam propius ac certius facie quoque Brutum cognovit, inflammatus ira "ille est vir" inquit, "qui nos extorres expulit patria. Ipse en ille nostris decoratus insignibus magnifice incedit.

In the same way, the foremost horseman of the enemy’s column was Arruns Tarquinius, the king’s son; he was in command, and the king himself was following with the legions. When Arruns, from the lictors, perceived at a distance that it was the consul, then, now nearer and more certainly, by the face as well he recognized Brutus; inflamed with anger he says, “that is the man who drove us, exiles, out of our fatherland. Lo, that very man himself, adorned with our insignia, advances magnificently.”

Di regum ultores adeste." Concitat calcaribus equum atque in ipsum infestus consulem derigit. Sensit in se iri Brutus; decorum erat tum ipsis capessere pugnam ducibus; avide itaque se certamini offert; adeoque infestis animis concurrerunt, neuter dum hostem volneraret sui protegendi corporis memor, ut contrario ictu per parmam uterque transfixus duabus haerentes hastis moribundi ex equis lapsi sint. Simul et cetera equestris pugna coepit, neque ita multo post et pedites superveniunt.

"Gods, avengers of kings, be present." He rouses his horse with spurs and, hostile, directs it straight at the consul himself. Brutus sensed that the charge was aimed at him; it was decorous then for the leaders themselves to take up the fight; and so he avidly offers himself to the contest; and they ran together with such hostile minds that neither, intent on wounding the enemy, was mindful of protecting his own body, so that by a counterstroke through the shield each was transfixed, and, sticking with two spears, dying, they fell from their horses. At the same time the rest of the equestrian battle began, and not much later the infantry also came up.

Ibi varia victoria et velut aequo Marte pugnatum est; dextera utrimque cornua vicere, laeva superata. Veientes, vinci ab Romano milite adsueti, fusi fugatique: Tarquiniensis, novus hostis, non stetit solum, sed etiam ab sua parte Romanum pepulit.

There the victory was varied, and it was fought as if with Mars equal; the right wings on both sides prevailed, the left were overcome. The Veientes, accustomed to be conquered by the Roman soldier, were routed and put to flight: the Tarquinian, a new enemy, not only stood fast, but even drove the Roman back on his side.

[7] Ita cum pugnatum esset, tantus terror Tarquinium atque Etruscos incessit ut omissa inrita re nocte ambo exercitus, Veiens Tarquiniensisque, suas quisque abirent domos. Adiciunt miracula huic pugnae: silentio proximae noctis ex silva Arsia ingentem editam vocem; Silvani vocem eam creditam; haec dicta: uno plus Tuscorum cecidisse in acie; vincere bello Romanum. Ita certe inde abiere, Romani ut victores, Etrusci pro victis; nam postquam inluxit nec quisquam hostium in conspectu erat, P. Valerius consul spolia legit triumphansque inde Romam rediit.

[7] Thus, when it had been fought, so great a terror seized Tarquinius and the Etruscans that, the matter abandoned as ineffectual, by night both armies, the Veientine and the Tarquinian, went away, each to their own homes. They add marvels to this battle: in the silence of the next night, from the Arsian forest, a huge voice was sent forth; that voice was believed to be Silvanus’s; these things were said: that by one more the Tuscans had fallen in the battle line; that the Roman is the victor in war. Thus certainly they departed thence, the Romans as victors, the Etruscans as the vanquished; for after it grew light and none of the enemies was in sight, P. Valerius the consul gathered the spoils and, triumphing, returned from there to Rome.

Collegae funus quanto tum potuit apparatu fecit; sed multo maius morti decus publica fuit maestitia, eo ante omnia insignis quia matronae annum ut parentem eum luxerunt, quod tam acer ultor violatae pudicitiae fuisset. Consuli deinde qui superfuerat, ut sunt mutabiles volgi animi, ex favore non invidia modo sed suspicio etiam cum atroci crimine orta. Regnum eum adfectare fama ferebat, quia nec collegam subrogaverat in locum Bruti et aedificabat in summa Velia: ibi alto atque munito loco arcem inexpugnabilem fieri.

He made his colleague’s funeral with as much apparatus as was then possible; but much greater glory to his death was the public mourning, distinguished above all because the matrons mourned him for a year as a parent, for the reason that he had been so keen an avenger of violated pudicity. Then against the consul who had survived, as the minds of the crowd are changeable, from favor there arose not only envy but even suspicion together with a savage charge. Rumor was bearing that he was aiming at kingship, because he had neither substituted a colleague in the place of Brutus and was building on the summit of the Velia: there, in a high and fortified place, an unassailable citadel was being made.

Haec dicta volgo creditaque cum indignitate angerent consulis animum, vocato ad concilium populo submissis fascibus in contionem escendit. Gratum multitudini spectaculum fuit, submissa sibi esse imperii insignia confessionemque factam populi quam consulis maiestatem vimque maiorem esse. Ibi audire iussis consul laudare fortunam collegae, quod liberata patria, in summo honore, pro re publica dimicans, matura gloria necdum se vertente in invidiam, mortem occubuisset: se superstitem gloriae suae ad crimen atque invidiam superesse; ex liberatore patriae ad Aquilios se Vitelliosque recidisse.

These things having been said and believed by the crowd, and with indignation vexing the consul’s spirit, with the people called to council, he ascended into the assembly with the fasces lowered. A pleasing spectacle to the multitude it was: that the insignia of imperium had been lowered before themselves, and that a confession had been made that the people’s majesty and force are greater than the consul’s. There, when they were ordered to listen, the consul praised the fortune of his colleague, because, the fatherland having been freed, in the highest honor, fighting for the republic, with his glory ripe and not yet turning itself into envy, he had met death: that he himself, a survivor of his own glory, survived to accusation and envy; that from being the liberator of the fatherland he had fallen back to the Aquilii and Vitellii.

"Nunquamne ergo" inquit, "ulla adeo vobis spectata virtus erit, ut suspicione violari nequeat? Ego me, illum acerrimum regum hostem, ipsum cupiditatis regni crimen subiturum timerem? Ego si in ipsa arce Capitolioque habitarem, metui me crederem posse a civibus meis?

"Will there, then, never," he said, "be any virtue so tried in your sight that it cannot be violated by suspicion? I— I, that very keenest enemy of kings—should fear that I myself would incur the charge of cupidity for kingship? If I were dwelling in the citadel itself and on the Capitol, would I believe that I could be feared by my fellow citizens?

Tam levi momento mea apud vos fama pendet? Adeone est fundata leviter fides ut ubi sim quam qui sim magis referat? Non obstabunt Publi Valeri aedes libertati vestrae, Quirites; tuta erit vobis Velia; deferam non in planum modo aedes sed colli etiam subiciam, ut vos supra suspectum me civem habitetis; in Velia aedificent quibus melius quam P. Valerio creditur libertas." Delata confestim materia omnis infra Veliam et, ubi nunc Vicae Potae est, domus in infimo clivo aedificata.

Does my reputation with you hang on a balance so light? Is trust so lightly founded that where I am matters more than who I am? The house of Publius Valerius will not obstruct your liberty, Citizens; the Velia shall be safe for you; I will bring my house down not only onto the plain but will even set it beneath the hill, so that you may dwell above me, a citizen under suspicion; let those build on the Velia in whom liberty is better trusted than in P. Valerius." Forthwith all the building timber was carried down below the Velia, and, where now the Vica Pota stands, a house was built at the foot of the slope.

[8] Latae deinde leges, non solum quae regni suspicione consulem absoluerent, sed quae adeo in contrarium verterent ut popularem etiam facerent; inde cognomen factum Publicolae est. Ante omnes de provocatione adversus magistratus ad populum sacrandoque cum bonis capite eius qui regni occupandi consilia inisset gratae in volgus leges fuere. Quas cum solus pertulisset, ut sua unius in his gratia esset, tum deinde comitia collegae subrogando habuit.

[8] Then laws were passed, not only such as would absolve the consul from suspicion of kingship, but such as would so turn into the contrary that they even made him popular; from this the cognomen Publicola was made. Before all others, the laws about provocatio (appeal) against magistrates to the people, and about consecrating—together with his goods—the person (head) of anyone who had entered upon plans for seizing kingship, were welcome to the populace. Since he had carried these alone, so that the favor in them might be his alone, then thereafter he held the comitia for subrogating a colleague.

Creatus Sp. Lucretius consul, qui magno natu, non sufficientibus iam viribus ad consularia munera obeunda, intra paucos dies moritur. Suffectus in Lucreti locum M. Horatius Puluillus. Apud quosdam veteres auctores non invenio Lucretium consulem; Bruto statim Horatium suggerunt; credo, quia nulla gesta res insignem fecerit consulatum, memoria intercidisse.

Sp. Lucretius was created consul, who, being of great age, with his powers now not sufficient for discharging the consular duties, dies within a few days. In the place of Lucretius, M. Horatius Puluillus was appointed as suffect. Among certain ancient authors I do not find Lucretius as consul; they at once put forward Horatius with Brutus; I believe that, because no accomplished affair made that consulship distinguished, the memory of it has perished.

Nondum dedicata erat in Capitolio Iovis aedes; Valerius Horatiusque consules sortiti uter dedicaret. Horatio sorte evenit: Publicola ad Veientium bellum profectus. Aegrius quam dignum erat tulere Valeri necessarii dedicationem tam incliti templi Horatio dari.

The temple of Jupiter on the Capitol had not yet been dedicated; the consuls Valerius and Horatius cast lots which of them should dedicate it. By lot it fell to Horatius; Publicola had set out to the war of the Veientes. The kinsmen of Valerius took it more ill than was fitting, that the dedication of so renowned a temple should be given to Horatius.

Id omnibus modis impedire conati, postquam alia frustra temptata erant, postem iam tenenti consuli foedum inter precationem deum nuntium incutiunt, mortuum eius filium esse, funestaque familia dedicare eum templum non posse. Non crediderit factum an tantum animo roboris fuerit, nec traditur certum nec interpretatio est facilis. Nihil aliud ad eum nuntium a proposito aversus quam ut cadaver efferri iuberet, tenens postem precationem peragit et dedicat templum.

They, having tried to impede it in every way, after other attempts had been in vain, when the consul was now holding the doorpost, thrust upon him a foul message amid his prayer to the gods: that his son was dead, and that he, with a funereal household, could not dedicate the temple. Whether one should not believe that it was done, or that it was only such strength of spirit, is neither handed down as certain nor is the interpretation easy. Turned aside from his purpose by that message in no other way than to order the cadaver to be carried out, holding the doorpost he completes the prayer and dedicates the temple.

Haec post exactos reges domi militiaeque gesta primo anno.

These things, after the kings had been driven out, were done at home and in the field in the first year.

[9] Inde P. Valerius iterum T. Lucretius consules facti. Iam Tarquinii ad Lartem Porsennam, Clusinum regem, perfugerant. Ibi miscendo consilium precesque nunc orabant, ne se, oriundos ex Etruscis, eiusdem sanguinis nominisque, egentes exsulare pateretur, nunc monebant etiam ne orientem morem pellendi reges inultum sineret.

[9] Thence P. Valerius, for the second time, and T. Lucretius were made consuls. By now the Tarquins had fled for refuge to Lars Porsenna, the Clusian king. There, by mixing counsel and prayers, now they were entreating that he not allow them—sprung from the Etruscans, of the same blood and name—to be destitute in exile; now they were also warning him not to permit the rising custom of expelling kings to go unavenged.

Satis libertatem ipsam habere dulcedinis. Nisi quanta vi civitates eam expetant tanta regna reges defendant, aequari summa infimis; nihil excelsum, nihil quod supra cetera emineat, in civitatibus fore; adesse finem regnis, rei inter deos hominesque pulcherrimae. Porsenna cum regem esse Romae tutum, tum Etruscae gentis regem, amplum Tuscis ratus, Romam infesto exercitu venit.

Liberty itself has sweetness enough. Unless kings defend their realms with as great force as states seek it, the highest would be equalized with the lowest; nothing lofty, nothing that stands out above the rest, would exist in states; the end would be at hand for kingdoms, the most beautiful thing among gods and men. Porsenna, reckoning both that it was safe to have a king at Rome and that a king of the Etruscan nation was a great advantage for the Tuscans, came to Rome with a hostile army.

Non unquam alias ante tantus terror senatum invasit; adeo valida res tum Clusina erat magnumque Porsennae nomen. Nec hostes modo timebant sed suosmet ipsi cives, ne Romana plebs, metu perculsa, receptis in urbem regibus vel cum servitute pacem acciperet. Multa igitur blandimenta plebi per id tempus ab senatu data.

Never before at any other time did so great a terror invade the senate; so strong then was the Clusine power, and so great the name of Porsenna. Nor did they fear only the enemies, but their very own citizens, lest the Roman plebs, smitten by fear, with the kings received back into the city, should accept peace even with servitude. Therefore many blandishments were given to the plebs by the senate during that time.

Annonae in primis habita cura, et ad frumentum comparandum missi alii in Volscos, alii Cumas. Salis quoque vendendi arbitrium, quia impenso pretio venibat, in publicum omne sumptum, ademptum privatis; portoriisque et tributo plebes liberata, ut divites conferrent qui oneri ferendo essent: pauperes satis stipendii pendere, si liberos educent. Itaque haec indulgentia patrum asperis postmodum rebus in obsidione ac fame adeo concordem civitatem tenuit, ut regium nomen non summi magis quam infimi horrerent, nec quisquam unus malis artibus postea tam popularis esset quam tum bene imperando universus senatus fuit.

Care was taken of the grain-supply first of all, and to procure grain some were sent among the Volsci, others to Cumae. The control of selling salt too, because it was coming at an excessive price, was taken wholly into the public domain, removed from private hands; and the plebs were freed from customs-duties and tribute, so that the wealthy, who were able to bear the burden, should contribute: it would be sufficient payment from the poor, if they reared their children. And so this indulgence of the Fathers, in later harsh circumstances during siege and famine, held the commonwealth so concordant that the royal name was shuddered at no more by the highest than by the lowest, nor was any one man thereafter by evil arts so popular as at that time the entire senate was by governing well.

[10] Cum hostes adessent, pro se quisque in urbem ex agris demigrant; urbem ipsam saepiunt praesidiis. Alia muris, alia Tiberi obiecto videbantur tuta: pons sublicius iter paene hostibus dedit, ni unus vir fuisset, Horatius Cocles; id munimentum illo die fortuna urbis Romanae habuit. Qui positus forte in statione pontis cum captum repentino impetu Ianiculum atque inde citatos decurrere hostes vidisset trepidamque turbam suorum arma ordinesque relinquere, reprehensans singulos, obsistens obtestansque deum et hominum fidem testabatur nequiquam deserto praesidio eos fugere; si transitum ponte a tergo reliquissent, iam plus hostium in Palatio Capitolioque quam in Ianiculo fore.

[10] With the enemies at hand, each man for himself moves down into the city from the fields; they hedge the city itself with garrisons. Some parts seemed safe by the walls, others with the Tiber thrown in the way; the Sublician Bridge almost gave a passage to the enemy, had there not been a single man, Horatius Cocles; on that day the Fortune of the Roman city had that as its bulwark. He, posted by chance on the station of the bridge, when he had seen the Janiculum captured by a sudden onset and from there the enemies, summoned, running down at speed, and the trembling crowd of his own leaving their arms and ranks, rebuking individuals, opposing and adjuring, called to witness the good faith of gods and men, declared that they were fleeing to no purpose with the guard deserted; if they should leave the crossing by the bridge behind their backs, soon there would be more enemies on the Palatine and Capitoline than on the Janiculum.

Itaque monere, praedicere ut pontem ferro, igni, quacumque vi possint, interrumpant: se impetum hostium, quantum corpore uno posset obsisti, excepturum. Vadit inde in primum aditum pontis, insignisque inter conspecta cedentium pugna terga obversis comminus ad ineundum proelium armis, ipso miraculo audaciae obstupefecit hostes. Duos tamen cum eo pudor tenuit, Sp. Larcium ac T. Herminium, ambos claros genere factisque.

Therefore he warns and proclaims that they should break the bridge with iron, with fire, with whatever force they can; he himself will receive the impetus of the enemies, so far as with a single body it could be resisted. Then he goes to the first approach of the bridge, and, conspicuous amid the retreat of those in view, with his arms turned to face them at close quarters to enter battle, by the very miracle of his audacity he stupefied the foes. Two, however, shame held with him, Sp. Larcius and T. Herminius, both renowned in lineage and in deeds.

Cum his primam periculi procellam et quod tumultuosissimum pugnae erat parumper sustinuit; deinde eos quoque ipsos exigua parte pontis relicta revocantibus qui rescindebant cedere in tutum coegit. Circumferens inde truces minaciter oculos ad proceres Etruscorum nunc singulos provocare, nunc increpare omnes: servitia regum superborum, suae libertatis immemores alienam oppugnatum venire. Cunctati aliquamdiu sunt, dum alius alium, ut proelium incipiant, circumspectant; pudor deinde commovit aciem, et clamore sublato undique in unum hostem tela coniciunt.

With these men he for a little while sustained the first storm of peril and what was most tumultuous of the battle; then, with only a small part of the bridge left, he even compelled those very men, being called back by those who were cutting it down, to withdraw into safety. Then, sweeping fierce, menacing eyes around toward the princes of the Etruscans, now challenging individuals, now reproaching all: slaves of superb kings, unmindful of their own liberty, coming to attack another’s. They hesitated for some time, while each looked to the other to begin the proelium; then shame moved the battle line, and, a shout having been raised, from every side they hurl missiles at the one enemy.

Quae cum in obiecto cuncta scuto haesissent, neque ille minus obstinatus ingenti pontem obtineret gradu, iam impetu conabantur detrudere virum, cum simul fragor rupti pontis, simul clamor Romanorum, alacritate perfecti operis sublatus, pavore subito impetum sustinuit. Tum Cocles "Tiberine pater" inquit, "te sancte precor, haec arma et hunc militem propitio flumine accipias." Ita sic armatus in Tiberim desiluit multisque superincidentibus telis incolumis ad suos tranavit, rem ausus plus famae habituram ad posteros quam fidei. Grata erga tantam virtutem civitas fuit; statua in comitio posita; agri quantum uno die circumaravit, datum.

When all of these had stuck fast in the shield he had set before him, and he, no less obstinate, was holding the bridge with a vast stance, they now were trying by a charge to shove the man down, when at once the crash of the broken bridge, and at once the shout of the Romans, lifted by the alacrity of the completed work, checked their onrush with sudden fear. Then Cocles said, "Father Tiber, I sacredly entreat you, that you receive these arms and this soldier with a propitious stream." Thus, so armed, he leaped down into the Tiber, and, with many missiles falling upon him from above, swam safe to his own, having ventured a deed that would have more of fame with posterity than of belief. The state was grateful toward such great virtue; a statue was set up in the comitium; as much land as he ploughed around in one day was granted.

Privata quoque inter publicos honores studia eminebant; nam in magna inopia pro domesticis copiis unusquisque ei aliquid, fraudans se ipse victu suo, contulit.

Private efforts also stood out among the public honors; for, in great want, in lieu of domestic stores, each contributed to him something, defrauding himself of his own sustenance.

[11] Porsinna primo conatu repulsus, consiliis ab oppugnanda urbe ad obsidendam versis, praesidio in Ianiculo locato, ipse in plano ripisque Tiberis castra posuit, navibus undique accitis et ad custodiam ne quid Romam frumenti subvehi sineret, et ut praedatum milites trans flumen per occasiones aliis atque aliis locis traiceret; brevique adeo infestum omnem Romanum agrum reddidit ut non cetera solum ex agris sed pecus quoque omne in urbem compelleretur, neque quisquam extra portas propellere auderet. Hoc tantum licentiae Etruscis non metu magis quam consilio concessum. Namque Valerius consul intentus in occasionem multos simul et effusos improviso adoriundi, in parvis rebus neglegens ultor, gravem se ad maiora vindicem servabat.

[11] Porsinna, repulsed in his first attempt, with his plans turned from assaulting the city to besieging it, with a garrison placed on the Janiculum, himself pitched camp on the plain and the banks of the Tiber, having ships summoned from every side both for guard, so that he might not allow any grain to be brought up to Rome, and that for plunder he might ferry soldiers across the river, as occasions offered, now in one place now in another; and in a short time he made every Roman field so infested that not only everything else from the fields but also all the cattle was driven into the city, nor did anyone dare drive them outside the gates. This measure of license to the Etruscans was conceded not so much by fear as by counsel. For Valerius the consul, intent on the opportunity of attacking by surprise many at once and scattered, being a negligent avenger in small matters, was reserving himself as a grave vindicator for greater ones.

Itaque ut eliceret praedatores, edicit suis postero die frequentes porta Esquilina, quae aversissima ab hoste erat, expellerent pecus, scituros id hostes ratus, quod in obsidione et fame servitia infida transfugerent. Et sciere perfugae indicio; multoque plures, ut in spem universae praedae, flumen traiciunt. P. Valerius inde T. Herminium cum modicis copiis ad secundum lapidem Gabina via occultum considere iubet, Sp. Larcium cum expedita iuventute ad portam Collinam stare donec hostis praetereat; inde se obicere ne sit ad flumen reditus.

Therefore, in order to draw out the marauders, he edicts to his men to drive out, on the next day, the cattle in great numbers by the Esquiline Gate, which was most opposite from the enemy, thinking the foes would learn it, since in a siege and famine unfaithful servitors are apt to defect. And they did learn it by the disclosure of deserters; and many more, as in hope of the entire booty, cross the river. From there Publius Valerius orders Titus Herminius with moderate forces to take up a hidden position at the second milestone on the Gabine Way, Spurius Larcius with the unencumbered youth to stand at the Colline Gate until the enemy passes by; then to throw themselves in his path, so that there may be no return to the river.

Consulum alter T. Lucretius porta Naeuia cum aliquot manipulis militum egressus; ipse Valerius Caelio monte cohortes delectas educit, hique primi apparuere hosti. Herminius ubi tumultum sensit, concurrit ex insidiis, versisque in Lucretium Etruscis terga caedit; dextra laevaque, hinc a porta Collina, illinc ab Naeuia, redditus clamor; ita caesi in medio praedatores, neque ad pugnam viribus pares et ad fugam saeptis omnibus viis. Finisque ille tam effuse evagandi Etruscis fuit.

One of the consuls, T. Lucretius, went out by the Naevian Gate with several maniples of soldiers; Valerius himself led out select cohorts on the Caelian Hill, and these were the first to appear to the enemy. When Herminius sensed the tumult, he rushed together from ambush and, with the Etruscans turned against Lucretius, he hews them down from the rear; on the right and on the left, here from the Colline Gate, there from the Naevian, the shout was echoed back. Thus the raiders were cut down in the middle, neither equal in strength for battle and, for flight, with all the roads hemmed in. And that was the end for the Etruscans of ranging so extravagantly abroad.

[12] Obsidio erat nihilo minus et frumenti cum summa caritate inopia, sedendoque expugnaturum se urbem spem Porsinna habebat, cum C. Mucius, adulescens nobilis, cui indignum videbatur populum Romanum servientem cum sub regibus esset nullo bello nec ab hostibus ullis obsessum esse, liberum eundem populum ab iisdem Etruscis obsideri quorum saepe exercitus fuderit,—itaque magno audacique aliquo facinore eam indignitatem vindicandam ratus, primo sua sponte penetrare in hostium castra constituit; dein metuens ne si consulum iniussu et ignaris omnibus iret, forte deprehensus a custodibus Romanis retraheretur ut transfuga, fortuna tum urbis crimen adfirmante, senatum adit. "Transire Tiberim" inquit, "patres, et intrare, si possim, castra hostium volo, non praedo nec populationum in vicem ultor; maius si di iuvant in animo est facinus." Adprobant patres; abdito intra vestem ferro proficiscitur. Ubi eo venit, in confertissima turba prope regium tribunal constitit.

[12] The siege was nonetheless on, and there was a shortage of grain with the utmost dearness, and Porsinna had the hope that by a blockade he would take the city, when Gaius Mucius, a noble youth, to whom it seemed an indignity that the Roman people, when serving under kings, had been besieged in no war nor by any enemies, yet that that same people, now free, should be besieged by those same Etruscans whose armies it had often routed,—accordingly, thinking that indignity must be avenged by some great and audacious deed, first resolved of his own accord to penetrate into the enemy camp; then, fearing that if he went without the consuls’ order and with all unaware, he might, if by chance caught by the Roman guards, be dragged back as a deserter, the fortune of the city at that time lending credence to the charge, he approaches the senate. “To cross the Tiber,” he says, “Fathers, and to enter, if I can, the enemy’s camp, I wish—not as a brigand nor as an avenger in turn of raids; a greater deed, if the gods aid, is in my mind.” The Fathers approve; with iron hidden within his garment he sets out. When he came there, he took his stand in the thickest crowd near the royal tribunal.

Ibi cum stipendium militibus forte daretur et scriba cum rege sedens pari fere ornatu multa ageret eumque milites volgo adirent, timens sciscitari uter Porsinna esset, ne ignorando regem semet ipse aperiret quis esset, quo temere traxit fortuna facinus, scribam pro rege obtruncat. Vadentem inde qua per trepidam turbam cruento mucrone sibi ipse fecerat viam, cum concursu ad clamorem facto comprehensum regii satellites retraxissent, ante tribunal regis destitutus, tum quoque inter tantas fortunae minas metuendus magis quam metuens, "Romanus sum" inquit, "civis; C. Mucium vocant. Hostis hostem occidere volui, nec ad mortem minus animi est, quam fuit ad caedem; et facere et pati fortia Romanum est.

There, when the stipend was by chance being given to the soldiers, and the scribe, sitting with the king, in almost equal attire was handling many matters, and the soldiers in crowds were approaching him, fearing to inquire which one was Porsinna, lest by not knowing the king he should lay bare himself who he was, Fortune—who drew the deed headlong—led him to strike down the scribe in place of the king. Then going away from there, where through the panicked crowd he had made himself a way with his bloody blade, when, with a rush made at the clamor, the royal bodyguards had seized him and dragged him back, set before the king’s tribunal—then too, amid such great threats of Fortune, more to be feared than fearing—he said: “I am a Roman citizen; they call me Gaius Mucius. As an enemy I wished to kill an enemy, nor is there less of spirit for death than there was for slaughter; both to do and to suffer brave things is Roman.”

Nec unus in te ego hos animos gessi; longus post me ordo est idem petentium decus. Proinde in hoc discrimen, si iuvat, accingere, ut in singulas horas capite dimices tuo, ferrum hostemque in vestibulo habeas regiae. Hoc tibi iuventus Romana indicimus bellum.

Nor I alone have borne these spirits against you; after me there is a long line of those seeking the same honor. Therefore, for this crisis, if it pleases you, gird yourself, so that at every single hour you may contend with your head at stake, and have the iron and the enemy at the vestibule of your royal palace. This war upon you the Roman youth declares.

Nullam aciem, nullum proelium timueris; uni tibi et cum singulis res erit." Cum rex simul ira infensus periculoque conterritus circumdari ignes minitabundus iuberet nisi expromeret propere quas insidiarum sibi minas per ambages iaceret, "en tibi" inquit, "ut sentias quam vile corpus sit iis qui magnam gloriam vident"; dextramque accenso ad sacrificium foculo inicit. Quam cum velut alienato ab sensu torreret animo, prope attonitus miraculo rex cum ab sede sua prosiluisset amoverique ab altaribus iuvenem iussisset, "tu vero abi" inquit, "in te magis quam in me hostilia ausus. Iuberem macte virtute esse, si pro mea patria ista virtus staret; nunc iure belli liberum te, intactum inviolatumque hinc dimitto." Tunc Mucius, quasi remunerans meritum, "quando quidem" inquit, "est apud te virtuti honos, ut beneficio tuleris a me quod minis nequisti, trecenti coniuravimus principes iuventutis Romanae ut in te hac via grassaremur.

"You need fear no battle line, no battle; your affair will be one‑on‑one, with individuals." When the king, at once hostile in anger and terrified by the danger, in a threatening manner ordered fires to be set around him unless he promptly disclosed what threats of ambush he was hurling at him by circumlocutions, "look here for you," he says, "so that you may feel how vile a body is to those who behold great glory"; and he thrusts his right hand into a little brazier kindled for sacrifice. And as he was scorching it with a mind as if alienated from feeling, the king, almost thunderstruck at the marvel, when he had sprung from his seat and had ordered the youth to be removed from the altars, says, "Away with you indeed—having dared hostile acts more against yourself than against me. I would bid you, ‘macte virtute,’ be increased in virtue, if that virtue stood for my fatherland; now, by the law of war, I release you from here free, untouched, and inviolate." Then Mucius, as though repaying the desert, says, "Since indeed with you there is honor for virtue, so that by a beneficium you have obtained from me what you could not by threats, three hundred of us, the chiefs of the Roman youth, have conspired to advance upon you by this path.

Mea prima sors fuit; ceteri ut cuiusque ceciderit primi quoad te opportunum fortuna dederit, suo quisque tempore aderunt."

Mine was the first lot; the rest, as each one’s lot shall have fallen first, so long as Fortune shall have rendered you opportune, each will be present at his own time."

[13] Mucium dimissum, cui postea Scaevolae a clade dextrae manus cognomen inditum, legati a Porsinna Romam secuti sunt; adeo moverat eum et primi periculi casus, a quo nihil se praeter errorem insidiatoris texisset, et subeunda dimicatio totiens quot coniurati superessent, ut pacis condiciones ultro ferret Romanis. Iactatum in condicionibus nequiquam de Tarquiniis in regnum restituendis, magis quia id negare ipse nequiverat Tarquiniis quam quod negatum iri sibi ab Romanis ignoraret. De agro Veientibus restituendo impetratum, expressaque necessitas obsides dandi Romanis, si Ianiculo praesidium deduci vellent.

