Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Quae ab condita urbe Roma ad captam eandem Romani sub regibus primum, consulibus deinde ac dictatoribus decemuirisque ac tribunis consularibus gessere, foris bella, domi seditiones, quinque libris exposui, res cum vetustate nimia obscuras velut quae magno ex intervallo loci vix cernuntur, tum quid rarae per eadem tempora litterae fuere, una custodia fidelis memoriae rerum gestarum, et quod, etiam si quae in commentariis pontificum aliisque publicis privatisque erant monumentis, incensa urbe pleraeque interiere. Clariora deinceps certioraque ab secunda origine velut ab stirpibus laetius feraciusque renatae urbis gesta domi militiaeque exponentur.

[1] What the Romans accomplished from the founding of the City to that same City’s capture—first under kings, then under consuls and dictators and decemvirs and consular tribunes—wars abroad, seditions at home, I have set forth in five books, matters obscured both by excessive antiquity, like things scarcely discerned from a great interval of distance, and because writings were rare in those same times, the single faithful custodian of the memory of deeds; and because, even if there were any in the commentaries of the pontiffs and in other public and private monuments, when the city was burned most perished. Hereafter clearer and more certain deeds—from a second origin, as it were from the roots of a city reborn more gladly and more fruitfully—will be set forth, at home and in the field.

Ceterum primo quo adminiculo erecta erat eodem innixa M. Furio principe stetit, neque eum abdicare se dictatura nisi anno circumacto passi sunt. Comitia in insequentem annum tribunos habere quorum in magistratu capta urbs esset, non placuit; res ad interregnum rediit. Cum civitas in opere ac labore assiduo reficiendae urbis teneretur, interim Q. Fabio, simul primum magistratu abiit, ab Cn. Marcio tribuno plebis dicta dies est, quod legatus in Gallos—ad quos missus erat orator—contra ius gentium pugnasset; cui iudicio eum mors, adeo opportuna ut voluntariam magna pars crederet, subtraxit.

However, at first it stood, relying on the same support by which it had been raised up, with M. Furius as leader, nor did they allow him to abdicate the dictatorship until a year had gone full circle. It did not seem good that, for the elections for the ensuing year, the tribunes in whose magistracy the city had been captured should preside; the matter reverted to an interregnum. While the state was bound in constant work and toil for the rebuilding of the city, meanwhile, for Q. Fabius, as soon as he first left office, a day was named by Cn. Marcius, tribune of the plebs, on the charge that, as a legate against the Gauls—to whom he had been sent as orator—he had fought contrary to the law of nations; from which trial death removed him—so opportune that a great part believed it voluntary.

Interregnum initum: P. Cornelius Scipio interrex et post eum M. Furius Camillus [iterum]. Is tribunos militum consulari potestate creat L. Valerium Publicolam iterum L. Verginium P. Cornelium A. Manlium L. Aemilium L. Postumium.

Interregnum begun: P. Cornelius Scipio was interrex, and after him M. Furius Camillus [again]. He creates as military tribunes with consular power L. Valerius Publicola again, L. Verginius, P. Cornelius, A. Manlius, L. Aemilius, L. Postumius.

Hi ex interregno cum extemplo magistratum inissent, nulla de re prius quam de religionibus senatum consuluere. In primis foedera ac leges—erant autem eae duodecim tabulae et quaedam regiae leges—conquiri, quae comparerent, iusserunt; alia ex eis edita etiam in volgus: quae autem ad sacra pertinebant a pontificibus maxime ut religione obstrictos haberent multitudinis animos suppressa. Tum de diebus religiosis agitari coeptum, diemque a. D. XV Kal.

These men, having entered upon office immediately from the interregnum, consulted the senate on nothing before religious matters. In the first place they ordered that the treaties and laws—and these were the Twelve Tables and certain royal laws—be sought out, whatever could be found; some of these were published even to the populace: but those which pertained to sacred rites were suppressed by the pontiffs, chiefly so that they might hold the minds of the multitude bound by religion. Then discussion began to be had about religious (taboo) days, and the day, the 15th before the Kalends.

Sextiles, duplici clade insignem, quo die ad Cremeram Fabii caesi, quo deinde ad Alliam cum exitio urbis foede pugnatum, a posteriore clade Alliensem appellarunt, + insignemque rei nullius publice privatimque agendae + fecerunt. Quidam, quod postridie Idus Quintiles non litasset Sulpicius tribunus militum neque inventa pace deum post diem tertium obiectus hosti exercitus Romanus esset, etiam postridie Idus rebus divinis supersederi iussum, inde, ut postridie Kalendas quoque ac Nonas eadem religio esset, traditum putant.

Sextilis, marked by a double calamity—the day on which at the Cremera the Fabii were slain, and then at the Allia a battle was foully fought with the destruction of the city—they called, from the later disaster, the Allian [day], + and they made it marked as a day for no business to be transacted, whether publicly or privately +. Certain men, because on the day after the Ides of Quintilis Sulpicius, military tribune, had not gained favorable sacrifice, and since, no peace of the gods having been found, on the third day thereafter the Roman army was exposed to the enemy, think that it was ordered that even on the day after the Ides divine rites be suspended, whence it has been handed down that on the day after the Kalends also and the Nones the same religio should obtain.

[2] Nec diu licuit quietis consilia erigendae ex tam gravi casu rei publicae secum agitare. Hinc Volsci, veteres hostes, ad exstinguendum nomen Romanum arma ceperant: hinc Etruriae principum ex omnibus populis coniurationem de bello ad fanum Voltumnae factam mercatores adferebant. Novus quoque terror accesserat defectione Latinorum Hernicorumque, qui post pugnam ad lacum Regillum factam per annos prope centum nunquam ambigua fide in amicitia populi Romani fuerant.

[2] Nor was it long permitted to debate with oneself in quiet the plans for raising up the commonwealth from so grave a disaster. On this side the Volsci, old enemies, had taken up arms to extinguish the Roman name; on that side merchants were bringing word that at the shrine of Voltumna a conspiracy for war had been made by the princes of Etruria from all the peoples. A new terror also had been added by the defection of the Latins and Hernici, who, after the battle at Lake Regillus, for almost 100 years had been in the friendship of the Roman People with never-ambiguous fidelity.

Itaque cum tanti undique terrores circumstarent appareretque omnibus non odio solum apud hostes sed contemptu etiam inter socios nomen Romanum laborare, placuit eiusdem auspiciis defendi rem publicam cuius reciperata esset dictatoremque dici M. Furium Camillum. Is dictator C. Servilium Ahalam magistrum equitum dixit; iustitioque indicto dilectum iuniorum habuit ita ut seniores quoque, quibus aliquid roboris superesset, in verba sua iuratos centuriaret.

Therefore, since such great terrors stood round on every side and it appeared to all that the Roman name labored not only under hatred among the enemies but even under contempt among the allies, it was resolved that the commonwealth be defended under the same auspices by which it had been recovered, and that Marcus Furius Camillus be named dictator. He, as dictator, named Gaius Servilius Ahala master of the horse; and, a iustitium (cessation of public business) having been proclaimed, he held a levy of the younger men in such a way that he also enrolled by centuries the elders as well—those in whom some vigor still remained—after binding them by oath to his words.

Exercitum conscriptum armatumque trifariam divisit: partem unam in agro Veiente Etruriae opposuit, alteram ante urbem castra locare iussit; tribuni militum his A. Manlius, illis quia adversus Etruscos mittebantur L. Aemilius praepositus; tertiam partem ipse ad Volscos duxit nec procul a Lanuvio—ad Mecium is locus dicitur—castra oppugnare est adortus. Quibus ab contemptu, quod prope omnem deletam a Gallis Romanam iuventutem crederent, ad bellum profectis tantum Camillus auditus imperator terroris intulerat ut vallo se ipsi, vallum congestis arboribus saepirent, ne qua intrare ad munimenta hostis posset. Quod ubi animadvertit Camillus, ignem in obiectam saepem coici iussit; et forte erat vis magna venti versa in hostem; itaque non aperuit solum incendio viam sed flammis in castra tendentibus vapore etiam ac fumo crepituque viridis materiae flagrantis ita consternavit hostes, ut minor moles superantibus vallum militibus munitum in castra Volscorum Romanis fuerit quam transcendentibus saepem incendio absumptam fuerat.

He divided the conscripted and armed army threefold: one part he posted in the Veientine territory opposite Etruria, another he ordered to pitch camp before the city; the tribunes of soldiers were A. Manlius over the former, and, since they were being sent against the Etruscans, L. Aemilius over the latter; the third part he himself led against the Volsci and, not far from Lanuvium—this place is called ad Mecium—he set about assaulting the camp. As they set out to war from contempt, because they believed that well-nigh all the Roman youth had been wiped out by the Gauls, the mere name of Camillus as commander had brought such terror upon them that they betook themselves to the rampart and fenced the rampart with trees heaped up, so that the enemy could by no way enter the defenses. When Camillus noticed this, he ordered fire to be cast upon the barrier set in front; and by chance there was a great force of wind turned against the enemy; and so he not only opened a way by the conflagration, but, as the flames were tending toward the camp, with the heat and also the smoke and the crackling of the green material blazing, he so dismayed the foes that the effort for the soldiers overcoming the rampart, fortified though it was, into the camp of the Volsci was less than it had been for those climbing over the hedge consumed by the fire.

Fusis hostibus caesisque cum castra impetu cepisset dictator, praedam militi dedit, quo minus speratam minime largitore duce, eo militi gratiorem. Persecutus deinde fugientes cum omnem Volscum agrum depopulatus esset, ad deditionem Volscos septuagesimo demum anno subegit. Victor ex Volscis in Aequos transiit et ipsos bellum molientes; exercitum eorum ad Bolas oppressit, nec castra modo sed urbem etiam adgressus impetu primo cepit.

With the enemy routed and cut down, when he had taken the camp by assault, the dictator gave the booty to the soldiery—so much the more welcome to the soldiers as it had been less expected under a leader by no means a largitor. Then, pursuing the fugitives, after he had laid waste the whole Volscian territory, he finally compelled the Volsci to surrender in the 70th year. Victorious over the Volsci, he passed on against the Aequi, they too fomenting war; he crushed their army at Bolae, and, attacking, at the first onset he took not only the camp but even the city.

[3] Cum in ea parte in qua caput rei Romanae Camillus erat ea fortuna esset, aliam in partem terror ingens ingruerat. Etruria prope omnis armata Sutrium, socios populi Romani, obsidebat; quorum legati opem rebus adfectis orantes cum senatum adissent, decretum tulere ut dictator primo quoque tempore auxilium Sutrinis ferret. Cuius spei moram cum pati fortuna obsessorum non potuisset confectaque paucitas oppidanorum opere, vigiliis, volneribus, quae semper eosdem urgebant, per pactionem urbe hostibus tradita inermis cum singulis emissa vestimentis miserabili agmine penates relinqueret, eo forte tempore Camillus cum exercitu Romano intervenit.

[3] While in that quarter where Camillus was the head of the Roman state fortune was of that sort, into another quarter a vast terror had rushed. Nearly all Etruria, under arms, was besieging Sutrium, allies of the Roman People; whose envoys, beseeching help for their afflicted circumstances, when they had gone to the senate, obtained a decree that the dictator should bring assistance to the Sutrinians at the earliest possible time. But since the fortune of the besieged could not endure a delay of that hope, and since the small number of townsmen, worn out by toil, vigils, and wounds—which always pressed upon the same men—had been exhausted, the city was surrendered to the enemies by a pact, and, unarmed, allowed to go out with a single garment apiece, in a miserable column they were leaving their household gods, when at that very moment by chance Camillus intervened with the Roman army.

Cui cum se maesta turba ad pedes provolvisset principumque orationem necessitate ultima expressam fletus mulierum ac puerorum qui exsilii comites trahebantur excepisset, parcere lamentis Sutrinos iussit: Etruscis se luctum lacrimasque ferre. Sarcinas inde deponi Sutrinosque ibi considere modico praesidio relicto, arma secum militem ferre iubet. Ita expedito exercitu profectus ad Sutrium, id quod rebatur, soluta omnia rebus, ut fit, secundis invenit, nullam stationem ante moenia, patentes portas, victorem vagum praedam ex hostium tectis egerentem.

To him, when the mournful crowd had flung themselves at his feet and he had received both the oration of the chiefs, wrung out by utmost necessity, and the weeping of the women and children who were being dragged along as companions of exile, he ordered the Sutrinians to spare their lamentations: he would carry mourning and tears to the Etruscans. Then he orders the baggage to be set down and the Sutrinians to sit there, a modest garrison being left behind; he orders the soldiers to carry their arms with them. Thus, with the army unencumbered, he set out to Sutrium and, as he supposed, found everything relaxed by prosperity, as happens: no station before the walls, the gates standing open, the roving victor driving booty out of the enemies’ houses.

Iterum igitur eodem die Sutrium capitur; victores Etrusci passim trucidantur ab novo hoste, neque se conglobandi coeundique in unum aut arma capiundi datur spatium. Cum pro se quisque tenderent ad portas, si qua forte se in agros eicere possent, clausas—id enim primum dictator imperaverat—portas inveniunt. Inde alii arma capere, alii, quos forte armatos tumultus occupaverat, convocare suos ut proelium inirent; quod accensum ab desperatione hostium fuisset, ni praecones per urbem dimissi poni arma et parci inermi iussissent nec praeter armatos quemquam violari.

Again, therefore, on the same day Sutrium is taken; the victorious Etruscans are cut down everywhere by the new enemy, nor is there granted them space to mass together and unite into one or to take up arms. When each man for himself was making for the gates, in case perchance they could throw themselves out into the fields, they find the gates closed—for this the dictator had first ordered. Then some began to seize arms, others, whom the tumult had chanced to catch already armed, to summon their own so that they might enter battle; which would have been kindled by the desperation of the enemy, had not heralds sent through the city ordered that arms be laid down and that the unarmed be spared, and that no one except the armed be violated.

Tum etiam quibus animi in spe ultima obstinati ad decertandum fuerant, postquam data spes vitae est, iactare passim arma inermesque, quod tutius fortuna fecerat, se hosti offerre. Magna multitudo in custodias divisa; oppidum ante noctem redditum Sutrinis inviolatum integrumque ab omni clade belli, quia non vi captum sed traditum per condiciones fuerat.

Then even those whose spirits, fixed on a last hope, had been resolved to fight it out, after hope of life was given, began to fling their arms away everywhere and, unarmed—because fortune had made that the safer course—offer themselves to the enemy. A great multitude was divided into custody; the town before night was restored to the Sutrines inviolate and intact from every disaster of war, because it had not been taken by force but had been handed over on terms.

[4] Camillus in urbem triumphans rediit, trium simul bellorum victor. Longe plurimos captivos ex Etruscis ante currum duxit; quibus sub hasta venumdatis tantum aeris redactum est ut, pretio pro auro matronis persoluto, ex eo quod supererat tres paterae aureae factae sint, quas cum titulo nominis Camilli ante Capitolium incensum in Iovis cella constat ante pedes Iunonis positas fuisse.

[4] Camillus returned into the city in triumph, victor of three wars at once. By far the most numerous captives from the Etruscans he led before his chariot; by the sale of whom under the spear so much bronze was realized that, the price for the gold paid back to the matrons, out of what remained three golden paterae were made, which, with the inscription of Camillus’s name, before the Capitol was burned, are agreed to have been placed in Jupiter’s cella, before the feet of Juno.

Eo anno in civitatem accepti qui Veientium Capenatiumque ac Faliscorum per ea bella transfugerant ad Romanos, agerque his novis civibus adsignatus. Revocati quoque in urbem senatus consulto a Veiis qui aedificandi Romae pigritia occupatis ibi vacuis tectis Veios se contulerant. Et primo fremitus fuit aspernantium imperium; dies deinde praestituta capitalisque poena, qui non remigrasset Romam, ex ferocibus universis singulos, metu suo quemque, oboedientes fecit; et Roma cum frequentia crescere, tum tota simul exsurgere aedificiis et re publica impensas adiuvante et aedilibus velut publicum exigentibus opus et ipsis privatis—admonebat enim desiderium usus—festinantibus ad effectum operis; intraque annum nova urbs stetit.

In that year those were received into the citizenship who, from among the Veientes, Capenates, and Faliscans, had defected to the Romans during those wars, and land was assigned to these new citizens. Recalled likewise into the city by a senatorial decree from Veii were those who, out of sloth for building at Rome, had betaken themselves to Veii, having occupied the empty roofs there. And at first there was a murmuring of men spurning the command; then, when a day was appointed and a capital penalty set for whoever had not migrated back to Rome, from all fierce as a body fear made each man, by his own fear, obedient; and Rome both began to grow with frequency, and all at once to rise up with buildings, the commonwealth assisting the expenses, the aediles, as though exacting a public work, and private persons themselves—for the desire of use was admonishing—hastening to the completion of the work; and within a year a new city stood.

Exitu anni comitia tribunorum militum consulari potestate habita. Creati T. Quinctius Cincinnatus Q. Servilius Fidenas quintum L. Iulius Iulus L. Aquilius Coruus L. Lucretius Tricipitinus Ser. Sulpicius Rufus exercitum alterum in Aequos, non ad bellum—victos namque se fatebantur—sed ab odio ad pervastandos fines, ne quid ad nova consilia relinqueretur virium, duxere, alterum in agrum Tarquiniensem; ibi oppida Etruscorum Cortuosa et Contenebra vi capta.

At the end of the year the elections of the military tribunes with consular power were held. T. Quinctius Cincinnatus, Q. Servilius Fidenas for the fifth time, L. Julius Iulus, L. Aquilius Corvus, L. Lucretius Tricipitinus, and Ser. Sulpicius Rufus were created; they led one army against the Aequians, not for war—for they confessed themselves conquered—but out of hatred to lay waste the borders, so that nothing of strength might be left for new counsels, and the other into the Tarquinian territory; there the Etruscan towns Cortuosa and Contenebra were taken by force.

Ad Cortuosam nihil certaminis fuit: improviso adorti primo clamore atque impetu cepere; direptum oppidum atque incensum est. Contenebra paucos dies oppugnationem sustinuit, laborque continuus non die, non nocte remissus subegit eos. Cum in sex partes divisus exercitus Romanus senis horis in orbem succederet proelio, oppidanos eosdem integro semper certamini paucitas fessos obiceret, cessere tandem locusque invadendi urbem Romanis datus est.

At Cortuosa there was nothing of a contest: attacking unexpectedly, at the first shout and charge they seized it; the town was plundered and burned. Contenebra sustained the assault for a few days, and continuous labor, remitted neither by day nor by night, forced them. Since the Roman army, divided into six parts, relieved one another in turn into the battle by six-hour shifts, while the townsmen—few in number—had to oppose the same men, always weary, to an ever-renewed engagement, they yielded at last, and an opening for invading the city was given to the Romans.

Publicari praedam tribunis placebat; sed imperium quam consilium segnius fuit; dum cunctantur, iam militum praeda erat nec nisi per invidiam adimi poterat.

It pleased the tribunes that the booty be made public; but their authority was more sluggish than their counsel; while they delayed, it was already the soldiers’ spoil, nor could it be taken away except through envy.

Eodem anno, ne privatis tantum operibus cresceret urbs, Capitolium quoque saxo quadrato substructum est, opus vel in hac magnificentia urbis conspiciendum.

In the same year, so that the city might not grow by private works only, the Capitol too was underpinned with squared stone, a work to be beheld even in this magnificence of the city.

[5] Iam et tribuni plebis civitate aedificando occupata contiones suas frequentare legibus agrariis conabantur. Ostentabatur in spem Pomptinus ager, tum primum post accisas a Camillo Volscorum res possessionis haud ambiguae. Criminabantur multo eum infestiorem agrum ab nobilitate esse quam a Volscis fuerit; ab illis enim tantum, quoad vires et arma habuerint, incursiones eo factas; nobiles homines in possessionem agri publici grassari nec, nisi antequam omnia praecipiant divisus sit, locum ibi plebi fore.

[5] Now too the tribunes of the plebs, with the state occupied with building, were trying to make their assemblies frequent by agrarian laws. The Pomptine land was held out as a hope, then for the first time, after the Volsci’s affairs had been cut down by Camillus, a possession by no means ambiguous. They were alleging that that land was much more hostile from the nobility than it had been from the Volsci; for by those only, so long as they had strength and arms, had incursions been made there; noble men are encroaching into possession of the public land, and, unless it be divided before they preoccupy everything, there will be a place there for the plebs not at all.

Haud magno opere plebem moverunt et infrequentem in foro propter aedificandi curam et eodem exhaustam impensis eoque agri immemorem, ad quem instruendum vires non essent.

They did not greatly move the plebs, which was infrequent in the Forum because of the care of building, and in that same matter exhausted by expenses, and therefore unmindful of the land, for the equipping of which there were no means.

In civitate plena religionum, tunc etiam ab recenti clade superstitiosis principibus, ut renovarentur auspicia res ad interregnum rediit. Interreges deinceps M. Manlius Capitolinus Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus L. Valerius Potitus; hic demum tribunorum militum consulari potestate comitia habuit.

In a state full of religions, then also with the leaders made superstitious by the recent disaster, the matter returned to an interregnum, in order that the auspices might be renewed. The interreges in succession were Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, Servius Sulpicius Camerinus, and Lucius Valerius Potitus; this man at last held the comitia for the military tribunes with consular power.

L. Papirium Cn. + Sergium L. Aemilium iterum Licinium + Menenium L. Valerium Publicolam tertium creat; ii ex interregno magistratum occepere.

He created Lucius Papirius, Gnaeus + Sergius, Lucius Aemilius for the second time, Licinius + Menenius, Lucius Valerius Publicola for the third time; they entered upon the magistracy after an interregnum.

Eo anno aedis Martis Gallico bello vota dedicata est a T. Quinctio duumviro sacris faciendis. Tribus quattuor ex novis civibus additae, Stellatina Tromentina Sabatina Arniensis; eaeque viginti quinque tribuum numerum explevere.

In that year the temple of Mars, vowed in the Gallic war, was dedicated by T. Quinctius, duumvir for conducting sacred rites. Four tribes were added from the new citizens, Stellatina, Tromentina, Sabatina, Arniensis; and these completed the number of tribes to 25.

[6] De agro Pomptino ab L. Sicinio tribuno plebis actum ad frequentiorem iam populum mobilioremque ad cupiditatem agri quam fuerat. Et de Latino Hernicoque bello mentio facta in senatu maioris belli cura, quod Etruria in armis erat, dilata est. Res ad Camillum tribunum militum consulari potestate rediit; collegae additi quinque, Ser.

[6] About the Pomptine land action was taken by L. Sicinius, tribune of the plebs, addressing a populace now more numerous and more susceptible to cupidity for land than it had been. And, mention having been made in the senate of the Latin and Hernican war, the concern of a greater war—since Etruria was in arms—was deferred. The matter returned to Camillus, military tribune with consular power; five colleagues were added, Ser.

Cornelius Maluginensis Q. Servilius Fidenas sextum L. Quinctius Cincinnatus L. Horatius Puluillus P. Valerius. Principio anni aversae curae hominum sunt a bello Etrusco, quod fugientium ex agro Pomptino agmen repente inlatum in urbem attulit Antiates in armis esse Latinorumque populos iuventutem suam summisisse ad id bellum, eo abnuentes publicum fuisse consilium quod non prohibitos tantummodo voluntarios dicerent militare ubi vellent.

Cornelius Maluginensis, Q. Servilius Fidenas for the sixth time, L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. Horatius Puluillus, P. Valerius. At the beginning of the year men’s cares were averted from the Etruscan war, because a column of fugitives from the Pomptine land, suddenly brought into the city, reported that the people of Antium were in arms and that the peoples of the Latins had called up their youth for that war, denying on this score that there had been a public policy, since they said that only volunteers, not being prohibited, were serving as soldiers wherever they wished.

Desierant iam ulla contemni bella. Itaque senatus dis agere gratias quod Camillus in magistratu esset: dictatorem quippe dicendum eum fuisse si privatus esset; et collegae fateri regimen omnium rerum, ubi quid bellici terroris ingruat, in viro uno esse sibique destinatum in animo esse Camillo summittere imperium nec quicquam de maiestate sua detractum credere quod maiestati eius viri concessissent. Conlaudatis ab senatu tribunis et ipse Camillus confusus animo gratias egit.

