Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Pace alibi parta Romani Veiique in armis erant tanta ira odioque ut victis finem adesse appareret. Comitia utriusque populi longe diversa ratione facta sunt. Romani auxere tribunorum militum consulari potestate numerum; octo, quot nunquam antea, creati, M'. Aemilius Mamercus iterum L. Valerius Potitus tertium Ap. Claudius Crassus M. Quinctilius Varus L. Iulius Iulus M. Postumius M. Furius Camillus M. Postumius Albinus.

[1] With peace elsewhere achieved, the Romans and the Veientes were in arms with such anger and hatred that it seemed an end was at hand for the vanquished. The comitia of each people were held by a method far different. The Romans increased the number of tribunes of the soldiers with consular power; eight, as many as never before, were elected: M'. Aemilius Mamercus, again; L. Valerius Potitus, for the third time; Ap. Claudius Crassus; M. Quinctilius Varus; L. Iulius Iulus; M. Postumius; M. Furius Camillus; M. Postumius Albinus.

Veientes contra taedio annuae ambitionis quae interdum discordiarum causa erat, regem creavere. Offendit ea res populorum Etruriae animos, non maiore odio regni quam ipsius regis. Gravis iam is antea genti fuerat opibus superbiaque, quia sollemnia ludorum quos intermitti nefas est violenter diremisset, cum ob iram repulsae, quod suffragio duodecim populorum alius sacerdos ei praelatus esset, artifices, quorum magna pars ipsius servi erant, ex medio ludicro repente abduxit.

The Veientes, on the contrary, out of weariness of the annual ambition which was at times a cause of discords, created a king. That measure offended the minds of the peoples of Etruria, with no greater hatred of the kingship than of the king himself. He had already before been onerous to the nation by his resources and arrogance, because he had violently broken off the solemnities of the games—which it is nefas to interrupt—when, in anger at a repulse, since by the suffrage of the twelve peoples another priest had been preferred to him, he suddenly led away the performers, a great part of whom were his own slaves, from the midst of the spectacle.

Gens itaque ante omnes alias eo magis dedita religionibus quod excelleret arte colendi eas, auxilium Veientibus negandum donec sub rege essent decrevit; cuius decreti suppressa fama est Veiis propter metum regis qui a quo tale quid dictum referretur, pro seditionis eum principe, non vani sermonis auctore habebat. Romanis etsi quietae res ex Etruria nuntiabantur, tamen quia omnibus conciliis eam rem agitari adferebatur, ita muniebant ut ancipitia munimenta essent: alia in urbem et contra oppidanorum eruptiones versa, aliis frons in Etruriam spectans, auxiliis si qua forte inde venirent obstruebatur.

The nation therefore, before all others the more devoted to religions because it excelled in the art of cultivating them, decreed that aid must be denied to the Veientes so long as they were under a king; the report of which decree was suppressed at Veii because of fear of the king, who regarded anyone by whom such a thing was reported as having been said as a leader of sedition, not an author of vain speech. To the Romans, although quiet conditions were being announced from Etruria, nevertheless, because it was being brought that in all councils that matter was being agitated, they were fortifying in such a way that the fortifications were two-fronted: some turned toward the city and against the sallies of the townsmen, with others the front looking toward Etruria, being barricaded against auxiliaries, if perchance any should come from there.

[2] Cum spes maior imperatoribus Romanis in obsidione quam in oppugnatione esset, hibernacula etiam, res nova militi Romano, aedificari coepta, consiliumque erat hiemando continuare bellum. Quod postquam tribunis plebis, iam diu nullam novandi res causam invenientibus, Romam est allatum, in contionem prosiliunt, sollicitant plebis animos, hoc illud esse dictitantes quod aera militibus sint constituta; nec se fefellisse id donum inimicorum veneno inlitum fore. Venisse libertatem plebis; remotam in perpetuum et ablegatam ab urbe et ab re publica iuventutem iam ne hiemi quidem aut tempori anni cedere ac domos ac res invisere suas.

[2] When the Roman commanders had greater hope in a siege than in an assault, winter-quarters too—a new thing for the Roman soldier—began to be built, and the plan was to continue the war by wintering. After this was brought to Rome to the tribunes of the plebs, who for a long time had found no cause for renewing affairs, they spring into a public assembly, agitate the minds of the plebs, repeatedly saying that this was the very thing for which pay had been instituted for the soldiers; nor had it escaped them that that gift was smeared with the venom of enemies. The liberty of the plebs had come; the youth had been removed forever and sent away from the city and the commonwealth, now not even yielding to winter or the season of the year to visit their homes and their possessions.

Quam putarent continuatae militiae causam esse? Nullam profecto aliam inventuros quam ne quid per frequentiam iuvenum eorum in quibus vires omnes plebis essent agi de commodis eorum posset. Vexari praeterea et subigi multo acrius quam Veientes; quippe illos hiemem sub tectis suis agere, egregiis muris situque naturali urbem tutantes, militem Romanum in opere ac labore, nivibus pruinisque obrutum, sub pellibus durare, ne hiemis quidem spatio quae omnium bellorum terra marique sit quies arma deponentem.

What did they suppose was the cause of the continued military service? Assuredly they would find no other than this: that, through the frequent presence of the youths—in whom all the strength of the plebs lay—nothing could be transacted about their benefits. Moreover, that they were being vexed and subjugated far more sharply than the Veientines; for those spend the winter beneath their own roofs, protecting their city by excellent walls and by its natural site, while the Roman soldier, in work and labor, overwhelmed by snows and hoarfrosts, must endure under skins, not even in the span of winter—which is the quiet of all wars by land and sea—laying down his arms.

Hoc neque reges neque ante tribuniciam potestatem creatam superbos illos consules neque triste dictatoris imperium neque importunos decemviros iniunxisse servitutis, ut perennem militiam facerent [quod tribuni militum in plebe Romana regnum exercerent]. Quidnam illi consules dictatoresve facturi essent, qui proconsularem imaginem tam saevam ac trucem fecerint? Sed id accidere haud immerito. Non fuisse ne in octo quidem tribunis militum locum ulli plebeio.

This neither the kings, nor—before the tribunician power was created—those proud consuls, nor the grim imperium of the dictator, nor the importunate decemvirs imposed as a servitude: that they should make military service perennial [because the military tribunes were exercising kingship over the Roman plebs]. What, then, would those consuls or dictators be going to do, who have fashioned the proconsular image so savage and truculent? But this happens not without desert. There was not, not even among the eight military tribunes, any place for a single plebeian.

Antea trina loca cum contentione summa patricios explere solitos: nunc iam octoiuges ad imperia obtinenda ire, et ne in turba quidem haerere plebeium quemquam qui, si nihil aliud, admoneat collegas, liberos et cives eorum, non servos militare, quos hieme saltem in domos ac tecta reduci oporteat et aliquo tempore anni parentes liberosque ac coniuges invisere et usurpare libertatem et creare magistratus.

Previously the patricians were accustomed to fill the three places with the highest contention: now already they go eight-yoked to obtain commands, and not even in the crowd is there any plebeian sticking who, if nothing else, would admonish his colleagues that it is freeborn men and their fellow citizens, not slaves, who do military service, who in winter at least ought to be led back into their homes and under roofs, and at some time of the year to visit parents and children and spouses, and to exercise liberty and to create magistrates.

Haec taliaque vociferantes adversarium haud imparem nacti sunt Ap. Claudium, relictum a collegis ad tribunicias seditiones comprimendas, virum imbutum iam ab iuventa certaminibus plebeiis, quem auctorem aliquot annis ante fuisse memoratum est per collegarum intercessionem tribuniciae potestatis dissolvendae.

Shouting these and suchlike things, they found as a not unequal adversary Ap. Claudius, left by his colleagues for the repressing of tribunician seditions, a man imbued already from youth with plebeian contests, who is recorded to have been, some years before, the author of the tribunician power’s dissolution through the intercession of his colleagues.

[3] Is tum iam non promptus ingenio tantum, sed usu etiam exercitatus, talem orationem habuit: "Si unquam dubitatum est, Quirites, utrum tribuni plebis vestra an sua causa seditionum semper auctores fuerint, id ego hoc anno desisse dubitari certum habeo; et cum laetor tandem longi erroris vobis finem factum esse, tum, quod secundis potissimum vestris rebus hic error est sublatus, et vobis et propter vos rei publicae gratulor. An est quisquam qui dubitet nullis iniuriis vestris, si quae forte aliquando fuerunt, unquam aeque quam munere patrum in plebem, cum aera militantibus constituta sunt, tribunos plebis offensos ac concitatos esse? Quid illos aliud aut tum timuisse creditis aut hodie turbare velle nisi concordiam ordinum, quam dissolvendae maxime tribuniciae potestatis rentur esse?

[3] He, then, now not only ready in native talent but also exercised by experience, delivered such a speech: "If ever it has been doubted, Quirites, whether the tribunes of the plebs have always been authors of seditions for your sake or for their own, I hold it certain that this year it has ceased to be doubted; and while I rejoice that at last an end has been made for you of a long error, so too—because this error has been removed especially in your prosperous circumstances—I congratulate both you and, on account of you, the commonwealth. Or is there anyone who doubts that not by any wrongs done to you—if perchance there ever were any—so much as by the gift of the patres to the plebs, when pay was established for those serving under arms, the tribunes of the plebs were offended and stirred up? What else do you think they either then feared, or today wish to throw into turmoil, except the concord of the orders, which they deem to be most conducive to the dissolving of the tribunician power?"

Sic hercule, tamquam artifices improbi, opus quaerunt qui [et] semper aegri aliquid esse in re publica volunt, ut sit ad cuius curationem a vobis adhibeantur. Utrum enim defenditis an impugnatis plebem? Utrum militantium adversarii estis an causam agitis?

So, by Hercules, like unscrupulous craftsmen, they seek a job—men who [also] always want something to be sick in the republic, so that they may be employed by you for its cure. Are you defending or assailing the plebs? Are you adversaries of the men under arms, or are you pleading their cause?

Nisi forte hoc dicitis: "quidquid patres faciunt displicet, sive illud pro plebe sive contra plebem est," et quemadmodum servis suis vetant domini quicquam rei cum alienis hominibus esse pariterque in iis beneficio ac maleficio abstineri aequum censent, sic vos interdicitis patribus commercio plebis, ne nos comitate ac munificentia nostra provocemus plebem, nec plebs nobis dicto audiens atque oboediens sit. Quanto tandem, si quicquam in vobis, non dico civilis, sed humani esset, favere vos magis et quantum in vobis esset indulgere potius comitati patrum atque obsequio plebis oportuit? Quae si perpetua concordia sit, quis non spondere ausit maximum hoc imperium inter finitimos brevi futurum esse?

Unless perhaps you say this: “whatever the Fathers do displeases, whether it is for the plebs or against the plebs”; and just as masters forbid their slaves to have any business with outsiders and judge it equitable that they abstain among them equally from benefaction and malefaction, so you interdict the Fathers from commerce with the plebs, lest we by our comity and munificence provoke the plebs, and lest the plebs be heeding to our word and obedient. How much rather—if there were anything in you, I do not say of civic spirit, but of human feeling—ought you to have favored more, and so far as was in you to have indulged rather, the comity of the Fathers and the deference of the plebs? If there were perpetual concord of these, who would not dare to pledge that this imperium would shortly be the greatest among its neighbors?

[4] "Atqui ego, quam hoc consilium collegarum meorum, quo abducere infecta re a Veiis exercitum noluerunt, non utile solum sed etiam necessarium fuerit, postea disseram: nunc de ipsa condicione dicere militantium libet; quam orationem non apud vos solum sed etiam in castris si habeatur, ipso exercitu disceptante, aequam arbitror videri posse. In qua si mihi ipsi nihil quod dicerem in mentem venire posset, adversariorum certe orationibus contentus essem. Negabant nuper danda esse aera militibus, quia nunquam data essent.

[4] "But indeed I will later discuss how this counsel of my colleagues, by which they were unwilling to lead the army away from Veii with the matter unfinished, was not only useful but even necessary: now I am minded to speak about the very condition of those doing military service; which oration, if it were delivered not only before you but even in the camp, with the army itself deliberating, I judge could seem equitable. In which, if nothing that I might say were to come into my own mind, I should certainly be content with the speeches of the adversaries. They were lately denying that bronze-pay ought to be given to the soldiers, because it had never been given.

Quonam modo igitur nunc indignari possunt, quibus aliquid novi adiectum commodi sit, eis laborem etiam novum pro portione iniungi? Nusquam nec opera sine emolumento nec emolumentum ferme sine impensa opera est. Labor voluptasque, dissimillima natura, societate quadam inter se naturali sunt iuncta.

In what way, then, can they now be indignant—those for whom some new benefit has been added—that a new labor also should be enjoined upon them in proportion? Nowhere is there work without emolument, nor is there emolument, for the most part, without the expense of work. Labor and pleasure, most dissimilar in nature, are joined to one another by a certain natural society.

Moleste antea ferebat miles se suo sumptu operam rei publicae praebere; gaudebat idem partem anni se agrum suum colere, quaerere unde domi militiaeque se ac suos tueri posset: gaudet nunc fructui sibi rem publicam esse, et laetus stipendium accipit; aequo igitur animo patiatur se [ab domo] ab re familiari, cui gravis impensa non est, paulo diutius abesse. An si ad calculos eum res publica vocet, non merito dicat: "annua aera habes, annuam operam ede: an tu aequum censes militia semestri solidum te stipendium accipere?" Invitus in hac parte orationis, Quirites, moror; sic enim agere debent qui mercennario milite utuntur; nos tamquam cum civibus agere volumus, agique tamquam cum patria nobiscum aequum censemus. Aut non suscipi bellum oportuit, aut geri pro dignitate populi Romani et perfici quam primum oportet.

Previously the soldier took it ill that he furnished service to the commonwealth at his own expense; the same man rejoiced to cultivate his own field for part of the year, to seek whence he might be able to protect himself and his own both at home and in military service: now he rejoices that the commonwealth is to his profit, and gladly receives his stipend; therefore let him with an even mind allow himself [from home], from his domestic estate—upon which the outlay is not heavy—to be away a little longer. But if the commonwealth should call him to the reckoning, would it not rightly say: “You have annual pay; render annual service: do you think it fair to receive full stipend for a half‑year’s military service?” Unwillingly, Quirites, I tarry in this part of the speech; for thus ought those to act who make use of a mercenary soldier; we wish to deal as with citizens, and we judge it fair that you deal with us as with your fatherland. Either the war ought not to have been undertaken, or it ought to be conducted in a manner worthy of the dignity of the Roman People and brought to completion as soon as possible.

Perficietur autem si urgemus obsessos, si non ante abscedimus quam spei nostrae finem captis Veiis imposuerimus. Si hercules nulla alia causa, ipsa indignitas perseverantiam imponere debuit. Decem quondam annos urbs oppugnata est ob unam mulierem ab universa Graecia, quam procul ab domo?

It will, moreover, be brought to completion if we press the besieged, if we do not withdraw before we have set to our hope its end upon the capture of Veii. By Hercules, if for no other cause, the very indignity ought to have imposed perseverance. Once for ten years a city was besieged on account of a single woman by all Greece—how far from home?

Quot terras, quot maria distans? Nos intra vicesimum lapidem, in conspectu prope urbis nostrae, annuam oppugnationem perferre piget. Scilicet quia levis causa belli est nec satis quicquam iusti doloris est quod nos ad perseverandum stimulet.

How many lands, how many seas away? We, within the twentieth milestone, almost within sight of our city, are loath to endure a year-long siege. No doubt, since the cause of the war is slight and there is not anything of just grief sufficient to stimulate us to persevere.

Septiens rebellarunt; in pace nunquam fida fuerunt; agros nostros miliens depopulati sunt; Fidenates deficere a nobis coegerunt; colonos nostros ibi interfecerunt; auctores fuere contra ius caedis impiae legatorum nostrorum; Etruriam omnem adversus nos concitare voluerunt, hodieque id moliuntur; res repetentes legatos nostros haud procul afuit quin violarent.

Seven times they rebelled; in peace they were never faithful; they devastated our fields a thousand times; they forced the Fidenates to defect from us; they slew our colonists there; they were the authors, contrary to law, of the impious slaughter of our ambassadors; they wished to stir up all Etruria against us, and even today they are contriving this; when our ambassadors were demanding restitution, they were not far from violating them.

[5] "Cum his molliter et per dilationes bellum geri oportet? Si nos tam iustum odium nihil movet, ne illa quidem, oro vos, movent? Operibus ingentibus saepta urbs est quibus intra muros coercetur hostis; agrum non coluit, et culta evastata sunt bello; si reducimus exercitum, quis est qui dubitet illos non a cupiditate solum ulciscendi sed etiam necessitate imposita ex alieno praedandi cum sua amiserint agrum nostrum invasuros?

[5] "Ought war with these men to be conducted softly and by delays? If so just a hatred moves us not at all, do not even those things, I pray you, move you? The city is fenced with vast works, by which the enemy is restrained within the walls; they have not tilled the field, and the cultivated lands have been laid waste by war; if we draw back the army, who is there who would doubt that they, not only from a cupidity of avenging but also from an imposed necessity of plundering from another’s, since they will have lost their own, will invade our land?"

Non differimus igitur bellum isto consilio, sed intra fines nostros accipimus. Quid? Illud, quod proprie ad milites pertinet, quibus boni tribuni plebis tum stipendium extorquere voluerunt, nunc consultum repente volunt, quale est?

We are not, then, deferring the war by that counsel, but we are accepting it within our own boundaries. What? That matter which properly pertains to the soldiers, from whom the good tribunes of the plebs then wished to extort the stipend—they now suddenly want it “seen to”: what sort of measure is that?

Vallum fossamque, ingentis utrumque operis, per tantum spatii duxerunt; castella primo pauca, postea exercitu aucto creberrima fecerunt; munitiones non in urbem modo sed in Etruriam etiam spectantes si qua auxilia veniant, opposuere; quid turres, quid vineas testudinesque et alium oppugnandarum urbium apparatum loquar? Cum tantum laboris exhaustum sit et ad finem iam operis tandem perventum, relinquendane haec censetis, ut ad aestatem rursus novus de integro his instituendis exsudetur labor? Quanto est minus opera tueri facta et instare ac perseverare defungique cura?

They drew a rampart and a ditch, both works of immense labor, across so great an expanse; at first they made few forts, afterward, with the army augmented, very numerous; they set up fortifications looking not only toward the city but even toward Etruria, in case any auxiliaries should come; what shall I say of towers, what of vineae, testudines, and the other apparatus for assaulting cities? Since so much toil has been expended and at last the end of the work has been reached, do you judge that these should be abandoned, so that in summer again a new toil may be sweated out afresh from the very beginning in establishing these? How much less is it to guard the works already made and to press on and persevere and be discharged from the care?

Brevis enim profecto res est, si uno tenore peragitur nec ipsi per intermissiones has intervallaque lentiorem spem nostram facimus. Loquor de operae et de temporis iactura; quid? Periculi, quod differendo bello adimus, num oblivisci nos haec tam crebra Etruriae concilia de mittendis Veios auxiliis patiuntur?

For truly the matter is brief, if it is carried through in one continuous tenor, nor do we ourselves by these intermissions and intervals make our hope slower. I speak of the loss of labor and of time; what then? Of the peril which we incur by deferring the war—do these so frequent councils of Etruria about sending auxiliaries to Veii suffer us to forget?

Ut nunc res se habet, irati sunt, oderunt, negant missuros; quantum in illis est, capere Veios licet. Quis est qui spondeat eundem, si differtur bellum, animum postea fore, cum si laxamentum dederis, maior frequentiorque legatio itura sit, cum id quod nunc offendit Etruscos, rex creatus Veiis, mutari spatio interposito possit vel consensu civitatis ut eo reconcilient Etruriae animos, vel ipsius voluntate regis qui obstare regnum suum saluti civium nolit? Videte, quot res, quam inutiles sequantur illam viam consilii, iactura operum tanto labore factorum, vastatio imminens finium nostrorum, Etruscum bellum pro Veiente concitatum.

As matters now stand, they are angry, they hate us, they deny that they will send aid; so far as it lies with them, it is possible to take Veii. Who is there to pledge that the same temper, if the war is deferred, will exist afterward, since, if you give a respite, a greater and more frequent legation will go, since that which now offends the Etruscans—the king created at Veii—can be changed, the interval interposed allowing it, either by the consensus of the citizen-body, so that by it they may reconcile the minds of Etruria, or by the will of the king himself, who would not wish his kingship to stand in the way of the safety of the citizens? See how many things, how unprofitable, follow that course of counsel: the loss of the works wrought with so great labor, the imminent devastation of our borders, an Etruscan war incited on behalf of the Veientine.

Haec sunt, tribuni, consilia vestra, non hercule dissimilia ac si quis aegro qui curari se fortiter passus extemplo convalescere possit, cibi gratia praesentis aut potionis longinquum et forsitan insanabilem morbum efficiat.

These, tribunes, are your counsels, not, by Hercules, dissimilar—as if someone, for a sick man who, having bravely allowed himself to be cared for, could convalesce at once, should, for the sake of present food or potion, bring about a long and perhaps incurable disease.

[6] "Si, mediusfidius, ad hoc bellum nihil pertineret, ad disciplinam certe militiae plurimum intererat, insuescere militem nostrum non solum parata victoria frui, sed si etiam res lentior sit, pati taedium et quamvis serae spei exitum exspectare et si non sit aestate perfectum bellum, hiemem opperiri nec sicut aestivas aves statim autumno tecta ac recessum circumspicere. Obsecro vos, venandi studium ac voluptas homines per nives ac pruinas in montes silvasque rapit: belli necessitatibus eam patientiam non adhibebimus quam vel lusus ac voluptas elicere solet? Adeone effeminata corpora militum nostrorum esse putamus, adeo molles animos, ut hiemem unam durare in castris, abesse ab domo non possint?

[6] "If, by my good faith, nothing as to this war were at stake, at least it would very much pertain to the discipline of military service that our soldier become accustomed not only to enjoy a victory when prepared, but, if the matter be slower, to suffer tedium and to await the outcome of hope, however late; and, if the war be not completed in summer, to wait for the winter, and not, like summer birds, immediately at autumn to look around for roofs and a retreat. I beseech you, the zeal and pleasure of hunting carry men off through snows and frosts into mountains and woods: shall we not apply to the necessities of war that endurance which even sport and pleasure are wont to elicit? Do we suppose the bodies of our soldiers to be so effeminate, the spirits so soft, that they cannot endure one winter in camp, cannot be away from home?

Ut, tamquam navale bellum tempestatibus captandis et observando tempore anni gerant, non aestus, non frigora pati possint? Erubescant profecto, si quis eis haec obiciat, contendantque et animis et corporibus suis virilem patientiam inesse, et se iuxta hieme atque aestate bella gerere posse, nec se patrocinium mollitiae inertiaeque mandasse tribunis, et meminisse hanc ipsam potestatem non in umbra nec in tectis maiores suos creasse.

What! as though they were conducting a naval war by catching tempests and by observing the season of the year, can they not endure heats nor colds? Let them indeed blush, if anyone should throw these things in their teeth, and let them contend that in both their spirits and their bodies there is manly endurance, and that they are able to wage wars equally in winter as in summer, and that they have not consigned to the tribunes the patronage of softness and inertia, and that they remember their ancestors did not create this very power in the shade nor under roofs.

"Haec virtute militum vestrorum, haec Romano nomine sunt digna, non Veios tantum nec hoc bellum intueri quod instat, sed famam et ad alia bella et ad ceteros populos in posterum quaerere. An mediocre discrimen opinionis secuturum ex hac re putatis, utrum tandem finitimi populum Romanum eum esse putent cuius si qua urbs primum illum brevissimi temporis sustinuerit impetum, nihil deinde timeat, an hic sit terror nominis nostri ut exercitum Romanum non taedium longinquae oppugnationis, non vis hiemis ab urbe circumsessa semel amovere possit, nec finem ullum alium belli quam victoriam noverit, nec impetu potius bella quam perseverantia gerat? Quae in omni quidem genere militiae, maxime tamen in obsidendis urbibus necessaria est, quarum plerasque munitionibus ac naturali situ inexpugnabiles fame sitique tempus ipsum vincit atque expugnat,—sicut Veios expugnabit, nisi auxilio hostibus tribuni plebis fuerint, et Romae invenerint praesidia Veientes quae nequiquam in Etruria quaerunt.

"These are worthy of the valor of your soldiers, worthy of the Roman name: not to look only to Veii nor to this war which is at hand, but to seek repute both for other wars and among the rest of the peoples for the future. Do you think only a moderate difference of estimation will follow from this matter—whether, after all, the neighbors are to think the Roman people to be such that, if any city has at the first withstood its assault for a very short time, it thereafter has nothing to fear; or that such is the terror of our name that neither the tedium of a long siege nor the force of winter can once remove a Roman army from a city that has been encircled, that it knows no other end of war than victory, and that it wages wars not so much by onrush as by perseverance? Which is necessary in every kind of warfare, but most of all in besieging cities—most of which, impregnable by fortifications and by natural position, time itself conquers and takes by hunger and thirst—just as it will take Veii, unless the tribunes of the plebs prove a help to the enemy, and the Veientes find at Rome the reinforcements which they seek in vain in Etruria.

"An est quicquam quod Veientibus optatum aeque contingere possit quam ut seditionibus primum urbs Romana, deinde velut ex contagione castra impleantur? At hercule apud hostes tanta modestia est ut non obsidionis taedio, non denique regni, quicquam apud eos novatum sit, non negata auxilia ab Etruscis inritaverint animos; morietur enim extemplo quicumque erit seditionis auctor, nec cuiquam dicere ea licebit quae apud vos impune dicuntur. Fustuarium meretur, qui signa relinquit aut praesidio decedit: auctores signa relinquendi et deserendi castra non uni aut alteri militi sed universis exercitibus palam in contione audiuntur; adeo, quidquid tribunus plebi loquitur, etsi prodendae patriae dissolvendae rei publicae est, adsuestis, Quirites, audire et dulcedine potestatis eius capti quaelibet sub ea scelera latere sinitis.

"Or is there anything that could as equally befall the Veientines as desired as that first the city of Rome be filled with seditions, then, as if by contagion, the camps? Yet, by Hercules, among the enemy there is such discipline that neither by the tedium of the siege, nor, finally, by the question of kingship, has anything been innovated among them; they have not exasperated their spirits because aids were denied by the Etruscans; for whoever shall be the author of sedition will die immediately, nor will it be permitted to anyone to say those things which among you are said with impunity. He deserves the cudgeling, who leaves the standards or quits his post: the promoters of leaving the standards and of deserting the camp are openly heard in assembly, not by one or another soldier but by entire armies; to such a degree, whatever the tribune of the plebs says, even if it is for betraying the fatherland and dissolving the commonwealth, you are accustomed, Quirites, to hear, and, captured by the sweetness of his power, you allow any crimes whatsoever to lie hidden under it.

Reliquum est ut quae hic vociferantur, eadem in castris et apud milites agant et exercitus corrumpant ducibusque parere non patiantur, quoniam ea demum Romae libertas est, non senatum, non magistratus, non leges, non mores maiorum, non instituta patrum, non disciplinam vereri militiae."

It remains that they do in the camp and among the soldiers the same things that are vociferated here, and that they corrupt the army and do not allow it to obey its leaders, since in Rome liberty is ultimately this: to feel reverence for neither the Senate, nor the magistrates, nor the laws, nor the customs of the ancestors, nor the institutions of the fathers, nor military discipline."

[7] Par iam etiam in contionibus erat Appius tribunis plebis, cum subito, unde minime quis crederet, accepta calamitas apud Veios et superiorem Appium in causa et concordiam ordinum maiorem ardoremque ad obsidendos pertinacius Veios fecit. Nam cum agger promotus ad urbem vineaeque tantum non iam iniunctae moenibus essent, dum opera interdiu fiunt intentius quam nocte custodiuntur, patefacta repente porta ingens multitudo facibus maxime armata ignes coniecit, horaeque momento simul aggerem ac vineas, tam longi temporis opus, incendium hausit; multique ibi mortales nequiquam opem ferentes ferro ignique absumpti sunt. Quod ubi Romam est nuntiatum, maestitiam omnibus, senatui curam metumque iniecit, ne tum vero sustineri nec in urbe seditio nec in castris posset et tribuni plebis velut ab se victae rei publicae insultarent, cum repente quibus census equester erat, equi publici non erant adsignati, concilio prius inter sese habito, senatum adeunt factaque dicendi potestate, equis se suis stipendia facturos promittunt.

[7] Appius was now even in the public assemblies on a par with the tribunes of the plebs, when suddenly, from where one would least believe, a calamity received at Veii both made Appius the superior in the case and produced a greater concord of the orders and a greater ardor to besiege Veii more pertinaciously. For when the siege-ramp had been pushed up to the city and the vineae (mantlets) were all but now joined to the walls, while the works by day were carried on more intently than they were guarded by night, a gate suddenly thrown open, a huge multitude, armed chiefly with torches, cast in fires, and in the moment of an hour the conflagration swallowed at once the ramp and the vineae, a work of so long a time; and many mortals there, bringing help in vain, were consumed by sword and fire. When this was announced to Rome, it infused sadness into all, and into the senate care and fear, lest then indeed sedition could be restrained neither in the city nor in the camp, and the tribunes of the plebs should exult as if the commonwealth had been conquered by themselves, when suddenly those who had the equestrian census, to whom public horses had not been assigned, having first held a council among themselves, approach the senate, and, leave to speak having been granted, promise that they will make their campaigns with their own horses.

