Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Annus hic erit insignis novi hominis consulatu, insignis novis duobus magistratibus, praetura et curuli aedilitate; hos sibi patricii quaesivere honores pro concesso plebi altero consulatu. Plebes consulatum L. Sextio, cuius lege partus erat, dedit: patres praeturam Sp. Furio M. Filio Camillo, aedilitatem Cn. Quinctio Capitolino et P. Cornelio Scipioni, suarum gentium viris, gratia campestri ceperunt. L. Sextio collega ex patribus datus L. Aemilius Mamercus.

[1] This year will be distinguished by the consulship of a new man, and distinguished by two new magistracies, the praetorship and the curule aedileship; the patricians sought these honors for themselves in return for the second consulship conceded to the plebs. The plebs gave the consulship to L. Sextius, which had been brought forth by his law; the fathers, by favor on the Field, secured the praetorship for Sp. Furius Camillus, son of M., and the aedileship for Cn. Quinctius Capitolinus and P. Cornelius Scipio, men of their own gentes. To L. Sextius a colleague from the patricians was assigned, L. Aemilius Mamercus.

Principio anni et de Gallis, quos primo palatos per Apuliam congregari iam fama erat, et de Hernicorum defectione agitata mentio. Cum de industria omnia, ne quid per plebeium consulem ageretur, proferrentur, silentium omnium rerum ac iustitio simile otium fuit, nisi quod non patientibus tacitum tribunis quod pro consule uno plebeio tres patricios magistratus curulibus sellis praetextatos tamquam consules sedentes nobilitas sibi sumpsisset, praetorem quidem etiam iura reddentem et collegam consulibus atque iisdem auspiciis creatum, verecundia inde imposita est senatui ex patribus iubendi aediles curules creari. Primo ut alternis annis ex plebe fierent convenerat: postea promiscuum fuit.

At the beginning of the year mention was stirred both about the Gauls—who at first, scattered through Apulia, were now rumored to be assembling—and about the defection of the Hernici. Since, deliberately, everything was being postponed so that nothing might be transacted under a plebeian consul, there was a silence of all business and a leisure like a iustitium, except that, the tribunes not enduring in silence that, in place of one plebeian consul, the nobility had arrogated to itself three patrician magistrates, seated on curule chairs and wearing the toga praetexta as though consuls—the praetor, indeed, even dispensing justice and a colleague to the consuls, and created under the same auspices—thereupon shame was imposed on the senate, composed of patricians, to order that curule aediles be created. At first it had been agreed that they should be made from the plebs in alternate years; afterwards it was indiscriminate.

Inde L. Genucio et Q. Servilio consulibus et ab seditione et a bello quietis rebus, ne quando a metu ac periculis vacarent, pestilentia ingens orta. Censorem, aedilem curulem, tres tribunos plebis mortuos ferunt, pro portione et ex multitudine alia multa funera fuisse; maximeque eam pestilentiam insignem mors quam matura tam acerba M. Furi fecit. Fuit enim vere vir unicus in omni fortuna, princeps pace belloque priusquam exsulatum iret, clarior in exsilio, vel desiderio civitatis quae capta absentis imploravit opem vel felicitate qua restitutus in patriam secum patriam ipsam restituit; par deinde per quinque et viginti annos—tot enim postea vixit—titulo tantae gloriae fuit dignusque habitus quem secundum a Romulo conditorem urbis Romanae ferrent.

Thence, under the consulship of L. Genucius and Q. Servilius, with affairs quiet both from sedition and from war, lest ever they be free from fear and dangers, a huge pestilence arose. They report that a censor, a curule aedile, and three tribunes of the plebs died, and that, in proportion to the great multitude, there were many other funerals besides; and that pestilence was made most notable by the death—so premature and so bitter—of M. Furius. For he was truly a unique man in every fortune, a chief in peace and in war before he went into exile, more illustrious in exile, whether by the longing of the commonwealth which, captured, implored the aid of the absent man, or by the felicity with which, restored to his fatherland, he restored the fatherland itself along with himself; afterwards, for twenty-five years—for he lived that many thereafter—he was equal to the title of so great glory, and was held worthy to be acclaimed as the second founder of the Roman city after Romulus.