Wars had now ceased to be despised at all. And so the senate gave thanks to the gods that Camillus was in magistracy: indeed he would have had to be named dictator if he were a private man; and his colleagues admitted that the regimen of all affairs, whenever any terror of war should press, lay in a single man, and that for themselves it was determined in mind to submit their command to Camillus, nor did they believe that anything of their own majesty had been detracted because they had conceded to the majesty of that man. With the tribunes praised by the senate, Camillus himself too, his mind confounded, gave thanks.

Ingens inde ait onus a populo Romano sibi, qui se [dictatorem] iam quartum creasset, magnum ab senatu talibus de se iudiciis [eius ordinis], maximum tam honoratorum collegarum obsequio iniungi; itaque si quid laboris vigiliarumque adici possit, certantem secum ipsum adnisurum ut tanto de se consensu civitatis opinionem, quae maxima sit, etiam constantem efficiat. Quod ad bellum atque Antiates attineat, plus ibi minarum quam periculi esse; se tamen, ut nihil timendi, sic nihil contemnendi auctorem esse. Circumsederi urbem Romanam ab invidia et odio finitimorum; itaque et ducibus pluribus et exercitibus administrandam rem publicam esse.

Thereupon he said that a huge burden was laid upon him by the Roman people, who had now created him [dictator] for the fourth time; a great one by the senate, through such judgments about him [of that order]; the greatest to be enjoined by the compliance of colleagues so honored. And so, if any addition of toil and of vigils could be made, vying with himself he would strive to render the opinion about him, which by so great a consensus of the commonwealth is the highest, even steadfast. As for the war and the Antiates, there was more of threats there than of danger; he, however, was an advocate that nothing was to be feared, but likewise that nothing was to be contemned. The Roman city was being hemmed in by the envy and hatred of the neighbors; and therefore the commonwealth ought to be administered both by more commanders and by armies.

"Te" inquit, "P. Valeri, socium imperii consiliique legiones mecum adversus Antiatem hostem ducere placet; te, Q. Servili, altero exercitu instructo paratoque in urbe castra habere, intentum sive Etruria se interim, ut nuper, sive nova haec cura, Latini atque Hernici moverint; pro certo habeo ita rem gesturum ut patre avo teque ipso ac sex tribunatibus dignum est. Tertius exercitus ex causariis senioribusque a L. Quinctio scribatur, qui urbi moenibusque praesidio sit. L. Horatius arma, tela, frumentum, quaeque alia [belli] tempora poscent prouideat.

"You," he says, "P. Valeri, as a partner in imperium and in counsel, it pleases me to lead the legions with me against the Antiate enemy; you, Q. Servili, with another army equipped and prepared, to hold a camp in the city, alert whether Etruria meanwhile, as lately, or this new concern, the Latins and Hernici, should move; I hold for certain that you will conduct the matter in a way worthy of your father, your grandfather, yourself, and your six tribunates. Let a third army be enrolled from the excused men and the seniors by L. Quinctius, to be a guard for the city and its walls. L. Horatius shall provide arms, missiles, grain, and whatever other things the times [of war] will demand."

Te, Ser. Corneli, praesidem huius publici consilii, custodem religionum, comitiorum, legum, rerum omnium urbanarum, collegae facimus."

We make you, Ser. Cornelius, president of this public council, guardian of the religions, of the assemblies, of the laws, of all urban affairs, as colleague."

Cunctis in partes muneris sui benigne pollicentibus operam Valerius, socius imperii lectus, adiecit M. Furium sibi pro dictatore seque ei pro magistro equitum futurum; proinde, quam opinionem de unico imperatore, eam spem de bello haberent. Se vero bene sperare patres et de bello et de pace universaque re publica erecti gaudio fremunt nec dictatore unquam opus fore rei publicae, si tales viros in magistratu habeat, tam concordibus iunctos animis, parere atque imperare iuxta paratos laudemque conferentes potius in medium quam ex communi ad se trahentes.

As all kindly promised their effort to the portions of their own duty, Valerius, chosen as partner in command, added that M. Furius would be to him in place of a Dictator, and that he himself would be to him in place of Master of Horse; accordingly, whatever opinion they had of a sole commander, let them have that hope concerning the war. But the senators, uplifted with joy, murmur that they themselves have good hope both about war and peace and the whole commonwealth, and that the Republic would never have need of a Dictator, if it should have such men in magistracy, joined with so concordant spirits, equally ready to obey and to command, and contributing praise rather into the common stock than drawing it to themselves out of the common.

[7] Iustitio indicto dilectuque habito Furius ac Valerius ad Satricum profecti, quo non Volscorum modo iuventutem Antiates ex nova subole lectam sed ingentem Latinorum Hernicorumque [vim] conciverant ex integerrimis diutina pace populis. Itaque novus hostis veteri adiunctus commovit animos militis Romani. Quod ubi aciem iam instruenti Camillo centuriones renuntiaverunt, turbatas militum mentes esse, segniter arma capta, cunctabundosque et resistentes egressos castris esse, quin voces quoque auditas cum centenis hostibus singulos pugnaturos et aegre inermem tantam multitudinem, nedum armatam, sustineri posse, in equum insilit et ante signa obversus in aciem ordines interequitans:

[7] With a justitium declared and a levy held, Furius and Valerius set out for Satricum, where the Antiates had roused not only the youth of the Volsci, selected from new stock, but also an immense [force] of Latins and Hernici, from peoples most unimpaired by long peace. And so a new enemy, joined to the old, unsettled the spirits of the Roman soldiery. When the centurions reported this to Camillus as he was already forming the battle line—that the soldiers’ minds were disturbed, that arms had been taken up sluggishly, and that they had gone out from the camp hesitating and hanging back; indeed that cries too had been heard that individuals would fight with hundreds of enemies apiece, and that with difficulty could so great a multitude unarmed, to say nothing of armed, be withstood—he springs onto his horse and, facing before the standards toward the line, rides between the ranks into the array:

"Quae tristitia, milites, haec, quae insolita cunctatio est? Hostem an me an vos ignoratis? Hostis est quid aliud quam perpetua materia virtutis gloriaeque vestrae?

"What sadness, soldiers, is this, what unusual cunctation is this? Do you not know the enemy, or me, or yourselves? What is the enemy anything other than the perpetual material of your virtue and glory?

Vos contra me duce, ut Falerios Veiosque captos et in capta patria Gallorum legiones caesas taceam, modo trigeminae victoriae triplicem triumphum ex his ipsis Volscis et Aequis et ex Etruria egistis. An me, quod non dictator vobis sed tribunus signum dedi, non agnoscitis ducem? Neque ego maxima imperia in vos desidero, et vos in me nihil praeter me ipsum intueri decet; neque enim dictatura mihi unquam animos fecit, ut ne exsilium quidem ademit.

You, under me as leader—so that I may pass over Falerii and Veii taken, and the legions of the Gauls cut down in our captured fatherland—only just now have celebrated a triple triumph for a threefold victory over these very Volsci and Aequi and out of Etruria. Or is it that, because I have given you the signal not as dictator but as tribune, you do not recognize me as your leader? I neither desire the highest commands over you, and it is fitting for you to regard nothing in me except myself; for the dictatorship never gave me spirit, nor did even exile take it away.

Iidem igitur omnes sumus, et cum eadem omnia in hoc bellum adferamus quae in priora attulimus, eundem eventum belli exspectemus. Simul concurreritis, quod quisque didicit ac consuevit faciet: vos vincetis, illi fugient."

Therefore we are all the same, and since we bring the same things into this war that we brought into the prior ones, let us expect the same outcome of the war. The moment you clash, each man will do what he has learned and is accustomed to do: you will conquer, they will flee."

[8] Dato deinde signo ex equo desilit et proximum signiferum manu arreptum secum in hostem rapit "Infer, miles" clamitans, "signum." Quod ubi videre, ipsum Camillum, iam ad munera corporis senecta invalidum, vadentem in hostes, procurrunt pariter omnes clamore sublato "Sequere imperatorem" pro se quisque clamantes. Emissum etiam signum Camilli iussu in hostium aciem ferunt idque ut repeteretur concitatos antesignanos; ibi primum pulsum Antiatem, terroremque non in primam tantum aciem sed etiam ad subsidiarios perlatum. Nec vis tantum militum movebat, excitata praesentia ducis, sed quod Volscorum animis nihil terribilius erat quam ipsius Camilli forte oblata species; ita quocumque se intulisset victoriam secum haud dubiam trahebat.

[8] Then, the signal having been given, he leaps down from his horse and, seizing with his hand the nearest standard-bearer, drags him with himself against the enemy, shouting, “Bring in, soldier, the standard.” When they saw this—Camillus himself, now by old age enfeebled for the tasks of the body, going against the foes—they all run forward together with a shout raised, each man calling out for himself, “Follow the commander.” The standard too, sent forth at Camillus’s order, they carry into the enemy battle line, and this fired the front-rankers to recover it; there for the first time the Antiate was driven back, and terror was borne not only into the first line but even to the reserves. Nor was it only the force of the soldiery, quickened by the presence of the leader, that moved them, but also that in the spirits of the Volsci nothing was more dreadful than the very sight of Camillus himself, offered by chance; thus, to whatever quarter he had carried himself, he dragged with him a victory by no means doubtful.

Maxime id evidens fuit, cum in laevum cornu prope iam pulsum arrepto repente equo cum scuto pedestri advectus conspectu suo proelium restituit, ostentans vincentem ceteram aciem. Iam inclinata res erat, sed turba hostium et fuga impediebatur et longa caede conficienda multitudo tanta fesso militi erat, cum repente ingentibus procellis fusus imber certam magis victoriam quam proelium diremit. Signo deinde receptui dato nox insecuta quietis Romanis perfecit bellum; Latini namque et Hernici relictis Volscis domos profecti sunt, malis consiliis pares adepti eventus; Volsci ubi se desertos ab eis videre quorum fiducia rebellaverant, relictis castris moenibus Satrici se includunt; quos primo Camillus vallo circumdare et aggere atque operibus oppugnare est adortus.

That was most evident when, into the left wing—almost now driven back—he, having suddenly seized a horse, riding in with an infantry shield, by his very sight restored the battle, displaying that the rest of the line was winning. Already the situation had inclined, but the throng of the enemy and their flight worked impediment, and so great a multitude to be finished off by a long slaughter was a task for the weary soldier, when suddenly a rain poured in vast squalls broke off rather a victory now assured than a battle. Then, the signal for retreat having been given, the night that followed, restful for the Romans, completed the war; for the Latins and Hernici, leaving the Volsci, set out for their homes, having obtained outcomes equal to their bad counsels. The Volsci, when they saw themselves deserted by those on whose confidence they had rebelled, abandoning their camp, shut themselves within the walls of Satricum; whom at the first Camillus set about to surround with a rampart and an embankment and to attack with siege-works.

Quae postquam nulla eruptione impediri videt, minus esse animi ratus in hoste quam ut in eo tam lentae spei victoriam exspectaret, cohortatus milites ne tamquam Veios oppugnantes in opere longinquo sese tererent, victoriam in manibus esse, ingenti militum alacritate moenia undique adgressus scalis oppidum cepit. Volsci abiectis armis sese dediderunt.

After he saw that it was impeded by no sally, judging there to be too little spirit in the enemy for him to await a victory of such slow hope, he exhorted the soldiers not to wear themselves out in long-distance works as though besieging Veii, that victory was in their hands; then, with great alacrity of the soldiers, having assaulted the walls on all sides, he took the town by scaling-ladders. The Volsci, having cast down their arms, surrendered themselves.

[9] Ceterum animus ducis rei maiori, Antio, imminebat: id caput Volscorum, eam fuisse originem proximi belli. Sed magno apparatu tormentis machinisque tam valida quia nisi urbs capi non poterat, relicto ad exercitum collega Romam est profectus, ut senatum ad excidendum Antium hortaretur. Inter sermonem eius—credo rem Antiatem diuturniorem manere dis cordi fuisse—legati ab Nepete ac Sutrio auxilium adversus Etruscos petentes veniunt, brevem occasionem esse ferendi auxilii memorantes.

[9] However, the leader’s mind was intent on a greater affair, Antium: that was the head of the Volsci; that had been the origin of the most recent war. But with a great apparatus of artillery and machines—for so strong was the city that it could not be taken otherwise—leaving his colleague with the army he set out for Rome, to exhort the senate to raze Antium. During his speech—I believe the Antiate matter, by remaining more prolonged, was pleasing to the gods—envoys from Nepete and Sutrium come, seeking aid against the Etruscans, remarking that there was a brief opportunity for bringing help.

Eo vim Camilli ab Antio fortuna avertit. Namque cum ea loca opposita Etruriae et velut claustra inde portaeque essent, et illis occupandi ea cum quid novi molirentur et Romanis reciperandi tuendique cura erat. Igitur senatui cum Camillo agi placuit ut omisso Antio bellum Etruscum susciperet; legiones urbanae quibus Quinctius praefuerat ei decernuntur.

Thereupon fortune diverted Camillus’s force from Antium. For since those places lay opposite to Etruria and were, as it were, barriers and gates on that side, there was concern both for the Etruscans to occupy them whenever they were contriving something new and for the Romans to recover and defend them. Therefore it pleased the senate to deal with Camillus that, Antium being set aside, he should undertake the Etruscan war; the urban legions over which Quinctius had been in command were assigned to him.

Quamquam expertum exercitum adsuetumque imperio qui in Volscis erat mallet, nihil recusavit; Valerium tantummodo imperii socium depoposcit. Quinctius Horatiusque successores Valerio in Volscos missi.

Although he would have preferred the experienced army, accustomed to his command, which was among the Volsci, he refused nothing; he only demanded Valerius as a partner in command. Quinctius and Horatius were sent to the Volsci as successors to Valerius.

Profecti ab urbe Sutrium Furius et Valerius partem oppidi iam captam ab Etruscis invenere, ex parte altera intersaeptis itineribus aegre oppidanos vim hostium ab se arcentes. Cum Romani auxilii adventus tum Camilli nomen celeberrimum apud hostes sociosque et in praesentia rem inclinatam sustinuit et spatium ad opem ferendam dedit. Itaque diviso exercitu Camillus collegam in eam partem circumductis copiis quam hostes tenebant moenia adgredi iubet, non tanta spe scalis capi urbem posse quam ut aversis eo hostibus et oppidanis iam pugnando fessis laxaretur labor et ipse spatium intrandi sine certamine moenia haberet.

Setting out from the City to Sutrium, Furius and Valerius found a part of the town already seized by the Etruscans, and on the other side, with the roads barricaded, the townspeople with difficulty warding off the enemy’s force from themselves. Both the arrival of Roman aid and the very celebrated name of Camillus among foes and allies alike both steadied a situation that was at the moment inclining (against them) and gave time for bringing help. Therefore, with the army divided, Camillus orders his colleague, after leading the troops around into that quarter which the enemies held, to assault the walls—not so much in the hope that the city could be taken by ladders, as that, with the enemy turned thither and the townspeople already wearied by fighting, their toil might be lightened, and he himself might have space to enter within the walls without a contest.

Quod simul utrimque factum esset ancepsque terror Etruscos circumstaret, et moenia summa vi oppugnari et intra moenia esse hostem [ut] viderunt, porta se, quae una forte non obsidebatur, trepidi uno agmine eiecere. Magna caedes fugientium et in urbe et per agros est facta. Plures a Furianis intra moenia caesi, Valeriani expeditiores ad persequendos fuere, nec ante noctem, quae conspectum ademit, finem caedendi fecere.

As soon as this had been done on both sides and a two-faced terror hemmed in the Etruscans, when they saw both that the walls were being assaulted with utmost force and that the enemy was within the walls, in their panic they drove themselves out through the gate—the one gate which by chance alone was not being blockaded—in a single column. A great slaughter of the fugitives was made both in the city and through the fields. More were cut down within the walls by Furius’s men; Valerius’s troops were readier for pursuit, nor did they make an end of the killing before night, which took away sight.

Sutrio recepto restitutoque sociis Nepete exercitus ductus, quod per deditionem acceptum iam totum Etrusci habebant.

With Sutrium recovered and restored to the allies, the army was led to Nepete, which, taken through surrender, the Etruscans already held in its entirety.

[10] Videbatur plus in ea urbe recipienda laboris fore, non eo solum quod tota hostium erat sed etiam quod parte Nepesinorum prodente civitatem facta erat deditio; mitti tamen ad principes eorum placuit ut secernerent se ab Etruscis fidemque quam implorassent ab Romanis ipsi praestarent. Unde cum responsum allatum esset nihil suae potestatis esse, Etruscos moenia custodiasque portarum tenere, primo populationibus agri terror est oppidanis admotus; deinde, postquam deditionis quam societatis fides sanctior erat, fascibus sarmentorum ex agro conlatis ductus ad moenia exercitus completisque fossis scalae admotae et clamore primo impetuque oppidum capitur. Nepesinis inde edictum ut arma ponant parcique iussum inermi: Etrusci pariter armati atque inermes caesi.

[10] It seemed there would be more labor in recovering that city, not only because it was wholly the enemy’s, but also because, a part of the Nepesini betraying the state, a surrender had been made; yet it was resolved to send to their chiefs that they separate themselves from the Etruscans and themselves make good the good faith which they had implored from the Romans. Whence, when an answer was brought that nothing was in their power, that the Etruscans held the walls and the guards of the gates, at first by devastations of the fields terror was applied to the townsmen; then, since the faith of a surrender was held more sacrosanct than that of an alliance, fascines of brushwood having been gathered from the countryside, the army was led up to the walls, and the ditches having been filled in, ladders were brought up, and at the first shout and charge the town is taken. Then it was proclaimed to the Nepesini that they lay down their arms, and it was ordered that the unarmed be spared: the Etruscans, armed and unarmed alike, were cut down.

Nepesinorum quoque auctores deditionis securi percussi: innoxiae multitudini redditae res oppidumque cum praesidio relictum. Ita duabus sociis urbibus ex hoste receptis victorem exercitum tribuni cum magna gloria Romam reduxerunt.

The authors of the surrender among the Nepesini were also struck by the axe: the property was restored to the innocent multitude, and the town was left with a garrison. Thus, with two allied cities recovered from the enemy, the tribunes led the victorious army back to Rome with great glory.

Eodem anno ab Latinis Hernicisque res repetitae quaesitumque cur per eos annos militem ex instituto non dedissent. Responsum frequenti utriusque gentis concilio est nec culpam in eo publicam nec consilium fuisse quod suae iuventutis aliqui apud Volscos militaverint; eos tamen ipsos pravi consilii poenam habere nec quemquam ex his reducem esse; militis autem non dati causam terrorem assiduum a Volscis fuisse, quam pestem adhaerentem lateri suo tot super alia aliis bellis exhauriri nequisse. Quae relata patribus magis tempus quam causam non visa belli habere.

In the same year restitutions were demanded from the Latins and the Hernici, and inquiry was made why during those years they had not furnished soldiers according to the instituted custom. The reply, in a crowded council of both peoples, was that there had been neither public culpability nor policy in the fact that some of their own youth had served among the Volsci; yet that those very men had the penalty of their depraved counsel, and that none of them had returned; and that the cause of not supplying soldiers had been the assiduous terror from the Volsci—a pest cleaving to their flank—which, on top of so many other wars, they had been unable to drain away. These statements, when reported to the Fathers, seemed to contain rather a gaining of time than a cause for war.

[11] Insequenti anno, A. Manlio P. Cornelio T. et L. Quinctiis Capitolinis L. Papirio Cursore [iterum C. Sergio] iterum tribunis consulari potestate, grave bellum foris, gravior domi seditio exorta, bellum ab Volscis adiuncta Latinorum atque Hernicorum defectione, seditio, unde minime timeri potuit, a patriciae gentis viro et inclitae famae, M. Manlio Capitolino. Qui nimius animi cum alios principes sperneret, uni invideret eximio simul honoribus atque virtutibus, M. Furio, aegre ferebat solum eum in magistratibus, solum apud exercitus esse; tantum iam eminere ut iisdem auspiciis creatos non pro collegis sed pro ministris habeat; cum interim, si quis vere aestimare velit, a M. Furio reciperari patria ex obsidione hostium non potuerit, nisi a se prius Capitolium atque arx servata esset; et ille inter aurum accipiendum et in spem pacis solutis animis Gallos adgressus sit, ipse armatos capientesque arcem depulerit; illius gloriae pars virilis apud omnes milites sit qui simul vicerint: suae victoriae neminem omnium mortalium socium esse. His opinionibus inflato animo, ad hoc vitio quoque ingenii vehemens et impotens, postquam inter patres non quantum aequum censebat excellere suas opes animadvertit, primus omnium ex patribus popularis factus cum plebeiis magistratibus consilia communicare; criminando patres, alliciendo ad se plebem iam aura non consilio ferri famaeque magnae malle quam bonae esse.

[11] In the following year, under A. Manlius, P. Cornelius, T. and L. Quinctii Capitolini, L. Papirius Cursor, [again C. Sergius], again as tribunes with consular power, a severe war arose abroad and a severer sedition at home—the war from the Volsci, with the defection of the Latins and the Hernici added; the sedition, from where it could least be feared, from a man of the patrician clan and of illustrious fame, M. Manlius Capitolinus. He, excessive in spirit, while he scorned other leaders, envied one alone, outstanding at once in honors and in virtues, M. Furius; he took it hard that he alone should be in magistracies, he alone have standing with the armies; that he now so towered as to count those created under the same auspices not as colleagues but as assistants; whereas meanwhile, if anyone should wish to assess truly, the fatherland could not have been recovered by M. Furius from the siege of the enemies, unless by himself the Capitol and citadel had first been saved; and that man, while gold was being received and minds were relaxed into the hope of peace, attacked the Gauls, but he himself drove off armed men seizing the citadel; a manly share of that man’s glory belongs among all the soldiers who conquered together: of his own victory no one of all mortals is a partner. With his mind puffed up by these opinions—besides, by a defect of character vehement and unrestrained—after he noticed that among the patres he did not surpass to the degree he judged equitable in his influence, he, first of all the patricians, became a popularis and began to share counsels with the plebeian magistrates; by incriminating the patres, by enticing the plebs to himself, now to be borne by the breeze rather than by counsel, and to prefer a great fame to a good one.

Et non contentus agrariis legibus, quae materia semper tribunis plebi seditionum fuisset, fidem moliri coepit: acriores quippe aeris alieni stimulos esse, qui non egestatem modo atque ignominiam minentur sed nervo ac vinculis corpus liberum territent. Et erat aeris alieni magna vis re damnosissima etiam divitibus, aedificando, contracta. Bellum itaque Volscum, grave per se, oneratum Latinorum atque Hernicorum defectione, in speciem causae iactatum ut maior potestas quaereretur; sed nova consilia Manli magis compulere senatum ad dictatorem creandum.

And not content with agrarian laws—which had always been the material of seditions for the tribunes of the plebs—he began to subvert credit (fides): for the goads of debt are keener, since they threaten not only want and ignominy but even terrify a free body with stocks and chains. And there was a great mass of debt, most ruinous even to the rich, contracted by building. Therefore the Volscian war, grave in itself and burdened by the defection of the Latins and Hernici, was paraded as a pretext in order that greater power might be sought; but the new measures of Manlius rather compelled the senate to create a dictator.

Creatus A. Cornelius Cossus magistrum equitum dixit T. Quinctium Capitolinum.

Having been appointed, A. Cornelius Cossus named T. Quinctius Capitolinus Master of the Horse.

[12] Dictator etsi maiorem dimicationem propositam domi quam foris cernebat, tamen, seu quia celeritate ad bellum opus erat, seu victoria triumphoque dictaturae ipsi vires se additurum ratus, dilectu habito in agrum Pomptinum, quo a Volscis exercitum indictum audierat, pergit.—non dubito praeter satietatem tot iam libris adsidua bella cum Volscis gesta legentibus illud quoque succursurum, quod mihi percensenti propiores temporibus harum rerum auctores miraculo fuit unde totiens victis Volscis et Aequis suffecerint milites. Quod cum ab antiquis tacitum praetermissum sit, cuius tandem ego rei praeter opinionem, quae sua cuique coniectanti esse potest, auctor sim? Simile veri est aut intervallis bellorum, sicut nunc in dilectibus fit Romanis, alia atque alia subole iuniorum ad bella instauranda totiens usos esse aut non ex iisdem semper populis exercitus scriptos, quamquam eadem semper gens bellum intulerit, aut innumerabilem multitudinem liberorum capitum in eis fuisse locis quae nunc vix seminario exiguo militum relicto servitia Romana ab solitudine vindicant.