Quibus cum amplissimis verbis gratiae ab senatu actae essent famaque ea forum atque urbem pervasisset, subito ad curiam concursus fit plebis; pedestris ordinis aiunt nunc esse operam rei publicae extra ordinem polliceri, seu Veios seu quo alio ducere velint; si Veios ducti sint, negant se inde prius quam capta urbe hostium redituros esse. Tum vero iam superfundenti se laetitiae vix temperatum est; non enim, sicut equites, dato magistratibus negotio laudari iussi, neque aut in curiam vocati quibus responsum daretur, aut limine curiae continebatur senatus; sed pro se quisque ex superiore loco ad multitudinem in comitio stantem voce manibusque significare publicam laetitiam, beatam urbem Romanam et invictam et aeternam illa concordia dicere, laudare equites, laudare plebem, diem ipsum laudibus ferre, victam esse fateri comitatem benignitatemque senatus. Certatim patribus plebique manare gaudio lacrimae, donec revocatis in curiam patribus senatus consultum factum est ut tribuni militares contione advocata peditibus equitibusque gratias agerent, memorem pietatis eorum erga patriam dicerent senatum fore; placere autem omnibus his voluntariam extra ordinem professis militiam aera procedere; et equiti certus numerus aeris est adsignatus.

When thanks had been given to them by the senate with the most ample words, and that report had pervaded the forum and the city, suddenly there is a rush of the plebs to the curia; they say that the service of the pedestrian order (the infantry) now is being proffered to the commonwealth extra ordinem—out of turn—whether they wish to lead them to Veii or wherever else; if they are led to Veii, they declare they will not return thence before the enemy’s city is taken. Then indeed, as joy was now pouring itself over them, there was scarcely any restraint; for not, as in the case of the equites, with the task given to the magistrates were they ordered to be praised, nor was the senate either called into the curia to whom a response might be given, or confined to the threshold of the curia; but each man for his own part, from an upper place, to the multitude standing in the comitium, by voice and hands signals public rejoicing, declares that by that concord the Roman city is blessed and unconquered and eternal, praises the equites, praises the plebs, carries even the day itself with praises, confesses that the courtesy and benignity of the senate have been overcome. Tears of joy flow in rivalry from the fathers and the plebs, until, the fathers having been recalled into the curia, a decree of the senate was made that the military tribunes, an assembly having been called, should offer thanks to the foot-soldiers and to the horsemen, and should say that the senate would be mindful of their pietas toward the fatherland; moreover, it pleases that to all these who have professed voluntary service extra ordinem pay in coin should be advanced; and to the horseman a fixed sum of pay was assigned.

Tum primum equis suis merere equites coeperunt. Voluntarius ductus exercitus Veios non amissa modo restituit opera, sed nova etiam instituit. Ab urbe commeatus intentiore quam antea subvehi cura, ne quid tam bene merito exercitui ad usum deesset.

Then for the first time the cavalry began to serve for pay with their own horses. A voluntarily led army to Veii not only restored the works that had been lost, but even instituted new ones. From the city, supplies were brought up with more intent care than before, lest anything for use be lacking to an army so well-deserving.

[8] Insequens annus tribunos militum consulari potestate habuit C. Servilium Ahalam tertium Q. Servilium L. Verginium Q. Sulpicium A. Manlium iterum M'. Sergium iterum. His tribunis, dum cura omnium in Veiens bellum intenta est, neglectum Anxuri praesidium vacationibus militum et Volscos mercatores volgo receptando, proditis repente portarum custodibus oppressum est. Minus militum periit, quia praeter aegros lixarum in modum omnes per agros vicinasque urbes negotiabantur.

[8] The following year had military tribunes with consular power: C. Servilius Ahala for the third time, Q. Servilius, L. Verginius, Q. Sulpicius, A. Manlius again, M'. Sergius again. Under these tribunes, while the concern of all was fixed on the Veientine war, the garrison at Anxur—neglected through leaves of absence for the soldiers and by commonly admitting Volscian merchants—was overwhelmed, the guards of the gates having been suddenly betrayed. Fewer soldiers perished, because, except for the sick, all were, in the manner of sutlers, transacting business through the fields and in the neighboring cities.

Nec Veiis melius gesta res, quod tum caput omnium curarum publicarum erat; nam et duces Romani plus inter se irarum quam adversus hostes animi habuerunt, et auctum est bellum adventu repentino Capenatium atque Faliscorum. Hi duo Etruriae populi, quia proximi regione erant, devictis Veiis bello quoque Romano se proximos fore credentes, Falisci propria etiam causa infesti quod Fidenati bello se iam antea immiscuerant, per legatos ultro citroque missos iure iurando inter se obligati, cum exercitibus necopinato ad Veios accessere. Forte ea regione qua M'. Sergius tribunus militum praeerat castra adorti sunt ingentemque terrorem intulere, quia Etruriam omnem excitam sedibus magna mole adesse Romani crediderant.

Nor were things done better at Veii, which at that time was the head of all public concerns; for the Roman commanders had more wrath among themselves than spirit against the enemies, and the war was augmented by the sudden arrival of the Capenates and the Faliscans. These two peoples of Etruria, because they were nearest in region, believing that, with Veii conquered, they would also be next in turn to the Roman war, the Faliscans too being hostile for their own particular cause because they had already previously involved themselves in the Fidenate war, having been bound to each other by oath through envoys sent to and fro, approached Veii unexpectedly with their armies. By chance, in the quarter where M'. Sergius, tribune of the soldiers, was in command, they assaulted the camp and brought immense terror, because the Romans had believed that all Etruria, roused from their seats in a great mass, was present.

Eadem opinio Veientes in urbe concitavit. Ita ancipiti proelio castra Romana oppugnabantur; concursantesque cum huc atque illuc signa transferrent, nec Veientem satis cohibere intra munitiones nec suis munimentis arcere vim ac tueri se ab exteriore poterant hoste. Una spes erat, si ex maioribus castris subveniretur, ut diversae legiones aliae adversus Capenatem ac Faliscum, aliae contra eruptionem oppidanorum pugnarent; sed castris praeerat Verginius, privatim Sergio invisus infestusque.

The same opinion stirred the Veientes in the city. Thus, in a two‑front battle, the Roman camp was being assaulted; and as they ran hither and thither, transferring the standards, they could neither sufficiently confine the Veientines within the fortifications nor, by their own defenses, ward off the force and protect themselves from the enemy outside. There was one hope, if help should be sent from the larger camp: that diverse legions, some might fight against the Capenate and the Faliscan, others against the sally of the townsmen; but the camp was commanded by Verginius, personally odious and hostile to Sergius.

Is cum pleraque castella oppugnata, superatas munitiones, utrimque invehi hostem nuntiaretur, in armis milites tenuit, si opus foret auxilio collegam dictitans ad se missurum. Huius adrogantiam pertinacia alterius aequabat, qui, ne quam opem ab inimico videretur petisse, vinci ab hoste quam vincere per civem maluit. Diu in medio caesi milites; postremo desertis munitionibus, perpauci in maiora castra, pars maxima atque ipse Sergius Romam pertenderunt.

He, when it was reported that most of the forts had been assaulted, the fortifications overcome, and that the enemy was charging in from both sides, kept the soldiers under arms, repeatedly saying that, if there should be need of assistance, he would have his colleague sent to himself. The pertinacity of the other matched this one’s arrogance, for he, lest he seem to have sought any aid from an enemy (personal), preferred to be conquered by the enemy rather than to conquer through a fellow-citizen. Long were the soldiers cut down in the midst; at last, the defenses abandoned, very few made it into the larger camp, while the greater part—and Sergius himself—hastened toward Rome.

Ubi cum omnem culpam in collegam inclinaret, acciri Verginium ex castris, interea praeesse legatos placuit. Acta deinde in senatu res est certatumque inter collegas maledictis. Pauci rei publicae, [plerique] huic atque illi ut quosque studium privatim aut gratia occupaverat adsunt.

When he shifted all blame onto his colleague, it pleased them that Verginius be summoned from the camp, and that meanwhile the legates should be in command. Then the matter was transacted in the senate, and the colleagues contended with insults. Few were for the commonwealth; [most] supported this side or that, as private zeal or favor had preoccupied each.

[9] Primores patrum sive culpa sive infelicitate imperatorum tam ignominiosa clades accepta esset censuere non exspectandum iustum tempus comitiorum, sed extemplo novos tribunos militum creandos esse, qui Kalendis Octobribus magistratum occiperent. In quam sententiam cum pedibus iretur, ceteri tribuni militum nihil contradicere; at enimvero Sergius Verginiusque, propter quos paenitere magistratuum eius anni senatum apparebat, primo deprecari ignominiam, deinde intercedere senatus consulto, negare se ante idus Decembres, sollemnem ineundis magistratibus diem, honore abituros esse. Inter haec tribuni plebis, cum in concordia hominum secundisque rebus civitatis inviti silentium tenuissent, feroces repente minari tribunis militum, nisi in auctoritate senatus essent, se in vincla eos duci iussuros esse.

[9] The foremost of the fathers, whether through the fault or the ill‑fortune of the commanders a disgrace so ignominious had been incurred, judged that the lawful time of the elections was not to be awaited, but that new military tribunes should be created forthwith, to enter upon office on the Kalends of October. When they were proceeding to vote for this opinion by a division, the other military tribunes raised no objection; but indeed Sergius and Verginius—on account of whom it was evident that the senate repented of the magistracies of that year—first sought to avert the ignominy, then interposed a veto against the senatorial decree, declaring that they would not leave their honor before the Ides of December, the solemn day for entering upon magistracies. Meanwhile the tribunes of the plebs, who in times of concord among men and in the prosperous condition of the state had, though unwilling, kept silence, suddenly, in fierceness, threatened the military tribunes that, unless they were under the authority of the senate, they would order them to be led away in chains.

Tum C. Servilius Ahala tribunus militum: "Quod ad vos attinet, tribuni plebis, minasque vestras, ne ego libenter experirer quam non plus in iis iuris quam in vobis animi esset; sed nefas est tendere adversus auctoritatem senatus. Proinde et vos desinite inter nostra certamina locum iniuriae quaerere, et collegae aut facient quod censet senatus, aut si pertinacius tendent, dictatorem extemplo dicam qui eos abire magistratu cogat." Cum omnium adsensu comprobata oratio esset, gauderentque patres sine tribuniciae potestatis terriculis inventam esse aliam vim maiorem ad coercendos magistratus, victi consensu omnium comitia tribunorum militum habuere qui Kalendis Octobribus magistratum occiperent, seque ante eam diem magistratu abdicavere.

Then Gaius Servilius Ahala, military tribune: “As for you, tribunes of the plebs, and your threats, I for my part would gladly make trial how there is no more right in them than there is spirit in you; but it is nefas to strain against the authority of the senate. Therefore do you as well cease seeking a place for injury amid our contests, and my colleagues will either do what the senate judges, or, if they persist more stubbornly, I will forthwith name a dictator to compel them to depart from office.” When his speech had been approved with the assent of all, and the Fathers rejoiced that, without the bogeys of tribunician power, another, greater force had been found for coercing magistrates, conquered by the consensus of all they held the comitia of military tribunes who would enter upon office on the Kalends of October, and they abdicated their office before that day.

[10] L. Valerio Potito quartum M. Furio Camillo iterum M'. Aemilio Mamerco tertium Cn. Cornelio Cosso iterum K. Fabio Ambusto L. Iulio Iulo tribunis militum consulari potestate multa domi militiaeque gesta; nam et bellum multiplex fuit eodem tempore, ad Veios et ad Capenam et ad Falerios et in Volscis ut Anxur ab hostibus reciperaretur, et Romae simul dilectu simul tributo conferendo laboratum est, et de tribunis plebi cooptandis contentio fuit, et haud parvum motum duo iudicia eorum qui paulo ante consulari potestate fuerant excivere. Omnium primum tribunis militum fuit, dilectum haberi; nec iuniores modo conscripti sed seniores etiam coacti nomina dare ut urbis custodiam agerent. Quantum autem augebatur militum numerus, tanto maiore pecunia in stipendium opus erat, eaque tributo conferebatur, invitis conferentibus qui domi remanebant, quia tuentibus urbem opera quoque militari laborandum serviendumque rei publicae erat.

[10] Under the military tribunes with consular power L. Valerius Potitus for the 4th time, M. Furius Camillus for the 2nd time, M'. Aemilius Mamercus for the 3rd time, Cn. Cornelius Cossus for the 2nd time, K. Fabius Ambustus, and L. Iulius Iulus, many things were done at home and in the field; for there was a manifold war at the same time—at Veii and at Capena and at Falerii and among the Volsci, so that Anxur might be recovered from the enemy—and at Rome there was toil both in holding a levy and in contributing the tribute, and there was a contention about the co-opting of the tribunes of the plebs, and two trials of those who a little before had held consular power stirred up no small commotion. First of all for the military tribunes it was that a levy be held; and not only were the younger men enrolled, but the elders also were compelled to give in their names, in order to perform the guardianship of the city. And the more the number of soldiers increased, by so much the greater sum of money was needed for stipend, and this was contributed by a tribute, those who remained at home contributing unwillingly, because, for those guarding the city, there was also military work to be labored at and service to be rendered to the commonwealth.

Haec per se gravia indigniora ut viderentur tribuni plebis seditiosis contionibus faciebant, ideo aera militibus constituta esse arguendo ut plebis partem militia partem tributo conficerent. Unum bellum annum iam tertium trahi et consulto male geri ut diutius gerant. In quattuor deinde bella uno dilectu exercitus scriptos, et pueros quoque ac senes extractos.

These things, weighty in themselves, the tribunes of the plebs were making seem yet more outrageous by seditious assemblies, alleging that pay had been fixed for the soldiers in order that they might wear out the plebs partly by military service and partly by the tribute. One war, they said, is being drawn out now for the third year, and is being managed badly on purpose so that they may carry it on longer. Then, for four wars, armies have been enrolled by a single levy, and even boys and old men have been dragged out.

Iam non aestatis nec hiemis discrimen esse, ne ulla quies unquam miserae plebi sit; quae nunc etiam vectigalis ad ultimum facta sit, ut cum confecta labore volneribus postremo aetate corpora rettulerint incultaque omnia diutino dominorum desiderio domi invenerint, tributum ex adfecta re familiari pendant aeraque militaria, velut fenore accepta, multiplicia rei publicae reddant.

Now there is no distinction of summer nor of winter, so that no rest may ever be for the wretched plebs; who now even have been made tributary to the uttermost, so that, when they have brought back bodies worn out with labor, with wounds, and at last with age, and have found everything at home uncared-for through the long-continued deprivation of their masters, they must pay the tribute out of a weakened household estate, and, as if received at interest, they must render back their military pay in multiple to the State.

Inter dilectum tributumque et occupatos animos maiorum rerum curis, comitiis tribunorum plebis numerus expleri nequiit. Pugnatum inde in loca vacua ut patricii cooptarentur. Postquam obtineri non poterat, tamen labefactandae legis [tribuniciae] causa effectum est ut cooptarentur tribuni plebis C. Lacerius et M. Acutius, haud dubie patriciorum opibus

Between the levy and the tribute, and with minds preoccupied by the cares of greater matters, at the elections the number of tribunes of the plebs could not be filled. There was contention then over the vacant places, that patricians be co-opted. After this could not be obtained, nevertheless, for the sake of undermining the [tribunician] law, it was brought about that C. Lacerius and M. Acutius were co-opted as tribunes of the plebs, beyond doubt by the resources of the patricians

[11] Fors ita tulit ut eo anno tribunus plebis Cn. Trebonius esset, qui nomini ac familiae debitum praestare videretur Treboniae legis patrocinium. Is quod petissent patres quondam primo incepto repulsi, tandem tribunos militum expugnasse vociferans, legem Treboniam sublatam et cooptatos tribunos plebis non suffragiis populi sed imperio patriciorum; eo revolvi rem ut aut patricii aut patriciorum adseculae habendi tribuni plebis sint; eripi sacratas leges, extorqueri tribuniciam potestatem; id fraude patriciorum, scelere ac proditione collegarum factum arguere.

[11] Chance so bore it that in that year the tribune of the plebs was Gnaeus Trebonius, who seemed to render what was owed to his name and family: the patronage of the Trebonian law. He, vociferating that that which the patricians had once sought, repulsed at the first attempt, they had at last carried by storm in the matter of the military tribunes—that the Trebonian law had been removed, and that tribunes of the plebs had been coopted not by the suffrages of the people but by the imperium of the patricians; that the affair was being rolled back to this point, that either patricians or the hangers-on of the patricians are to be had as tribunes of the plebs; that the sacred laws are being snatched away, the tribunician power being extorted; he arraigned this as done by the fraud of the patricians and by the crime and treachery of his colleagues.

Cum arderent invidia non patres modo sed etiam tribuni plebis, cooptati pariter et qui cooptaverant, tum ex collegio tres, P. Curatius M. Metilius M. Minucius, trepidi rerum suarum, in Sergium Verginiumque, prioris anni tribunos militares, incurrunt; in eos ab se iram plebis invidiamque die dicta avertunt. Quibus dilectus, quibus tributum, quibus diutina militia longinquitasque belli sit gravis, qui clade accepta ad Veios doleant, qui amissis liberis, fratribus, propinquis, adfinibus lugubres domos habeant, his publici privatique doloris exsequendi ius potestatemque ex duobus noxiis capitibus datam ab se memorant. Omnium namque malorum in Sergio Verginioque causas esse; nec id accusatorem magis arguere quam fateri reos, qui noxii ambo alter in alterum causam conferant, fugam Sergi Verginius, Sergius proditionem increpans Vergini.

When not the patres only but also the tribunes of the plebs—both the coopted and those who had coopted—were burning with envy, then three from the college, P. Curatius, M. Metilius, M. Minucius, alarmed for their own affairs, make an attack upon Sergius and Verginius, the military tribunes of the previous year; upon them they divert away from themselves the people’s wrath and envy by a day being named (they arraign them). To those for whom the levy, for whom the tribute, for whom long-standing service and the remoteness of the war is burdensome, who grieve, after the disaster received at Veii, who, having lost children, brothers, kinsmen, connections by marriage, have houses in mourning—to these they remind that the right and power of prosecuting public and private grief has been given by themselves from two guilty heads. For in Sergius and Verginius lie the causes of all evils; nor does that accuse them more as accuser than it is admitted by the defendants, who, both guilty, shift the cause each onto the other—Verginius reproaching Sergius with flight, Sergius inveighing against Verginius for treason.

Quorum adeo incredibilem amentiam fuisse ut multo veri similius sit compecto eam rem et communi fraude patriciorum actam. Ab his et prius datum locum Veientibus ad incendenda opera belli trahendi causa, et nunc proditum exercitum, tradita Faliscis Romana castra. Omnia fieri ut consenescat ad Veios iuventus, nec de agris nec de aliis commodis plebis ferre ad populum tribuni frequentiaque urbana celebrare actiones et resistere conspirationi patriciorum possint.

Whose madness was so incredible that it is much more likely that the matter was arranged by compact and carried through by the common fraud of the patricians. By these men both earlier an opportunity was given to the Veientes to burn the siege-works, for the purpose of dragging out the war, and now the army has been betrayed, the Roman camp handed over to the Faliscans. Everything is being done so that the youth may grow old at Veii, and so that the tribunes cannot bring before the people measures about the lands nor other conveniences of the plebs, and cannot, amid urban throngs, conduct their actions and resist the conspiracy of the patricians.

Praeiudicium iam de reis et ab senatu et ab populo Romano et ab ipsorum collegio factum esse; nam et senatus consulto eos ab re publica remotos esse, et recusantes abdicare se magistratu dictatoris metu ab collegis coercitos esse, et populum Romanum tribunos creasse qui non idibus Decembribus, die sollemni, sed extemplo Kalendis Octobribus magistratum occiperent, quia stare diutius res publica his manentibus in magistratu non posset; et tamen eos, tot iudiciis confossos praedamnatosque, venire ad populi iudicium et existimare defunctos se esse satisque poenarum dedisse quod duobus mensibus citius privati facti sint, neque intellegere nocendi sibi diutius tum potestatem ereptam esse, non poenam inrogatam; quippe et collegis abrogatum imperium qui certe nihil deliquissent. Illos repeterent animos Quirites, quos recenti clade accepta habuissent, cum fuga trepidum, plenum volnerum ac pavoris incidentem portis exercitum viderint, non fortunam aut quemquam deorum sed hos duces accusantem. Pro certo se habere neminem in contione stare qui illo die non caput domum fortunasque L. Vergini ac M'. Sergi sit exsecratus detestatusque.

That a prejudgment of the defendants has already been made both by the senate and by the Roman people and by their own college; for by a senatorial decree they have been removed from the res publica, and, when they refused to abdicate the magistracy, they were coerced by their colleagues under the fear of a dictator; and the Roman people created tribunes who would enter upon the magistracy not on the Ides of December, the solemn day, but immediately on the Kalends of October, because the commonwealth could not stand longer with these men remaining in office; and yet they, battered by so many judgments and pre-condemned, come to the people’s judgment and suppose that they have been discharged and have given penalty enough because they were made private citizens two months earlier, nor do they understand that then the power of doing harm any longer was snatched from them, not a punishment imposed; indeed even the imperium was abrogated from their colleagues, who had certainly done nothing wrong. Let the Quirites recover those spirits which they had upon the recent disaster received, when they saw an army panic-stricken in flight, full of wounds and terror, falling upon the gates, accusing not Fortune nor any of the gods but these leaders. For certain they hold that there is no one standing in the assembly who on that day did not execrate and detest the head, the home, and the fortunes of L. Verginius and M'. Sergius.

Minime convenire quibus iratos quisque deos precatus sit, in iis sua potestate, cum liceat et oporteat, non uti. Nunquam deos ipsos admovere nocentibus manus; satis esse, si occasione ulciscendi laesos arment.

It is by no means fitting that, against those at whom each man has invoked the gods’ wrath, one should not use one’s own power, when it is both permitted and requisite. The gods themselves never lay hands upon the guilty; it is sufficient if, when an occasion for avenging arises, they arm the injured.

[12] His orationibus incitata plebs denis milibus aeris gravis reos condemnat, nequiquam Sergio Martem communem belli fortunamque accusante, Verginio deprecante ne infelicior domi quam militiae esset. In hos versa ira populi cooptationis tribunorum fraudisque contra legem Treboniam factae memoriam obscuram fecit.

[12] Incited by these orations, the plebs condemns the defendants to a penalty of ten thousand asses of heavy bronze, with Sergius vainly accusing Mars, the common god of war, and the fortune of war, and with Verginius pleading that he not be more ill-fated at home than in military service. Against these men, once the people’s wrath had turned, it made dim the memory of the co-optation of the tribunes and of the fraud committed contrary to the Trebonian law.

Victores tribuni ut praesentem mercedem iudicii plebes haberet legem agrariam promulgant, tributumque conferri prohibent, cum tot exercitibus stipendio opus esset resque militia ita prospere gererentur ut nullo bello veniretur ad exitum spei. Namque Veiis castra quae amissa erant reciperata castellis praesidiisque firmantur; praeerant tribuni militum M'. Aemilius et K. Fabius. A M. Furio in Faliscis, a Cn. Cornelio in Capenate agro hostes nulli extra moenia inventi; praedae actae incendiisque villarum ac frugum vastati fines; oppida oppugnata nec obsessa sunt.

Victorious, the tribunes, so that the plebes might have a present recompense of the judgment, promulgate an agrarian law, and forbid the tribute to be contributed, although so many armies had need of stipend and matters of war were being conducted so prosperously that in no war did one yet come to the outcome of hope. For at Veii the camp which had been lost, having been recovered, is strengthened with forts and garrisons; the military tribunes Manius Aemilius and Caeso Fabius were in command. By Marcus Furius among the Faliscans, by Gnaeus Cornelius in the Capenate territory, no enemies were found outside the walls; booty was driven off, and by burnings of farmsteads and of grain the borders were laid waste; the towns were assaulted but not besieged.

At in Volscis depopulato agro Anxur nequiquam oppugnatum, loco alto situm et postquam vis inrita erat vallo fossaque obsideri coeptum; Valerio Potito Volsci provincia evenerat.

But among the Volsci, after the countryside had been ravaged, Anxur, situated in a high place, was assailed in vain; and after force had proved ineffectual, it began to be besieged with rampart and ditch; the Volscian province had fallen by lot to Valerius Potitus.

Hoc statu militarium rerum, seditio intestina maiore mole coorta quam bella tractabantur; et cum tributum conferri per tribunos non posset nec stipendium imperatoribus mitteretur aeraque militaria flagitaret miles, haud procul erat quin castra quoque urbanae seditionis contagione turbarentur. Inter has iras plebis in patres cum tribuni plebi nunc illud tempus esse dicerent stabiliendae libertatis et ab Sergiis Verginiisque ad plebeios viros fortes ac strenuos transferendi summi honoris, non tamen ultra processum est quam ut unus ex plebe, usurpandi iuris causa, P. Licinius Calvus tribunus militum consulari potestate crearetur: ceteri patricii creati, P. Manilius L. Titinius P. Maelius L. Furius Medullinus L. Publilius Volscus. Ipsa plebes mirabatur se tantam rem obtinuisse, non is modo qui creatus erat, vir nullis ante honoribus usus, vetus tantum senator et aetate iam gravis; nec satis constat cur primus ac potissimus ad novum delibandum honorem sit habitus.

In this state of military affairs, an internal sedition, of greater weight than the wars, was being handled; and since the tribute could not be collected by the tribunes nor was the stipend sent to the commanders, and the soldier was demanding his military bronze pay, it was not far off but that the camps too would be disturbed by the contagion of the urban sedition. Amid these angers of the plebs against the fathers, when the tribunes of the plebs said that now was the time for stabilizing liberty and for transferring the highest honor from the Sergii and Verginii to plebeian men, brave and strenuous, nevertheless it did not advance further than that one from the plebs, for the sake of usurping the right, P. Licinius Calvus, should be created tribune of the soldiers with consular power: the rest were created patricians, P. Manilius, L. Titinius, P. Maelius, L. Furius Medullinus, L. Publilius Volscus. The plebs themselves marveled that they had obtained so great a thing, not only he who had been elected, a man who had enjoyed no honors before, only a veteran senator and now heavy with age; nor is it sufficiently agreed why he was held the first and most preferred to sample the new honor.

Alii Cn. Corneli fratris, qui tribunus militum priore anno fuerat triplexque stipendium equitibus dederat, gratia extractum ad tantum honorem credunt, alii orationem ipsum tempestivam de concordia ordinum patribus plebique gratam habuisse. Hac victoria comitiorum exsultantes tribuni plebis quod maxime rem publicam impediebat de tributo remiserunt. Conlatum oboedienter missumque ad exercitum est.

Some believe that, by the favor of his brother Gnaeus Cornelius—who had been a military tribune the prior year and had given triple stipend to the cavalry—he was elevated to so great an honor; others that he himself had delivered a timely oration on the concord of the orders, agreeable to the patricians and the plebs. With this victory at the elections, the tribunes of the plebs, exulting, remitted in regard to the tribute that which most impeded the commonwealth. What was contributed was obediently collected and sent to the army.

[13] Anxur in Volscis brevi receptum est, neglectis die festo custodiis urbis. Insignis annus hieme gelida ac nivosa fuit, adeo ut viae clausae, Tiberis innavigabilis fuerit. Annona ex ante convecta copia nihil mutavit.

[13] Anxur among the Volsci was soon retaken, the city’s guards having been neglected on a festal day. The year was notable for a gelid and snowy winter, to such a degree that the roads were closed and the Tiber was unnavigable. The grain-market, thanks to a supply brought in beforehand, did not change.

Et quia P. Licinius ut ceperat haud tumultuose magistratum maiore gaudio plebis quam indignatione patrum, ita etiam gessit, dulcedo invasit proximis comitiis tribunorum militum plebeios creandi. Unus M. Veturius ex patriciis candidatis locum tenuit: plebeios alios tribunos militum consulari potestate omnes fere centuriae dixere, M. Pomponium Cn. Duillium Voleronem Publilium Cn. Genucium L. Atilium.

And because P. Licinius, as he had taken up the magistracy not tumultuously, with greater joy of the plebs than indignation of the Fathers, so also he bore it, a sweetness took hold at the next comitia for creating plebeians as military tribunes. One M. Veturius, from the patrician candidates, held a place: nearly all the centuries named as military tribunes with consular power the rest, plebeians—M. Pomponius, Cn. Duillius, Volero Publilius, Cn. Genucius, L. Atilius.

Tristem hiemem sive ex intemperie caeli, raptim mutatione in contrarium facta, sive alia qua de causa gravis pestilensque omnibus animalibus aestas excepit; cuius insanabili perniciei quando nec causa nec finis inveniebatur, libri Sibyllini ex senatus consulto aditi sunt. Duumviri sacris faciundis, lectisternio tunc primum in urbe Romana facto, per dies octo Apollinem Latonamque et Dianam, Herculem, Mercurium atque Neptunum tribus quam amplissime tum apparari poterat stratis lectis placauere. Privatim quoque id sacrum celebratum est.