[2] Et hoc et insequenti anno C. Sulpicio Petico C. Licinio Stolone consulibus pestilentia fuit. Eo nihil dignum memoria actum, nisi quod pacis deum exposcendae causa tertio tum post conditam urbem lectisternium fuit. Et cum vis morbi nec humanis consiliis nec ope diuina levaretur, victis superstitione animis ludi quoque scenici, nova res bellicoso populo—nam circi modo spectaculum fuerat—inter alia caelestis irae placamina instituti dicuntur; ceterum parva quoque, ut ferme principia omnia, et ea ipsa peregrina res fuit.

[2] Both in this year and in the ensuing year, with Gaius Sulpicius Peticus and Gaius Licinius Stolo as consuls, there was a pestilence. In that year nothing worthy of memory was done, except that, for the sake of beseeching the god of peace, a lectisternium was then for the third time after the founding of the city. And since the force of the disease was lightened neither by human counsels nor by divine aid, with minds overcome by superstition, theatrical games too—a new thing for a bellicose people (for there had only been a spectacle of the circus)—are said to have been instituted among other placations of celestial wrath; moreover, it was a small thing as well, as almost all beginnings are, and the thing itself was foreign.

Sine carmine ullo, sine imitandorum carminum actu ludiones ex Etruria acciti, ad tibicinis modos saltantes, haud indecoros motus more Tusco dabant. Imitari deinde eos iuventus, simul inconditis inter se iocularia fundentes versibus, coepere; nec absoni a voce motus erant. Accepta itaque res saepiusque usurpando excitata.

Without any song, without any performance of songs to be imitated, performers were summoned from Etruria; dancing to the measures of the piper, they were giving motions, not unseemly, in the Tuscan manner. Then the youth began to imitate them, at the same time, among themselves pouring forth jocularities in unpolished verses; nor were the motions out of harmony with the voice. Thus the practice was accepted and, by more frequent use, was stimulated.

Vernaculis artificibus, quia ister Tusco verbo ludio vocabatur, nomen histrionibus inditum; qui non, sicut ante, Fescennino versu similem incompositum temere ac rudem alternis iaciebant sed impletas modis saturas descripto iam ad tibicinem cantu motuque congruenti peragebant.

To native performers, the name “histriones” was given, because in the Tuscan word the actor was called “ister”; and they did not, as before, fling back and forth in alternation a similar Fescennine verse, uncomposed, haphazard, and rough, but they performed satires filled out with measures, the chant now written out for the tibicen (pipe-player), with movement matching.

Liuius post aliquot annis, qui ab saturis ausus est primus argumento fabulam serere, idem scilicet—id quod omnes tum erant—suorum carminum actor, dicitur, cum saepius revocatus vocem obtudisset, venia petita puerum ad canendum ante tibicinem cum statuisset, canticum egisse aliquanto magis vigente motu quia nihil vocis usus impediebat. Inde ad manum cantari histrionibus coeptum diverbiaque tantum ipsorum voci relicta. Postquam lege hac fabularum ab risu ac soluto ioco res avocabatur et ludus in artem paulatim verterat, iuventus histrionibus fabellarum actu relicto ipsa inter se more antiquo ridicula intexta versibus iactitare coepit; unde exorta quae exodia postea appellata consertaque fabellis potissimum Atellanis sunt; quod genus ludorum ab Oscis acceptum tenuit iuventus nec ab histrionibus pollui passa est; eo institutum manet, ut actores Atellanarum nec tribu moveantur et stipendia, tamquam expertes artis ludicrae, faciant.

Livius, after some years—he who first dared to string together a play with a plot from the saturae—the same, of course (as all then were), the actor of his own songs, is said, when, having been called back repeatedly, he had dulled his voice, to have asked leave and set a boy to sing before the piper; he himself did the canticum with a movement considerably more vigorous, because no use of the voice hindered him. Thence it began to be sung ad manum for the histriones, and only the diverbia were left to their own voice. After, by this rule, the business of plays was being called away from laughter and unrestrained jest, and play had gradually turned into art, the youth, the acting of little plays left to the histriones, began among themselves, in the ancient manner, to toss about jests woven into verses; whence arose the things later called exodia and, stitched on to little plays, especially the Atellan ones; which kind of games, received from the Oscans, the youth maintained, and did not allow to be polluted by the histriones; the institution remains to this effect, that the actors of Atellans are not removed from their tribe and do military service, as though exempt from the ludic art.