[12] The Dictator, although he perceived a greater contention set forth at home than abroad, nevertheless—whether because there was need of speed for the war, or thinking that victory and a triumph would add strength to the dictatorship itself—having held a levy, proceeds into the Pomptine country, whither he had heard that by the Volsci an army had been proclaimed. —I do not doubt that, besides the satiety for those who in so many books already read of unremitting wars waged with the Volsci, this will also occur: a thing which, as I counted over authors nearer in time to these affairs, was a marvel to me—whence it was that there were soldiers enough for the Volsci and the Aequi, so often defeated. Since this has been silently passed over by the ancients, of what matter, then, am I to be the guarantor, beyond an opinion—which can be its own to each who conjectures? It is like to the truth either that, in the intervals of the wars, as now in Roman levies, they so often used for renewing the wars one generation of younger men after another; or that the armies were not always enrolled from the same peoples, although it was always the same nation that brought war; or that there was an innumerable multitude of free heads in those regions which now, scarcely a meager nursery of soldiers being left, Roman slaves barely redeem from desolation.

Ingens certe, quod inter omnes auctores conveniat, quamquam nuper Camilli ductu atque auspicio accisae res erant, Volscorum exercitus fuit; ad hoc Latini Hernicique accesserant et Circeiensium quidam et coloni etiam a Velitris Romani.

Certainly enormous—as all authors agree—although recently under the leadership and auspices of Camillus their affairs had been cut down, was the army of the Volscians; in addition the Latins and the Hernicans had joined, and some men of Circeii, and even Roman colonists from Velitrae.

Dictator castris eo die positis, postero cum auspicato prodisset hostiaque caesa pacem deum adorasset, laetus ad milites iam arma ad propositum pugnae signum, sicut edictum erat, luce prima capientes processit. "Nostra victoria est, milites" inquit, "si quid di vatesque eorum in futurum vident. Itaque, ut decet certae spei plenos et cum imparibus manus conserturos, pilis ante pedes positis gladiis tantum dextras armemus.

The Dictator, having pitched camp that day, on the next, when he had gone forth after taking the auspices and, the victim having been slain, had adored the peace of the gods, gladly advanced to the soldiers, now taking up arms at the sign for battle that had been posted, as had been proclaimed by edict, at first light. “The victory is ours, soldiers,” he said, “if the gods and their vates see anything of what is to come. Therefore, as befits men full of certain hope and about to join hands with unequal foes, with the pila laid before our feet, let us arm only our right hands with swords.

Ne procurri quidem ab acie velim sed obnixos vos stabili gradu impetum hostium excipere. Ubi illi vana iniecerint missilia et effusi stantibus vobis se intulerint, tum micent gladii et veniat in mentem unicuique deos esse qui Romanum adiuvent deos qui secundis avibus in proelium miserint. Tu, T. Quincti, equitem intentus ad primum initium moti certaminis teneas; ubi haerere iam aciem conlato pede videris, tum terrorem equestrem occupatis alio pavore infer invectusque ordines pugnantium dissipa." Sic eques, sic pedes, ut praeceperat, pugnant; nec dux legiones nec fortuna fefellit ducem.

I would not even wish a running out from the battle-line, but that you, braced, should with a steady step receive the enemy’s onrush. When they have hurled their vain missiles and, pouring forward while you stand firm, have borne themselves in upon you, then let the swords flash, and let it come to each one’s mind that there are gods who help the Roman, gods who with favorable birds have sent us into battle. You, T. Quinctius, keep the cavalry, intent, at the very first beginning of the contest when it is set in motion; when you see the battle-line now sticking fast, foot to foot engaged, then, while they are occupied with another fright, bring in the cavalry terror, and, having ridden in, scatter the ranks of the combatants.” Thus the horse, thus the foot fight as he had prescribed; neither did the leader fail the legions, nor did Fortune fail the leader.

[13] Multitudo hostium nulli rei praeterquam numero freta et oculis utramque metiens aciem temere proelium iniit, temere omisit; clamore tantum missilibusque telis et primo pugnae impetu ferox gladios et conlatum pedem et voltum hostis ardore animi micantem ferre non potuit. Impulsa frons prima et trepidatio subsidiis inlata; et suum terrorem intulit eques; rupti inde multis locis ordines motaque omnia et fluctuanti similis acies erat. Dein postquam cadentibus primis iam ad se quisque perventuram caedem cernebat, terga vertunt.

[13] The multitude of the enemy, relying on nothing except their number and measuring with their eyes both battle lines, entered the battle rashly, and rashly abandoned it; fierce only with shouting and missile weapons and the first onset of the fight, they could not endure the swords, the foot-to-foot clash, and the face of the foe flashing with the ardor of spirit. The foremost front was driven in, and panic was brought upon the reserves; and the cavalry added its own terror; then the ranks were broken in many places, everything was set in motion, and the battle line was like something wave-tossed. Then, after each man, as the first were falling, perceived that the slaughter would now reach himself, they turn their backs.

Instare Romanus; et donec armati confertique abibant, peditum labor in persequendo fuit; postquam iactari arma passim fugaque per agros spargi aciem hostium animadversum est, tum equitum turmae emissae, dato signo ne in singulorum morando caede spatium ad evadendum interim multitudini darent: satis esse missilibus ac terrore impediri cursum obequitandoque agmen teneri dum adsequi pedes et iusta caede conficere hostem posset. Fugae sequendique non ante noctem finis fuit. Capta quoque ac direpta eodem die castra Volscorum praedaque omnis praeter libera corpora militi concessa est.

The Roman pressed on; and so long as they were going off still armed and in close order, the labor of pursuing was the infantry’s; after it was noticed that weapons were being cast away everywhere and that in flight the enemy’s battle-line was being scattered through the fields, then squadrons of horsemen were sent out, a signal having been given that by lingering over the slaughter of individuals they should not meanwhile give the multitude space for escaping: that it was enough that with missiles and with terror their course be impeded, and by riding alongside the column be held, until the foot could overtake and with a just slaughter finish off the enemy. There was no end to the flight and the pursuing before night. The camp of the Volsci likewise was taken and sacked on the same day, and all the booty, except free persons, was granted to the soldiery.

Pars maxima captivorum ex Latinis atque Hernicis fuit, nec hominum de plebe, ut credi posset mercede militasse, sed principes quidam iuventutis inventi, manifesta fides publica ope Volscos hostes adiutos. Circeiensium quoque quidam cogniti et coloni a Velitris; Romamque omnes missi percontantibus primoribus patrum eadem quae dictatori defectionem sui quisque populi haud perplexe indicavere.

The greatest part of the captives were from the Latins and the Hernici, and not men of the plebs, as one might suppose to have soldiered for pay, but certain princes of the youth were found—manifest proof that by public aid the Volscian enemies had been assisted. Certain men too of the Circeians were recognized, and colonists from Velitrae; and all were sent to Rome, and, as the foremost of the Fathers questioned them, they, not obscurely, indicated the same things as to the Dictator: the defection of each one’s own people.

[14] Dictator exercitum in stativis tenebat, minime dubius bellum cum iis populis patres iussuros, cum maior domi exorta moles coegit acciri Romam eum gliscente in dies seditione, quam solito magis metuendam auctor faciebat. Non enim iam orationes modo M. Manli sed facta, popularia in speciem, tumultuosa eadem, qua mente fierent intuenda erant. Centurionem, nobilem militaribus factis, iudicatum pecuniae cum duci vidisset, medio foro cum caterva sua accurrit et manum iniecit; vociferatusque de superbia patrum ac crudelitate feneratorum et miseriis plebis, virtutibus eius viri fortunaque, "tum vero ego" inquit "nequiquam hac dextra Capitolium arcemque servaverim, si civem commilitonemque meum tamquam Gallis victoribus captum in servitutem ac vincula duci videam." Inde rem creditori palam populo solvit libraque et aere liberatum emittit, deos atque homines obtestantem ut M. Manlio, liberatori suo, parenti plebis Romanae, gratiam referant.

[14] The dictator kept the army in fixed quarters, by no means in doubt that the fathers would order war with those peoples, when a greater mass arising at home forced him to be summoned to Rome, as the sedition swelled day by day, which its instigator made more to be feared than usual. For now not only the speeches of M. Manlius but deeds—popular in appearance, yet tumultuous—had to be looked at with the intention with which they were done. Seeing a centurion, noble for his military deeds, being led off adjudged for money, he ran up in the middle of the forum with his band and laid hands on him; and, shouting about the arrogance of the fathers and the cruelty of the moneylenders and the miseries of the plebs, and the virtues and fortune of that man, he said, “then indeed I shall have preserved in vain with this right hand the Capitol and citadel, if I see my fellow citizen and fellow soldier being led into slavery and chains as though captured by victorious Gauls.” Then he openly paid the debt to the creditor before the people and, with scale and bronze, released him as freed, calling gods and men to witness that they should repay gratitude to M. Manlius, his liberator, the parent of the Roman plebs.

Acceptus extemplo in tumultuosam turbam et ipse tumultum augebat, cicatrices acceptas Veienti Gallico aliisque deinceps bellis ostentans: se militantem, se restituentem eversos penates, multiplici iam sorte exsoluta, mergentibus semper sortem usuris, obrutum fenore esse; videre lucem, forum, civium ora M. Manli opera; omnia parentum beneficia ab illo se habere; illi devovere corporis vitaeque ac sanguinis quod supersit; quodcumque sibi cum patria penatibus publicis ac privatis iuris fuerit, id cum uno homine esse. His vocibus instincta plebes cum iam unius hominis esset, addita alia commodioris ad omnia turbanda consilii res. Fundum in Veienti, caput patrimonii, subiecit praeconi, "ne quem vestrum" inquit, "Quirites, donec quicquam in re mea supererit, iudicatum addictumve duci patiar." Id vero ita accendit animos, ut per omne fas ac nefas secuturi vindicem libertatis viderentur.

Received straightway into the tumultuous crowd, he himself too augmented the tumult, displaying the cicatrices received in the Veientine, the Gallic, and other wars in succession: that he, as a soldier, that he, restoring his overthrown household gods, with the principal already paid many times over, while the usuries ever submerged the principal, had been overwhelmed by usury; that he saw the light, the forum, the faces of his fellow citizens by the agency of M. Manlius; that he held all a parent’s benefactions from that man; that to him he devoted whatever remained of his body, life, and blood; that whatever right he had with his fatherland, with the public and private hearths, that was with one man. The plebs, instigated by these words, since it was now a creature of one man, had another measure added of a plan more convenient for throwing all things into disorder. He put up to the crier a farm at Veii, the head of his patrimony: “that I may not suffer,” he says, “any one of you, Quirites, to be led away as adjudged or as an addictus, so long as anything shall remain in my estate.” This indeed so inflamed their spirits that they seemed ready, through every lawful and unlawful means, to follow the avenger of liberty.

Ad hoc domi contionantis in modum sermones pleni criminum in patres; inter quos [cum] omisso discrimine vera an vana iaceret, thesauros Gallici auri occultari a patribus iecit nec iam possidendis publicis agris contentos esse nisi pecuniam quoque publicam avertant; ea res si palam fiat, exsolvi plebem aere alieno posse. Quae ubi obiecta spes est, enimvero indignum facinus videri, cum conferendum ad redimendam civitatem a Gallis aurum fuerit, tributo conlationem factam, idem aurum ex hostibus captum in paucorum praedam cessisse. Itaque exsequebantur quaerendo ubi tantae rei furtum occultaretur; differentique et tempore suo se indicaturum dicenti ceteris omissis eo versae erant omnium curae apparebatque nec veri indicii gratiam mediam nec falsi offensionem fore.

Besides this, at home he would deliver speeches, in the manner of a public harangue, full of accusations against the Fathers; among which, with the distinction omitted whether he was hurling truths or vanities, he threw out that treasures of Gallic gold were being concealed by the Fathers, and that they were now not content with possessing public lands unless they also diverted public money; if this matter were made public, the plebs could be released from debt. When this hope was once set before them, then indeed it seemed an outrageous deed that, when gold had to be contributed by a tax to ransom the commonwealth from the Gauls, the levy had been collected, yet that same gold, captured from the enemies, had fallen as plunder to a few. Therefore they pursued the matter, by searching where the theft of so great a thing was being hidden; and as he kept deferring it and saying that he would disclose it in due time, with everything else set aside, everyone’s concerns were turned to him, and it was apparent that there would be neither a moderate thanks for a true disclosure nor offense if it were false.

[15] Ita suspensis rebus dictator accitus ab exercitu in urbem venit. Postero die senatu habito, cum satis periclitatus voluntates hominum discedere senatum ab se vetuisset, stipatus ea multitudine sella in comitio posita viatorem ad M. Manlium misit; qui dictatoris iussu vocatus, cum signum suis dedisset adesse certamen, agmine ingenti ad tribunal venit. Hinc senatus, hinc plebs, suum quisque intuentes ducem, velut in acie constiterant.

[15] Thus, with matters suspended, the dictator, summoned by the army, came into the city. On the next day, after a senate had been held, when, having sufficiently tested the dispositions of men, he had forbidden the senate to depart from him, surrounded by that multitude, with his chair set in the Comitium, he sent a viator to M. Manlius; who, called by the dictator’s order, when he had given the signal to his own that the contest was at hand, came to the tribunal with a vast column. On this side the senate, on that the plebs, each looking upon his own leader, had taken their stand as if on the battle line.

Tum dictator silentio facto, "utinam" inquit, "mihi patribusque Romanis ita de ceteris rebus cum plebe conveniat, quemadmodum, quod ad te attinet eamque rem quam de te sum quaesiturus conventurum satis confido. Spem factam a te civitati video fide incolumi ex thesauris Gallicis, quos primores patrum occultent, creditum solvi posse. Cui ego rei tantum abest ut impedimento sim ut contra te, M. Manli, adhorter, liberes fenore plebem Romanam et istos incubantes publicis thesauris ex praeda clandestina evolvas.

Then the dictator, silence having been made, said: “Would that it may so come to an agreement for me and the Roman Fathers with the plebs about the other matters, as—so far as concerns you and the affair about which I am going to inquire of you—I am quite confident it will come to agreement. I see that a hope has been set before the commonwealth by you, with your good faith unimpaired, that from the Gallic treasuries, which the foremost of the Fathers are concealing, the loan can be discharged. From being an impediment to this matter I am so far removed that, on the contrary, I exhort you, M. Manlius, to free the Roman plebs from usury, and to roll off those men lying upon the public treasuries from their clandestine plunder.”

Quod nisi facis, sive ut et ipse in parte praedae sis sive quia vanum indicium est, in vincla te duci iubebo nec diutius patiar a te multitudinem fallaci spe concitari."

"Unless you do this, whether so that you yourself may be in a share of the booty or because the allegation is vain, I will order you to be led in chains, nor will I any longer suffer the multitude to be incited by you with fallacious hope."

Ad ea Manlius nec se fefellisse ait non adversus Volscos, totiens hostes quotiens patribus expediat, nec adversus Latinos Hernicosque, quos falsis criminibus in arma agant, sed adversus se ac plebem Romanam dictatorem creatum esse; iam omisso bello quod simulatum sit, in se impetum fieri; iam dictatorem profiteri patrocinium feneratorum adversus plebem; iam sibi ex favore multitudinis crimen et perniciem quaeri. "Offendit" inquit, "te, A. Corneli, vosque, patres conscripti, circumfusa turba lateri meo? Quin eam diducitis a me singuli vestris beneficiis, intercedendo, eximendo de nervo cives vestros, prohibendo iudicatos addictosque duci, ex eo quod afluit opibus vestris sustinendo necessitates aliorum?

To this Manlius says that he has not been deceived—that the dictator was created not against the Volsci, enemies as many times as it is expedient to the patres, nor against the Latins and the Hernici, whom they drive to arms by false charges, but against himself and the Roman plebs; that now, the war having been laid aside because it was feigned, an attack is being made upon him; that now the dictator openly professes the patronage of the usurers against the plebs; that now, from the favor of the multitude toward him, a charge and destruction are being sought. "Does it offend you," he says, "A. Cornelius, and you, conscript fathers, that a crowd is poured around at my side? Why do you not draw it away from me, each of you, by your benefactions—by interceding, by taking your fellow citizens out of the stocks, by preventing those adjudged and ‘addicted’ (assigned) to creditors from being led away, by sustaining the necessities of others out of that which overflows from your resources?"

Sed quid ego vos de vestro impendatis hortor? Sortem reliquam ferte: de capite deducite quod usuris pernumeratum est; iam nihilo mea turba quam ullius conspectior erit. At enim quid ita solus ego civium curam ago?

But why am I urging you to expend from your own? Take on the remaining principal; from the capital deduct what has been paid over in usury; then my crowd will be no more conspicuous than anyone else’s. But, indeed, why is it that I alone am taking care for the citizens?

Nihilo magis quod respondeam habeo quam si quaeras quid ita solus Capitolium arcemque servaverim. Et tum universis quam potui opem tuli et nunc singulis feram. Nam quod ad thesauros Gallicos attinet, rem suapte natura facilem difficilem interrogatio facit.

I have nothing more to answer than if you were to ask why I alone preserved the Capitol and the citadel. Both then I brought aid to all as I could, and now I will bring it to individuals. For as it pertains to the Gallic treasures, a matter easy by its very nature, interrogation makes difficult.

Cur enim quaeritis quod scitis? Cur quod in sinu vestro est excuti iubetis potius quam ponatis, nisi aliqua fraus subest? Quo magis argui praestigias iubetis vestras, eo plus vereor ne abstuleritis observantibus etiam oculos.

Why, indeed, do you seek what you know? Why do you order that what is in your bosom be shaken out rather than set down, unless some fraud underlies it? The more you bid that your prestidigitations be exposed, the more I fear lest you have taken away even the eyes of the observers.

Itaque non ego vobis ut indicem praedas vestras, sed vos id cogendi estis ut in medium proferatis."

Therefore it is not for me to indicate your plunder to you, but you must be compelled to bring it forth into the open."

[16] Cum mittere ambages dictator iuberet et aut peragere verum indicium cogeret aut fateri facinus insimulati falso crimine senatus oblataeque vani furti invidiae, negantem arbitrio inimicorum se locuturum in vincla duci iussit. Arreptus a viatore "Iuppiter" inquit, "optime maxime Iunoque regina ac Minerva ceterique di deaeque, qui Capitolium arcemque incolitis, sicine vestrum militem ac praesidem sinitis vexari ab inimicis? Haec dextra, qua Gallos fudi a delubris vestris, iam in vinclis et catenis erit?" Nullius nec oculi nec aures indignitatem ferebant; sed invicta sibi quaedam patientissima iusti imperii civitas fecerat, nec adversus dictatoriam vim aut tribuni plebis aut ipsa plebs attollere oculos aut hiscere audebant.

[16] When the dictator ordered the ambiguities to be dismissed and compelled either to carry through true evidence or to confess the crime—though he had been accused by the senate on a false charge and with the odium of a vain theft thrust upon him—he, saying that he would not speak at the judgment of his enemies, was ordered to be led into bonds. Seized by the attendant, he said: "Jupiter Best and Greatest, and Queen Juno, and Minerva, and the other gods and goddesses who dwell on the Capitol and the citadel, is it thus that you allow your soldier and guardian to be harassed by enemies? Will this right hand, with which I routed the Gauls from your shrines, now be in bonds and chains?" No one’s eyes or ears could endure the outrage; but the state had fashioned for itself a certain unconquerable, most patient endurance of just command, and neither the tribunes of the plebs nor the plebs themselves dared, against dictatorial force, to lift their eyes or to open their mouths.

Coniecto in carcerem Manlio satis constat magnam partem plebis vestem mutasse, multos mortales capillum ac barbam promisisse, obversatamque vestibulo carceris maestam turbam.

With Manlius cast into prison, it is well agreed that a great part of the plebs changed their garb, many mortals let their hair and beard grow long, and a mournful crowd was present before the vestibule of the prison.

Dictator de Volscis triumphavit, invidiaeque magis triumphus quam gloriae fuit; quippe domi non militiae partum eum actumque de cive non de hoste fremebant: unum defuisse tantum superbiae, quod non M. Manlius ante currum sit ductus. Iamque haud procul seditione res erat; cuius leniendae causa postulante nullo largitor voluntarius repente senatus factus Satricum coloniam duo milia civium Romanorum deduci iussit. Bina iugera et semisses agri adsignati; quod cum et parvum et paucis datum et mercedem esse prodendi M. Manli interpretarentur, remedio inritatur seditio.

The dictator triumphed over the Volsci, and the triumph was more one of envy than of glory; for they murmured that it had been begotten at home, not in military service, and carried out against a citizen, not against an enemy: that only one thing had been lacking to so much arrogance, namely that Marcus Manlius had not been led before the chariot. And now the situation was not far from sedition; and for the sake of softening this, with no one requesting it, the senate suddenly, becoming a voluntary largess‑giver, ordered a colony to Satricum to be led out of 2,000 Roman citizens. Two and a half iugera of land apiece were assigned; but since they interpreted this as both small and given to a few and as the price for betraying Marcus Manlius, the sedition is provoked by the remedy.

Et iam magis insignis et sordibus et facie reorum turba Manliana erat, amotusque post triumphum abdicatione dictaturae terror et linguam et animos liberaverat hominum.

And already the Manlian crowd was more conspicuous both for the filth and the appearance of the accused, and the terror, removed after the triumph by the abdication of the dictatorship, had freed the tongues and spirits of men.

[17] Audiebantur itaque propalam voces exprobrantium multitudini, quod defensores suos semper in praecipitem locum favore tollat, deinde in ipso discrimine periculi destituat: sic Sp. Cassium in agros plebem vocantem, sic Sp. Maelium ab ore civium famem suis impensis propulsantem oppressos, sic M. Manlium mersam et obrutam fenore partem civitatis in libertatem ac lucem extrahentem proditum inimicis; saginare plebem populares suos ut iugulentur. Hocine patiendum fuisse, si ad nutum dictatoris non responderit vir consularis? Fingerent mentitum ante atque ideo non habuisse quod tum responderet; cui servo unquam mendacii poenam vincula fuisse?

[17] Therefore there were heard openly the voices of those reproaching the multitude, that it always by its favor lifts its defenders into a precipice, and then, at the very crisis of danger, deserts them: thus Sp. Cassius, calling the plebs into the fields, thus Sp. Maelius, driving famine away from the very mouths of the citizens at his own expense, were crushed; thus M. Manlius, drawing into liberty and light that part of the state sunk and overwhelmed by usury, was betrayed to enemies; to fatten the plebs, their popular partisans, so that they may be throttled. Was this to have been endured, if a man of consular rank did not respond to the nod of the dictator? Let them fabricate that he had lied before and therefore did not have what to answer then; to what slave has chains ever been the penalty for a lie?

Non obversatam esse memoriam noctis illius quae paene ultima atque aeterna nomini Romano fuerit? Non speciem agminis Gallorum per Tarpeiam rupem scandentis? Non ipsius M. Manli, qualem eum armatum, plenum sudoris ac sanguinis ipso paene Iove erepto ex hostium manibus vidissent?

Has not the memory of that night, which was almost the last and eternal for the Roman name, presented itself? Has not the sight of the column of Gauls climbing up the Tarpeian cliff? Has not that of M. Manlius himself—how they had seen him, armed, full of sweat and blood, with Jupiter himself almost snatched from the enemies’ hands?

Selibrisne farris gratiam servatori patriae relatam? Et quem prope caelestem, cognomine certe Capitolino Iovi parem fecerint eum pati vinctum in carcere, in tenebris obnoxiam carnificis arbitrio ducere animam? Adeo in uno omnibus satis auxilii fuisse, nullam opem in tam multis uni esse?

Was the gratitude to the savior of the fatherland paid back with a half‑pound of spelt? And him whom they made almost celestial, at least equal by surname to Capitoline Jove—do they permit him, bound in prison, in darkness to draw his breath, subject to the executioner’s discretion? So much so that in one there was aid enough for all, yet among so many there is no help for one?

Iam ne nocte quidem turba ex eo loco dilabebatur refracturosque carcerem minabantur, cum remisso quod erepturi erant ex senatus consulto Manlius vinculis liberatur; quo facto non seditio finita sed dux seditioni datus est.

By now not even at night did the crowd slip away from that place, and they were threatening to break open the prison, when, with a remission granted, by decree of the Senate, of that which they were about to snatch away, Manlius is freed from chains; when this was done, the sedition was not ended but a leader was given to the sedition.