A gloomy winter—whether from the intemperance of the sky, a hasty change having been made into the contrary, or for some other cause—was followed by a summer grievous and pestilential to all animals; and since for its incurable perniciousness neither cause nor end could be found, the Sibylline books were consulted by decree of the senate. The duumvirs for performing sacred rites, with a lectisternium then for the first time held in the city of Rome, for eight days appeased Apollo and Latona and Diana, Hercules, Mercury, and Neptune, with three couches spread as lavishly as could then be prepared. Privately as well, that sacred rite was celebrated.

Tota urbe patentibus ianuis promiscuoque usu rerum omnium in propatulo posito, notos ignotosque passim advenas in hospitium ductos ferunt, et cum inimicis quoque benigne ac comiter sermones habitos; iurgiis ac litibus temperatum; vinctis quoque dempta in eos dies vincula; religioni deinde fuisse quibus eam opem di tulissent vinciri.

With the whole city’s doors standing open and the indiscriminate use of all things set forth in the open, they report that both known and unknown newcomers were everywhere conducted into hospitality, and that even with enemies gracious and courteous conversations were held; there was restraint from wranglings and lawsuits; even for the bound, the chains were removed for those days; thereafter it was a matter of religion that those to whom the gods had brought that aid should be bound.

Interim ad Veios terror multiplex fuit tribus in unum bellis conlatis. Namque eodem quo antea modo circa munimenta cum repente Capenates Faliscique subsidio venissent, adversus tres exercitus ancipiti proelio pugnatum est. Ante omnia adiuvit memoria damnationis Sergi ac Vergini.

Meanwhile at Veii there was manifold terror, with three wars brought together into one. For, in the same manner as before around the fortifications, when suddenly the Capenates and the Falisci had come as succor, battle was joined against three armies in a two-fronted engagement. Above all, the memory of the condemnation of Sergius and Verginius helped.

Itaque [e] maioribus castris, unde antea cessatum fuerat, brevi spatio circumductae copiae Capenates in vallum Romanum versos ab tergo adgrediuntur; inde pugna coepta et Faliscis intulit terrorem, trepidantesque eruptio ex castris opportune facta avertit. Repulsos deinde insecuti victores ingentem ediderunt caedem; nec ita multo post iam [palantes veluti] forte oblati populatores Capenatis agri reliquias pugnae absumpsere. Et Veientium refugientes in urbem multi ante portas caesi, dum prae metu, ne simul Romanus inrumperet, obiectis foribus extremos suorum exclusere.

Itaque [e] the larger camp, from where previously there had been delay, the forces, led around by a short circuit, attack from the rear the Capenates turned toward the Roman rampart; from there the battle begun brought terror also upon the Falisci, and an eruption from the camp, made at an opportune moment, turned back the panic-stricken. Then the victors, pursuing the repulsed, wrought immense slaughter; and not much later, marauders of the Capenate territory, now [as if straggling] and having fallen in their way by chance, they consumed the remnants of the battle. And many of the Veientes, fleeing back into the city, were cut down before the gates, while, out of fear lest the Roman should burst in at the same time, with the doors thrown to they shut out the hindmost of their own.

[14] Haec eo anno acta; et iam comitia tribunorum militum aderant, quorum prope maior patribus quam belli cura erat, quippe non communicatum modo cum plebe sed prope amissum cernentibus summum imperium. Itaque clarissimis viris ex composito praeparatis ad petendum quos praetereundi verecundiam crederent fore, nihilo minus ipsi perinde ac si omnes candidati essent cuncta experientes non homines modo sed deos etiam exciebant, in religionem vertentes comitia biennio habita: priore anno intolerandam hiemem prodigiisque divinis similem coortam, proximo non prodigia sed iam eventus: pestilentiam agris urbique inlatam haud dubia ira deum, quos pestis eius arcendae causa placandos esse in libris fatalibus inventum sit; comitiis auspicato quae fierent indignum dis visum honores volgari discriminaque gentium confundi. Praeterquam maiestate petentium, religione etiam attoniti homines patricios omnes, partem magnam honoratissimum quemque, tribunos militum consulari potestate creavere, L. Valerium Potitum quintum M. Valerium Maximum M. Furium Camillum iterum L. Furium Medullinum tertium Q. Servilium Fidenatem iterum Q. Sulpicium Camerinum iterum.

[14] These things were done in that year; and now the elections of the tribunes of the soldiers were at hand, a concern which was almost greater to the patres than that of the war, since they perceived that the highest imperium had not only been shared with the plebs but was almost lost. Accordingly, with the most illustrious men, by prearrangement, prepared to seek office—men whom they believed it would be a matter of shame to pass over—nevertheless they themselves, as if all were candidates, trying everything, appealed not only to men but even to the gods, turning into a question of religion the elections held for two years: in the earlier year an intolerable winter had arisen, like to divine prodigies; in the next, not portents but now results—pestilence brought upon field and city by no doubtful wrath of the gods, whom, for the purpose of warding off that plague, it had been found in the Books of Fate should be appeased; at elections which were being held under auspices it seemed unworthy to the gods that honors be vulgarized and the distinctions of the orders be confounded. Struck, besides by the majesty of the candidates, also by religious scruple, the people elected as military tribunes with consular power all patricians, a great part of them each most honored: L. Valerius Potitus for the 5th time, M. Valerius Maximus, M. Furius Camillus for the 2nd time, L. Furius Medullinus for the 3rd time, Q. Servilius Fidenas for the 2nd time, Q. Sulpicius Camerinus for the 2nd time.

His tribunis ad Veios nihil admodum memorabile actum est; tota vis in populationibus fuit. Duo summi imperatores, Potitus a Faleriis, Camillus a Capena praedas ingentes egere, nulla incolumi relicta re cui ferro aut igni noceri posset.

Under these tribunes at Veii nothing very memorable was done; the whole force lay in depredations. Two most eminent commanders, Potitus from Falerii, Camillus from Capena, carried off immense plunder, leaving nothing intact that could be harmed by iron or by fire.

[15] Prodigia interim multa nuntiari, quorum pleraque et quia singuli auctores erant parum credita spretaque, et quia, hostibus Etruscis, per quos ea procurarent haruspices non erant: in unum omnium curae versae sunt quod lacus in Albano nemore, sine ullis caelestibus aquis causave qua alia quae rem miraculo eximeret, in altitudinem insolitam crevit. Quidnam eo di portenderent prodigio missi sciscitatum oratores ad Delphicum oraculum. Sed propior interpres fatis oblatus senior quidam Veiens, qui inter cavillantes in stationibus ac custodiis milites Romanos Etruscosque vaticinantis in modum cecinit priusquam ex lacu Albano aqua emissa foret nunquam potiturum Veiis Romanum.

[15] Meanwhile many prodigies were reported; most of them, both because there were single witnesses and so they were little credited and scorned, and because the Etruscans—the enemies—through whom the haruspices would procure the proper rites, were not available; the anxieties of all were turned to a single matter: that the lake in the Alban grove, without any heavenly waters or any other cause that might remove the matter from the category of marvel, had risen to an unusual height. Envoys were sent to the Delphic oracle to inquire what the gods portended by that prodigy. But a nearer interpreter, offered by the fates, appeared—a certain old Veientine—who, amid the soldiers, Roman and Etruscan alike, trading jests at their pickets and posts, chanted in the manner of a vaticinator that, before water were let out from the Alban Lake, the Roman would never gain possession of Veii.

Quod primo velut temere iactum sperni, agitari deinde sermonibus coeptum est donec unus ex statione Romana percontatus proximum oppidanorum, iam per longinquitatem belli commercio sermonum facto, quisnam is esset qui per ambages de lacu Albano iaceret, postquam audivit haruspicem esse, vir haud intacti religione animi, causatus de privati portenti procuratione si operae illi esset consulere velle, ad conloquium vatem elicuit. Cumque progressi ambo a suis longius essent inermes sine ullo metu, praevalens iuvenis Romanus senem infirmum in conspectu omnium raptum nequiquam tumultuantibus Etruscis ad suos transtulit. Qui cum perductus ad imperatorem, inde Romam ad senatum missus esset, sciscitantibus quidnam id esset quod de lacu Albano docuisset, respondit profecto iratos deos Veienti populo illo fuisse die quo sibi eam mentem obiecissent ut excidium patriae fatale proderet.

That, at first, as if rashly thrown out, was scorned; then it began to be agitated in conversations until one man from the Roman picket, having inquired of a nearby townsman—now that by the long continuance of the war a commerce of speech had been established—who the man was who, through circumlocutions, was casting remarks about the Alban Lake; after he heard that he was a haruspex, a man whose mind was by no means untouched by religion, alleging that he wished, if the other had the leisure, to consult him about the procuration of a private portent, he drew the seer to a conference. And when both, having gone farther from their own people, were unarmed and without any fear, the prepotent Roman youth seized the feeble old man, and, in the sight of all, while the Etruscans were tumultuating to no purpose, transferred him to his own side. When he had been brought to the commander and from there sent to Rome to the Senate, on their inquiring what it was that he had taught about the Alban Lake, he replied that indeed the gods had been angry with the Veientine people on that day on which they had cast that thought into his mind, that he should betray the fated destruction of his fatherland.

Itaque quae tum cecinerit divino spiritu instinctus, ea se nec ut indicta sint revocare posse, et tacendo forsitan quae di immortales volgari velint haud minus quam celanda effando nefas contrahi. Sic igitur libris fatalibus, sic disciplina Etrusca traditum esse, [ut] quando aqua Albana abundasset, tum si eam Romanus rite emisisset victoriam de Veientibus dari; antequam id fiat deos moenia Veientium deserturos non esse. Exsequebatur inde quae sollemnis derivatio esset; sed auctorem levem nec satis fidum super tanta re patres rati decrevere legatos sortesque oraculi Pythici exspectandas.

Therefore, the things which he had then chanted, inspired by a divine spirit, he said he could not revoke as though they had not been spoken, and that by keeping silence perhaps, in the case of those things which the immortal gods wish to be made public, a nefas is incurred no less than by uttering what ought to be concealed. Thus, then, in the books of fate, thus in the Etruscan discipline it has been handed down, [that] whenever the Alban water should overflow, then, if the Roman should rightly let it out, victory over the Veientes would be given; before that should be done, the gods would not desert the walls of the Veientes. He then set forth what the solemn diversion should be; but the Fathers, deeming the author light and not sufficiently to be trusted in so great a matter, decreed that envoys be sent and that the lots of the Pythian oracle be awaited.

[16] Priusquam a Delphis oratores redirent Albanive prodigii piacula invenirentur, novi tribuni militum consulari potestate, L. Iulius Iulus L. Furius Medullinus quartum L. Sergius Fidenas A. Postumius Regillensis P. Cornelius Maluginensis A. Manlius magistratum inierunt. Eo anno Tarquinienses novi hostes exorti. Qui quia multis simul bellis, Volscorum ad Anxur, ubi praesidium obsidebatur, Aequorum ad Labicos, qui Romanam ibi coloniam oppugnabant, ad hoc Veientique et Falisco et Capenati bello occupatos videbant Romanos, nec intra muros quietiora negotia esse certaminibus patrum ac plebis, inter haec locum iniuriae rati esse, praedatum in agrum Romanum cohortes expeditas mittunt: aut enim passuros inultam eam iniuriam Romanos ne novo bello se onerarent, aut exiguo eoque parum valido exercitu persecuturos.

[16] Before the envoys returned from Delphi and the expiations for the Alban prodigy were discovered, new military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius Furius Medullinus for the fourth time, Lucius Sergius Fidenas, Aulus Postumius Regillensis, Publius Cornelius Maluginensis, and Aulus Manlius, entered upon office. In that year the Tarquinians arose as new enemies. And because they saw the Romans occupied by many wars at once—the war of the Volsci at Anxur, where a garrison was being besieged; the war of the Aequi at Labici, who were attacking a Roman colony there; and in addition the war with Veii, and with the Falisci and the Capenates—and that within the walls affairs were no quieter because of the contests of the patricians and the plebs, judging that amid these circumstances there was room for an injury, they send out light-armed cohorts to plunder the Roman field: for either the Romans would allow that injury to go unavenged so as not to burden themselves with a new war, or they would pursue them with a small and by that very fact not very strong army.

Romanis indignitas maior quam cura populationis Tarquiniensium fuit; eo nec magno conatu suscepta nec in longum dilata res est. A. Postumius et L. Iulius, non iusto dilectu—etenim ab tribunis plebis impediebantur—sed prope voluntariorum quos adhortando incitaverant coacta manu, per agrum Caeretem obliquis tramitibus egressi, redeuntes a populationibus gravesque praeda Tarquinienses oppressere. Multos mortales obtruncant, omnes exuunt impedimentis, et receptis agrorum suorum spoliis Romam revertuntur.

To the Romans the indignity was greater than the concern for the Tarquinian ravaging; therefore the matter was undertaken with no great effort and was not delayed long. A. Postumius and L. Julius, not by a lawful levy—for indeed they were being impeded by the tribunes of the plebs—but with a force almost of volunteers whom they had incited by exhortation, having gone out through the Caeretan countryside by oblique bypaths, overwhelmed the Tarquinians as they were returning from depredations and heavy with booty. They cut down many men, strip all of their baggage, and, the spoils of their own fields recovered, return to Rome.

Biduum ad recognoscendas res datum dominis; tertio incognita—erant autem ea pleraque hostium ipsorum—sub hasta veniere quodque inde redactum militibus est divisum.

Two days were given to the owners to re-cognize/claim their property; on the third, the incognita—yet for the most part these were the very enemies’—came “under the spear” and were sold at auction, and whatever proceeds were thereby realized were divided among the soldiers.

Cetera bella maximeque Veiens incerti exitus erant. Iamque Romani desperata ope humana fata et deos spectabant, cum legati ab Delphis venerunt, sortem oraculi adferentes congruentem responso captivi vatis: "Romane, aquam Albanam cave lacu contineri, cave in mare manare suo flumine sinas; emissam per agros rigabis dissipatamque rivis exstingues; tum tu insiste audax hostium muris, memor quam per tot annos obsides urbem ex ea tibi his quae nunc panduntur fatis victoriam datam. Bello perfecto donum amplum victor ad mea templa portato, sacraque patria, quorum omissa cura est, instaurata ut adsolet facito."

The other wars, and most of all the Veientine, were of uncertain outcome. And now the Romans, human aid despaired of, were looking to the fates and to the gods, when envoys came from Delphi, bringing the lot of the oracle congruent with the response of the captive seer: "Roman, beware that the Alban water be contained in the lake, beware that you allow it to flow into the sea by its own channel; once let out you shall irrigate it through the fields and, dispersed in rivulets, you shall extinguish it; then you, take your stand boldly upon the walls of the enemy, remembering that for so many years you besiege the city; from it, by these fates which are now being laid open to you, victory has been given. When the war is completed, as victor carry a large gift to my temples, and see to it that the sacred rites of your fatherland, the care of which has been neglected, be restored as is wont."

[17] Ingens inde haberi captivus vates coeptus, eumque adhibere tribuni militum Cornelius Postumiusque ad prodigii Albani procurationem ac deos rite placandos coepere; inventumque tandem est ubi neglectas caerimonias intermissumve sollemne di arguerent: nihil profecto aliud esse quam magistratus vitio creatos Latinas sacrumque in Albano monte non rite concepisse; unam expiationem eorum esse ut tribuni militum abdicarent se magistratu, auspicia de integro repeterentur et interregnum iniretur. Ea ita facta sunt ex senatus consulto. Interreges tres deinceps fuere, L. Valerius, Q. Servilius Fidenas, M. Furius Camillus.

[17] Thence the captive seer began to be held in great esteem, and the military tribunes Cornelius and Postumius began to employ him for the procuration of the Alban prodigy and the duly appeasing of the gods; and at last it was found, as the ground on which to charge that ceremonies had been neglected or a divine solemnity intermitted, that it was assuredly nothing else than that the magistrates had been created with a flaw, and that they had not duly undertaken the Latin festival and the sacred rite on the Alban Mount; that the one expiation of these was that the military tribunes should abdicate their magistracy, that the auspices be sought anew from the beginning, and that an interregnum be entered upon. These things were thus done by decree of the senate. There were three interreges in succession: L. Valerius, Q. Servilius Fidenas, M. Furius Camillus.

Nunquam desitum interim turbari, comitia interpellantibus tribunis plebis donec convenisset prius ut maior pars tribunorum militum ex plebe crearetur.

In the meantime there was never any cessation of turmoil, the comitia being interrupted by the tribunes of the plebs, until it had first been agreed that the greater part of the military tribunes be created from the plebs.

Quae dum aguntur, concilia Etruriae ad fanum Voltumnae habita, postulantibusque Capenatibus ac Faliscis ut Veios communi animo consilioque omnes Etruriae populi ex obsidione eriperent, responsum est antea se id Veientibus negasse quia unde consilium non petissent super tanta re auxilium petere non deberent; nunc iam pro se fortunam suam illis negare. Maxima iam in parte Etruriae gentem invisitatam, novos accolas [Gallos] esse, cum quibus nec pax satis fida nec bellum pro certo sit. Sanguini tamen nominique et praesentibus periculis consanguineorum id dari ut si qui iuventutis suae voluntate ad id bellum eant non impediant.

While these things are being done, councils of Etruria were held at the shrine of Voltumna; and when the Capenates and the Falisci demanded that all the peoples of Etruria, with common spirit and counsel, should rescue Veii from the siege, the reply was that they had previously denied this to the Veientes, because they ought not to seek aid concerning so great a matter from those whose counsel they had not sought; now they refuse to stake their own fortune for them. That already in the greatest part of Etruria there is a people unvisited, new settlers [the Gauls], with whom neither is peace sufficiently faithful nor is war assured. Nevertheless, to blood and to the name, and to the present dangers of their kinsmen, this is granted: that, if any of their youth should go to that war of their own will, they shall not be hindered.

Eum magnum advenisse hostium numerum fama Romae erat, eoque mitescere discordiae intestinae metu communi, ut fit, coeptae.

There was at Rome a report that a great number of enemies had arrived, and for that reason the intestine discords, by a common fear—as happens—began to soften.

[18] Haud invitis patribus P. Licinium Calvum praerogatiua tribunum militum non petentem creant, moderationis expertae in priore magistratu virum, ceterum iam tum exactae aetatis; omnesque deinceps ex collegio eiusdem anni refici apparebat, L. Titinium P. Maenium Cn. Genucium L. Atilium. Qui priusquam renuntiarentur iure vocatis tribubus, permissu interregis P. Licinius Calvus ita verba fecit: "Omen concordiae, Quirites, rei maxime in hoc tempus utili, memoria nostri magistratus vos his comitiis petere in insequentem annum video. Sed collegas eosdem reficitis, etiam usu meliores factos: me iam non eundem sed umbram nomenque P. Licini relictum videtis.

[18] With the senators not unwilling, they elect Publius Licinius Calvus as military tribune by the praerogative (tribe), though he was not seeking it—a man whose moderation had been tested in his former magistracy, but by now already of advanced age; and it was apparent that all the rest from the college of the same year would in turn be reinstated—Lucius Titinius, Publius Maenius, Gnaeus Genucius, Lucius Atilius. Before they were proclaimed, with the tribes duly summoned by law, by the permission of the interrex Publius Licinius Calvus spoke thus: "Quirites, I see you, by the memory of our magistracy, seeking in these comitia an omen of concord—a thing most useful for this time—for the ensuing year. But you are reappointing the same colleagues, made even better by experience; as for me, you now see not the same man but the shade and mere name of Publius Licinius left remaining.

Vires corporis adfectae, sensus oculorum atque aurium hebetes, memoria labat, vigor animi obtunsus. En vobis" inquit, "iuvenem", filium tenens, "effigiem atque imaginem eius quem vos antea tribunum militum ex plebe primum fecistis. Hunc ego institutum disciplina mea vicarium pro me rei publicae do dicoque, vosque quaeso, Quirites, delatum mihi ultro honorem huic petenti meisque pro eo adiectis precibus mandetis." Datum id petenti patri filiusque eius P. Licinius tribunus militum consulari potestate cum iis quos supra scripsimus declaratus.

The strength of my body is impaired, the senses of my eyes and ears are dull, my memory wavers, the vigor of my mind is blunted. “Lo for you,” he says, holding his son, “a youth, the effigy and image of him whom you previously made the first tribune of the soldiers from the plebs. This man, trained by my discipline, I give and declare as a substitute in my stead for the commonwealth; and I beg you, Quirites, to entrust to this petitioner the honor that was of your own accord conferred upon me, with my prayers added on his behalf.” That was granted to the father who petitioned, and his son, P. Licinius, was declared tribune of the soldiers with consular power along with those whom we have written above.

Titinius Genuciusque tribuni militum profecti adversus Faliscos Capenatesque, dum bellum maiore animo gerunt quam consilio, praecipitavere se in insidias. Genucius morte honesta temeritatem luens ante signa inter primores cecidit; Titinius in editum tumulum ex multa trepidatione militibus collectis aciem restituit; nec se tamen aequo loco hosti commisit. Plus ignominiae erat quam cladis acceptum, quae prope in cladem ingentem vertit; tantum inde terroris non Romae modo, quo multiplex fama pervenerat, sed in castris quoque fuit ad Veios.

Titinius and Genucius, tribunes of the soldiers, set out against the Falisci and the Capenates, and, while they waged war with greater spirit than counsel, they hurled themselves headlong into an ambush. Genucius, paying for his temerity with an honorable death, fell before the standards among the foremost; Titinius, on a raised mound, after the troops had been gathered out of much trepidation, restored the battle line; nor yet did he commit himself to the enemy on equal ground. More disgrace than loss was incurred—an affair which nearly turned into a vast disaster; so great a terror arose therefrom not only at Rome, whither manifold rumor had come, but in the camp also at Veii.

Aegre ibi miles retentus a fuga est cum pervasisset castra rumor ducibus exercituque caeso victorem Capenatem ac Faliscum Etruriaeque omnem iuventutem haud procul inde abesse. His tumultuosiora Romae, iam castra ad Veios oppugnari, iam partem hostium tendere ad urbem agmine infesto, crediderant; concursumque in muros est et matronarum, quas ex domo conciverat publicus pavor, obsecrationes in templis factae, precibusque ab dis petitum ut exitium ab urbis tectis templisque ac moenibus Romanis arcerent Veiosque eum averterent terrorem, si sacra renovata rite, si procurata prodigia essent.

A difficult matter it was there to restrain the soldiery from flight when the rumor had pervaded the camp that the commanders and the army had been cut down, that the Capenate and the Faliscan, victorious, and all the youth of Etruria were not far off from there. At these reports things were more tumultuous in Rome: they had believed that now the camp at Veii was being assaulted, now a part of the enemy was stretching toward the city in a hostile column; and there was a running together to the walls, and prayers of the matrons—whom public fear had summoned from home—were made in the temples, and by prayers it was sought from the gods that they should ward off destruction from the roofs of the city and the temples and the Roman walls, and should divert that terror to Veii, if the sacred rites had been duly renewed, if the prodigies had been duly expiated.

[19] Iam ludi Latinaeque instaurata erant, iam ex lacu Albano aqua emissa in agros, Veiosque fata adpetebant. Igitur fatalis dux ad excidium illius urbis servandaeque patriae, M. Furius Camillus, dictator dictus magistrum equitum P. Cornelium Scipionem dixit. Omnia repente mutaverat imperator mutatus; alia spes, alius animus hominum, fortuna quoque alia urbis videri.

[19] Already the Games and the Latin Festival had been renewed, already water had been let out from the Alban Lake into the fields, and the fates were drawing near to Veii. Therefore the fateful leader for the destruction of that city and the safeguarding of his fatherland, Marcus Furius Camillus, having been proclaimed dictator, appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio master of horse. With the commander changed, everything had suddenly changed; a different hope, a different spirit in men, and even a different fortune of the city seemed.

Omnium primum in eos qui a Veiis in illo pavore fugerant more militari animadvertit, effecitque ne hostis maxime timendus militi esset. Deinde indicto dilectu in diem certam, ipse interim Veios ad confirmandos militum animos intercurrit; inde Romam ad scribendum novum exercitum redit, nullo detractante militiam. Peregrina etiam iuventus, Latini Hernicique, operam suam pollicentes ad id bellum venere; quibus cum gratias in senatu egisset dictator, satis iam omnibus ad id bellum paratis, ludos magnos ex senatus consulto vovit Veiis captis se facturum aedemque Matutae Matris refectam dedicaturum, iam ante ab rege Ser.

First of all he took disciplinary action, in military fashion, against those who had fled from Veii in that panic, and he brought it about that for the soldier the enemy was not the thing most to be feared. Then, a levy having been proclaimed for a fixed day, he meanwhile hurried to Veii to strengthen the spirits of the soldiers; from there he returned to Rome to enroll a new army, with no one shirking military service. Even foreign youth, the Latins and the Hernici, came pledging their service for that war; and when the dictator had given thanks to them in the senate, with everything now sufficiently prepared for that war, he vowed, by decree of the senate, that when Veii was captured he would celebrate the Great Games and would dedicate the restored temple of Mother Matuta, earlier by King Ser.

Tullio dedicatam. Profectus cum exercitu ab urbe exspectatione hominum maiore quam spe, in agro primum Nepesino cum Faliscis et Capenatibus signa confert. Omnia ibi summa ratione consilioque acta fortuna etiam, ut fit, secuta est.

dedicated by King Servius Tullius. Having set out with the army from the city, with men’s expectation greater than their hope, he first in the Nepesine territory joins battle with the Faliscans and Capenates. Everything there was conducted with the highest reason and counsel; fortune also, as happens, followed.

Non proelio tantum fudit hostes, sed castris quoque exuit ingentique praeda est potitus; cuius pars maxima ad quaestorem redacta est, haud ita multum militi datum. Inde ad Veios exercitus ductus, densioraque castella facta, et a procursationibus quae multae temere inter murum ac vallum fiebant, edicto ne quis iniussu pugnaret, ad opus milites traducti. Operum fuit omnium longe maximum ac laboriosissimum cuniculus in arcem hostium agi coeptus.

He not only routed the enemies in battle, but also stripped them of their camp and took possession of a huge booty; of which the greatest part was turned over to the quaestor, not so very much having been given to the soldier. Thence the army was led to Veii, and more closely set forts were made, and from the sallies—which in great number were recklessly taking place between the wall and the rampart—by an edict that no one should fight without orders, the soldiers were transferred to the work. Of all the works by far the greatest and most laborious was the tunnel, begun to be driven into the enemy’s citadel.

Quod ne intermitteretur opus neu sub terra continuus labor eosdem conficeret, in partes sex munitorum numerum divisit; senae horae in orbem operi attributae sunt; nocte ac die nunquam ante omissum quam in arcem viam facerent.

So that the work might not be interrupted, and lest continuous labor under the earth wear out the same men, he divided the number of the sappers into six parts; six hours apiece in rotation were assigned to the work; by night and by day it was never discontinued until they made a way into the citadel.

[20] Dictator cum iam in manibus videret victoriam esse, urbem opulentissimam capi, tantumque praedae fore quantum non omnibus in unum conlatis ante bellis fuisset, ne quam inde aut militum iram ex malignitate praedae partitae aut invidiam apud patres ex prodiga largitione caperet, litteras ad senatum misit, deum immortalium benignitate suis consiliis patientia militum Veios iam fore in potestate populi Romani; quid de praeda faciendum censerent? Duae senatum distinebant sententiae, senis P. Licini, quem primum dixisse a filio interrogatum ferunt, edici palam placere populo ut qui particeps esse praedae vellet in castra Veios iret, altera Ap. Claudi, qui largitionem novam prodigam inaequalem inconsultam arguens, si semel nefas ducerent captam ex hostibus in aerario exhausto bellis pecuniam esse, auctor erat stipendii ex ea pecunia militi numerandi ut eo minus tributi plebes conferret; eius enim doni societatem sensuras aequaliter omnium domos, non avidas in direptiones manus otiosorum urbanorum bellatorum praerepturas fortium praemia esse, cum ita ferme eveniat ut segnior sit praedator ut quisque laboris periculique praecipuam petere partem soleat. Licinius contra suspectam et invisam semper eam pecuniam fore aiebat, causasque criminum ad plebem, seditionum inde ac legum novarum praebituram; satius igitur esse reconciliari eo dono plebis animos, exhaustis atque exinanitis tributo tot annorum succurri, et sentire praedae fructum ex eo bello in quo prope consenuerint.