[13] Mucius, having been dismissed—upon whom later the cognomen Scaevola was conferred from the maiming of his right hand—was followed to Rome by envoys from Porsinna; to such a degree had he been moved both by the event of the first danger, from which, he said, nothing had shielded him except the plotter’s error, and by the combat to be undergone as many times as conspirators remained, that he of his own accord brought terms of peace to the Romans. It was tossed about in the conditions, to no effect, concerning restoring the Tarquins to the kingship—more because he himself had not been able to refuse that to the Tarquins than because he was unaware that it would be denied him by the Romans. As for the land to be restored to the Veientes, it was obtained; and an express necessity of giving hostages to the Romans was exacted, if they wished the garrison to be withdrawn from the Janiculum.

His condicionibus composita pace, exercitum ab Ianiculo deduxit Porsinna et agro Romano excessit. Patres C. Mucio virtutis causa trans Tiberim agrum dono dedere, quae postea sunt Mucia prata appellata. Ergo ita honorata virtute, feminae quoque ad publica decora excitatae, et Cloelia virgo una ex obsidibus, cum castra Etruscorum forte haud procul ripa Tiberis locata essent, frustrata custodes, dux agminis virginum inter tela hostium Tiberim tranavit, sospitesque omnes Romam ad propinquos restituit.

With peace arranged on these conditions, Porsinna led his army down from the Janiculum and withdrew from the Roman territory. The Fathers gave to Gaius Mucius, for the sake of his valor, a tract of land across the Tiber as a gift, which afterwards was called the Mucian Meadows. Therefore, with virtue thus honored, women too were stirred to public distinctions, and the maiden Cloelia, one of the hostages, when the camp of the Etruscans happened to be pitched not far from the bank of the Tiber, having outwitted the guards, as leader of the column of maidens swam the Tiber amid the missiles of the enemy, and restored them all safe to Rome to their kinsfolk.

Quod ubi regi nuntiatum est, primo incensus ira oratores Romam misit ad Cloeliam obsidem deposcendam: alias haud magni facere. Deinde in admirationem versus, supra Coclites Muciosque dicere id facinus esse, et prae se ferre quemadmodum si non dedatur obses, pro rupto foedus se habiturum, sic deditam intactam inviolatamque ad suos remissurum. Utrimque constitit fides; et Romani pignus pacis ex foedere restituerunt, et apud regem Etruscum non tuta solum sed honorata etiam virtus fuit, laudatamque virginem parte obsidum se donare dixit; ipsa quos vellet legeret.

When this was reported to the king, at first inflamed with anger he sent envoys to Rome to demand Cloelia, the hostage; the others he did not reckon of great account. Then, turned to admiration, he declared that the deed was above Cocles and the Mucii, and he openly professed that, just as if the hostage were not surrendered he would hold the treaty as broken, so, if she were surrendered, he would send her back to her own unharmed and inviolate. On both sides faith stood fast: the Romans restored the pledge of peace according to the treaty, and with the Etruscan king virtue was not only safe but honored as well; and he said that he would present the praised maiden with a portion of the hostages; she herself might choose whom she wished.

Productis omnibus elegisse impubes dicitur; quod et virginitati decorum et consensu obsidum ipsorum probabile erat eam aetatem potissimum liberari ab hoste quae maxime opportuna iniuriae esset. Pace redintegrata Romani novam in femina virtutem novo genere honoris, statua equestri, donavere; in summa Sacra via fuit posita virgo insidens equo.

When all had been brought forward, she is said to have chosen the underage; which was both decorous to virginity and, with the consent of the hostages themselves, plausible—that that age should preferably be freed from the enemy which was most opportune for outrage. With peace restored, the Romans endowed the new virtue in a woman with a new kind of honor, an equestrian statue; on the summit of the Sacred Way the maiden, seated upon a horse, was set up.

[14] Huic tam pacatae profectioni ab urbe regis Etrusci abhorrens mos traditus ab antiquis usque ad nostram aetatem inter cetera sollemnia manet, bona Porsennae regis vendendi. Cuius originem moris necesse est aut inter bellum natam esse neque omissam in pace, aut a mitiore crevisse principio quam hic prae se ferat titulus bona hostiliter vendendi. Proximum vero est ex iis quae traduntur Porsennam discedentem ab Ianiculo castra opulenta, convecto ex propinquis ac fertilibus Etruriae arvis commeatu, Romanis dono dedisse, inopi tum urbe ab longinqua obsidione; ea deinde, ne populo immisso diriperentur hostiliter, venisse, bonaque Porsennae appellata, gratiam muneris magis significante titulo quam auctionem fortunae regiae quae ne in potestate quidem populi Romani esset.

[14] To this so pacific departure from the city of the Etruscan king there remains, discordant, a custom handed down by the ancients even to our age among the other solemnities, the “selling of the goods of King Porsenna.” The origin of which custom must either have been born amid the war and not omitted in peace, or have grown from a milder beginning than this title of selling goods in hostile fashion puts forward. What is closest to the truth, however, from the things that are transmitted, is that Porsenna, departing from the Janiculum, gave to the Romans as a gift his opulent camp, with provisions convoyed from the neighboring and fertile fields of Etruria, the city then needy from the long siege; these things thereafter, lest, the populace having been let in, they be plundered in hostile fashion, were sold, and were called the “goods of Porsenna,” the title signifying the favor of a benefaction rather than an auction of the royal fortune, which was not even in the power of the Roman people.

Omisso Romano bello Porsenna, ne frustra in ea loca exercitus adductus videretur, cum parte copiarum filium Arruntem Ariciam oppugnatum mittit. Primo Aricinos res necopinata perculerat; arcessita deinde auxilia et a Latinis populis et a Cumis tantum spei fecere, ut acie decernere auderent. Proelio inito, adeo concitato impetu se intulerant Etrusci ut funderent ipso incursu Aricinos: Cumanae cohortes arte adversus vim usae declinavere paululum, effuseque praelatos hostes conversis signis ab tergo adortae sunt.

With the Roman war laid aside, Porsenna, lest the army seem to have been led into those places to no purpose, sent his son Arruns with part of the forces to assault Aricia. At first the unexpected affair struck the Aricians with dismay; then auxiliaries summoned both from the Latin peoples and from Cumae created so much hope that they dared to decide the issue by pitched battle. Once the battle was joined, the Etruscans hurled themselves in with such a stirred-up onrush that by the very first charge they routed the Aricians; the Cumaean cohorts, using art against force, bent aside a little, and when the foes, in a loose rush, had been borne past them, with standards turned they attacked from the rear.

Ita in medio prope iam victores caesi Etrusci. Pars perexigua, duce amisso, quia nullum propius perfugium erat, Romam inermes et fortuna et specie supplicum delati sunt. Ibi benigne excepti divisique in hospitia.

Thus, in the very midst, the Etruscans, already almost victors, were cut down. A very small part, their leader lost, because there was no nearer refuge, were conveyed to Rome, unarmed and in both the condition and the appearance of suppliants. There they were kindly received and divided into lodgings.

Curatis volneribus, alii profecti domos, nuntii hospitalium beneficiorum: multos Romae hospitum urbisque caritas tenuit. His locus ad habitandum datus quem deinde Tuscum vicum appellarunt.

With their wounds cared for, some departed home, messengers of the benefactions of hospitality; many were held at Rome by the affection of their hosts and of the city. To these a place for dwelling was given, which thereafter they called the Vicus Tuscus.

[15] Sp. Larcius inde et T. Herminius, P. Lucretius inde et P. Valerius Publicola consules facti. Eo anno postremum legati a Porsenna de reducendo in regnum Tarquinio venerunt; quibus cum responsum esset missurum ad regem senatum legatos, missi confestim honoratissimus quisque ex patribus. Non quin breviter reddi responsum potuerit non recipi reges, ideo potius delectos patrum ad eum missos quam legatis eius Romae daretur responsum, sed ut in perpetuum mentio eius rei finiretur, neu in tantis mutuis beneficiis in vicem animi sollicitarentur, cum ille peteret quod contra libertatem populi Romani esset, Romani, nisi in perniciem suam faciles esse vellent, negarent cui nihil negatum vellent.

[15] Then Spurius Larcius and Titus Herminius, then Publius Lucretius and Publius Valerius Publicola were made consuls. In that year, for the last time, legates came from Porsenna about restoring Tarquinius to the kingdom; to whom, when the response had been that the senate would send legates to the king, there were sent forthwith each of the most honored from among the Fathers. Not that a response could not have been briefly returned—that kings were not to be received—but rather for this reason the chosen of the senators were sent to him, than that an answer should be given to his legates at Rome: namely, that mention of that matter might be ended forever, and that, amid such great mutual benefactions, minds might not be disquieted on either side, since he was asking what was against the liberty of the Roman people; the Romans must refuse to him—to whom they would wish nothing to be refused—unless they wished to be compliant to their own ruin.

Non in regno populum Romanum sed in libertate esse. Ita induxisse in animum, hostibus portas potius quam regibus patefacere; ea esse vota omnium ut qui libertati erit in illa urbe finis, idem urbi sit. Proinde si saluam esse vellet Romam, ut patiatur liberam esse orare.

That the Roman people are not under a kingdom but in liberty. Thus they have resolved to open the gates rather to enemies than to kings; such are the vows of all, that whatever shall be the end for liberty in that city, the same shall be for the city. Therefore, if he wishes Rome to be safe, they pray that he allow it to be free.

Rex verecundia victus "quando id certum atque obstinatum est" inquit, "neque ego obtundam saepius eadem nequiquam agendo, nec Tarquinios spe auxilii, quod nullum in me est, frustrabor. Alium hinc, seu bello opus est seu quiete, exsilio quaerant locum, ne quid meam vobiscum pacem distineat." Dictis facta amiciora adiecit; obsidum quod reliquum erat reddidit; agrum Veientem, foedere ad Ianiculum icto ademptum, restituit. Tarquinius spe omni reditus incisa exsulatum ad generum Mamilium Octavium Tusculum abiit.

The king, overcome by shame, said, "since that is settled and obstinate, neither will I importune you repeatedly with the same things by urging them to no purpose, nor will I frustrate the Tarquins with a hope of aid, which is none in me. Let them seek another place of exile away from here, whether there is need of war or of quiet, so that nothing may hinder my peace with you." To these words he added more amicable deeds; he returned what remained of the hostages; he restored the Veientine land, taken away by a treaty struck at the Janiculum. Tarquinius, with every hope of return cut off, went into exile to his son-in-law, Mamilius Octavius, to Tusculum.

Romanis pax fida cum Porsenna fuit.

For the Romans, there was a faithful peace with Porsenna.

[16] Consules M. Valerius P. Postumius. Eo anno bene pugnatum cum Sabinis; consules triumpharunt. Maiore inde mole Sabini bellum parabant.

[16] The consuls were M. Valerius and P. Postumius. In that year a successful battle was fought with the Sabines; the consuls celebrated a triumph. Thereafter the Sabines were preparing war on a larger scale.

Adversus eos et ne quid simul ab Tusculo, unde etsi non apertum, suspectum tamen bellum erat, repentini periculi oreretur, P. Valerius quartum T. Lucretius iterum consules facti. Seditio inter belli pacisque auctores orta in Sabinis aliquantum inde virium transtulit ad Romanos. Namque Attius Clausus, cui postea Appio Claudio fuit Romae nomen, cum pacis ipse auctor a turbatoribus belli premeretur nec par factioni esset, ab Inregillo, magna clientium comitatus manu, Romam transfugit.

Against them, and lest at the same time from Tusculum—whence, although not open, yet a war was suspect—there might arise any sudden peril, P. Valerius, for the fourth time, and T. Lucretius, again, were made consuls. A sedition, arisen among the Sabines between the authors of war and of peace, transferred thence some forces to the Romans. For Attius Clausus, to whom afterward at Rome the name was Appius Claudius, since he himself, an author of peace, was pressed by the agitators of war and was not a match for the faction, from Inregillo, accompanied by a great band of clients, defected to Rome.

His civitas data agerque trans Anienem; Vetus Claudia tribus—additis postea novis tribulibus—qui ex eo venirent agro appellati. Appius inter patres lectus, haud ita multo post in principum dignationem pervenit. Consules infesto exercitu in agrum Sabinum profecti cum ita vastatione, dein proelio adflixissent opes hostium ut diu nihil inde rebellionis timeri posset, triumphantes Romam redierunt.

To these men citizenship was given and land across the Anio; the Old Claudian tribe—afterwards, new tribesmen having been added—was so named from those who came from that land. Appius, chosen among the patres, not much later arrived at the dignity of the chief men. The consuls, with an army in hostile array, set out into the Sabine territory; when by devastation, then by battle, they had so afflicted the enemy’s resources that for a long time nothing of rebellion could be feared from there, they returned to Rome triumphing.

P. Valerius, omnium consensu princeps belli pacisque artibus, anno post Agrippa Menenio P. Postumio consulibus moritur, gloria ingenti, copiis familiaribus adeo exiguis, ut funeri sumptus deesset; de publico est datus. Luxere matronae ut Brutum. Eodem anno duae coloniae Latinae, Pometia et Cora, ad Auruncos deficiunt.

P. Valerius, by the consensus of all the princeps in the arts of war and peace, dies the year after, with Agrippa Menenius and P. Postumius as consuls, with immense glory, but with family resources so scant that the expense for his funeral was lacking; it was given from the public treasury. The matrons mourned him as [they had] Brutus. In the same year two Latin colonies, Pometia and Cora, defect to the Aurunci.

Cum Auruncis bellum initum; fusoque ingenti exercitu, qui se ingredientibus fines consulibus ferociter obtulerat, omne Auruncum bellum Pometiam compulsum est. Nec magis post proelium quam in proelio caedibus temperatum est; et caesi aliquanto plures erant quam capti, et captos passim trucidaverunt; ne ab obsidibus quidem, qui trecenti accepti numero erant, ira belli abstinuit. Et hoc anno Romae triumphatum.

War was initiated with the Aurunci; and, the huge army routed—which had fiercely presented itself to the consuls as they were entering the borders—the whole Auruncan war was forced into Pometia. Nor was there more restraint from slaughter after the battle than in the battle; and considerably more were slain than captured, and they butchered the captured everywhere; not even from the hostages, who had been received to the number of three hundred, did the wrath of war refrain. And in this year at Rome a triumph was celebrated.

[17] Secuti consules Opiter Verginius Sp. Cassius Pometiam primo vi, deinde vineis aliisque operibus oppugnarunt. In quos Aurunci magis iam inexpiabili odio quam spe aliqua aut occasione coorti, cum plures igni quam ferro armati excucurrissent, caede incendioque cuncta complent. Vineis incensis, multis hostium volneratis et occisis, consulum quoque alterum—sed utrum auctores non adiciunt—gravi volnere ex equo deiectum prope interfecerunt.

[17] The succeeding consuls, Opiter Verginius and Sp. Cassius, besieged Pometia first by force, then with vineae and other works. Against them the Aurunci, now assailing more with inexpiable hatred than with any hope or occasion, when more had rushed out armed with fire than with iron, fill everything with slaughter and conflagration. The vineae having been burned, with many of the enemies wounded and slain, they nearly killed one of the consuls also—but which, the authors do not add—thrown from his horse by a grave wound.

Romam inde male gesta re reditum; inter multos saucios consul spe incerta vitae relatus. Interiecto deinde haud magno spatio, quod volneribus curandis supplendoque exercitui satis esset, cum ira maiore, tum viribus etiam auctis Pometiae arma inlata. Et cum vineis refectis aliaque mole belli iam in eo esset ut in muros evaderet miles, deditio est facta.

Thence, with the affair ill-managed, a return was made to Rome; among many wounded the consul was carried back with a doubtful hope of life. Then, after no great interval had intervened—enough for tending the wounds and for replenishing the army—arms were brought against Pometia with greater wrath, and with forces also increased. And when, the siege-vines repaired and other apparatus of war prepared, the soldiery was now on the point of scaling the walls, surrender was made.

Ceterum nihilo minus foeda, dedita urbe, quam si capta foret, Aurunci passi; principes securi percussi, sub corona venierunt coloni alii, oppidum dirutum, ager veniit. Consules magis ob iras graviter ultas quam ob magnitudinem perfecti belli triumpharunt.

But nevertheless the Aurunci suffered things no less foul, though the city was surrendered, than if it had been captured: the chiefs were struck with the axe, some were sold “under the crown,” others made colonists; the town was razed, the land was sold. The consuls triumphed more on account of their angers grievously avenged than on account of the magnitude of a completed war.

[18] Insequens annus Postumum Cominium et T. Largium consules habuit. Eo anno Romae, cum per ludos ab Sabinorum iuventute per lasciviam scorta raperentur, concursu hominum rixa ac prope proelium fuit, parvaque ex re ad rebellionem spectare videbatur. Super belli Sabini metum id quoque accesserat quod, triginta iam coniurasse populos concitante Octavio Mamilio satis constabat.

[18] The ensuing year had Postumus Cominius and T. Largius as consuls. In that year at Rome, when during the games courtesans were being snatched by the youth of the Sabines in wantonness, by the concourse of people there was a brawl and almost a battle, and from a small matter it seemed to look toward rebellion. Besides the fear of the Sabine war, this too had been added: that it was well established that thirty peoples had now conspired, with Octavius Mamilius inciting them.

In hac tantarum expectatione rerum sollicita civitate, dictatoris primum creandi mentio orta. Sed nec quibus consulibus quia ex factione Tarquiniana essent—id quoque enim traditur—parum creditum sit, nec quis primum dictator creatus sit, satis constat. Apud veterrimos tamen auctores T. Largium dictatorem primum, Sp. Cassium magistrum equitum creatos invenio.

In this city, anxious in so great an expectation of affairs, the first mention arose of creating a dictator. But neither under which consuls—because they were from the Tarquinian faction (for this too is handed down), and so little credit is given—nor who was first created dictator, is sufficiently agreed. Among the most ancient authors, however, I find T. Largius the first dictator, and Sp. Cassius created master of the horse.

Consulares legere; ita lex iubebat de dictatore creando lata. Eo magis adducor ut credam Largium, qui consularis erat, potius quam M'. Valerium Marci filium Volesi nepotem, qui nondum consul fuerat, moderatorem et magistrum consulibus appositum; quin si maxime ex ea familia legi dictatorem vellent, patrem multo potius M. Valerium spectatae virtutis et consularem virum legissent. Creato dictatore primum Romae, postquam praeferri secures viderunt, magnus plebem metus incessit, ut intentiores essent ad dicto parendum; neque enim ut in consulibus qui pari potestate essent, alterius auxilium neque provocatio erat neque ullum usquam nisi in cura parendi auxilium.

They were to choose men of consular rank; such was what the law enacted concerning the creation of a dictator ordered. Therefore I am the more induced to believe that Largius, who was consular, rather than Manius Valerius, son of Marcus, grandson of Volesus, who had not yet been consul, was attached as a moderator and master to the consuls; indeed, if they particularly wished a dictator to be chosen from that family, they would much rather have chosen the father, Marcus Valerius, a man of approved virtue and a consular man. When a dictator was created for the first time at Rome, after they saw the axes borne before him, great fear seized the plebs, so that they were the more intent on obeying the word; for, unlike in the case of the consuls, who were of equal power, there was neither the aid of the other nor an appeal, nor was there any help anywhere except in the concern to obey.

Sabinis etiam creatus Romae dictator, eo magis quod propter se creatum crediderant, metum incussit. Itaque legatos de pace mittunt. Quibus orantibus dictatorem senatumque ut veniam erroris hominibus adulescentibus darent, responsum ignosci adulescentibus posse, senibus non posse qui bella ex bellis sererent.

The dictator created at Rome for the Sabines as well, all the more because they had believed he was created on their account, struck fear. Therefore they send legates for peace. To these, as they were beseeching that the dictator and the senate grant pardon for the error to the adolescent men, the answer was that it was possible to forgive the adolescents, but not the elders, who sow wars out of wars.

Actum tamen est de pace, impetrataque foret si, quod impensae factum in bellum erat, praestare Sabini— id enim postulatum erat—in animum induxissent. Bellum indictum: tacitae indutiae quietum annum tenuere.

Nevertheless, there was action concerning peace, and it would have been obtained if the Sabines had brought themselves to make good what expense had been incurred in the war—for that was what was demanded. War was declared: a tacit truce held a quiet year.

[19] Consules Ser. Sulpicius M'. Tullius; nihil dignum memoria actum; T. Aebutius deinde et C. Vetusius. His consulibus Fidenae obsessae, Crustumeria capta; Praeneste ab Latinis ad Romanos descivit, nec ultra bellum Latinum, gliscens iam per aliquot annos, dilatum.

[19] Consuls Servius Sulpicius and Manius Tullius; nothing worthy of memory was transacted; then Titus Aebutius and Gaius Vetusius. Under these consuls Fidenae was besieged, Crustumeria taken; Praeneste defected from the Latins to the Romans, and the Latin war, swelling now for several years, was not put off any longer.

A. Postumius dictator, T. Aebutius magister equitum, magnis copiis peditum equitumque profecti, ad lacum Regillum in agro Tusculano agmini hostium occurrerunt, et quia Tarquinios esse in exercitu Latinorum auditum est, sustineri ira non potuit quin extemplo confligerent. Ergo etiam proelium aliquanto quam cetera gravius atque atrocius fuit. Non enim duces ad regendam modo consilio rem adfuere, sed suismet ipsi corporibus dimicantes miscuere certamina, nec quisquam procerum ferme hac aut illa ex acie sine volnere praeter dictatorem Romanum excessit.

A. Postumius, dictator, and T. Aebutius, master of the horse, having set out with great forces of infantry and cavalry, met the enemy’s column at Lake Regillus in the Tusculan countryside; and because it was heard that the Tarquins were in the army of the Latins, their wrath could not be restrained but that they should engage at once. Therefore the battle, too, was by some degree more grave and more atrocious than the others. For the leaders were present not only to govern the affair by counsel, but, fighting with their very own bodies, they mingled in the contests; and scarcely any of the nobles on this side or that left the battle line without a wound, except the Roman dictator.

In Postumium prima in acie suos adhortantem instruentemque Tarquinius Superbus, quamquam iam aetate et viribus erat gravior, equum infestus admisit, ictusque ab latere concursu suorum receptus in tutum est. Et ad alterum cornu Aebutius magister equitum in Octavium Mamilium impetum dederat; nec fefellit veniens Tusculanum ducem, contraque et ille concitat equum. Tantaque vis infestis venientium hastis fuit ut brachium Aebutio traiectum sit, Mamilio pectus percussum.

At Postumius, as he in the front line was exhorting and instructing his men, Tarquinius Superbus—although now heavier with age and in his strength—hostilely drove his horse against him; and, having been struck from the side, he was received into safety by the rush of his own. And on the other wing Aebutius, the master of horse, had delivered an onset against Octavius Mamilius; nor did the Tusculan leader fail to perceive the one coming, and he likewise urges his horse to meet him. And so great was the force of the hostile spears coming on that Aebutius’s arm was transfixed, Mamilius’s chest struck.

Hunc quidem in secundam aciem Latini recepere; Aebutius cum saucio brachio tenere telum non posset, pugna excessit. Latinus dux nihil deterritus volnere proelium ciet et quia suos perculsos videbat, arcessit cohortem exsulum Romanorum, cui L. Tarquini filius praeerat. Ea quo maiore pugnabat ira ob erepta bona patriamque ademptam, pugnam parumper restituit.

This man indeed the Latins received into the second line; Aebutius, since with his wounded arm he could not hold a weapon, withdrew from the fight. The Latin leader, deterred not at all by the wound, rouses the battle, and because he saw his men smitten, he summons the cohort of Roman exiles, which the son of L. Tarquinius commanded. This cohort, by the greater ire on account of goods snatched and a fatherland taken away, restored the fight for a little while.

[20] Referentibus iam pedem ab ea parte Romanis, M. Valerius Publicolae frater, conspicatus ferocem iuvenem Tarquinium ostentantem se in prima exsulum acie, domestica etiam gloria accensus ut cuius familiae decus eiecti reges erant, eiusdem interfecti forent, subdit calcaria equo et Tarquinium infesto spiculo petit. Tarquinius retro in agmen suorum infenso cessit hosti: Valerium temere invectum in exsulum aciem ex transverso quidam adortus transfigit, nec quicquam equitis volnere equo retardato, moribundus Romanus labentibus super corpus armis ad terram defluxit. Dictator Postumius postquam cecidisse talem virum, exsules ferociter citato agmine invehi, suos perculsos cedere animadvertit, cohorti suae, quam delectam manum praesidii causa circa se habebat, dat signum ut quem suorum fugientem viderint, pro hoste habeant.

[20] As the Romans were already carrying back their step from that side, M. Valerius, brother of Publicola, having caught sight of the ferocious youth Tarquinius ostentating himself in the foremost battle-line of the exiles, kindled also by domestic glory—that the family whose glory was that the kings had been ejected might likewise have them slain—puts the spurs to his horse and seeks Tarquinius with a hostile javelin. Tarquinius, with the enemy bearing down in hostility, withdrew back into the column of his own: Valerius, rashly driven into the battle-line of the exiles, someone attacking him from the side pierced through; and with the horse not at all delayed by the rider’s wound, the dying Roman, his arms slipping over his body, flowed down to the ground. The Dictator Postumius, after he noticed that such a man had fallen, that the exiles were fiercely charging in with a quickened column, that his own, smitten, were giving way, gives the signal to his cohort, which picked band he had around him for the sake of protection, that whomever of his men they should see fleeing, they are to hold as an enemy.

Ita metu ancipiti versi a fuga Romani in hostem et restituta acies. Cohors dictatoris tum primum proelium iniit; integris corporibus animisque fessos adorti exsules caedunt. Ibi alia inter proceres coorta pugna.

Thus, by a two-edged fear the Romans were turned from flight to the enemy, and the battle line was restored. The dictator’s cohort then for the first time entered the battle; with bodies intact and spirits whole, having assailed the weary exiles, they cut them down. There another fight arose among the nobles.

Imperator Latinus, ubi cohortem exsulum a dictatore Romano prope circumventam vidit, ex subsidiariis manipulos aliquot in primam aciem secum rapit. Hos agmine venientes T. Herminius legatus conspicatus, interque eos insignem veste armisque Mamilium noscitans, tanto vi maiore quam paulo ante magister equitum cum hostium duce proelium iniit, ut et uno ictu transfixum per latus occiderit Mamilium et ipse inter spoliandum corpus hostis veruto percussus, cum victor in castra esset relatus, inter primam curationem exspiraverit. Tum ad equites dictator advolat, obtestans ut fesso iam pedite descendant ex equis et pugnam capessant.

When the Latin commander saw the cohort of exiles almost encircled by the Roman dictator, he snatched from the reserves several maniples and hurried with them into the front battle-line. T. Herminius, the legate, catching sight of these coming up in column, and among them recognizing Mamilius, conspicuous in dress and arms, entered the battle with the enemy’s leader with so much greater force than the Master of Horse had a little before, that with a single stroke he slew Mamilius, transfixed through the side; and he himself, while despoiling the enemy’s body, was struck by a verutum, and, though carried back to camp as victor, expired during the first treatment. Then the dictator flies to the cavalry, adjuring them, since the infantry was now weary, to dismount from their horses and take up the fight.

Dicto paruere; desiliunt ex equis, provolant in primum et pro antesignanis parmas obiciunt. Recipit extemplo animum pedestris acies, postquam iuventutis proceres aequato genere pugnae secum partem periculi sustinentes vidit. Tum demum impulsi Latini perculsaque inclinavit acies.

They obeyed the word; they leap down from their horses, fly forward to the front, and before the standard-bearers they interpose their parmae. The foot battle-line at once regains its spirit, after it saw the nobles of the youth, with the kind of fighting equalized, bearing with them a share of the peril. Then at last the Latins were driven, and the shattered line bent and inclined.

Equiti admoti equi, ut persequi hostem posset; secuta et pedestris acies. Ibi nihil nec divinae nec humanae opis dictator praetermittens aedem Castori vovisse fertur ac pronuntiasse militi praemia, qui primus, qui secundus castra hostium intrasset; tantusque ardor fuit ut eodem impetu quo fuderant hostem Romani castra caperent. Hoc modo ad lacum Regillum pugnatum est.

The horses were brought up to the horsemen, that he/they might be able to pursue the enemy; the pedestrian battle-line followed as well. There, the dictator, omitting nothing of either divine or human aid, is said to have vowed a temple to Castor and to have pronounced rewards for the soldier who should be first, and who second, to enter the enemy camp; and so great was the ardor that, with the same onset with which they had routed the enemy, the Romans took the camp. In this way the battle at Lake Regillus was fought.

Dictator et magister equitum triumphantes in urbem rediere.

The Dictator and the Master of Horse returned to the city in triumph.

[21] Triennio deinde nec certa pax nec bellum fuit. Consules Q. Cloelius et T. Larcius, inde A. Sempronius et M. Minucius. His consulibus aedis Saturno dedicata, Saturnalia institutus festus dies.

[21] Then for three years there was neither settled peace nor war. The consuls were Quintus Cloelius and Titus Larcius; then Aulus Sempronius and Marcus Minucius. Under these consuls a temple was dedicated to Saturn, and the Saturnalia festival day was instituted.

A. deinde Postumius et T. Verginius consules facti. Hoc demum anno ad Regillum lacum pugnatum apud quosdam invenio; A. Postumium, quia collega dubiae fidei fuerit, se consulatu abdicasse; dictatorem inde factum. Tanti errores implicant temporum, aliter apud alios ordinatis magistratibus, ut nec qui consules secundum quos, nec quid quoque anno actum sit, in tanta vetustate non rerum modo sed etiam auctorum digerere possis.

A. Postumius and T. Verginius were next made consuls. Only in this year I find, according to some, that a battle was fought at Lake Regillus; that A. Postumius, because his colleague was of doubtful fidelity, abdicated the consulship; thereafter he was made dictator. So great are the errors that entangle the times, with the magistracies ordered differently by different authors, that you cannot digest either which consuls were in succession to whom, or what was done in each year, in so great an antiquity not only of events but even of authors.

Ap. Claudius deinde et P. Servilius consules facti. Insignis hic annus est nuntio Tarquini mortis. Mortuus Cumis, quo se post fractas opes Latinorum ad Aristodemum tyrannum contulerat.