Per eosdem dies Latinis et Hernicis, simul colonis Circeiensibus et a Velitris, purgantibus se Volsci crimine belli captivosque repetentibus ut suis legibus in eos animadverterent, tristia responsa reddita, tristiora colonis quod cives Romani patriae oppugnandae nefanda consilia inissent. Non negatum itaque tantum de captivis sed, in quo ab sociis tamen temperaverant, denuntiatum senatus verbis facesserent propere ex urbe ab ore atque oculis populi Romani, ne nihil eos legationis ius externo, non civi comparatum tegeret.

During those same days, to the Latins and Hernicans—together with the colonists of Circeii and from Velitrae—who were purging the Volsci of the charge of war and demanding back the captives, that they might proceed against them under their own laws, grim answers were given, grimmer to the colonists because Roman citizens had entered nefarious counsels for assaulting the fatherland. Therefore not only was there a refusal concerning the captives, but—wherein they had nevertheless exercised restraint toward allies—it was declared in the Senate’s words that they should be gone quickly from the city, from the face and eyes of the Roman people, lest the right of legation, contrived for a foreigner, not a citizen, afford them any cover.

[18] Recrudescente Manliana seditione sub exitum anni comitia habita creatique tribuni militum consulari potestate Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis iterum P. Valerius Potitus iterum M. Furius Camillus quintum Ser. Sulpicius Rufus iterum C. Papirius Crassus T. Quinctius Cincinnatus iterum.

[18] With the Manlian sedition recrudescing toward the close of the year, the comitia were held, and there were created military tribunes with consular power: Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis, a second time; P. Valerius Potitus, a second time; M. Furius Camillus, a fifth time; Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, a second time; C. Papirius Crassus; T. Quinctius Cincinnatus, a second time.

Cuius principio anni et patribus et plebi peropportune externa pax data: plebi, quod non avocata dilectu spem cepit, dum tam potentem haberet ducem, fenoris expugnandi: patribus, ne quo externo terrore avocarentur animi ab sanandis domesticis malis. Igitur cum pars utraque acrior aliquanto coorta esset, iam propinquum certamen aderat. Et Manlius advocata domum plebe cum principibus novandarum rerum interdiu noctuque consilia agitat, plenior aliquanto animorum irarumque quam antea fuerat.

At the beginning of that year, most opportunely an external peace was granted both to the fathers and to the plebs: to the plebs, because, not being diverted by a levy, it conceived a hope—since it had so powerful a leader—of expugning usury; to the fathers, lest by any external terror their minds be drawn away from healing domestic evils. Therefore, since both sides had arisen rather more keenly, the contest was already near. And Manlius, having summoned the plebs to his house, with the chiefs of revolutionary change, agitates counsels by day and by night, somewhat fuller of spirit and wrath than he had been before.

Iram accenderat ignominia recens in animo ad contumeliam inexperto: spiritus dabat, quod nec ausus esset idem in se dictator quod in Sp. Maelio Cincinnatus Quinctius fecisset, et vinculorum suorum invidiam non dictator modo abdicando dictaturam fugisset sed ne senatus quidem sustinere potuisset. His simul inflatus exacerbatusque iam per se accensos incitabat plebis animos.

The recent ignominy had kindled wrath in a mind unpracticed at contumely; it gave him spirit that the dictator had not dared the same against himself as Cincinnatus Quinctius had done in the case of Sp. Maelius, and that the odium of his chains not the dictator only had evaded by abdicating the dictatorship, but not even the senate had been able to sustain. By these things at once puffed up and exacerbated, he was inciting the minds of the plebs, already of themselves inflamed.

"Quousque tandem ignorabitis vires vestras, quas natura ne beluas quidem ignorare voluit? Numerate saltem quot ipsi sitis, quot adversarios habeatis. Quot enim clientes circa singulos fuistis patronos, tot nunc adversus unum hostem eritis.

"How long, at last, will you remain ignorant of your forces, which Nature did not wish even beasts to be ignorant of? Count at least how many you yourselves are, how many adversaries you have. For as many clients as you were around each patron, so many you will now be against a single enemy.

Si singuli singulos adgressuri essetis, tamen acrius crederem vos pro libertate quam illos pro dominatione certaturos. Ostendite modo bellum; pacem habebitis. Videant vos paratos ad vim; ius ipsi remittent.

If you were to assail, each man against each man, still I would believe you would contend more keenly for liberty than they for domination. Only display war; you will have peace. Let them see you ready for force; they themselves will yield the right.

Audendum est aliquid universis aut omnia singulis patienda. Quousque me circumspectabitis? Ego quidem nulli vestrum deero; ne fortuna mea desit videte.

Something must be dared by all, or everything must be suffered by individuals. How long will you keep looking around at me? I, for my part, will fail none of you; see that my fortune does not fail.

Ipse vindex vester, ubi visum inimicis est, nullus repente fui, et vidistis in vincula duci universi eum qui a singulis vobis vincula depuleram. Quid sperem, si plus in me audeant inimici? An exitum Cassi Maelique exspectem?

I myself, your vindicator, when it seemed good to the enemies, suddenly was nobody; and you all saw led into chains the very man who had driven chains away from each one of you individually. What am I to hope, if the enemies dare more against me? Or am I to await the end of Cassius and Maelius?

Bene facitis quod abominamini. Di prohibebunt haec; sed nunquam propter me de caelo descendent; vobis dent mentem oportet ut prohibeatis, sicut mihi dederunt armato togatoque ut vos a barbaris hostibus, a superbis defenderem civibus. Tam parvus animus tanti populi est ut semper vobis auxilium adversus inimicos satis sit nec ullum, nisi quatenus imperari vobis sinatis, certamen adversus patres noritis?

You do well to abominate this. The gods will forbid these things; but never on my account will they descend from heaven; they must give you mind so that you may prevent them, as they gave to me, armed and togate, that I might defend you from barbarian enemies and from proud citizens. Is the spirit of so great a people so small that help against enemies is always enough for you, and that you know no contest against the Fathers, except in so far as you allow commands to be laid upon you?

Nec hoc natura insitum vobis est, sed usu possidemini. Cur enim adversus externos tantum animorum geritis ut imperare illis aequum censeatis? Quia consuestis cum eis pro imperio certare, adversus hos temptare magis quam tueri libertatem.

Nor is this implanted in you by nature, but you are possessed by habit. For why do you bear such spirit against foreigners that you deem it equitable to rule them? Because you have grown accustomed to contend with them for imperium, to make attempts against these rather than to guard liberty.

Tamen, qualescumque duces habuistis, qualescumque ipsi fuistis, omnia adhuc quantacumque petistis obtinuistis, seu vi seu fortuna vestra. Tempus est etiam maiora conari. Experimini modo et vestram felicitatem et me, ut spero, feliciter expertum; minore negotio qui imperet patribus imponetis quam qui resisterent imperantibus imposuistis.

Nevertheless, whatever sort of leaders you have had, whatever sort you yourselves have been, all things thus far, however great, that you have sought you have obtained, whether by your force or by your fortune. It is time to attempt even greater things. Make trial now both of your felicity and of me—proved, as I hope, felicitously; with less trouble you will impose upon the patricians someone to command than you imposed men to resist those in command.

Solo aequandae sunt dictaturae consulatusque, ut caput attollere Romana plebes possit. Proinde adeste; prohibete ius de pecuniis dici. Ego me patronum profiteor plebis, quod mihi cura mea et fides nomen induit: vos si quo insigni magis imperii honorisve nomine vestrum appellabitis ducem, eo utemini potentiore ad obtinenda ea quae voltis." Inde de regno agendi ortum initium dicitur; sed nec cum quibus nec quem ad finem consilia pervenerint, satis planum traditur.

Dictatorships and consulships must be leveled to the ground, so that the Roman plebs may be able to lift its head. Therefore, be present; forbid that legal proceedings about monies (debts) be pronounced. I profess myself the patron of the plebs, a name which my care and my fidelity have put upon me: if you shall call your leader by any more distinguished name of command or of honor, you will use him as more powerful for obtaining the things you want." From that point, it is said that the beginning arose of negotiating about kingship; but neither with whom, nor to what end the counsels came, is transmitted with sufficient clarity.

[19] At in parte altera senatus de secessione in domum privatam plebis, forte etiam in arce positam, et imminenti mole libertate agitat. Magna pars vociferantur Servilio Ahala opus esse, qui non in vincla duci iubendo inritet publicum hostem sed unius iactura civis finiat intestinum bellum. Decurritur ad leniorem verbis sententiam, vim tamen eandem habentem, ut videant magistratus ne quid ex perniciosis consiliis M. Manli res publica detrimenti capiat.

[19] But on the other side the senate agitates about the secession of the plebs into a private house, perchance even situated on the Citadel, and about liberty being menaced by an overhanging mass. A great part vociferate that there is need of a Servilius Ahala, who would not, by ordering him to be led into chains, provoke the public enemy, but by the sacrifice of a single citizen would end the intestine war. They resort to an opinion milder in words, yet having the same force, that the magistrates should see to it that, from the pernicious counsels of M. Manlius, the commonwealth take no detriment.

Tum tribuni consulari potestate tribunique plebi—nam et [ei], quia eundem [et] suae potestatis, quem libertatis omnium, finem cernebant, patrum auctoritati se dediderant—hi tum omnes quid opus facto sit consultant. Cum praeter vim et caedem nihil cuiquam occurreret, eam autem ingentis dimicationis fore appareret, tum M. Menenius et Q. Publilius tribuni plebis: "Quid patrum et plebis certamen facimus, quod civitatis esse adversus unum pestiferum civem debet? Quid cum plebe adgredimur eum quem per ipsam plebem tutius adgredi est ut suis ipse oneratus viribus ruat?

Then the tribunes with consular power and the tribunes of the plebs—for even [they], because they perceived the same end [both] of their own power as of the liberty of all, had surrendered themselves to the authority of the Fathers—these then all deliberate what needs to be done. Since, besides force and slaughter, nothing occurred to anyone, and it was apparent that that would be a matter of immense struggle, then M. Menenius and Q. Publilius, tribunes of the plebs: "Why are we making a contest of Fathers and plebs, which ought to be of the commonwealth against one pestiferous citizen? Why do we attack him with the plebs, whom it is safer to attack through the plebs themselves, so that, weighed down by his own forces, he himself may collapse?"

Diem dicere ei nobis in animo est. Nihil minus populare quam regnum est. Simul multitudo illa non secum certari viderint et ex advocatis iudices facti erunt et accusatores de plebe patricium reum intuebuntur et regni crimen in medio, nulli magis quam libertati fauebunt suae."

It is our intention to name a day for him. Nothing is less popular than kingship. As soon as that multitude shall have seen that the contest is not with themselves, and from advocates they will have become judges, and accusers from the plebs will look upon a patrician defendant and the charge of kingship set in the midst, they will favor nothing more than their own liberty."

[20] Adprobantibus cunctis diem Manlio dicunt. Quod ubi est factum, primo commota plebs est, utique postquam sordidatum reum viderunt nec cum eo non modo patrum quemquam sed ne cognatos quidem aut adfines, postremo ne fratres quidem A. et T. Manlios, quod ad eum diem nunquam usu venisset, ut in tanto discrimine non et proximi vestem mutarent: Ap. Claudio in vincula ducto C. Claudium inimicum Claudiamque omnem gentem sordidatam fuisse; consensu opprimi popularem virum, quod primus a patribus ad plebem defecisset.

[20] With all approving, they appoint a day for Manlius. When this was done, at first the plebs was stirred, especially after they saw the defendant in sordid garb, and that with him there was not only no one of the patres, but not even kinsmen or affines, finally not even his brothers A. and T. Manlius—a thing which up to that day had never come to pass, that in so great a crisis not even the nearest should change their clothing (into mourning): when Ap. Claudius was led in chains, C. Claudius his enemy and the whole Claudian gens had been in mourning; by consensus a man of the people was being crushed, because he had been the first to defect from the patres to the plebs.

Cum dies venit, quae praeter coetus multitudinis seditiosasque voces et largitionem et fallax indicium pertinentia proprie ad regni crimen ab accusatoribus obiecta sint reo, apud neminem auctorem invenio; nec dubito haud parva fuisse, cum damnandi mora plebi non in causa sed in loco fuerit. Illud notandum videtur, ut sciant homines quae et quanta decora foeda cupiditas regni non ingrata solum sed invisa etiam reddiderit: homines prope quadringentos produxisse dicitur, quibus sine fenore expensas pecunias tulisset, quorum bona venire, quos duci addictos prohibuisset; ad haec decora quoque belli non commemorasse tantum sed protulisse etiam conspicienda, spolia hostium caesorum ad triginta, dona imperatorum ad quadraginta, in quibus insignes duas murales coronas, civicas octo; ad hoc servatos ex hostibus cives [produxit], inter quos C. Servilium magistrum equitum absentem nominatum; et cum ea quoque quae bello gesta essent pro fastigio rerum oratione etiam magnifica, facta dictis aequando, memorasset, nudasse pectus insigne cicatricibus bello acceptis et identidem Capitolium spectans Iovem deosque alios devocasse ad auxilium fortunarum suarum precatusque esse ut, quam mentem sibi Capitolinam arcem protegenti ad salutem populi Romani dedissent, eam populo Romano in suo discrimine darent, et orasse singulos universosque ut Capitolium atque arcem intuentes, ut ad deos immortales versi de se iudicarent.

When the day came, what things, besides the gatherings of the multitude and seditious voices and largess and a fallacious testimony, were thrown at the defendant by the accusers as specifically pertaining to the charge of kingship, I find in no author; nor do I doubt that they were not small, since for the plebs the delay of condemning lay not in the case but in the place. This seems worth noting, that men may know what and how great honors a foul cupidity for kingship rendered not only ungrateful but even odious: he is said to have produced nearly four hundred men, to whom he had advanced monies without usury, whose goods he had prevented from being sold, whom he had prevented from being led off as adjudged debtors; in addition to these, he had not only recalled the honors of war but also brought them forth to be seen, the spoils of enemies slain to the number of thirty, the gifts of commanders up to forty, among which two notable mural crowns, eight civic; in addition he [produced] citizens saved from enemies, among whom Gaius Servilius, the master of horse, named though absent; and when he had also recounted those things which had been done in war with a speech magnificent in proportion to the eminence of the deeds, matching deeds with words, he bared his chest, marked with scars received in war, and repeatedly, looking toward the Capitol, he called Jupiter and the other gods down to the aid of his fortunes and prayed that the spirit which they had given to him as he protected the Capitoline citadel for the safety of the Roman people, that same they would grant to the Roman people in his crisis, and that he had begged individuals and all together that, as they looked upon the Capitol and citadel, as they turned toward the immortal gods, they would judge concerning him.

In campo Martio cum centuriatim populus citaretur et reus ad Capitolium manus tendens ab hominibus ad deos preces avertisset, apparuit tribunis, nisi oculos quoque hominum liberassent tanti memoria decoris, nunquam fore in praeoccupatis beneficio animis vero crimini locum. Ita prodicta die in Petelinum lucum extra portam Flumentanam, unde conspectus in Capitolium non esset, concilium populi indictum est. Ibi crimen valuit et obstinatis animis triste iudicium invisumque etiam iudicibus factum.

In the Campus Martius, when the people were being summoned by centuries, and the defendant, stretching his hands toward the Capitol, had turned the prayers from men to the gods, it appeared to the tribunes that, unless they also freed the eyes of men from the memory of so great an honor, there would never be a place for the true charge in minds preoccupied by the beneficium. So, a day having been proclaimed, in the Peteline Grove outside the Flumentan Gate, where there was no view toward the Capitol, an assembly of the people was convened. There the charge prevailed, and, with minds obstinate, a grim judgment was rendered, hateful even to the judges.

Sunt qui per duumviros, qui de perduellione anquirerent creatos, auctores sint damnatum. Tribuni de saxo Tarpeio deiecerunt locusque idem in uno nomine et eximiae gloriae monumentum et poenae ultimae fuit.

There are those who are authorities that he was condemned by duumvirs who had been created to inquire into perduellio; the tribunes hurled him from the Tarpeian Rock, and the same place, under one name, was both a monument of exceptional glory and of the ultimate punishment.

Adiectae mortuo notae sunt: publica una, quod, cum domus eius fuisset ubi nunc aedes atque officina Monetae est, latum ad populum est ne quis patricius in arce aut Capitolio habitaret; gentilicia altera, quod gentis Manliae decreto cautum est ne quis deinde M. Manlius vocaretur. Hunc exitum habuit vir, nisi in libera civitate natus esset, memorabilis. Populum brevi, postquam periculum ab eo nullum erat, per se ipsas recordantem virtutes desiderium eius tenuit.

Posthumous stigmas were added to the dead man: one public, that, since his house had been where now the temple and the mint of Moneta are, it was brought before the people that no patrician should dwell in the citadel or on the Capitol; another gentilician, that by decree of the Manlian gens it was provided that thereafter no one should be called Marcus Manlius. Such an end the man had—one that would have been memorable, had he not been born in a free commonwealth. The people shortly thereafter, once there was no danger from him, as they of their own accord recalled his virtues in themselves, were held by a longing for him.

Pestilentia etiam brevi consecuta nullis occurrentibus tantae cladis causis ex Manliano supplicio magnae parti videri orta: violatum Capitolium esse sanguine servatoris nec dis cordi fuisse poenam eius oblatam prope oculis suis, a quo sua templa erepta e manibus hostium essent.

A pestilence too shortly followed, with no causes of so great a calamity occurring, and to a great part it seemed to have arisen from the Manlian punishment: that the Capitol had been violated by the blood of its savior, and that the penalty offered on him, almost before their own eyes, had not been to the gods’ liking, by the very man by whom their temples had been snatched from the hands of enemies.

[21] Pestilentiam inopia frugum et volgatam utriusque mali famam anno insequente multiplex bellum excepit, L. Valerio quartum A. Manlio tertium Ser. Sulpicio tertium L. Lucretio L. Aemilio tertium M. Trebonio tribunis militum consulari potestate. Hostes novi praeter Volscos, velut sorte quadam prope in aeternum exercendo Romano militi datos, Circeiosque et Velitras colonias, iam diu molientes defectionem, et suspectum Latium Lanuvini etiam, quae fidelissima urbs fuerat, subito exorti.

[21] The pestilence, the want of grain, and the widespread report of both evils were followed in the ensuing year by a manifold war, with Lucius Valerius for the 4th time, Aulus Manlius for the 3rd, Servius Sulpicius for the 3rd, Lucius Lucretius, Lucius Aemilius for the 3rd, and Marcus Trebonius as military tribunes with consular power. New enemies, besides the Volsci—who seemed, as if by a certain lot, to have been assigned almost in perpetuity for exercising the Roman soldiery—and the colonies of Circeii and Velitrae, long contriving defection, and Latium being suspect, the Lanuvini too, which had been a most faithful city, suddenly arose.

Id patres rati contemptu accidere, quod Veliternis civibus suis tam diu impunita defectio esset, decreverunt ut primo quoque tempore ad populum ferretur de bello eis indicendo. Ad quam militiam quo paratior plebes esset, quinqueviros Pomptino agro dividendo et triumviros Nepete coloniae deducendae creaverunt. Tum, ut bellum iuberent, latum ad populum est et nequiquam dissuadentibus tribunis plebis omnes tribus bellum iusserunt.

The senators, thinking that this happened through contempt, because the defection of their fellow-citizens at Velitrae had for so long been unpunished, decreed that at the earliest opportunity it should be brought before the people about declaring war upon them. In order that the plebs might be the more prepared for that campaign, they created a board of five (quinqueviri) for dividing the Pontine land and a board of three (triumviri) for leading out a colony to Nepete. Then, that they might order war, the matter was brought to the people, and, the tribunes of the plebs dissuading in vain, all the tribes ordered war.

Apparatum eo anno bellum est, exercitus propter pestilentiam non eductus, eaque cunctatio colonis spatium dederat deprecandi senatum; et magna hominum pars eo ut legatio supplex Romam mitteretur inclinabat, ni privato, ut fit, periculo publicum implicitum esset auctoresque defectionis ab Romanis metu, ne soli crimini subiecti piacula irae Romanorum dederentur, avertissent colonias a consiliis pacis. Neque in senatu solum per eos legatio impedita est sed magna pars plebis incitata ut praedatum in agrum Romanum exirent. Haec nova iniuria exturbavit omnem spem pacis.

War was prepared that year, but the army, on account of the pestilence, was not led out; and this dilatory waiting had given the colonists space for deprecating the Senate; and a great part of the men inclined to this course, that a suppliant legation be sent to Rome, if the public had not, as happens, been entangled in a private peril, and the authors of the defection, from fear of the Romans—lest, being solely exposed to the charge, they be given as expiations to the wrath of the Romans—had turned the colonies away from counsels of peace. Not only in the Senate was the legation impeded by them, but a great part of the plebs was incited to go out to plunder in the Roman field. This new injury drove out all hope of peace.

De Praenestinorum quoque defectione eo anno primum fama exorta; arguentibusque eos Tusculanis et Gabinis et Labicanis, quorum in fines incursatum erat, ita placide ab senatu responsum est ut minus credi de criminibus, quia nollent ea vera esse, appareret.

Concerning the defection of the Praenestines as well, in that year for the first time a rumor arose; and with the Tusculans and the Gabinians and the Labicans—into whose borders there had been an incursion—bringing accusations against them, the reply was given by the senate so placidly that it appeared the charges were given less credence, because they did not wish them to be true.

[22] Insequenti anno Sp. et L. Papirii novi tribuni militum consulari potestate Velitras legiones duxere, quattuor collegis Ser. Cornelio Maluginensi tertium Q. Servilio C. Sulpicio L. Aemilio quartum tribunis ad praesidium urbis et si qui ex Etruria novi motus nuntiarentur—omnia enim inde suspecta erant—relictis. Ad Velitras adversus maiora paene auxilia Praenestinorum quam ipsam colonorum multitudinem secundo proelio pugnatum est ita ut propinquitas urbis hosti et causa maturioris fugae et unum ex fuga receptaculum esset.

[22] In the following year Sp. and L. Papirii, new military tribunes with consular power, led the legions to Velitrae, their four colleagues—Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis for the third time, Q. Servilius, C. Sulpicius, L. Aemilius for the fourth—being left as tribunes for the protection of the city and in case any new commotions from Etruria should be reported—for everything from there was suspected. At Velitrae a second battle was fought against reinforcements of the Praenestines almost greater than the very multitude of the colonists, with the result that the nearness of the city to the enemy was both a cause of speedier flight and their sole refuge in flight.

Oppidi oppugnatione tribuni abstinuere, quia et anceps erat nec in perniciem coloniae pugnandum censebant. Litterae Romam ad senatum cum victoriae nuntiis acriores in Praenestinum quam in Veliternum hostem missae. Itaque ex senatus consulto populique iussu bellum Praenestinis indictum; qui coniuncti Volscis anno insequente Satricum, coloniam populi Romani, pertinaciter a colonis defensam, vi expugnarunt foedeque in captis exercuere victoriam.

They refrained from the oppugnation of the town, because it was a two-sided (precarious) affair, nor did they judge that fighting ought to be done to the ruin of the colony. Letters were sent to Rome to the senate, with messages of victory, harsher against the Praenestine than the Veliternian enemy. Therefore, by decree of the senate and by order of the people, war was declared upon the Praenestines; who, conjoined with the Volsci, in the following year stormed Satricum by force—a colony of the Roman People—stubbornly defended by the colonists, and foully exercised their victory upon the captured.

Eam rem aegre passi Romani M. Furium Camillum sextum tribunum militum creavere. Additi collegae A. et L. Postumii Regillenses ac L. Furius cum L. Lucretio et M. Fabio Ambusto.

The Romans, having taken that matter hard, created M. Furius Camillus tribune of the soldiers for the sixth time. Added as colleagues were A. and L. Postumii of Regillum, and L. Furius together with L. Lucretius and M. Fabius Ambustus.

Volscum bellum M. Furio extra ordinem decretum; adiutor ex tribunis sorte L. Furius datur, non tam e re publica quam ut collegae materia ad omnem laudem esset et publice, quod rem temeritate eius prolapsam restituit et privatim, quod ex errore gratiam potius eius sibi quam suam gloriam petiit. Exactae iam aetatis Camillus erat, comitiisque iurare parato in verba excusandae valetudini solita consensus populi restiterat; sed vegetum ingenium in vivido pectore vigebat virebatque integris sensibus, et civiles iam res haud magnopere obeuntem bella excitabant. Quattuor legionibus quaternum milium scriptis, exercitu indicto ad portam Esquilinam in posteram diem ad Satricum profectus.