[20] When the Dictator now saw that victory was in hand, that a most opulent city was being taken, and that there would be as much booty as had not been in all the wars put together, lest he incur either the soldiers’ anger from the niggardliness of a parceled-out booty or ill will among the Fathers from prodigal largess, he sent letters to the senate: by the benignity of the immortal gods, by his own counsels, and by the patience of the soldiers, Veii would presently be in the power of the Roman People; what did they think should be done about the booty? Two opinions occupied the senate: that of the old man Publius Licinius—whom they report, when asked first by his son, to have spoken first—who thought it good that it be proclaimed openly to the people that whoever wished to be a participant in the booty should go to the camp at Veii; the other of Appius Claudius, who, arraigning the largess as new, prodigal, unequal, and ill-advised, if once they should deem it a wrong that money taken from enemies be put into the treasury exhausted by wars, was the proposer that stipend be paid to the soldier from that money, so that the plebs would contribute so much the less in tribute; for the partnership in that gift would be felt equally by the homes of all, nor would the greedy hands of idle townsmen snatch in pillagings the prizes of brave fighters, since it commonly falls out that the more a man is wont to claim the foremost share of toil and peril, the slower he is as a plunderer. Licinius, on the contrary, said that that money would always be suspect and odious, and would supply to the plebs grounds for accusations, and from that for seditions and new laws; it was better therefore to reconcile the minds of the plebs by that gift, to bring succor to those drained and exhausted by the tribute of so many years, and to make them feel the fruit of booty from that war in which they had well-nigh grown old.

Gratius id fore laetiusque quod quisque sua manu ex hoste captum domum rettulerit quam si multiplex alterius arbitrio accipiat. Ipsum dictatorem fugere invidiam ex eo criminaque; eo delegasse ad senatum; senatum quoque debere reiectam rem ad se permittere plebi ac pati habere quod cuique fors belli dederit. Haec tutior visa sententia est quae popularem senatum faceret.

More gratifying and more gladsome will it be that each man has carried home with his own hand what he seized from the enemy, than if he should receive a multiple share at another’s arbitration. The dictator himself is avoiding odium and charges from this; to that end he has delegated it to the senate; the senate also ought to remit the matter, thrown upon themselves, to the plebs and allow them to have what Fortune of war has given to each. This was judged the safer opinion, which would render the senate popular.

Edictum itaque est ad praedam Veientem quibus videretur in castra ad dictatorem proficiscerentur.

Accordingly, it was proclaimed that, for the Veientine booty, those to whom it seemed good should set out to the dictator’s camp.

[21] Ingens profecta multitudo replevit castra. Tum dictator auspicato egressus cum edixisset ut arma milites caperent, "Tuo ductu" inquit, "Pythice Apollo, tuoque numine instinctus pergo ad delendam urbem Veios, tibique hinc decimam partem praedae voveo. Te simul, Iuno regina, quae nunc Veios colis, precor, ut nos victores in nostram tuamque mox futuram urbem sequare, ubi te dignum amplitudine tua templum accipiat". Haec precatus, superante multitudine ab omnibus locis urbem adgreditur, quo minor ab cuniculo ingruentis periculi sensus esset.

[21] A huge multitude, having set out, filled the camp. Then the dictator, having gone forth under auspices, when he had proclaimed that the soldiers should take up arms, said: "Under your guidance, Pythian Apollo, and inspired by your divinity, I go to destroy the city of Veii, and to you from here I vow a tenth part of the booty. You likewise, Queen Juno, who now dwell at Veii, I pray that you follow us, victors, into our city, soon to be yours as well, where a temple worthy of your greatness may receive you." Having prayed these things, with the multitude overwhelming, he attacks the city from all quarters, so that the sense of the danger threatening from the tunnel might be less.

Veientes ignari se iam a suis vatibus, iam ab externis oraculis proditos, iam in partem praedae suae vocatos deos, alios votis ex urbe sua evocatos hostium templa novasque sedes spectare, seque ultimum illum diem agere, nihil minus timentes quam subrutis cuniculo moenibus arcem iam plenam hostium esse, in muros pro se quisque armati discurrunt, mirantes quidnam id esset quod cum tot per dies nemo se ab stationibus Romanus movisset, tum velut repentino icti furore improvidi currerent ad muros.

The Veientes, unaware that they had already been betrayed by their own seers, already by foreign oracles; that the gods had already been invited into a share of their own booty; that others, evoked by vows from their city, were looking toward the temples of the enemy and new seats; and that they were spending that last day—fearing least of all that, the walls having been undermined by a tunnel, the citadel was already full of enemies—each man for himself, armed, ran about on the walls, wondering what this could be, that although for so many days no Roman had moved from his stations, then, as if smitten by sudden frenzy, they were heedlessly running to the walls.

Inseritur huic loco fabula: immolante rege Veientium vocem haruspicis, dicentis qui eius hostiae exta prosecuisset, ei victoriam dari, exauditam in cuniculo movisse Romanos milites ut adaperto cuniculo exta raperent et ad dictatorem ferrent. Sed in rebus tam antiquis si quae similia veri sint pro veris accipiantur, satis habeam: haec ad ostentationem scenae gaudentis miraculis aptiora quam ad fidem neque adfirmare neque refellere est operae pretium.

A tale is inserted at this point: while the king of the Veientes was immolating, the voice of a haruspex—saying that whoever should have cut out the entrails of that victim, to him victory would be given—having been overheard in the tunnel, moved the Roman soldiers to, the tunnel having been opened, snatch the entrails and carry them to the dictator. But in matters so ancient, if things that are like the truth are accepted as true, I am satisfied: these are more apt for the ostentation of a stage rejoicing in miracles than for credence, and it is not worth the effort either to affirm or to refute.

Cuniculus delectis militibus eo tempore plenus, in aedem Iunonis quae in Veientana arce erat armatos repente edidit, et pars aversos in muris invadunt hostes, pars claustra portarum revellunt, pars cum ex tectis saxa tegulaeque a mulieribus ac servitiis iacerentur, inferunt ignes. Clamor omnia variis terrentium ac paventium vocibus mixto mulierum ac puerorum ploratu complet. Momento temporis deiectis ex muro undique armatis patefactisque portis cum alii agmine inruerent, alii desertos scanderent muros, urbs hostibus impletur; omnibus locis pugnatur; deinde multa iam edita caede senescit pugna, et dictator praecones edicere iubet ut ab inermi abstineatur.

The tunnel, at that time full of chosen soldiers, suddenly sent forth armed men into the temple of Juno which was on the Veientine citadel, and some assail the enemy, turned away, on the walls, some wrench off the bars of the gates, some, while from the roofs stones and tiles were being cast by women and servitors, bring in fires. A clamor fills everything, with various voices of those terrifying and those panicking, mingled with the wailing of women and boys. In a moment of time, with armed men everywhere thrown down from the wall and the gates thrown open, while some rushed in in a column, others scaled the abandoned walls, the city is filled with enemies; there is fighting in all places; then, with much slaughter already wrought, the battle wanes, and the dictator orders the heralds to proclaim that abstention from the unarmed be observed.

Is finis sanguinis fuit. Dedi inde inermes coepti et ad praedam miles permissu dictatoris discurrit. Quae cum ante oculos eius aliquantum spe atque opinione maior maiorisque pretii rerum ferretur, dicitur manus ad caelum tollens precatus esse ut si cui deorum hominumque nimia sua fortuna populique Romani videretur, ut eam invidiam lenire quam minimo suo privato incommodo publicoque populi Romani liceret.

That was the end of bloodshed. Then the unarmed surrendered, and, with the dictator’s permission, the soldier ran about for plunder. And when before his eyes there was being carried somewhat more than hope and opinion had anticipated, and things of greater price, he is said, lifting his hands to heaven, to have prayed that, if to any of the gods or men his own fortune and that of the Roman people seemed excessive, it might be permitted to lenify that envy with the least possible private inconvenience to himself and public detriment to the Roman people.

Convertentem se inter hanc venerationem traditur memoriae prolapsum cecidisse; idque omen pertinuisse postea eventu rem coniectantibus visum ad damnationem ipsius Camilli, captae deinde urbis Romanae, quod post paucos accidit annos, cladem. Atque ille dies caede hostium ac direptione urbis opulentissimae est consumptus.

As he was turning himself amid this veneration, it is handed down in memory that he slipped and fell; and that omen was seen—by those later conjecturing the matter from the outcome—to have pertained to the condemnation of Camillus himself, and to the disaster of the city of Rome thereafter taken, which befell after a few years. And that day was consumed with the slaughter of the enemies and the despoiling of a most opulent city.

[22] Postero die libera corpora dictator sub corona vendidit. Ea sola pecunia in publicum redigitur, haud sine ira plebis; et quod rettulere secum praedae, nec duci, qui ad senatum malignitatis auctores quaerendo rem arbitrii sui reiecisset, nec senatui, sed Liciniae familiae, ex qua filius ad senatum rettulisset, pater tam popularis sententiae auctor fuisset, acceptum referebant. Cum iam humanae opes egestae a Veiis essent, amoliri tum deum dona ipsosque deos, sed colentium magis quam rapientium modo, coepere.

[22] On the next day the dictator sold the free persons sub corona (under the garland). That money alone was brought into the public treasury, not without anger of the plebs; and as for what they had carried home with them as booty, they credited it neither to the leader—who, by seeking, before the senate, the authors of ill‑will, had shifted the matter from his own arbitrium—nor to the senate, but to the Licinian house, since, from that family, the son had brought the matter before the senate, and the father had been the author of so popular a sententia. When already human resources had been exhausted from Veii, then they began to remove the gifts of the gods and the very gods themselves, but in the manner of worshipers rather than of plunderers.

namque delecti ex omni exercitu iuvenes, pure lautis corporibus, candida veste, quibus deportanda Romam regina Iuno adsignata erat, venerabundi templum iniere, primo religiose admoventes manus, quod id signum more Etrusco nisi certae gentis sacerdos attractare non esset solitus. Dein cum quidam, seu spiritu divino tactus seu iuvenali ioco, "Visne Romam ire, Iuno?" dixisset, adnuisse ceteri deam conclamaverunt. Inde fabulae adiectum est vocem quoque dicentis velle auditam; motam certe sede sua parvi molimenti adminiculis, sequentis modo accepimus levem ac facilem tralatu fuisse, integramque in Aventinum aeternam sedem suam quo vota Romani dictatoris vocaverant perlatam, ubi templum ei postea idem qui voverat Camillus dedicavit.

for selected youths from the whole army, with bodies cleanly washed, in white garment, to whom Queen Juno had been assigned to be carried to Rome, reverent entered the temple, at first religiously laying their hands upon it, because that image, by Etruscan custom, was not accustomed to be touched except by a priest of a particular clan. Then when someone, whether touched by a divine spirit or in youthful jest, had said, “Do you wish to go to Rome, Juno?” the rest shouted that the goddess had nodded assent. Thereupon it was added to the tale that a voice also was heard saying that she willed it; certainly, once moved from her seat with aids of slight effort, we have received that she was light and easy in transport, as though merely following; and, intact, she was borne to the Aventine, her eternal seat whither the vows of the Roman dictator had summoned her, where afterward the same Camillus who had vowed it dedicated a temple to her.

Hic Veiorum occasus fuit, urbis opulentissimae Etrusci nominis, magnitudinem suam vel ultima clade indicantis, quod decem aestates hiemesque continuas circumsessa cum plus aliquanto cladium intulisset quam accepisset, postremo iam fato quoque urgente, operi bus tamen, non vi expugnata est.

Here was the downfall of Veii, a most opulent city of the Etruscan name, signaling its own greatness even in its last calamity, in that, besieged for ten continuous summers and winters, although it had brought in somewhat more disasters than it had received, at last, with fate now too pressing, it was taken by works, not by force.

[23] Romam ut nuntiatum est Veios captos, quamquam et prodigia procurata fuerant et vatum responsa et Pythicae sortes notae, et quantum humanis adiuvari consiliis potuerat res ducem M. Furium, maximum imperatorum omnium, legerant, tamen quia tot annis varie ibi bellatum erat multaeque clades acceptae, velut ex insperato immensum gaudium fuit, et priusquam senatus decerneret plena omnia templa Romanarum matrum grates dis agentium erant. Senatus in quadriduum, quot dierum nullo ante bello, supplicationes decernit. Adventus quoque dictatoris omnibus ordinibus obviam effusis celebratior quam ullius unquam antea fuit, triumphusque omnem consuetum honorandi diei illius modum aliquantum excessit.

[23] At Rome, when it was announced that Veii had been captured—although prodigies had been expiated and the responses of seers and the Pythian lots were known, and, inasmuch as the affair could be aided by human counsels, they had chosen as leader M. Furius, the greatest of all commanders—yet, because for so many years there had been varied warfare there and many disasters had been sustained, there was an immense joy, as if beyond hope; and before the senate could decree, all the temples were full of Roman matrons rendering thanks to the gods. The senate decreed supplications for four days—a number of days that in no previous war had been [decreed]. The arrival also of the dictator, with all the orders pouring out to meet him, was more celebrated than that of any ever before, and his triumph somewhat exceeded every customary measure of honoring that day.

Maxime conspectus ipse est, curru equis albis iuncto urbem invectus, parumque id non civile modo sed humanum etiam visum. Iovis Solisque equis aequiperatum dictatorem in religionem etiam trahebant, triumphusque ob eam unam maxime rem clarior quam gratior fuit. Tum Iunoni reginae templum in Aventino locavit, dedicavitque Matutae Matris; atque his divinis humanisque rebus gestis dictatura se abdicavit.

He himself was most conspicuous, borne into the city in a chariot yoked with white horses; and that seemed not merely uncivic but even inhuman. They were even drawing the dictator into the religious sphere by equating him with the horses of Jupiter and of Sol, and on account of this one thing especially the triumph was more illustrious than gratifying. Then he contracted for a temple to Juno the Queen on the Aventine, and he dedicated (the temple) of Mater Matuta; and with these divine and human affairs accomplished he abdicated the dictatorship.

Agi deinde de Apollinis dono coeptum. Cui se decimam vovisse praedae partem cum diceret Camillus, pontifices solvendum religione populum censerent, haud facile inibatur ratio iubendi referre praedam populum, ut ex ea pars debita in sacrum secerneretur. tandem eo quod lenissimum videbatur decursum est, ut qui se domumque religione exsolvere vellet, cum sibimet ipse praedam aestimasset suam, decimae pretium partis in publicum deferret, ut ex eo donum aureum, dignum amplitudine templi ac numine dei, ex dignitate populi Romani fieret.

Then they began to take action about Apollo’s gift. Since Camillus said that he had vowed to him a tenth part of the booty, the pontiffs judged that the people must be released from the religious obligation; but it was not easy to devise a method of ordering the people to bring back the booty, so that from it the due part might be set apart for the sacred. At length they resorted to what seemed the most lenient course: that whoever wished to release himself and his household from the religious obligation, after he himself had appraised his own booty, should deliver into the public treasury the price of a tenth part, so that from it a golden gift, worthy of the amplitude of the temple and the numen of the god, might be made in accordance with the dignity of the Roman people.

Ea quoque conlatio plebis animos a Camillo alienavit. Inter haec pacificatum legati a Volscis et Aequis venerunt, impetrataque pax, magis ut fessa tam diutino bello adquiesceret civitas quam quod digni peterent.

That levy too alienated the spirits of the plebs from Camillus. Meanwhile, amid these things, legates from the Volsci and the Aequi came to make peace, and peace was obtained, more that the state, wearied by so long-during a war, might find repose than because they were petitioning as worthy.

[24] Veiis captis, sex tribunos militum consulari potestate insequens annus habuit, duos P. Cornelios, Cossum et Scipionem, M. Valerium Maximum iterum K. Fabium Ambustum tertium L. Furium Medullinum quintum Q. Servilium tertium. Corneliis Faliscum bellum, Valerio ac Servilio Capenas sorte evenit. Ab iis non urbes vi aut operibus temptatae, sed ager est depopulatus praedaeque rerum agrestium actae; nulla felix arbor, nihil frugiferum in agro relictum.

[24] Veii having been captured, the ensuing year had six military tribunes with consular power—two P. Cornelii, Cossus and Scipio; M. Valerius Maximus for the second time; K. Fabius Ambustus for the third; L. Furius Medullinus for the fifth; Q. Servilius for the third. By lot the war against the Falisci fell to the Cornelii, and Capena to Valerius and Servilius. By them cities were not attempted by force or by siege-works, but the countryside was ravaged and booty of rustic things driven off; no fruitful tree, nothing fruit-bearing in the field was left.

Ea clades Capenatem populum subegit; pax petentibus data; in Faliscis bellum restabat.

That disaster subdued the Capenate people; peace was given to those seeking it; among the Falisci, war remained.

Romae interim multiplex seditio erat, cuius leniendae causa coloniam in Volscos, quo tria milia civium Romanorum scriberentur, deducendam censuerant, triumvirique ad id creati terna iugera et septunces viritim diviserant. Ea largitio sperni coepta, quia spei maioris avertendae solatium obiectum censebant: cur enim relegari plebem in Volscos cum pulcherrima urbs Veii agerque Veientanus in conspectu sit, uberior ampliorque Romano agro? Urbem quoque urbi Romae vel situ vel magnificentia publicorum privatorumque tectorum ac locorum praeponebant.

At Rome meanwhile there was manifold sedition, for the alleviating of which they had decreed that a colony should be led out into the country of the Volsci, into which three thousand Roman citizens should be enrolled, and the triumvirs created for that purpose had divided to each man three iugera and seven-twelfths. This largess began to be spurned, because they judged that a solace was being thrown up to avert a greater hope: for why should the plebs be relegated among the Volsci when the most beautiful city of Veii and the Veientine land are in sight, richer and more ample than the Roman territory? They were even preferring that city to the city of Rome, either for its site or for the magnificence of its public and private buildings and places.

Quin illa quoque actio movebatur, quae post captam utique Romam a Gallis celebratior fuit, transmigrandi Veios. Ceterum partem plebis, partem senatus habitando destinabant [Veios,] duasque urbes communi re publica incoli a populo Romano posse.

Indeed, that proposal too was being advanced—the one which, after Rome had in any case been taken by the Gauls, was more celebrated—of migrating to Veii. However, they were assigning part of the plebs, part of the senate for settlement [at Veii,] and that two cities could be inhabited by the Roman people under a common republic.

Adversus quae cum optimates ita tenderent ut morituros se citius dicerent in conspectu populi Romani quam quicquam earum rerum rogaretur; quippe nunc in una urbe tantum dissensionum esse: quid in duabus urbibus fore? Victamne ut quisquam victrici patriae praeferret sineretque maiorem fortunam captis esse Veiis quam incolumibus fuerit? Postremo se relinqui a civibus in patria posse: ut relinquant patriam atque cives nullam vim unquam subacturam, et T. Sicinium—is enim ex tribunis plebis rogationis eius lator erat—conditorem Veios sequantur, relicto deo Romulo, dei filio, parente et auctore urbis Romae.

Against these things the optimates pressed in such a way that they said they would sooner die in the sight of the Roman people than that anything of those matters should be put to the vote; indeed now in one city there are so many dissensions: what would there be in two cities? Would anyone prefer the conquered to the conquering fatherland, and allow that Veii should have a greater fortune when captured than it had when unscathed? Finally, that they themselves could be left by their fellow citizens in their fatherland: but to leave their fatherland and their fellow citizens no force would ever subdue them, and that they should follow T. Sicinius—for he, from among the tribunes of the plebs, was the proposer of that bill—as founder to Veii, with the god Romulus left behind, the son of a god, the parent and author of the city of Rome.

[25] —Haec cum foedis certaminibus agerentur—nam partem tribunorum plebi patres in suam sententiam traxerant—, nulla res alia manibus temperare plebem cogebat quam quod, urbi rixae committendae causa clamor ortus esset, principes senatus primi turbae offerentes se peti feririque atque occidi iubebant. Ab horum aetatibus dignitatibusque et honoribus violandis dum abstinebatur, et ad reliquos similes conatus verecundia irae obstabat.

[25] —While these things were being carried on with foul contests—for the patres had drawn a part of the tribunes of the plebs into their own opinion—, no other thing compelled the plebs to restrain their hands than this: that, for the purpose of committing the brawl to the city, a clamor had arisen; the leading men of the senate, first, offering themselves to the mob, were bidding that they be attacked, struck, and killed. While men refrained from violating these men’s ages, dignities, and honors, a sense of shame stood in the way of anger also toward other similar attempts.

Camillus identidem omnibus locis contionabatur: haud mirum id quidem esse, furere civitatem quae damnata voti omnium rerum potiorem curam quam religione se exsolvendi habeat. Nihil de conlatione dicere, stipis verius quam decumae, quando ea se quisque privatim obligaverit, liberatus sit populus. Enimvero illud se tacere suam conscientiam non pati quod ex ea tantum praeda quae rerum moventium sit decuma designetur: urbis atque agri capti, quae et ipsa voto contineatur, mentionem nullam fieri.

Camillus repeatedly harangued in all places: that it was no wonder, indeed, that the commonwealth was raving, which, being bound under a vow, has a care more for all things than for releasing itself by religion. He said nothing about the contribution—truly a pittance rather than a tithe—since, if each man has privately obligated himself to that, the people is discharged. But indeed his conscience did not allow him to keep silence about this: that only from that booty which is of movable things is a tithe designated; of the captured city and land, which are themselves contained in the vow, no mention is made.

Cum ea disceptatio, anceps senatui visa, delegata ad pontifices esset, adhibito Camillo visum collegio, quod eius ante conceptum votum Veientium fuisset et post votum in potestatem populi Romani venisset, eius partem decimam Apollini sacram esse. Ita in aestimationem urbs agerque venit. Pecunia ex aerario prompta, et tribunis militum consularibus ut aurum ex ea coemerent negotium datum.

When that disputation, seen as doubtful by the senate, had been delegated to the pontiffs, with Camillus called in, it seemed good to the college that, because it had belonged to the Veientes before the vow was conceived and had, after the vow, come into the power of the Roman People, a tenth part of it was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and the land came into valuation. Money was produced from the treasury, and the consular military tribunes were given the charge to buy gold with it.

Cuius cum copia non esset, matronae coetibus ad eam rem consultandam habitis communi decreto pollicitae tribunis militum aurum et omnia ornamenta sua, in aerarium detulerunt. Grata ea res ut quae maxime senatui unquam fuit; honoremque ob eam munificentiam ferunt matronis habitum ut pilento ad sacra ludosque, carpentis festo profestoque uterentur. Pondere ab singulis auri accepto aestimatoque ut pecuniae solverentur, crateram auream fieri placuit quae donum Apollini Delphos portaretur.

Since there was no supply of it, the matrons, gatherings having been held to deliberate on that matter, by a common decree pledged to the military tribunes their gold and all their ornaments, and they carried them into the treasury. That action was as welcome to the senate as anything ever; and they report that, on account of that munificence, an honor was granted to the matrons, that they might use the pilentum for sacred rites and for the games, and the carpenta on both feast and work days. After the weight of gold had been received from each and appraised, so that payments might be made in money, it was decided that a golden krater be made to be carried to Delphi as a gift for Apollo.

Simul ab religione animos remiserunt, integrant seditionem tribuni plebis; incitatur multitudo in omnes principes, ante alios in Camillum: eum praedam Veientanam publicando sacrandoque ad nihilum redegisse. Absentes ferociter increpant; praesentium, cum se ultro iratis offerrent, verecundiam habent. Simul extrahi rem ex eo anno viderunt, tribunos plebis latores legis in annum eosdem reficiunt; et patres hoc idem de intercessoribus legis adnisi; ita tribuni plebis magna ex parte iidem refecti.

At the same time, as soon as they relaxed their minds from religion, the tribunes of the plebs renew the sedition; the multitude is incited against all the leading men, before others against Camillus: that he, by publishing and by consecrating the Veientine booty, had reduced it to nothing. They fiercely upbraid those absent; toward those present—when they of their own accord offered themselves to the angry men—they have a modest regard. At the same time, when they saw the matter being drawn out beyond that year, they re-elect for the next year those same tribunes of the plebs who were the sponsors of the law; and the patres likewise strove for this same thing concerning the intercessors of the law; thus the tribunes of the plebs were for the most part the same men re-elected.

[26] Comitiis tribunorum militum patres summa ope evicerunt ut M. Furius Camillus crearetur. Propter bella simulabant parari ducem; sed largitioni tribuniciae adversarius quaerebatur. Cum Camillo creati tribuni militum consulari potestate L. Furius Medullinus sextum C. Aemilius L. Valerius Publicola Sp. Postumius P. Cornelius iterum.

[26] At the elections of the military tribunes the patricians, with the utmost effort, prevailed that M. Furius Camillus be created. On account of the wars they were pretending that a leader was being prepared; but what was being sought was an adversary to tribunician largess. Along with Camillus were created as military tribunes with consular power L. Furius Medullinus for the 6th time, C. Aemilius, L. Valerius Publicola, Sp. Postumius, and P. Cornelius for the 2nd time.

Principio anni tribuni plebis nihil moverunt, donec M. Furius Camillus in Faliscos, cui id bellum mandatum erat, proficisceretur. Differendo deinde elanguit res, et Camillo quem adversarium maxime metuerant gloria in Faliscis crevit. Nam cum primo moenibus se hostes tenerent tutissimum id rati, populatione agrorum atque incendiis villarum coegit eos egredi urbe.

At the beginning of the year the tribunes of the plebs set nothing in motion, until M. Furius Camillus should set out against the Falisci, to whom that war had been committed. Then, by delaying, the affair languished, and for Camillus—whom they had most feared as an adversary—glory grew among the Falisci. For when at first the enemy kept themselves within the walls, thinking that the safest course, by the ravaging of the fields and the burnings of the villas he compelled them to go out from the city.

Sed timor longius progredi prohibuit; mille fere passuum ab oppido castra locant, nulla re alia fidentes ea satis tuta esse quam difficultate aditus, asperis confragosisque circa, et partim artis, partim arduis viis. Ceterum Camillus, captivum indidem ex agris secutus ducem, castris multa nocte motis, prima luce aliquanto superioribus locis se ostendit. Trifariam Romani muniebant; alius exercitus proelio intentus stabat.

Soon, however, fear kept them from advancing farther; they pitch camp about one thousand paces from the town, trusting in nothing else to make it safe enough than the difficulty of approach, the ground around being rough and broken, and the roads partly narrow, partly steep. But Camillus, following as his guide a captive taken from those same fields, after shifting camp in the dead of night, at first light displayed himself on somewhat higher ground. The Romans were fortifying in three places; another force stood intent on battle.

Ibi impedire opus conatos hostes fundit fugatque; tantumque inde pavoris Faliscis iniectum est, ut effusa fuga castra sua quae propiora erant praelati urbem peterent. Multi caesi vulneratique priusquam paventes portis inciderent; castra capta; praeda ad quaestores redacta cum magna militum ira; sed severitate imperii victi eandem virtutem et oderant et mirabantur. Obsidio inde urbis et munitiones, et interdum per occasionem impetus oppidanorum in Romanas stationes proeliaque parva fieri et teri tempus neutro inclinata spe, cum frumentum copiaeque aliae ex ante convecto largius obsessis quam obsidentibus suppeterent.

Ibi he routs and puts to flight the enemies who had attempted to impede the work; and so much fear was cast into the Faliscans that, in a disordered flight, they sought their camp, which was nearer, rather than the city. Many were cut down and wounded before the panic-stricken burst in through the gates; the camp was captured; the booty was handed over to the quaestors, with great anger among the soldiers; but, overcome by the severity of command, they both hated and admired that same virtue. Then a siege of the city and entrenchments, and from time to time, when occasion offered, sallies of the townsmen against the Roman outposts and small skirmishes would occur, and time was worn away with hope inclined to neither side, since grain and other supplies from what had been brought in before were more plentiful for the besieged than for the besiegers.

Videbaturque aeque diuturnus futurus labor ac Veiis fuisset, ni fortuna imperatori Romano simul et cognitae rebus bellicis virtutis specimen [et] maturam victoriam dedisset.

And the labor seemed likely to be just as long-lasting as it had been at Veii, had not fortune given to the Roman commander at once both a specimen of prowess known in military affairs [and] a timely victory.

[27] Mos erat Faliscis eodem magistro liberorum et comite uti, simulque plures pueri, quod hodie quoque in Graecia manet, unius curae demandabantur. Principum liberos, sicut fere fit, qui scientia videbatur praecellere erudiebat. Is cum in pace instituisset pueros ante urbem lusus exercendique causa producere, nihil eo more per belli tempus intermisso, [dum] modo brevioribus modo longioribus spatiis trahendo eos a porta, lusu sermonibusque variatis, longius solito ubi res dedit progressus, inter stationes eos hostium castraque inde Romana in praetorium ad Camillum perduxit.

[27] It was the custom among the Falisci to employ the same teacher of the children and an attendant, and at the same time several boys, which even today also remains in Greece, were entrusted to the care of a single person. He who seemed to excel in knowledge, as commonly happens, educated the sons of the leading men. This man, when in peacetime he had instituted the practice of leading the boys out in front of the city for the sake of games and exercise, with nothing of that custom omitted during wartime, [while] now by shorter now by longer stretches drawing them away from the gate, with play and conversations varied, when the occasion allowed and he had gone farther than usual, led them among the enemy outposts and from there to the Roman camp, into the praetorium, to Camillus.

Ibi scelesto facinori scelestiorem sermonem addit, Falerios se in manus Romanis tradidisse, quando eos pueros quorum parentes capita ibi rerum sint in potestatem dediderit. Quae ubi Camillus audivit, "non ad similem" inquit, "tui nec populum nec imperatorem scelestus ipse cum scelesto munere venisti. Nobis cum Faliscis quae pacto fit humano societas non est: quam ingeneravit natura utrisque est eritque.