Then Appius Claudius and Publius Servilius were made consuls. This year is notable for the announcement of Tarquin’s death. He died at Cumae, whither, after the power of the Latins had been broken, he had betaken himself to Aristodemus the tyrant.

Eo nuntio erecti patres, erecta plebes; sed patribus nimis luxuriosa ea fuit laetitia; plebi, cui ad eam diem summa ope inservitum erat, iniuriae a primoribus fieri coepere. Eodem anno Signia colonia, quam rex Tarquinius deduxerat, suppleto numero colonorum iterum deducta est. Romae tribus una et viginti factae.

At that message the Fathers were uplifted, the plebs uplifted; but for the Fathers that joy was too extravagant; for the plebs, for whom up to that day service had been rendered with the utmost effort, wrongs began to be done by the leading men. In the same year the colony of Signia, which King Tarquinius had led out, with the number of colonists replenished, was led out again. At Rome the tribes were made 21.

Aedes Mercuri dedicata est idibus Maiis.

The temple of Mercury was dedicated on the Ides of May.

[22] Cum Volscorum gente Latino bello neque pax neque bellum fuerat; nam et Volsci comparaverant auxilia quae mitterent Latinis, ni maturatum ab dictatore Romano esset, et maturavit Romanus ne proelio uno cum Latino Volscoque contenderet. Hac ira consules in Volscum agrum legiones duxere. Volscos consilii poenam non metuentes necopinata res perculit; armorum immemores obsides dant trecentos principum a Cora atque Pometia liberos.

[22] With the nation of the Volsci, in the Latin war, there had been neither peace nor war; for the Volsci too had prepared auxiliaries to send to the Latins, if haste had not been made by the Roman dictator—and the Roman did make haste—so that he might not contend in a single battle with both Latin and Volscian. In this anger the consuls led the legions into Volscian territory. Upon the Volsci—who did not fear the penalty of their counsel—an unexpected development fell; forgetful of arms, they give hostages, three hundred children of the principal men from Cora and Pometia.

Ita sine certamine inde abductae legiones. Nec ita multo post Volscis levatis metu suum rediit ingenium. Rursus occultum parant bellum, Hernicis in societatem armorum adsumptis.

Thus, without a contest, the legions were led away from there. Not much later, with fear lifted from the Volsci, their own nature returned to them. Again they prepare a covert war, the Hernici having been taken into an alliance of arms.

Legatos quoque ad sollicitandum Latium passim dimittunt; sed recens ad Regillum lacum accepta cladis Latinos ira odioque eius, quicumque arma suaderet, ne ab legatis quidem violandis abstinuit; comprehensos Volscos Romam duxere. Ibi traditi consulibus indicatumque est Volscos Hernicosque parare bellum Romanis. Relata re ad senatum adeo fuit gratum patribus ut et captivorum sex milia Latinis remitterent et de foedere, quod prope in perpetuum negatum fuerat, rem ad novos magistratus traicerent.

They also send legates everywhere to solicit Latium; but the Latin wrath from the recent disaster received at Lake Regillus, and a hatred toward anyone who might urge arms, did not refrain even from violating the legates; the Volscians, once apprehended, they led to Rome. There they were handed over to the consuls, and it was indicated that the Volsci and the Hernici were preparing war against the Romans. The matter, reported to the senate, was so pleasing to the Fathers that they both remitted to the Latins six thousand of the captives and, concerning the treaty which had been almost perpetually denied, carried the matter over to the new magistrates.

Enimvero tum Latini gaudere facto; pacis auctores in ingenti gloria esse. Coronam auream Iovi donum in Capitolium mittunt. Cum legatis donoque qui captivorum remissi ad suos fuerant, magna circumfusa multitudo, venit.

Indeed then the Latins rejoiced at the deed; the authors of peace were in immense glory. They send a golden crown to Jupiter, a gift, into the Capitol. Along with the envoys and the gift, there came a great surrounding multitude, those of the captives who had been remitted to their own.

Pergunt domos eorum apud quem quisque servierant; gratias agunt liberaliter habiti cultique in calamitate sua; inde hospitia iungunt. Nunquam alias ante publice privatimque Latinum nomen Romano imperio coniunctius fuit.

They go to the homes of those with whom each had served; they give thanks for having been liberally treated and cared for in their calamity; from there they join bonds of hospitality. Never at any other time before, both publicly and privately, was the Latin name more closely conjoined to the Roman imperium.

[23] Sed et bellum Volscum imminebat et civitas secum ipsa discors intestino inter patres plebemque flagrabat odio, maxime propter nexos ob aes alienum. Fremebant se, foris pro libertate et imperio dimicantes, domi a civibus captos et oppressos esse, tutioremque in bello quam in pace et inter hostes quam inter cives libertatem plebis esse; invidiamque eam sua sponte gliscentem insignis unius calamitas accendit. Magno natu quidam cum omnium malorum suorum insignibus se in forum proiecit.

[23] But also the Volscian war was impending, and the commonwealth, at variance with itself, was blazing with intestine hatred between the Fathers and the plebs, chiefly on account of those bound for debt (aes alienum). They were roaring that they, fighting abroad for liberty and imperium, at home had been seized and oppressed by fellow citizens, and that the liberty of the plebs was safer in war than in peace and among enemies than among citizens; and that ill-will, growing of its own accord, the conspicuous calamity of a single man inflamed. A certain man of great age, with the tokens of all his misfortunes, hurled himself into the forum.

Obsita erat squalore vestis, foedior corporis habitus pallore ac macie perempti; ad hoc promissa barba et capilli efferaverant speciem oris. Noscitabatur tamen in tanta deformitate, et ordines duxisse aiebant, aliaque militiae decora volgo miserantes eum iactabant; ipse testes honestarum aliquot locis pugnarum cicatrices adverso pectore ostentabat. Sciscitantibus unde ille habitus, unde deformitas, cum circumfusa turba esset prope in contionis modum, Sabino bello ait se militantem, quia propter populationes agri non fructu modo caruerit, sed villa incensa fuerit, direpta omnia, pecora abacta, tributum iniquo suo tempore imperatum, aes alienum fecisse.

His garment was overgrown with squalor, and the condition of his body was fouler—of a man done in by pallor and emaciation; in addition, a grown-out beard and hair had made the look of his face savage. Yet in so great a deformity he was recognized, and they said he had led the ranks, and, pitying him, they were noisily proclaiming other military honors; he himself, as witnesses, was displaying cicatrices of honorable combats in several places on his breast in front. As they kept asking whence that appearance, whence the disfigurement—when the crowd surrounding him was almost in the manner of a public assembly—he said that he had served in the Sabine war, and that, on account of the ravagings of the fields, he had not only been deprived of the produce, but that his villa had been burned, everything plundered, his herds driven off, a tribute imposed at a time unjust for him, and that he had incurred debt.

Id cumulatum usuris primo se agro paterno avitoque exuisse, deinde fortunis aliis; postremo velut tabem pervenisse ad corpus; ductum se ab creditore non in servitium, sed in ergastulum et carnificinam esse. Inde ostentare tergum foedum recentibus vestigiis verberum. Ad haec visa auditaque clamor ingens oritur.

That, piled up by usuries, he had first stripped himself of his paternal and ancestral field, then of his other fortunes; finally, like a wasting canker, it had reached his very body; he had been hauled off by the creditor not into servitude, but into a workhouse and a torture-chamber. Then he displayed his back, foul with the fresh traces of lashes. At these things seen and heard, a huge clamor arises.

Non iam foro se tumultus tenet, sed passim totam urbem pervadit. Nexi, vincti solutique, se undique in publicum proripiunt, implorant Quiritium fidem. Nullo loco deest seditionis voluntarius comes; multis passim agminibus per omnes vias cum clamore in forum curritur.

No longer does the tumult keep itself to the forum, but it pervades the whole city everywhere. The nexi, the fettered and the released alike, from every side fling themselves into the public, imploring the faith of the Quirites. Nowhere is the willing companion of sedition lacking; in many columns, everywhere, along all the streets, with shouting, they run to the forum.

Magno cum periculo suo qui forte patrum in foro erant in eam turbam inciderunt; nec temperatum manibus foret, ni propere consules, P. Servilius et Ap. Claudius, ad comprimendam seditionem intervenissent. At in eos multitudo versa ostentare vincula sua deformitatemque aliam. Haec se meritos dicere, exprobrantes suam quisque alius alibi militiam; postulare multo minaciter magis quam suppliciter ut senatum vocarent; curiamque ipsi futuri arbitri moderatoresque publici consilii circumsistunt.

Those of the senators who by chance were in the forum ran into that crowd with great peril to themselves; nor would hands have been kept in check, had not the consuls, P. Servilius and Ap. Claudius, promptly intervened to compress the sedition. But the multitude, turned against them, began to display their bonds and other disfigurement. They say that these are what they have merited, each one reproaching his own service elsewhere; they demand, much more menacingly than suppliantly, that they summon the senate; and they themselves, about to be arbiters and moderators of the public council, surround the Curia.

Pauci admodum patrum, quos casus obtulerat, contracti ab consulibus; ceteros metus non curia modo sed etiam foro arcebat, nec agi quicquam per infrequentiam poterat senatus. Tum vero eludi atque extrahi se multitudo putare, et patrum qui abessent, non casu, non metu, sed impediendae rei causa abesse, et consules ipsos tergiversari, nec dubie ludibrio esse miserias suas. Iam prope erat ut ne consulum quidem maiestas coerceret iras hominum, cum incerti morando an veniendo plus periculi contraherent, tandem in senatum veniunt.

Very few of the patres, whom chance had offered, were gathered by the consuls; fear kept the rest away not from the curia only but even from the forum, and the senate could transact nothing because of the thin attendance. Then indeed the multitude supposed themselves to be being eluded and put off, and that the patres who were absent were absent not by chance, not from fear, but for the purpose of impeding the matter, and that the consuls themselves were tergiversating, and that without doubt their miseries were a mockery. It was now nearly to the point that not even the majesty of the consuls restrained the anger of men, when, uncertain whether by delaying or by coming they were contracting more peril, at last they come into the senate.

Frequentique tandem curia non modo inter patres sed ne inter consules quidem ipsos satis conveniebat. Appius, vehementis ingenii vir, imperio consulari rem agendam censebat; uno aut altero arrepto, quieturos alios: Servilius, lenibus remediis aptior, concitatos animos flecti quam frangi putabat cum tutius tum facilius esse.

And with the curia at last crowded, there was sufficient agreement neither among the Fathers nor even between the consuls themselves. Appius, a man of vehement temperament, judged that the matter ought to be handled by consular imperium; with one or two seized, the others would be quiet: Servilius, more apt to gentle remedies, thought that agitated spirits should be bent rather than broken, as being both safer and easier.

[24] Inter haec maior alius terror: Latini equites cum tumultuoso advolant nuntio Volscos infesto exercitu ad urbem oppugnandam venire. Quae audita—adeo duas ex una civitate discordia fecerat—longe aliter patres ac plebem adfecere. Exsultare gaudio plebes; ultores superbiae patrum adesse dicere deos; alius alium confirmare ne nomina darent; cum omnibus potius quam solos perituros; patres militarent, patres arma caperent, ut penes eosdem pericula belli, penes quos praemia, essent.

[24] Meanwhile another, greater terror: Latin horsemen swoop in with a tumultuous message that the Volsci are coming with a hostile army to besiege the city. These things, once heard—so much had discord made two out of one city—affected the patres and the plebs far differently. The plebs exult with joy; they say the gods are present as avengers of the arrogance of the patres; each encourages the other not to give their names; that they would perish with all rather than alone; let the patres do the soldiering, let the patres take up arms, so that the dangers of war may be with the same men in whose hands are the rewards.

At vero curia, maesta ac trepida ancipiti metu et ab cive et ab hoste, Servilium consulem, cui ingenium magis populare erat, orare ut tantis circumventam terroribus expediret rem publicam. Tum consul misso senatu in contionem prodit. Ibi curae esse patribus ostendit ut consulatur plebi; ceterum deliberationi de maxima quidem illa sed tamen parte civitatis metum pro universa re publica intervenisse; nec posse, cum prope ad portas essent, bello praeverti quicquam, nec, si sit laxamenti aliquid, aut plebi honestum esse, nisi mercede prius accepta, arma pro patria non cepisse, neque patribus satis decorum per metum potius quam postmodo voluntate adflictis civium suorum fortunis consuluisse.

But indeed the curia, mournful and trembling with a twofold fear both from citizen and from enemy, begged the consul Servilius—whose disposition was more popular—to extricate the commonwealth, beset by such terrors. Then the consul, the senate having been dismissed, goes forth into the assembly. There he shows that it is a concern to the patres that the plebs be consulted; but that into the deliberation concerning that part of the civitas—very great indeed, yet still only a part—there had intervened fear on behalf of the res publica as a whole; and that, when they were almost at the gates, nothing could be given precedence over war; nor, if there were any relaxation, would it be honorable for the plebs, unless payment had first been received, to have not taken up arms for their fatherland; nor would it be sufficiently decorous for the patres to have taken thought for the shattered fortunes of their citizens through fear rather than afterwards by free will.

Contioni deinde edicto addidit fidem quo edixit ne quis civem Romanum vinctum aut clausum teneret, quo minus ei nominis edendi apud consules potestas fieret, neu quis militis, donec in castris esset, bona possideret aut venderet, liberos nepotesve eius moraretur. Hoc proposito edicto, et qui aderant nexi profiteri extemplo nomina, et undique ex tota urbe proripientium se ex privato, cum retinendi ius creditori non esset, concursus in forum ut sacramento dicerent fieri. Magna ea manus fuit, neque aliorum magis in Volsco bello virtus atque opera enituit.

Then to the assembly he added a pledge by an edict, whereby he decreed that no one should hold a Roman citizen bound or shut up, so as to prevent his having the power to enroll his name with the consuls; and that no one should, so long as he was in camp, possess or sell the goods of a soldier, or detain his children or grandchildren. With this edict set forth, both the debt‑bondsmen who were present straightway professed their names, and from every quarter of the whole city—since the creditor had no right of retention—there were rushings forth of men snatching themselves out of private custody, and a concourse into the Forum took place to take the sacramentum (military oath). That company was great, nor did the valor and service of any others shine forth more in the Volscian war.

Consul copias contra hostem educit; parvo dirimente intervallo castra ponit.

The consul leads out the forces against the enemy; he pitches camp with only a small intervening interval dividing them.

[25] Proxima inde nocte Volsci, discordia Romana freti, si qua nocturna transitio proditiove fieri posset, temptant castra. Sensere vigiles; excitatus exercitus; signo dato concursum est ad arma; ita frustra id inceptum Volscis fuit. Reliquum noctis utrimque quieti datum.

[25] The next night thereafter the Volsci, relying on Roman discord, try whether any nocturnal defection or betrayal could be brought about, and make an attempt upon the camp. The watchmen perceived it; the army was roused; with the signal given, there was a rush to arms; thus that undertaking was in vain for the Volsci. The remainder of the night was given over to rest on both sides.

Postero die prima luce Volsci fossis repletis vallum invadunt. Iamque ob omni parte munimenta vellebantur, cum consul, quamquam cuncti undique et nexi ante omnes ut signum daret clamabant, experiendi animos militum causa parumper moratus, postquam satis apparebat ingens ardor, dato tandem ad erumpendum signo militem avidum certaminis emittit. Primo statim incursu pulsi hostes; fugientibus, quoad insequi pedes potuit, terga caesa; eques usque ad castra pavidos egit.

On the next day at first light the Volsci, the ditches having been filled, assault the rampart. And already on every side the muniments were being torn away, when the consul—although all on every side, and those knit together before all the rest, were shouting that he give the signal—delayed a little for the sake of testing the spirits of the soldiers; after it was sufficiently apparent that the ardor was immense, with the signal at last given for breaking out, he lets loose the soldiery eager for the contest. At the very first incursion the enemy were routed; as they fled, their backs were hewn down, as far as the foot could pursue; the cavalry drove the panic-stricken all the way to their camp.

Mox ipsa castra legionibus circumdatis, cum Volscos inde etiam pavor expulisset, capta direptaque. Postero die ad Suessam Pometiam quo confugerant hostes legionibus ductis, intra paucos dies oppidum capitur; captum praedae datum. Inde paulum recreatus egens miles; consul cum maxima gloria sua victorem exercitum Romam reducit.

Soon the camp itself, with the legions drawn around it, when fear had even driven the Volsci out from there, was captured and plundered. On the next day, the legions being led to Suessa Pometia, whither the enemies had fled for refuge, within a few days the town is taken; taken, it was given over to plunder. Thence the needy soldier was somewhat refreshed; the consul, with the greatest glory to himself, leads the victorious army back to Rome.

Decedentem Romam Ecetranorum Volscorum legati, rebus suis timentes post Pometiam captam, adeunt. His ex senatus consulto data pax, ager ademptus.

As he was departing Rome, envoys of the Ecetran Volsci, fearing for their own affairs after Pometia had been captured, approach him. To them, by decree of the senate, peace was granted, their land taken away.

[26] Confestim et Sabini Romanos territavere; tumultus enim fuit verius quam bellum. Nocte in urbem nuntiatum est exercitum Sabinum praedabundum ad Anienem amnem pervenisse; ibi passim diripi atque incendi villas. Missus extemplo eo cum omnibus copiis equitum A. Postumius, qui dictator bello Latino fuerat; secutus consul Servilius cum delecta peditum manu.

[26] At once the Sabines too terrified the Romans; for it was more truly a tumult than a war. In the night it was announced in the city that the Sabine army, out plundering, had reached the river Anio; there the villas were everywhere being snatched as booty and set aflame. Straightway A. Postumius, who had been dictator in the Latin War, was sent thither with all the corps of cavalry; the consul Servilius followed with a chosen band of infantry.

Plerosque palantes eques circumvenit, nec advenienti peditum agmini restitit Sabina legio. Fessi cum itinere tum populatione nocturna, magna pars in villis repleti cibo vinoque, vix fugae quod satis esset virium habuere. Nocte una audito perfectoque bello Sabino, postero die in magna iam spe undique partae pacis, legati Aurunci senatum adeunt, ni decedatur Volsco agro bellum indicentes.

The cavalry surrounded most of the stragglers, nor did the Sabine legion stand against the arriving column of infantry. Wearied both by the march and by the nocturnal devastation, a great part, in the villas, replete with food and wine, scarcely had as much strength as was enough for flight. With the Sabine war in a single night reported and brought to completion, on the following day, now in great hope of peace procured on every side, the envoys of the Aurunci approach the senate, declaring war unless withdrawal be made from Volscian territory.

Cum legatis simul exercitus Auruncorum domo profectus erat; cuius fama haud procul iam ab Aricia visi tanto tumultu concivit Romanos ut nec consuli ordine patres nec pacatum responsum arma inferentibus arma ipsi capientes dare possent. Ariciam infesto agmine itur; nec procul inde cum Auruncis signa conlata, proelioque uno debellatum est.

At the same time as the envoys, the army of the Aurunci had set out from home; the report of which—that they had already been seen not far from Aricia—stirred the Romans to such a tumult that neither could the Fathers give to the consul in due order, nor a pacific response to those bringing war, as they themselves were taking up arms. To Aricia they go in a hostile column; and not far from there the standards were brought together with the Aurunci, and with a single battle it was fought out to an end.

[27] Fusis Auruncis, victor tot intra paucos dies bellis Romanus promissa consulis fidemque senatus exspectabat, cum Appius et insita superbia animo et ut collegae vanam faceret fidem, quam asperrime poterat ius de creditis pecuniis dicere. Deinceps et qui ante nexi fuerant creditoribus tradebantur et nectebantur alii. Quod ubi cui militi inciderat, collegam appellabat.

[27] With the Aurunci routed, the Roman, victor in so many wars within a few days, was awaiting the consul’s promises and the good faith of the senate, when Appius, both by the superbia inborn in his mind and in order to make his colleague’s pledge vain, pronounced the law concerning credited monies as harshly as he could. Thereafter both those who previously had been nexi were handed over to their creditors, and others were being bound; and whenever this befell any soldier, he appealed to the colleague.

Concursus ad Servilium fiebat; illius promissa iactabant; illi exprobrabant sua quisque belli merita cicatricesque acceptas. Postulabant ut aut referret ad senatum, aut auxilio esset consul civibus suis, imperator militibus. Movebant consulem haec, sed tergiversari res cogebat; adeo in alteram causam non collega solum praeceps erat sed omnis factio nobilium.

A concourse was forming to Servilius; they were vaunting his promises; they were upbraiding him, each man, with his war-merits and the cicatrices received. They demanded that he either refer the matter to the senate, or be of aid—as consul to his fellow citizens, as commander to the soldiers. These things moved the consul, but the situation compelled him to tergiversate, to temporize; so headlong toward the opposite cause was not his colleague alone, but the whole faction of the nobles.

Ita medium se gerendo nec plebis vitavit odium nec apud patres gratiam iniit. Patres mollem consulem et ambitiosum rati, plebes fallacem, brevique apparuit aequasse eum Appi odium. Certamen consulibus inciderat, uter dedicaret Mercuri aedem.

Thus, by conducting himself in the middle, he avoided neither the odium of the plebs nor entered into favor among the Fathers. The Fathers, reckoning the consul soft and ambitious; the plebs, deceptive; and shortly it appeared that he had equaled Appius’s odium. A contest had arisen for the consuls, as to which of them should dedicate the temple of Mercury.

Senatus a se rem ad populum reiecit: utri eorum dedicatio iussu populi data esset, eum praeesse annonae, mercatorum collegium instituere, sollemnia pro pontifice iussit suscipere. Populus dedicationem aedis dat M. Laetorio, primi pili centurioni, quod facile appareret non tam ad honorem eius cui curatio altior fastigio suo data esset factum quam ad consulum ignominiam. Saevire inde utique consulum alter patresque; sed plebi creverant animi et longe alia quam primo instituerant via grassabantur.

The Senate threw the matter off from itself to the People: whichever of them the dedication had been given by order of the People, that man it ordered to preside over the annona (grain-supply), to establish a college of merchants, to undertake the solemnities in place of the pontiff. The People grants the dedication of the temple to M. Laetorius, centurion of the first spear, because it was easy to see that it had been done not so much for the honor of him to whom a charge higher than his own rank had been given as for the ignominy of the consuls. Then, to be sure, one of the consuls and the Fathers began to rage; but the spirits of the plebs had grown, and they were advancing by a path far other than that which they had first set upon.

Desperato enim consulum senatusque auxilio, cum in ius duci debitorem vidissent, undique convolabant. Neque decretum exaudiri consulis prae strepitu et clamore poterat, neque cum decresset quisquam obtemperabat. Vi agebatur, metusque omnis et periculum, cum in conspectu consulis singuli a pluribus violarentur, in creditores a debitoribus verterant.

For, the aid of the consuls and the senate being despaired of, when they saw a debtor being led into court, they flocked together from every side. The consul’s decree could not be heard through the din and clamor, nor, when he had decreed, did anyone obey. Matters were driven by force, and all fear and peril—since individuals were being violated by many in the very sight of the consul—had shifted onto the creditors from the debtors.

Super haec timor incessit Sabini belli; dilectuque decreto nemo nomen dedit, furente Appio et insectante ambitionem collegae, qui populari silentio rem publicam proderet et ad id quod de credita pecunia ius non dixisset, adiceret ut ne dilectum quidem ex senatus consulto haberet; non esse tamen desertam omnino rem publicam neque proiectum consulare imperium; se unum et suae et patrum maiestatis vindicem fore. Cum circumstaret cotidiana multitudo licentia accensa, arripi unum insignem ducem seditionum iussit. Ille cum a lictoribus iam traheretur provocavit; nec cessisset provocationi consul, quia non dubium erat populi iudicium, nisi aegre victa pertinacia foret consilio magis et auctoritate principum quam populi clamore; adeo supererant animi ad sustinendam invidiam.

On top of these things, a fear of a Sabine war set in; and, though a levy had been decreed, no one gave his name, with Appius raging and inveighing against his colleague’s ambition—who, by the populace’s silence, was betraying the commonwealth—and adding to the fact that he had not pronounced judgment concerning money on credit, that he should not even hold a levy by senatorial decree; that nevertheless the republic was not altogether deserted nor the consular imperium cast away; that he alone would be the vindicator of his own majesty and of the fathers’. When the everyday multitude, inflamed with license, was surrounding him, he ordered one conspicuous leader of seditions to be seized. He, when already being dragged by the lictors, appealed; nor would the consul have yielded to the appeal, because the people’s judgment was not in doubt, had not his obstinacy been with difficulty overcome more by the counsel and authority of the leading men than by the clamor of the people; so much spirit remained for sustaining unpopularity.

Crescere inde malum in dies, non clamoribus modo apertis sed, quod multo perniciosius erat, secessione occultisque conloquiis. Tandem invisi plebi consules magistratu abeunt, Servilius neutris, Appius patribus mire gratus.

Thence the evil grew day by day, not by open clamors only, but—what was much more pernicious—by secession and occult colloquies. At length, hateful to the plebs, the consuls go out of office, Servilius pleasing to neither side, Appius wondrously pleasing to the Fathers.

[28] A. Verginius inde et T. Vetusius consulatum ineunt. Tum vero plebs incerta quales habitura consules esset, coetus nocturnos, pars Esquiliis, pars in Aventino facere, ne in foro subitis trepidaret consiliis et omnia temere ac fortuito ageret. Eam rem consules rati, ut erat, perniciosam ad patres deferunt, sed delatam consulere ordine non licuit; adeo tumultuose excepta est clamoribus undique et indignatione patrum, si quod imperio consulari exsequendum esset, invidiam eius consules ad senatum reicerent: profecto si essent in re publica magistratus, nullum futurum fuisse Romae nisi publicum concilium; nunc in mille curias contionesque [cum alia in Esquiliis, alia in Aventino fiant concilia] dispersam et dissipatam esse rem publicam.

[28] A. Verginius then and T. Vetusius enter upon the consulship. Then indeed the plebs, uncertain what sort of consuls it would have, held nocturnal gatherings, part on the Esquiline, part on the Aventine, lest in the forum it should panic at sudden counsels and do everything rashly and fortuitously. The consuls, thinking that matter—as it was—pernicious, refer it to the Fathers; but it was not permitted to deliberate upon the matter brought in in due order; so tumultuously was it received, with shouts on every side and the indignation of the Fathers, that, if anything were to be executed by consular imperium, the consuls were shifting the odium of it onto the senate: assuredly, if there were magistrates in the republic, there would have been no council at Rome except the public council; now the republic is scattered and dissipated into a thousand curiae and assemblies [since councils are being held, some on the Esquiline, others on the Aventine].

Unum hercule virum—id enim plus esse quam consulem—qualis Ap. Claudius fuerit, momento temporis discussurum illos coetus fuisse. Correpti consules cum, quid ergo se facere, vellent nihil enim segnius molliusve quam patribus placeat acturos, percontarentur, decernunt ut dilectum quam acerrimum habeant: otio lascivire plebem. Dimisso senatu consules in tribunal escendunt; citant nominatim iuniores.

One man, by Hercules—for that is more than a consul—such as Ap. Claudius was, would have dispersed those assemblies in a moment of time. The consuls, rebuked, when they inquired, therefore, what they should do—for they would do nothing more sluggishly or more mildly than as pleases the fathers—decree that they hold a most vigorous levy: the plebs are wanton in leisure. With the senate dismissed, the consuls mount the tribunal; they summon by name the younger men.

Cum ad nomen nemo responderet, circumfusa multitudo in contionis modum negare ultra decipi plebem posse; nunquam unum militem habituros ni praestaretur fides publica; libertatem unicuique prius reddendam esse quam arma danda, ut pro patria civibusque, non pro dominis pugnent. Consules quid mandatum esset a senatu videbant, sed eorum, qui intra parietes curiae ferociter loquerentur, neminem adesse invidiae suae participem; et apparebat atrox cum plebe certamen. Prius itaque quam ultima experirentur senatum iterum consulere placuit.

When at the call of names no one answered, the multitude, gathered round in the manner of an assembly, declared that the plebs could no longer be deceived; that they would never have a single soldier unless the public faith were guaranteed; that liberty must first be restored to each man before arms were given, so that they might fight for their fatherland and fellow-citizens, not for masters. The consuls saw what had been mandated by the senate, but that none of those who within the walls of the curia spoke ferociously was present to share in their unpopularity; and it was apparent that there would be a grim contest with the plebs. Therefore, before they tried the last extremities, it pleased them to consult the senate again.

Tum vero ad sellas consulum prope convolare minimus quisque natu patrum, abdicare consulatum iubentes et deponere imperium, ad quod tuendum animus deesset.

Then indeed the youngest by age of the senators were almost flying to the consuls’ chairs, bidding them to abdicate the consulship and to lay down the imperium, for the defense of which spirit was lacking.

[29] Utraque re satis experta tum demum consules: "ne praedictum negetis, patres conscripti, adest ingens seditio. Postulamus ut hi qui maxime ignaviam increpant adsint nobis habentibus dilectum. Acerrimi cuiusque arbitrio, quando ita placet, rem agemus." Redeunt in tribunal; citari nominatim unum ex iis qui in conspectu erant dedita opera iubent.

[29] The consuls, having sufficiently made trial of both courses, then at last: "Lest you deny what was foretold, Conscript Fathers, a huge sedition is at hand. We demand that those who most upbraid cowardice be present with us as we hold the levy. By the arbitrament of the fiercest men, since it so pleases, we will conduct the affair." They return to the tribunal; they order, on purpose, that one of those who were in sight be cited by name.

Cum staret tacitus et circa eum aliquot hominum, ne forte violaretur, constitisset globus, lictorem ad eum consules mittunt. Quo repulso, tum vero indignum facinus esse clamitantes qui patrum consulibus aderant, devolant de tribunali ut lictori auxilio essent. Sed ab lictore nihil aliud quam prendere prohibito cum conversus in patres impetus esset, consulum intercursu rixa sedata est, in qua tamen sine lapide, sine telo plus clamoris atque irarum quam iniuriae fuerat.