Inter aliarum parva principia rerum ludorum quoque prima origo ponenda visa est, ut appareret quam ab sano initio res in hanc vix opulentis regnis tolerabilem insaniam venerit.

Among the small beginnings of other matters, the first origin of the games too seemed to be set down, so that it might appear how from a sound inception the thing has come into this insanity scarcely tolerable even to opulent kingdoms.

[3] Nec tamen ludorum primum initium procurandis religionibus datum aut religione animos aut corpora morbis levavit; quin etiam, cum medios forte ludos circus Tiberi superfuso inrigatus impedisset, id vero, velut aversis iam dis aspernantibusque placamina irae, terrorem ingentem fecit. Itaque Cn. Genucio L. Aemilio Mamerco iterum consulibus, cum piaculorum magis conquisitio animos quam corpora morbi adficerent, repetitum ex seniorum memoria dicitur pestilentiam quondam clavo ab dictatore fixo sedatam. Ea religione adductus senatus dictatorem clavi figendi causa dici iussit; dictus L. Manlius Imperiosus L. Pinarium magistrum equitum dixit.

[3] Nor yet did the first beginning of the games, given for the procuration of religious rites, relieve either minds by religion or bodies from diseases; nay rather, when by chance in mid-games the Circus, irrigated by the Tiber overspread, had been impeded, this indeed, as if the gods now averted and spurning the appeasements of wrath, created immense terror. And so, in the consulship again of Cn. Genucius and L. Aemilius Mamercus, since the search for expiations was affecting minds more than the diseases were affecting bodies, it is said to have been recalled from the memory of the elders that once a pestilence was calmed by a nail fixed by a dictator. Moved by that religious observance, the senate ordered that a dictator be named for the sake of fixing the nail; L. Manlius Imperiosus was named, and he appointed L. Pinarius master of the horse.

Lex vetusta est, priscis litteris verbisque scripta, ut qui praetor maximus sit idibus Septembribus clavum pangat; fixa fuit dextro lateri aedis Iovis optimi maximi, ex qua parte Minervae templum est. Eum clavum, quia rarae per ea tempora litterae erant, notam numeri annorum fuisse ferunt eoque Minervae templo dicatam legem quia numerus Minervae inventum sit.—Volsiniis quoque clavos indices numeri annorum fixos in templo Nortiae, Etruscae deae, comparere diligens talium monumentorum auctor Cincius adfirmat.—M. Horatius consul ea lege templum Iovis optimi maximi dedicavit anno post reges exactos; a consulibus postea ad dictatores, quia maius imperium erat, sollemne clavi figendi translatum est. Intermisso deinde more digna etiam per se visa res propter quam dictator crearetur.

There is an ancient law, written in archaic letters and words, that he who is praetor maximus shall drive a nail on the Ides of September; it was affixed on the right side of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, on which side is the temple of Minerva. They report that that nail, because letters were rare in those times, was a mark of the number of years, and that the law was dedicated to that temple of Minerva because number is the invention of Minerva.— At Volsinii likewise, nails indicating the number of years, fixed in the temple of Nortia, an Etruscan goddess, appear; the careful authority for such monuments, Cincius, affirms this.— M. Horatius the consul, by that law, dedicated the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the year after the kings were driven out; afterwards, from the consuls to the dictators, because the imperium was greater, the solemn rite of fixing the nail was transferred. Thereafter, the custom having been intermitted, the matter seemed worthy even in itself as a reason on account of which a dictator should be created.

Qua de causa creatus L. Manlius, perinde ac rei gerendae ac non solvendae religionis gratia creatus esset, bellum Hernicum adfectans dilectu acerbo iuventutem agitavit; tandemque omnibus in eum tribunis plebis coortis seu vi seu verecundia victus dictatura abiit.