There he adds to the wicked deed a still more wicked declaration, that he has handed over Falerii into Roman hands, since he has delivered into his power those boys whose parents are the heads of affairs there. When Camillus heard these things, he said, “You, a criminal yourself with your criminal gift, have come neither to a people nor to a commander like yourself. Between us and the Faliscans there is not the fellowship that is made by a human pact: the fellowship which nature has engendered for both is and shall be.”

Sunt et belli, sicut pacis, iura, iusteque ea non minus quam fortiter didicimus gerere. Arma habemus non adversus eam aetatem cui etiam captis urbibus parcitur, sed adversus armatos et ipsos qui, nec laesi nec lacessiti a nobis, castra Romana ad Veios oppugnarunt. Eos tu quantum in te fuit novo scelere vicisti: ego Romanis artibus, virtute opere armis, sicut Veios vincam". Denudatum deinde eum manibus post tergum inligatis reducendum Falerios pueris tradidit, virgasque eis quibus proditorem agerent in urbem verberantes dedit.

There are also laws of war, just as of peace, and we have learned to conduct them justly no less than bravely. We bear arms not against that age which is spared even when cities have been captured, but against armed men, those very ones who, neither injured nor provoked by us, assaulted the Roman camp at Veii. Them you, so far as in you lay, have overcome by a new crime; I, by Roman arts—by virtue, toil, and arms—will conquer, as I did at Veii". Then, with him stripped and his hands bound behind his back, he handed him over to the boys of Falerii to be led back, and he gave them rods with which, while beating him, they might drive the traitor into the city.

Ad quod spectaculum concursu populi primum facto, deinde a magistratibus de re nova vocato senatu, tanta mutatio animis est iniecta ut qui modo efferati odio iraque Veientium exitum paene quam Capenatium pacem mallent, apud eos pacem universa posceret civitas. Fides Romana, iustitia imperatoris in foro et curia celebrantur; consensuque omnium legati ad Camillum in castra, atque inde permissu Camilli Romam ad senatum, qui dederent Falerios proficiscuntur. Introducti ad senatum ita locuti traduntur: "Patres conscripti, victoria cui nec deus nec homo quisquam invideat victi a vobis et imperatore vestro, dedimus nos vobis, rati, quo nihil victori pulchrius est, melius nos sub imperio vestro quam legibus nostris victuros.

At that spectacle, when first there had been a concourse of the people, and then, on account of the new matter, the senate had been summoned by the magistrates, such a change was infused into minds that those who but a moment before, savage with hatred and wrath, almost preferred the extinction of the Veientines to the peace of the Capenates, now the whole commonwealth among them demanded peace. The Roman good faith and the justice of the commander are celebrated in the forum and the curia; and by the consent of all, envoys set out to Camillus in the camp, and from there, with Camillus’s permission, to Rome to the senate, to surrender Falerii. Brought before the senate, they are reported to have spoken thus: "Conscript Fathers, by a victory at which neither god nor any man would feel envy, conquered by you and your commander, we have surrendered ourselves to you, thinking—than which nothing is more beautiful for a victor—that we shall live better under your imperium than under our own laws."

Eventu huius belli duo salutaria exempla prodita humano generi sunt: vos fidem in bello quam praesentem victoriam maluistis; nos fide provocati victoriam ultro detulimus. Sub dicione vestra sumus; mittite qui arma, qui obsides, qui urbem patentibus portis accipiant. Nec vos fidei nostrae nec nos imperii vestri paenitebit." Camillo et ab hostibus et a civibus gratiae actae.

By the outcome of this war two salutary exemplars have been set forth for humankind: you preferred good faith in war rather than an immediate victory; we, challenged by that good faith, of our own accord have yielded up the victory. We are under your dominion; send men to receive the arms, the hostages, the city with its gates standing open. Neither will you have cause to regret our good faith, nor we your imperium." Thanks were given to Camillus both by the enemies and by the citizens.

Faliscis in stipendium militum eius anni, ut populus Romanus tributo vacaret, pecunia imperata. Pace data exercitus Romam reductus.

Upon the Falisci money was imposed for the soldiers’ stipend of that year, so that the Roman people might be free from tribute. With peace granted, the army was led back to Rome.

[28] Camillus meliore multo laude quam cum triumphantem albi per urbem vexerant equi insignis, iustitia fideque hostibus victis cum in urbem redisset, taciti eius verecundiam non tulit senatus quin sine mora voti liberaretur; crateramque auream donum Apollini Delphos legati qui ferrent, L. Valerius L. Sergius A. Manlius, missi longa una nave, haud procul freto Siculo a piratis Liparensium excepti devehuntur Liparas. Mos erat civitatis velut publico latrocinio partam praedam dividere. Forte eo anno in summo magistratu erat Timasitheus quidam, Romanis vir similior quam suis; qui legatorum nomen donumque et deum cui mitteretur et doni causam veritus ipse multitudinem quoque, quae semper ferme regenti est similis, religionis iustae implevit, adductosque in publicum hospitium legatos cum praesidio etiam navium Delphos prosecutus, Romam inde sospites restituit.

[28] Camillus, with a praise much better than when white horses had borne him triumphant through the city, distinguished by justice and good faith toward conquered enemies, when he had returned into the city, the senate did not, in silence, endure his modesty so that he should not, without delay, be freed from his vow; and a golden krater, a gift to Apollo at Delphi—the envoys to carry it, L. Valerius, L. Sergius, A. Manlius—sent in a single long ship, not far from the Sicilian strait, were intercepted by the pirates of the Lipareans and conveyed to Liparae. It was the custom of the state to divide the booty gained, as it were, by public piracy. By chance in that year a certain Timasitheus was in the highest magistracy, a man more like the Romans than his own; who, revering the title of ambassadors and the gift and the god to whom it was being sent and the cause of the gift, himself also filled the multitude, which almost always is like its ruler, with just religion, and, after the ambassadors had been brought into the public guest-house, escorted them to Delphi with an escort even of ships, and from there restored them safe to Rome.

Hospitium cum eo senatus consulto est factum donaque publice data.

Guest-friendship with him was established by decree of the Senate, and gifts were publicly given.

Eodem anno in Aequis varie bellatum, adeo ut in incerto fuerit et apud ipsos exercitus et Romae vicissent victine essent. Imperatores Romani fuere ex tribunis militum C. Aemilius Sp. Postumius. Primo rem communiter gesserunt; fusis inde acie hostibus, Aemilium praesidio Verruginem obtinere placuit, Postumium fines vastare.

In the same year among the Aequi the war was variously waged, to such an extent that both with the armies themselves and at Rome it was uncertain whether they had won or had been beaten. The Roman commanders were from the military tribunes: C. Aemilius and Sp. Postumius. At first they managed the affair jointly; then, the enemy routed in line of battle, it was decided that Aemilius should hold Verrugo with a garrison, and that Postumius should ravage the territory.

Ibi eum incomposito agmine neglegentius ab re bene gesta euntem adorti Aequi terrore iniecto in proximos compulere tumulos; pavorque inde Verruginem etiam ad praesidium alterum est perlatus. Postumius suis in tutum receptis cum contione advocata terrorem increparet ac fugam, fusos esse ab ignavissimo ac fugacissimo hoste, conclamat universus exercitus merito se ea audire et fateri admissum flagitium, sed eosdem correcturos esse neque diuturnum id gaudium hostibus fore. Poscentes ut confestim inde ad castra hostium duceret—et in conspectu erant, posita in plano—nihil poenae recusabant ni ea ante noctem expugnassent.

There the Aequians, attacking him as he was proceeding with his column disordered and more negligently after a well-achieved affair, by instilling terror drove him onto the nearest hills; and from there the panic was carried even to Verrugo, to the other garrison. Postumius, after he had brought his men into a place of safety, when—an assembly having been called—he was reproaching their terror and flight, that they had been routed by a most cowardly and most flight-prone enemy, the entire army shouted that they were deservedly hearing these things and confessed the disgrace committed, but that these same men would set it right, and that that joy would not be long for the enemy. Demanding that he lead them straightway from there to the enemies’ camp—and it was in sight, pitched on the plain—they refused no punishment unless they should storm it before nightfall.

Conlaudatos corpora curare paratosque esse quarta vigilia iubet. Et hostes nocturnam fugam ex tumulo Romanorum ut ab ea via quae ferebat Verruginem excluderent, fuere obvii; proeliumque ante lucem—sed luna pernox erat—commissum est. [Et] haud incertius diurno proelium fuit; sed clamor Verruginem perlatus, cum castra Romana crederent oppugnari, tantum iniecit pavoris ut nequiquam retinente atque obsecrante Aemilio Tusculum palati fugerent.

After praising them, he orders them to tend to their bodies and to be ready at the fourth watch. And the enemies, so as to shut off a nocturnal flight from the Roman hill from that road which led to Verrugo, were in the way; and the battle before light—but the moon was all-night bright—was joined. [And] the battle was no more uncertain than a daytime one; but a shout carried to Verrugo, when they believed the Roman camp to be under assault, cast in so much fear that, Aemilius vainly restraining and beseeching, they fled, scattered, to Tusculum.

Inde fama Romam perlata est Postumium exercitumque occisum. Qui ubi prima lux metum insidiarum effuse sequentibus sustulit, cum perequitasset aciem promissa repetens, tantum iniecit ardoris ut non ultra sustinuerint impetum Aequi. Caedes inde fugientium, qualis ubi ira magis quam virtute res geritur, ad perniciem hostium facta est; tristemque ab Tusculo nuntium nequiquam exterrita civitate litterae a Postumio laureatae sequuntur, victoriam populi Romani esse, Aequorum exercitum deletum.

Then a report was borne to Rome that Postumius and the army had been slain. When first light removed the fear of ambush for the headlong pursuers, as he rode along the line repeating his promises, he injected so much ardor that the Aequi no longer sustained the assault. Then the slaughter of the fleeing—such as when the affair is conducted more by wrath than by valor—was wrought to the destruction of the enemy; and letters laurel-decked from Postumius follow the gloomy message from Tusculum—when the city had been needlessly alarmed—[stating] that it is a victory of the Roman people, that the army of the Aequi has been destroyed.

[29] Tribunorum plebis actiones quia nondum invenerant finem, et plebs continuare latoribus legis tribunatum et patres reficere intercessores legis adnisi sunt; sed plus suis comitiis plebs valuit; quem dolorem ulti patres sunt senatus consulto facto ut consules, invisus plebi magistratus, crearentur. Annum post quintum decimum creati consules L. Lucretius Flauus Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus.

[29] Because the proceedings of the tribunes of the plebs had not yet found an end, both the plebs endeavored to continue the tribunate to the sponsors of the law, and the patres strove to reconstitute intercessors against the law; but the plebs prevailed more in their own comitia; the patres, avenging that grievance, passed a senatus consultum that consuls, a magistracy hateful to the plebs, be elected. In the fifteenth year thereafter, consuls were elected, L. Lucretius Flavus and Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus.

Principio huius anni ferociter quia nemo ex collegio intercessurus erat coortis ad perferendam legem tribunis plebis nec segnius ob id ipsum consulibus resistentibus omnique civitate in unam eam curam conversa, Vitelliam coloniam Romanam in suo agro Aequi expugnant. Colonorum pars maxima incolumis, quia nocte proditione oppidum captum liberam per aversa urbis fugam dederat, Romam perfugere. L. Lucretio consuli ea provincia evenit.

At the beginning of this year, since no one from the college was going to intercede, with the tribunes of the plebs having arisen to carry the law through, and the consuls resisting no less vigorously for that very reason, and the whole commonwealth turned to that single concern, the Aequi storm Vitellia, a Roman colony, in their own territory. The greater part of the colonists, unharmed—because, the town having been captured at night by treachery, a free escape by flight through the rear of the city had been afforded—fled for refuge to Rome. To the consul L. Lucretius that province fell.

Is cum exercitu profectus acie hostes vicit, victorque Romam ad maius aliquanto certamen redit. Dies dicta erat tribunis plebis biennii superioris A. Verginio et Q. Pomponio, quos defendi patrum consensu ad fidem senatus pertinebat; neque enim eos aut vitae ullo crimine alio aut gesti magistratus quisquam arguebat praeterquam quod gratificantes patribus rogationi tribuniciae intercessissent. Vicit tamen gratiam senatus plebis ira et pessimo exemplo innoxii denis milibus gravis aeris condemnati sunt.

He, having set out with the army, defeated the enemies in line of battle, and, as victor, returned to Rome to a somewhat greater contest. A day had been appointed for the tribunes of the plebs of the previous biennium, A. Verginius and Q. Pomponius, whose defense, by the consensus of the patres, pertained to the good faith of the senate; for no one was accusing them either of any charge touching their life or of the magistracy they had exercised, except that, gratifying the patres, they had interceded against the tribunician rogation. Nevertheless, the anger of the plebs prevailed over the favor of the senate, and, as a most pernicious precedent, the innocent men were condemned to 10,000 of heavy bronze.

Id aegre passi patres; Camillus palam sceleris plebem arguere quae iam in suos versa non intellegeret se pravo iudicio de tribunis intercessionem sustulisse, intercessione sublata tribuniciam potestatem evertisse; nam quod illi sperarent effrenatam licentiam eius magistratus patres laturos, falli eos. Si tribunicia vis tribunicio auxilio repelli nequeat, aliud telum patres inventuros esse; consulesque increpabat quod fide publica decipi tribunos eos taciti tulissent qui senatus auctoritatem secuti essent. Haec propalam contionabundus in dies magis augebat iras hominum.

The Fathers endured that with difficulty; and Camillus openly accused the plebs of crime, who, now turned against their own, did not understand that by a perverse judgment against the tribunes they had removed the intercession, and, the intercession removed, had overthrown the tribunician power; for in hoping that the Fathers would bear the unbridled license of that magistracy, they were deceived. If tribunician force cannot be repelled by tribunician aid, the senators would find another weapon; and he rebuked the consuls because, under the public pledge, they had silently allowed those tribunes to be cheated who had followed the authority of the senate. By these harangues uttered openly he, from day to day, was the more augmenting men’s wrath.

[30] Senatum vero incitare adversus legem haud desistebat: ne aliter descenderent in forum, cum dies ferendae legis venisset, quam ut qui meminissent sibi pro aris focisque et deum templis ac solo in quo nati essent dimicandum fore. Nam quod ad se privatim attineat, si suae gloriae sibi inter dimicationem patriae meminisse sit fas, sibi amplum quoque esse urbem ab se captam frequentari, cottidie se frui monumento gloriae suae et ante oculos habere urbem latam in triumpho suo, insistere omnes vestigiis laudum suarum; sed nefas ducere desertam ac relictam ab dis immortalibus incoli urbem, et in captivo solo habitare populum Romanum et victrice patria victam mutari.

[30] He by no means ceased to incite the senate against the law: that they should not go down into the forum, when the day for carrying the law had come, otherwise than as men who remembered that they would have to fight for altars and hearths and the temples of the gods and the soil on which they had been born. For as it pertains to himself privately—if it is right for him, amid the struggle of the fatherland, to remember his own glory—it is honor enough for him also that a city captured by himself is frequented; he enjoys daily the monument of his glory and has before his eyes a city carried in his triumph; all stand upon the vestiges of his praises. But he deems it nefarious that a city deserted and abandoned by the immortal gods be inhabited, and that the Roman people dwell upon captive soil and, with their fatherland the victor, be made the conquered.

His adhortationibus principes concitati [patres] senes iuvenesque cum ferretur lex agmine facto in forum venerunt, dissipatique per tribus, suos quisque tribules prensantes, orare cum lacrimis coepere ne eam patriam pro qua fortissime felicissimeque ipsi ac patres eorum dimicassent desererent, Capitolium, aedem Vestae, cetera circa templa deorum ostentantes; ne exsulem, extorrem populum Romanum ab solo patrio ac dis penatibus in hostium urbem agerent, eoque rem adducerent ut melius fuerit non capi Veios, ne Roma desereretur. Quia non vi agebant sed precibus, et inter preces multa deorum mentio erat, religiosum parti maximae fuit, et legem una plures tribus antiquarunt quam iusserunt. Adeoque ea victoria laeta patribus fuit, ut postero die referentibus consulibus senatus consultum fieret ut agri Veientani septena iugera plebi dividerentur, nec patribus familiae tantum, sed ut omnium in domo liberorum capitum ratio haberetur, vellentque in eam spem liberos tollere.

Stirred by these exhortations the leading men, [the senators] both old and young, when the law was being brought forward, came into the forum in a body; and, scattered through the tribes, each one grasping his fellow-tribesmen, they began to beg with tears that they not desert that fatherland for which they themselves and their fathers had fought most bravely and most successfully, pointing to the Capitol, the temple of Vesta, and the other temples of the gods round about; that they not drive the Roman people, exiled and banished from their ancestral soil and household gods (Penates), into the city of their enemies, and not bring the matter to the point that it would have been better that Veii not be captured, lest Rome be deserted. Because they were acting not by force but by prayers, and amid the prayers there was much mention of the gods, it was a matter of religion for the greatest part, and more tribes together annulled the law than ordered it. So joyous was that victory to the patres, that on the next day, the consuls bringing the matter forward, there was made a senatus consultum that seven iugera of the Veientine land be divided to the plebs, and not only to fathers of families, but that account be taken of all the freeborn heads in the household, and they wished them to rear children into that expectation.

[31] Eo munere delenita plebe nihil certatum est quo minus consularia comitia haberentur. Creati consules L. Valerius Potitus M. Manlius, cui Capitolino postea fuit cognomen. Hi consules magnos ludos fecere, quos M. Furius dictator voverat Veienti bello.

[31] By that gift having soothed the plebs, nothing was contested to hinder the holding of the consular elections. The consuls elected were L. Valerius Potitus and M. Manlius, whose cognomen afterward was Capitolinus. These consuls held great games, which M. Furius the dictator had vowed in the Veientine war.

Eodem anno aedes Iunonis reginae ab eodem dictatore eodemque bello vota dedicatur, celebratamque dedicationem ingenti matronarum studio tradunt.

In the same year the temple of Juno the Queen, vowed by the same dictator in the same war, was dedicated; and they hand down that the dedication was celebrated with the great zeal of the matrons.

Bellum haud memorabile in Algido cum Aequis gestum est, fusis hostibus prius paene quam manus consererent. Valerio quod perseverantior cedentes [insequi] [in fuga] fuit, triumphus, Manlio ut ovans ingrederetur urbem decretum est. Eodem anno novum bellum cum Volsiniensibus exortum; quo propter famem pestilentiamque in agro Romano ex siccitate caloribusque nimiis ortam exercitus duci nequivit.

A war hardly memorable was waged on Algidus with the Aequi, the enemy routed almost before they could join battle. Because Valerius was the more persistent [to pursue] those retreating [in flight], a triumph; for Manlius it was decreed that he should enter the city in ovation. In the same year a new war arose with the Volsinians; to which, because of famine and pestilence in the Roman countryside arising from drought and excessive heats, the army could not be led.

Ob quae Volsinienses Sappinatibus adiunctis superbia inflati ultro agros Romanos incursavere; bellum inde duobus populis indictum.

On account of which, the Volsinians, with the Sappinates joined to them and inflated with superbia, of their own accord raided the Roman fields; thereupon war was declared between the two peoples.

C. Iulius censor decessit; in eius locum M. Cornelius suffectus;—quae res postea religioni fuit quia eo lustro Roma est capta; nec deinde unquam in demortui locum censor sufficitur;—consulibusque morbo implicitis, placuit per interregnum renovari auspicia. Itaque cum ex senatus consulto consules magistratu se abdicassent, interrex creatur M. Furius Camillus, qui P. Cornelium Scipionem, is deinde L. Valerium Potitum interregem prodidit. Ab eo creati sex tribuni militum consulari potestate ut etiamsi cui eorum incommoda valetudo fuisset, copia magistratuum rei publicae esset.

C. Julius, the censor, died; in his place M. Cornelius was appointed as replacement;—a matter which later was held to be of religious scruple because in that lustrum Rome was captured; nor thereafter is a censor ever substituted in the place of one deceased;—and with the consuls entangled by illness, it pleased them that through an interregnum the auspices be renewed. And so, when by senatorial decree the consuls had abdicated from office, an interrex was created, M. Furius Camillus, who designated P. Cornelius Scipio; he then put forward L. Valerius Potitus as interrex. By him six military tribunes with consular power were created, so that even if any one of them had inconvenient ill‑health, there might be a supply of magistrates for the commonwealth.

[32] Kalendis Quintilibus magistratum occepere L. Lucretius Ser. Sulpicius M. Aemilius L. Furius Medullinus septimum Agrippa Furius C. Aemilius iterum. ex his L. Lucretio et C. Aemilio Volsinienses provincia evenit, Sappinates Agrippae Furio et Ser.

[32] On the Kalends of Quintilis they entered upon office: L. Lucretius, Ser. Sulpicius, M. Aemilius, L. Furius Medullinus, for the seventh time, Agrippa Furius, C. Aemilius, for the second time. Of these, to L. Lucretius and C. Aemilius the Volsinians fell as a province; the Sappinates to Agrippa Furius and Ser.

Sulpicio. Prius cum Volsiniensibus pugnatum est. Bellum numero hostium ingens, certamine haud sane asperum fuit.

to Sulpicius. First, there was fighting with the Volsinians. The war was enormous in the number of enemies, not exactly harsh in the contest.

Fusa concursu primo acies; in fuga milia octo armatorum ab equitibus interclusa positis armis in deditionem venerunt. Eius belli fama effecit ne se pugnae committerent Sappinates; moenibus armati se tutabantur. Romani praedas passim et ex Sappinati agro et ex Volsiniensi, nullo eam vim arcente, egerunt; donec Volsiniensibus fessis bello, ea condicione ut res populo Romano redderent stipendiumque eius anni exercitui praestarent, in viginti annos indutiae datae.

The battle-line was routed at the first encounter; in the flight, eight thousand armed men, cut off by the cavalry, having laid down their arms came into surrender. The report of that war brought it about that the Sappinates did not commit themselves to battle; armed upon the walls they safeguarded themselves. The Romans drove plunder far and wide both from the Sappinate countryside and from the Volsinian, with no one warding off that force, until, the Volsinienses wearied with war, on the condition that they should return the goods to the Roman people and furnish the stipend of that year to the army, a truce for 20 years was granted.

Eodem anno M. Caedicius de plebe nuntiavit tribunis se in Nova via, ubi nunc sacellum est supra aedem Vestae, vocem noctis silentio audisse clariorem humana, quae magistratibus dici iuberet Gallos adventare. Id ut fit propter auctoris humilitatem spretum et quod longinqua eoque ignotior gens erat. Neque deorum modo monita ingruente fato spreta, sed humanam quoque opem, quae una erat, M. Furium ab urbe amovere.

In the same year M. Caedicius, a man of the plebs, reported to the tribunes that on the Nova Via, where now a little shrine is above the temple of Vesta, he had heard, in the silence of the night, a voice louder than human, which bade that it be told to the magistrates that the Gauls were approaching. This, as happens, was scorned on account of the informer’s lowliness and because the nation was distant and therefore the more unknown. Nor were only the warnings of the gods, as doom pressed on, scorned, but they also removed from the city the one human help that there was, M. Furius.

Qui die dicta ab L. Apuleio tribuno plebis propter praedam Veientanam, filio quoque adulescente per idem tempus orbatus, cum accitis domum tribulibus clientibusque quae magna pars plebis erat, percontatus animos eorum responsum tulisset se conlaturos quanti damnatus esset, absolvere eum non posse, in exsilium abiit, precatus ab dis immortalibus si innoxio sibi ea iniuria fieret, primo quoque tempore desiderium sui civitati ingratae facerent. Absens quindecim milibus gravis aeris damnatur.

On the day appointed for his case by L. Apuleius, tribune of the plebs, on account of the Veientine plunder, and bereft at the same time also of his young son, when he had summoned to his house his tribesmen and clients—which was a great part of the plebs—and had sounded their minds, he received the answer that they would contribute whatever amount he might be fined, but that they could not acquit him; he went into exile, praying of the immortal gods that, if that injury were done to him though innocent, they would at the earliest opportunity make his loss felt by the ungrateful city. In his absence he is condemned to fifteen thousand asses of heavy bronze.

[33] Expulso cive quo manente, si quicquam humanorum certi est, capi Roma non potuerat, adventante fatali urbi clade legati ab Clusinis veniunt auxilium adversus Gallos petentes. Eam gentem traditur fama dulcedine frugum maximeque vini nova tum voluptate captam Alpes transisse agrosque ab Etruscis ante cultos possedisse; et invexisse in Galliam vinum inliciendae gentis causa Arruntem Clusinum ira corruptae uxoris ab Lucumone cui tutor is fuerat, praepotente iuvene et a quo expeti poenae, nisi externa vis quaesita esset, nequirent; hunc transeuntibus Alpes ducem auctoremque Clusium oppugnandi fuisse. Equidem haud abnuerim Clusium Gallos ab Arrunte seu quo alio Clusino adductos; sed eos qui oppugnaverint Clusium non fuisse qui primi Alpes transierint satis constat.

[33] With the citizen expelled—who, had he remained, if anything in human affairs is certain, Rome could not have been taken—, with the disaster fated for the city drawing near, ambassadors from Clusium came seeking aid against the Gauls. Tradition relates that that nation, captivated by the sweetness of grain and especially by the then-new pleasure of wine, crossed the Alps and possessed fields previously cultivated by the Etruscans; and that Arruns the Clusian brought wine into Gaul for the purpose of enticing the nation—Arruns, in anger because his wife had been corrupted by Lucumo, whose tutor he had been, a prepotent youth, from whom punishment could not be exacted unless external force were sought; that this man, for those crossing the Alps, was leader and instigator of the attack on Clusium. For my part, I would by no means deny that the Gauls were led to Clusium by Arruns or by some other Clusian; but it is quite certain that those who besieged Clusium were not the first who crossed the Alps.

Ducentis quippe annis ante quam Clusium oppugnarent urbemque Romam caperent, in Italiam Galli transcenderunt; nec cum his primum Etruscorum sed multo ante cum iis qui inter Appenninum Alpesque incolebant saepe exercitus Gallici pugnavere.

For indeed two hundred years before they besieged Clusium and captured the city of Rome, the Gauls crossed over into Italy; nor was it with these that the Etruscans first contended, but long before, with those who dwelt between the Apennine and the Alps, the Gallic armies often fought.

Tuscorum ante Romanum imperium late terra marique opes patuere. Mari supero inferoque quibus Italia insulae modo cingitur, quantum potuerint nomina sunt argumento, quod alterum Tuscum communi vocabulo gentis, alterum Hadriaticum [mare] ab Hatria, Tuscorum colonia, vocavere Italicae gentes, Graeci eadem Tyrrhenum atque Adriaticum vocant. Ei in utrumque mare vergentes incoluere urbibus duodenis terras, prius cis Appenninum ad inferum mare, postea trans Appenninum totidem, quot capita originis erant, coloniis missis, quae trans Padum omnia loca,—excepto Venetorum angulo qui sinum circumcolunt maris,—usque ad Alpes tenuere.

Before Roman dominion, the resources of the Tuscans lay open widely by land and sea. By the upper and the lower sea by which Italy is girded in the manner of an island, how great they could be the names are evidence, because the Italian peoples called the one the Tuscan by the common appellation of the nation, the other the Hadriatic [Sea] from Hadria, a colony of the Tuscans; the Greeks call the same the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic. They, leaning toward each of the two seas, inhabited the lands with twelve cities, first on this side of the Apennine toward the lower sea, afterward across the Apennine just as many, as many as there were heads of origin, colonies having been sent, who held all the places across the Po,—except the angle of the Venetians who dwell around the gulf of the sea,—up to the Alps.

Alpinis quoque ea gentibus haud dubie origo est, maxime Raetis, quos loca ipsa efferarunt ne quid ex antiquo praeter sonum linguae nec eum incorruptum retinerent.

To the Alpine peoples, too, that same origin is without doubt, especially to the Raetians, whom the very places rendered feral, so that they retained nothing from antiquity except the sound of the language, nor even that uncorrupted.

[34] De transitu in Italiam Gallorum haec accepimus: Prisco Tarquinio Romae regnante, Celtarum quae pars Galliae tertia est penes Bituriges summa imperii fuit; ii regem Celtico dabant. Ambigatus is fuit, virtute fortunaque cum sua, tum publica praepollens, quod in imperio eius Gallia adeo frugum hominumque fertilis fuit ut abundans multitudo vix regi videretur posse. Hic magno natu ipse iam exonerare praegravante turba regnum cupiens, Bellovesum ac Segovesum sororis filios impigros iuvenes missurum se esse in quas di dedissent auguriis sedes ostendit; quantum ipsi vellent numerum hominum excirent ne qua gens arcere advenientes posset.

[34] Concerning the crossing of the Gauls into Italy we have received this: when Priscus Tarquinius was reigning at Rome, the highest authority among the Celts, who are the third part of Gaul, was in the hands of the Bituriges; they used to give a king to the Celtic people. Ambigatus was he, preeminent in virtue and in fortune, both his own and the public’s, because under his rule Gaul was so fertile in crops and in men that the abounding multitude seemed scarcely able to be governed. He, now advanced in years, wishing to unburden the kingdom, overburdened by the throng, declared that he would send Bellovesus and Segovesus, his sister’s sons, energetic youths, into whatever seats the gods had granted by auguries; let them summon as great a number of men as they themselves wished, so that no nation could ward off the newcomers.