While he stood silent, and around him a cluster of several men had formed, lest he perchance be violated, the consuls send a lictor to him. When he was driven back, then indeed those of the patricians who were attending the consuls, shouting that this was an unworthy deed, fly down from the tribunal to be aid to the lictor. But as for the lictor, nothing else occurred than that he was forbidden to apprehend; when the onrush was turned against the patricians, the brawl was settled by the consuls’ interposition; in which, however, without stone, without weapon, there had been more clamor and anger than injury.

Senatus tumultuose vocatus tumultuosius consulitur, quaestionem postulantibus iis qui pulsati fuerant, decernente ferocissimo quoque non sententiis magis quam clamore et strepitu. Tandem cum irae resedissent, exprobrantibus consulibus nihilo plus sanitatis in curia quam in foro esse, ordine consuli coepit. Tres fuere sententiae.

The senate, convoked tumultuously, is consulted more tumultuously, the inquiry being demanded by those who had been struck, with each of the most ferocious deciding not so much by opinions as by clamor and din. At length, when the angers had subsided, the consuls reproaching that there was no more sanity in the Curia than in the Forum, it began to be consulted in order. There were three opinions.

P. Verginius rem non volgabat; de iis tantum qui fidem secuti P. Servili consulis Volsco Aurunco Sabinoque militassent bello, agendum censebat. T. Largius, non id tempus esse ut merita tantummodo exsolverentur; totam plebem aere alieno demersam esse, nec sisti posse ni omnibus consulatur; quin si alia aliorum sit condicio, accendi magis discordiam quam sedari. Ap. Claudius, et natura immitis et efferatus hinc plebis odio, illinc patrum laudibus, non miseriis ait sed licentia tantum concitum turbarum et lascivire magis plebem quam saevire.

P. Verginius was not making the matter public; he judged that action should be taken only concerning those who, having followed the pledge of the consul P. Servilius, had served in the Volscian, Auruncan, and Sabine war. T. Largius [said] that it was not the time for only deserts to be discharged; that the whole plebs was submerged in debt, nor could it be checked unless provision were made for all; nay indeed, if the condition of some were other than that of others, discord would be kindled rather than settled. Ap. Claudius, both by nature unsoft and made savage—on this side by hatred of the plebs, on that by the praises of the patres—says that it was stirred up not by miseries but only by license, and that the plebs was wantoning rather than raging.

Id adeo malum ex provocatione natum; quippe minas esse consulum, non imperium, ubi ad eos qui una peccaverint provocare liceat. "Agedum" inquit, "dictatorem, a quo provocatio non est, creemus; iam hic quo nunc omnia ardent conticescet furor. Pulset tum mihi lictorem qui sciet ius de tergo vitaque sua penes unum illum esse cuius maiestatem violarit."

That very evil was born from the right of appeal; for indeed the consuls’ are threats, not imperium, when it is permitted to appeal to those who have sinned together. “Come then,” he says, “let us appoint a dictator, from whom there is no appeal; forthwith this fury, by which everything now burns, will fall silent. Then let the man strike my lictor who will know that the right over his back and his life is in the hands of that one whose majesty he has violated.”

[30] Multis, ut erat, horrida et atrox videbatur Appi sententia; rursus Vergini Largique exemplo haud salubres, utique Largi [putabant sententiam], quae totam fidem tolleret. Medium maxime et moderatum utroque consilium Vergini habebatur; sed factione respectuque rerum privatarum, quae semper offecere officientque publicis consiliis, Appius vicit, ac prope fuit ut dictator ille idem crearetur; quae res utique alienasset plebem periculosissimo tempore, cum Volsci Aequique et Sabini forte una omnes in armis essent. Sed curae fuit consulibus et senioribus patrum, ut imperium sua vi vehemens mansueto permitteretur ingenio: M'. Valerium dictatorem Volesi filium creant.

[30] To many, as it was, Appius’s opinion seemed harsh and atrocious; on the other hand, by the precedent of Verginius and Largius, the opinions were thought not healthful—especially that of Largius [they thought the opinion], which would remove all credit. Verginius’s plan was held to be the most middle and moderated between both; but through faction and regard for private affairs, which have always hindered and will hinder public counsels, Appius won, and it was nearly the case that that same man was created dictator; which thing would surely have alienated the plebs at a most perilous time, since the Volsci and Aequi and Sabines happened all together to be in arms. But it was a concern to the consuls and the elder men of the Fathers, that the imperium, vehement in its own force, be entrusted to a gentle disposition: they create M'. Valerius, son of Volesus, dictator.

Plebes etsi adversus se creatum dictatorem videbat, tamen cum provocationem fratris lege haberet, nihil ex ea familia triste nec superbum timebat; edictum deinde a dictatore propositum confirmavit animos, Servili fere consulis edicto conveniens; sed et homini et potestati melius rati credi, omisso certamine nomina dedere. Quantus nunquam ante exercitus, legiones decem effectae; ternae inde datae consulibus, quattuor dictator usus. Nec iam poterat bellum differri.

Although the plebs saw that a dictator had been created against themselves, nevertheless, since by the brother’s law they had provocatio, they feared nothing grim nor overbearing from that family; then the edict set forth by the dictator confirmed their spirits, agreeing almost with the edict of the consul Servilius; but thinking it better to trust both the man and the power, the quarrel laid aside, they gave in their names. So great an army as never before, ten legions were formed; three apiece were then assigned to the consuls, the dictator employed four. Nor now could the war be deferred.

Aequi Latinum agrum invaserant. Oratores Latinorum ab senatu petebant ut aut mitterent subsidium aut se ipsos tuendorum finium causa capere arma sinerent. Tutius visum est defendi inermes Latinos quam pati retractare arma.

The Aequi had invaded the Latin territory. The orators of the Latins petitioned the Senate either to send aid, or to allow them themselves, for the sake of guarding their frontiers, to take up arms. It seemed safer to defend the unarmed Latins than to allow them to take up arms again.

Vetusius consul missus est; is finis populationibus fuit. Cessere Aequi campis, locoque magis quam armis freti summis se iugis montium tutabantur. Alter consul in Volscos profectus, ne et ipse tereret tempus, vastandis maxime agris hostem ad conferenda propius castra dimicandumque acie excivit.

The consul Vetusius was sent; that was the end of the depredations. The Aequians withdrew from the plains, and, relying more on the position than on arms, they safeguarded themselves on the highest ridges of the mountains. The other consul set out against the Volsci, lest he too waste time; by chiefly devastating the fields, he provoked the enemy to bring their camp nearer and to engage in pitched battle.

Medio inter castra campo ante suum quisque vallum infestis signis constitere. Multitudine aliquantum Volsci superabant; itaque effusi et contemptim pugnam iniere. Consul Romanus nec promovit aciem, nec clamorem reddi passus defixis pilis stare suos iussit: ubi ad manum venisset hostis, tum coortos tota vi gladiis rem gerere.

In the field midway between the camps, each man stood before his own rampart with battle-ready standards. In multitude the Volsci somewhat surpassed; and so, in loose order and contemptuously, they entered the fight. The Roman consul neither advanced the line of battle nor allowed a shout to be returned; he ordered his men to stand with their pila fixed: when the enemy should have come to hand-to-hand, then, at the onset, to conduct the matter with swords with their whole force.

Volsci cursu et clamore fessi cum se velut stupentibus metu intulissent Romanis, postquam impressionem sensere ex adverso factam et ante oculos micare gladios, haud secus quam si in insidias incidissent, turbati vertunt terga; et ne ad fugam quidem satis virium fuit, quia cursu in proelium ierant. Romani contra, quia principio pugnae quieti steterant, vigentes corporibus, facile adepti fessos, et castra impetu ceperunt et castris exutum hostem Velitras persecuti uno agmine victores cum victis in urbem inrupere; plusque ibi sanguinis promiscua omnium generum caede quam in ipsa dimicatione factum. Paucis data venia, qui inermes in deditionem venerunt.

The Volsci, wearied by running and shouting, when they had hurled themselves upon the Romans as if they were stupefied with fear, after they sensed an assault delivered from the front and saw swords flashing before their eyes, turned their backs in confusion no otherwise than if they had fallen into an ambush; and there was not even strength enough for flight, because they had gone at a run into the battle. The Romans, by contrast, because at the beginning of the fight they had stood quiet, vigorous in body, easily overtook the weary, and seized the camp by assault and, the enemy stripped of their camp, pursued them to Velitrae; and in a single column the victors with the vanquished burst into the city; and more blood was shed there in an indiscriminate slaughter of every sort than in the combat itself. Pardon was granted to a few who, unarmed, came into surrender.

[31] Dum haec in Volscis geruntur, dictator Sabinos, ubi longe plurimum belli fuerat, fundit exuitque castris. Equitatu immisso mediam turbaverat hostium aciem, quam, dum se cornua latius pandunt, parum apte introrsum ordinibus firmaverant; turbatos pedes invasit. Eodem impetu castra capta debellatumque est.

[31] While these things are being carried on among the Volsci, the dictator routs the Sabines—where by far the greatest share of the war had been—and strips them of their camp. With the cavalry sent in, he had thrown the middle of the enemy battle-line into disorder, which, while the wings spread themselves more broadly, they had too little aptly reinforced inward with ranks; he attacked the disordered foot. In the same onrush the camp was taken and the war was brought to an end.

Post pugnam ad Regillum lacum non alia illis annis pugna clarior fuit. Dictator triumphans urbem invehitur. Super solitos honores locus in circo ipsi posterisque ad spectaculum datus; sella in eo loco curulis posita.

After the battle at Lake Regillus, no other battle in those years was more illustrious. The Dictator, triumphing, was borne into the city. Over and above the customary honors, a place in the circus was given to him and to his posterity for the spectacle; in that place a curule chair was set.

Volscis deuictis Veliternus ager ademptus; Velitras coloni ab urbe missi et colonia deducta. Cum Aequis post aliquanto pugnatum est, invito quidem consule quia loco iniquo subeundum erat ad hostes; sed milites extrahi rem criminantes ut dictator priusquam ipsi redirent in urbem magistratu abiret inritaque, sicut ante consulis, promissa eius caderent, perpulere ut forte temere in adversos montes agmen erigeret. Id male commissum ignavia hostium in bonum vertit, qui priusquam ad coniectum teli veniretur, obstupefacti audacia Romanorum, relictis castris quae munitissimis tenuerant locis, in aversas valles desiluere.

With the Volsci conquered, the Veliternian territory was taken; to Velitrae colonists were sent from the city and a colony was established. Some time later fighting was done with the Aequi, the consul indeed being unwilling because one had to approach the enemy on disadvantageous ground; but the soldiers, accusing that the affair was being drawn out so that the dictator would leave office before they themselves returned to the city and that his promises would fall void, as before the consul’s, compelled him to, perhaps rashly, set the column climbing the opposing hills. That step, ill undertaken, the cowardice of the enemy turned into good: for before it came to the casting of a missile, stupefied by the audacity of the Romans, abandoning the camp which they had held in the most strongly fortified positions, they leapt down into the valleys to the rear.

Ibi satis praedae et victoria incruenta fuit. Ita trifariam re bello bene gesta, de domesticarum rerum eventu nec patribus nec plebi cura decesserat: tanta cum gratia tum arte praeparaverant feneratores quae non modo plebem, sed ipsum etiam dictatorem frustrarentur. Namque Valerius post Vetusi consulis reditum omnium actionum in senatu primam habuit pro victore populo, rettulitque quid de nexis fieri placeret.

There there was sufficient booty and the victory was bloodless. Thus, with the business of war well managed in three parts, concern for the outcome of domestic affairs had not departed from either the patricians or the plebs: the moneylenders, with such favor and such craft, had prepared measures which would frustrate not only the plebs but even the dictator himself. For Valerius, after the return of the consul Vetusius, had the first of all proceedings in the senate on behalf of the victorious people, and he brought a motion as to what should be done concerning the nexi (those bound by debt).

Quae cum reiecta relatio esset, "non placeo" inquit, "concordiae auctor. Optabitis, mediusfidius, propediem, ut mei similes Romana plebis patronos habeat. Quod ad me attinet, neque frustrabor ultra cives meos neque ipse frustra dictator ero.

When the proposal had been rejected, "I do not please," he says, "as an author of concord. You will desire, by my good faith, before long, that the Roman plebs may have patrons like me. As for me, I will neither any longer frustrate my citizens nor will I myself be a dictator in vain.

Discordiae intestinae, bellum externum fecere ut hoc magistratu egeret res publica: pax foris parta est, domi impeditur; privatus potius quam dictator seditioni interero." Ita curia egressus dictatura se abdicavit. Apparuit causa plebi, suam vicem indignantem magistratu abisse; itaque velut persoluta fide, quoniam per eum non stetisset quin praestaretur, decedentem domum cum favore ac laudibus prosecuti sunt.

"Internal discords, an external war, have made it that the republic should conduct itself under this magistracy: peace has been obtained abroad, at home it is hindered; as a private citizen rather than as dictator I will engage with the sedition." Thus, having gone out from the Curia, he abdicated the dictatorship. The reason became apparent to the plebs—that, on their behalf, indignant, he had left the magistracy; and so, as if the pledge had been paid, since it had not depended on him that it be rendered, they escorted him, as he was departing home, with favor and praises.

[32] Timor inde patres incessit ne, si dimissus exercitus foret, rursus coetus occulti coniurationesque fierent. Itaque quamquam per dictatorem dilectus habitus esset, tamen quoniam in consulum verba iurassent sacramento teneri militem rati, per causam renovati ab Aequis belli educi ex urbe legiones iussere. Quo facto maturata est seditio.

[32] Then fear seized the Fathers, lest, if the army were dismissed, secret gatherings and conjurations should be made again. And so, although a levy had been held by the dictator, yet, since they had sworn to the words of the consuls, thinking the soldiery bound by the sacrament, they ordered the legions, under the pretext of a war renewed by the Aequi, to be led out from the city. By this deed the sedition was hastened.

Et primo agitatum dicitur de consulum caede, ut solverentur sacramento; doctos deinde nullam scelere religionem exsolvi, Sicinio quodam auctore iniussu consulum in Sacrum montem secessisse. Trans Anienem amnem est, tria ab urbe milia passuum. Ea frequentior fama est quam cuius Piso auctor est, in Aventinum secessionem factam esse.

And at first it is said that the killing of the consuls was agitated, so that they might be released from the sacrament; then they were taught that by crime no religious obligation is loosed, and, with a certain Sicinius as instigator, they withdrew, without the consuls’ order, to the Sacred Mount. It is beyond the river Anio, three miles from the city. This is the more frequent report than that whose author is Piso, namely that the secession was made to the Aventine.

Ibi sine ullo duce vallo fossaque communitis castris quieti, rem nullam nisi necessariam ad victum sumendo, per aliquot dies neque lacessiti neque lacessentes sese tenuere. Pavor ingens in urbe, metuque mutuo suspensa erant omnia. Timere relicta ab suis plebis violentiam patrum; timere patres residem in urbe plebem, incerti manere eam an abire mallent: quamdiu autem tranquillam quae secesserit multitudinem fore?

There, with no leader, their camp having been fortified with rampart and fosse, they kept quiet, taking nothing except what was necessary for sustenance, and for several days they held themselves neither provoking nor provoked. A huge terror in the city, and everything hung in suspense by mutual fear. The plebs, abandoned by their own, feared the violence of the patres; the patres feared the plebs sitting idle in the city, uncertain whether they preferred that it remain or depart: and how long, moreover, would the multitude that had seceded remain tranquil?

Quid futurum deinde si quod externum interim bellum exsistat? Nullam profecto nisi in concordia civium spem reliquam ducere; eam per aequa, per iniqua reconciliandam civitati esse. Placuit igitur oratorem ad plebem mitti Menenium Agrippam, facundum virum et quod inde oriundus erat plebi carum.

What, then, would be in prospect if some external war should arise meanwhile? They deemed that no hope remained save in the concord of the citizens; that this must be reconciled to the commonwealth through fair and through unfair means. It was therefore resolved that an orator be sent to the plebs—Menenius Agrippa, an eloquent man and, because he was sprung from their ranks, dear to the plebs.

Is intromissus in castra prisco illo dicendi et horrido modo nihil aliud quam hoc narrasse fertur: tempore quo in homine non ut nunc omnia in unum consentiant, sed singulis membris suum cuique consilium, suus sermo fuerit, indignatas reliquas partes sua cura, suo labore ac ministerio ventri omnia quaeri, ventrem in medio quietum nihil aliud quam datis voluptatibus frui; conspirasse inde ne manus ad os cibum ferrent, nec os acciperet datum, nec dentes quae acciperent conficerent. Hac ira, dum ventrem fame domare vellent, ipsa una membra totumque corpus ad extremam tabem venisse. Inde apparuisse ventris quoque haud segne ministerium esse, nec magis ali quam alere eum, reddentem in omnes corporis partes hunc quo vivimus vigemusque, divisum pariter in venas maturum confecto cibo sanguinem.

He, admitted into the camp, is said, in that ancient and rough manner of speaking, to have told nothing other than this: at a time when in the human being, not as now did all things consent into one, but each individual member had its own counsel, its own speech, the remaining parts, indignant that by their care, their labor, and their ministry everything was sought for the belly, while the belly, quiet in the middle, did nothing other than enjoy the pleasures given; thereupon they conspired that the hands should not carry food to the mouth, nor the mouth accept what was given, nor the teeth process what they received. By this anger, while they wished to tame the belly by hunger, the very limbs themselves and the whole body came to extreme wasting. Then it appeared that the ministry of the belly too was not slothful, and that it was not more being nourished than nourishing, rendering back into all the parts of the body that matured blood—divided equally into the veins once the food was digested—by which we live and thrive.

Comparando hinc quam intestina corporis seditio similis esset irae plebis in patres, flexisse mentes hominum.

By comparing from there how the internal sedition of the body was similar to the wrath of the plebs against the patres, he bent the minds of men.

[33] Agi deinde de concordia coeptum, concessumque in condiciones ut plebi sui magistratus essent sacrosancti quibus auxilii latio adversus consules esset, neve cui patrum capere eum magistratum liceret. Ita tribuni plebei creati duo, C. Licinius et L. Albinus. Ii tres collegas sibi creaverunt.

[33] Then it was begun to act concerning concord, and it was conceded in the conditions that the plebs should have their own magistrates, sacrosanct, by whom there would be the extension of aid against the consuls, and that it should not be permitted to any of the patricians to take that magistracy. Thus two tribunes of the plebs were created, C. Licinius and L. Albinus. They created three colleagues for themselves.

In his Sicinium fuisse, seditionis auctorem: de duobus, qui fuerint minus convenit. Sunt qui duos tantum in Sacro monte creatos tribunos esse dicant, ibique sacratam legem latam.

Among these was Sicinius, the author of the sedition; about the other two, who they were, there is less agreement. There are those who say that only two tribunes were created on the Sacred Mount, and that there the sacred law was enacted.

Per secessionem plebis Sp. Cassius et Postumius Cominius consulatum inierunt. Iis consulibus cum Latinis populis ictum foedus. Ad id feriendum consul alter Romae mansit: alter ad Volscum bellum missus Antiates Volscos fundit fugatque; compulsos in oppidum Longulam persecutus moenibus potitur.

By the secession of the plebs, Spurius Cassius and Postumius Cominius entered upon the consulship. Under those consuls a treaty was struck with the Latin peoples. For the striking of it, one consul remained at Rome: the other, sent to the Volscian war, routs and puts to flight the Antiate Volsci; having pursued them, forced into the town Longula, he gains possession of the walls.

Inde protinus Poluscam, item Volscorum, cepit; tum magna vi adortus est Coriolos. Erat tum in castris inter primores iuvenum Cn. Marcius, adulescens et consilio et manu promptus, cui cognomen postea Coriolano fuit. Cum subito exercitum Romanum Coriolos obsidentem atque in oppidanos, quos intus clausos habebat, intentum, sine ullo metu extrinsecus imminentis belli, Volscae legiones profectae ab Antio invasissent, eodemque tempore ex oppido erupissent hostes, forte in statione Marcius fuit.

Thence straightway he took Polusca, likewise of the Volsci; then with great force he assailed Corioli. At that time there was in the camp among the foremost of the young men Cn. Marcius, a youth ready both in counsel and in hand, to whom afterward the cognomen was Coriolanus. When suddenly the Volscian legions, having set out from Antium, had attacked the Roman army besieging Corioli and intent upon the townspeople whom it held shut up within, without any fear of a war threatening from outside, and at the same time the enemy had sallied forth from the town, by chance Marcius was on outpost duty.

Is cum delecta militum manu non modo impetum erumpentium rettudit, sed per patentem portam ferox inrupit in proxima urbis, caedeque facta ignem temere arreptum imminentibus muro aedificiis iniecit. Clamor inde oppidanorum mixtus muliebri puerilique ploratu ad terrorem, ut solet, primum orto et Romanis auxit animum et turbavit Volscos utpote capta urbe cui ad ferendam opem venerant. Ita fusi Volsci Antiates, Corioli oppidum captum; tantumque sua laude obstitit famae consulis Marcius ut, nisi foedus cum Latinis in columna aenea insculptum monumento esset ab Sp. Cassio uno, quia collega afuerat, ictum, Postumum Cominium bellum gessisse cum Volscis memoria cessisset.

He, with a chosen band of soldiers, not only beat back the charge of those bursting out, but, fierce, rushed in through the gaping gate into the nearest quarters of the city, and, slaughter having been made, cast fire, hastily snatched up, upon the buildings looming over the wall. Then the clamor of the townspeople, mixed with the weeping of women and children—terror, as is wont, arising first—both increased the spirit of the Romans and threw the Volsci into confusion, as if the city to which they had come to bring aid were already taken. Thus the Antiates Volsci were routed, the town of Corioli was captured; and Marcius, by his own praise, so obstructed the fame of the consul that, unless the treaty with the Latins had been inscribed upon a bronze column as a monument as having been struck by Sp. Cassius alone (because his colleague had been absent), the remembrance that Postumius Cominius had waged war with the Volsci would have slipped away.

Eodem anno Agrippa Menenius moritur, vir omni in vita pariter patribus ac plebi carus, post secessionem carior plebi factus. Huic interpreti arbitroque concordiae civium, legato patrum ad plebem, reductori plebis Romanae in urbem sumptus funeri defuit; extulit eum plebs sextantibus conlatis in capita.

In the same year Agrippa Menenius dies, a man in his whole life equally dear to the patricians and to the plebs, made dearer to the plebs after the secession. To this interpreter and arbiter of the concord of the citizens, the legate of the patricians to the plebs, the bringer-back of the Roman plebs into the city, the expense for a funeral was lacking; the plebs carried him out with sextantes collected per head.

[34] Consules deinde T. Geganius P. Minucius facti. Eo anno cum et foris quieta omnia a bello essent et domi sanata discordia, aliud multo gravius malum civitatem invasit, caritas primum annonae ex incultis per secessionem plebis agris, fames deinde, qualis clausis solet. Ventumque ad interitum servitiorum utique et plebis esset, ni consules providissent dimissis passim ad frumentum coemendum, non in Etruriam modo dextris ab Ostia litoribus laevoque per Volscos mari usque ad Cumas, sed quaesitum in Sicilia quoque; adeo finitimorum odia longinquis coegerant indigere auxiliis.

[34] Then the consuls were made T. Geganius and P. Minucius. In that year, since all things abroad were quiet from war and at home the discord had been healed, another, much more grave evil invaded the commonwealth: first a dearness of the grain-supply, from the fields left untilled by the secession of the plebs; then famine, such as is usual for people shut in. And it would have come to the destruction of the slave-classes in particular, and of the plebs as well, if the consuls had not provided by dispatching men everywhere to buy up grain, not only to Etruria along the right-hand shores from Ostia and, on the left, by sea through the Volsci as far as Cumae, but grain was sought in Sicily also; to such a degree had the hatreds of the neighboring peoples forced them to need helps from afar.

Frumentum Cumis cum coemptum esset, naves pro bonis Tarquiniorum ab Aristodemo tyranno, qui heres erat, retentae sunt; in Volscis Pomptinoque ne emi quidem potuit; periculum quoque ab impetu hominum ipsis frumentatoribus fuit; ex Tuscis frumentum Tiberi venit; eo sustentata est plebs. Incommodo bello in tam artis commeatibus vexati forent, ni Volscos iam moventes arma pestilentia ingens invasisset. Ea clade conterritis hostium animis, ut etiam ubi ea remisisset terrore aliquo tenerentur, et Velitris auxere numerum colonorum Romani, et Norbam in montes novam coloniam, quae arx in Pomptino esset, miserunt.

When the grain had been purchased at Cumae, the ships were detained as in lieu of the goods of the Tarquins by Aristodemus the tyrant, who was their heir; among the Volsci and in the Pomptine it could not even be bought; there was danger also to the grain‑buyers themselves from the rush of men; from Etruria grain came down the Tiber; by this the plebs was sustained. They would have been harassed by war to their disadvantage, with their supplies so straitened, had not a huge pestilence invaded the Volsci, already moving to arms. With the spirits of the enemy broken by that calamity, so that even when it had eased they were still held by a certain terror, the Romans both increased the number of colonists at Velitrae, and sent out Norba into the hills as a new colony, to be a citadel in the Pomptine.

M. Minucio deinde et A. Sempronio consulibus magna vis frumenti ex Sicilia advecta, agitatumque in senatu quanti plebi daretur. Multi venisse tempus premendae plebis putabant reciperandique iura quae extorta secessione ac vi patribus essent. In primis Marcius Coriolanus, hostis tribuniciae potestatis, "si annonam" inquit, "veterem volunt, ius pristinum reddant patribus.

Then, under the consuls M. Minucius and A. Sempronius, a great quantity of grain was brought in from Sicily, and it was debated in the senate at what price it should be given to the plebs. Many thought the time had come for pressing the plebs and for recovering the rights which had been wrested from the fathers by secession and by force. Foremost, Marcius Coriolanus, an enemy of the tribunician power, said, "if they want the corn-supply as of old, let them give back the pristine right to the fathers."

Cur ego plebeios magistratus, cur Sicinium potentem video, sub iugum missus, tamquam ab latronibus redemptus? Egone has indignitates diutius patiar quam necesse est? Tarquinium regem qui non tulerim, Sicinium feram?

Why do I see plebeian magistrates; why do I see Sicinius powerful—I, sent under the yoke, as if redeemed from brigands? Shall I endure these indignities any longer than is necessary? I, who did not tolerate King Tarquin—shall I tolerate Sicinius?

Secedat nunc; avocet plebem; patet via in Sacrum montem aliosque colles; rapiant frumenta ex agris nostris, quemadmodum tertio anno rapuere. Fruantur annona quam furore suo fecere. Audeo dicere hoc malo domitos ipsos potius cultores agrorum fore quam ut armati per secessionem coli prohibeant." Haud tam facile dictu est faciendumne fuerit quam potuisse arbitror fieri ut condicionibus laxandi annonam et tribuniciam potestatem et omnia invitis iura imposita patres demerent sibi.

"Let them secede now; let him avocate the plebs; the way lies open to the Sacred Mount and to other hills; let them snatch the grain from our fields, just as in the third year they snatched it. Let them enjoy the grain-supply which they made by their own fury. I dare to say that by this evil the very cultivators of the fields will be tamed rather than that, armed, by secession they should forbid the fields to be tilled." It is not so easy to say whether it ought to have been done as I think it could have been brought to pass, that on the conditions of relaxing the grain-supply the fathers might rid themselves of the tribunician power and all the rights imposed upon them against their will.

[35] Et senatui nimis atrox visa sententia est et plebem ira prope armavit. Fame se iam sicut hostes peti, cibo victuque fraudari; peregrinum frumentum, quae sola alimenta ex insperato fortuna dederit, ab ore rapi nisi Cn. Marcio vincti dedantur tribuni, nisi de tergo plebis Romanae satisfiat; eum sibi carnificem novum exortum, qui aut mori aut servire iubeat. In exeuntem e curia impetus factus esset, ni peropportune tribuni diem dixissent.

[35] Both to the senate the proposal seemed too savage, and it nearly armed the plebs with wrath. They said that they were now being assailed by famine as if they were enemies, that they were being defrauded of food and victuals; that the foreign grain, the only aliments which Fortune had given unexpectedly, was being snatched from their very mouth, unless the tribunes, bound, were delivered up to Gnaeus Marcius, unless satisfaction were made upon the back of the Roman plebs; that for them a new executioner had arisen, who bids them either die or serve. An attack would have been made upon him as he was going out of the Curia, had not the tribunes, most opportunely, named a day.

Ibi ira est suppressa; se iudicem quisque, se dominum vitae necisque inimici factum videbat. Contemptim primo Marcius audiebat minas tribunicias: auxilii, non poenae ius datum illi potestati, plebisque, non patrum tribunos esse. Sed adeo infensa erat coorta plebs ut unius poena defungendum esset patribus.

There the anger was suppressed; each man saw himself made judge, himself master of an enemy’s life and death. At first Marcius heard the tribunician menaces with disdain: that to that power had been given the right of aid, not of punishment, and that the tribunes are of the plebs, not of the patres. But the plebs had risen up so hostile that the patres would have to have the matter discharged by the punishment of a single man.

Restiterunt tamen adversa invidia, usique sunt qua suis quisque, qua totius ordinis viribus. Ac primo temptata res est si dispositis clientibus absterrendo singulos a coitionibus conciliisque disicere rem possent. Universi deinde processere —quidquid erat patrum, reos diceres—precibus plebem exposcentes, unum sibi civem, unum senatorem, si innocentem absolvere nollent, pro nocente donarent.

They nevertheless withstood the adverse ill-will, and they also employed both each man his own resources and the forces of the whole order. And at first the attempt was made whether, with clients having been deployed, by frightening individuals away from coitions and councils, they could scatter the affair. Then all advanced—whatever there was of the patricians, you would call them defendants—imploring the plebs with entreaties to grant to themselves one citizen, one senator; if they were unwilling to absolve the innocent, to grant him even as guilty.

Ipse cum die dicta non adesset, perseveratum in ira est. Damnatus absens in Volscos exsulatum abiit, minitans patriae hostilesque iam tum spiritus gerens. Venientem Volsci benigne excepere, benigniusque in dies colebant, quo maior ira in suos eminebat crebraeque nunc querellae, nunc minae percipiebantur.