For which cause L. Manlius was created, as though he had been created for the sake of conducting action and not of discharging a religious obligation; aspiring to a Hernican war, he vexed the youth with a bitter levy; and at length, when all the tribunes of the plebs had risen against him, overcome either by force or by shame, he went out from the dictatorship.

[4] Neque eo minus principio insequentis anni, Q. Servilio Ahala L. Genucio consulibus, dies Manlio dicitur a M. Pomponio tribuno plebis. Acerbitas in dilectu, non damno modo civium sed etiam laceratione corporum lata, partim virgis caesis qui ad nomina non respondissent, partim in vincula ductis, invisa erat, et ante omnia invisum ipsum ingenium atrox cognomenque Imperiosi, grave liberae civitati, ab ostentatione saevitiae adscitum quam non magis in alienis quam in proximis ac sanguine ipse suo exerceret. Criminique ei tribunus inter cetera dabat quod filium iuvenem nullius probri compertum, extorrem urbe, domo, penatibus, foro, luce, congressu aequalium prohibitum, in opus servile, prope in carcerem atque in ergastulum dederit, ubi summo loco natus dictatorius iuvenis cotidiana miseria disceret vere imperioso patre se natum esse.

[4] Nevertheless, at the beginning of the following year, with Q. Servilius Ahala and L. Genucius as consuls, a day was named against Manlius by M. Pomponius, tribune of the plebs. The acerbity in the levy—imposed not only with loss of citizens but even with laceration of bodies, some beaten with rods who had not answered to their names, others led away in bonds—was odious; and above all, odious were his own savage temper and the cognomen “the Imperious,” burdensome to a free commonwealth, assumed from an ostentation of savagery which he exercised no less upon those outside than upon his nearest and upon his own blood. And among other counts the tribune charged him with this crime: that he had consigned his young son, detected in no disgrace, as an exile from the city, home, household gods, forum, light, and the congress of his peers being forbidden, into servile work—well-nigh into prison and the workhouse—where a youth of dictatorial rank, born in the highest station, might learn through daily misery that he had indeed been born of an imperious father.

At quam ob noxam? Quia infacundior sit et lingua impromptus; quod naturae damnum utrum nutriendum patri, si quicquam in eo humani esset, an castigandum ac vexatione insigne faciendum fuisse? Ne mutas quidem bestias minus alere ac fovere si quid ex progenie sua parum prosperum sit; at hercule L. Manlium malum malo augere filii et tarditatem ingenii insuper premere et, si quid in eo exiguum naturalis vigoris sit, id exstinguere vita agresti et rustico cultu inter pecudes habendo.

But for what offense? Because he is less eloquent and unready of tongue; whether that defect of nature ought to have been nourished by the father—if there were anything human in him—or to have been chastised and made conspicuous by vexation? Not even mute beasts nourish and cherish less, if anything in their offspring is somewhat ill-thriving; but, by Hercules, L. Manlius augments evil with evil upon his son and presses down the slowness of his talent, and, if there is any scant portion of natural vigor in him, extinguishes it by a rustic life and rustic culture, by keeping him among the cattle.

[5] Omnium potius his criminationibus quam ipsius iuvenis inritatus est animus; quin contra se quoque parenti causam invidiae atque criminum esse aegre passus, ut omnes di hominesque scirent se parenti opem latam quam inimicis eius malle, capit consilium rudis quidem atque agrestis animi et quamquam non civilis exempli, tamen pietate laudabile. Inscientibus cunctis cultro succinctus mane in urbem atque a porta domum confestim ad M. Pomponium tribunum pergit; ianitori opus esse sibi domino eius convento extemplo ait; nuntiaret T. Manlium L. Filium esse. Mox introductus —etenim percitum ira in patrem spes erat aut criminis aliquid novi aut consilii ad rem agendam deferre—salute accepta redditaque esse ait quae cum eo agere arbitris remotis velit.