Tum Segoveso sortibus dati Hercynei saltus; Belloveso haud paulo laetiorem in Italiam viam di dabant. Is quod eius ex populis abundabat, Bituriges, Arvernos, Senones, Haeduos, Ambarros, Carnutes, Aulercos excivit. Profectus ingentibus peditum equitumque copiis in Tricastinos venit.

Then to Segovesus there fell by lots the Hercynian Forest; to Bellovesus the gods were granting a far more favorable way into Italy. He called out the surplus from his peoples—the Bituriges, Arverni, Senones, Aedui, Ambarri, Carnutes, and Aulerci. Setting out with vast forces of infantry and cavalry, he came to the Tricastini.

Alpes inde oppositae erant; quas inexsuperabiles visas haud equidem miror, nulladum via, quod quidem continens memoria sit, nisi de Hercule fabulis credere libet, superatas. Ibi cum velut saeptos montium altitudo teneret Gallos, circumspectarentque quanam per iuncta caelo iuga in alium orbem terrarum transirent, religio etiam tenuit quod allatum est advenas quaerentes agrum ab Saluum gente oppugnari. Massilienses erant ii, navibus a Phocaea profecti.

From there the Alps were set opposite; which I for my part by no means wonder seemed insuperable, since as yet no road—so far as continuous memory goes—unless one is pleased to credit the fables about Hercules—had carried men over them. There, as the height of the mountains held the Gauls as if fenced in, and they looked around by which ridges joined to the sky they might pass into another orb of lands, a religious scruple also detained them, because it was reported that incomers seeking land were being attacked by the people of the Salyes. Those were the Massilians, who had set out by ships from Phocaea.

Id Galli fortunae suae omen rati, adiuvere ut quem primum in terram egressi occupaverant locum patientibus Saluis communirent. Ipsi per Taurinos saltus [saltum]que Duriae Alpes transcenderunt; fusisque acie Tuscis haud procul Ticino flumine, cum in quo consederant agrum Insubrium appellari audissent cognominem Insubribus pago Haeduorum, ibi omen sequentes loci condidere urbem; Mediolanium appellarunt.

The Gauls, reckoning this an omen of their fortune, assisted, the Salyes consenting, that they might fortify the place which they had first occupied upon disembarking onto land. They themselves crossed the Alps by the Taurinian passes and the pass [saltum] of the Duria; and, the Tuscans routed in line of battle not far from the river Ticinus, when they had heard that the field in which they had settled was called Insubrian, of the same name as the Insubres, a pagus of the Aedui, there, following the omen of the place, they founded a city; they called it Mediolanium.

[35] Alia subinde manus Cenomanorum Etitovio duce vestigia priorum secuta eodem saltu favente Belloveso cum transcendisset Alpes, ubi nunc Brixia ac Verona urbes sunt locos tenuere. Libui considunt post hos Salluviique, prope antiquam gentem Laevos Ligures incolentes circa Ticinum amnem. Poenino deinde Boii Lingonesque transgressi cum iam inter Padum atque Alpes omnia tenerentur, Pado ratibus traiecto non Etruscos modo sed etiam Umbros agro pellunt; intra Appenninum tamen sese tenuere.

[35] Another band of the Cenomani, with Etitovius as leader, following the footsteps of the former, after Bellovesus had crossed the Alps, with the same pass favoring them, held the places where now the cities Brixia and Verona are. The Libui settle after these, and the Salluvii, near the ancient people, the Laevi—Ligurians dwelling around the river Ticinus. Then, by the Poenine, the Boii and the Lingones having crossed, when already everything between the Padus (Po) and the Alps was held, the Padus crossed by rafts, they drive from the land not only the Etruscans but also the Umbrians; yet they kept themselves within the Apennine.

Tum Senones, recentissimi advenarum, ab Utente flumine usque ad Aesim fines habuere. Hanc gentem Clusium Romamque inde venisse comperio: id parum certum est, solamne an ab omnibus Cisalpinorum Gallorum populis adiutam.

Then the Senones, the most recent of the newcomers, held their bounds from the river Utens as far as the Aesis. I find that this tribe came thence to Clusium and to Rome: that is not very certain, whether by itself or aided by all the peoples of the Cisalpine Gauls.

Clusini novo bello exterriti, cum multitudinem, cum formas hominum invisitatas cernerent et genus armorum, audirentque saepe ab iis cis Padum ultraque legiones Etruscorum fusas, quamquam adversus Romanos nullum eis ius societatis amicitiaeve erat, nisi quod Veientes consanguineos adversus populum Romanum non defendissent, legatos Romam qui auxilium ab senatu peterent misere. De auxilio nihil impetratum; legati tres M. Fabi Ambusti filii missi, qui senatus populique Romani nomine agerent cum Gallis ne a quibus nullam iniuriam accepissent socios populi Romani atque amicos oppugnarent. Romanis eos bello quoque si res cogat tuendos esse; sed melius visum bellum ipsum amoveri si posset, et Gallos novam gentem pace potius cognosci quam armis.

The Clusini, terrified by a new war, when they beheld a multitude and unfamiliar forms of men and a kind of arms, and heard often that on this side of the Po and beyond legions of the Etruscans had been routed by them, although they had no right of alliance or friendship toward the Romans—save that they had not defended their kinsmen the Veientes against the Roman People—sent envoys to Rome to seek help from the senate. As to assistance nothing was obtained; three envoys, the sons of M. Fabius Ambustus, were sent, to deal with the Gauls in the name of the senate and Roman People, that they should not attack the allies and friends of the Roman People, from whom they had received no injury. The Romans would also have to protect them by war if the situation compelled; but it seemed better that the war itself be removed if it could be, and that the Gauls, a new nation, be known by peace rather than by arms.

[36] Mitis legatio, ni praeferoces legatos Gallisque magis quam Romanis similes habuisset. Quibus postquam mandata ediderunt in concilio [Gallorum] datur responsum, etsi novum nomen audiant Romanorum, tamen credere viros fortes esse quorum auxilium a Clusinis in re trepida sit imploratum; et quoniam legatione adversus se maluerint quam armis tueri socios, ne se quidem pacem quam illi adferant aspernari, si Gallis egentibus agro, quem latius possideant quam colant Clusini, partem finium concedant; aliter pacem impetrari non posse. Et responsum coram Romanis accipere velle et si negetur ager, coram iisdem Romanis dimicaturos, ut nuntiare domum possent quantum Galli virtute ceteros mortales praestarent.

[36] A mild legation—had it not had over-fierce envoys, more similar to Gauls than to Romans. To these, after they had delivered their mandates in the council [of the Gauls], an answer is given: although they hear the new name of the Romans, nevertheless they believe them to be brave men, whose aid has been implored by the Clusini in a troubled crisis; and since they have preferred to defend their allies against them by legation rather than by arms, they themselves would not spurn the peace which those bring, if the Clusini, possessing land more broadly than they cultivate, grant to the Gauls in need a portion of their borders; otherwise peace cannot be obtained. And they wish to receive the reply in the presence of the Romans, and, if the land is denied, they will fight in the presence of those same Romans, so that they may report home how far the Gauls, in prowess, excel the rest of mortals.

Quodnam id ius esset agrum a possessoribus petere aut minari arma Romanis quaerentibus et quid in Etruria rei Gallis esset, cum illi se in armis ius ferre et omnia fortium virorum esse ferociter dicerent, accensis utrimque animis ad arma discurritur et proelium conseritur. Ibi iam urgentibus Romanam urbem fatis legati contra ius gentium arma capiunt. Nec id clam esse potuit cum ante signa Etruscorum tres nobilissimi fortissimique Romanae iuventutis pugnarent; tantum eminebat peregrina virtus.

What right was that—to ask for a field from its possessors or to menace arms against Romans making inquiries—and what business had the Gauls in Etruria? Since they fiercely declared that they carried their right in arms and that all things belonged to brave men, with spirits inflamed on both sides they run to arms and battle is joined. There, now with the fates pressing the Roman city, the envoys, against the law of nations, take up arms. Nor could this be hidden, since before the standards of the Etruscans three most noble and most brave of the Roman youth were fighting; so greatly did foreign valor stand out.

Quin etiam Q. Fabius, evectus extra aciem equo, ducem Gallorum, ferociter in ipsa signa Etruscorum incursantem, per latus transfixum hasta occidit; spoliaque eius legentem Galli agnovere, perque totam aciem Romanum legatum esse signum datum est. Omissa inde in Clusinos ira, receptui canunt minantes Romanis. Erant qui extemplo Romam eundum censerent; vicere seniores, ut legati prius mitterentur questum iniurias postulatumque ut pro iure gentium violato Fabii dederentur.

Indeed even Q. Fabius, carried out beyond the battle line on his horse, killed the leader of the Gauls—who was fiercely charging right into the standards of the Etruscans—by piercing him through the flank with a spear; and as he was collecting his spoils the Gauls recognized him, and through the whole battle line a signal was given that he was a Roman legate. Thereupon, their anger against the Clusini set aside, they sound the recall, menacing the Romans. There were those who judged that they should go to Rome immediately; the elders prevailed, that legates be sent first to complain of the injuries and to demand that, for the law of nations (ius gentium) violated, the Fabii be surrendered.

Legati Gallorum cum ea sicut erant mandata exposuissent, senatui nec factum placebat Fabiorum et ius postulare barbari videbantur; sed ne id quod placebat decerneretur in tantae nobilitatis viris ambitio obstabat. Itaque ne penes ipsos culpa esset cladis forte Gallico bello acceptae, cognitionem de postulatis Gallorum ad populum reiciunt; ubi tanto plus gratia atque opes valuere ut quorum de poena agebatur tribuni militum consulari potestate in insequentem annum crearentur. Quo facto haud secus quam dignum erat infensi Galli bellum propalam minantes ad suos redeunt.

When the envoys of the Gauls had set forth these matters just as they were mandated, the deed of the Fabii did not please the senate, and the barbarians seemed to be demanding right; but ambition in men of such great nobility stood in the way lest that which pleased be decreed. Therefore, lest the blame should rest with them for a disaster perhaps received in a Gallic war, they refer the inquiry concerning the demands of the Gauls to the people; where favor and resources prevailed so much that those about whose punishment the case was being conducted were created tribunes of the soldiers with consular power for the ensuing year. This done, the Gauls, enraged no otherwise than was fitting, openly threatening war, return to their own.

Tribuni militum cum tribus Fabiis creati Q. Sulpicius Longus Q. Servilius quartum P. Cornelius Maluginensis.

The military tribunes were elected, together with the three Fabii: Q. Sulpicius Longus, Q. Servilius for the 4th time, and P. Cornelius Maluginensis.

[37] Cum tanta moles mali instaret—adeo occaecat animos fortuna, ubi vim suam ingruentem refringi non volt—civitas quae adversus Fidenatem ac Veientem hostem aliosque finitimos populos ultima experiens auxilia dictatorem multis tempestatibus dixisset, ea tunc invisitato atque inaudito hoste ab Oceano terrarumque ultimis oris bellum ciente, nihil extraordinarii imperii aut auxilii quaesivit. Tribuni quorum temeritate bellum contractum erat summae rerum praeerant, dilectumque nihilo accuratiorem quam ad media bella haberi solitus erat, extenuantes etiam famam belli, habebant. Interim Galli postquam accepere ultro honorem habitum violatoribus iuris humani elusamque legationem suam esse, flagrantes ira cuius impotens est gens, confestim signis conuolsis citato agmine iter ingrediuntur.

[37] When so great a mass of evil was pressing on—so far does Fortune blind minds, when she does not wish her onrushing force to be broken—the state which, against the Fidenate and Veientine enemy and other neighboring peoples, trying last resort aids, had on many occasions named a dictator, then, though an unvisited and unheard-of enemy was summoning war from Ocean and from the farthest shores of the earth, sought no extraordinary command nor auxiliary aid. The tribunes, by whose temerity the war had been contracted, presided over the sum of affairs, and held a levy no more exact than was wont to be held for middling wars, even extenuating the report of the war. Meanwhile the Gauls, after they learned that honor had of set purpose been paid to violators of human right and that their legation had been made a mockery, burning with anger—a passion of which the nation is not master—immediately, the standards pulled up, with the column hastened they set out on the march.

Ad quorum praetereuntium raptim tumultum cum exterritae urbes ad arma concurrerent fugaque agrestium fieret, Romam se ire magno clamore significabant quacumque ibant, equis virisque longe ac late fuso agmine immensum obtinentes loci. Sed antecedente fama nuntiisque Clusinorum, deinceps inde aliorum populorum, plurimum terroris Romam celeritas hostium tulit, quippe quibus velut tumultuario exercitu raptim ducto aegre ad undecimum lapidem occursum est, qua flumen Allia, Crustuminis montibus praealto defluens alueo, haud multum infra viam Tiberino amni miscetur. Iam omnia contra circaque hostium plena erant et nata in vanos tumultus gens truci cantu clamoribusque variis horrendo cuncta compleverant sono.

At the tumult of whose rapid passing, as the terrified cities ran to arms and a flight of the countryfolk took place, they signified with a great outcry wherever they went that they were going to Rome, possessing an immense expanse of ground with horses and men, their column spread far and wide. But with rumor going before, and with messengers from the Clusini, and thereafter from other peoples from there, the celerity of the enemy brought the greatest terror to Rome; since men to whom, as if with a tumultuary army led in haste, there was with difficulty an encounter at the eleventh milestone, where the river Allia, flowing down with a very deep channel from the Crustumine hills, not far below the road, merges with the Tiber river. Already everything opposite and around was full of the enemy, and a nation born for vain tumults, with savage chant and various shouts, had filled all things with a horrendous sound.

[38] Ibi tribuni militum non loco castris ante capto, non praemunito vallo quo receptus esset, non deorum saltem si non hominum memores, nec auspicato nec litato, instruunt aciem, diductam in cornua ne circumveniri multitudine hostium possent; nec tamen aequari frontes poterant cum extenuando infirmam et vix cohaerentem mediam aciem haberent. Paulum erat ab dextera editi loci quem subsidiariis repleri placuit, eaque res ut initium pavoris ac fugae, sic una salus fugientibus fuit. Nam Brennus regulus Gallorum in paucitate hostium artem maxime timens, ratus ad id captum superiorem locum ut ubi Galli cum acie legionum recta fronte concucurrissent subsidia in aversos transversosque impetum darent, ad subsidiarios signa convertit, si eos loco depulissit haud dubius facilem in aequo campi tantum superanti multitudine victoriam fore.

[38] There the military tribunes, with no site for a camp seized beforehand, with no rampart fortified by which there might be a refuge, not mindful of the gods at least, if not of men, neither auspicated nor made propitiatory sacrifice, draw up the battle line, drawn out into wings lest they be surrounded by the multitude of the enemy; nor, however, could the fronts be equalized, since by thinning out they had a weak and scarcely coherent center of the line. A little rise of ground lay on the right, which it was decided to fill with reserves, and this measure, as it was the beginning of panic and flight, so it was the one salvation for the fugitives. For Brennus, chieftain of the Gauls, fearing above all skill where the enemy were few, thinking the higher ground had been seized for that purpose—that, when the Gauls had clashed with the line of the legions face to face, the reserves would deliver an attack upon their rear and flanks—turned his standards toward the reserves, not doubting that, if he drove them from their position, there would be an easy victory for him on the level plain by a multitude so greatly superior in number.

Adeo non fortuna modo sed ratio etiam cum barbaris stabat. In altera acie nihil simile Romanis, non apud duces, non apud milites erat. Pavor fugaque occupaverat animos et tanta omnium oblivio, ut multo maior pars Veios in hostium urbem, cum Tiberis arceret, quam recto itinere Romam ad coniuges ac liberos fugerent.

Adequately not fortune only but even reason was standing with the barbarians. In the other battle-line there was nothing Roman, neither among the commanders nor among the soldiers. Panic and flight had seized their minds, and so great an oblivion of everything had come over them that a much larger part fled to Veii, into the enemy city, although the Tiber barred them, than by the straight road to Rome to their wives and children.

Parumper subsidiarios tutatus est locus; in reliqua acie simul est clamor proximis ab latere, ultimis ab tergo auditus, ignotum hostem prius paene quam viderent, non modo non temptato certamine sed ne clamore quidem reddito integri intactique fugerunt; nec ulla caedes pugnantium fuit; terga caesa suomet ipsorum certamine in turba impedientium fugam. Circa ripam Tiberis quo armis abiectis totum sinistrum cornu defugit, magna strages facta est, multosque imperitos nandi aut invalidos, graves loricis aliisque tegminibus, hausere gurgites; maxima tamen pars incolumis Veios perfugit, unde non modo praesidii quicquam sed ne nuntius quidem cladis Romam est missus. Ab dextro cornu quod procul a flumine et magis sub monte steterat, Romam omnes petiere et ne clausis quidem portis urbis in arcem confugerunt.

For a little while the ground protected the reserves; in the rest of the line at once a clamor was heard—by those nearest on the flank, by the farthest at the rear—an unknown enemy almost before they saw him; without not only not attempting combat but not even giving back a shout, they, sound and untouched, fled; nor was there any slaughter of men fighting; backs were cut down by their own side through their own struggle, in the crowd hindering flight. Around the bank of the Tiber, whither, with arms cast away, the whole left wing fled, great carnage was made, and the whirlpools swallowed many unskilled at swimming or weak, heavy with cuirasses and other coverings; yet the greatest part fled safe through to Veii, whence not only was there sent no reinforcement at all, but not even a messenger of the disaster was sent to Rome. From the right wing, which had stood far from the river and more under the hill, all made for Rome, and, with the gates of the city not even closed, took refuge in the citadel.

[39] Gallos quoque velut obstupefactos miraculum victoriae tam repentinae tenuit, et ipsi pavore defixi primum steterunt, velut ignari quid accidisset; deinde insidias vereri; postremo caesorum spolia legere armorumque cumulos, ut mos eis est, coacervare; tum demum postquam nihil usquam hostile cernebatur viam ingressi, haud multo ante solis occasum ad urbem Romam perveniunt. Ubi cum praegressi equites non portas clausas, non stationem pro portis excubare, non armatos esse in muris rettulissent, aliud priori simile miraculum eos sustinuit; noctemque veriti et ignotae situm urbis, inter Romam atque Anienem consedere, exploratoribus missis circa moenia aliasque portas quaenam hostibus in perdita re consilia essent. Romani cum pars maior ex acie Veios petisset quam Romam, nemo superesse quemquam praeter eos qui Romam refugerant crederet, complorati omnes pariter vivi mortuique totam prope urbem lamentis impleverunt.

[39] The Gauls too, as if stupefied, were held by the miracle of so sudden a victory, and they themselves, fixed with fear, at first stood, as if ignorant of what had happened; then they began to fear an ambush; finally they set to gathering the spoils of the slain and heaping up piles of arms, as is their custom; then at last, after nothing hostile was seen anywhere, having taken the road, they arrive at the city Rome not long before sunset. When the cavalry sent ahead reported that the gates were not closed, that no station was keeping watch before the gates, that there were no men armed on the walls, another marvel like the former held them back; and fearing the night and the position of a city unknown to them, they sat down between Rome and the Anio, scouts having been sent around the walls and the other gates to learn what plans the enemies had in their desperate state. As for the Romans, since a greater part from the battle-line had made for Veii than for Rome, and no one believed that anyone survived except those who had fled back to Rome, all alike, living and dead, were bewailed, and they filled nearly the whole city with laments.

Privatos deinde luctus stupefecit publicus pavor, postquam hostes adesse nuntiatum est; mox ululatus cantusque dissonos vagantibus circa moenia turmatim barbaris audiebant. Omne inde tempus suspensos ita tenuit animos usque ad lucem alteram ut identidem iam in urbem futurus videretur impetus; primo adventu, quia accesserant ad urbem,—mansuros enim ad Alliam fuisse nisi hoc consilii foret,—deinde sub occasum solis, quia haud multum diei supererat,—ante noctem [enim] [rati se] invasuros;—tum in noctem dilatum consilium esse, quo plus pavoris inferrent. Postremo lux appropinquans exanimare, timorique perpetuo ipsum malum continens fuit cum signa infesta portis sunt inlata.

Then private mournings were stunned by public panic, after it was announced that the enemies were at hand; soon they heard ululations and dissonant chants, as the barbarians, in bands, roamed around the walls. From then on all the time held their spirits in such suspense until the next dawn that again and again an assault upon the city now seemed about to come: at their first arrival, because they had approached the city,—for they would have remained at the Allia unless this had been the plan,—then toward sunset, because not much of the day was left,—that before night [indeed] [thinking that they] would make an assault;—then that the plan had been deferred into the night, in order to bring in more terror. At last the approaching light left them breathless, and the very calamity, sustaining a perpetual fear, was upon them when hostile standards were brought against the gates.

Nequaquam tamen ea nocte neque insequenti die similis illi quae ad Alliam tam pavide fugerat civitas fuit. Nam cum defendi urbem posse tam parva relicta manu spes nulla esset, placuit cum coniugibus ac liberis iuventutem militarem senatusque robur in arcem Capitoliumque concedere, armisque et frumento conlato, ex loco inde munito deos hominesque et Romanum nomen defendere; flaminem sacerdotesque Vestales sacra publica a caede, ab incendiis procul auferre, nec ante deseri cultum eorum quam non superessent qui colerent. si arx Capitoliumque, sedes deorum, si senatus, caput publici consilii, si militaris iuventus superfuerit imminenti ruinae urbis, facilem iacturam esse seniorum relictae in urbe utique periturae turbae.

By no means, however, on that night nor on the following day was the city similar to that which had fled so timidly at the Allia. For since there was no hope that the city could be defended with so small a band left, it was resolved that, together with their wives and children, the military youth and the strength of the senate should withdraw into the citadel and the Capitol, and, arms and grain having been gathered, from that fortified place defend gods and men and the Roman name; that the Flamen and the Vestal priestesses should carry the public sacred things far away from slaughter and fires, and that their cult should not be deserted before there were no longer survivors to tend it. If the citadel and the Capitol, the seats of the gods, if the senate, the head of public counsel, if the military youth should survive the city’s imminent ruin, the loss of the elders, a crowd left in the city and in any case doomed to perish, would be an easy one.

Et quo id aequiore animo de plebe multitudo ferret, senes triumphales consularesque simul se cum illis palam dicere obituros, nec his corporibus, quibus non arma ferre, non tueri patriam possent, oneraturos inopiam armatorum.

And in order that the multitude of the plebs might bear this with a more equable spirit, the triumphal and consular elders openly declared that they would die together with them, and that they would not, with these bodies by which they could neither bear arms nor defend the fatherland, burden the scarcity of men under arms.

[40] Haec inter seniores morti destinatos iactata solacia. Versae inde adhortationes ad agmen iuvenum quos in Capitolium atque in arcem prosequebantur, commendantes virtuti eorum iuventaeque urbis per trecentos sexaginta annos omnibus bellis victricis quaecumque reliqua esset fortuna. Digredientibus qui spem omnem atque opem secum ferebant ab iis qui captae urbis non superesse statuerant exitio, cum ipsa res speciesque miserabilis erat, tum muliebris fletus et concursatio incerta nunc hos, nunc illos sequentium rogitantiumque viros natosque cui se fato darent, nihil quod humani superesset mali relinquebant.

[40] These were the solaces bandied about among the elders destined for death. Then the exhortations were turned toward the column of youths whom they were escorting to the Capitol and the citadel, commending to their valor and to the youth of the city—victorious in all wars for three hundred sixty years—whatever fortune might remain. As those who were carrying with them all hope and help were departing from those who had determined not to survive the ruin of a captured city, since the very situation and its aspect were pitiable, there was moreover the womanly weeping and the aimless running to and fro, now following these, now those, repeatedly asking husbands and sons to what fate they should surrender themselves: they left nothing that could remain of human evil.

Magna pars tamen earum in arcem suos persecutae sunt, nec prohibente ullo nec vocante, quia quod utile obsessis ad minvendam imbellem multitudinem, id parum humanum erat. Alia maxime plebis turba, quam nec capere tam exiguus collis nec alere in tanta inopia frumenti poterat, ex urbe effusa velut agmine iam uno petiit Ianiculum. Inde pars per agros dilapsi, pars urbes petunt finitimas, sine ullo duce aut consensu, suam quisque spem, sua consilia communibus deploratis exsequentes.

A great part, however, of them followed their own into the citadel, with no one forbidding and no one summoning, because that which was useful for the besieged—to lessen the unwarlike multitude—was scarcely humane. Another, chiefly a crowd of the plebs, which neither so exiguous a hill could contain nor could sustain amid so great a scarcity of grain, poured out of the city and made for the Janiculum as if now in a single column. From there, some slipped away through the fields, others seek neighboring cities, without any leader or common consensus, each pursuing his own hope and his own designs, the common cause having been bewailed.

Flamen interim Quirinalis virginesque Vestales omissa rerum suarum cura, quae sacrorum secum ferenda, quae quia vires ad omnia ferenda deerant relinquenda essent consultantes, quisve ea locus fideli adservaturus custodia esset, optimum ducunt condita in doliolis sacello proximo aedibus flaminis Quirinalis, ubi nunc despui religio est, defodere; cetera inter se onere partito ferunt via quae sublicio ponte ducit ad Ianiculum. In eo clivo eas cum L. Albinius de plebe Romana homo conspexisset plaustro coniugem ad liberos vehens inter ceteram turbam quae inutilis bello urbe excedebat, salvo etiam tum discrimine divinarum humanarumque rerum religiosum ratus sacerdotes publicas sacraque populi Romani pedibus ire ferrique, se ac suos in vehiculo conspici, descendere uxorem ac pueros iussit, virgines sacraque in plaustrum imposuit et Caere quo iter sacerdotibus erat pervexit.

Meanwhile the Flamen Quirinalis and the Vestal virgins, having set aside care for their own affairs, consulting which of the sacred things were to be carried with them, and which must be left because strength was lacking to carry all, and what place would keep them in faithful custody, deem it best to hide—buried in little jars—in a small shrine next to the house of the Flamen Quirinalis, where now it is a religious scruple to spit; the rest they carry among themselves, the load apportioned, by the road which leads by the Sublician Bridge to the Janiculum. On that slope, when L. Albinius, a man of the Roman plebs, had caught sight of them, conveying his wife by cart to the children amid the rest of the crowd which, useless for war, was departing from the city, holding it a matter of religion—even then with the distinction of divine and human things kept safe—that the public priestesses and the sacred things of the Roman people should go on foot and be borne, while he and his were seen in a vehicle, he ordered his wife and boys to get down, placed the virgins and the sacred things in the cart, and conveyed them to Caere, whither the journey for the priestesses was.

[41] Romae interim satis iam omnibus, ut in tali re, ad tuendam arcem compositis, turba seniorum domos regressi adventum hostium obstinato ad mortem animo exspectabant. Qui eorum curules gesserant magistratus, ut in fortunae pristinae honorumque aut virtutis insignibus morerentur, quae augustissima vestis est tensas ducentibus triumphantibusue, ea vestiti medio aedium eburneis sellis sedere. Sunt qui M. Folio pontifice maximo praefante carmen devovisse eos se pro patria Quiritibusque Romanis tradant.

[41] Meanwhile at Rome, with all things now sufficiently, as in such a case, composed for the defense of the citadel, a crowd of elders, having returned to their homes, were awaiting the arrival of the enemy with a spirit fixed on death. Those of them who had borne curule magistracies, in order to die in the insignia of their former fortune and of their honors or their virtue, wearing that most august robe which is for those leading the sacred chariots and for those triumphing, sat in the middle of their houses on ivory chairs. There are some who hand down that, M. Folius, pontifex maximus, intoning the ritual formula in front, they devoted themselves for the fatherland and for the Roman Quirites.

Galli et quia interposita nocte a contentione pugnae remiserant animos et quod nec in acie ancipiti usquam certaverant proelio nec tum impetu aut vi capiebant urbem, sine ira, sine ardore animorum ingressi postero die urbem patente Collina porta in forum perveniunt, circumferentes oculos ad templa deum arcemque solam belli speciem tenentem. Inde, modico relicto praesidio ne quis in dissipatos ex arce aut Capitolio impetus fieret, dilapsi ad praedam vacuis occursu hominum viis, pars in proxima quaeque tectorum agmine ruunt, pars ultima, velut ea demum intacta et referta praeda, petunt; inde rursus ipsa solitudine absterriti, ne qua fraus hostilis vagos exciperet, in forum ac propinqua foro loca conglobati redibant; ubi eos, plebis aedificiis obseratis, patentibus atriis principum, maior prope cunctatio tenebat aperta quam clausa invadendi; adeo haud secus quam venerabundi intuebantur in aedium vestibulis sedentes viros, praeter ornatum habitumque humano augustiorem, maiestate etiam quam voltus gravitasque oris prae se ferebat simillimos dis.