He himself, when on the appointed day he was not present, they persevered in wrath. Condemned in his absence, he went into exile among the Volsci, menacing his fatherland and already then bearing a hostile spirit. The Volsci received him benignly as he came, and more benignly from day to day they cherished him, the greater his anger against his own people stood out, and frequent—now complaints, now threats—were being perceived.

Hospitio utebatur Atti Tulli. Longe is tum princeps Volsci nominis erat Romanisque semper infestus. Ita cum alterum vetus odium, alterum ira recens stimularet, consilia conferunt de Romano bello.

He made use of the hospitality of Attius Tullius. He was then by far the chief of the Volscian name and ever hostile to the Romans. Thus, as an old hatred spurred the one and a fresh wrath the other, they conferred counsel about a war against Rome.

Haud facile credebant plebem suam impelli posse, ut totiens infeliciter temptata arma caperent: multis saepe bellis, pestilentia postremo amissa iuventute fractos spiritus esse; arte agendum in exoleto iam vetustate odio, ut recenti aliqua ira exacerbarentur animi.

They did not easily believe that their plebs could be impelled to take up arms so often unsuccessfully attempted: that through many frequent wars, and finally by pestilence, with their youth lost, their spirits had been broken; that it must be handled by art, with a hatred now worn obsolete by long age, so that their minds might be exacerbated by some fresh ire.

[36] Ludi forte ex instauratione magni Romae parabantur. Instaurandi haec causa fuerat. Ludis mane servum quidam pater familiae, nondum commisso spectaculo, sub furca caesum medio egerat circo; coepti inde ludi, velut ea res nihil ad religionem pertinuisset.

[36] By chance the Great Games at Rome were being prepared as an instauration. The cause for the instauration had been this. On the morning of the Games, with the spectacle not yet commenced, a certain paterfamilias had driven a slave, beaten under the fork, into the middle of the circus; from there the Games were begun, as though that matter had had nothing to do with religion.

Haud ita multo post Tito Latinio, de plebe homini, somnium fuit; visus Iuppiter dicere sibi ludis praesultatorem displicuisse; nisi magnifice instaurarentur ii ludi, periculum urbi fore; iret, ea consulibus nuntiaret. Quamquam haud sane liber erat religione animus, verecundia tamen maiestatis magistratuum timorque vicit, ne in ora hominum pro ludibrio abiret. Magno illi ea cunctatio stetit; filium namque intra paucos dies amisit.

Not much later, to Titus Latinius, a man of the plebs, there was a dream; Jupiter seemed to say to him that the praesultator at the games had displeased him; unless those games were magnificently reinstated, there would be danger for the city; he should go and announce this to the consuls. Although his mind was by no means free in respect to religion, yet respect for the majesty of the magistrates and the fear lest he go into the mouths of men for derision prevailed. That delay cost him greatly; for within a few days he lost his son.

Cuius repentinae cladis ne causa ei dubia esset, aegro animi eadem illa in somnis obversata species visa est rogitare, satin magnam spreti numinis haberet mercedem; maiorem instare ni eat propere ac nuntiet consulibus. Iam praesentior res erat. Cunctantem tamen ac prolatantem ingens vis morbi adorta est debilitate subita.

That the cause of his sudden calamity might not be doubtful to him, while sick at heart the same apparition that had presented itself in sleep seemed to be asking repeatedly whether he thought the recompense for spurning the numen was great enough; a greater one was impending unless he should go quickly and announce it to the consuls. Now the matter was more immediate. Yet as he hesitated and kept deferring it, a vast force of illness attacked him with sudden debility.

Tunc enimvero deorum ira admonuit. Fessus igitur malis praeteritis instantibusque, consilio propinquorum adhibito, cum visa atque audita et obversatum totiens somno Iovem, minas irasque caelestes repraesentatas casibus suis exposuisset, consensu inde haud dubio omnium qui aderant in forum ad consules lectica defertur. Inde in curiam iussu consulum delatus, eadem illa cum patribus ingenti omnium admiratione enarrasset, ecce aliud miraculum: qui captus omnibus membris delatus in curiam esset, eum functum officio pedibus suis domum redisse traditum memoriae est.

Then indeed the wrath of the gods admonished. Weary, therefore, from past and pressing evils, after taking counsel of his kinsmen, when he had set forth the things seen and heard, and Jupiter so often presenting himself to his sleep, the threats and heavenly wraths made manifest in his own misfortunes, by the undoubted consent of all who were present he is carried in a litter into the forum to the consuls. Thence, by order of the consuls, conveyed into the Curia, when he had recounted those same matters to the Fathers, to the immense admiration of all—behold another miracle: the man who had been carried into the Curia crippled in all his limbs is handed down to memory to have, after discharging his duty, returned home on his own feet.

[37] Ludi quam amplissimi ut fierent senatus decreuit. Ad eos ludos auctore Attio Tullio vis magna Volscorum venit. Priusquam committerentur ludi, Tullius, ut domi compositum cum Marcio fuerat, ad consules venit; dicit esse quae secreto agere de re publica velit.

[37] The senate decreed that games as most ample as possible should be held. To those games, at the instigation of Attius Tullius, a great multitude of the Volsci came. Before the games were commenced, Tullius, as had been arranged at home with Marcius, came to the consuls; he says there are matters which he wishes to transact in secret concerning the commonwealth.

Arbitris remotis, "invitus" inquit, "quod sequius sit, de meis civibus loquor. Non tamen admissum quicquam ab iis criminatum venio, sed cautum ne admittant. Nimio plus quam velim, nostrorum ingenia sunt mobilia.

With the arbiters removed, “unwilling,” he says, “since it is the less favorable, I speak about my fellow citizens. I do not, however, come bringing a charge that anything has been committed by them, but to see to it that they be cautioned not to commit it. Far more than I would wish, the dispositions of our people are mobile.”

Multis id cladibus sensimus, quippe qui non nostro merito sed vestra patientia incolumes simus. Magna hic nunc Volscorum multitudo est; ludi sunt; spectaculo intenta civitas erit. Memini quid per eandem occasionem ab Sabinorum iuventute in hac urbe commissum sit; horret animus, ne quid inconsulte ac temere fiat.

We have sensed that through many disasters, for we are unharmed not by our own merit but by your patience. A great multitude of the Volsci is here now; there are games; the city will be intent upon the spectacle. I remember what, by the same occasion, was committed by the youth of the Sabines in this city; my spirit shudders, lest anything be done without counsel and rashly.

Haec nostra vestraque causa prius dicenda vobis, consules, ratus sum. Quod ad me attinet, extemplo hinc domum abire in animo est, ne cuius facti dictive contagione praesens violer." Haec locutus abiit. Consules cum ad patres rem dubiam sub auctore certo detulissent, auctor magis, ut fit, quam res ad praecavendum vel ex supervacuo movit, factoque senatus consulto ut urbe excederent Volsci, praecones dimittuntur qui omnes eos proficisci ante noctem iuberent.

“These things, on our and your account, I judged ought to be said to you first, consuls. As for me, at once to go home from here is my intention, lest by the contagion of any deed or word I, being present, be violated.” Having said these things, he departed. When the consuls had referred to the Fathers a doubtful matter under a sure authority, the authority, as happens, rather than the matter, moved them to take precautions, even out of superfluity; and a senatorial decree having been made that the Volsci should depart from the city, heralds are sent out to order all of them to set out before night.

Ingens pavor primo discurrentes ad suas res tollendas in hospitia perculit; proficiscentibus deinde indignatio oborta, se ut consceleratos contaminatosque ab ludis, festis diebus, coetu quodam modo hominum deorumque abactos esse.

Immense panic at first struck those running about into their lodgings to collect their belongings; then, as they were setting out, indignation arose—that they had been, as if criminal and contaminated, driven away from the games, on festal days, from, as it were, the assembly of men and gods.

[38] Cum prope continuato agmine irent, praegressus Tullius ad caput Ferentinum, ut quisque veniret, primores eorum excipiens querendo indignandoque, et eos ipsos, sedulo audientes secunda irae verba, et per eos multitudinem aliam in subiectum viae campum deduxit. Ibi in contionis modum orationem exorsus "ut omnia" inquit, "obliviscamini alia, veteres populi Romani iniurias cladesque gentis Volscorum, hodiernam hanc contumeliam quo tandem animo fertis, qua per nostram ignominiam ludos commisere? An non sensistis triumphatum hodie de vobis esse?

[38] When they were going in a nearly continuous column, Tullius, having gone on ahead to the head of the Ferentina, as each man arrived, received their foremost men with complaining and indignation; and those very men, assiduously listening to words seconding their anger, and through them he led the rest of the multitude down into the field lying beneath the road. There, beginning a speech in the manner of an assembly, “grant that you forget everything else,” he said, “the ancient injuries of the Roman People and the calamities of the Volscian nation—this present contumely, with what spirit, pray, do you bear it, that they have held the games to our ignominy? Or have you not sensed that a triumph has been celebrated today over you?

Vos omnibus, civibus, peregrinis, tot finitimis populis, spectaculo abeuntes fuisse? Vestras coniuges, vestros liberos traductos per ora hominum? Quid eos qui audivere vocem praeconis, quid, qui nos videre abeuntes, quid eos qui huic ignominioso agmini fuere obvii, existimasse putatis nisi aliquod profecto nefas esse quo, si intersimus spectaculo, violaturi simus ludos piaculumque merituri; ideo nos ab sede piorum, coetu concilioque abigi?

Have you been, to everyone, citizens, foreigners, so many neighboring peoples, a spectacle as you departed? Were your wives, your children, led along before the faces of men? What do you think those who heard the voice of the herald, what those who saw us going away, what those who met this ignominious procession, have judged, except that there is assuredly some sacrilege such that, if we attend the spectacle, we would violate the games and incur an expiation; for that reason we are driven from the seat of the pious, and from their company and council?

Quid deinde? Illud non succurrit, vivere nos quod maturarimus proficisci? Si hoc profectio et non fuga est.

What then? Does it not occur that we are alive because we hastened to set out?—if this is a setting out and not a flight.

Et hanc urbem vos non hostium ducitis, ubi si unum diem morati essetis, moriendum omnibus fuit? Bellum vobis indictum est, magno eorum malo qui indixere si viri estis." Ita et sua sponte irarum pleni et incitati domos inde digressi sunt, instigandoque suos quisque populos effecere ut omne Volscum nomen deficeret.

And do you not reckon this city among enemies, where, if you had tarried a single day, it would have been death for all? War has been indicted against you, to the great harm of those who indicted it—if you are men." Thus, both of their own accord, full of angers and incited, they departed thence to their homes, and by instigating their own peoples each one brought it about that the whole Volscian name should defect.

[39] Imperatores ad id bellum de omnium populorum sententia lecti Attius Tullius et Cn. Marcius, exsul Romanus, in quo aliquanto plus spei repositum. Quam spem nequaquam fefellit, ut facile appareret ducibus validiorem quam exercitu rem Romanam esse. Circeios profectus primum colonos inde Romanos expulit liberamque eam urbem Volscis tradidit; Satricum, Longulam, Poluscam, Coriolos, novella haec Romanis oppida ademit; inde Lavinium recepit; inde in Latinam viam transversis tramitibus transgressus, tunc deinceps Corbionem, Veteliam, Trebium, Labicos, Pedum cepit.

[39] The commanders for that war, chosen by the judgment of all the peoples, were Attius Tullius and Cn. Marcius, a Roman exile, in whom considerably more hope had been placed. Nor did he by any means disappoint that hope, so that it easily appeared that the Roman cause was stronger in its leaders than in its army. Setting out to Circeii, first he expelled the Roman colonists from there and handed over that city free to the Volsci; Satricum, Longula, Polusca, Corioli—these newly founded towns he took from the Romans; then he recovered Lavinium; then, having crossed onto the Latin Way by cross-tracks, thereafter in succession he took Corbio, Vetelia, Trebium, Labici, and Pedum.

Postremum ad urbem a Pedo ducit, et ad fossas Cluilias quinque ab urbe milia passuum castris positis, populatur inde agrum Romanum, custodibus inter populatores missis qui patriciorum agros intactos servarent, sive infensus plebi magis, sive ut discordia inde inter patres plebemque oreretur. Quae profecto orta esset—adeo tribuni iam ferocem per se plebem criminando in primores civitatis instigabant—; sed externus timor, maximum concordiae vinculum, quamvis suspectos infensosque inter se iungebat animos. Id modo non conveniebat quod senatus consulesque nusquam alibi spem quam in armis ponebant, plebes omnia quam bellum malebat.

At last he leads toward the city from Pedum, and, with camps pitched at the Cluilian Ditches five miles from the city, from there he ravages the Roman territory, guards having been sent in among the plunderers to keep the fields of the patricians untouched, whether being more inimical to the plebs, or in order that from that source discord might arise between the fathers and the plebs. Which assuredly would have arisen—so far were the tribunes, by criminating the foremost men of the state, goading on the plebs, already fierce in itself—; but an external fear, the greatest bond of concord, was uniting spirits, though mutually suspicious and hostile. Only this did not agree: that the senate and the consuls placed their hope nowhere else than in arms, while the plebs preferred anything rather than war.

Sp. Nautius iam et Sex. Furius consules erant. Eos recensentes legiones, praesidia per muros aliaque in quibus stationes vigiliasque esse placuerat loca distribuentes, multitudo ingens pacem poscentium primum seditioso clamore conterruit, deinde vocare senatum, referre de legatis ad Cn. Marcium mittendis coegit.

Sp. Nautius and Sex. Furius were now consuls. As they were reviewing the legions, distributing garrisons along the walls and the other places in which it had pleased that there be stations and watches, a huge multitude of those demanding peace first cowed them with seditious clamor, then compelled them to call the senate and to bring up the matter of sending envoys to Cn. Marcius.

Acceperunt relationem patres, postquam apparuit labare plebis animos; missique de pace ad Marcium oratores atrox responsum rettulerunt: si Volscis ager redderetur, posse agi de pace: si praeda belli per otium frui velint, memorem se et civium iniuriae et hospitum beneficii adnisurum, ut appareat exsilio sibi inritatos, non fractos animos esse. Iterum deinde iidem missi non recipiuntur in castra. Sacerdotes quoque suis insignibus velatos isse supplices ad castra hostium traditum est; nihilo magis quam legatos flexisse animum.

The Fathers received the report, after it appeared that the spirits of the plebs were wavering; and orators (envoys) sent about peace to Marcius brought back an atrocious answer: if the land were returned to the Volsci, it would be possible to treat of peace; if they wished to enjoy the booty of war at their ease, he, mindful both of the injury to his fellow citizens and of the kindness of his hosts, would strive to make it appear that exile had provoked, not broken, his spirit. Then the same men, sent again, were not admitted into the camp. It is handed down that priests too, veiled with their own insignia, went as suppliants to the enemy’s camp; they swayed his mind no more than the legates.

[40] Tum matronae ad Veturiam matrem Coriolani Volumniamque uxorem frequentes coeunt. Id publicum consilium an muliebris timor fuerit, parum invenio: pervicere certe, ut et Veturia, magno natu mulier, et Volumnia duos parvos ex Marcio ferens filios secum in castra hostium irent et, quoniam armis viri defendere urbem non possent, mulieres precibus lacrimisque defenderent. Ubi ad castra ventum est nuntiatumque Coriolano est adesse ingens mulierum agmen, ut qui nec publica maiestate in legatis nec in sacerdotibus tanta offusa oculis animoque religione motus esset, multo obstinatior adversus lacrimas muliebres erat; dein familiarium quidam qui insignem maestitia inter ceteras cognoverat Veturiam, inter nurum nepotesque stantem, "nisi me frustrantur" inquit, "oculi, mater tibi coniunxque et liberi adsunt." Coriolanus prope ut amens consternatus ab sede sua cum ferret matri obviae complexum, mulier in iram ex precibus versa "sine, priusquam complexum accipio, sciam" inquit, "ad hostem an ad filium venerim, captiva materne in castris tuis sim.

[40] Then the matrons gather in crowds to Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and to Volumnia his wife. Whether that was a public counsel or a womanly fear, I scarcely find: they certainly prevailed, that both Veturia, a woman of great age, and Volumnia, carrying two little sons by Marcius, should go with them into the enemy’s camp, and, since the men could not defend the city by arms, the women should defend it with prayers and tears. When they came to the camp and it was announced to Coriolanus that a huge column of women was present, since he, who had been moved neither by the public majesty in the legates nor by the priests with such religion poured upon his eyes and spirit, was much more obstinate against women’s tears; then a certain one of his familiars, who had recognized Veturia, conspicuous in her sadness among the rest, standing among his daughter-in-law and grandsons, said, “Unless my eyes deceive me, your mother, and your wife and children, are here.” Coriolanus, almost like one out of his mind, dismayed, was rising from his seat and was bringing an embrace to meet his mother; the woman, turned from prayers into anger, said, “Let me, before I receive the embrace, know whether I have come to an enemy or to a son, whether I, as a captive, am a mother in your camp.”

In hoc me longa vita et infelix senecta traxit ut exsulem te deinde hostem viderem? Potuisti populari hanc terram quae te genuit atque aluit? Non tibi, quamvis infesto animo et minaci perveneras, ingredienti fines ira cecidit?

Has my long life and unhappy senescence dragged me to this, that I should see you an exile and then an enemy? Were you able to depopulate this land which begot and nourished you? Did not your wrath fall away for you, although you had come with a hostile and minacious mind, as you entered its borders?

Non, cum in conspectu Roma fuit, succurrit: intra illa moenia domus ac penates mei sunt, mater coniunx liberique? Ergo ego nisi peperissem, Roma non oppugnaretur; nisi filium haberem, libera in libera patria mortua essem. Sed ego mihi miserius nihil iam pati nec tibi turpius usquam possum, nec ut sum miserrima, diu futura sum: de his videris, quos, si pergis, aut immatura mors aut longa servitus manet." Uxor deinde ac liberi amplexi, fletusque ab omni turba mulierum ortus et comploratio sui patriaeque fregere tandem virum.

No, when Rome was in sight, did it not occur to you: within those walls are my house and Penates, your mother, your wife, and your children? Therefore, if I had not borne a child, Rome would not be besieged; if I did not have a son, I would have died free in a free fatherland. But I can now suffer nothing more wretched for myself, nor anywhere anything more shameful for you; nor, wretched as I am, shall I be for long: take thought for these, whom, if you persist, either untimely death or long servitude awaits." Then his wife and children embraced him, and from the whole crowd of women a weeping arose and a lamentation for themselves and for the fatherland broke the man at last.

Complexus inde suos dimittit: ipse retro ab urbe castra movit. Abductis deinde legionibus ex agro Romano, invidia rei oppressum perisse tradunt, alii alio leto. Apud Fabium, longe antiquissimum auctorem, usque ad senectutem vixisse eundem invenio; refert certe hanc saepe eum exacta aetate usurpasse vocem multo miserius seni exsilium esse.

Having embraced his own, he then dismissed them; he himself moved the camp back from the city. Then, with the legions withdrawn from Roman territory, they hand down that he perished, oppressed by the envy arising from the affair; others, by another death. In Fabius, by far the most ancient author, I find that the same man lived all the way to old age; he certainly reports that he often in his advanced age used this saying: that exile is much more miserable for an old man.

Non inviderunt laude sua mulieribus viri Romani—adeo sine obtrectatione gloriae alienae vivebatur—; monumento quoque quod esset, templum Fortunae muliebri aedificatum dedicatumque est.

The Roman men did not begrudge the women their own praise—so much so was life lived without detraction of another’s glory—; and, in order that there might also be a monument, a temple of Fortuna Muliebris was built and dedicated.

Rediere deinde Volsci adiunctis Aequis in agrum Romanum; sed Aequi Attium Tullium haud ultra tulere ducem. Hinc ex certamine Volsci Aequine imperatorem coniuncto exercitui darent, seditio, deinde atrox proelium ortum. Ibi fortuna populi Romani duos hostium exercitus haud minus pernicioso quam pertinaci certamine confecit.

Then the Volsci returned, with the Aequi joined, into the Roman territory; but the Aequi no longer bore Attius Tullius as their leader. Thence, from a contest as to whether the Volsci or the Aequi should give a commander to the conjoined army, a sedition, then a terrible battle arose. There the Fortune of the Roman people finished off two armies of the enemy in a struggle no less pernicious than obstinate.

Consules T. Sicinius et C. Aquilius. Sicinio Volsci, Aquilio Hernici—nam ii quoque in armis erant—provincia evenit. Eo anno Hernici deuicti: cum Volscis aequo Marte discessum est.

The consuls were T. Sicinius and C. Aquilius. To Sicinius the Volsci, to Aquilius the Hernici—since they too were in arms—the province fell by lot. In that year the Hernici were defeated: with the Volsci it was a drawn battle.

[41] Sp. Cassius deinde et Proculus Verginius consules facti. Cum Hernicis foedus ictum; agri partes duae ademptae. Inde dimidium Latinis, dimidium plebi divisurus consul Cassius erat.

[41] Then Spurius Cassius and Proculus Verginius were made consuls. With the Hernici a foedus was struck; two parts of their land (two-thirds) were taken away. Thereupon Consul Cassius was intending to distribute half to the Latins, half to the plebs.

Adiciebat hic muneri agri aliquantum, quem publicum possideri a privatis criminabatur. Id multos quidem patrum, ipsos possessores, periculo rerum suarum terrebat; sed et publica patribus sollicitudo inerat largitione consulem periculosas libertati opes struere. Tum primum lex agraria promulgata est, nunquam deinde usque ad hanc memoriam sine maximis motibus rerum agitata.

To this he was adding to the donative some amount of land, which he alleged was public land being possessed by private persons. This indeed was frightening many of the fathers—the possessors themselves—with danger to their property; but there was also in the fathers a public solicitude that by largess the consul was building up resources perilous to liberty. Then for the first time an agrarian law was promulgated, thereafter never, down to this present memory, agitated without the greatest disturbances of affairs.

Consul alter largitioni resistebat auctoribus patribus nec omni plebe adversante, quae primo coeperat fastidire munus volgatum a civibus isse in socios; saepe deinde et Verginium consulem in contionibus velut vaticinantem audiebat pestilens collegae munus esse; agros illos servitutem iis qui acceperint laturos; regno viam fieri. Quid ita enim adsumi socios et nomen Latinum, quid attinuisset Hernicis, paulo ante hostibus, capti agri partem tertiam reddi, nisi ut hae gentes pro Coriolano duce Cassium habeant? Popularis iam esse dissuasor et intercessor legis agrariae coeperat.

The other consul, backed by the senators, resisted the largess, nor was the whole plebs opposing, which at the start had begun to disdain that the boon, made common, had gone from the citizens to the allies; and often thereafter they would hear even the consul Verginius in the assemblies, as if vaticinating, that his colleague’s boon was pestilent; that those fields would bring servitude to those who accepted them; that a road to kingship was being made. For why, then, were the allies and the Latin name being admitted; what was it to the Hernici, enemies a little before, that a third part of the captured land was being given back, unless so that these nations might have Cassius as leader in place of Coriolanus? He had already begun to be a popular dissuader and intercessor against the agrarian law.

Uterque deinde consul, ut certatim, plebi indulgere. Verginius dicere passurum se adsignari agros, dum ne cui nisi civi Romano adsignentur: Cassius, quia in agraria largitione ambitiosus in socios eoque civibus vilior erat, ut alio munere sibi reconciliaret civium animos, iubere pro Siculo frumento pecuniam acceptam retribui populo. Id vero haud secus quam praesentem mercedem regni aspernata plebes; adeo propter suspicionem insitam regni, velut abundarent omnia, munera eius [in animis hominum] respuebantur.

Thereupon each consul, as if in rivalry, began to indulge the plebs. Verginius said that he would allow fields to be assigned, provided that they be assigned to no one except a Roman citizen; Cassius, because in the agrarian largess he was ambitious toward the allies and for that reason was of less value among the citizens, so that by another munus he might reconcile the minds of the citizens to himself, ordered that the money received for Sicilian grain be returned to the people. This the plebs spurned no differently than as a present wage of kingship; to such a degree, on account of the suspicion of kingship ingrained, as though everything overflowed, his gifts [in the minds of men] were being rejected.

Quem ubi primum magistratu abiit damnatum necatumque constat. Sunt qui patrem auctorem eius supplicii ferant: eum cognita domi causa verberasse ac necasse peculiumque filii Cereri consecravisse; signum inde factum esse et inscriptum, "ex Cassia familia datum." Invenio apud quosdam, idque propius fidem est, a quaestoribus Caesone Fabio et L. Valerio diem dictam perduellionis, damnatumque populi iudicio, dirutas publice aedes. Ea est area ante Telluris aedem.

When he first departed from the magistracy, it is agreed that he was condemned and slain. There are those who report the father as the author of that punishment: that he, the case having been examined at home, scourged and killed him, and consecrated the son’s peculium to Ceres; that a sign/statue was then made and inscribed, "given from the Cassian family." I find with certain writers—and this is nearer to credibility—that a day for a charge of perduellio was appointed by the quaestors Caeso Fabius and Lucius Valerius, and that, condemned by the judgment of the people, his house was publicly demolished. That is the area before the Temple of Tellus.

Ceterum sive illud domesticum sive publicum fuit iudicium, damnatur Servio Cornelio Q. Fabio consulibus.

But whether that judgment was domestic or public, he is condemned under the consuls Servius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius.

[42] Haud diuturna ira populi in Cassium fuit. Dulcedo agrariae legis ipsa per se, dempto auctore, subibat animos, accensaque ea cupiditas est malignitate patrum, qui deuictis eo anno Volscis Aequisque, militem praeda fraudavere. Quidquid captum ex hostibus est, vendidit Fabius consul ac redegit in publicum.

[42] Not long-lasting was the people’s ire against Cassius. The sweetness of the agrarian law, by its very self, with the author removed, began to steal into minds; and that desire was kindled by the malignity of the fathers, who, with the Volsci and Aequi subdued that year, defrauded the soldiery of booty. Whatever was captured from the enemies, Fabius the consul sold and paid into the public treasury.

Invisum erat Fabium nomen plebi propter novissimum consulem; tenuere tamen patres ut cum L. Aemilio Caeso Fabius consul crearetur. Eo infestior facta plebes seditione domestica bellum externum excivit. Bello deinde civiles discordiae intermissae; uno animo patres ac plebs rebellantes Volscos et Aequos duce Aemilio prospera pugna vicere.

The name of Fabius was hateful to the plebs on account of the most recent consul; nevertheless the patres prevailed that, together with L. Aemilius, Caeso Fabius should be created consul. For that reason the plebs, made more hostile, by domestic sedition stirred up an external war. Then, because of the war, civil discords were intermitted; with one mind the patres and the plebs, under the leadership of Aemilius, in a prosperous fight conquered the rebelling Volsci and Aequi.

Plus tamen hostium fuga quam proelium absumpsit; adeo pertinaciter fusos insecuti sunt equites. Castoris aedis eodem anno idibus Quintilibus dedicata est; vota erat Latino bello a Postumio dictatore: filius eius duumvir ad id ipsum creatus dedicavit.

More of the enemy, however, were consumed by flight than by battle; so persistently did the cavalry pursue the routed. The temple of Castor in the same year was dedicated on the Ides of Quintilis; it had been vowed in the Latin War by the dictator Postumius: his son, a duumvir created for that very purpose, dedicated it.

Sollicitati et eo anno sunt dulcedine agrariae legis animi plebis. Tribuni plebi popularem potestatem lege populari celebrabant: patres, satis superque gratuiti furoris in multitudine credentes esse, largitiones temeritatisque invitamenta horrebant. Acerrimi patribus duces ad resistendum consules fuere.

The spirits of the plebs were also in that year stirred by the sweetness of an agrarian law. The tribunes of the plebs were celebrating popular power by a popular law; the Fathers, believing that there was enough and more than enough of gratuitous frenzy in the multitude, shuddered at largesses and the inducements to temerity. The consuls were the most ardent leaders for the Fathers in resisting.

Ea igitur pars rei publicae vicit, nec in praesens modo sed in venientem etiam annum M. Fabium, Caesonis fratrem, et magis invisum alterum plebi accusatione Sp. Cassi, L. Valerium, consules dedit.

Therefore that party of the republic prevailed, and it furnished not only for the present but also for the coming year as consuls Marcus Fabius, brother of Caeso, and, as the other, Lucius Valerius, more odious to the plebs because of his prosecution of Spurius Cassius.

Certatum eo quoque anno cum tribunis est. Vana lex vanique legis auctores iactando inritum munus facti. Fabium inde nomen ingens post tres continuos consulatus unoque velut tenore omnes expertos tribuniciis certaminibus habitum; itaque, ut bene locatus, mansit in ea familia aliquamdiu honos.

There was contest that year too with the tribunes. By vaunting a vain law and vain authors of the law, they made the office ineffectual. Thence the name of Fabius was held immense, after three continuous consulships and, as it were, with a single tenor, all of them experienced in contests with the tribunes; and so, as well placed, the honor remained in that family for some time.

Bellum inde Veiens initum, et Volsci rebellarunt; sed ad bella externa prope supererant vires, abutebanturque iis inter semet ipsos certando. Accessere ad aegras iam omnium mentes prodigia caelestia, prope cotidianas in urbe agrisque ostentantia minas; motique ita numinis causam nullam aliam vates canebant publice privatimque nunc extis, nunc per aues consulti, quam haud rite sacra fieri; qui terrores tamen eo evasere ut Oppia virgo Vestalis damnata incesti poenas dederit.

From there a Veientine war was initiated, and the Volsci rebelled; but for external wars the forces were almost superfluous, and they were abusing them by contending among themselves. There were added to the already sick minds of all celestial prodigies, ostentating near-daily menaces in the city and in the fields; and thus moved, the seers, consulted now by entrails, now through birds, sang publicly and privately no other cause of the divine will than that the sacred rites were not being done duly; yet the terrors went so far that Oppia, a Vestal Virgin, condemned of unchastity, paid the penalties.