[5] The mind of all was provoked by these accusations rather than by the young man himself; nay rather, he too, ill enduring that he was to his parent a cause of envy and of charges, that all gods and men might know he preferred help brought to his parent rather than to his enemies, conceived a plan—of a mind indeed rude and rustic and, although not of a civil precedent, yet laudable for pietas. With everyone unaware, girt with a knife, at dawn he goes into the city and, from the gate, straight to the house of M. Pomponius, tribune; to the doorkeeper he says that he has business, that he must see his master at once; let him announce that T. Manlius, son of L., is here. Soon he was brought in—for indeed there was hope that, inflamed with anger against his father, he would report either some new accusation or a plan for carrying the matter through—greeting received and returned, he says that there are things which he wishes to transact with him with witnesses removed.

Procul inde omnibus abire iussis cultrum stringit et super lectum stans ferro intento, nisi in quae ipse concepisset verba iuraret se patris eius accusandi causa concilium plebis nunquam habiturum, se eum extemplo transfixurum minatur. Pavidus tribunus, quippe qui ferrum ante oculos micare, se solum inermem, illum praevalidum iuvenem et, quod haud minus timendum erat, stolide ferocem viribus suis cerneret, adiurat in quae adactus est verba; et prae se deinde tulit ea vi subactum se incepto destitisse. Nec, perinde ut maluisset plebes sibi suffragii ferendi de tam crudeli et superbo reo potestatem fieri, ita aegre habuit filium id pro parente ausum; eoque id laudabilius erat quod animum eius tanta acerbitas patria nihil a pietate avertisset.

With all ordered to withdraw far away, he draws a knife, and, standing over the couch with the steel leveled, threatens to run him through on the spot unless he would swear, in the very words he himself had conceived, that he would never hold a concilium of the plebs for the sake of accusing his father. The tribune, panic‑stricken—since he saw the blade glittering before his eyes, himself alone unarmed, the other a very powerful youth and, what was no less to be feared, foolishly fierce in reliance on his strength—swears to the words to which he was driven; and then he publicly declared that by that force he had been compelled to desist from his undertaking. Nor—although the plebs would rather that the power of casting their votes concerning so cruel and proud a defendant be granted to them—did he take it ill that the son had dared that for his parent; and it was the more praiseworthy for this, that such great paternal harshness had turned his spirit not at all away from pietas.

Itaque non patri modo remissa causae dictio est sed ipsi etiam adulescenti ea res honori fuit et, cum eo anno primum placuisset tribunos militum ad legiones suffragio fieri—nam antea, sicut nunc quos Rufulos vocant, imperatores ipsi faciebant—, secundum in sex locis tenuit nullis domi militiaeque ad conciliandam gratiam meritis ut qui rure et procul coetu hominum iuventam egisset.

Accordingly, not only was the pleading of the case remitted for the father, but that matter was also an honor to the adolescent himself; and when in that year it was for the first time decided that the military tribunes for the legions be made by suffrage—for previously, just as now those whom they call Rufuli, the commanders themselves used to appoint them—he held second place in six places, with no merits either at home or in the field for conciliating favor, as one who had spent his youth in the countryside and far from the company of men.

[6] Eodem anno, seu motu terrae seu qua vi alia, forum medium ferme specu vasto conlapsum in immensam altitudinem dicitur; neque eam voraginem coniectu terrae, cum pro se quisque gereret, expleri potuisse, priusquam deum monitu quaeri coeptum quo plurimum populus Romanus posset; id enim illi loco dicandum vates canebant, si rem publicam Romanam perpetuam esse vellent. Tum M. Curtium, iuvenem bello egregium, castigasse ferunt dubitantes an ullum magis Romanum bonum quam arma virtusque esset, et silentio facto templa deorum immortalium, quae foro imminent, Capitoliumque intuentem et manus nunc in caelum, nunc in patentes terrae hiatus ad deos manes porrigentem, se devovisse; equo deinde quam poterat maxime exornato insidentem, armatum se in specum immisisse; donaque ac fruges super eum a multitudine virorum ac mulierum congestas lacumque Curtium non ab antiquo illo T. Tati milite Curtio Mettio sed ab hoc appellatum. Cura non deesset, si qua ad verum via inquirentem ferret: nunc fama rerum standum est, ubi certam derogat vetustas fidem; et lacus nomen ab hac recentiore insignitius fabula est.