The Gauls, both because with night interposed they had relaxed their spirits from the strain of the fight, and because they had nowhere engaged in a line of battle with a doubtful, two‑sided combat, nor at that moment were they taking the city by onrush or force, without wrath, without ardor of spirits, on the next day, with the Colline Gate lying open, entered the city and reached the forum, casting their eyes around upon the temples of the gods and upon the citadel alone keeping the appearance of war. Then, a small garrison having been left, lest any sally be made from the citadel or the Capitol against men scattered, they dispersed for plunder along streets empty of the encounter of men: some in a column rush into whatever nearest buildings, others make for the farthest, as though these at last were untouched and crammed with booty; then again, frightened off by the very solitude, lest any hostile trick catch the stragglers, massed together they would return into the forum and the places near the forum; where, the buildings of the plebs being barred and the atria of the leading men standing open, almost greater hesitation held them about attacking the open than the closed; to such a degree did they gaze, no otherwise than reverently, at the men sitting in the vestibules of their houses, who, besides an ornament and attire more august than human, by the majesty also which the expression and gravity of their face displayed, seemed most like to gods.

Ad eos velut simulacra versi cum starent, M. Papirius, unus ex iis, dicitur Gallo barbam suam, ut tum omnibus promissa erat, permulcenti scipione eburneo in caput incusso iram movisse, atque ab eo initium caedis ortum, ceteros in sedibus suis trucidatos; post principium caedem nulli deinde mortalium parci, diripi tecta, exhaustis inici ignes.

Toward them, as though turned into simulacra, while they were standing, M. Papirius, one of these, is said to have roused the anger of a Gaul who was stroking his beard—which at that time was worn long by all—by bringing an ivory staff down upon his head; and from that arose the beginning of the slaughter, the rest butchered in their seats; after the outset of the killing, thereafter no mortal was spared, the roofs were despoiled, and, when emptied, fires were cast in.

[42] Ceterum, seu non omnibus delendi urbem libido erat, seu ita placuerat principibus Gallorum et ostentari quaedam incendia terroris causa, si compelli ad deditionem caritate sedum suarum obsessi possent, et non omnia concremari tecta ut quodcumque superesset urbis, id pignus ad flectendos hostium animos haberent, nequaquam perinde atque in capta urbe primo die aut passim aut late vagatus est ignis. Romani ex arce plenam hostium urbem cernentes vagosque per vias omnes cursus, cum alia atque alia parte nova aliqua clades oreretur, non mentibus solum concipere sed ne auribus quidem atque oculis satis constare poterant. Quocumque clamor hostium, mulierum puerorumque ploratus, sonitus flammae et fragor ruentium tectorum avertisset, paventes ad omnia animos oraque et oculos flectebant, velut ad spectaculum a fortuna positi occidentis patriae nec ullius rerum suarum relicti praeterquam corporum vindices, tanto ante alios miserandi magis qui unquam obsessi sunt quod interclusi a patria obsidebantur, omnia sua cernentes in hostium potestate.

[42] However, whether not all had a libido for destroying the city, or whether it had so pleased the principals of the Gauls both that certain fires be displayed for the cause of terror—if the besieged could be compelled to deditio by the love of their seats—and that not all the roofs be burned to ashes, so that whatever of the city survived they might have as a pledge for bending the enemies’ minds, by no means, as in a captured city, did the fire on the first day roam either everywhere or far and wide. The Romans, from the citadel, discerning a city full of enemies and their straying courses through all the streets, since in one quarter and then another some fresh calamity would arise, were able not only not to conceive it with their minds, but could not even keep sufficiently steady with their ears and eyes. Whithersoever the shout of the enemies, the wailing of women and children, the roar of the flame and the crash of roofs collapsing had turned them, trembling they would bend their spirits and faces and eyes to everything, as though set by Fortune to a spectacle of their fatherland dying, and left as vindicators of none of their possessions save their bodies, so much more to be pitied than all others who have ever been besieged, because, cut off from their fatherland, they were besieged, seeing all their things in the enemies’ power.

Nec tranquillior nox diem tam foede actum excepit; lux deinde noctem inquieta insecuta est, nec ullum erat tempus quod a novae semper cladis alicuius spectaculo cessaret. Nihil tamen tot onerati atque obruti malis flexerunt animos quin etsi omnia flammis ac ruinis aequata vidissent, quamvis inopem parvumque quem tenebant collem liberati relictum virtute defenderent; et iam cum eadem cottidie acciderent, velut adsueti malis abalienaverant ab sensu rerum suarum animos, arma tantum ferrumque in dextris velut solas reliquias spei suae intuentes.

Nor did a more tranquil night succeed the day so foully spent; then an unquiet light followed the night, and there was no time that ceased from the spectacle of some ever-new disaster. Yet, though burdened and overwhelmed by so many ills, they did not bend their resolve; even if they should see everything leveled by flames and ruins, they would defend with courage the hill, however impoverished and small, which they held—left free to them; and now, since the same things were happening every day, as if accustomed to misfortunes they had estranged their minds from any feeling for their own affairs, looking only upon arms and iron in their right hands as the sole remnants of their hope.

[43] Galli quoque per aliquot dies in tecta modo urbis nequiquam bello gesto cum inter incendia ac ruinas captae urbis nihil superesse praeter armatos hostes viderent, nec quicquam tot cladibus territos nec flexuros ad deditionem animos ni vis adhiberetur, experiri ultima et impetum facere in arcem statuunt. Prima luce signo dato multitudo omnis in foro instruitur; inde clamore sublato ac testudine facta subeunt. Adversus quos Romani nihil temere nec trepide; ad omnes aditus stationibus firmatis, qua signa ferri videbant ea robore virorum opposito scandere hostem sinunt, quo successerit magis in arduum eo pelli posse per proclive facilius rati.

[43] The Gauls too, for several days, waging war only upon the roofs of the city to no effect, when amid the fires and ruins of the captured city they saw that nothing survived except the armed enemies, and that they were neither terrified by so many disasters nor would bend their spirits to surrender unless force were applied, resolve to try the last expedients and to make an assault upon the citadel. At first light, the signal being given, the whole multitude is drawn up in the forum; then, a shout being raised and a testudo formed, they advance. Against them the Romans do nothing rashly nor in panic; with posts made firm at all the approaches, wherever they saw the standards being borne, there, with the strength of men set in opposition, they allow the enemy to climb, thinking that the more he has succeeded up the steep, by so much the more easily he can be driven down the downhill slope.

Medio fere clivo restitere; atque inde ex loco superiore qui prope sua sponte in hostem inferebat impetu facto, strage ac ruina fudere Gallos; ut nunquam postea nec pars nec universi temptaverint tale pugnae genus. Omissa itaque spe per vim atque arma subeundi obsidionem parant, cuius ad id tempus immemores et quod in urbe fuerat frumentum incendiis urbis absumpserant, et ex agris per eos ipsos dies raptum omne Veios erat. Igitur exercitu diviso partim per finitimos populos praedari placuit, partim obsideri arcem, ut obsidentibus frumentum populatores agrorum praeberent.

About the middle of the slope they halted; and from that higher ground, which almost of its own accord bore them upon the enemy, once an assault was made, with slaughter and ruin they routed the Gauls; with the result that never afterward, neither a part nor the whole, attempted such a kind of battle. Therefore, with hope of approaching by force and arms abandoned, they prepare a siege—of which up to that time they had been forgetful—and both the grain that had been in the city they had consumed in the city’s fires, and everything snatched from the fields in those very days had been brought to Veii. Accordingly, with the army divided, it was resolved that part should plunder among the neighboring peoples, part should besiege the citadel, so that the ravagers of the fields might furnish grain to the besiegers.

Proficiscentes Gallos ab urbe ad Romanam experiendam virtutem fortuna ipsa Ardeam ubi Camillus exsulabat duxit; qui maestior ibi fortuna publica quam sua cum dis hominibusque accusandis senesceret, indignando mirandoque ubi illi viri essent qui secum Veios Faleriosque cepissent, qui alia bella fortius semper quam felicius gessissent, repente audit Gallorum exercitum adventare atque de eo pavidos Ardeates consultare. Nec secus quam divino spiritu tactus cum se in mediam contionem intulisset, abstinere suetus ante talibus conciliis,

As the Gauls were setting out from the city to make trial of Roman valor, Fortune herself led them to Ardea, where Camillus was in exile; who there, sadder at the public fortune than at his own, was growing old in accusing gods and men, indignantly and wonderingly asking where those men were who with him had taken Veii and Falerii, who had always waged other wars more bravely than successfully, when suddenly he hears that the army of the Gauls is approaching and that the Ardeates, fearful, are taking counsel about it. And no otherwise than as if touched by a divine spirit, when he had carried himself into the middle of the assembly, he who before had been accustomed to abstain from such councils,

[44] "Ardeates" inquit, "veteres amici, novi etiam cives mei, quando et vestrum beneficium ita tulit et fortuna hoc eguit mea, nemo vestrum condicionis meae oblitum me huc processisse putet; sed res ac periculum commune cogit quod quisque possit in re trepida praesidii in medium conferre. Et quando ego vobis pro tantis vestris in me meritis gratiam referam, si nunc cessavero? Aut ubi usus erit mei vobis, si in bello non fuerit?

[44] "Ardeates," he says, "old friends, now also my fellow citizens, since both your beneficence has so brought it about and my fortune has required this, let none of you think that I have come forward hither forgetful of my condition; but the situation and the common peril compel each to bring into the midst, in a time of alarm, whatever help he can. And when shall I render gratitude to you for such great merits of yours toward me, if I hold back now? Or wherein will my use be to you, if it be not in war?

Hac arte in patria steti et invictus bello, in pace ab ingratis civibus pulsus sum. Vobis autem, Ardeates, fortuna oblata est et pro tantis populi Romani pristinis beneficiis quanta ipsi meministis—nec enim exprobranda ea apud memores sunt —gratiae referendae et huic urbi decus ingens belli ex hoste communi pariendi. Qui effuso agmine adventant gens est cui natura corpora animosque magna magis quam firma dederit; eo in certamen omne plus terroris quam virium ferunt.

By this art I stood fast in my fatherland and, unconquered in war, in peace I was driven out by ungrateful citizens. To you, however, Ardeates, fortune has been offered, and—inasmuch as you yourselves remember the former benefactions of the Roman people, nor indeed are they to be cast in the teeth of the mindful—gratitude must be repaid, and for this city a mighty glory of war is to be won from the common enemy. Those who are approaching in a streaming column are a nation to whom nature has given bodies and spirits great rather than firm; thus into every contest they bring more terror than strength.

Argumento sit clades Romana. Patentem cepere urbem: ex arce Capitolioque iis exigua resistitur manu: iam obsidionis taedio victi abscedunt vagique per agros palantur. Cibo vinoque raptim hausto repleti, ubi nox adpetit, prope rivos aquarum sine munimento, sine stationibus ac custodiis passim ferarum ritu sternuntur, nunc ab secundis rebus magis etiam solito incauti.

Let the Roman disaster be the argument. They seized the city lying open: from the Citadel and the Capitol a small band offers resistance to them: now, overcome by the tedium of siege, they withdraw and, wandering, roam through the fields. Filled after food and wine hastily quaffed, when night approaches, near streams of water, without fortification, without outposts and guards, they lie down everywhere after the manner of wild beasts, now, made by favorable fortunes even more than their wont incautious.

Si vobis in animo est tueri moenia vestra nec pati haec omnia Galliam fieri, prima vigilia capite arma frequentes, me sequimini ad caedem, non ad pugnam. Nisi vinctos somno velut pecudes trucidandos tradidero, non recuso eundem Ardeae rerum mearum exitum quem Romae habui".

If you have it in mind to protect your walls and not to permit all these things to become Gaul, at the first watch take up arms in numbers, follow me to carnage, not to combat. Unless I hand them over, bound by sleep like cattle, to be slaughtered, I do not refuse at Ardea the same outcome of my affairs that I had at Rome".

[45] Aequis iniquisque persuasum erat tantum bello virum neminem usquam ea tempestate esse. Contione dimissa, corpora curant, intenti quam mox signum daretur. Quo dato, primae silentio noctis ad portas Camillo praesto fuere.

[45] To friends and foes alike it was persuaded that nowhere at that time was there a man so great in war. The assembly dismissed, they attend to their bodies, intent on how soon the signal would be given. When it was given, in the first hush of the night they were at the gates, ready for Camillus.

Egressi haud procul urbe, sicut praedictum erat, castra Gallorum intuta neglectaque ab omni parte nacti cum ingenti clamore invadunt. Nusquam proelium, omnibus locis caedes est; nuda corpora et soluta somno trucidantur. Extremos tamen pavor cubilibus suis excitos, quae aut unde vis esset ignaros, in fugam et quosdam in hostem ipsum improvidos tulit.

Having gone out not far from the city, as had been foretold, they find the camp of the Gauls unsecured and neglected on every side, and with an immense clamor they invade. Nowhere is there battle; in every place there is slaughter; bodies naked and loosened by sleep are butchered. Yet panic bore those on the extremities, roused from their couches, ignorant what or whence the force was, into flight, and carried some, unwary, straight upon the enemy himself.

Magna pars in agrum Antiatem delati incursione ab oppidanis in palatos facta circumveniuntur.

A great part, borne into the Antiate territory, are surrounded by an incursion made by the townsmen against the stragglers.

Similis in agro Veienti Tuscorum facta strages est, qui urbis iam prope quadringentensimum annum vicinae, oppressae ab hoste invisitato, inaudito, adeo nihil miseriti sunt ut in agrum Romanum eo tempore incursiones facerent, plenique praedae Veios etiam praesidiumque, spem ultimam Romani nominis, in animo habuerint oppugnare. Viderant eos milites Romani vagantes per agros et congregato agmine praedam prae se agentes, et castra cernebant haud procul Veiis posita. Inde primum miseratio sui, deinde indignitas atque ex ea ira animos cepit: Etruscisne etiam, a quibus bellum Gallicum in se avertissent, ludibrio esse clades suas?

A similar slaughter of the Tuscans was wrought in the Veientine countryside, who, of the city that for now almost the 400th year had been their neighbor, oppressed by an unvisited, unheard-of enemy, felt so little pity that at that very time they made incursions into the Roman land, and, full of booty, even had in mind to oppugn Veii and the garrison, the last hope of the Roman name. The Roman soldiers had seen them wandering through the fields and, their column massed, driving the plunder before them, and they could discern the camp pitched not far from Veii. Then first compassion for themselves, then outrage, and from it wrath seized their spirits: Was it even to the Etruscans, upon whom they had turned the Gallic war away onto themselves, that their disasters were to be for mockery?

Vix temperavere animis quin extemplo impetum facerent; compressi a Q. Caedicio centurione quem sibimet ipsi praefecerant, rem in noctem sustinuere. Tantum par Camillo defuit auctor: cetera eodem ordine eodemque fortunae eventu gesta. Quin etiam ducibus captivis qui caedi nocturnae superfuerant, ad aliam manum Tuscorum ad Salinas profecti, nocte insequenti ex improviso maiorem caedem edidere, duplicique victoria ovantes Veios redeunt.

They scarcely restrained their spirits from making an attack at once; checked by Q. Caedicius, a centurion whom they had themselves set over them, they put the matter off until night. Only a leader equal to Camillus was lacking: the rest was carried out with the same order and the same outcome of fortune. Nay more, having as guides the captive leaders who had survived the nocturnal slaughter, they set out to another detachment of the Tuscans at the Salt-works, and on the following night unexpectedly they wrought a greater slaughter, and, exulting in a double victory, they return to Veii.

[46] Romae interim plerumque obsidio segnis et utrimque silentium esse, ad id tantum intentis Gallis ne quis hostium evadere inter stationes posset, cum repente iuvenis Romanus admiratione in se cives hostesque convertit. Sacrificium erat statum in Quirinali colle genti Fabiae. Ad id faciendum C. Fabius Dorsuo Gabino [cinctus in] cinctus sacra manibus gerens cum de Capitolio descendisset, per medias hostium stationes egressus nihil ad vocem cuiusquam terroremve motus in Quirinalem collem pervenit; ibique omnibus sollemniter peractis, eadem revertens similiter constanti voltu graduque, satis sperans propitios esse deos quorum cultum ne mortis quidem metu prohibitus deseruisset, in Capitolium ad suos rediit, seu attonitis Gallis miraculo auda ciae seu religione etiam motis cuius haudquaquam neglegens gens est.

[46] Meanwhile at Rome for the most part the siege was sluggish and there was silence on both sides, the Gauls intent only on this, that none of the enemies might escape between the stations, when suddenly a young Roman turned the admiration of both citizens and enemies upon himself. There was an appointed sacrifice on the Quirinal hill for the Fabian gens. To perform it, Gaius Fabius Dorsuo, girt in the Gabine [girt in] fashion, bearing the sacred things in his hands, when he had come down from the Capitol, went out through the very midst of the enemy stations, moved neither by anyone’s cry nor by fear, and reached the Quirinal hill; and there, everything solemnly completed, returning the same way with like steadfast countenance and gait, quite hoping that the gods were propitious, whose cult he had not abandoned, not even when restrained by fear of death, he returned to the Capitol to his own—whether because the Gauls were thunderstruck by the marvel of his audacity, or even moved by religion, a matter at which their nation is by no means negligent.

Veiis interim non animi tantum in dies sed etiam vires crescebant. Nec Romanis solum eo convenientibus ex agris qui aut proelio adverso aut clade captae urbis palati fuerant, sed etiam ex Latio voluntariis confluentibus ut in parte praedae essent, maturum iam videbatur repeti patriam eripique ex hostium manibus; sed corpori valido caput deerat. Locus ipse admonebat Camilli, et magna pars militum erat qui ductu auspicioque eius res prospere gesserant; et Caedicius negare se commissurum cur sibi aut deorum aut hominum quisquam imperium finiret potius quam ipse memor ordinis sui posceret imperatorem.

Meanwhile at Veii not only courage but even strength was increasing by the day. And not only were Romans gathering there from the fields—those who had been scattered either by an adverse battle or by the disaster of the captured city—but even volunteers were flocking in from Latium so that they might be in a share of the booty; now it seemed ripe to recover the fatherland and to snatch it from the hands of the enemies; but to the strong body a head was lacking. The place itself reminded them of Camillus, and a great part of the soldiers were those who under his leadership and auspices had managed affairs prosperously; and Caedicius declared that he would not allow that anyone, whether of gods or of men, should determine the command for himself rather than that he, mindful of his rank, should ask for a commander.

Consensu omnium placuit ab Ardea Camillum acciri, sed antea consulto senatu qui Romae esset: adeo regebat omnia pudor discriminaque rerum prope perditis rebus servabant. Ingenti periculo transeundum per hostium custodias erat. Ad eam rem Pontius Cominus impiger iuvenis operam pollicitus, incubans cortici secundo Tiberi ad urbem defertur.

By the consent of all it was decided that Camillus be summoned from Ardea, but first, with the senate that was at Rome consulted: so greatly did modesty (a sense of honor) govern everything, and the crises of affairs were being preserved though matters were almost lost. With immense danger one had to pass through the enemy’s outposts. For that purpose Pontius Cominius, an energetic young man, having proffered his service, lying upon a piece of cork, is borne down the Tiber with the current to the city.

Inde qua proximum fuit a ripa, per praeruptum eoque neglectum hostium custodiae saxum in Capitolium evadit, et ad magistratus ductus mandata exercitus edit. Accepto inde senatus consulto uti comitiis curiatis revocatus de exsilio iussu populi Camillus dictator extemplo diceretur militesque haberent imperatorem quem vellent, eadem degressus nuntius Veios contendit; missique Ardeam legati ad Camillum Veios eum perduxere, seu—quod magis credere libet, non prius profectum ab Ardea quam compererit legem latam, quod nec iniussu populi mutari finibus posset nec nisi dictator dictus auspicia in exercitu habere—lex curiata lata est dictatorque absens dictus.

From there, where it was nearest from the bank, by a precipitous rock and for that reason neglected by the enemy’s guards, he makes his way up to the Capitol, and, led to the magistrates, delivers the army’s mandates. Thereupon, a senatorial decree having been received, that, being recalled from exile in the Curiate Comitia by order of the people, Camillus should at once be named dictator, and that the soldiers should have the commander whom they wished, the messenger, having gone down by the same way, hastened to Veii; and envoys sent to Ardea to Camillus brought him to Veii, or—what it is more reasonable to believe—that he did not set out from Ardea before he learned that the law had been passed, since neither could he, without the people’s order, enter within the bounds nor have the auspices in the army unless he had been named dictator—the Curiate law was passed and the dictator was named in his absence.

[47] Dum haec Veiis agebantur, interim arx Romae Capitoliumque in ingenti periculo fuit. Namque Galli, seu vestigio notato humano qua nuntius a Veiis pervenerat seu sua sponte animadverso ad Carmentis saxo in adscensum aequo, nocte sublustri cum primo inermem qui temptaret viam praemisissent, tradentes inde arma ubi quid iniqui esset, alterni innixi sublevantesque in vicem et trahentes alii alios, prout postularet locus, tanto silentio in summum evasere ut non custodes solum fallerent, sed ne canes quidem, sollicitum animal ad nocturnos strepitus, excitarent. Anseres non fefellere quibus sacris Iunonis in summa inopia cibi tamen abstinebatur.

[47] While these things were being transacted at Veii, meanwhile the citadel of Rome and the Capitol were in immense peril. For the Gauls, either noting the human footprint where the messenger had come from Veii, or, of their own accord, having observed at the Rock of Carmentis an ascent of even grade, in a dimly starlit night, after they had first sent ahead an unarmed man to test the way, handing up from there the weapons wherever there was anything uneven, leaning one upon another by turns and in turn lifting and others dragging others, as the place required, with such silence did they reach the top that they deceived not only the guards, but did not even rouse the dogs, a creature alert to nocturnal noises. The geese they did not deceive—geese which, sacred to Juno, were nevertheless spared in the utmost scarcity of food.

Quae res saluti fuit; namque clangore eorum alarumque crepitu excitus M. Manlius qui triennio ante consul fuerat, vir bello egregius, armis arreptis simul ad arma ceteros ciens vadit et dum ceteri trepidant, Gallum qui iam in summo constiterat umbone ictum deturbat. Cuius casus prolapsi cum proximos sterneret, trepidantes alios armisque omissis saxa quibus adhaerebant manibus amplexos trucidat. Iamque et alii congregati telis missilibusque saxis proturbare hostes, ruinaque tota prolapsa acies in praeceps deferri.

This was their salvation; for roused by their honking and the crackle of their wings, M. Manlius, who three years earlier had been consul, a man distinguished in war, with arms snatched up and at the same time summoning the rest to arms, goes forth, and while the others are in a panic, he knocks down with a blow of the umbo the Gaul who had already taken his stand at the top. As his fall, slipping, laid low those nearest, he slaughters others—panic-stricken and, their weapons dropped, clasping with their hands the rocks to which they were clinging. And now others too, having gathered, drive the enemy back with javelins and stones cast from the hand, and, the whole mass collapsing, the battle line is borne headlong down.

Sedato deinde tumultu reliquum noctis, quantum in turbatis mentibus poterat cum praeteritum quoque periculum sollicitaret, quieti datum est. Luce orta vocatis classico ad concilium militibus ad tribunos, cum et recte et perperam facto pretium deberetur, Manlius primum ob virtutem laudatus donatusque non ab tribunis solum militum sed consensu etiam militari; cui universi selibras farris et quartarios vini ad aedes eius quae in arce erant contulerunt,—rem dictu paruam, ceterum inopia fecerat eam argumentum ingens caritatis, cum se quisque victu suo fraudans detractum corpori atque usibus necessariis ad honorem unius viri conferret. Tum vigiles eius loci qua fefellerat adscendens hostis citati; et cum in omnes more militari se animadversurum Q. Sulpicius tribunus militum pronuntiasset, consentiente clamore militum in unum vigilem conicientium culpam deterritus, a ceteris abstinuit, reum haud dubium eius noxae adprobantibus cunctis de saxo deiecit.

Soon the tumult quieted, the remainder of the night, so far as it could be amid minds in turmoil while the past danger also still disquieted them, was given to rest. With light arisen, the soldiers having been called by the trumpet to a council before the tribunes, since a price was owed both to what had been done rightly and to what had been done amiss, Manlius was first praised for valor and rewarded, not by the military tribunes alone but by the common consent of the soldiery as well; to him they all together carried half‑pounds of spelt and quartarii of wine to his house which was on the citadel,—a thing small to say, but want had made it a huge proof of charity, since each, defrauding himself of his own victuals, taking away from his body and necessary uses, contributed to the honor of one man. Then the sentries of the spot where the enemy, as he climbed, had escaped notice were summoned; and when Q. Sulpicius, military tribune, had proclaimed that he would proceed with punishment against all of them according to military usage, deterred by the consenting outcry of the soldiers who were throwing the blame upon one sentry, he refrained from the rest, and, with all approving him as the undoubted culprit of that offense, he cast him down from the rock.

Inde intentiores utrimque custodiae esse, et apud Gallos, quia volgatum erat inter Veios Romamque nuntios commeare, et apud Romanos ab nocturni periculi memoria.

Thence the guards were more intent on both sides—both among the Gauls, because it had been spread abroad that messengers were coming and going between Veii and Rome, and among the Romans from the memory of the nocturnal peril.

[48] Sed ante omnia obsidionis bellique mala fames utrimque exercitum urgebat, Gallos pestilentia etiam, cum loco iacente inter tumulos castra habentes, tum ab incendiis torrido et vaporis pleno cineremque non puluerem modo ferente cum quid venti motum esset. Quorum intolerantissima gens umorique ac frigori adsueta cum aestu et angore vexati volgatis velut in pecua morbis morerentur, iam pigritia singulos sepeliendi promisce acervatos cumulos hominum urebant, bustorumque inde Gallicorum nomine insignem locum fecere. Indutiae deinde cum Romanis factae et conloquia permissu imperatorum habita; in quibus cum identidem Galli famem obicerent eaque necessitate ad deditionem vocarent, dicitur avertendae eius opinionis causa multis locis panis de Capitolio iactatus esse in hostium stationes.

[48] But before all the evils of siege and of war, hunger was pressing the army on both sides; the Gauls also by pestilence, since, having their camp in a low-lying place among the mounds, and, from the conflagrations, the spot being torrid and full of vapor, and, whenever there was any stirring of the wind, bearing ash and not dust only. A nation most intolerant of such things and habituated to damp and cold, when harassed by heat and suffocation, were dying with diseases spread abroad as if in cattle; and now, from sloth to bury individuals, they were burning indiscriminately piled heaps of men, and from that they made the place notable by the name of Gallic pyres. Then truces were made with the Romans and conferences held by the permission of the commanders; in which, as again and again the Gauls cast hunger in their teeth and with that necessity summoned them to surrender, it is said that, for the sake of averting that impression, bread was in many places thrown down from the Capitol into the enemy outposts.

Sed iam neque dissimulari neque ferri ultra fames poterat. Itaque dum dictator dilectum per se Ardeae habet, magistrum equitum L. Valerium a Veiis adducere exercitum iubet, parat instruitque quibus haud impar adoriatur hostes, interim Capitolinus exercitus, stationibus vigiliis fessus, superatis tamen humanis omnibus malis cum famem unam natura vinci non sineret, diem de die prospectans ecquod auxilium ab dictatore appareret, postremo spe quoque iam non solum cibo deficiente et cum stationes procederent prope obruentibus infirmum corpus armis, vel dedi vel redimi se quacumque pactione possint iussit, iactantibus non obscure Gallis haud magna mercede se adduci posse ut obsidionem relinquant. Tum senatus habitus tribunisque militum negotium datum ut paciscerentur.

But now hunger could be neither dissembled nor borne any longer. Accordingly, while the dictator is holding a levy on his own at Ardea, he orders the Master of the Horse, L. Valerius, to bring the army from Veii; he prepares and arrays his forces with which, by no means inferior, he might assault the enemies. Meanwhile the Capitoline army, wearied by outposts and watches, though, all other human ills having been overcome, Nature yet did not allow hunger alone to be conquered, day by day looking out to see whether any aid from the dictator would appear—at last, with hope too now failing, as well as food, and since, when they went on station, their arms were almost burying their feeble bodies—gave orders that they should either be surrendered or ransomed on whatever terms they could, the Gauls not obscurely vaunting that for no great price they could be induced to abandon the siege. Then a session of the senate was held, and the business was given to the military tribunes to negotiate terms.

Inde inter Q. Sulpicium tribunum militum et Brennum regulum Gallorum conloquio transacta res est, et mille pondo auri pretium populi gentibus mox imperaturi factum. Rei foedissimae per se adiecta indignitas est: pondera ab Gallis allata iniqua et tribuno recusante additus ab insolente Gallo ponderi gladius, auditaque intoleranda Romanis vox, vae victis.

Then the matter was concluded by a conference between Quintus Sulpicius, military tribune, and Brennus, chieftain of the Gauls, and a thousand pounds’ weight of gold was made the price of the people destined soon to command the nations. To a deed most foul in itself an added indignity was this: the weights brought by the Gauls were unjust, and when the tribune refused, the sword was added to the scale by an insolent Gaul, and a word intolerable to Romans was heard: “woe to the conquered.”