[43] Q. Fabius inde et C. Iulius consules facti. Eo anno non segnior discordia domi et bellum foris atrocius fuit. Ab Aequis arma sumpta; Veientes agrum quoque Romanorum populantes inierunt.

[43] Q. Fabius then and C. Julius were made consuls. In that year the discord at home was no less, and the war abroad more atrocious. Arms were taken up by the Aequians; the Veientines too entered upon it, laying waste the land of the Romans.

Quorum bellorum crescente cura, Caeso Fabius et Sp. Furius consules fiunt. Ortonam, Latinam urbem, Aequi oppugnabant: Veientes, pleni iam populationum, Romam ipsam se oppugnaturos minabantur. Qui terrores cum compescere deberent, auxere insuper animos plebis, redibatque non sua sponte plebi mos detractandi militiam, sed Sp. Licinius tribunus plebis, venisse tempus ratus per ultimam necessitatem legis agrariae patribus iniungendae, susceperat rem militarem impediendam.

As the concern of those wars was increasing, Caeso Fabius and Spurius Furius become consuls. Ortona, a Latin city, the Aequians were besieging; the Veientes, now full of depredations, were threatening that they would attack Rome itself. When they ought to repress those terrors, they moreover heightened the spirits of the plebs, and the custom of the plebs of detracting from (shirking) military service was returning not of its own accord, but Spurius Licinius, tribune of the plebs, thinking the time had come, by extreme necessity, for the agrarian law to be enjoined upon the patres, had undertaken that the military matter be impeded.

Ceterum tota invidia tribuniciae potestatis versa in auctorem est, nec in eum consules acrius quam ipsius collegae coorti sunt, auxilioque eorum dilectum consules habent.

However, the whole ill-will against the tribunician power was turned upon its author, nor did the consuls assail him more sharply than did his own colleagues, and with their aid the consuls hold the levy.

Ad duo simul bella exercitus scribitur; ducendus Fabio in Aequos, Furio datur in Veientes. In Veientes nihil dignum memoria gestum; et in Aequis quidem Fabio aliquanto plus negotii cum civibus quam cum hostibus fuit. Unus ille vir, ipse consul, rem publicam sustinuit, quam exercitus odio consulis, quantum in se fuit, prodebat.

An army is enrolled for two wars at once; it is to be led by Fabius against the Aequi, and is given to Furius against the Veientes. Among the Veientes nothing worthy of memory was done; and among the Aequi indeed Fabius had considerably more business with the citizens than with the enemies. That one man, the consul himself, sustained the commonwealth, which the army, through hatred of the consul, so far as was in its power, was betraying.

Nam cum consul praeter ceteras imperatorias artes, quas parando gerendoque bello edidit plurimas, ita instruxisset aciem ut solo equitatu emisso exercitum hostium funderet, insequi fusos pedes noluit; nec illos, et si non adhortatio invisi ducis, suum saltem flagitium et publicum in praesentia dedecus, postmodo periculum, si animus hosti redisset, cogere potuit gradum adcelerare aut si aliud nihil, stare instructos. Iniussu signa referunt, maestique—crederes victos—exsecrantes nunc imperatorem, nunc nauatam ab equite operam, redeunt in castra. Nec huic tam pestilenti exemplo remedia ulla ab imperatore quaesita sunt; adeo excellentibus ingeniis citius defuerit ars qua civem regant quam qua hostem superent.

For the consul, besides the other imperatorial arts, of which in preparing and waging war he displayed very many, had so drawn up the battle-line that, with the cavalry alone sent out, he would rout the enemy’s army; the infantry did not wish to pursue the routed, nor could either the exhortation of the hated leader, or at least their own disgrace and the public shame in the present, and afterward the danger, if spirit should return to the enemy, compel them to quicken their step or, if nothing else, to stand in array. Without orders they bring back the standards, and sad—you would believe them conquered—execrating now the commander, now the service rendered by the cavalry, they return into camp. Nor were any remedies sought by the commander for this so pestilential example; to such a degree has the art by which they might rule the citizen sooner been lacking to outstanding geniuses than that by which they might overcome the enemy.

Consul Romam rediit non tam belli gloria aucta quam inritato exacerbatoque in se militum odio. Obtinuere tamen patres ut in Fabia gente consulatus maneret: M. Fabium consulem creant; Fabio collega Cn. Manlius datur.

The consul returned to Rome, not so much with the glory of war augmented as with the soldiers’ hatred against himself irritated and exacerbated. Nevertheless the Fathers prevailed that the consulship remain in the Fabian gens: they elect Marcus Fabius consul; to Fabius a colleague is given, Gnaeus Manlius.

[44] Et hic annus tribunum auctorem legis agrariae habuit. Tib. Pontificius fuit.

[44] And this year also had a tribune as the author of an agrarian law. It was Tib. Pontificius.

Is eandem viam, velut processisset Sp. Licinio, ingressus dilectum paulisper impediit. Perturbatis iterum patribus Ap. Claudius victam tribuniciam potestatem dicere priore anno, in praesentia re, exemplo in perpetuum, quando inventum sit suis ipsam viribus dissolvi. Neque enim unquam defuturum qui et ex collega victoriam sibi et gratiam melioris partis bono publico velit quaesitam; et plures, si pluribus opus sit, tribunos ad auxilium consulum paratos fore, et unum vel adversus omnes satis esse.

He, entering upon the same path, as though it had succeeded for Sp. Licinius, impeded the levy for a short while. With the senators again thrown into disorder, Ap. Claudius declared the tribunician power to have been vanquished in the previous year—here, in the present case, a precedent for perpetuity—since it had been discovered to be dissolved by its own forces. For there would never be lacking someone who would wish that both a victory for himself be procured by a colleague and the favor of the better party, sought for the public good; and more tribunes, if there were need of more, would be ready for the aid of the consuls—and that one alone would be sufficient even against all.

Darent modo et consules et primores patrum operam ut, si minus omnes, aliquos tamen ex tribunis rei publicae ac senatui conciliarent. Praeceptis Appi moniti patres et universi comiter ac benigne tribunos appellare, et consulares ut cuique eorum privatim aliquid iuris adversus singulos erat, partim gratia, partim auctoritate obtinuere ut tribuniciae potestatis vires salubres vellent rei publicae esse, quattuorque tribunorum adversus unum moratorem publici commodi auxilio dilectum consules habent.

Only let both the consuls and the leading men of the senators give effort so that, if not all, yet at least some of the tribunes they might conciliate to the commonwealth and to the senate. Instructed by Appius’s precepts, the senators all in a body began to address the tribunes courteously and kindly; and the men of consular rank, since each of them had privately some influence (ius) with individuals, partly by favor, partly by authority, prevailed that they should wish the forces of the tribunician power to be salutary for the commonwealth; and, with the aid of four tribunes against one obstructionist of the public advantage, the consuls hold the levy.

Inde ad Veiens bellum profecti, quo undique ex Etruria auxilia convenerant, non tam Veientium gratia concitata quam quod in spem ventum erat discordia intestina dissolvi rem Romanam posse. Principesque in omnium Etruriae populorum conciliis fremebant aeternas opes esse Romanas nisi inter semet ipsi seditionibus saeviant; id unum venenum, eam labem civitatibus opulentis repertam ut magna imperia mortalia essent. Diu sustentatum id malum, partim patrum consiliis, partim patientia plebis, iam ad extrema venisse.

Thence they set out to the Veientine war, to which auxiliaries from every side out of Etruria had assembled, not so much stirred for the sake of the Veientes as because it had come into hope that the Roman commonwealth could be dissolved by intestine discord. And the chiefs were clamoring in the councils of all the peoples of Etruria that Roman resources were eternal, unless they themselves raged among themselves with seditions; that that was the one poison, that the bane discovered for opulent cities, so that great empires should be mortal. That evil, long sustained, partly by the counsels of the Fathers, partly by the patience of the plebs, had now come to the extremity.

Duas civitates ex una factas; suos cuique parti magistratus, suas leges esse. Primum in dilectibus saevire solitos, eosdem in bello tamen paruisse ducibus. Qualicumque urbis statu, manente disciplina militari sisti potuisse; iam non parendi magistratibus morem in castra quoque Romanum militem sequi.

Two states made out of one; to each party its own magistrates, its own laws. At first they were wont to rage in the levies, yet these same men in war nevertheless obeyed their commanders. Whatever the condition of the city, with military discipline remaining, it could be held fast; now the custom of not obeying the magistrates follows the Roman soldier even into the camp.

Proximo bello in ipsa acie, in ipso certamine, consensu exercitus traditam ultro victoriam victis Aequis, signa deserta, imperatorem in acie relictum, iniussu in castra reditum. Profecto si instetur, suo milite vinci Romam posse. Nihil aliud opus esse quam indici ostendique bellum; cetera sua sponte fata et deos gesturos.

In the last war, in the battle line itself, in the very contest, by the consensus of the army victory was voluntarily handed over to the vanquished Aequians; the standards were abandoned, the commander was left in the line of battle, there was a return to camp without orders. Surely, if pressed, Rome can be conquered by her own soldiery. There is need of nothing else than that war be declared and displayed; the rest the Fates and the gods will carry of their own accord.

Hae spes Etruscos armaverant, multis in vicem casibus victos victoresque.

These hopes had armed the Etruscans, in many vicissitudes by turns conquered and conquerors.

[45] Consules quoque Romani nihil praeterea aliud quam suas vires, sua arma horrebant; memoria pessimi proximo bello exempli terrebat ne rem committerent eo ubi duae simul acies timendae essent. Itaque castris se tenebant, tam ancipiti periculo aversi: diem tempusque forsitan ipsum leniturum iras sanitatemque animis allaturum. Veiens hostis Etruscique eo magis praepropere agere; lacessere ad pugnam primo obequitando castris provocandoque, postremo ut nihil movebant, qua consules ipsos, qua exercitum increpando: simulationem intestinae discordiae remedium timoris inventum, et consules magis non confidere quam non credere suis militibus; novum seditionis genus, silentium otiumque inter armatos.

[45] The Roman consuls too dreaded nothing besides their own forces, their own arms; the memory of the very worst example in the most recent war was frightening them not to commit the matter there where two battle-lines at once were to be feared. Therefore they kept to the camp, turned away from so two-headed a danger: day and time perhaps themselves would soften the angers and bring soundness to minds. The Veientine enemy and the Etruscans for that very reason were acting the more precipitately; they harassed to battle at first by riding before the camp and by provoking, finally, since they moved nothing, by upbraiding now the consuls themselves, now the army: that a simulation of intestine discord had been devised as a remedy for fear, and that the consuls were showing distrust rather than unbelief toward their soldiers; a new kind of sedition—silence and idleness among armed men.

Ad haec in novitatem generis originisque qua falsa, qua vera iacere. Haec cum sub ipso vallo portisque streperent, haud aegre consules pati; at imperitae multitudini nunc indignatio, nunc pudor pectora versare et ab intestinis avertere malis; nolle inultos hostes, nolle successum non patribus, non consulibus; externa et domestica odia certare in animis. Tandem superant externa; adeo superbe insolenterque hostis eludebat.

To these they added, about the novelty of the stock and of the origin, both falsehoods and truths to fling. While these things were clamoring right under the rampart itself and the gates, the consuls bore it without difficulty; but in the inexpert multitude now indignation, now shame kept turning their hearts and diverting them from intestine evils: they did not wish the enemies unavenged, they did not wish success for the Fathers nor for the consuls; external and domestic hatreds contended in their minds. At length the external prevail; so arrogantly and insolently did the enemy mock.

Frequentes in praetorium conveniunt; poscunt pugnam, postulant ut signum detur. Consules velut deliberabundi capita conferunt, diu conloquuntur. Pugnare cupiebant, sed retro revocanda et abdenda cupiditas erat, ut adversando remorandoque incitato semel militi adderent impetum.

They gather in crowds in the praetorium; they demand battle, they request that the signal be given. The consuls, as if deliberating, put their heads together and talk for a long time. They were eager to fight, but the desire had to be called back and concealed, so that by opposing and delaying they might add impetus to the soldier once incited.

Redditur responsum immaturam rem agi; nondum tempus pugnae esse; castris se tenerent. Edicunt inde ut abstineant pugna; si quis iniussu pugnaverit, ut in hostem animadversuros. Ita dimissis, quo minus consules velle credunt, crescit ardor pugnandi.

A reply is returned that the matter is immature; that it is not yet the time for battle; they should keep to the camp. Thence they issue an edict to abstain from battle; if anyone fights without orders, they will proceed against him as against an enemy. Thus, once they are dismissed, the less they believe the consuls to wish it, the ardor for fighting grows.

Accendunt insuper hostes ferocius multo, ut statuisse non pugnare consules cognitum est: quippe impune se insultaturos; non credi militi arma; rem ad ultimum seditionis erupturam, finemque venisse Romano imperio. His freti occursant portis, ingerunt probra; aegre abstinent quin castra oppugnent. Enimvero non ultra contumeliam pati Romanus posse; totis castris undique ad consules curritur; non iam sensim, ut ante, per centurionum principes postulant, sed passim omnes clamoribus agunt.

They inflame the enemies, moreover, much more ferociously, when it was learned that the consuls had resolved not to fight: for they would insult with impunity; arms were not being entrusted to the soldiery; the matter would erupt to the ultimate point of sedition, and an end had come to the Roman empire. Relying on these things they run up to the gates, pour in reproaches; they scarcely refrain from assailing the camp. Indeed, the Roman can no longer endure contumely; from the whole camp on every side there is a running to the consuls; no longer little by little, as before, do they make demands through the leaders of the centurions, but everywhere all press the matter with shouts.

Matura res erat; tergiversantur tamen. Fabius deinde ad crescentem tumultum iam metu seditionis collega concedente, cum silentium classico fecisset: "Ego istos, Cn. Manli, posse vincere scio: velle ne scirem, ipsi fecerunt. Itaque certum est non dare signum nisi victores se redituros ex hac pugna iurant.

The matter was mature; nevertheless they tergiversate. Then Fabius, at the increasing tumult—now with fear of sedition, his colleague yielding—when he had made silence with the trumpet: "Gnaeus Manlius, I know that these men are able to conquer; as to whether they are willing, they themselves have made me not know. Therefore it is certain that I will not give the signal unless they swear that they will return from this battle as victors.

Consulem Romanum miles semel in acie fefellit: deos nunquam fallet." Centurio erat M. Flavoleius, inter primores pugnae flagitator. "Victor" inquit, "M. Fabi, revertar ex acie"; si fallat, Iovem patrem Gradivumque Martem aliosque iratos invocat deos. Idem deinceps omnis exercitus in se quisque iurat.

"The Roman consul a soldier has deceived once on the battle-line; the gods he will never deceive." There was a centurion, M. Flavoleius, an urger among the foremost of the fight. "Victorious," he says, "M. Fabius, I shall return from the battle-line"; if he should be false, he invokes Jupiter the Father and Mars Gradivus and the other gods as wrathful. Thereupon in the same way the whole army, each man for himself, swears.

Iuratis datur signum; arma capiunt; eunt in pugnam irarum speique pleni. Nunc iubent Etruscos probra iacere, nunc armati sibi quisque lingua promptum hostem offerri. Omnium illo die, qua plebis, qua patrum, eximia virtus fuit; Fabium nomen maxime enituit; multis civilibus certaminibus infensos plebis animos illa pugna sibi reconciliare statuunt.

Once the oaths had been sworn, the signal is given; they seize arms; they go into battle full of wrath and hope. Now they bid the Etruscans to hurl reproaches, now, armed, each man has by the tongue a ready enemy offered to himself. On that day the valor of all, both of the Plebeians and of the Patricians, was exceptional; the name of Fabius shone out most; they resolve by that battle to reconcile to themselves the feelings of the plebs, made hostile by many civil contests.

[46] Instruitur acies, nec Veiens hostis Etruscaeque legiones detractant. Prope certa spes erat non magis secum pugnaturos quam cum Aequis; maius quoque aliquod in tam inritatis animis et occasione ancipiti haud desperandum esse facinus. Res aliter longe evenit; nam non alio ante bello infestior Romanus—adeo hinc contumeliis hostes, hinc consules mora exacerbaverant—proelium iniit.

[46] The battle-line is drawn up, nor do the Veientine foe and the Etruscan legions draw back. There was an almost certain hope that they would fight with them no more than with the Aequians; and that, with spirits so inflamed and the opportunity double‑edged, some greater exploit was not to be despaired of. The matter turned out far otherwise; for in no earlier war had the Romans entered battle more embittered—so much had the enemies by contumelies on the one hand, and the consuls by delay on the other, exasperated them—they joined battle.

Vix explicandi ordinis spatium Etruscis fuit, cum pilis inter primam trepidationem abiectis temere magis quam emissis, pugna iam in manus, iam ad gladios, ubi Mars est atrocissimus, venerat. Inter primores genus Fabium insigne spectaculo exemploque civibus erat. Ex his Q. Fabium—tertio hic anno ante consul fuerat—principem in confertos Veientes euntem ferox viribus et armorum arte Tuscus, incautum inter multas versantem hostium manus, gladio per pectus transfigit; telo extracto praeceps Fabius in volnus abiit.

Scarcely had the Etruscans space to unfold their order of battle, when, their pila in the first trepidation thrown down rather rashly than cast, the fight had now come to hand-to-hand, now to swords, where Mars is most atrocious. Among the foremost, the Fabian clan was conspicuous, a spectacle and an example to the citizens. Of these, Q. Fabius—he had been consul three years before—while, as leader, he was going in upon the crowded Veientes, a Tuscan, fierce in strength and in the art of arms, pierced him through the breast with his sword, catching him incautious as he was wheeling amid many bands of the enemy; the weapon withdrawn, Fabius fell headlong into the wound.

Sensit utraque acies unius viri casum, cedebatque inde Romanus cum M. Fabius consul transiluit iacentis corpus obiectaque parma, "hoc iurastis" inquit, "milites, fugientes vos in castra redituros? Adeo ignavissimos hostes magis timetis quam Iovem Martemque per quos iurastis? At ego iniuratus aut victor revertar aut prope te hic, Q. Fabi, dimicans cadam." Consuli tum Caeso Fabius, prioris anni consul: "Verbisne istis, frater, ut pugnent, te impetraturum credis?

Both battle-lines perceived the fall of the one man, and the Roman side was yielding therefrom, when M. Fabius the consul leapt over the body of the fallen, and with his parma set before him, said: "Is this what you swore, soldiers, that you would return to camp in flight? Do you so far fear the most cowardly enemies more than Jupiter and Mars by whom you swore? But I, unsworn, will either return as victor, or near you here, Q. Fabi, fighting I shall fall." Then to the consul Caeso Fabius, consul of the previous year: "Do you believe, brother, that with those words you will obtain that they fight?"

Di impetrabunt per quos iuravere; et nos, ut decet proceres, ut Fabio nomine est dignum, pugnando potius quam adhortando accendamus militum animos." Sic in primum infensis hastis provolant duo Fabii, totamque moverunt secum aciem.

"The gods by whom they swore will grant it; and we, as befits leaders, as is worthy of the Fabian name, let us inflame the soldiers’ spirits by fighting rather than by exhorting." Thus into the front, with spears leveled, the two Fabii rush forth, and they moved the whole battle line with them.

[47] Proelio ex parte una restituto, nihilo segnius in cornu altero Cn. Manlius consul pugnam ciebat, ubi prope similis fortuna est versata. Nam ut altero in cornu Q. Fabium, sic in hoc ipsum consulem Manlium iam velut fusos agentem hostes et impigre milites secuti sunt et, ut ille gravi volnere ictus ex acie cessit, interfectum rati gradum rettulere; cessissentque loco, ni consul alter cum aliquot turmis equitum in eam partem citato equo advectus, vivere clamitans collegam, se victorem fuso altero cornu adesse, rem inclinatam sustinuisset. Manlius quoque ad restituendam aciem se ipse coram offert.

[47] With the battle restored on one side, by no means less briskly in the other wing the consul Gnaeus Manlius was stirring up the fight, where a nearly similar fortune was turning. For as in the other wing they had followed Quintus Fabius, so in this they followed this very consul Manlius, now driving the enemies as if already routed, and the soldiers followed him energetically; and when he, struck by a grievous wound, withdrew from the battle line, thinking him slain they fell back; and they would have yielded the ground, had not the other consul, having ridden up at speed with several squadrons of cavalry into that quarter, shouting that his colleague was alive, that he himself, with the other wing routed, was present as victor, sustained the wavering situation. Manlius also presents himself in person for the restoring of the line.

Duorum consulum cognita ora accendunt militum animos. Simul et vanior iam erat hostium acies, dum abundante multitudine freti, subtracta subsidia mittunt ad castra oppugnanda. In quae haud magno certamine impetu facto cum praedae magis quam pugnae memores tererent tempus, triarii Romani qui primam inruptionem sustinere non potuerant, missis ad consules nuntiis quo loco res essent, conglobati ad praetorium redeunt et sua sponte ipsi proelium renovant.

The recognized faces of the two consuls inflame the soldiers’ spirits. At the same time the enemy battle line was now more wavering, since, relying on their abundant multitude, they, the reserves having been withdrawn, send them to storm the camp. Into which, the assault having been made with no great struggle, when, mindful more of plunder than of fighting, they were frittering away time, the Roman triarii, who had not been able to withstand the first inrush, messengers having been sent to the consuls as to the state of affairs, massed together return to the praetorium and of their own accord themselves renew the battle.

Et Manlius consul revectus in castra, ad omnes portas milite opposito hostibus viam clauserat. Ea desperatio Tuscis rabiem magis quam audaciam accendit. Nam cum incursantes quacumque exitum ostenderet spes vano aliquotiens impetu issent, globus iuvenum unus in ipsum consulem insignem armis invadit.

And the consul Manlius, carried back into the camp, with soldiery set in opposition at all the gates had closed the way to the enemies. That desperation inflamed in the Tuscans rage rather than audacity. For when, making incursions wherever hope showed an exit, they had gone forth with a vain impetus several times, one band of youths assails the consul himself, conspicuous in his arms.

Prima excepta a circumstantibus tela; sustineri deinde vis nequit; consul mortifero volnere ictus cadit, fusique circa omnes. Tuscis crescit audacia; Romanos terror per tota castra trepidos agit, et ad extrema ventum foret ni legati rapto consulis corpore patefecissent una porta hostibus viam. Ea erumpunt; consternatoque agmine abeuntes in victorem alterum incidunt consulem; ibi iterum caesi fusique passim.

The first missiles were intercepted by those standing around; then the force could not be withstood; the consul, struck by a death-bringing wound, falls, and all around were routed. For the Tuscans audacity grows; terror drives the Romans, panic-stricken, through the whole camp, and it would have come to the last extremities, had not the legates, with the consul’s body snatched up, opened by one gate a way for the enemies. Through it they burst out; and, with their column in consternation as they were withdrawing, they fell upon the other consul, the victor; there again they were cut down and scattered everywhere.

Victoria egregia parta, tristis tamen duobus tam claris funeribus. Itaque consul decernente senatu triumphum, si exercitus sine imperatore triumphare possit, pro eximia eo bello opera facile passurum respondit; se familia funesta Q. Fabi fratris morte, re publica ex parte orba, consule altero amisso, publico privatoque deformem luctu lauream non accepturum. Omni acto triumpho depositus triumphus clarior fuit; adeo spreta in tempore gloria interdum cumulatior rediit.

A distinguished victory was won, yet sad with two so illustrious funerals. Therefore, when the senate decreed a triumph for the consul, he replied that, if the army could triumph without a commander, on account of the exceptional service in that war he would readily allow it; that he, his household made funereal by the death of his brother Q. Fabius, and the republic in part orphaned, since the other consul had been lost, would not accept the laurel, disfigured by public and private mourning. Though every title to a triumph had been achieved, the triumph laid down was the more renowned; to such a degree glory, spurned in due season, sometimes returned more heaped up.

Funera deinde duo deinceps collegae fratrisque ducit, idem in utroque laudator, cum concedendo illis suas laudes ipse maximam partem earum ferret. Neque immemor eius quod initio consulatus imbiberat, reconciliandi animos plebis, saucios milites curandos dividit patribus. Fabiis plurimi dati, nec alibi maiore cura habiti.

Then he conducts two funerals in succession, of his colleague and of his brother, himself the same eulogist in each, since by conceding to them his own praises he himself was carrying off the greatest share of them. Nor was he unmindful of that which at the beginning of his consulship he had imbibed—reconciling the minds of the plebs—he parcels out the wounded soldiers to the patres to be cared for. To the Fabii very many were assigned, and nowhere were they tended with greater solicitude.

Inde populares iam esse Fabii, nec hoc ulla nisi salubri rei publicae arte.

Thence the Fabii were now popular, and this by no art save a salubrious one for the republic.

[48] Igitur non patrum magis quam plebis studiis K. Fabius cum T. Verginio consul factus neque belli neque dilectus neque ullam aliam priorem curam agere quam ut iam aliqua ex parte incohata concordiae spe, primo quoque tempore cum patribus coalescerent animi plebis. Itaque principio anni censuit priusquam quisquam agrariae legis auctor tribunus exsisteret, occuparent patres ipsi suum munus facere; captivum agrum plebi quam maxime aequaliter darent; verum esse habere eos quorum sanguine ac sudore partus sit. Aspernati patres sunt; questi quoque quidam nimia gloria luxuriare et evanescere vividum quondam illud Caesonis ingenium.

[48] Therefore, by the zeal not more of the patres than of the plebs, K. Fabius, together with T. Verginius, having been made consul, attended neither to war nor to the levy nor to any other prior care than that, with some hope of concord already in part initiated, at the earliest possible time the minds of the plebs might coalesce with the patres. And so at the beginning of the year he judged that, before any tribune should emerge as author of an agrarian law, the patres themselves should anticipate by doing their own munus; that they should give the captured land to the plebs as equally as possible; that it is right that those have it by whose blood and sweat it has been brought forth. The patres spurned it; some even complained that, in excessive glory, that once vivid genius of Caeso was luxuriating and evaporating.

Nullae deinde urbanae factiones fuere; vexabantur incursionibus Aequorum Latini. Eo cum exercitu Caeso missus in ipsorum Aequorum agrum depopulandum transit. Aequi se in oppida receperunt murisque se tenebant; eo nulla pugna memorabilis fuit.

Afterwards there were no urban factions; the Latins were vexed by incursions of the Aequi. Thither with the army Caeso was sent, and he proceeds into the very territory of the Aequi to lay it waste. The Aequi withdrew into their towns and held themselves by the walls; there no memorable battle took place.

At a Veiente hoste clades accepta temeritate alterius consulis, actumque de exercitu foret, ni K. Fabius in tempore subsidio venisset. Ex eo tempore neque pax neque bellum cum Veientibus fuit; res proxime formam latrocinii venerat. Legionibus Romanis cedebant in urbem; ubi abductas senserant legiones, agros incursabant, bellum quiete, quietem bello in vicem eludentes.

But from the Veientine enemy a calamity was received through the temerity of the other consul, and it would have been all over with the army, had not K. Fabius come in time to succor. From that time there was neither peace nor war with the Veientes; the situation had come nearest to the form of latrociny. Before the Roman legions they would withdraw into the city; when they sensed the legions had been led away, they made incursions upon the fields, in turn eluding war with quiet and quiet with war.

Ita neque omitti tota res nec perfici poterat; et alia bella aut praesentia instabant, ut ab Aequis Volscisque, non diutius quam recens dolor proximae cladis transiret quiescentibus, aut mox moturos esse apparebat Sabinos semper infestos Etruriamque omnem. Sed Veiens hostis, adsiduus magis quam gravis, contumeliis saepius quam periculo animos agitabat, quod nullo tempore neglegi poterat aut averti alio sinebat. Tum Fabia gens senatum adiit.

Thus neither could the whole affair be omitted nor brought to completion; and other wars were pressing, either present—such as from the Aequi and Volsci, who would keep quiet no longer than until the fresh pain of the most recent calamity should pass—or it was apparent that the Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria, would soon be set in motion. But the Veientine foe, more assiduous than grievous, stirred spirits with contumelies more often than with peril, which at no time could be neglected or allowed to be turned aside to something else. Then the Fabian gens approached the senate.

Consul pro gente loquitur: "Adsiduo magis quam magno praesidio, ut scitis, patres conscripti, bellum Veiens eget. Vos alia bella curate, Fabios hostes Veientibus date. Auctores sumus tutam ibi maiestatem Romani nominis fore.

The consul speaks on behalf of the gens: "By a continual rather than a great garrison, as you know, Conscript Fathers, the Veientine war has need. You attend to the other wars; give the Fabii as foes to the Veientes. We are guarantors that there the majesty of the Roman name will be secure.

Nostrum id nobis velut familiare bellum privato sumptu gerere in animo est; res publica et milite illic et pecunia vacet." Gratiae ingentes actae. Consul e curia egressus comitante Fabiorum agmine, qui in vestibulo curiae senatus consultum exspectantes steterant, domum redit. Iussi armati postero die ad limen consulis adesse; domos inde discedunt.

“It is our intention to wage that, as it were, familial war of ours at private expense; let the Republic there be free both of troops and of money.” Great thanks were given. The consul, having gone out from the curia, with a column of the Fabii accompanying—who had stood in the vestibule of the curia awaiting the senatorial decree—returns home. They were ordered, armed, to be present on the next day at the consul’s threshold; from there they depart to their homes.

[49] Manat tota urbe rumor; Fabios ad caelum laudibus ferunt: familiam unam subisse civitatis onus; Veiens bellum in privatam curam, in privata arma versum. Si sint duae roboris eiusdem in urbe gentes, deposcant haec Volscos sibi, illa Aequos: populo Romano tranquillam pacem agente omnes finitimos subigi populos posse. Fabii postera die arma capiunt; quo iussi erant conveniunt.

[49] A rumor flows through the whole city; they bear the Fabii to the sky with praises: that a single family has undertaken the burden of the commonwealth; that the Veientine war has been turned into private care, into private arms. If there were in the city two clans of the same robustness, let this one demand the Volsci for itself, that one the Aequi: with the Roman people conducting tranquil peace, all neighboring peoples could be subdued. On the following day the Fabii take up arms; they assemble where they had been ordered.