[6] In the same year, whether by earthquake or by some other force, the middle of the Forum is said to have collapsed with a vast chasm into immense depth; nor could that vorago be filled by the casting in of earth, though each man did his part, before, at the monition of the gods, it began to be asked wherein the Roman People possessed the most; for the seers were chanting that that must be devoted in that place, if they wished the Roman commonwealth to be perpetual. Then they report that M. Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, rebuked those who doubted whether any good were more Roman than arms and valor, and, a silence having been made, as he gazed upon the temples of the immortal gods that look down upon the Forum, and upon the Capitol, and as he stretched his hands now to heaven, now to the yawning openings of the earth to the gods Manes, he devoted himself; then, seated on a horse adorned as splendidly as he could, in arms he hurled himself into the chasm; and gifts and fruits were heaped over him by a multitude of men and women; and the Lacus Curtius was named not from that ancient soldier of T. Tatius, Curtius Mettius, but from this man. Diligent care would not be lacking, if any way would carry the inquirer to the truth: as it is, one must stand by the report of events, where antiquity robs us of certain faith; and the lake’s name is more conspicuously marked by this more recent fable.

Post tanti prodigii procurationem eodem anno de Hernicis consultus senatus, cum fetiales ad res repetendas nequiquam misisset, primo quoque die ferendum ad populum de bello indicendo Hernicis censuit populusque id bellum frequens iussit. L. Genucio consuli ea provincia sorte evenit. In exspectatione civitas erat, quod primus ille de plebe consul bellum suis auspiciis gesturus esset, perinde ut evenisset res, ita communicatos honores pro bene aut secus consulto habitura.

After the procuration of so great a prodigy, in the same year, the senate, having been consulted about the Hernici—since it had sent the fetials to demand restitution in vain—resolved that on the very first possible day it should be brought before the people to declare war on the Hernici; and the people, in full numbers, ordered that war. By lot that province fell to the consul L. Genucius. The commonwealth was in expectation, because that first consul from the plebs was going to wage war under his own auspices; and, according as the affair should turn out, it would hold the honors that had been shared as having been determined well or otherwise.

Forte ita tulit casus, ut Genucius ad hostes magno conatu profectus in insidias praecipitaret et legionibus necopinato pavore fusis consul circumventus ab insciis quem intercepissent occideretur. Quod ubi est Romam nuntiatum, nequaquam tantum publica calamitate maesti patres, quantum feroces infelici consulis plebeii ductu, fremunt omnibus locis: irent crearent consules ex plebe, transferrent auspicia quo nefas esset; potuisse patres plebi scito pelli honoribus suis: num etiam in deos immortales inauspicatam legem valuisse? Vindicasse ipsos suum numen, sua auspicia, quae ut primum contacta sint ab eo a quo nec ius nec fas fuerit, deletum cum duce exercitum documento fuisse ne deinde turbato gentium iure comitia haberentur.

By chance it so befell that Genucius, having set out against the enemy with great exertion, plunged into an ambush; and when the legions were scattered by an unlooked-for panic, the consul, surrounded, was killed by men who did not know whom they had intercepted. When this was reported to Rome, the senators, in every place, murmured—not so much grieved at the public calamity as fierce over the unlucky leadership of a plebeian consul: let them go then, let them create consuls from the plebs, let them transfer the auspices to where it was impious that they be; it might indeed be possible for the patricians by a plebiscite to be driven from their own honors—did that ill-omened law even have force against the immortal gods? The gods themselves had vindicated their divine power, their auspices; and the fact that, as soon as those auspices were touched by one by whom it was neither by human right nor by divine law permitted, the army, with its leader, was annihilated, had been a demonstration that thereafter elections ought not to be held with the rights of the orders thrown into confusion.

His vocibus curia et forum personat. Ap. Claudium, quia dissuaserat legem, maiore nunc auctoritate eventum reprehensi ab se consilii incusantem, dictatorem consensu patriciorum Servilius consul dicit, dilectusque et iustitium indictum.

With these cries the Curia and the Forum resound. Servilius the consul, with the consent of the patricians, named Appius Claudius—because he had dissuaded the law, now with greater authority arraigning the outcome of the policy he himself had censured—as dictator; and both a levy and a iustitium were proclaimed.