The Volscian war was, by special assignment, decreed to M. Furius; as assistant from the tribunes L. Furius was given by lot, not so much for the public interest as that there might be for his colleague material for every praise—both publicly, because he restored the matter that had slipped through by his own temerity, and privately, because from his error he sought his colleague’s favor for himself rather than his own glory. Camillus was now of advanced age, and when at the comitia he was prepared to swear the words customary for excusing his health, the consensus of the people stood in the way; but a vigorous intellect flourished in a lively breast, and he was in fresh vigor, his senses entire, and wars aroused one who now was not greatly attending to civil affairs. With four legions of four thousand men enrolled, a levy proclaimed to assemble at the Esquiline Gate for the next day, he set out for Satricum.

Ibi eum expugnatores coloniae haudquaquam perculsi, fidentes militum numero quo aliquantum praestabant, opperiebantur. Postquam appropinquare Romanos senserunt, extemplo in aciem procedunt nihil dilaturi quin periculum summae rerum facerent: ita paucitati hostium nihil artes imperatoris unici, quibus solis confiderent, profuturas esse.

There the stormers of the colony, by no means dismayed, confident in the number of their soldiers in which they somewhat excelled, were awaiting him. After they perceived that the Romans were approaching, at once they advance into battle line, delaying nothing from making a trial of the decision of the whole affair: thus they judged that, given the enemy’s fewness, the arts of a single general—on which alone they trusted—would be of no avail.

[23] Idem ardor et in Romano exercitu erat et in altero duce, nec praesentis dimicationis fortunam ulla res praeterquam unius viri consilium atque imperium morabatur, qui occasionem iuvandarum ratione virium trahendo bello quaerebat. Eo magis hostis instare nec iam pro castris tantum suis explicare aciem sed procedere in medium campi et vallo prope hostium signa inferendo superbam fiduciam virium ostentare. Id aegre patiebatur Romanus miles, multo aegrius alter ex tribunis militum, L. Furius, ferox cum aetate et ingenio, tum multitudinis ex incertissimo sumentis animos spe inflatus.

[23] The same ardor was both in the Roman army and in the other commander, and nothing was delaying the fortune of a present engagement except the counsel and command of one man, who was seeking, by protracting the war, an occasion to be helped by a rational calculation of forces. All the more did the enemy press, and now not only deploy their battle-line before their camp, but advance into the middle of the plain and, by bringing their standards up close to the enemy’s rampart, display a proud confidence in their strength. This the Roman soldier endured with difficulty; far less did one of the military tribunes, L. Furius, fierce both in age and in temperament, and inflated by the hope of the multitude, which was taking courage from the most uncertain grounds.

Hic per se iam milites incitatos insuper instigabat elevando, qua una poterat, aetate auctoritatem collegae, iuvenibus bella data dictitans et cum corporibus vigere et deflorescere animos; cunctatorem ex acerrimo bellatore factum et, qui adveniens castra urbesque primo impetu rapere sit solitus, eum residem intra vallum tempus terere, quid accessurum suis decessurumve hostium viribus sperantem? Quam occasionem, quod tempus, quem insidiis instruentem locum? Frigere ac torpere senis consilia.

He, besides, was goading on soldiers already incited on their own, by belittling, in the one way he could, the age-authority of his colleague, repeatedly saying that wars are given to youths and that spirits, together with bodies, both thrive and defloresce; that from a most keen warrior a delayer had been made, and that the man who on arriving used to seize camps and cities at the first onset was now sitting idle within the rampart and wasting time—hoping what, that something would be added to his own forces or subtracted from the enemy’s strength? What occasion, what time, what place was he preparing for ambushes? The counsels of an old man grow cold and torpid.

Sed Camillo cum vitae satis tum gloriae esse; quid attinere cum mortali corpore uno civitatis quam immortalem esse deceat pati consenescere vires?

But for Camillus there was enough both of life and of glory; what was the point, with a single mortal body, to allow the strength of a state which it befits to be immortal to grow old along with it?

His sermonibus tota in se averterat castra; et cum omnibus locis posceretur pugna, "Sustinere" inquit, "M. Furi, non possumus impetum militum, et hostis, cuius animos cunctando auximus, iam minime toleranda superbia insultat; cede unus omnibus et patere te vinci consilio ut maturius bello vincas". Ad ea Camillus, quae bella suo unius auspicio gesta ad eam diem essent, negare in eis neque se neque populum Romanum aut consilii sui aut fortunae paenituisse; nunc scire se collegam habere iure imperioque parem, vigore aetatis praestantem; itaque se quod ad exercitum attineat, regere consuesse, non regi: collegae imperium se non posse impedire. Dis bene iuvantibus ageret quod e re publica duceret: aetati suae se veniam etiam petere ne in prima acie esset. Quae senis munia in bello sint, iis se non defuturum: id a dis immortalibus precari ne qui casus suum consilium laudabile efficiat.

By these speeches he had turned the whole camp toward himself; and since battle was being demanded on all sides, he said, “Marcus Furius, we cannot sustain the onset of the soldiers, and the enemy—whose spirits we have augmented by delaying—now with least tolerable arrogance is insulting; cede, one man, to all, and allow yourself to be conquered in counsel, that you may conquer the sooner in war.” To this Camillus replied that, as for the wars which had up to that day been waged under his sole auspices, neither he nor the Roman people had in them regretted either his counsel or his fortune; now he knew that he had a colleague equal in right and in command, outstanding in the vigor of age; and so, as regards the army, he was wont to rule, not to be ruled: he could not impede his colleague’s imperium. With the gods kindly aiding, let him do what he deemed to be for the commonwealth; he even asked indulgence for his age, that he might not be in the front line. As to what the duties of an old man in war are, he would not be lacking in those: this he prayed from the immortal gods—that no accident should render his own counsel commendable.

Nec ab hominibus salutaris sententia nec a dis tam piae preces auditae sunt. Primam aciem auctor pugnae instruit, subsidia Camillus firmat validamque stationem pro castris opponit; ipse edito loco spectator intentus in eventum alieni consilii constitit.

Neither by men was the salutary opinion heard, nor by the gods the so pious prayers. The author of the battle arrays the front line; Camillus strengthens the reserves and sets a strong station in front of the camp; he himself, on a raised place, stood as a spectator intent on the outcome of another’s counsel.

[24] Simul primo concursu concrepuere arma, hostis dolo non metu pedem rettulit. Lenis ab tergo clivus erat inter aciem et castra; et, quod multitudo suppeditabat, aliquot validas cohortes in castris armatas instructasque reliquerant, quae inter commissum iam certamen, ubi vallo appropinquasset hostis, erumperent. Romanus cedentem hostem effuse sequendo in locum iniquum pertractus opportunus huic eruptioni fuit; versus itaque in victorem terror et novo hoste et supina valle Romanam inclinavit aciem.

[24] At once, at the first onset, the arms rattled, and the enemy, by guile not by fear, drew back his step. There was a gentle slope to the rear between the battle line and the camp; and, what their multitude supplied, they had left several strong cohorts in the camp, armed and drawn up, to burst out in the midst of the contest already joined, when the enemy should approach the rampart. The Roman, by pursuing the yielding foe in a flood, was drawn into disadvantageous ground and proved apt for this sally; thus panic, both at the new enemy and at the down-sloping valley, turned upon the victor and inclined the Roman line.

Instant Volsci recentes qui e castris impetum fecerant; integrant et illi pugnam qui simulata cesserant fuga. Iam non recipiebat se Romanus miles sed immemor recentis ferociae veterisque decoris terga passim dabat atque effuso cursu castra repetebat, cum Camillus subiectus ab circumstantibus in equum et raptim subsidiis oppositis "Haec est" inquit, "milites, pugna quam poposcistis? Quis homo, quis deus est, quem accusare possitis?

The Volsci press on, fresh, who had made the sally from the camp; and those too renew the fight who had withdrawn in feigned flight. Now the Roman soldier did not take himself back in order, but, unmindful of his recent ferocity and his ancient decor, was everywhere turning his back and at full run was making for the camp, when Camillus, hoisted by those standing around onto a horse and with the reserves hastily opposed, said, “This is, soldiers, the battle you demanded? What man, what god is there whom you can accuse?”

Vestra illa temeritas, vestra ignavia haec est. Secuti alium ducem sequimini nunc Camillum et quod ductu meo soletis vincite. Quid vallum et castra spectatis?

That is your temerity; this is your cowardice. Having followed another leader, now follow Camillus, and, as you are wont under my leadership, conquer. Why are you looking to the rampart and the camp?

Neminem vestrum illa nisi victorem receptura sunt".

"Those will receive none of you except as a victor".

Pudor primo tenuit effusos; inde, ut circumagi signa obvertique aciem viderunt in hostem et dux, praeterquam quod tot insignis triumphis, etiam aetate venerabilis inter prima signa ubi plurimus labor periculumque erat se offerebat, increpare singuli se quisque et alios, et adhortatio in vicem totam alacri clamore pervasit aciem. Neque alter tribunus rei defuit sed missus a collega restituente peditum aciem ad equites, non castigando—ad quam rem leviorem auctorem eum culpae societas fecerat—sed ab imperio totus ad preces versus orare singulos universosque ut se reum fortunae eius diei crimine eximerent: "Abnuente ac prohibente collega temeritati me omnium potius socium quam unius prudentiae dedi. Camillus in utraque vestra fortuna suam gloriam videt; ego, ni restituitur pugna, quod miserrimum est, fortunam cum omnibus, infamiam solus sentiam." Optimum visum est in fluctuante acie tradi equos et pedestri pugna invadere hostem.

Shame at first held them, though they had been poured out in disorder; then, when they saw the standards being wheeled and the battle-line turned against the enemy, and the leader—besides being so distinguished by so many triumphs, also venerable in age—presenting himself among the foremost standards where the greatest toil and danger were, each individual began to reproach himself and others, and exhortation in turn, with a brisk shout, pervaded the whole line. Nor did the other tribune fail the matter, but, sent by his colleague who was restoring the infantry’s line, to the cavalry, not by chastising—toward which task the partnership in the fault had made him a lighter author—but turning wholly from command to entreaties, he began to beg individuals and all together to exempt him, arraigned, from the charge of that day’s fortune: “With my colleague refusing and forbidding, I gave myself as a partner of the temerity of all rather than of the prudence of one. Camillus in either outcome of yours sees his own glory; I, unless the fight is restored—most miserable to say—shall feel the fortune with all, the infamy alone.” It seemed best, with the line wavering, to hand over their horses and to attack the enemy in a pedestrian fight.

Eunt insignes armis animisque qua premi parte maxime peditum copias vident. Nihil neque apud duces neque apud milites remittitur a summo certamine animi. Sensit ergo eventus virtutis enixae opem et Volsci, qua modo simulato metu cesserant, ea in veram fugam effusi, magna pars et in ipso certamine et post in fuga caesi, ceteri in castris quae capta eodem impetu sunt; plures tamen capti quam occisi.

They go, distinguished in arms and in spirit, to the part where they see the infantry forces most pressed. Nothing is remitted from the supreme contest of soul, neither among the leaders nor among the soldiers. Thus the outcome sensed the help of exerted virtue, and the Volsci, where just now they had yielded with simulated fear, there were poured out into true flight; a great part were cut down both in the very struggle and afterward in flight, the rest in the camp, which was captured in the same impetus; nevertheless more were captured than slain.

[25] Ubi in recensendis captivis cum Tusculani aliquot noscitarentur, secreti ab aliis ad tribunos adducuntur percontantibusque fassi publico consilio se militasse. Cuius tam vicini belli metu Camillus motus extemplo se Romam captivos ducturum ait, ne patres ignari sint Tusculanos ab societate descisse: castris exercituique interim, si videatur, praesit collega. Documento unus dies fuerat, ne sua consilia melioribus praeferret; nec tamen aut ipsi aut in exercitu cuiquam satis placato animo Camillus laturus culpam eius videbatur, qua data in tam praecipitem casum res publica esset; et cum in exercitu tum Romae constans omnium fama erat, cum varia fortuna in Volscis gesta res esset, adversae pugnae fugaeque in L. Furio culpam, secundae decus omne penes M. Furium esse.

[25] When, in reviewing the captives, several Tusculans were recognized, they were brought apart from the others to the tribunes, and, on being questioned, confessed that they had served under public counsel. Moved by the fear of a war so near at hand, Camillus immediately says that he will lead the captives to Rome, lest the senators be unaware that the Tusculans have seceded from the alliance: meanwhile let his colleague, if it seem good, preside over the camp and the army. One day had been a lesson, not to prefer his own counsels to better ones; and yet neither to himself nor to anyone in the army did Camillus seem likely, with sufficiently placated spirit, to endure that man’s fault, by the committing of which the commonwealth had been driven into so headlong a plight; and both in the army and at Rome the constant report of all was that, although the affair with the Volsci had been conducted with varying fortune, the blame for the adverse battle and rout rested upon L. Furius, while all the honor of the successful action was with M. Furius.

Introductis in senatum captivis cum bello persequendos Tusculanos patres censuissent Camilloque id bellum mandassent, adiutorem sibi ad eam rem unum petit, permissoque ut ex collegis optaret quem vellet contra spem omnium L. Furium optavit; qua moderatione animi cum collegae levavit infamiam tum sibi gloriam ingentem peperit.

With the captives introduced into the senate, when the senators had decreed that the Tusculans should be prosecuted by war and had entrusted that war to Camillus, he asked for one assistant to himself for that matter; and, permission having been granted to choose from his colleagues whom he wished, against the expectation of all he chose L. Furius; by which moderation of mind he both lifted his colleague’s infamy and won for himself immense glory.

Nec fuit cum Tusculanis bellum: pace constanti vim Romanam arcuerunt quam armis non poterant. Intrantibus fines Romanis non demigratum ex propinquis itineri locis, non cultus agrorum intermissus; patentibus portis urbis togati obviam frequentes imperatoribus processere; commeatus exercitui comiter in castra ex urbe et ex agris deuehitur. Camillus castris ante portas positis, eademne forma pacis quae in agris ostentaretur etiam intra moenia esset scire cupiens, ingressus urbem ubi patentes ianuas et tabernis apertis proposita omnia in medio vidit intentosque opifices suo quemque operi et ludos litterarum strepere discentium vocibus ac repletas semitas inter volgus aliud puerorum et mulierum huc atque illuc euntium qua quemque suorum usuum causae ferrent, nihil usquam non pavidis modo sed ne mirantibus quidem simile, circumspiciebat omnia, inquirens oculis ubinam bellum fuisset; adeo nec amotae rei usquam nec oblatae ad tempus vestigium ullum erat sed ita omnia constanti tranquilla pace ut eo vix fama belli perlata videri posset.

Nor was there war with the Tusculans: by constant peace they warded off the Roman force, which they could not by arms. As the Romans were entering the borders, there was no moving away from places near the road, no interruption of the cultivation of the fields; with the gates of the city standing open, men in togas in throngs went forth to meet the commanders; a convoy of supplies for the army was courteously conveyed into the camp from the city and from the fields. Camillus, having pitched his camp before the gates, wishing to know whether the same form of peace which was displayed in the fields existed also within the walls, entered the city; where, when he saw open doorways and, in the shops, everything set out in the middle, and the artificers each intent on his own work, and the school of letters ringing with the voices of learners, and the footpaths filled amid another crowd of boys and women going hither and thither, wherever the reasons of each of their pursuits carried them—nothing anywhere resembling, not fear only, but not even astonishment—he looked around at everything, searching with his eyes where the war had been; to such a degree was there nowhere any trace either of things removed or of things produced for the occasion, but all so in steady, tranquil peace that to that place the very rumor of war could scarcely seem to have been borne.

[26] Victus igitur patientia hostium senatum eorum vocari iussit. "Soli adhuc" inquit, "Tusculani, vera arma verasque vires quibus ab ira Romanorum vestra tutaremini invenistis. Ite Romam ad senatum; aestimabunt patres utrum plus ante poenae an nunc veniae meriti sitis.

[26] Therefore, overcome by the patience of the enemy, he ordered their senate to be summoned. "You alone thus far," he said, "Tusculans, have found the true arms and the true forces by which to guard yourselves from the wrath of the Romans. Go to Rome to the senate; the Fathers will assess whether you have deserved more of punishment before, or now of pardon.

Non praecipiam gratiam publici beneficii; deprecandi potestatem a me habueritis; precibus eventum vestris senatus quem videbitur dabit."

"I will not prescribe the grace of a public benefaction; you shall have from me the power to plead; to your prayers the senate will give whatever outcome shall seem best."

Postquam Romam Tusculani venerunt senatusque paulo ante fidelium sociorum maestus in vestibulo curiae est conspectus, moti extemplo patres vocari eos iam tum hospitaliter magis quam hostiliter iussere. Dictator Tusculanus ita verba fecit: "Quibus bellum indixistis intulistisque, patres conscripti, sicut nunc videtis nos stantes in vestibulo curiae vestrae, ita armati paratique obviam imperatoribus legionibusque vestris processimus. Hic noster, hic plebis nostrae habitus fuit eritque semper, nisi si quando a vobis proque vobis arma acceperimus.

After the Tusculans came to Rome, and the senate, a little before, had been seen in the vestibule of the curia, saddened for their faithful allies, the Fathers, moved at once, ordered that they be called in, already then more hospitably than hostilely. The Tusculan Dictator spoke thus: "Against those to whom you proclaimed and brought war, Conscript Fathers, just as you now see us standing in the vestibule of your curia, so, armed and prepared, we advanced to meet your commanders and your legions. This has been, and will be always, our bearing—this of us and of our plebs—unless at some time we shall have taken up arms from you and for you."

Gratias agimus et ducibus vestris et exercitibus, quod oculis magis quam auribus crediderunt et ubi nihil hostile erat ne ipsi quidem fecerunt. Pacem, quam nos praestitimus, eam a vobis petimus; bellum eo, sicubi est, avertatis precamur; in nos quid arma polleant vestra, si patiendo experiundum est, inermes experiemur. Haec mens nostra est—di immortales faciant—tam felix quam pia.

We give thanks both to your leaders and to your armies, because they trusted their eyes rather than their ears and, where there was nothing hostile, they themselves did not even act. The peace which we have furnished, that same we ask from you; we pray that you avert war wherever it is; as for what your arms may avail against us, if it must be tested by enduring, unarmed we shall make the trial. This is our disposition—may the immortal gods bring it to pass—as happy as it is pious.

Quod ad crimina attinet quibus moti bellum indixistis, etsi revicta rebus verbis confutare nihil attinet, tamen, etiamsi vera sint, vel fateri nobis ea, cum tam evidenter paenituerit, tutum censemus. Peccetur in vos, dum digni sitis quibus ita satisfiat". Tantum fere verborum ab Tusculanis factum. Pacem in praesentia nec ita multo post civitatem etiam impetraverunt.

As to the accusations on account of which, being moved, you proclaimed war, although it is no use to refute by words what has been refuted by deeds, nevertheless, even if they are true, we deem it safe even to confess them, since we have so manifestly repented. Let offense be committed against you, provided you be worthy men to whom satisfaction is thus made." About this much was said by the Tusculans. They obtained peace for the present, and not much later they obtained citizenship as well.

Ab Tusculo legiones reductae.

From Tusculum the legions were led back.

[27] Camillus, consilio et virtute in Volsco bello, felicitate in Tusculana expeditione, utrobique singulari adversus collegam patientia et moderatione insignis, magistratu abiit creatis tribunis militaribus in insequentem annum L. et P. Valeriis—Lucio quintum, Publio tertium—[et] C. Sergio tertium [Licinio] Menenio iterum P. Papirio Ser. Cornelio Maluginense. Censoribus quoque eguit annus, maxime propter incertam famam aeris alieni, adgravantibus summam etiam invidiae eius tribunis plebis, cum ab iis elevaretur quibus fide magis quam fortuna debentium laborare creditum videri expediebat.

[27] Camillus—remarkable for counsel and virtue in the Volscian war, for felicity in the Tusculan expedition, and in both for singular patience and moderation toward his colleague—departed from the magistracy, military tribunes having been created for the following year: L. and P. Valerius—Lucius for the 5th time, Publius for the 3rd—[and] C. Sergius for the 3rd, [Licinius] Menenius again, P. Papirius, Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis. The year also stood in need of censors, chiefly on account of the uncertain report of indebtedness, the tribunes of the plebs further aggravating even the sum total of its odium, since relief was being urged by those to whom it seemed expedient that the distress of the debtors be believed to arise more from credit than from fortune.

Creati censores C. Sulpicius Camerinus Sp. Postumius Regillensis, coeptaque iam res morte Postumi, quia collegam suffici censori religio erat, interpellata est. Igitur cum Sulpicius abdicasset se magistratu, censores alii vitio creati non gesserunt magistratum; tertios creari velut dis non accipientibus in eum annum censuram religiosum fuit. Eam vero ludificationem plebis tribuni ferendam negabant: fugere senatum testes tabulas publicas census cuiusque, quia nolint conspici summam aeris alieni, quae indicatura sit demersam partem a parte civitatis, cum interim obaeratam plebem obiectari aliis atque aliis hostibus; passim iam sine ullo discrimine bella quaeri: ab Antio Satricum, ab Satrico Velitras, inde Tusculum legiones ductas; Latinis Hernicis Praenestinis iam intentari arma civium magis quam hostium odio, ut in armis terant plebem nec respirare in urbe aut per otium libertatis meminisse sinant aut consistere in contione, ubi aliquando audiant vocem tribuniciam de levando fenore et finem aliarum iniuriarum agentem.

The censors Gaius Sulpicius Camerinus and Spurius Postumius Regillensis were elected, and the business already begun was interrupted by the death of Postumius, because it was a religious scruple for a censor to appoint a colleague in his stead. Therefore, when Sulpicius had abdicated his magistracy, other censors, elected with a flaw, did not exercise the office; to choose a third pair, as if the gods were not accepting the censorship for that year, was held a religious scruple. The tribunes said that this mockery of the plebs was not to be endured: that the senate was fleeing witnesses—the public tablets of each man’s census—because they did not wish the sum of indebtedness (aeris alieni) to be seen, which would show that one part of the citizen body had been sunk by another; while in the meantime the debt-laden plebs were being thrown against one enemy after another; that wars were now being sought everywhere without any discrimination: from Antium to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitrae, thence the legions led to Tusculum; that against the Latins, Hernicans, and Praenestines arms were already being aimed out of hatred of citizens rather than of enemies, so that they might wear down the plebs under arms and not allow them to draw breath in the city, or in leisure to remember liberty, or to take their stand in the assembly, where at last they might hear the tribunician voice advocating the lowering of interest and pressing for an end to other injuries.

Quod si sit animus plebi memor patrum libertatis, se nec addici quemquam civem Romanum ob creditam pecuniam passuros neque dilectum haberi, donec inspecto aere alieno initaque ratione minuendi eius sciat unus quisque quid sui, quid alieni sit, supersit sibi liberum corpus an id quoque nervo debeatur.

But if the plebs have a spirit mindful of their fathers’ liberty, they will suffer neither that any Roman citizen be adjudged on account of money given on credit, nor that a levy be held, until, the debt inspected and a plan for diminishing it entered upon, each man knows what is his own and what is another’s—whether a free body remains to him, or whether even that is owed to the fetter.

Merces seditionis proposita confestim seditionem excitavit. Nam et addicebantur multi, et ad Praenestini famam belli novas legiones scribendas patres censuerant; quae utraque simul auxilio tribunicio et consensu plebis impediri coepta; nam neque duci addictos tribuni sinebant neque iuniores nomina dabant. Cum patribus minor [in] praesens cura creditae pecuniae iuris exsequendi quam dilectus esset —quippe iam a Praeneste profectos hostes in agro Gabino consedisse nuntiabatur—interim tribunos plebis fama ea ipsa inritaverat magis ad susceptum certamen quam deterruerat neque aliud ad seditionem exstinguendam in urbe quam prope inlatum moenibus ipsis bellum valuit.

The reward of sedition, once proposed, straightway stirred up sedition. For both many were being adjudged to creditors, and at the report of the Praenestine war the senators had decreed that new legions be enrolled; and both of these at once began to be hindered by tribunician aid and the consent of the plebs: for the tribunes did not allow the adjudged to be led away, nor did the younger men give in their names. Since for the fathers the present care for executing the right of money lent was less than that for the levy—for indeed it was reported that the enemy, having set out from Praeneste, had taken position in the Gabine countryside—meanwhile that very report had provoked the tribunes of the plebs more toward the contest undertaken than it had deterred them, and nothing availed to extinguish the sedition in the city except a war almost brought to the very walls.