Consul paludatus egrediens in vestibulo gentem omnem suam instructo agmine videt; acceptus in medium signa ferri iubet. Nunquam exercitus neque minor numero neque clarior fama et admiratione hominum per urbem incessit. Sex et trecenti milites, omnes patricii, omnes unius gentis, quorum neminem ducem sperneres, egregius quibuslibet temporibus senatus, ibant, unius familiae viribus Veienti populo pestem minitantes.

The consul, paludate, going out, sees in the vestibule his whole clan with the column drawn up; received into their midst, he orders the standards to be borne. Never did an army march through the city either smaller in number or more illustrious in fame and in the admiration of men. Three hundred and six soldiers, all patricians, all of one gens, of none of whom would you disdain as a leader—an excellent senate for any times—were going, threatening the Veientine people with ruin by the forces of a single family.

Sequebatur turba propria alia cognatorum sodaliumque, nihil medium, nec spem nec curam, sed immensa omnia volventium animo, alia publica sollicitudine excitata, favore et admiratione stupens. Ire fortes, ire felices iubent, inceptis eventus pares reddere; consulatus inde ac triumphos, omnia praemia ab se, omnes honores sperare. Praetereuntibus Capitolium arcemque et alia templa, quidquid deorum oculis, quidquid animo occurrit, precantur ut illud agmen faustum atque felix mittant, sospites brevi in patriam ad parentes restituant.

There followed their own crowd, some of kinsmen and sodales, with nothing in the middle—neither hope nor care—but revolving all things as immense in mind; another, roused by public solicitude, stood amazed with favor and admiration. They bid them go brave, go fortunate, to render outcomes equal to their undertakings; from there to hope for consulships and triumphs, all prizes from themselves, all honors. As they pass by the Capitol and the citadel and the other temples, whatever of the gods meets their eyes, whatever meets their mind, they pray that they may send that marching column auspicious and fortunate, and soon restore them safe to the fatherland, to their parents.

In cassum missae preces. Infelici via, dextro iano portae Carmentalis, profecti ad Cremeram flumen perveniunt. Is opportunus visus locus communiendo praesidio.

The prayers sent were in vain. By an ill‑omened way, through the right Janus of the Carmental Gate, having set out they arrive at the river Cremera. That place seemed opportune for establishing a garrison.

L. Aemilius inde et C. Servilius consules facti. Et donec nihil aliud quam in populationibus res fuit, non ad praesidium modo tutandum Fabii satis erant, sed tota regione qua Tuscus ager Romano adiacet, sua tuta omnia, infesta hostium, vagantes per utrumque finem, fecere. Intervallum deinde haud magnum populationibus fuit, dum et Veientes accito ex Etruria exercitu praesidium Cremerae oppugnant, et Romanae legiones ab L. Aemilio consule adductae cominus cum Etruscis dimicant acie; quamquam vix dirigendi aciem spatium Veientibus fuit; adeo inter primam trepidationem dum post signa ordines introeunt subsidiaque locant, invecta subito ab latere Romana equitum ala non pugnae modo incipiendae sed consistendi ademit locum.

Then Lucius Aemilius and Gaius Servilius were made consuls. And so long as the matter was nothing other than in depredations, not only were the Fabii sufficient to guard the garrison, but, ranging through the whole region where the Tuscan land adjoins the Roman, they made all their own things secure, the enemies’ things infested, as they roamed along either frontier. Then the interval for raiding was not great, while both the Veientes, having called up an army out of Etruria, attack the garrison of the Cremera, and the Roman legions, brought in by the consul Lucius Aemilius, fight hand-to-hand with the Etruscans in battle-line; although there was scarcely room for the Veientes to draw up their line of battle; so much so that, amid the first trepidation, while they pass their ranks in behind the standards and place the reserves, a Roman wing of cavalry, suddenly borne in from the flank, deprived them not only of a place for beginning the fight but even for taking a stand.

Ita fusi retro ad saxa Rubra—ibi castra habebant—, pacem supplices petunt. Cuius impetratae, ab insita animis levitate, ante deductum Cremera Romanum praesidium paenituit.

Thus, routed back to the Red Rocks—they had their camp there—, they, as suppliants, sought peace. When this had been obtained, because of the inborn levity in their minds, they repented before the Roman garrison was led down to the Cremera.

[50] Rursus cum Fabiis erat Veienti populo, sine ullo maioris belli apparatu, certamen; nec erant incursiones modo in agros aut subiti impetus in incursantes, sed aliquotiens aequo campo conlatisque signis certatum, gensque una populi Romani saepe ex opulentissima, ut tum res erant, Etrusca civitate victoriam tulit. Id primo acerbum indignumque Veientibus est visum; inde consilium ex re natum insidiis ferocem hostem captandi; gaudere etiam multo successu Fabiis audaciam crescere. Itaque et pecora praedantibus aliquotiens, velut casu incidissent, obviam acta, et agrestium fuga vasti relicti agri, et subsidia armatorum ad arcendas populationes missa saepius simulato quam vero pavore refugerunt.

[50] Again the Veientine people had a contest with the Fabii, without any apparatus of a greater war; nor were there only incursions into the fields or sudden impetuses against the incursors, but several times it was fought on a level plain, with standards conjoined, and one clan of the Roman people often carried off victory from the most opulent, as matters then were, Etruscan city. This at first seemed bitter and unworthy to the Veientines; then a plan, born from the situation, to catch by ambushes the ferocious enemy; they even rejoiced that, by much success, the audacity of the Fabii was growing. And so both herds were driven to meet the marauders several times, as though they had fallen in with them by chance, and by the flight of the countryfolk the fields were left waste, and the reserves of armed men, sent to ward off the depredations, more often fled in simulated than in true fear.

Iamque Fabii adeo contempserant hostem ut sua invicta arma neque loco neque tempore ullo crederent sustineri posse. Haec spes provexit ut ad conspecta procul a Cremera magno campi intervallo pecora, quamquam rara hostium apparebant arma, decurrerent. Et cum improvidi effuso cursu insidias circa ipsum iter locatas superassent palatique passim vaga, ut fit pavore iniecto, raperent pecora, subito ex insidiis consurgitur; et adversi et undique hostes erant.

By now the Fabii had so contemned the enemy that they believed their unconquered arms could be withstood neither in any place nor at any time. This hope carried them forward so that, at the sight of cattle far from the Cremera, with a great interval of field between, although the arms of the enemy appeared few, they ran down. And when, unwary, in a headlong course, they had overpassed the ambushes laid around the road itself and, scattered and roaming everywhere, as happens when panic has been injected, were snatching the cattle, suddenly men rose from ambush; and there were enemies both in front and on every side.

Primo clamor circumlatus exterruit, dein tela ab omni parte accidebant; coeuntibusque Etruscis, iam continenti agmine armatorum saepti, quo magis se hostis inferebat, cogebantur breviore spatio et ipsi orbem colligere, quae res et paucitatem eorum insignem et multitudinem Etruscorum, multiplicatis in arto ordinibus, faciebat. Tum omissa pugna, quam in omnes partes parem intenderant, in unum locum se omnes inclinant; eo nisi corporibus armisque rupere cuneo viam. Duxit via in editum leniter collem.

At first the clamor carried round terrified them; then missiles were falling from every side; and as the Etruscans were coming together, now, enclosed by a continuous column of armed men, the more the enemy pressed in, the more they themselves, in a shorter space, were compelled to gather into a circle—a situation which, with ranks multiplied in the narrow, made both their remarkable paucity and the Etruscans’ multitude conspicuous. Then, abandoning the battle which they had directed equally on all sides, they all incline into one place; there they broke a way only by a wedge, with bodies and arms. The way led onto a gently raised hill.

Inde primo restitere; mox, ut respirandi superior locus spatium dedit recipiendique a pavore tanto animum, pepulere etiam subeuntes, vincebatque auxilio loci paucitas, ni iugo circummissus Veiens in verticem collis evasisset. Ita superior rursus hostis factus. Fabii caesi ad unum omnes praesidiumque expugnatum.

Thence at first they stood fast; soon, as the higher ground gave space for breathing and for recovering their spirit from so great a terror, they even drove back those advancing, and their paucity, with the aid of the position, was prevailing—had not a Veientine, sent around along the ridge, gained the summit of the hill. Thus the enemy was again made superior. The Fabii were cut down to a man, all of them, and the stronghold was taken by storm.

Trecentos sex perisse satis convenit, unum prope puberem aetate relictum, stirpem genti Fabiae dubiisque rebus populi Romani saepe domi bellique vel maximum futurum auxilium.

It is sufficiently agreed that 306 perished, one, nearly of age, being left—the stock for the Fabian gens—and in the doubtful affairs of the Roman people, both at home and in war, he would often be even the greatest help.

[51] Cum haec accepta clades est, iam C. Horatius et T. Menenius consules erant. Menenius adversus Tuscos victoria elatos confestim missus. Tum quoque male pugnatum est, et Ianiculum hostes occupavere; obsessaque urbs foret, super bellum annona premente—transierant enim Etrusci Tiberim—, ni Horatius consul ex Volscis esset revocatus.

[51] When this disaster had been sustained, now C. Horatius and T. Menenius were consuls. Menenius was immediately sent against the Etruscans, elated by victory. Then too the fighting went badly, and the enemy occupied the Janiculum; and the city would have been besieged, with the grain-supply pressing in addition to the war—for the Etruscans had crossed the Tiber—had not the consul Horatius been recalled from the Volsci.

Adeoque id bellum ipsis institit moenibus, ut primo pugnatum ad Spei sit aequo Marte, iterum ad portam Collinam. Ibi quamquam parvo momento superior Romana res fuit, meliorem tamen militem, recepto pristino animo, in futura proelia id certamen fecit.

And to such a degree did that war press upon the very walls, that at first fighting took place at the Temple of Hope with even Mars (on equal terms), and again at the Colline Gate. There, although the Roman cause was superior by a small moment, nevertheless that engagement, with their pristine spirit recovered, made the soldiery better for future battles.

A. Verginius et Sp. Servilius consules fiunt. Post acceptam proxima pugna cladem Veientes abstinuere acie; populationes erant, et velut ab arce Ianiculo passim in Romanum agrum impetus dabant; non usquam pecora tuta, non agrestes erant. Capti deinde eadem arte sunt qua ceperant Fabios.

A. Verginius and Sp. Servilius become consuls. After the defeat received in the most recent battle, the Veientines abstained from the battle-line; there were depredations, and, as if from a citadel, from the Janiculum they were delivering assaults everywhere into the Roman countryside; nowhere were the herds safe, nor the rustics. Then they were captured by the same artifice by which they had captured the Fabii.

Secuti dedita opera passim ad inlecebras propulsa pecora praecipitavere in insidias; quo plures erant, maior caedes fuit. Ex hac clade atrox ira maioris cladis causa atque initium fuit. Traiecto enim nocte Tiberi, castra Servili consulis adorti sunt oppugnare.

Following, they, with deliberate effort, everywhere the herds driven as lures, hurled themselves headlong into the ambushes; the more numerous they were, the greater the slaughter was. From this disaster, a fierce ire was the cause and the beginning of a greater disaster. For, the Tiber having been crossed by night, they set about to assault the camp of the consul Servilius.

Inde fusi magna caede in Ianiculum se aegre recepere. Confestim consul et ipse transit Tiberim, castra sub Ianiculo communit. Postero die luce orta nonnihil et hesterna felicitate pugnae ferox, magis tamen quod inopia frumenti quamvis in praecipitia, dum celeriora essent, agebat consilia, temere adverso Ianiculo ad castra hostium aciem erexit, foediusque inde pulsus quam pridie pepulerat, interventu collegae ipse exercitusque est servatus.

Thence, routed with great slaughter, they with difficulty withdrew into the Janiculum. Immediately the consul also himself crosses the Tiber, and fortifies a camp beneath the Janiculum. On the next day, with the light arisen, somewhat fierce from yesterday’s felicity of battle, but more, in truth, because the scarcity of grain was driving his counsels—even into precipices, so long as they were swifter—rashly, with the Janiculum opposite, he set up his battle line toward the enemy’s camp; and, driven thence more foully than he had driven them the day before, by the intervention of his colleague he himself and the army were saved.

Inter duas acies Etrusci, cum in vicem his atque illis terga darent, occidione occisi. Ita oppressum temeritate felici Veiens bellum.

Between the two battle-lines the Etruscans, as they in turn were giving their backs now to these and now to those, were slain in wholesale slaughter. Thus the Veientine war was crushed by fortunate temerity.

[52] Urbi cum pace laxior etiam annona rediit, et advecto ex Campania frumento, et postquam timor sibi cuique futurae inopiae abiit, eo quod abditum fuerat prolato. Ex copia deinde otioque lascivire rursus animi et pristina mala, postquam foris deerant, domi quaerere. Tribuni plebem agitare suo veneno, agraria lege; in resistentes incitare patres, nec in universos modo sed in singulos.

[52] For the city, with peace, even the grain‑supply returned more liberal, both with grain conveyed from Campania, and, after the fear in each man of future scarcity had departed, because what had been hidden was brought out. From abundance then and leisure, spirits again grew wanton and began to seek at home the pristine ills, after they were lacking abroad. The tribunes stirred the plebs with their own poison, the agrarian law; they incited [them] against the resisting patres, not only against them as a whole but against individuals.

Q. Considius et T. Genucius, auctores agrariae legis, T. Menenio diem dicunt. Invidiae erat amissum Cremerae praesidium, cum haud procul inde stativa consul habuisset; ea oppressit, cum et patres haud minus quam pro Coriolano adnisi essent et patris Agrippae favor hauddum exolevisset. In multa temperarunt tribuni; cum capitis anquisissent, duorum milium aeris damnato multam dixerunt.

Q. Considius and T. Genucius, authors of the agrarian law, name a day for T. Menenius. The loss of the garrison at the Cremera was a matter of odium, since the consul had had his standing camp not far from there; he crushed this, since the patres had striven no less than in the case of Coriolanus, and the favor for his father Agrippa had not yet withered. The tribunes tempered it to a multa; though they had investigated it as a capital charge, with him condemned they declared a fine of 2,000 asses (of bronze).

Ea in caput vertit; negant tulisse ignominiam aegritudinemque; inde morbo absumptum esse.

He turned that into a capital penalty; they say he did not bear the ignominy and grief; and that from that he was consumed by disease.

Alius deinde reus, Sp. Servilius, ut consulatu abiit, C. Nautio et P. Valerio consulibus, initio statim anni ab L. Caedicio et T. Statio tribunis die dicta, non ut Menenius, precibus suis aut patrum sed cum multa fiducia innocentiae gratiaeque tribunicios impetus tulit. Et huic proelium cum Tuscis ad Ianiculum erat crimini. Sed fervidi animi vir ut in publico periculo ante, sic tum in suo, non tribunos modo sed plebem oratione feroci refutando exprobrandoque T. Meneni damnationem mortemque, cuius patris munere restituta quondam plebs eos ipsos quibus tum saeviret magistratus, eas leges haberet, periculum audacia discussit.

Another defendant then, Sp. Servilius, as he went out of his consulship, under the consulship of C. Nautius and P. Valerius, at the very beginning of the year, had a day set for him by the tribunes L. Caedicius and T. Statius; not, like Menenius, did he meet the tribunician assaults with his own prayers or those of the patres, but with much confidence in his innocence and in favor. And to this man also the battle with the Tuscans at the Janiculum was a charge. But a man of fervid spirit—as in public peril before, so then in his own—not only the tribunes but the plebs he faced down with a fierce speech, refuting and reproaching the condemnation and death of T. Menenius, thanks to whose father’s service the plebs had once been restored, and had those very magistrates against whom they were then raging, and those laws; by boldness he shattered the danger.

Iuuit et Verginius collega testis productus, participando laudes; magis tamen Menenianum—adeo mutaverant animum— profuit iudicium.

Verginius too, his colleague, brought forward as a witness, helped by participating in the praises; yet more, however, the Menenian judgment proved of benefit—so much had they changed their mind—.

[53] Certamina domi finita: Veiens bellum exortum, quibus Sabini arma coniunxerant. P. Valerius consul accitis Latinorum Hernicorumque auxiliis cum exercitu Veios missus castra Sabina, quae pro moenibus sociorum locata erant, confestim adgreditur; tantamque trepidationem iniecit ut dum dispersi alii alia manipulatim excurrunt ad arcendam hostium vim, ea porta cui signa primum intulerat caperetur. Intra vallum deinde caedes magis quam proelium esse.

[53] The domestic contests were finished: a Veientine war arose, to which the Sabines had joined their arms. Publius Valerius, the consul, after calling in the auxiliaries of the Latins and Hernicans, having been sent with an army to Veii, immediately attacks the Sabine camp, which had been placed before the walls of the allies; and he threw them into such trepidation that, while they, scattered, rush out, maniple by maniple, in different directions to ward off the force of the enemy, that gate at which he had first borne the standards was captured. Within the rampart then there was slaughter rather than battle.

Tumultus e castris et in urbem penetrat; tamquam Veiis captis, ita pavidi Veientes ad arma currunt. Pars Sabinis eunt subsidio, pars Romanos toto impetu intentos in castra adoriuntur. Paulisper aversi turbatique sunt; deinde et ipsi utroque versis signis resistunt, et eques ab consule immissus Tuscos fundit fugatque, eademque hora duo exercitus, duae potentissimae et maxime finitimae gentes superatae sunt.

The tumult from the camp penetrates even into the city; as if Veii had been captured, thus the panic-stricken Veientes run to arms. Part go to the Sabines as succor, part assail the Romans—intent upon the camp—with their whole impetus. For a short while they are driven back and thrown into disorder; then they too, with their standards turned both ways, resist, and the cavalry, sent in by the consul, routs and puts the Tuscans to flight, and in the same hour two armies, two most powerful and most neighboring peoples, were overcome.

Dum haec ad Veios geruntur, Volsci Aequique in Latino agro posuerant castra populatique fines erant. Eos per se ipsi Latini adsumptis Hernicis, sine Romano aut duce aut auxilio castris exuerunt; ingenti praeda praeter suas reciperatas res potiti sunt. Missus tamen ab Roma consul in Volscos C. Nautius; mos, credo, non placebat, sine Romano duce exercituque socios propriis viribus consiliisque bella gerere.

While these things are being transacted at Veii, the Volsci and Aequians had pitched camp in the Latin territory and had ravaged the borders. Them the Latins themselves, having taken up the Hernici, without a Roman either leader or aid, stripped of their camp; they got possession of an immense booty, besides their own goods recovered. Nevertheless a consul was sent from Rome against the Volsci, Gaius Nautius; the custom, I believe, did not please, that the allies should wage wars by their own forces and counsels without a Roman leader and army.

Nullum genus calamitatis contumeliaeque non editum in Volscos est, nec tamen perpelli potuere ut acie dimicarent.

No kind of calamity or contumely was left unvisited upon the Volsci, and yet they could not be driven to fight in a pitched battle.

[54] L. Furius inde et C. Manlius consules. Manlio Veientes provincia evenit; non tamen bellatum; indutiae in annos quadraginta petentibus datae frumento stipendioque imperato. Paci externae confestim continuatur discordia domi.

[54] Then L. Furius and C. Manlius, consuls. To Manlius the Veientine province fell; nevertheless, there was no fighting; a truce for 40 years was granted to the petitioners, grain and stipend being imposed. External peace is forthwith followed by domestic discord.

Agrariae legis tribuniciis stimulis plebs furebat. Consules, nihil Meneni damnatione, nihil periculo deterriti Servili, summa vi resistunt. Abeuntes magistratu Cn. Genucius tribunus plebis arripuit.

Agrarian law’s tribunician goads drove the plebs to rage. The consuls, deterred by nothing by the condemnation of Menenius, by nothing by the peril of Servilius, resist with utmost force. As they were departing from the magistracy, Gnaeus Genucius, tribune of the plebs, seized them.

L. Aemilius et Opiter Verginius consulatum ineunt; Vopiscum Iulium pro Verginio in quibusdam annalibus consulem invenio. Hoc anno, quoscumque consules habuit, rei ad populum Furius et Manlius circumeunt sordidati non plebem magis quam iuniores patrum. Suadent monent honoribus et administratione rei publicae abstineant; consulares vero fasces, praetextam, curulemque sellam nihil aliud quam pompam funeris putent; claris insignibus velut infulis velatos ad mortem destinari.

L. Aemilius and Opiter Verginius enter upon the consulship; in certain annals I find Vopiscus Julius as consul in place of Verginius. In this year, whatever consuls it had, Furius and Manlius, as defendants before the people, go about in sordid garb, not so much to the plebs as to the younger men of the patricians. They urge and warn them to abstain from honors and from the administration of the res publica; and to consider the consular fasces, the praetexta, and the curule chair as nothing other than the pomp of a funeral; that men veiled with bright insignia, as if with fillets, are destined for death.

Quod si consulatus tanta dulcedo sit, iam nunc ita in animum inducant consulatum captum et oppressum ab tribunicia potestate esse; consuli, velut apparitori tribunicio, omnia ad nutum imperiumque tribuni agenda esse; si se commoverit, si respexerit patres, si aliud quam plebem esse in re publica crediderit, exsilium Cn. Marci, Meneni damnationem et mortem sibi proponat ante oculos. His accensi vocibus patres consilia inde non publica sed in privato seductaque a plurium conscientia habuere, ubi cum id modo constaret, iure an iniuria, eripiendos esse reos, atrocissima quaeque maxime placebat sententia, nec auctor quamvis audaci facinori deerat. Igitur iudicii die, cum plebs in foro erecta expectatione staret, mirari primo quod non descenderet tribunus; dein cum iam mora suspectior fieret, deterritum a primoribus credere et desertam ac proditam causam publicam queri; tandem qui obversati vestibulo tribuni fuerant nuntiant domi mortuum esse inventum.

But if the consulship be of such sweetness, let them even now thus bring into mind that the consulship has been captured and oppressed by the tribunician power; that for the consul, as for a tribunician apparitor, everything is to be done at the nod and command of the tribune; if he stir himself, if he look back to the fathers, if he shall believe that there is anything in the commonwealth other than the plebs, let him set before his eyes the exile of Gnaeus Marcius, the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by these voices the fathers thereupon held counsels not public but in private and withdrawn from the awareness of the many, where, since only this was settled—that, whether by right or by wrong, the defendants must be snatched away—every most atrocious opinion was most pleasing, nor was there lacking an instigator for any deed, however audacious. Therefore on the day of the trial, when the plebs stood in the forum raised in expectation, they marvel at first that the tribune did not come down; then, as the delay now became more suspect, they believe him deterred by the leading men and complain that the public cause has been deserted and betrayed; at last those who had been hovering at the vestibule of the tribune announce that he was found dead at home.

Quod ubi in totam contionem pertulit rumor, sicut acies funditur duce occiso, ita dilapsi passim alii alio. Praecipuus pavor tribunos invaserat, quam nihil auxilii sacratae leges haberent morte collegae monitos. Nec patres satis moderate ferre laetitiam, adeoque neminem noxiae paenitebat, ut etiam insontes fecisse videri vellent, palamque ferretur malo domandam tribuniciam potestatem.

When the rumor carried this into the whole assembly, just as a battle-line is routed with its leader slain, so they scattered, each hither and thither. A particular terror had seized the tribunes, warned by the death of their colleague how the sacred laws had no aid. Nor did the fathers bear their joy with sufficient moderation, and to such a degree did no one repent of the guilt that even the innocent wished to seem to have done it; and it was openly reported that the tribunician power must be tamed by an evil blow.

[55] Sub hac pessimi exempli victoria dilectus edicitur, paventibusque tribunis sine intercessione ulla consules rem peragunt. Tum vero irasci plebs tribunorum magis silentio quam consulum imperio, et dicere actum esse de libertate sua; rursus ad antiqua reditum; cum Genucio una mortuam ac sepultam tribuniciam potestatem. Aliud agendum ac cogitandum quomodo resistatur patribus; id autem unum consilium esse ut se ipsa plebs, quando aliud nihil auxilii habeat, defendat.

[55] Under this victory of the worst example a levy is proclaimed, and with the tribunes in a panic the consuls, without any intercession, carry the matter through. Then indeed the plebs grow angry more at the silence of the tribunes than at the command of the consuls, and say that it is all over with their liberty; that there has been a return to the ancient ways; that together with Genucius the tribunician power has died and been buried. Something else must be done and thought—namely, how resistance may be made to the patricians; and that there is this one counsel: that the plebs, since it has no other aid, should defend itself.

Quattuor et viginti lictores apparere consulibus et eos ipsos plebis homines; nihil contemptius neque infirmius, si sint qui contemnant; sibi quemque ea magna atque horrenda facere. His vocibus alii alios cum incitassent, ad Voleronem Publilium de plebe hominem quia, quod ordines duxisset, negaret se militem fieri debere, lictor missus est a consulibus. Volero appellat tribunos.

Twenty-four lictors appeared for the consuls—and those very men were men of the plebs; nothing more contemptible nor more infirm, if there are those who despise them; each one makes these things great and horrendous for himself. With these cries, when they had incited one another, against Volero Publilius, a man of the plebs—because, on the ground that he had led the ranks, he declared that he ought not to be made a common soldier—a lictor was sent by the consuls. Volero appeals to the tribunes.

Cum auxilio nemo esset, consules spoliari hominem et virgas expediri iubent. "Provoco" inquit, "ad populum" Volero, "quoniam tribuni civem Romanum in conspectu suo virgis caedi malunt quam ipsi in lecto suo a vobis trucidari." Quo ferocius clamitabat, eo infestius circumscindere et spoliare lictor. Tum Volero et praevalens ipse et adiuvantibus advocatis repulso lictore, ubi indignantium pro se acerrimus erat clamor, eo se in turbam confertissimam recipit clamitans: "Provoco et fidem plebis imploro.

Since there was no one to provide aid, the consuls order the man to be stripped and the rods to be made ready. “I appeal,” said Volero, “to the people, since the tribunes prefer that a Roman citizen be beaten with rods in their sight rather than that they themselves be butchered by you in their own bed.” The more fiercely he kept shouting this, the more hostilely the lictor tore his clothes and stripped him. Then Volero—both powerful in himself and, with his advocates assisting, the lictor having been driven back—where the outcry of those indignant on his behalf was sharpest, withdraws into the most tightly packed crowd, shouting: “I appeal and I implore the faith of the plebs.”

Adeste, cives; adeste, commilitones; nihil est quod expectetis tribunos quibus ipsis vestro auxilio opus est." Concitati homines veluti ad proelium se expediunt, apparebatque omne discrimen adesse; nihil cuiquam sanctum, non publici fore, non privati iuris. Huic tantae tempestati cum se consules obtulissent, facile experti sunt parum tutam maiestatem sine viribus esse. Violatis lictoribus, fascibus fractis, e foro in curiam compelluntur, incerti quatenus Volero exerceret victoriam.

"Be present, citizens; be present, comrades-in-arms; there is no reason to wait for the tribunes, who themselves have need of your aid." The men, incited, make ready as if for battle, and it was apparent that the whole crisis was at hand; that nothing would be sacred to anyone, neither of public nor of private law. When the consuls had offered themselves to this so great a tempest, they readily learned that majesty is little safe without forces. The lictors violated, the fasces broken, they are driven from the forum into the curia, uncertain how far Volero would press his victory.

Conticescente deinde tumultu cum in senatum vocari iussissent, queruntur iniurias suas, vim plebis, Voleronis audaciam. Multis ferociter dictis sententiis, vicere seniores quibus ira patrum adversus temeritatem plebis certari non placuit.

Then, the tumult falling silent, when they had ordered that they be called into the senate, they complain of their injuries, the violence of the plebs, the audacity of Volero. With many opinions spoken ferociously, the elders prevailed, who did not approve that the Fathers’ wrath be contended against the plebs’ temerity.

[56] Voleronem amplexa favore plebs proximis comitiis tribunum plebi creat in eum annum qui L. Pinarium P. Furium consules habuit. Contraque omnium opinionem, qui eum vexandis prioris anni consulibus permissurum tribunatum credebant, post publicam causam privato dolore habito, ne verbo quidem violatis consulibus, rogationem tulit ad populum ut plebeii magistratus tributis comitiis fierent. Haud parva res sub titulo prima specie minime atroci ferebatur, sed quae patriciis omnem potestatem per clientium suffragia creandi quos vellent tribunos auferret.

[56] The plebs, embracing Volero with favor, at the next comitia creates him tribune of the plebs for the year which had L. Pinarius and P. Furius as consuls. And contrary to everyone’s expectation—who believed he would spend his tribunate in harassing the consuls of the previous year—with his private resentment kept after the public cause, and the consuls not violated even by a word, he brought a rogation to the people that the plebeian magistrates be made in the tribal comitia. No small matter was being carried under a title that in first appearance was least atrocious, but one which would remove from the patricians all power, through the votes of their clients, of creating whatever tribunes they wished.

Huic actioni gratissimae plebi cum summa vi resisterent patres, nec quae una vis ad resistendum erat, ut intercederet aliquis ex collegio, auctoritate aut consulum aut principum adduci posset, res tamen suo ipsa molimine gravis certaminibus in annum extrahitur. Plebs Voleronem tribunum reficit: patres, ad ultimum dimicationis rati rem venturam, Ap. Claudium Appi filium, iam inde a paternis certaminibus invisum infestumque plebi, consulem faciunt. Collega ei T. Quinctius datur.

When the Fathers resisted with the utmost force this action most gratifying to the plebs, and when that sole force for resisting—that someone from the college should intercede—could not be induced by the authority either of the consuls or of the leading men, nevertheless the matter, by its own mass, heavy with contests, is drawn out into the next year. The plebs reinstates Volero as tribune; the Fathers, thinking the affair would come to a final clash, make Ap. Claudius, son of Appius—hated and hostile to the plebs ever since his father’s contests—consul. As colleague to him T. Quinctius is given.

Principio statim anni nihil prius quam de lege agebatur. Sed ut inventor legis Volero, sic Laetorius, collega eius, auctor cum recentior tum acrior erat. Ferocem faciebat belli gloria ingens, quod aetatis eius haud quisquam manu promptior erat.