[7] Priusquam dictator legionesque novae in Hernicos venirent, ductu C. Sulpici legati res per occasionem gesta egregie est. In Hernicos morte consulis contemptim ad castra Romana cum haud dubia expugnandi spe succedentes, hortante legato et plenis irae atque indignitatis militum animis eruptio est facta. Multum ab spe adeundi valli res Hernicis afuit; adeo turbatis inde ordinibus abscessere.

[7] Before the dictator and the new legions came against the Hernici, under the leadership of the legate C. Sulpicius an operation, seizing the occasion, was carried through with distinguished success. The Hernici, because of the consul’s death, advanced contemptuously to the Roman camp with no doubtful hope of storming it; but, with the legate exhorting and the soldiers’ spirits full of wrath and a sense of indignity, a sally was made. The result for the Hernici fell far short of their hope of reaching the rampart; so disordered were their ranks that they withdrew from there.

Dictatoris deinde adventu novus veteri exercitus iungitur et copiae duplicantur; et pro contione dictator laudibus legati militumque, quorum virtute castra defensa erant, simul audientibus laudes meritas tollit animos, simul ceteros ad aemulandas virtutes acuit. Neque segnius ad hostes bellum apparatur, qui et parti ante decoris memores neque ignari auctarum virium hostis suas quoque vires augent. Omne Hernicum nomen, omnis militaris aetas excitur; quadringenariae octo cohortes, lecta robora virorum, scribuntur.

Then, upon the dictator’s arrival, the new army is joined to the old and the forces are doubled; and before the assembly the dictator—while the legate and the soldiers, by whose valor the camp had been defended, are listening together—both lifts their spirits with merited praises and at the same time sharpens the rest to emulate such virtues. Nor is war prepared with less briskness against the enemies, who, mindful of their former portion of distinction and not ignorant of the enemy’s augmented strength, likewise augment their own forces. The whole Hernican nation, every military age, is called out; eight cohorts of 400 each are enrolled, picked stalwarts of men.

Hunc eximium florem iuventutis, eo etiam quod ut duplex acciperent stipendium decreverant, spei animorumque implevere; immunes quoque operum militarium erant, ut in unum pugnae laborem reservati plus sibi quam pro virili parte adnitendum scirent; extra ordinem etiam in acie locati quo conspectior virtus esset.

This distinguished flower of youth was filled with hope and high spirits, all the more because it had been decreed that they should receive a double stipend; they were also immune from military works, since, reserved for the single toil of battle, they knew that they must strive more than in proportion to a man’s share; they were even placed out of order in the battle-line, so that their valor might be more conspicuous.

Duum milium planities castra Romana ab Hernicis dirimebat; ibi pari ferme utrimque spatio in medio pugnatum est. Primo stetit ambigua spe pugna nequiquam saepe conatis equitibus Romanis impetu turbare hostium aciem. Postquam equestris pugna effectu quam conatibus vanior erat, consulto prius dictatore equites, permissu deinde eius relictis equis, clamore ingenti provolant ante signa et novam integrant pugnam; neque sustineri poterant, ni extraordinariae cohortes pari corporum animorumque robore se obiecissent.

A plain of two miles separated the Roman camp from the Hernici; there, at nearly equal distance on both sides, fighting took place in the middle. At first the battle stood with ambiguous hope, the Roman horsemen having often tried in vain by a charge to disturb the enemy’s battle-line. After the equestrian combat was more vain in effect than in its attempts, the cavalry, having first consulted the dictator and then, with his permission, leaving their horses, with a huge shout dash forward before the standards and renew a fresh fight; nor could they be withstood, had not the extraordinary cohorts, with equal strength of bodies and of spirits, thrown themselves in the way.

[8] Tunc inter primores duorum populorum res geritur; quidquid hinc aut illinc communis Mars belli aufert, multiplex quam pro numero damnum est. Volgus aliud armatorum, velut delegata primoribus pugna, eventum suum in virtute aliena ponit. Multi utrimque cadunt, plures volnera accipiunt; tandem equites alius alium increpantes, quid deinde restaret quaerendo, si neque ex equis pepulissent hostem neque pedites quicquam momenti facerent?