[49] Sed dique et homines prohibuere redemptos vivere Romanos. nam forte quadam priusquam infanda merces perficeretur, per altercationem nondum omni auro adpenso, dictator intervenit, auferrique aurum de medio et Gallos submoveri iubet. Cum illi renitentes pactos dicerent sese, negat eam pactionem ratam esse quae postquam ipse dictator creatus esset iniussu suo ab inferioris iuris magistratu facta esset, denuntiatque Gallis ut se ad proelium expediant.

[49] But both gods and men forbade that the Romans should live redeemed. For by a certain chance, before the unspeakable price could be completed, amid an altercation and with not yet all the gold weighed, the dictator intervened, and orders the gold to be removed from the midst and the Gauls to be driven off. When they, resisting, said that they were under a pact, he denies that pact to be valid which, after he himself had been created dictator, had been made without his order by a magistrate of inferior jurisdiction, and he gives formal notice to the Gauls to prepare themselves for battle.

Suos in acervum conicere sarcinas et arma aptare ferroque non auro reciperare patriam iubet, in conspectu habentes fana deum et coniuges et liberos et solum patriae deforme belli malis et omnia quae defendi repetique et ulcisci fas sit. Instruit deinde aciem, ut loci natura patiebatur, in semirutae solo urbis et natura inaequali, et omnia quae arte belli secunda suis eligi praepararive poterant providit. Galli nova re trepidi arma capiunt iraque magis quam consilio in Romanos incurrunt.

He orders his men to throw their baggage into a heap and to fit their arms, and to recover the fatherland by iron and not by gold, having in view the shrines of the gods and their wives and children and the soil of the fatherland deformed by the evils of war, and all things which it is right to defend and to reclaim and to avenge. Then he arrays the battle-line, as the nature of the place allowed, on the ground of the half-ruined city and uneven by nature, and he provided for everything which by the art of war, favorable to his own, could be selected and prepared. The Gauls, alarmed by the new development, seize their arms and, with wrath rather than counsel, run in upon the Romans.

Iam verterat fortuna, iam deorum opes humanaque consilia rem Romanam adiuvabant. Igitur primo concursu haud maiore momento fusi Galli sunt quam ad Alliam vicerant. Iustiore altero deinde proelio ad octavum lapidem Gabina via, quo se ex fuga contulerant, eiusdem ductu auspicioque Camilli vincuntur.

Already fortune had turned, already the divine powers and human counsels were aiding the Roman state. Accordingly, at the first clash the Gauls were routed in no more time than they had taken to win at the Allia. Then, in a second, more regular battle, at the 8th milestone on the Gabine Way—whither they had betaken themselves in their flight—they are defeated under the same leadership and auspices of Camillus.

Ibi caedes omnia obtinuit; castra capiuntur et ne nuntius quidem cladis relictus. Dictator reciperata ex hostibus patria triumphans in urbem redit, interque iocos militares quos inconditos iaciunt, Romulus ac parens patriae conditorque alter urbis haud vanis laudibus appellabatur.

There slaughter held sway over everything; the camp is taken and not even a messenger of the disaster is left. The Dictator, triumphing, with the fatherland recovered from the enemy, returns into the city, and among the military jests which they toss out unpolished, he was hailed, with no idle praises, as Romulus and Father of the Fatherland and another founder of the city.

Servatam deinde bello patriam iterum in pace haud dubie servavit cum prohibuit migrari Veios, et tribunis rem intentius agentibus post incensam urbem et per se inclinata magis plebe ad id consilium; eaque causa fuit non abdicandae post triumphum dictaturae, senatu obsecrante ne rem publicam in incerto relinqueret statu.

Then, having preserved the fatherland in war, he without doubt preserved it again in peace when he forbade migrating to Veii, the tribunes pressing the matter more intently after the city had been burned and the plebs of itself more inclined to that plan; and this was the cause for the dictatorship not being abdicated after the triumph, the senate beseeching that he not leave the commonwealth in an uncertain state.

[50] Omnium primum, ut erat diligentissimus religionum cultor, quae ad deos immortales pertinebant rettulit et senatus consultum facit: fana omnia, quoad ea hostis possedisset, restituerentur terminarentur expiarenturque, expiatioque eorum in libris per duumviros quaereretur; cum Caeretibus hospitium publice fieret quod sacra populi Romani ac sacerdotes recepissent beneficioque eius populi non intermissus honos deum immortalium esset; ludi Capitolini fierent quod Iuppiter optimus maximus suam sedem atque arcem populi Romani in re trepida tutatus esset; collegiumque ad eam rem M. Furius dictator constitueret ex iis qui in Capitolio atque arce habitarent. Expiandae etiam vocis nocturnae quae nuntia cladis ante bellum Gallicum audita neglectaque esset mentio inlata, iussumque templum in Nova via Aio Locutio fieri. Aurum quod Gallis ereptum erat quodque ex aliis templis inter trepidationem in Iovis cellam conlatum cum in quae referri oporteret confusa memoria esset, sacrum omne iudicatum et sub Iovis sella poni iussum.

[50] First of all, as he was a most diligent cultor of religious rites, he brought forward the matters that pertained to the immortal gods and has a senatorial decree made: that all shrines, insofar as the enemy had possessed them, should be restored, their boundaries set, and expiated, and that the expiation of them should be sought in the books by the duumviri; that public hospitium be established with the Caerites, because they had received the sacred rites of the Roman People and the priests, and by the beneficence of that people the honor of the immortal gods had not been interrupted; that the Capitoline Games be held, because Jupiter Best and Greatest had protected his own seat and the citadel of the Roman People in a perilous crisis; and that Marcus Furius, the dictator, should establish a college for that purpose from those who dwelt on the Capitoline and the citadel. Mention was also introduced of expiating the nocturnal voice which, a herald of disaster, had been heard before the Gallic war and had been neglected, and it was ordered that a temple on the Nova Via be made to Aius Locutius. The gold which had been snatched from the Gauls and which, from other temples in the midst of the panic, had been collected into Jupiter’s cella, since the memory of the temples to which it ought to be returned was confused, was judged all sacred and ordered to be placed beneath the seat of Jupiter.

Iam ante in eo religio civitatis apparuerat quod cum in publico deesset aurum ex quo summa pactae mercedis Gallis confieret, a matronis conlatum acceperant ut sacro auro abstineretur. Matronis gratiae actae honosque additus ut earum sicut virorum post mortem sollemnis laudatio esset. His peractis quae ad deos pertinebant quaeque per senatum agi poterant, tum demum agitantibus tribunis plebem adsiduis contionibus ut relictis ruinis in urbem paratam Veios transmigrarent, in contionem universo senatu prosequente escendit atque ita verba fecit.

Already before this the religio of the commonwealth had appeared in this: when in the public treasury there was lacking the gold from which the sum of the agreed ransom to the Gauls might be made up, they accepted a contribution from the matrons so that the sacred gold might be kept untouched. Thanks were given to the matrons, and an honor was added: that for them, just as for men, there should be a solemn laudation after death. These things having been completed which pertained to the gods and which could be transacted through the senate, then at last—while the tribunes were agitating the plebs by incessant assemblies, that, the ruins left behind, they should migrate to Veii, a city prepared—he mounted the assembly, the entire senate escorting him, and spoke thus.

[51] "Adeo mihi acerbae sunt, Quirites, contentiones cum tribunis plebis, ut nec tristissimi exsilii solacium aliud habuerim, quoad Ardeae vixi, quam quod procul ab his certaminibus eram, et ob eadem haec non si miliens senatus consulto populique iussu revocaretis, rediturus unquam fuerim. Nec nunc me ut redirem mea voluntas mutata sed vestra fortuna perpulit; quippe ut in sua sede maneret patria, id agebatur, non ut ego utique in patria essem. Et nunc quiescerem ac tacerem libenter nisi haec quoque pro patria dimicatio esset; cui deesse, quoad vita suppetat, aliis turpe, Camillo etiam nefas est.

[51] "So bitter to me, Quirites, are contentions with the tribunes of the plebs that, while I lived at Ardea, I had no other solace of a most sorrowful exile than that I was far from these contests; and for these same reasons not even if a thousand times you had recalled me by a decree of the senate and an order of the people would I ever have returned. Nor now was it a change of my own will that drove me to return, but your fortune compelled me; for indeed the aim was that the fatherland should remain in its own seat, not that I, at all costs, should be in the fatherland. And even now I would gladly rest and be silent, did not this also constitute a contest for the fatherland; to fail which, so long as life suffices, is disgraceful for others, but for Camillus it is even impious."

Quid enim repetiimus, quid obsessam ex hostium manibus eripuimus, si reciperatam ipsi deserimus? Et cum victoribus Gallis capta tota urbe Capitolium tamen atque arcem dique et homines Romani tenuerint, victoribus Romanis reciperata urbe arx quoque et Capitolium deseretur et plus vastitatis huic urbi secunda nostra fortuna faciet quam adversa fecit? Equidem si nobis cum urbe simul positae traditaeque per manus religiones nullae essent, tamen tam evidens numen hac tempestate rebus adfuit Romanis ut omnem neglegentiam divini cultus exemptam hominibus putem.

What, indeed, have we recovered, what have we snatched, besieged, from the hands of the enemy, if we ourselves desert what has been recovered? And when, with the whole city captured, the Gauls as victors nevertheless held the Capitol and the citadel and the gods and Roman men, shall the Romans as victors, the city having been recovered, desert the citadel and the Capitol as well, and shall our favorable fortune make more devastation for this city than our adverse fortune made? Indeed, even if together with the city there had been no rites at once established and handed down through the hands, yet so evident a numen in this crisis has been present to Roman affairs that I deem all negligence of divine cult removed from men.

Intuemini enim horum deinceps annorum vel secundas res vel adversas; invenietis omnia prospera evenisse sequentibus deos, adversa spernentibus. Iam omnium primum, Veiens bellum—per quot annos, quanto labore gestum. —non ante cepit finem, quam monitu deorum aqua ex lacu Albano emissa est.

Consider, indeed, of these years in succession either the favorable affairs or the adverse; you will find all prosperous things to have happened to those following the gods, adverse things to those spurning them. Now, first of all, the Veientine war—through how many years, with how great toil carried on.—did not take its end before, at the admonition of the gods, the water from the Alban Lake was let out.

Quid haec tandem urbis nostrae clades nova? Num ante exorta est quam spreta vox caelo emissa de adventu Gallorum, quam gentium ius ab legatis nostris violatum, quam a nobis cum vindicari deberet eadem neglegentia deorum praetermissum? Igitur victi captique ac redempti tantum poenarum dis hominibusque dedimus ut terrarum orbi documento essemus.

What, then, is this new calamity of our city? Did it arise before the voice sent from heaven about the coming of the Gauls was scorned, before the law of nations was violated by our envoys, before by us, when it ought to have been avenged, that same neglect of the gods was passed over? Therefore, defeated, captured, and ransomed, we paid such penalties to gods and men that we were an object-lesson to the whole world.

Adversae deinde res admonuerunt religionum. Confugimus in Capitolium ad deos, ad sedem Iovis optimi maximi; sacra in ruina rerum nostrarum alia terra celavimus, alia avecta in finitimas urbes amovimus ab hostium oculis; deorum cultum deserti ab dis hominibusque tamen non intermisimus. Reddidere igitur patriam et victoriam et antiquum belli decus amissum, et in hostes qui caeci avaritia in pondere auri foedus ac fidem fefellerunt, verterunt terrorem fugamque et caedem.

Then adverse circumstances reminded us of religious observances. We fled for refuge to the Capitol to the gods, to the seat of Jupiter Optimus Maximus; some of the sacred things we hid in the earth, others, carried off to neighboring cities, we removed from the enemies’ eyes; the cult of the gods, though deserted by gods and men, we nevertheless did not interrupt. Therefore they restored the fatherland and victory and the ancient honor of war that had been lost, and upon the enemies—who, blind with avarice, in the weighing of gold betrayed treaty and good faith—they turned terror and flight and slaughter.

[52] Haec culti neglectique numinis tanta monumenta in rebus humanis cernentes ecquid sentitis, Quirites, quantum vixdum e naufragiis prioris culpae cladisque emergentes paremus nefas? Urbem auspicato inauguratoque conditam habemus; nullus locus in ea non religionum deorumque est plenus; sacrificiis sollemnibus non dies magis stati quam loca sunt in quibus fiant. Hos omnes deos publicos privatosque, Quirites, deserturi estis?

[52] Seeing such great monuments in human affairs of divinity both honored and neglected, do you perceive at all, Quirites, how great a nefas we are preparing, we who are scarcely yet emerging from the shipwrecks of our former fault and disaster? We have a city founded by auspice and inauguration; there is no place in it that is not full of religions and of gods; for solemn sacrifices the places in which they are performed are as fixed as the days. Are you going to desert all these gods, public and private, Quirites?

Quam par vestrum factum [ei] est quod in obsidione nuper in egregio adulescente, C. Fabio, non minore hostium admiratione quam vestra conspectum est, cum inter Gallica tela degressus ex arce sollemne Fabiae gentis in colle Quirinali obiit? An gentilicia sacra ne in bello quidem intermitti, publica sacra et Romanos deos etiam in pace deseri placet, et pontifices flaminesque neglegentiores publicarum religionum esse quam privatus in sollemni gentis fuerit? Forsitan aliquis dicat aut Veiis ea nos facturos aut huc inde missuros sacerdotes nostros qui faciant; quorum neutrum fieri salvis caerimoniis potest.

How on a par with your conduct was the deed [of his] which, during the siege, was lately beheld in an outstanding adolescent, C. Fabius, with no less admiration by the enemy than by yourselves, when, amid Gallic missiles, having descended from the citadel, he fulfilled the solemn rite of the Fabian clan on the Quirinal hill? Or does it please you that clan sacra be not interrupted even in war, but that the public sacra and the Roman gods be deserted even in peace, and that pontiffs and flamens be more negligent of the public religions than a private man was of the solemn rite of his gens? Perhaps someone will say that either at Veii we shall perform these things or that from there we shall send our priests hither to perform them; neither of which can be done with the ceremonies intact.

Et ne omnia generatim sacra omnesque percenseam deos, in Iovis epulo num alibi quam in Capitolio puluinar suscipi potest? Quid de aeternis Vestae ignibus signoque quod imperii pignus custodia eius templi tenetur loquar? Quid de ancilibus vestris, Mars Gradive tuque, Quirine pater?

And, lest I reckon up all the rites in general and all the gods, at the banquet of Jove, can the pulvinar be received anywhere other than on the Capitol? What shall I say of Vesta’s eternal fires and of the token which, as a pledge of imperium, is kept in the guardianship of her temple? What of your ancilia, Mars Gradivus, and you too, Father Quirinus?

Haec omnia in profano deseri placet sacra, aequalia urbi, quaedam vetustiora origine urbis?

Does it please you that all these sacred rites—equal to the city in age, some older than the city’s origin—be abandoned to the profane?

"Et videte quid inter nos ac maiores intersit. Illi sacra quaedam in monte Albano Laviniique nobis facienda tradiderunt. An ex hostium urbibus Romam ad nos transferri sacra religiosum fuit, hinc sine piaculo in hostium urbem Veios transferemus?

"And see what difference there is between us and our ancestors. They handed down certain sacred rites on the Alban Mount and at Lavinium for us to perform. Was it a matter of religious scruple that sacred rites be transferred from the cities of enemies to us at Rome, and shall we from here, without piacular guilt, transfer them into the enemy city, Veii?

Recordamini, agite dum, quotiens sacra instaurentur, quia aliquid ex patrio ritu neglegentia casuve praetermissum est. Modo quae res post prodigium Albani lacus nisi instauratio sacrorum auspiciorumque renovatio adfectae Veienti bello rei publicae remedio fuit? At etiam, tamquam veterum religionum memores, et peregrinos deos transtulimus Romam et instituimus novos.

Remember, come now, how often the sacred rites are re-established because something from the ancestral rite has been omitted by negligence or by chance. Only recently, after the prodigy of the Alban lake, what was the remedy for the commonwealth afflicted by the Veientine war, if not the restoration of the sacred rites and the renewal of the auspices? And indeed, as though mindful of the religions of the ancients, we have both transferred foreign gods to Rome and instituted new ones.

Iuno regina transvecta a Veiis nuper in Aventino quam insigni ob excellens matronarum studium celebrique dedicata est die. Aio Locutio templum propter caelestem vocem exauditam in Nova via iussimus fieri; Capitolinos ludos sollemnibus aliis addidimus collegiumque ad id novum auctore senatu condidimus; quid horum opus fuit suscipi, si una cum Gallis urbem Romanam relicturi fuimus, si non voluntate mansimus in Capitolio per tot menses obsidionis, sed ab hostibus metu retenti sumus? De sacris loquimur et de templis; quid tandem de sacerdotibus?

Queen Juno, carried over from Veii, was lately on the Aventine—how distinguished, owing to the outstanding zeal of the matrons, and on a celebrated day, was she dedicated. We ordered a temple to Aius Locutius to be made because a celestial voice had been heard on the Nova Via; we added the Capitoline Games to the other solemnities and, at the senate’s instigation, founded a new college for that purpose; what need was there to undertake any of these, if we were going to abandon the city of Rome along with the Gauls, if we did not remain on the Capitol by our own will through so many months of siege, but were restrained by fear of the enemy? We speak of sacred rites and of temples; what, then, of the priests?

Nonne in mentem venit quantum piaculi committatur? Vestalibus nempe una illa sedes est, ex qua eas nihil unquam praeterquam urbs capta movit; flamini Diali noctem unam manere extra urbem nefas est. Hos Veientes pro Romanis facturi estis sacerdotes, et Vestales tuae te deserent, Vesta, et flamen peregre habitando in singulas noctes tantum sibi reique publicae piaculi contrahet?

Does it not come to mind how much piacular guilt is being incurred? For the Vestals there is that one residence alone, from which nothing ever has moved them except a captured city; for the Flamen Dialis it is nefas to remain a single night outside the city. Are you going to make these Veientines priests instead of Romans, and will your Vestals, Vesta, desert you, and will the flamen, by living abroad, for each single night contract so much piacular guilt for himself and for the commonwealth?

Quid alia quae auspicato agimus omnia fere intra pomerium, cui oblivioni aut neglegentiae damus? Comitia curiata, quae rem militarem continent, comitia centuriata, quibus consules tribunosque militares creatis, ubi auspicato, nisi ubi adsolent, fieri possunt? Veiosne haec transferemus?

What of the other things which we perform under auspices, almost all within the pomerium—what oblivion or negligence are we consigning them to? The Comitia Curiata, which comprise the military authority; the Comitia Centuriata, by which you elect consuls and military tribunes—where can these, with auspice, be held, if not where they are accustomed? Shall we transfer these to Veii?

An comitiorum causa populus tanto incommodo in desertam hanc ab dis hominibusque urbem conveniet?

Or for the sake of the comitia will the people, with so great an inconvenience, convene in this city deserted by gods and men?

[53] "At enim apparet quidem pollui omnia nec ullis piaculis expiari posse; sed res ipsa cogit vastam incendiis ruinisque relinquere urbem et ad integra omnia Veios migrare nec hic aedificando inopem plebem vexare. Hanc autem iactari magis causam quam veram esse, ut ego non dicam, apparere vobis, Quirites, puto, qui meministis ante Gallorum adventum, salvis tectis publicis privatisque, stante incolumi urbe, hanc eandem rem actam esse ut Veios transmigraremus. Et videte quantum inter meam sententiam vestramque intersit, tribuni.

[53] "But indeed it is apparent that all things are defiled and cannot be expiated by any piacular rites; but the matter itself compels us to leave a city laid waste by fires and ruins and to migrate to Veii, where everything is intact, and not to harass the needy plebs here with building. Moreover, that this reason is bandied about rather than true—as I need not say, it seems evident to you, Quirites—who remember that before the arrival of the Gauls, with public and private roofs safe, the city standing unharmed, this same measure was pressed, that we should migrate to Veii. And see how great the difference is between my opinion and yours, tribunes.

Vos, etiamsi tunc faciendum non fuerit, nunc utique faciendum putatis: ego contra—nec id mirati sitis, priusquam quale sit audieritis—etiamsi tum migrandum fuisset incolumi tota urbe, nunc has ruinas relinquendas non censerem. Quippe tum causa nobis in urbem captam migrandi victoria esset, gloriosa nobis ac posteris nostris; nunc haec migratio nobis misera ac turpis, Gallis gloriosa est. Non enim reliquisse victores, sed amisisse victi patriam videbimur: hoc ad Alliam fuga, hoc capta urbs, hoc circumsessum Capitolium necessitas imposuisse ut desereremus penates nostros exsiliumque ac fugam nobis ex eo loco conscisceremus quem tueri non possemus.

You, even if it had not then needed to be done, now suppose it must assuredly be done; I, on the contrary—and do not be amazed at this, before you have heard what sort it is—even if at that time it would have been necessary to migrate, with the whole city unscathed, now would not judge that these ruins should be abandoned. For indeed then the cause for us of migrating into a captured city would be victory, glorious for us and for our posterity; now this migration is wretched and disgraceful for us, glorious for the Gauls. For we shall seem not, as victors, to have left our fatherland, but, as vanquished, to have lost it: by this the flight at the Allia, by this the captured city, by this the Capitol besieged has imposed the necessity that we desert our household gods and decree for ourselves exile and flight from that place which we could not defend.

Et Galli evertere potuerunt Romam quam Romani restituere non videbuntur potuisse? Quid restat nisi ut, si iam novis copiis veniant—constat enim vix credibilem multitudinem esse—et habitare in capta ab se, deserta a vobis hac urbe velint, sinatis? Quid?

And could the Gauls overturn Rome, which the Romans will seem not to have been able to restore? What remains, except that, if now they come with new forces—for it is agreed that their multitude is scarcely credible—and should wish to dwell in this city captured by themselves, deserted by you, you allow it? What?

Si non Galli hoc sed veteres hostes vestri, Aequi Volscive, faciant ut commigrent Romam, velitisne illos Romanos, vos Veientes esse? An malitis hanc solitudinem vestram quam urbem hostium esse? Non equidem video quid magis nefas sit.

If not the Gauls but your ancient enemies, the Aequians or the Volsci, were to migrate to Rome, would you wish them to be Romans, and you to be Veientes? Or would you prefer this desolation to be yours rather than that the city be the enemies’? For my part, I do not see what could be more nefarious.

Haec scelera, quia piget aedificare, haec dedecora pati parati estis? Si tota urbe nullum melius ampliusve tectum fieri possit quam casa illa conditoris est nostri, non in casis ritu pastorum agrestiumque habitare est satius inter sacra penatesque nostros quam exsulatum publice ire? Maiores nostri, convenae pastoresque, cum in his locis nihil praeter silvas paludesque esset, novam urbem tam brevi aedificarunt: nos Capitolio, arce incolumi, stantibus templis deorum, aedificare incensa piget?

Are you prepared to endure these crimes, these disgraces, because you are loath to build? If in the whole city no better or more ample roof could be made than that hut of our founder is, is it not preferable to dwell in huts after the manner of shepherds and rustics, among our sacred rites and our household gods, rather than to go into exile as a body? Our ancestors, settlers and shepherds, when in these places there was nothing except woods and marshes, built a new city in so short a time: are we, with the Capitol and the citadel intact, with the temples of the gods standing, reluctant to rebuild what has been burned?

Et, quod singuli facturi fuimus si aedes nostrae deflagrassent, hoc in publico incendio universi recusamus facere?

And what each of us would have done if our houses had burned down, this, in a public conflagration, do we all refuse to do?

[54] "Quid tandem? Si fraude, si casu Veiis incendium ortum sit, ventoque ut fieri potest diffusa flamma magnam partem urbis absumat, Fidenas inde aut Gabios aliamve quam urbem quaesituri sumus quo transmigremus? Adeo nihil tenet solum patriae nec haec terra quam matrem appellamus, sed in superficie tignisque caritas nobis patriae pendet?

[54] "What then? If by fraud, if by chance a conflagration should arise at Veii, and the flame, spread by the wind, as can happen, should consume a great part of the city, are we then going to seek Fidenae or Gabii or some other city to which we may transmigrate? Is the very soil of the fatherland of no account, and does this earth which we call mother not hold us, but does our love for our fatherland depend on the surface and the timbers?"

Equidem—fatebor vobis, etsi minus iniuriae vestrae [quam meae calamitatis] meminisse iuvat—cum abessem, quotienscumque patria in mentem veniret, haec omnia occurrebant, colles campique et Tiberis et adsueta oculis regio et hoc caelum sub quo natus educatusque essem; quae vos, Quirites, nunc moveant potius caritate sua ut maneatis in sede vestra quam postea, cum reliqueritis eam, macerent desiderio. Non sine causa di hominesque hunc urbi condendae locum elegerunt, saluberrimos colles, flumen opportunum, quo ex mediterraneis locis fruges devehantur, quo maritimi commeatus accipiantur, mari vicinum ad commoditates nec expositum nimia propinquitate ad pericula classium externarum, regionum Italiae medium, ad incrementum urbis natum unice locum. Argumento est ipsa magnitudo tam novae urbis.

Indeed—I will confess to you, though it pleases me less to remember your injury [than my own calamity]—when I was away, whenever the fatherland came to mind, all these things presented themselves: the hills and the plains and the Tiber and the region accustomed to my eyes and this sky under which I was born and brought up; let these things, Quirites, now move you by their own dearness rather to remain in your seat than later, when you have abandoned it, to be worn away by longing. Not without cause did gods and men choose this place for the founding of a city: most healthful hills; a convenient river, by which grain may be conveyed down from inland places, and by which maritime supplies may be received; near to the sea for conveniences, yet not exposed by excessive nearness to the dangers of foreign fleets; the middle of the regions of Italy—a place uniquely born for the increment of the city. The very magnitude of so new a city is proof.

Trecentensimus sexagensimus quintus annus urbis, Quirites, agitur; inter tot veterrimos populos tam diu bella geritis, cum interea, ne singulas loquar urbes, non coniuncti cum Aequis Volsci, tot tam valida oppida, non universa Etruria, tantum terra marique pollens atque inter duo maria latitudinem obtinens Italiae, bello vobis par est. Quod cum ita sit quae, malum, ratio est [haec] expertis alia experiri, cum iam ut virtus vestra transire alio possit, fortuna certe loci huius transferri non possit? Hic Capitolium est, ubi quondam capite humano invento responsum est eo loco caput rerum summamque imperii fore; hic cum augurato liberaretur Capitolium, Iuventas Terminusque maximo gaudio patrum vestrorum moveri se non passi; hic Vestae ignes, hic ancilia caelo demissa, hic omnes propitii manentibus vobis di."

The three hundred sixty-fifth year of the City, Quirites, is being spent; among so many most ancient peoples you have been waging wars so long, while meanwhile—not to speak of individual cities—neither the Volsci joined with the Aequians, with their so many and so strong towns, nor all Etruria, so powerful by land and sea and holding the breadth of Italy between the two seas, is equal to you in war. Since this is so, what, the mischief, reason is there for men experienced in [this] to try another, when now, though your valor can pass elsewhere, certainly the fortune of this place cannot be transferred? Here is the Capitol, where once, when a human head had been found, the response was that in this place there would be the head of affairs and the summit of command; here, when the Capitol was being freed with augural rites, Juventas and Terminus did not allow themselves to be moved, to the greatest joy of your fathers; here are the fires of Vesta, here the ancilia sent down from heaven, here all the gods are propitious so long as you remain.

[55] Movisse eos Camillus cum alia oratione, tum ea quae ad religiones pertinebat maxime dicitur; sed rem dubiam decrevit vox opportune emissa, quod cum senatus post paulo de his rebus in curia Hostilia haberetur cohortesque ex praesidiis revertentes forte agmine forum transirent, centurio in comitio exclamavit: "Signifer, statue signum; hic manebimus optime". Qua voce audita, et senatus accipere se omen ex curia egressus conclamavit et plebs circumfusa adprobavit. Antiquata deinde lege, promisce urbs aedificari coepta. Tegula publice praebita est; saxi materiaeque caedendae unde quisque vellet ius factum, praedibus acceptis eo anno aedificia perfecturos.

[55] Camillus is said to have moved them both by another speech and most of all by that which pertained to religious observances; but a voice opportunely emitted decided the doubtful matter, for when shortly afterward the senate was being held about these matters in the Curia Hostilia and cohorts returning from the garrisons happened by chance to be passing in column through the forum, a centurion in the Comitium cried out: "Standard-bearer, set the standard; here we shall remain best." On hearing this voice, both the senate, coming out from the curia, shouted that it accepted the omen, and the surrounding plebs approved. Then, the law having been annulled, the city began to be built promiscuously. Roof-tiles were furnished at public expense; the right was established to quarry stone and cut timber from wherever each might wish, sureties being taken that they would complete the buildings in that year.

Festinatio curam exemit vicos dirigendi, dum omisso sui alienique discrimine in vacuo aedificant. Ea est causa ut veteres cloacae, primo per publicum ductae, nunc privata passim subeant tecta, formaque urbis sit occupatae magis quam divisae similis.

Haste removed the care of directing the streets, while, with the distinction between one’s own and another’s set aside, they build on vacant ground. That is the cause that the old sewers, first conducted through public space, now everywhere pass beneath private roofs, and the form of the city is more like something occupied than apportioned.