[28] Nam cum esset Praenestinis nuntiatum nullum exercitum conscriptum Romae, nullum ducem certum esse, patres ac plebem in semet ipsos versos, occasionem rati duces eorum raptim agmine facto, pervastatis protinus agris ad portam Collinam signa intulere. Ingens in urbe trepidatio fuit. Conclamatum "ad arma", concursumque in muros adque portas est; tandemque ab seditione ad bellum versi dictatorem T. Quinctium Cincinnatum creavere.

[28] For when it had been announced to the Praenestines that no army had been conscripted at Rome, that there was no fixed commander, that the senators and the plebs were turned upon themselves, their leaders, thinking it an occasion, with a column rapidly formed, after straightway thoroughly devastating the fields, bore their standards to the Colline Gate. Immense trepidation was in the city. It was cried, "to arms," and there was a rush together to the walls and the gates; and at last, turned from sedition to war, they created the dictator T. Quinctius Cincinnatus.

Is magistrum equitum A. Sempronium Atratinum dixit. Quod ubi auditum est—tantus eius magistratus terror erat—simul hostes a moenibus recessere et iuniores Romani ad edictum sine retractatione convenere.

He appointed A. Sempronius Atratinus Master of the Horse. When this was heard—so great was the terror of that magistracy—at once the enemies withdrew from the walls and the Roman youth assembled at the edict without demur.

Dum conscribitur Romae exercitus, castra interim hostium haud procul Allia flumine posita; inde agrum late populantes, fatalem se urbi Romanae locum cepisse inter se iactabant; similem pavorem inde ac fugam fore ac bello Gallico fuerit; etenim si diem contactum religione insignemque nomine eius loci timeant Romani, quanto magis Alliensi die Alliam ipsam, monumentum tantae cladis, reformidaturos? Species profecto iis ibi truces Gallorum sonumque vocis in oculis atque auribus fore. Has inanium rerum inanes ipsas volventes cogitationes fortunae loci delegaverant spes suas.

While an army was being enrolled at Rome, meanwhile the enemy’s camp was pitched not far from the river Allia; from there, as they were ravaging the countryside far and wide, they bandied about among themselves that they had seized for themselves a place fatal to the Roman city; that from there there would be a panic and flight like that which had been in the Gallic war; for indeed, if the Romans fear a day tainted by religion and marked by the name of that place, how much more on the Allian day would they shrink from the Allia itself, the monument of so great a disaster? Assuredly to them there the sight of the fierce Gauls and the sound of their voice would be before their eyes and ears. Turning over these empty thoughts about empty things, they had delegated their hopes to the fortune of the place.

Romani contra, ubicumque esset Latinus hostis, satis scire eum esse quem ad Regillum lacum devictum centum annorum pace obnoxia tenuerint: locum insignem memoria cladis inritaturum se potius ad delendam memoriam dedecoris quam ut timorem faciat, ne qua terra sit nefasta victoriae suae; quin ipsi sibi Galli si offerantur illo loco, se ita pugnaturos ut Romae pugnaverint in repetenda patria ut postero die ad Gabios, tunc cum effecerint ne quis hostis qui moenia Romana intrasset nuntium secundae adversaeque fortunae domum perferret.

The Romans, on the contrary, wherever the Latin enemy might be, knew well that he was the same whom, defeated at Lake Regillus, they had held bound under a peace of one hundred years: that a place distinguished by the memory of a defeat would incite them rather to delete the memory of the disgrace than to create fear, lest any land be ill‑omened (nefast) to their victory; nay, that if the Gauls themselves should present themselves in that place, they would fight just as they had fought at Rome in the repossessing of their fatherland—so that on the next day at Gabii, then when they had brought it about that no enemy who had entered the Roman walls should carry home a message of favorable or adverse fortune.

[29] His utrimque animis ad Alliam ventum est. Dictator Romanus, postquam in conspectu hostes erant instructi intentique, "videsne tu" inquit, "A. Semproni, loci fortuna illos fretos ad Alliam constitisse? Nec illis di immortales certioris quicquam fiduciae maiorisve quod sit auxilii dederint.

[29] With spirits thus on both sides, they came to the Allia. The Roman dictator, after the enemies were in sight, drawn up and intent, said, "Do you see, A. Sempronius, that, relying on the fortune of the place, they have taken their stand at the Allia? Nor have the immortal gods granted them anything more certain for confidence, or anything greater in the way of assistance."

At tu, fretus armis animisque, concitatis equis invade mediam aciem; ego cum legionibus in turbatos trepidantesque inferam signa. Adeste, di testes foederis, et expetite poenas debitas simul vobis violatis nobisque per vestrum numen deceptis." Non equitem, non peditem sustinuere Praenestini. Primo impetu ac clamore dissipati ordines sunt dein, postquam nullo loco constabat acies, terga vertunt consternatique et praeter castra etiam sua pavore praelati non prius se ab effuso cursu sistunt quam in conspectu Praeneste fuit.

“But you, relying on arms and spirit, with the horses roused, break into the middle of the battle line; I, with the legions, will bear in the standards against the disordered and panic-stricken. Be present, gods, witnesses of the foedus, and exact the penalties due, both for yourselves violated and for us deceived under your divine power.” The men of Praeneste withstood neither horse nor foot. At the first onset and shout their ranks were scattered; then, after the battle line stood firm in no place, they turn their backs, and, in consternation and carried past even their own camp by fear, they do not halt from their headlong course until Praeneste was in sight.

Ibi ex fuga dissipati locum quem tumultuario opere communirent capiunt, ne, si intra moenia se recepissent, extemplo ureretur ager depopulatisque omnibus obsidio urbi inferretur. Sed postquam direptis ad Alliam castris victor Romanus aderat, id quoque munimentum relictum; et vix moenia tuta rati oppido se Praeneste includunt. Octo praeterea oppida erant sub dicione Praenestinorum.

There, scattered from the flight, they seize a place which they might fortify by tumultuary work, lest, if they had withdrawn within the walls, the land be burned at once and, with everything depopulated, a siege be brought upon the city. But after the Roman victor was at hand, the camps at the Allia having been sacked, that fortification too was abandoned; and scarcely deeming the walls safe, they shut themselves up in the town of Praeneste. Moreover, eight towns were under the jurisdiction of the Praenestines.

Ad ea circumlatum bellum deincepsque haud magno certamine captis Velitras exercitus ductus; eae quoque expugnatae. Tum ad caput belli Praeneste ventum. Id non vi sed per deditionem receptum est.

Against these the war was carried around, and next, with no great contest, after the towns had been captured, the army was led to Velitrae; they too were taken by storm. Then they came to the head of the war, Praeneste. It was recovered not by force but through surrender.

T. Quinctius, semel acie victor, binis castris hostium, novem oppidis vi captis, Praeneste in deditionem accepto Romam revertit triumphansque signum Praeneste devectum Iovis Imperatoris in Capitolium tulit. Dedicatum est inter cellam Iovis ac Minervae tabulaque sub eo fixa, monumentum rerum gestarum, his ferme incisa litteris fuit: "Iuppiter atque divi omnes hoc dederunt ut T. Quinctius dictator oppida novem caperet". Die vicesimo quam creatus erat dictatura se abdicavit.

T. Quinctius, once victorious in pitched battle, with two enemy camps and nine towns taken by force, after Praeneste had been accepted in surrender, returned to Rome in triumph, and he bore to the Capitol the statue of Jupiter Imperator conveyed down from Praeneste. It was dedicated between the cella of Jupiter and that of Minerva, and a tablet fixed beneath it, a monument of the deeds accomplished, had nearly these letters incised upon it: "Jupiter and all the divinities granted this, that T. Quinctius, Dictator, should capture nine towns." On the 20th day from when he had been created, he abdicated the dictatorship.

[30] Comitia inde habita tribunorum militum consulari potestate, quibus aequatus patriciorum plebeiorumque numerus. Ex patribus creati P. et C. Manlii cum L. Iulio; plebes C. Sextilium M. Albinium L. Antistium dedit. Manliis, quod genere plebeios, gratia Iulium anteibant, Volsci provincia sine sorte, sine comparatione, extra ordinem data; cuius et ipsos postmodo et patres qui dederant paenituit.

[30] Then comitia were held for military tribunes with consular power, in which the number of patricians and plebeians was made equal. From the patricians were elected P. and C. Manlius with L. Julius; the plebs gave C. Sextilius, M. Albinus, L. Antistius. To the Manlii—because in lineage they surpassed the plebeians, and in favor they outstripped Julius—the Volscian province was given without lot, without comparison, out of turn; which both they themselves afterwards and the senators who had given it regretted.

Inexplorato pabulatum cohortes misere; quibus velut circumventis, cum id falso nuntiatum esset, dum praesidio ut essent citati feruntur, ne auctore quidem adservato qui eos hostis Latinus pro milite Romano frustratus erat ipsi in insidias praecipitavere. Ibi dum iniquo loco sola virtute militum restantes caedunt caedunturque, castra interim Romana iacentia in campo ab altera parte hostes invasere. Ab ducibus utrobique proditae temeritate atque inscitia res; quidquid superfuit Fortunae populi Romani, id militum etiam sine rectore stabilis virtus tutata est.

Without reconnaissance they sent cohorts out to forage; when it was falsely announced that these were as if surrounded, while, having been summoned to be a protection, they are hurried forward, not even keeping under guard the informer who—being a Latin enemy, in the guise of a Roman soldier—had deceived them, they themselves plunged headlong into an ambush. There, in unfavorable ground, relying on the sole virtue of the soldiers, as they stood their ground they cut down and are cut down; meanwhile the enemies from the other side assaulted the Roman camp lying in the plain. On both sides the affair was betrayed by the rashness and ignorance of the leaders; whatever survived of the Fortune of the Roman People, that the steadfast valor of the soldiers, even without a commander, safeguarded.

Quae ubi Romam sunt relata, primum dictatorem dici placebat; deinde, postquam quietae res ex Volscis adferebantur et apparuit nescire eos victoria et tempore uti, revocati etiam inde exercitus ac duces; otiumque inde, quantum a Volscis, fuisset; id modo extremo anno tumultuatum quod Praenestini concitatis Latinorum populis rebellarunt.

When these things were reported to Rome, at first it was pleasing that a dictator be named; then, after quiet conditions were being brought from the Volsci and it appeared that they did not know how to use victory and the opportunity, the armies and commanders were even recalled from there; and from that quarter, so far as concerned the Volsci, there would have been leisure; only at the end of the year was there tumult, because the Praenestines, with the peoples of the Latins incited, rebelled.

Eodem anno Setiam ipsis querentibus penuriam hominum novi coloni adscripti; rebusque haud prosperis bello domestica quies, quam tribunorum militum ex plebe gratia maiestasque inter suos obtinuit, solacium fuit.

In the same year, as they themselves were complaining of a penury of men, new colonists were enrolled to Setia; and, with affairs not prosperous in war, the domestic quiet which the favor and majesty of the military tribunes from the plebs maintained among their own was a solace.

[31] Insequentis anni principia statim seditione ingenti arsere tribunis militum consulari potestate Sp. Furio Q. Servilio iterum [Licinio] Menenio tertium P. Cloelio M. Horatio L. Geganio. Erat autem et materia et causa seditionis aes alienum; cuius noscendi gratia Sp. Servilius Priscus Q. Cloelius Siculus censores facti ne rem agerent bello impediti sunt; namque trepidi nuntii primo, fuga deinde ex agris legiones Volscorum ingressas fines popularique passim Romanum agrum attulere. In qua trepidatione tantum afuit ut civilia certamina terror externus cohiberet, ut contra eo violentior potestas tribunicia impediendo dilectu esset, donec condiciones impositae patribus ne quis, quoad bellatum esset, tributum daret aut ius de pecunia credita diceret.

[31] The beginnings of the following year straightway blazed with a huge sedition, with the military tribunes with consular power Spurius Furius, Quintus Servilius a second time, [Licinius] Menenius a third time, Publius Cloelius, Marcus Horatius, Lucius Geganius. Moreover, both the matter and the cause of the sedition was debt; for the sake of ascertaining which, Spurius Servilius Priscus and Quintus Cloelius Siculus, having been made censors, were prevented from transacting the business by war; for alarmed messengers at first, then flight from the fields, brought word that the legions of the Volsci had entered the borders and were laying waste everywhere the Roman land. In this consternation, so far was it from being the case that external terror restrained civil contests, that on the contrary the tribunician power was the more violent in hindering the levy, until conditions were imposed upon the patricians that no one, so long as there was campaigning, should pay the tribute or have right pronounced concerning money lent.

Eo laxamento plebi sumpto mora dilectui non est facta. Legionibus novis scriptis placuit duos exercitus in agrum Volscum legionibus divisis duci. Sp. Furius M. Horatius dextrorsus [in] maritimam oram atque Antium, Q. Servilius et L. Geganius laeva ad montes [et] Ecetram pergunt.

With that relaxation for the plebs adopted, no delay was made in the levy. With new legions enrolled, it was resolved that two armies be led into the Volscian field, the legions being divided. Sp. Furius and M. Horatius to the right-hand [into] the maritime shore and Antium, Q. Servilius and L. Geganius to the left toward the mountains [and] Ecetram proceed.

Neutra parte hostis obvius [fuit]. Populatio itaque non illi vagae similis quam Volscus latrocinii more, discordiae hostium fretus et virtutem metuens, per trepidationem raptim fecerat sed ab iusto exercitu iusta ira facta, spatio quoque temporis gravior. Quippe a Volscis timentibus ne interim exercitus ab Roma exiret incursiones in extrema finium factae erant; Romano contra etiam in hostico morandi causa [erat], ut hostem ad certamen eliceret. Itaque omnibus passim tectis agrorum vicisque etiam quibusdam exustis, non arbore frugifera, non satis in spem frugum relictis, omni quae extra moenia fuit hominum pecudumque praeda abacta Romam utrimque exercitus reducti.

On neither side was the enemy encountered [fuit]. Therefore the devastation was not like that wandering sort which the Volscian, after the fashion of brigandage, relying on the discord of his enemies and fearing their virtue, had done hastily in trepidation, but was done by a just army with just wrath, the more grievous also by the span of time. For in fact, by the Volsci fearing lest in the meantime an army should go out from Rome, incursions had been made upon the farthest edges of their borders; for the Roman, by contrast, there was even a cause for lingering in hostile territory [erat], so as to draw the enemy out to a contest. And so, with all the farm-buildings everywhere and even certain villages burned, with neither a fruit-bearing tree nor a sowing sufficient for hope of crops left, all the booty of men and cattle that was outside the walls having been driven off to Rome, the armies from both columns were led back.

[32] Parvo intervallo ad respirandum debitoribus dato, postquam quietae res ab hostibus erant, celebrari de integro iuris dictio et tantum abesse spes veteris levandi fenoris, ut tributo novum fenus contraheretur in murum a censoribus locatum saxo quadrato faciundum; cui succumbere oneri coacta plebes, quia quem dilectum impedirent non habebant tribuni plebis. Tribunos etiam militares patricios omnes coacta principum opibus fecit, L. Aemilium P. Valerium quartum C. Veturium Ser. Sulpicium L. et C. Quinctios Cincinnatos.

[32] After a small interval for breathing-space had been given to the debtors, when affairs were quiet as regarded the enemies, the holding of jurisdiction was renewed; and the hope of lightening the old interest was so far distant that, by a tax, a new interest was contracted for the wall which had been put out on contract by the censors to be made of squared stone; to this burden the plebs were forced to succumb, because the tribunes of the plebs had no levy to obstruct. The compelled resources of the leading men also made all the military tribunes patricians—L. Aemilius, P. Valerius for the 4th time, C. Veturius, Ser. Sulpicius, and L. and C. Quinctius Cincinnatus.

Iisdem opibus obtinuere ut adversus Latinos Volscosque, qui coniunctis legionibus ad Satricum castra habebant, nullo impediente omnibus iunioribus sacramento adactis tres exercitus scriberent: unum ad praesidium urbis: alterum qui, si qui alibi motus exstitisset, ad subita belli mitti posset: tertium longe validissimum P. Valerius et L. Aemilius ad Satricum duxere. Ubi cum aciem instructam hostium loco aequo invenissent, extemplo pugnatum; et ut nondum satis claram victoriam, sic prosperae spei pugnam imber ingentibus procellis fusus diremit. Postero die iterata pugna; et aliquamdiu aequa virtute fortunaque Latinae maxime legiones longa societate militiam Romanam edoctae restabant.

By the same resources they secured that, against the Latins and the Volsci—who, with their legions conjoined, were encamped at Satricum—no one hindering and all the younger men bound by oath, they would enroll three armies: one for the garrison of the city; a second which, if any movement had arisen elsewhere, could be sent to the sudden emergencies of war; the third, by far the strongest, Publius Valerius and Lucius Aemilius led to Satricum. There, when they found the enemy’s battle-line drawn up on level ground, battle was joined at once; and though the victory was not yet sufficiently clear, yet a fight of favorable hope, a rain poured in vast squalls broke off. On the following day the battle was renewed; and for some time the forces were matched in valor and fortune, the Latin legions especially—thoroughly taught in Roman soldiership by a long association—standing their ground.

Sed eques immissus ordines turbavit; turbatis signa peditum inlata, quantumque Romana se invexit acies, tantum hostes gradu demoti; et ut semel inclinavit pugna, iam intolerabilis Romana vis erat. Fusi hostes cum Satricum, quod duo milia inde aberat, non castra peterent, ab equite maxime caesi: castra capta direptaque. Ab Satrico nocte quae proelio proxima fuit, fugae simili agmine petunt Antium; et cum Romanus exercitus prope vestigiis sequeretur, plus tamen timor quam ira celeritatis habuit.

But the cavalry, sent in, threw the ranks into disorder; with the ranks in turmoil, the infantry standards were advanced, and by as much as the Roman battle-line drove itself forward, by so much the enemy were displaced in their step; and once the fight inclined, the Roman force was now intolerable. The enemy, routed, as they made for Satricum—which was 2 miles from there—and not for their camp, were cut down chiefly by the cavalry; the camp was taken and plundered. From Satricum, on the night next after the battle, they make for Antium in a column like a flight; and although the Roman army followed almost on their very footprints, yet fear had more of speed than anger.

Prius itaque moenia intravere hostes quam Romanus extrema agminis carpere aut morari posset. Inde aliquot dies vastando agro absumpti nec Romanis satis instructis apparatu bellico ad moenia adgredienda nec illis ad subeundum pugnae casum.

Accordingly the enemies entered within the walls before the Roman could seize upon or delay the rear of the column. Then several days were consumed in wasting the countryside, the Romans not being sufficiently furnished with apparatus of war for assailing the walls, nor they to undergo the hazard of battle.

[33] Seditio tum inter Antiates Latinosque coorta, cum Antiates victi malis subactique bello in quo et nati erant et consenuerant deditionem spectarent, Latinos ex diutina pace nova defectio recentibus adhuc animis ferociores ad perseverandum in bello faceret. Finis certaminis fuit postquam utrisque apparuit nihil per alteros stare quo minus incepta persequerentur. Latini profecti, ab societate pacis, ut rebantur, inhonestae sese vindicaverunt; Antiates incommodis arbitris salutarium consiliorum remotis urbem agrosque Romanis dedunt.

[33] A sedition then arose between the Antiates and the Latins, since the Antiates, conquered by misfortunes and subdued by the war in which they had both been born and had grown old, were looking toward surrender, while the Latins, by reason of long peace, a new defection and spirits still fresh, were made more ferocious to persevere in the war. The end of the contest came after it appeared to both that nothing on the part of the other side stood in the way of their pursuing what they had begun. The Latins, departing, vindicated themselves from an association of peace which, as they thought, was dishonorable; the Antiates, the troublesome arbiters of salutary counsels having been removed, surrendered city and fields to the Romans.

Ira et rabies Latinorum, quia nec Romanos bello laedere nec Volscos in armis retinere potuerant, eo erupit ut Satricum urbem, quae receptaculum primum eis adversae pugnae fuerat, igni concremarent. Nec aliud tectum eius superfuit urbis, cum faces pariter sacris profanisque inicerent, quam Matris Matutae templum; inde eos nec sua religio nec verecundia deum arcuisse dicitur sed vox horrenda edita templo cum tristibus minis ni nefandos ignes procul delubris amovissent. Incensos ea rabie impetus Tusculum tulit ob iram, quod deserto communi concilio Latinorum non in societatem modo Romanam sed etiam in civitatem se dedissent.

The anger and frenzy of the Latins, because they had been able neither to injure the Romans in war nor to keep the Volsci in arms, burst out to such a pitch that they burned with fire the city of Satricum, which had been for them the first refuge after a reverse in battle. No other roof of that city survived, as they cast torches alike upon sacred and profane places, than the Temple of Mother Matuta; from there it is said that neither their own religion nor reverence for the gods restrained them, but a dreadful voice issued from the temple with grim menaces, unless they removed the impious fires far from the shrine. Inflamed by that same madness, their onset bore toward Tusculum in wrath, because, with the common council of the Latins abandoned, they had given themselves not only into Roman alliance but even into citizenship.

Patentibus portis cum improviso incidissent, primo clamore oppidum praeter arcem captum est. In arcem oppidani refugere cum coniugibus ac liberis nuntiosque Romam, qui certiorem de suo casu senatum facerent, misere. Haud segnius quam fide populi Romani dignum fuit exercitus Tusculum ductus; L. Quinctius et Ser.

With the gates standing open, when they had fallen upon them unexpectedly, at the first outcry the town was taken, except for the citadel. Into the citadel the townsmen fled with their wives and children, and they sent messengers to Rome to make the senate more certain about their plight. Not at all more slowly than was worthy of the fidelity of the Roman people, the army was led to Tusculum; L. Quinctius and Ser.

Sulpicius tribuni militum duxere. Clausas portas Tusculi Latinosque simul obsidentium atque obsessorum animo hinc moenia [Tusculi] tueri vident, illinc arcem oppugnare, terrere una ac pavere. Adventus Romanorum mutaverat utriusque partis animos: Tusculanos ex ingenti metu in summam alacritatem, Latinos ex prope certa fiducia mox capiendae arcis, quoniam oppido potirentur, in exiguam de se ipsis spem verterat.

Quinctius and Sulpicius, the military tribunes, led. With the gates of Tusculum shut, the Latins, in the spirit at once of besiegers and of besieged, on the one hand seemed to guard the walls [of Tusculum], on the other to assault the citadel, to terrify and at the same time to fear. The arrival of the Romans had changed the minds of both parties: the Tusculans from enormous fear into utmost alacrity, the Latins from an almost certain confidence of soon seizing the citadel—since they were in possession of the town—into scant hope about themselves.

Tollitur ex arce clamor ab Tusculanis; excipit aliquanto maior ab exercitu Romano. Utrimque urgentur Latini: nec impetus Tusculanorum decurrentium ex superiore loco sustinent nec Romanos subeuntes moenia molientesque obices portarum arcere possunt. Scalis prius moenia capta, inde effracta claustra portarum; et cum anceps hostis et a fronte et a tergo urgeret nec ad pugnam ulla vis nec ad fugam loci quicquam superesset, in medio caesi ad unum omnes.

A clamor is raised from the citadel by the Tusculans; it is answered by a somewhat louder one from the Roman army. On both sides the Latins are pressed: they neither withstand the charge of the Tusculans running down from the higher ground, nor can they ward off the Romans coming up against the walls and working at the bars of the gates. The walls were first taken by ladders, then the fastenings of the gates were broken; and when the enemy, twofold, pressed them both in front and in the rear, and neither any strength for fighting nor any space for flight remained, they were cut down in the midst, all to a man.

Reciperato ab hostibus Tusculo exercitus Romam est reductus.

With Tusculum recovered from the enemy, the army was led back to Rome.

[34] Quanto magis prosperis eo anno bellis tranquilla omnia foris erant, tanto in urbe vis patrum in dies miseriaeque plebis crescebant, cum eo ipso, quod necesse erat solvi, facultas solvendi impediretur. Itaque cum iam ex re nihil dari posset, fama et corpore iudicati atque addicti creditoribus satisfaciebant poenaque in vicem fidei cesserat. Adeo ergo obnoxios summiserant animos non infimi solum sed principes etiam plebis, ut non modo ad tribunatum militum inter patricios petendum, quod tanta vi ut liceret tetenderant, sed ne ad plebeios quidem magistratus capessendos petendosque ulli viro acri experientique animus esset, possessionemque honoris usurpati modo a plebe per paucos annos reciperasse in perpetuum patres viderentur.