At the very beginning of the year, nothing was dealt with before the law. But, just as Volero, the inventor of the law, so Laetorius, his colleague, was its author, both more recent and more vehement. His enormous glory in war made him ferocious, since of his age no one was more ready with his hand.

Is, cum Volero nihil praeterquam de lege loqueretur, insectatione abstinens consulum, ipse incusationem Appi familiaeque superbissimae ac crudelissimae in plebem Romanam exorsus, cum a patribus non consulem, sed carnificem ad vexandam et lacerandam plebem creatum esse contenderet, rudis in militari homine lingua non suppetebat libertati animoque. Itaque deficiente oratione, "Quando quidem non facile loquor" inquit, "Quirites, quam quod locutus sum praesto, crastino die adeste; ego hic aut in conspectu vestro moriar aut perferam legem". Occupant tribuni templum postero die; consules nobilitasque ad impediendam legem in contione consistunt. Summoveri Laetorius iubet, praeterquam qui suffragium ineant.

He, while Volero spoke of nothing except the law, refraining from invective against the consuls, himself began an accusation of Appius and of his most super-proud and most cruel family against the Roman plebs; since he contended that by the Fathers there had been created not a consul, but a carnifex, to harry and to lacerate the plebs. But in the military man the tongue, unpolished, did not suffice to his liberty and spirit. And so, his oration failing, “Since indeed I do not speak easily,” he says, “Quirites, I will make good rather what I have spoken: be present on the morrow; here I will either die in your sight or carry the law through.” The tribunes occupy the temple on the following day; the consuls and the nobility take their stand in the assembly to impede the law. Laetorius orders that all be cleared away, except those who enter to cast a suffrage.

Adulescentes nobiles stabant nihil cedentes viatori. Tum ex his prendi quosdam Laetorius iubet. Consul Appius negare ius esse tribuno in quemquam nisi in plebeium; non enim populi sed plebis eum magistratum esse; nec illam ipsam submovere pro imperio posse more maiorum, quia ita dicatur: "Si vobis videtur, discedite, Quirites." Facile contemptim de iure disserendo perturbare Laetorium poterat.

Young nobles were standing, yielding in no way to the usher. Then Laetorius orders that some of these be seized. The consul Appius asserts that a tribune has no right over anyone except a plebeian; for he is a magistrate not of the People but of the Plebs; nor could he even remove that very assembly by imperium, in accordance with the custom of the ancestors, since the formula runs: “If it seems good to you, depart, Quirites.” By discoursing contemptuously about the law he could easily throw Laetorius into confusion.

Ardens igitur ira tribunus viatorem mittit ad consulem, consul lictorem ad tribunum, privatum esse clamitans, sine imperio, sine magistratu; violatusque esset tribunus, ni et contio omnis atrox coorta pro tribuno in consulem esset, et concursus hominum in forum ex tota urbe concitatae multitudinis fieret. Sustinebat tamen Appius pertinacia tantam tempestatem, certatumque haud incruento proelio foret, ni Quinctius, consul alter, consularibus negotio dato ut collegam vi, si aliter non possent, de foro abducerent, ipse nunc plebem saevientem precibus lenisset, nunc orasset tribunos ut concilium dimitterent; darent irae spatium; non vim suam illis tempus adempturum, sed consilium viribus additurum; et patres in populi et consulem in patrum fore potestate.

Therefore burning with anger the tribune sends a viator to the consul; the consul a lictor to the tribune, shouting that he was a private person, without imperium, without magistracy; and the tribune would have been violated, had not both the whole assembly, fierce, arisen for the tribune against the consul, and a concourse of men into the forum from the whole city, of an aroused multitude, taken place. Nevertheless Appius, with pertinacity, withstood so great a tempest, and it would have been contested in a not bloodless battle, had not Quinctius, the other consul, having given the business to the consulars that they should lead their colleague by force from the forum, if otherwise they could not, himself now by prayers soothed the raging plebs, now entreated the tribunes to dismiss the council; let them give space to anger; that time would not take away their force, but would add counsel to their strength; and that the Fathers would be in the power of the people and the consul in the power of the Fathers.

[57] Aegre sedata ab Quinctio plebs, multo aegrius consul alter a patribus. Dimisso tandem concilio plebis senatum consules habent. Ubi cum timor atque ira in vicem sententias variassent, quo magis spatio interposito ab impetu ad consultandum avocabantur, eo plus abhorrebant a certatione animi, adeo ut Quinctio gratias agerent quod eius opera mitigata discordia esset.

[57] With difficulty the plebs was calmed by Quinctius, and the other consul much more with difficulty by the senators. The assembly of the plebs having at last been dismissed, the consuls hold the senate. There, when fear and anger by turns had varied the opinions, the more, with an interval interposed, they were called away from impulse to consultation, by so much the more did they shrink from a contention of spirit, to such a degree that they gave thanks to Quinctius because by his agency the discord had been mitigated.

Ab Appio petitur ut tantam consularem maiestatem esse vellet quanta esse in concordi civitate posset; dum tribunique et consules ad se quisque omnia trahant, nihil relictum esse virium in medio; distractam laceratamque rem publicam; magis quorum in manu sit quam ut incolumis sit quaeri. Appius contra testari deos atque homines rem publicam prodi per metum ac deseri; non consulem senatui sed senatum consuli deesse; graviores accipi leges quam in Sacro monte acceptae sint. Victus tamen patrum consensu quievit; lex silentio perfertur.

They ask of Appius that he be willing for there to be so great a consular majesty as could exist in a concordant state; while both the tribunes and the consuls each drag everything to themselves, nothing of strength is left in the middle; the Republic is torn and lacerated; inquiry is made rather in whose hand it lies than whether it is unharmed. Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to witness that the Republic was betrayed through fear and deserted; that not the consul was failing the senate but the senate the consul; that graver laws were being accepted than had been accepted on the Sacred Mount. Overcome, however, by the consensus of the Fathers, he grew quiet; the law is carried through in silence.

[58] Tum primum tributis comitiis creati tribuni sunt. Numero etiam additos tres, perinde ac duo antea fuerint, Piso auctor est. Nominat quoque tribunos, Cn. Siccium, L. Numitorium, M. Duillium, Sp. Icilium, L. Maecilium.

[58] Then for the first time tribunes were created by the tribal comitia. Piso is the authority that three were also added to the number, just as there had previously been two. He also names the tribunes: Cn. Siccius, L. Numitorius, M. Duillius, Sp. Icilius, L. Maecilius.

Volscum Aequicumque inter seditionem Romanam est bellum coortum. Vastaverant agros ut si qua secessio plebis fieret ad se receptum haberet; compositis deinde rebus castra retro movere. Ap. Claudius in Volscos missus, Quinctio Aequi provincia evenit.

A Volscian and Aequian war broke out amid the Roman sedition. They had devastated the fields so that, if any secession of the plebs should occur, they might have a retreat to themselves; with affairs then composed, they moved the camp back. Ap. Claudius was sent against the Volsci; to Quinctius the province of the Aequi fell.

Eadem in militia saevitia Appi quae domi esse, liberior quod sine tribuniciis vinculis erat. Odisse plebem plus quam paterno odio: se victum ab ea; se unico consule electo adversus tribuniciam potestatem perlatam legem esse, quam minore conatu, nequaquam tanta patrum spe, priores impedierint consules. Haec ira indignatioque ferocem animum ad vexandum saevo imperio exercitum stimulabat.

The same savagery of Appius in military service as at home, only freer because he was without the tribunitian chains. He hated the plebs with more than a paternal hatred: that he had been defeated by it; that, though he alone had been elected consul, a law had been carried against the tribunician power—one which the earlier consuls had blocked with less effort, and with by no means so great a hope among the patres. This anger and indignation goaded his ferocious spirit to vex the army with a savage command.

Nec ulla vi domari poterat; tantum certamen animis imbiberant. Segniter, otiose, neglegenter, contumaciter omnia agere; nec pudor nec metus coercebat. Si citius agi vellet agmen, tardius sedulo incedere; si adhortator operis adesset, omnes sua sponte motam remittere industriam; praesenti voltus demittere, tacite praetereuntem exsecrari, ut invictus ille odio plebeio animus interdum moveretur.

Nor could they be tamed by any force; so much of the contest they had imbibed into their spirits. They did everything sluggishly, otiously, negligently, contumaciously; neither shame nor fear coerced them. If he wished the column to be driven faster, they would advance more slowly on purpose; if an exhorter of the work was present, all would of their own accord relax the industry they had set in motion; in his presence they would lower their faces, silently execrate him as he passed by, so that that spirit unconquered by plebeian hatred might at times be moved.

Omni nequiquam acerbitate prompta, nihil iam cum militibus agere; a centurionibus corruptum exercitum dicere; tribunos plebei cavillans interdum et Volerones vocare.

With all his bitterness readied to no purpose, he now did nothing with the soldiers; he said the army had been corrupted by the centurions; sometimes, cavilling at the tribunes of the plebs, he even called them “Volerones.”

[59] Nihil eorum Volsci nesciebant, instabantque eo magis, sperantes idem certamen animorum adversus Appium habiturum exercitum Romanum quod adversus Fabium consulem habuisset. Ceterum multo Appio quam Fabio violentior fuit; non enim vincere tantum noluit, ut Fabianus exercitus, sed vinci voluit. Productus in aciem turpi fuga petit castra, nec ante restitit quam signa inferentem Volscum munimentis vidit foedamque extremi agminis caedem.

[59] The Volsci were unaware of none of these things, and they pressed all the more, hoping that the Roman army would have the same contest of spirits against Appius that it had had against Fabius the consul. However, Appius was by much more violent than Fabius; for the army not only was unwilling to conquer, as the Fabian army had been, but wished to be conquered. Led out into the battle line, in shameful flight it made for the camp, nor did it halt before it saw the Volscian bringing in his standards to the fortifications and the foul slaughter of the rearmost column.

Tum expressa vis ad pugnandum, ut victor iam a vallo submoveretur hostis, satis tamen appareret capi tantum castra militem Romanum noluisse, alioqui gaudere sua clade atque ignominia. Quibus nihil infractus ferox Appi animus cum insuper saevire vellet contionemque advocaret, concurrunt ad eum legati tribunique, monentes ne utique experiri vellet imperium, cuius vis omnis in consensu oboedientium esset; negare volgo milites se ad contionem ituros passimque exaudiri voces postulantium ut castra ex Volsco agro moveantur; hostem victorem paulo ante prope in portis ac vallo fuisse, ingentisque mali non suspicionem modo sed apertam speciem obversari ante oculos. Victus tandem, quando quidem nihil praeter tempus noxae lucrarentur, remissa contione iter in insequentem diem pronuntiari cum iussisset, prima luce classico signum profectionis dedit.

Then a force was wrung out for fighting, so that the enemy, now as victor, was driven back from the rampart; yet it was sufficiently apparent that the Roman soldier had only been unwilling that the camp be captured; otherwise he rejoiced in his own disaster and ignominy. At which things the fierce spirit of Appius, in no way broken, when he even wished besides to rage and summoned an assembly, the legates and tribunes ran together to him, warning that he should by no means wish to test his imperium, whose entire force is in the consensus of the obedient; that the soldiers commonly were declaring they would not go to the assembly, and that voices were being heard everywhere demanding that the camp be moved out of Volscian territory; that the enemy, as victor, a little before had been near the gates and the rampart, and that not merely the suspicion of a vast evil but its open appearance was presenting itself before their eyes. At length overcome, since indeed they would gain nothing for harm except time, after he had dismissed the assembly and had ordered the march to be announced for the following day, at first light he gave the signal of departure by the trumpet blast.

Cum maxime agmen e castris explicaretur, Volsci, ut eodem signo excitati, novissimos adoriuntur. A quibus perlatus ad primos tumultus eo pavore signaque et ordines turbavit ut neque imperia exaudiri neque instrui acies posset. Nemo ullius nisi fugae memor.

Just when the column was being deployed from the camp, the Volsci, as if roused by the same signal, assail the rearmost. The tumult, carried from them to the front ranks, with such panic threw the standards and the ranks into disorder that neither could commands be heard nor could the battle line be drawn up. No one was mindful of anything except flight.

Ita effuso agmine per stragem corporum armorumque evasere ut prius hostis desisteret sequi quam Romanus fugere. Tandem conlectis ex dissipato cursu militibus consul, cum revocando nequiquam suos persecutus esset, in pacato agro castra posuit; advocataque contione invectus haud falso in proditorem exercitum militaris disciplinae, desertorem signorum, ubi signa, ubi arma essent singulos rogitans, inermes milites, signo amisso signiferos, ad hoc centuriones duplicariosque qui reliquerant ordines, virgis caesos securi percussit: cetera multitudo sorte decimus quisque ad supplicium lecti.

Thus, with the column poured out, through the carnage of bodies and arms they escaped, so that the enemy ceased to follow before the Roman ceased to flee. At length, with the soldiers collected from their dissipated course, the consul, since by recalling he had pursued his men in vain, pitched camp in pacified country; and, an assembly having been called, he inveighed, not falsely, against an army betrayer of military discipline, a deserter of the standards, asking individuals where the standards were, where the arms were; the unarmed soldiers, the standard-bearers with the standard lost, and, in addition, the centurions and duplicaries who had abandoned their ranks, he had beaten with rods and struck with the axe: as for the remaining multitude, by lot every tenth man was chosen for punishment.

[60] Contra ea in Aequis inter consulem ac milites comitate ac beneficiis certatum est. Et natura Quinctius erat lenior, et saevitia infelix collegae quo is magis gauderet ingenio suo effecerat. Huic tantae concordiae ducis exercitusque non ausi offerre se Aequi, vagari populabundum hostem per agros passi; nec ullo ante bello latius inde acta est praeda.

[60] By contrast, among the Aequi there was a contest in comity and benefactions between the consul and the soldiers. And Quinctius was by nature more lenient, and the ill-fated savagery of his colleague had made him the more rejoice in his own temperament. The Aequi did not dare to present themselves to this so great concord of leader and army, and allowed the depredatory enemy to wander through the fields; nor in any previous war was booty driven off more broadly from there.

Ea omnis militi data est. Addebantur et laudes, quibus haud minus quam praemio gaudent militum animi. Cum duci, tum propter ducem patribus quoque placatior exercitus rediit, sibi parentem, alteri exercitui dominum datum ab senatu memorans.

All of it was given to the soldiery. Laudations were also added, in which the spirits of the soldiers rejoice no less than in the reward. The army returned more appeased both toward the leader and, on account of the leader, toward the Fathers as well, recalling that by the Senate a parent had been given to themselves, to the other army a master.

Varia fortuna belli, atroci discordia domi forique annum exactum insignem maxime comitia tributa efficiunt, res maior victoria suscepti certaminis quam usu. Plus enim dignitatis comitiis ipsis detractum est patres ex concilio submovendo, quam virium aut plebi additum est aut demptum patribus.

A varied fortune of war, and atrocious discord at home and in the forum, make the completed year notable, most of all the comitia tributa; the affair was greater as a victory of the contest undertaken than in use. For more dignity was taken from the comitia themselves by removing the Fathers from the council than strength was either added to the plebs or taken from the Fathers.

[61] Turbulentior inde annus excepit L. Valerio T. Aemilio consulibus, cum propter certamina ordinum de lege agraria tum propter iudicium Ap. Claudi, cui acerrimo adversario legis causamque possessorum publici agri tamquam tertio consuli sustinenti M. Duillius et Cn. Siccius diem dixere. Nunquam ante tam invisus plebi reus ad iudicium vocatus populi est, plenus suarum, plenus paternarum irarum. Patres quoque non temere pro ullo aeque adnisi sunt: propugnatorem senatus maiestatisque vindicem suae, ad omnes tribunicios plebeiosque oppositum tumultus, modum dumtaxat in certamine egressum, iratae obici plebi.

[61] Thereupon a more turbulent year ensued under the consuls L. Valerius and T. Aemilius, both on account of the contests of the orders over the agrarian law and on account of the prosecution of Ap. Claudius, against whom—as the fiercest adversary of the law and, sustaining the cause of the possessors of the public land, as though a third consul—M. Duillius and Cn. Siccius appointed a day for trial. Never before was a defendant so hateful to the plebs summoned to the people’s judgment, full of his own, full of his father’s angers. The Fathers, too, had not readily exerted themselves as much for any other: their champion of the senate and vindicator of its majesty, opposed to all tribunician and plebeian tumults—one who had only exceeded the due measure in the struggle—they would not have cast before an angry plebs.

Unus e patribus ipse Ap. Claudius et tribunos et plebem et suum iudicium pro nihilo habebat. Illum non minae plebis, non senatus preces perpellere unquam potuere, non modo ut vestem mutaret aut supplex prensaret homines, sed ne ut ex consueta quidem asperitate orationis, cum ad populum agenda causa esset, aliquid leniret atque submitteret. Idem habitus oris, eadem contumacia in voltu, idem in oratione spiritus erat, adeo ut magna pars plebis Appium non minus reum timeret quam consulem timuerat.

One of the Patricians, Ap. Claudius himself, held both the tribunes and the plebs and his own trial as of no account. Neither the threats of the plebs nor the prayers of the senate could ever prevail upon him, not only to change his dress or, as a suppliant, to grasp men’s hands, but not even to soften or lower anything from his accustomed asperity of oration when the case had to be pled before the people. The same cast of face, the same contumacy in his countenance, the same spirit in his speech remained, to such a degree that a great part of the plebs feared Appius as a defendant no less than they had feared him as consul.

Semel causam dixit, quo semper agere omnia solitus erat, accusatorio spiritu, adeoque constantia sua et tribunos obstupefecit et plebem ut diem ipsi sua voluntate prodicerent, trahi deinde rem sinerent. Haud ita multum interim temporis fuit; ante tamen quam prodicta dies veniret, morbo moritur. Cuius laudationem cum tribunus plebis impedire conaretur, plebs fraudari sollemni honore supremum diem tanti viri noluit, et laudationem tam aequis auribus mortui audivit quam vivi accusationem audierat et exsequias frequens celebravit.

He pleaded his case once, with the accusatory spirit in which he had been accustomed always to conduct everything, and by his constancy he so astonished both the tribunes and the plebs that they themselves, of their own will, appointed the day and then allowed the matter to be dragged out. Not so very much time passed meanwhile; yet before the proclaimed day arrived, he died of illness. When a tribune of the plebs tried to impede his eulogy, the plebs did not wish the last day of so great a man to be defrauded of its solemn honor, and they listened to the eulogy of the dead with ears as fair as they had heard the accusation of him living, and in throngs they celebrated the funeral rites.

[62] Eodem anno Valerius consul cum exercitu in Aequos profectus, cum hostem ad proelium elicere non posset, castra oppugnare est adortus. Prohibuit foeda tempestas cum grandine ac tonitribus caelo deiecta. Admirationem deinde auxit signo receptui dato adeo tranquilla serenitas reddita ut velut numine aliquo defensa castra oppugnare iterum religio fuerit.

[62] In the same year, the consul Valerius, having set out with the army against the Aequi, when he could not draw the enemy to battle, undertook to assault the camp. A foul tempest, with hail and thunder cast down from the sky, forbade it. Then the amazement was increased: once the signal for retreat was given, so tranquil a serenity was restored that it was a religious scruple to assault the camp again, as if it were defended by some numen.

Omnis ira belli ad populationem agri vertit. Alter consul Aemilius in Sabinis bellum gessit. Et ibi, quia hostis moenibus se tenebat, vastati agri sunt.

All the wrath of war turned to the devastation of the countryside. The other consul Aemilius waged war among the Sabines. And there, because the enemy kept themselves within the walls, the fields were devastated.

Incendiis deinde non villarum modo sed etiam vicorum quibus frequenter habitabatur Sabini exciti cum praedatoribus occurrissent, ancipiti proelio digressi postero die rettulere castra in tutiora loca. Id satis consuli visum cur pro victo relinqueret hostem, integro inde decedens bello.

Then, with fires not only of the villas but even of the villages that were frequently inhabited, the Sabines, roused, when they had met the raiders, after withdrawing from a doubtful battle, on the next day brought back their camp into safer places. This seemed enough to the consul, wherefore he left the enemy as conquered, departing thence with the war still intact.

[63] Inter haec bella manente discordia domi, consules T. Numicius Priscus A. Verginius facti. Non ultra videbatur latura plebes dilationem agrariae legis, ultimaque vis parabatur, cum Volscos adesse fumo ex incendiis villarum fugaque agrestium cognitum est. Ea res maturam iam seditionem ac prope erumpentem repressit.

[63] Amid these wars, with discord remaining at home, T. Numicius Priscus and A. Verginius were made consuls. The plebs seemed likely to endure no further delay of the agrarian law, and ultimate force was being prepared, when it was learned that the Volsci were at hand, from the smoke of the burnings of the villas and the flight of the countryfolk. That circumstance repressed a sedition already ripe and almost bursting forth.

Consules coacti extemplo ab senatu ad bellum educta ex urbe iuventute tranquilliorem ceteram plebem fecerunt. Et hostes quidem nihil aliud quam perfusis vano timore Romanis citato agmine abeunt: Numicius Antium adversus Volscos, Verginius contra Aequos profectus. Ibi ex insidiis prope magna accepta clade virtus militum rem prolapsam neglegentia consulis restituit.

The consuls, compelled forthwith by the senate, by leading the youth out of the city to war made the rest of the plebs more tranquil. And the enemies indeed do nothing other than, with the Romans drenched in empty fear, depart at a swift march: Numicius set out to Antium against the Volsci, Verginius against the Aequi. There, from an ambush, with a nearly great disaster received, the valor of the soldiers restored the situation, which had slipped through the negligence of the consul.

Melius in Volscis imperatum est; fusi primo proelio hostes fugaque in urbem Antium, ut tum res erant opulentissimam, acti. Quam consul oppugnare non ausus Caenonem, aliud oppidum nequaquam tam opulentum, ab Antiatibus cepit. Dum Aequi Volscique Romanos exercitus tenent, Sabini usque ad portas urbis populantes incessere.

The command was better conducted against the Volsci; the enemies were routed in the first battle and driven in flight into the city of Antium, at that time, as things then stood, the most opulent. Which the consul, not daring to assault, he took Caenon, another town by no means so opulent, from the Antiates. While the Aequi and the Volsci held the Roman armies engaged, the Sabines, ravaging, pressed on up to the gates of the city.

Deinde ipsi paucis post diebus ab duobus exercitibus, utroque per iram consule ingresso in fines, plus cladium quam intulerant acceperunt.

Then they themselves, a few days later, from two armies—with each consul, in anger, having entered their borders—received more calamities than they had inflicted.

[64] Extremo anno pacis aliquid fuit, sed, ut semper alias, sollicitae certamine patrum et plebis. Irata plebs interesse consularibus comitiis noluit; per patres clientesque patrum consules creati T. Quinctius Q. Servilius. Similem annum priori habent, seditiosa initia, bello deinde externo tranquilla.

[64] At the end of the year there was something of peace, but, as at other times always, it was a peace anxious, by reason of the contest of the patres and the plebs. The plebs, enraged, were unwilling to take part in the consular comitia; through the patres and the clients of the patres the consuls T. Quinctius and Q. Servilius were created. They have a year similar to the former: seditious beginnings, then, with a foreign war, tranquil.

Sabini Crustuminos campos citato agmine transgressi cum caedes et incendia circum Anienem flumen fecissent, a porta prope Collina moenibusque pulsi ingentes tamen praedas hominum pecorumque egere. Quos Servilius consul infesto exercitu insecutus ipsum quidem agmen adipisci aequis locis non potuit, populationem adeo effuse fecit, ut nihil bello intactum relinquerent multiplicique capta praeda rediret.

The Sabines, having crossed the Crustuminian fields with a hastened column, after they had made slaughter and burnings around the river Anio, were driven back from the gate near the Colline and from the walls; nevertheless they drove off huge booties of men and herds. Them Servilius the consul, pursuing with a hostile army, indeed could not overtake the column itself on level ground, but he conducted the ravaging so profusely that they left nothing untouched by war, and he returned with manifold captured booty.

Et in Volscis res publica egregie gesta cum ducis tum militum opera. Primum aequo campo signis conlatis pugnatum, ingenti caede utrimque, plurimo sanguine; et Romani, quia paucitas damno sentiendo propior erat, gradum rettulissent, ni salubri mendacio consul fugere hostes ab cornu altero clamitans concitasset aciem. Impetu facto dum se putant vincere vicere.

And among the Volsci the commonwealth fared excellently, by the work both of the leader and of the soldiers. First, on level ground, with standards joined, it was fought, with huge slaughter on both sides, with very much blood; and the Romans, because their paucity was nearer to feeling the loss, would have yielded ground, if the consul, by a salutary lie, shouting that the enemies were fleeing from the other wing, had not stirred the battle line. A charge having been made, while they supposed themselves to be winning, they won.

Consul metuens ne nimis instando renovaret certamen, signum receptui dedit. Intercessere pauci dies, velut tacitis indutiis utrimque quiete sumpta, per quos ingens vis hominum ex omnibus Volscis Aequisque populis in castra venit, haud dubitans si senserint Romanos nocte abituros. Itaque tertia fere vigilia ad castra oppugnanda veniunt.

The consul, fearing that by insisting too much he would renew the contest, gave the signal for retreat. A few days intervened, as if with tacit truces, quiet being taken on both sides, during which a huge force of men from all the Volscian and Aequian peoples came into the camp, not doubting that, if they should perceive the Romans were going to depart by night. And so, about the third watch, they come to attack the camp.

Quinctius sedato tumultu quem terror subitus exciverat, cum manere in tentoriis quietum militem iussisset, Hernicorum cohortem in stationem educit, cornicines tubicinesque in equos impositos canere ante vallum iubet sollicitumque hostem ad lucem tenere. Reliquum noctis adeo tranquilla omnia in castris fuere ut somni quoque Romanis copia esset. Volscos species armatorum peditum, quos et plures esse et Romanos putabant, fremitus hinnitusque equorum, qui et insueto sedente equite et insuper aures agitante sonitu saeviebant, intentos velut ad impetum hostium tenuit.

Quinctius, the tumult which sudden terror had excised having been calmed, when he had ordered the soldiery to remain quiet in their tents, leads out a cohort of the Hernici to a picket-station, and bids the horn‑blowers and trumpeters, set upon horses, to sound before the rampart and to hold the anxious enemy until daybreak. For the remainder of the night everything in the camp was so tranquil that there was even an abundance of sleep for the Romans. The Volsci were held on the stretch by the appearance of armed infantry—whom they supposed to be both more numerous and Roman—and by the rumbling and the neighing of the horses, which, both with an untrained horseman sitting them and moreover with the sound agitating their ears, were raging, and thus kept them intent as if for an assault of the enemy.

[65] Ubi inluxit, Romanus integer satiatusque somno productus in aciem fessum stando et vigiliis Volscum primo impetu perculit; quamquam cessere magis quam pulsi hostes sunt, quia ab tergo erant clivi in quos post principia integris ordinibus tutus receptus fuit. Consul ubi ad iniquum locum ventum est, sistit aciem. Miles aegre teneri, clamare et poscere ut perculsis instare liceat.

[65] When it grew light, the Roman, whole and satiated with sleep, led out into the battle line, struck the Volscian—wearied by standing and by the watches—at the first onset; although the enemies yielded rather than were driven, because there were slopes behind them, onto which, behind the foremost ranks, a safe withdrawal was made with ranks intact. When the consul had come to unfavorable ground, he halts the line. The soldier could scarcely be held, shouting and demanding that it be permitted to press upon the stricken.

Ferocius agunt equites; circumfusi duci vociferantur se ante signa ituros. Dum cunctatur consul virtute militum fretus, loco parum fidens, conclamant se ituros clamoremque res est secuta. Fixis in terram pilis quo leviores ardua evaderent, cursu subeunt.

The cavalry act more ferociously; surrounding the leader they vociferate that they will go before the standards. While the consul delays, relying on the valor of the soldiers but little trusting the position, they shout in unison that they will go, and deed followed outcry. Having fixed their pila in the ground, so that, lighter, they might scale the steep places, they advance at a run.

Volscus effusis ad primum impetum missilibus telis, saxa obiacentia pedibus ingerit in subeuntes, turbatosque ictibus crebris urget ex superiore loco. Sic prope oneratum est sinistrum Romanis cornu, ni referentibus iam gradum consul increpando simul temeritatem, simul ignaviam, pudore metum excussisset. Restitere primo obstinatis animis; deinde, ut obtinentes locum vim pro vi referebant, audent ultro gradum inferre et clamore renovato commovent aciem; tum rursus impetu capto enituntur atque exsuperant iniquitatem loci.

The Volscian, his missile weapons poured out at the first onset, with his feet rolls the rocks lying near down upon those coming up, and, once they were thrown into disorder by frequent blows, presses them from the higher position. Thus the Roman left wing was almost overborne, if the consul, as they were already giving ground, had not, by chiding at once their temerity and their cowardice, shaken fear out of them by shame. They stood their ground at first with obstinate spirits; then, once they were holding the position, they repaid force with force, they even dare to carry a step forward, and with the shout renewed they stir the battle line; then again, having seized their impetus, they strive and surmount the disadvantage of the ground.

Iam prope erat ut in summum clivi iugum evaderent cum terga hostes dedere, effusoque cursu paene agmine uno fugientes sequentesque castris incidere. In eo pavore castra capiuntur: qui Volscorum effugere potuerunt, Antium petunt. Antium et Romanus exercitus ductus.

Now it was nearly that they would gain the topmost ridge of the slope, when the enemies turned their backs; and at a headlong run, fleeing and pursuing almost as a single column, they fell upon the camp. In that panic the camp is captured: those of the Volscians who were able to escape make for Antium. To Antium the Roman army also was led.

Paucos circumsessum dies deditur, nulla oppugnantium nova vi, sed quod iam inde ab infelici pugna castrisque amissis ceciderant animi.

After a few days under siege, it was surrendered, not by any new force of the besiegers, but because ever since the unlucky battle and the loss of the camp their spirits had sunk.