[34] The more, in that year, with the wars prosperous, all things were tranquil abroad, the more in the city the force of the patricians and the miseries of the plebs increased day by day, since by that very fact—that what had to be paid was necessary—the faculty of paying was hindered. And so, when now nothing could be given out of their property, they, adjudged and assigned to their creditors, were satisfying them with their fame and their body, and penalty had come in the stead of credit. Therefore they had so lowered their spirits into subjection, not only the lowest but even the leaders of the plebs, that not only for seeking the military tribunate among the patricians—an allowance for which they had pressed with such force—but not even for taking up and seeking plebeian magistracies would any spirited and enterprising man have the heart; and the patricians seemed to have recovered in perpetuity the possession of the honor only just now usurped by the plebs for a few years.

Ne id nimis laetum parti alteri esset, parva, ut plerumque solet, rem ingentem moliundi causa intervenit. M. Fabi Ambusti, potentis viri cum inter sui corporis homines tum etiam ad plebem, quod haudquaquam inter id genus contemptor eius habebatur, filiae duae nuptae, Ser. Sulpicio maior, minor C. Licinio Stoloni erat, illustri quidem viro tamen plebeio; eaque ipsa adfinitas haud spreta gratiam Fabio ad volgum quaesierat.

Lest that be too gladsome to one party, a small thing, as for the most part it is wont, intervened as the occasion for undertaking a huge affair. Marcus Fabius Ambustus, a powerful man both among the men of his own order and also with the plebs, because by no means among that sort was he held a contemner of them, had two daughters married: the elder to Ser. Sulpicius, the younger to C. Licinius Stolo, a man indeed illustrious yet plebeian; and that very affinity, not despised, had procured favor for Fabius with the common crowd.

Forte ita incidit ut in Ser. Sulpici tribuni militum domo sorores Fabiae cum inter se, ut fit, sermonibus tempus tererent, lictor Sulpici, cum is de foro se domum reciperet, forem, ut mos est, virga percuteret. Cum ad id moris eius insueta expavisset minor Fabia, risui sorori fuit miranti ignorare id sororem; ceterum is risus stimulos parvis mobili rebus animo muliebri subdidit.

By chance it so befell that, in the house of Ser. Sulpicius, a military tribune, while the Fabian sisters, as happens, were passing the time in conversations with one another, Sulpicius’s lictor, as he was returning home from the Forum, struck the door with his rod, as is the custom. When the younger Fabia, unaccustomed to that usage of his, started at it, she was a laughing-stock to her sister, who marveled that her sister did not know it; but that laughter applied goads to a woman’s spirit, easily moved by small things.

Frequentia quoque prosequentium rogantiumque num quid vellet credo fortunatum matrimonium ei sororis visum suique ipsam malo arbitrio, quo a proximis quisque minime anteiri volt, paenituisse. Confusam eam ex recenti morsu animi cum pater forte vidisset, percontatus "Satin salve?" Avertentem causam doloris, quippe nec satis piam adversus sororem nec admodum in virum honorificam, elicuit comiter sciscitando, ut fateretur eam esse causam doloris, quod iuncta impari esset, nupta in domo quam nec honos nec gratia intrare posset. Consolans inde filiam Ambustus bonum animum habere iussit: eosdem propediem domi visuram honores quos apud sororem videat.

The throng too of those accompanying and asking whether she wished anything, I believe, made her sister’s fortunate matrimony seem conspicuous to her, and by a bad judgment—whereby each person least wishes to be outstripped by those nearest—made her herself repent. When her father by chance saw her confounded from a fresh bite of spirit, he inquired, “Quite well?” As she turned aside from the cause of her pain—since it was not sufficiently pious toward her sister nor very honorable toward her husband—he drew it out by courteous questioning, so that she confessed that this was the cause of her grief: that she was joined to an unequal, married into a house into which neither honor nor influence could enter. Then Ambustus, consoling his daughter, bade her take good heart: that very soon she would see at home the same honors which she sees at her sister’s.

Inde consilia inire cum genero coepit, adhibito L. Sextio, strenuo adulescente et cuius spei nihil praeter genus patricium deesset.

Thence he began to enter upon counsels with his son-in-law, with L. Sextius brought in, a strenuous young man, and to whose promise nothing was lacking except a patrician lineage.

[35] Occasio videbatur rerum novandarum propter ingentem vim aeris alieni, cuius levamen mali plebes nisi suis in summo imperio locatis nullum speraret: accingendum ad eam cogitationem esse; conando agendoque iam eo gradum fecisse plebeios unde, si porro adnitantur, pervenire ad summa et patribus aequari tam honore quam virtute possent. In praesentia tribunos plebis fieri placuit, quo in magistratu sibimet ipsi viam ad ceteros honores aperirent; creatique tribuni C. Licinius et L. Sextius promulgavere leges omnes adversus opes patriciorum et pro commodis plebis: unam de aere alieno, ut deducto eo de capite quod usuris pernumeratum esset id quod superesset triennio aequis portionibus persolveretur; alteram de modo agrorum, ne quis plus quingenta iugera agri possideret; tertiam, ne tribunorum militum comitia fierent consulumque utique alter ex plebe crearetur; cuncta ingentia et quae sine certamine maximo obtineri non possent.

[35] An occasion seemed present for novating affairs because of the enormous mass of alien bronze (debt), for relief of which evil the plebs hoped none unless their own men were placed in the highest imperium: they must gird themselves for that plan; by trying and acting the plebeians had already made such an advance that, if they strove further, they could arrive at the summits and be equated with the patres as much in honor as in virtue. For the present it pleased that tribunes of the plebs be made, in order that in that magistracy they might open for themselves a road to the remaining honors; and the tribunes created, G. Licinius and L. Sextius, promulgated laws all against the resources of the patricians and for the commodities of the plebs: one concerning debt, that, after deducting from the principal what had been paid over as usury, what remained should be paid off in three years by equal portions; a second concerning the limit of lands, that no one should possess more than five hundred iugera of land; a third, that the elections of military tribunes should not be held, and that in any case one of the consuls should be created from the plebs; all measures immense, and such as could not be obtained without the greatest contest.

Omnium igitur simul rerum, quarum immodica cupido inter mortales est, agri, pecuniae, honorum discrimine proposito conterriti patres, cum trepidassent publicis privatisque consiliis, nullo remedio alio praeter expertam multis iam ante certaminibus intercessionem invento collegas adversus tribunicias rogationes comparaverunt. Qui ubi tribus ad suffragium ineundum citari a Licinio Sextioque viderunt, stipati patrum praesidiis nec recitari rogationes nec sollemne quicquam aliud ad sciscendum plebi fieri passi sunt. Iamque frustra saepe concilio advocato, cum pro antiquatis rogationes essent: "Bene habet" inquit Sextius; "quando quidem tantum intercessionem pollere placet, isto ipso telo tutabimur plebem.

Accordingly, with the peril set forth at once in all the things for which there is immoderate desire among mortals—land, money, honors—the fathers, terrified, when they had been flustered in public and private counsels, no other remedy having been found except the intercession, already tried in many contests before, got their colleagues ready against the tribunitian bills. When these, on seeing the tribes being summoned by Licinius and Sextius to enter upon the suffrage, came hemmed in with the fathers’ guards, they did not allow either the bills to be read out or anything else solemn to be done for the people to determine. And now, with the assembly often convoked in vain, since the bills were treated as rejected: “It is well,” said Sextius; “since indeed it is pleasing that the intercession wield so much power, with that very weapon we will protect the plebs.

Agitedum comitia indicite, patres, tribunis militum creandis; faxo ne iuvet vox ista 'veto', qua nunc concinentes collegas nostros tam laeti auditis." Haud inritae cecidere minae: comitia praeter aedilium tribunorumque plebi nulla sunt habita. Licinius Sextiusque tribuni plebis refecti nullos curules magistratus creari passi sunt; eaque solitudo magistratuum et plebe reficiente duos tribunos et iis comitia tribunorum militum tollentibus per quinquennium urbem tenuit.

“Come then, proclaim the elections, fathers, for creating military tribunes; I will see to it that that word ‘veto’ does not avail—the word which, when our colleagues chant it in chorus, you now hear so gladly.” The threats did not fall ineffectual: no elections were held except for aediles and tribunes of the plebs. Licinius and Sextius were re-elected tribunes of the plebs and did not allow any curule magistrates to be created; and this vacancy of magistracies—with the plebs re-electing the two tribunes, and with these men removing the elections of military tribunes—held the city for five years.

[36] Alia bella opportune quievere: Veliterni coloni gestientes otio quod nullus exercitus Romanus esset, et agrum Romanum aliquotiens incursavere et Tusculum oppugnare adorti sunt; eaque res Tusculanis, veteribus sociis, novis civibus, opem orantibus verecundia maxime non patres modo sed etiam plebem movit. Remittentibus tribunis plebis comitia per interregem sunt habita; creatique tribuni militum L. Furius A. Manlius Ser. Sulpicius Ser.

[36] Other wars opportunely grew quiet: the colonists of Velitrae, exulting in leisure because there was no Roman army, both repeatedly raided the Roman territory and attempted to assault Tusculum; and this matter, with the Tusculans—old allies, new citizens—begging for help, moved out of shame not the fathers only but even the plebs. The tribunes of the plebs yielding, the comitia were held through an interrex; and military tribunes were elected, L. Furius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpicius, Ser.

Cornelius P. et C. Valerii. Haudquaquam tam oboedientem in dilectu quam in comitiis plebem habuere; ingentique contentione exercitu scripto profecti non ab Tusculo modo summovere hostem sed intra suamet ipsum moenia compulere; obsidebanturque haud paulo vi maiore Velitrae quam Tusculum obsessum fuerat. Nec tamen ab eis, a quibus obsideri coeptae erant, expugnari potuere; ante novi creati sunt tribuni militum, Q. Servilius C. Veturius A. et M. Cornelii Q. Quinctius M. Fabius.

P. Cornelius and C. Valerius. They had the plebs by no means as obedient in the levy as in the elections; and, with huge exertion, the army having been enrolled, they set out, and not only drove the enemy away from Tusculum but forced them within their own very walls; and Velitrae were besieged with much greater force than Tusculum had been besieged. Yet they could not be stormed by those by whom they had begun to be besieged; before that, new military tribunes were created, Q. Servilius, C. Veturius, A. and M. Cornelii, Q. Quinctius, M. Fabius.

Nihil ne ab his quidem tribunis ad Velitras memorabile factum.

Not even by these tribunes was anything memorable done at Velitrae.

In maiore discrimine domi res vertebantur. Nam praeter Sextium Liciniumque latores legum, iam octauum tribunos plebis refectos, Fabius quoque tribunus militum, Stolonis socer, quarum legum auctor fuerat, earum suasorem se haud dubium ferebat; et cum octo ex collegio tribunorum plebi primo intercessores legum fuissent, quinque soli erant, et, ut ferme solent qui a suis desciscunt, capti et stupentes animi vocibus alienis id modo quod domi praeceptum erat intercessioni suae praetendebant: Velitris in exercitu plebis magnam partem abesse; in adventum militum comitia differri debere, ut universa plebes de suis commodis suffragium ferret. Sextius Liciniusque cum parte collegarum et uno ex tribunis militum Fabio, artifices iam tot annorum usu tractandi animos plebis, primores patrum productos interrogando de singulis, quae ferebantur ad populum, fatigabant: auderentne postulare ut, cum bina iugera agri plebi dividerentur, ipsis plus quingenta iugera habere liceret ut singuli prope trecentorum civium possiderent agros, plebeio homini vix ad tectum necessarium aut locum sepulturae suus pateret ager?

At home the situation was turning to greater peril. For besides Sextius and Licinius, the bearers of the laws, now for the eighth time renewed as tribunes of the plebs, Fabius too, a military tribune, the father‑in‑law of Stolo—the author of those laws—was declaring himself their undoubted promoter; and whereas at first eight from the college of the tribunes of the plebs had been intercessors against the laws, only five were left, and, as those who defect from their own side commonly are, with minds captive and stunned by others’ voices, they were putting forward for their veto only this which had been prescribed at home: that at Velitrae a great part of the plebs was in the army; that the comitia should be deferred until the arrival of the soldiers, so that the plebs as a whole might cast a vote concerning its own advantages. Sextius and Licinius, with part of their colleagues and with Fabius, one of the military tribunes—artificers already by the practice of so many years at handling the minds of the plebs—were wearying the foremost of the patricians, brought forward, by questioning them about each of the measures that were being carried to the people: did they dare to demand that, while two iugera of land were being apportioned to the plebs, it should be permitted to them to have more than 500 iugera, so that individuals might possess the fields of nearly 300 citizens, while to a plebeian man his own field scarcely afforded space for a necessary roof or a place of burial?

An placeret fenore circumventam plebem, [ni] potius quam sortem [creditum] solvat, corpus in nervum ac supplicia dare et gregatim cottidie de foro addictos duci et repleri vinctis nobiles domus et, ubicumque patricius habitet, ibi carcerem privatum esse?

Did it please that the plebs, circumvented by usury, [if not] rather than pay the principal [of the loan], should give their bodies into the stocks and punishments, and be led off from the Forum day by day in droves as adjudged debt-bondsmen, and that the noble houses be filled with the bound, and that, wherever a patrician dwells, there be a private prison?

[37] Haec indigna miserandaque auditu cum apud timentes sibimet ipsos maiore audientium indignatione quam sua increpuissent, atqui nec agros occupandi modum nec fenore trucidandi plebem alium patribus unquam fore, adfirmabant, nisi alterum ex plebe consulem, custodem suae libertatis, [plebi] fecissent. Contemni iam tribunos plebis, quippe quae potestas iam suam ipsa vim frangat intercedendo. Non posse aequo iure agi ubi imperium penes illos, penes se auxilium tantum sit; nisi imperio communicato nunquam plebem in parte pari rei publicae fore.

[37] When these things, unworthy and pitiable to hear, had rung out among the fearful themselves with a greater indignation of the hearers than their own, they affirmed that for the patricians there would never be either any limit to seizing fields or any other way than by usury to butcher the plebs, unless they made one of the consuls from the plebs, a guardian of their liberty, for the [plebs]. The tribunes of the plebs are now being contemned, since that power by its very interceding breaks its own force. It is not possible to proceed with equal right where the imperium is in their hands, and in their own there is only aid; unless the imperium be communicated, the plebs will never be in an equal share of the commonwealth.

Nec esse quod quisquam satis putet, si plebeiorum ratio comitiis consularibus habeatur; nisi alterum consulem utique ex plebe fieri necesse sit, neminem fore. An iam memoria exisse, cum tribunos militum idcirco potius quam consules creari placuisset ut et plebeiis pateret summus honos, quattuor et quadraginta annis neminem ex plebe tribunum militum creatum esse? Qui crederent duobus nunc in locis sua voluntate impertituros plebi honorem, qui octona loca tribunis militum creandis occupare soliti sint, et ad consulatum viam fieri passuros, qui tribunatum saeptum tam diu habuerint?

Nor is there any reason for anyone to think it sufficient if consideration of the plebeians is had in the consular comitia; unless it is necessary that one of the consuls be in any case made from the plebs, there will be no one. Or has it already slipped from memory that, when it had pleased that tribunes of the soldiers rather than consuls be created for this reason—that the highest honor might be open also to plebeians—in 44 years no one from the plebs was created military tribune? Who would believe that they, who are wont to occupy eight places in the creating of military tribunes, would now of their own will impart the honor to the plebs in two places, and would allow a way to be made to the consulship, they who have had the tribunate fenced in for so long?

Lege obtinendum esse quod comitiis per gratiam nequeat, et seponendum extra certamen alterum consulatum ad quem plebi sit aditus, quoniam in certamine relictus praemium semper potentioris futurus sit. Nec iam posse dici id quod antea iactare soliti sint, non esse in plebeiis idoneos viros ad curules magistratus. Numqui enim socordius aut segnius rem publicam administrari post P. Licini Calui tribunatum, qui primus ex plebe creatus sit, quam per eos annos gesta sit quibus praeter patricios nemo tribunus militum fuerit?

That must be secured by statute which cannot be achieved in the comitia by favor, and one of the two consulships must be set aside outside the contest, to which the plebs shall have access, since, if left in the competition, it will always be the prize of the more powerful. Nor can that now be said which they were formerly wont to vaunt: that there are not among the plebeians men fit for curule magistracies. For has the commonwealth been administered any more sluggishly or more slackly after the tribunate of P. Licinius Calvus, who was the first created from the plebs, than in those years in which, except for patricians, no one was a military tribune?

Quin contra patricios aliquot damnatos post tribunatum, neminem plebeium. Quaestores quoque, sicut tribunos militum, paucis ante annis ex plebe coeptos creari nec ullius eorum populum Romanum paenituisse. Consulatum superesse plebeiis; eam esse arcem libertatis, id columen.

Nay rather, on the contrary, after the tribunate several patricians have been condemned, not a single plebeian. The quaestors too, like the military tribunes, a few years ago began to be created from the plebs, and the Roman People has not regretted any of them. The consulship remains for the plebeians: that is the citadel of liberty, that the pillar.

Si eo perventum sit, tum populum Romanum vere exactos ex urbe reges et stabilem libertatem suam existimaturum; quippe ex illa die in plebem ventura omnia quibus patricii excellant, imperium atque honorem, gloriam belli, genus, nobilitatem, magna ipsis fruenda, maiora liberis relinquenda.

If it should come to that, then the Roman people will truly think the kings driven out from the city and their liberty stable; for indeed from that day all the things by which the patricians excel will come into the plebs—command and honor, the glory of war, lineage, nobility—great things for themselves to enjoy, greater to leave to their children.

Huius generis orationes ubi accipi videre, novam rogationem promulgant, ut pro duumviris sacris faciundis decemuiri creentur ita ut pars ex plebe, pars ex patribus fiat; omniumque earum rogationum comitia in adventum eius exercitus differunt qui Velitras obsidebat.

When they saw that speeches of this kind were being accepted, they promulgate a new rogation: that, in place of the duumvirs for sacred rites, decemvirs be created, in such a way that part be from the plebs and part from the patricians; and they defer the comitia for all those rogations to the arrival of that army which was besieging Velitrae.

[38] Prius circumactus est annus quam a Velitris reducerentur legiones; ita suspensa de legibus res ad novos tribunos militum dilata; nam plebis tribunos eosdem, duos utique quia legum latores erant, plebes reficiebat. Tribuni militum creati T. Quinctius Ser. Cornelius Ser.

[38] A year was completed before the legions were led back from Velitrae; thus the matter concerning the laws, being in suspense, was deferred to the new military tribunes; for the plebs was re‑electing the same tribunes of the plebs—at any rate the two, because they were the sponsors of the laws. Military tribunes were elected: T. Quinctius, Ser. Cornelius, Ser.

Sulpicius Sp. Servilius L. Papirius L. Veturius. Principio statim anni ad ultimam dimicationem de legibus ventum; et cum tribus vocarentur nec intercessio collegarum latoribus obstaret, trepidi patres ad duo ultima auxilia, summum imperium summumque ad civem decurrunt. Dictatorem dici placet; dicitur M. Furius Camillus, qui magistrum equitum L. Aemilium cooptat.

Sulpicius Sp. Servilius L. Papirius L. Veturius. At the very beginning of the year it came to the ultimate contest over the laws; and when the tribes were being called and the intercession of the colleagues did not obstruct the sponsors, the Fathers, in alarm, run to two last aids, the supreme command and the supreme citizen. It pleases that a Dictator be named; M. Furius Camillus is named, who appoints L. Aemilius Master of the Horse.

Legum quoque latores adversus tantum apparatum adversariorum et ipsi causam plebis ingentibus animis armant concilioque plebis indicto tribus ad suffragium vocant.

The legislators also, against so great a preparation of their adversaries, themselves arm the cause of the plebs with mighty courage, and, the council of the plebs having been proclaimed, they call the tribes to the vote.

Cum dictator, stipatus agmine patriciorum, plenus irae minarumque consedisset atque ageretur res solito primum certamine inter se tribunorum plebi ferentium legem intercedentiumque et, quanto iure potentior intercessio erat, tantum vinceretur favore legum ipsarum latorumque et "uti rogas" primae tribus dicerent, tum Camillus "Quando quidem" inquit, "Quirites, iam vos tribunicia libido, non potestas regit et intercessionem, secessione quondam plebis partam, vobis eadem vi facitis inritam qua peperistis, non rei publicae magis universae quam vestra causa dictator intercessioni adero eversumque vestrum auxilium imperio tutabor. Itaque si C. Licinius et L. Sextius intercessioni collegarum cedunt, nihil patricium magistratum inseram concilio plebis; si adversus intercessionem tamquam captae civitati leges imponere tendent, vim tribuniciam a se ipsa dissolvi non patiar."

When the dictator, escorted by a column of patricians, full of wrath and threats, had taken his seat, and the matter was at first being conducted with the customary contest among the tribunes of the plebs among themselves, those proposing the law and those interceding; and in proportion as the intercession was more potent in right, by so much was it being overcome by the favor for the laws themselves and their sponsors, and the first tribes were saying "as you ask," then Camillus said: "Since indeed, Quirites, now tribunitian wantonness, not power, rules you, and you make void the intercession—once obtained for you by the secession of the plebs—by the same force by which you got it, I, as dictator, will stand by the intercession no less for your sake than for that of the commonwealth as a whole, and by my imperium I will protect your aid that is being overthrown. Therefore, if Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius yield to the intercession of their colleagues, I will insert no patrician magistrate into the council of the plebs; if, against the intercession, they strive to impose laws upon the state as upon a captured city, I will not allow the tribunician force to be dissolved by itself."

Adversus ea cum contemptim tribuni plebis rem nihilo segnius peragerent, tum percitus ira Camillus lictores qui de medio plebem emoverent misit et addidit minas, si pergerent, sacramento omnes iuniores adacturum exercitumque extemplo ex urbe educturum. Terrorem ingentem incusserat plebi: ducibus plebis accendit magis certamine animos quam minuit. Sed re neutro inclinata magistratu se abdicavit, seu quia vitio creatus erat, ut scripsere quidam, seu quia tribuni plebis tulerunt ad plebem idque plebs scivit, ut, si M. Furius pro dictatore quid egisset, quingentum milium ei multa esset; sed auspiciis magis quam novi exempli rogatione deterritum ut potius credam, cum ipsius viri facit ingenium, tum quod ei suffectus est extemplo P. Manlius dictator—quem quid creari attinebat ad id certamen quo M. Furius victus esset?—et quod eundem M. Furium dictatorem insequens annus habuit, haud sine pudore certe fractum priore anno in se imperium repetiturum; simul quod eo tempore quo promulgatum de multa eius traditur aut et huic rogationi, qua se in ordinem cogi videbat, obsistere potuit aut ne illas quidem propter quas et haec lata erat impedire; et quod usque ad memoriam nostram tribuniciis consularibusque certatum viribus est, dictaturae semper altius fastigium fuit.

Against these measures, when the tribunes of the plebs were, with contempt, prosecuting the matter none the more slowly, then Camillus, roused by anger, sent lictors to remove the plebs from the midst and added threats that, if they persisted, he would drive all the younger men to the sacrament (military oath) and forthwith lead the army out of the city. He had struck a vast terror into the plebs; in the leaders of the plebs he inflamed their spirits for the contest rather than diminished them. But, with the matter inclined to neither side, he abdicated his magistracy—either because he had been created with a flaw, as some have written, or because the tribunes of the plebs carried a measure to the plebs and the plebs enacted it, that, if M. Furius should do anything as dictator, a fine of 500,000 should be upon him; but that he was deterred more by the auspices than by a rogation of novel precedent I would rather believe, both because the character of the man himself supports it, and because P. Manlius was straightway substituted as dictator in his place—what was the point of creating him for that contest in which M. Furius would have been defeated?—and because the following year had that same M. Furius as dictator, certainly not about to resume in his own person, without shame, an authority broken in the previous year; at the same time because, at the very time when the promulgation about his fine is reported, he either could have opposed this rogation, by which he saw himself being brought to heel, or at least hinder those very measures on account of which even this had been carried; and because, down to our own memory, the struggle in forces has been between the tribunician and consular powers, the dictatorship has always had the loftier summit.

[39] Inter priorem dictaturam abdicatam novamque a Manlio initam ab tribunis velut per interregnum concilio plebis habito apparuit quae ex promulgatis plebi, quae latoribus gratiora essent. Nam de fenore atque agro rogationes iubebant, de plebeio consule antiquabant; et perfecta utraque res esset, ni tribuni se in omnia simul consulere plebem dixissent. P. Manlius deinde dictator rem in causam plebis inclinavit C. Licinio, qui tribunus militum fuerat, magistro equitum de plebe dicto.

[39] Between the earlier dictatorship having been abdicated and the new one begun by Manlius, with a council of the plebs held by the tribunes as though in an interregnum, it became apparent, out of the proposals published to the plebs, which would be more gratifying to their sponsors. For the bills concerning usury and land they ordered to pass, but that concerning a plebeian consul they were rejecting; and both measures would have been effected, had not the tribunes said that they were consulting the plebs on all of them at once. Then P. Manlius the dictator inclined the matter to the cause of the plebs by naming from the plebs C. Licinius—who had been a military tribune—as Master of the Horse.

Id aegre patres passos accipio: dictatorem propinqua cognatione Licini se apud patres excusare solitum, simul negantem magistri equitum maius quam tribuni consularis imperium esse. Licinius Sextiusque, cum tribunorum plebi creandorum indicta comitia essent, ita se gerere ut negando iam sibi velle continuari honorem acerrime accenderent ad id quod dissimulando petebant plebem: nonum se annum iam velut in acie adversus optimates maximo privatim periculo, nullo publice emolumento stare. Consenuisse iam secum et rogationes promulgatas et vim omnem tribuniciae potestatis.

I learn that the Fathers endured that with difficulty: that the dictator was accustomed to excuse himself before the Fathers by reason of close consanguinity with Licinius, and at the same time denying that the command of the Master of the Horse was greater than that of a consular tribune. Licinius and Sextius, when the comitia for creating tribunes of the plebs had been announced, so conducted themselves that, by denying that they now wished the honor to be continued to themselves, they most keenly inflamed the plebs toward that which they were seeking by dissembling: that for the ninth year now they were standing, as if in the battle line, against the Optimates, with the greatest private peril, with no public emolument; that both the promulgated bills and all the force of tribunician power had now grown old along with them.

Primo intercessione collegarum in leges suas pugnatum esse, deinde ablegatione iuventutis ad Veliternum bellum; postremo dictatorium fulmen in se intentatum. Iam nec collegas nec bellum nec dictatorem obstare, quippe qui etiam omen plebeio consuli magistro equitum ex plebe dicendo dederit: se ipsam plebem et commoda morari sua. Liberam urbem ac forum a creditoribus, liberos agros ab iniustis possessoribus extemplo, si velit, habere posse.

At first their laws had been contested by the intercession of their colleagues, then by the dispatch of the youth to the Veliternan war; finally, the dictatorial thunderbolt had been aimed against them. Now neither colleagues nor the war nor the dictator stand in the way—since he even has given an omen to a plebeian consul by naming a Master of Horse from the plebs: it is the plebs themselves and their own advantages that are causing the delay. A city and forum free from creditors, and fields free from unjust possessors, they can have at once, if they will.

Quae munera quando tandem satis grato animo aestimaturos, si inter accipiendas de suis commodis rogationes spem honoris latoribus earum incidant? Non esse modestiae populi Romani id postulare ut ipse fenore levetur et in agrum iniuria possessum a potentibus inducatur, per quos ea consecutus sit senes tribunicios non sine honore tantum sed etiam sine spe honoris relinquat. Proinde ipsi primum statuerent apud animos quid vellent; deinde comitiis tribuniciis declararent voluntatem.

When, pray, will they at last value such services with a sufficiently grateful mind, if, while receiving rogations about their own advantages, they cut off from the bearers of them the hope of honor? It is not in the modesty of the Roman people to demand this: that it itself be relieved of interest and be led into land unjustly possessed by the powerful, and that, through those by whose agency it has obtained these things, it leave tribunician elders not only without honor but even without the hope of honor. Accordingly, let them first determine in their own minds what they want; then let them declare their will at the tribunician elections.

Si coniuncte ferre ab se promulgatas rogationes vellent, esse quod eosdem reficerent tribunos plebis; perlaturos enim quae promulgaverint: sin quod cuique privatim opus sit id modo accipi velint, opus esse nihil invidiosa continuatione honoris; nec se tribunatum nec illos ea quae promulgata sint habituros.

If they were willing to carry in conjunction the rogations promulgated by themselves, there would be reason to re-elect the same men as tribunes of the plebs; for they would carry through what they have promulgated: but if they prefer to accept only that which each man needs privately, there is no need of an invidious continuation of office; neither would we hold the tribunate, nor would they obtain the things that have been promulgated.

[40] Adversus tam obstinatam orationem tribunorum cum prae indignitate rerum stupor silentiumque inde ceteros patrum defixisset, Ap. Claudius Crassus, nepos decemuiri, dicitur odio magis iraque quam spe ad dissuadendum processisse et locutus in hanc fere sententiam esse: "Neque novum neque inopinatum mihi sit, Quirites, si, quod unum familiae nostrae semper obiectum est ab seditiosis tribunis, id nunc ego quoque audiam, Claudiae gentis iam inde ab initio nihil antiquius in re publica patrum maiestate fuisse, semper plebis commodis adversatos esse. Quorum alterum neque nego neque infitias eo—nos, ex quo adsciti sumus simul in civitatem et patres, enixe operam dedisse ut per nos aucta potius quam imminuta maiestas earum gentium inter quas nos esse voluistis dici vere posset: illud alterum pro me maioribusque meis contendere ausim, Quirites, nisi, quae pro universa re publica fiant, ea plebi tamquam aliam incolenti urbem adversa quis putet, nihil nos neque privatos neque in magistratibus quod incommodum plebi esset scientes fecisse nec ullum factum dictumve nostrum contra utilitatem vestram, etsi quaedam contra voluntatem fuerint, vere referri posse. An hoc, si Claudiae familiae non sim nec ex patricio sanguine ortus sed unus Quiritium quilibet, qui modo me duobus ingenuis ortum et vivere in libera civitate sciam, reticere possim L. Illum Sextium et C. Licinium, perpetuos, si dis placet, tribunos, tantum licentiae novem annis quibus regnant sumpsisse, ut vobis negent potestatem liberam suffragii non in comitiis, non in legibus iubendis se permissuros esse?

[40] Against so obstinate a speech of the tribunes, when, because of the indignity of the matters, stupefaction and thereupon silence had fixed the rest of the patres, Appius Claudius Crassus, the grandson of the Decemvir, is said to have advanced to dissuade, more out of hatred and anger than out of hope, and to have spoken almost to this purport: "It is neither new nor unexpected to me, Quirites, if that one thing which has always been thrown at our family by seditious tribunes I too now hear—that from the very beginning nothing has been more ancient and paramount to the Claudian gens in the res publica than the majesty of the patres, that we have always been adverse to the advantages of the plebs. Of which two charges I neither deny nor disown this one—that from the time we were admitted at once into the civitas and into the patres, we have strenuously taken pains that, through us, it might truly be said that the majesty of those orders among whom you have willed us to be was increased rather than diminished: as for that other, I would dare, Quirites, to contend on behalf of myself and my maiores, unless someone should suppose that the things which are done for the whole res publica are adverse to the plebs as though inhabiting another city, that we neither in private nor in magistracies have knowingly done anything that was an inconvenience to the plebs, nor can any deed or word of ours be truly reported as against your utility, although certain things may have been against your will. And could I keep silence about this—if I were not of the Claudian family nor sprung from patrician blood, but were any one whatsoever of the Quirites who at least knows that I was born from two freeborn parents and live in a free civitas—that Lucius Sextius and Gaius Licinius, perpetual, if the gods please, tribunes, have assumed so much license in the nine years during which they reign as to tell you that they will not permit you free power of suffrage, either in the comitia or in enacting laws?"

"Sub condicione" inquit, "nos reficietis decimum tribunos." Quid est aliud dicere "quod petunt alii, nos adeo fastidimus ut sine mercede magna non accipiamus"? Sed quae tandem ista merces est qua vos semper tribunos plebis habeamus? "Ut rogationes" inquit, "nostras, seu placent seu displicent, seu utiles seu inutiles sunt, omnes coniunctim accipiatis." Obsecro vos, Tarquinii tribuni plebis, putate me ex media contione unum civem succlamare 'bona venia vestra liceat ex his rogationibus legere quas salubres nobis censemus esse, antiquare alias.' "Non" inquit, "licebit tu de fenore atque agris quod ad vos omnes pertinet iubeas et hoc portenti non fiat in urbe Romana uti L. Sextium atque hunc C. Licinium consules, quod indignaris, quod abominaris, videas; aut omnia accipe, aut nihil fero"; ut si quis ei quem urgeat fames venenum ponat cum cibo et aut abstinere eo quod vitale sit iubeat aut mortiferum vitali admisceat. Ergo si esset libera haec civitas, non tibi frequentes succlamassent "abi hinc cum tribunatibus ac rogationibus tuis"? Quid?

"On condition," he says, "you will re-elect us tribunes for the tenth time." What else is it to say than, "what others seek, we are so fastidious that we will not accept it without a great price"? But what, pray, is that price by which we should have you always tribunes of the plebs? "That you take our bills (rogations), whether they please or displease, whether they are useful or useless, all together en bloc." I beseech you, Tarquinii, tribunes of the plebs, suppose me, one citizen from the midst of the assembly, shouting back: 'by your good leave, let it be permitted out of these bills to choose those which we judge to be wholesome for us, and to vote down the others.' "It shall not," he says, "be permitted that you ordain concerning interest and lands what pertains to you all, and that this monstrosity not come to pass in the Roman city—namely, that you should see L. Sextius and this C. Licinius as consuls, which you resent, which you abominate; either accept everything, or I bring forward nothing"; as if someone were to set poison with food before a man whom hunger presses, and bid him either abstain from that which is life-giving or mix the death-bringing with the life-giving. Therefore, if this were a free commonwealth, would not men in crowds have shouted back to you, "be off from here with your tribuneships and your bills"? What?

Si tu non tuleris quod commodum est populo accipere, nemo erit qui ferat? Illud si quis patricius, si quis, quod illi volunt invidiosius esse, Claudius diceret "aut omnia accipite, aut nihil fero", quis vestrum, Quirites, ferret? Nunquamne vos res potius quam auctores spectabitis sed omnia semper quae magistratus ille dicet secundis auribus, quae ab nostrum quo dicentur adversis accipietis?

If you will not carry what it is advantageous for the people to accept, will there be no one who will carry it? If some patrician—if some Claudius, which they want to be the more odious—were to say, "either accept everything, or I bring nothing," which of you, Quirites, would tolerate it? Will you never look to the measures rather than the authors, but will you always receive with favorable ears all that that magistrate says, and with hostile ears the things that will be said by one of our number?

"At hercule sermo est minime civilis; quid? Rogatio qualis est, quam a vobis antiquatam indignantur? Sermoni, Quirites, simillima.

"But, by Hercules, the speech is least civil; what? What sort is the bill, which they are indignant has been rejected by you? Most similar to the speech, Quirites.

'Consules' inquit, 'rogo ne vobis quos velitis facere liceat.' An aliter [rogat] qui utique alterum ex plebe fieri consulem iubet nec duos patricios creandi potestatem vobis permittit? Si hodie bella sint, quale Etruscum fuit cum Porsenna Ianiculum insedit, quale Gallicum modo cum praeter Capitolium atque arcem omnia haec hostium erant, et consulatum cum hoc M. Furio et quolibet alio ex patribus L. ille Sextius peteret, possetisne ferre Sextium haud pro dubio consulem esse, Camillum de repulsa dimicare? Hocine est in commune honores vocare, ut duos plebeios fieri consules liceat, duos patricios non liceat?

'Consuls,' he says, 'I propose that it not be licit for you to make whomever you wish.' Is he [asking] anything different, who in any case orders that one of the consuls be made from the plebs and does not permit you the power of creating two patricians? If today there were wars—such as the Etruscan, when Porsenna occupied the Janiculum; such as the Gallic just now, when, apart from the Capitol and the citadel, all these things were the enemy’s—and that Lucius Sextius were to seek the consulship together with this Marcus Furius and any other from the patricians, could you endure that Sextius be beyond doubt the consul, and Camillus fight over an electoral rejection? Is this what it is to call honors into the common, that it be permitted for two plebeians to be made consuls, but not permitted for two patricians?

Et alterum ex plebe creari necesse sit, utrumque ex patribus praeterire liceat? Quaenam ista societas, quaenam consortio est? Parum est, si, cuius pars tua nulla adhuc fuit, in partem eius venis, nisi partem petendo totum traxeris?

And if it is necessary that one be created from the plebs, is it permitted that both from the patricians be passed over? What kind of partnership is that, what kind of consortium? Is it too little that you, whose share has hitherto been none, come into a share of it, unless by seeking a part you drag the whole?

'Timeo' inquit, 'ne, si duos licebit creari patricios, neminem creetis plebeium.' Quid est dicere aliud 'quia indignos vestra voluntate creaturi non estis, necessitatem vobis creandi quos non voltis imponam? Quid sequitur, nisi ut ne beneficium quidem debeat populo, si cum duobus patriciis unus petierit plebeius et lege se non suffragio creatum dicat?

'I fear,' he says, 'lest, if it will be permitted to create two patricians, you will create no plebeian.' What is it to say anything else than 'since you are not going to create by your own will men unworthy, I will impose upon you the necessity of creating those whom you do not wish'? What follows, unless that he should not even owe a benefice to the people, if, when along with two patricians one plebeian has been a candidate, he says that he was created by law and not by suffrage?

[41] "Quomodo extorqueant, non quomodo petant honores, quaerunt; et ita maxima sunt adepturi, ut nihil ne pro minimis quidem debeant; et occasionibus potius quam virtute petere honores malunt. Est aliquis, qui se inspici, aestimari fastidiat, qui certos sibi uni honores inter dimicantes competitores aequum censeat esse, qui se arbitrio vestro eximat, qui vestra necessaria suffragia pro voluntariis et serva pro liberis faciat. Omitto Licinium Sextiumque, quorum annos in perpetua potestate tamquam regum in Capitolio numeratis: quis est hodie in civitate tam humilis cui non via ad consulatum facilior per istius legis occasionem quam nobis ac liberis nostris fiat, si quidem nos ne cum volveritis quidem creare interdum poteritis, istos etiam si nolueritis necesse sit?

[41] "They inquire how they may extort, not how they may petition, honors; and thus they are going to obtain the greatest, in such a way that they owe nothing, not even for the least; and they prefer to seek honors by opportunities rather than by virtue. Is there anyone who would disdain to be inspected, to be estimated, who would deem it equitable that certain honors be for himself alone amid competitors contending, who would exempt himself from your judgment, who would make your suffrages necessary instead of voluntary, and servile instead of free. I omit Licinius and Sextius, whose years in perpetual power you count on the Capitol as if of kings: who is there today in the state so humble for whom the road to the consulship would not be easier by the opportunity of that law than for us and for our children, since indeed you will sometimes not be able to create us even when you wish, whereas those men you must [create] even if you do not wish?"

"De indignitate satis dictum est. Etenim dignitas ad homines pertinet. Quid de religionibus atque auspiciis—quae propria deorum immortalium contemptio atque iniuria est—loquar?

"About the indignity enough has been said. For dignity pertains to men. What shall I say about religious rites and auspices—which is a peculiar contempt and injury done to the immortal gods—?

Auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace domi militiaeque omnia geri, quis est qui ignoret? Penes quos igitur sunt auspicia more maiorum? Nempe penes patres; nam plebeius quidem magistratus nullus auspicato creatur; nobis adeo propria sunt auspicia, ut non solum quos populus creat patricios magistratus non aliter quam auspicato creet sed nos quoque ipsi sine suffragio populi auspicato interregem prodamus et privatim auspicia habeamus, quae isti ne in magistratibus quidem habent.

Auspices founded this city; by auspices everything is conducted in war and peace, at home and in the field—who is there who does not know this? In whose hands, therefore, are the auspices according to the custom of the ancestors? Surely with the Fathers, the patricians; for no plebeian magistracy is created under auspices; the auspices are so peculiarly ours that not only does the people create the patrician magistracies in no other way than under auspices, but we ourselves also, without the vote of the people, by auspices bring forth an interrex, and we have auspices in private life, which those men do not have even in their magistracies.

Quid igitur aliud quam tollit ex civitate auspicia qui plebeios consules creando a patribus, qui soli ea habere possunt, aufert? Eludant nunc licet religiones: 'Quid enim est, si pulli non pascentur, si ex cauea tardius exierint, si occecinerit avis?' Parva sunt haec; sed parva ista non contemnendo maiores vestri maximam hanc rem fecerunt; nunc nos, tamquam iam nihil pace deorum opus sit, omnes caerimonias polluimus. Volgo ergo pontifices, augures, sacrificuli reges creentur; cuilibet apicem Dialem, dummodo homo sit imponamus; tradamus ancilia, penetralia, deos deorumque curam, quibus nefas est; non leges auspicato ferantur, non magistratus creentur; nec centuriatis nec curiatis comitiis patres auctores fiant; Sextius et Licinius tamquam Romulus ac Tatius in urbe Romana regnent, quia pecunias alienas, quia agros dono dant.

What then does he do other than remove the auspices from the commonwealth, who, by creating plebeian consuls, takes them away from the fathers, who alone are able to hold them? Let them now, if they please, make a mockery of religious observances: ‘For what is it, if the chicks will not feed, if they have come out of the cage rather slowly, if a bird has cried?’ These are small things; but by not despising those small things your ancestors made this a very great matter; now we, as though there were no longer any need of the peace of the gods, have polluted all the ceremonies. So then let pontiffs, augurs, petty sacrificers, kings be created indiscriminately; let us set the Dialis apex upon anyone whatsoever, provided he be a man; let us hand over the ancilia, the inner shrines, the gods and the care of the gods, to those for whom it is sacrilege; let laws not be proposed under auspices, let magistrates not be created; let the fathers become ratifiers neither in the centuriate nor in the curiate assemblies; let Sextius and Licinius reign in the Roman city like Romulus and Tatius, because they give away other people’s money, because they give lands as a gift.

Tanta dulcedo est ex alienis fortunis praedandi, nec in mentem venit altera lege solitudines vastas in agris fieri pellendo finibus dominos, altera fidem abrogari cum qua omnis humana societas tollitur? Omnium rerum causa vobis antiquandas censeo istas rogationes. Quod faxitis deos velim fortunare."

So great is the sweetness of plundering from others’ fortunes, and does it not come into mind that by one bill vast solitudes are made in the fields by expelling the owners from their boundaries, by another that good faith is abrogated, with which all human society is destroyed? For the sake of everything, I judge that these bills ought to be voted down by you. I would wish the gods to prosper what you do."

[42] Oratio Appi ad id modo valuit ut tempus rogationum iubendarum proferretur. Refecti decumum iidem tribuni, Sextius et Licinius, de decemuiris sacrorum ex parte de plebe creandis legem pertulere. Creati quinque patrum, quinque plebis; graduque eo iam via facta ad consulatum videbatur.

[42] The oration of Appius availed only to this: that the time for ordering the bills to be proposed was postponed. The same tribunes, Sextius and Licinius, were re-elected for the 10th time, and they carried a law for decemvirs of sacred rites to be created in part from the plebs. Five were created of the patres, five of the plebs; and by that step the way now seemed opened to the consulship.

Hac victoria contenta plebes cessit patribus ut in praesentia consulum mentione omissa tribuni militum crearentur. Creati A. et M. Cornelii iterum M. Geganius P. Manlius L. Veturius P. Valerius sextum.

With this victory satisfied, the plebs yielded to the patricians that, for the present, with mention of consuls omitted, military tribunes should be created. Elected were A. and M. Cornelii again, M. Geganius, P. Manlius, L. Veturius, and P. Valerius for the 6th time.

Dum praeter Velitrarum obsidionem, tardi magis rem exitus quam dubii, quietae externae res Romanis essent, fama repens belli Gallici allata perpulit civitatem ut M. Furius dictator quintum diceretur. Is T. Quinctium Poenum magistrum equitum dixit. Bellatum cum Gallis eo anno circa Anienem flumen auctor est Claudius inclitamque in ponte pugnam, qua T. Manlius Gallum cum quo provocatus manus conseruit in conspectu duorum exercituum caesum torque spoliavit, tum pugnatam.

While, apart from the siege of Velitrae—an affair more slow in issue than doubtful—the Romans’ external affairs were quiet, a sudden report of a Gallic war brought in impelled the community to have M. Furius proclaimed dictator for the fifth time. He named T. Quinctius Poenus master of the horse. Claudius is authority that that year there was fighting with the Gauls around the river Anio, and that the renowned combat on the bridge was then fought, in which T. Manlius, having been challenged and having joined hands in combat with a Gaul in the sight of the two armies, after the man was cut down despoiled him of his torque.

Pluribus auctoribus magis adducor ut credam decem haud minus post annos ea acta, hoc autem anno in Albano agro cum Gallis dictatore M. Furio signa conlata. Nec dubia nec difficilis Romanis, quamquam ingentem Galli terrorem memoria pristinae cladis attulerant, victoria fuit. Multa milia barbarorum in acie, multa captis castris caesa; palati alii Apuliam maxime petentes cum fuga [se] longinqua tum quod passim eos simul pavor errorque distulerant, ab hoste sese tutati sunt.

I am more induced by several authorities to believe that those events were done not less than ten years later; but in this year, in the Alban territory, battle was joined with the Gauls under the dictator M. Furius. The victory was neither doubtful nor difficult for the Romans, although the Gauls had brought immense terror with the memory of the former disaster. Many thousands of barbarians were cut down in the battle line, many in the captured camp; others, scattered—making especially for Apulia—both by long flight and because panic and error had dispersed them everywhere alike, kept themselves safe from the enemy.

Dictatori consensu patrum plebisque triumphus decretus.

A triumph was decreed for the dictator by the consent of the senators and the plebs.

Vixdum perfunctum eum bello atrocior domi seditio excepit, et per ingentia certamina dictator senatusque victus, ut rogationes tribuniciae acciperentur; et comitia consulum adversa nobilitate habita, quibus L. Sextius de plebe primus consul factus. Et ne is quidem finis certaminum fuit. Quia patricii se auctores futuros negabant, prope secessionem plebis res terribilesque alias minas civilium certaminum venit cum tandem per dictatorem condicionibus sedatae discordiae sunt concessumque ab nobilitate plebi de consule plebeio, a plebe nobilitati de praetore uno qui ius in urbe diceret ex patribus creando.

Scarcely was he done with the war when a more atrocious sedition at home overtook him, and through immense contests the dictator and the senate were conquered, so that the tribunician rogations might be accepted; and the comitia for consuls were held in despite of the nobility, in which L. Sextius, from the plebs, was made the first consul. And not even that was the end of the contests. Because the patricians denied that they would act as auctores, the situation came near to a secession of the plebs and to other terrible threats of civil contests, when at last through the dictator, on conditions, the discords were settled, and it was conceded by the nobility to the plebs concerning a plebeian consul, by the plebs to the nobility concerning one praetor, to be created from the patricians, who would declare the law in the city.

Ita ab diutina ira tandem in concordiam redactis ordinibus, cum dignam eam rem senatus censeret esse meritoque id, si quando unquam alias, deum immortalium [causa libenter facturos] fore ut ludi maximi fierent et dies unus ad triduum adiceretur, recusantibus id munus aedilibus plebis, conclamatum a patriciis est iuvenibus se id honoris deum immortalium causa libenter facturos [ut aediles fierent]. Quibus cum ab universis gratiae actae essent, factum senatus consultum, ut, duumviros aediles ex patribus dictator populum rogaret, patres auctores omnibus eius anni comitiis fierent.

Thus, with the orders at last brought back from long-standing anger into concord, since the senate judged that matter worthy, and that, deservedly, if ever at any other time, they would [for the sake of the immortal gods gladly do it], namely that the Greatest Games be held and that one day be added to make a triduum, when the aediles of the plebs refused that duty, the young patricians shouted that they would gladly do that honor for the sake of the immortal gods [that they might become aediles]. When thanks had been given to them by all, a senatus consultum was made that the dictator should put to the people duumvirs aediles from the patres, and that the patres be auctores for all the comitia of that year.