[8] Then the affair is carried on among the foremost men of the two peoples; whatever the common Mars of war takes away from this side or that, the loss is manifold beyond the number. The rest of the armed multitude, as though the fight had been delegated to the chiefs, places its outcome in another’s valor. Many on both sides fall, more receive wounds; at length the horsemen, each rebuking the other and asking what then remained, if they had neither driven the enemy from horseback nor were the foot soldiers doing anything of moment?

Quam tertiam exspectarent pugnam? Quid ante signa feroces prosiluissent et alieno pugnarent loco?—his inter se vocibus concitati clamore renovato inferunt pedem et primum gradu moverunt hostem, deinde pepulerunt, postremo iam haud dubie avertunt; neque, tam vires pares quae superaverit res facile dictu est, nisi quod perpetua fortuna utriusque populi et extollere animos et minuere potuit. Usque ad castra fugientes Hernicos Romanus sequitur: castrorum oppugnatione, quia serum erat diei, abstinuere;—diu non perlitatum tenuerat dictatorem, ne ante meridiem signum dare posset; eo in noctem tractum erat certamen.—postero die deserta fuga castra Hernicorum et saucii relicti quidam inventi; agmenque fugientium ab Signinis, cum praeter moenia eorum infrequentia conspecta signa essent, fusum ac per agros trepida fuga palatum est.

What third battle were they waiting for? Why had they, fierce, leapt forth before the standards and fought on alien ground?—stirred by these words exchanged among themselves, with the shout renewed they advance their step, and at first by their step they moved the enemy, then they drove them, lastly now without doubt they turn them to flight; nor, with forces so equal, is it easy to say what thing prevailed, except that the perpetual Fortune of each people could both exalt spirits and diminish them. Up to the camp the Roman follows the Hernicans, fleeing: from an assault upon the camp, because it was late in the day, they refrained;—for a long time the not-yet-accomplished litation had held the dictator, so that he could not give the signal before midday; for that reason the contest had been dragged into the night.—on the next day the camp of the Hernicans was found deserted in flight, and certain wounded men left behind; and the column of fugitives was routed by the Signini, when, as their standards, scantily attended, were seen passing by their walls, it was scattered and, in panicked flight, was spread across the fields.

Nec Romanis incruenta victoria fuit: quarta pars militum amissa et, ubi haud minus iacturae fuit, aliquot equites Romani cecidere.

Nor was the victory bloodless for the Romans: a fourth part of the soldiers was lost, and, where there was no less of loss, several Roman cavalrymen fell.

[9] Insequenti anno cum C. Sulpicius et C. Licinius Calvus consules in Hernicos exercitum duxissent neque inventis in agro hostibus Ferentinum urbem eorum vi cepissent, revertentibus inde eis Tiburtes portas clausere. Ea ultima fuit causa, cum multae ante querimoniae ultro citroque iactatae essent, cur per fetiales rebus repetitis bellum Tiburti populo indiceretur.

[9] In the following year, when C. Sulpicius and C. Licinius Calvus, consuls, had led the army against the Hernici and, the enemies not being found in the countryside, had taken by force their city Ferentinum, the Tiburtines, as they were returning from there, shut their gates. This was the final cause—since many complaints had earlier been bandied to and fro on both sides—why, through the fetials, after demands for restitution had been made, war was declared against the Tiburtine people.

Dictatorem T. Quinctium Poenum eo anno fuisse satis constat et magistrum equitum Ser. Cornelium Maluginensem. Macer Licinius comitiorum habendorum causa et ab Licinio consule dictum scribit, quia collega comitia bello praeferre festinante ut continuaret consulatum, obviam eundum pravae cupiditati fuerit.

It is well established that Titus Quinctius Poenus was dictator that year, and that the master of the horse was Servius Cornelius Maluginensis. Licinius Macer writes that he was appointed for the sake of holding the comitia, and by the consul Licinius, because, as his colleague was hastening to prefer the comitia to the war in order to continue the consulship, it was necessary to go to meet that perverse cupidity.

Quaesita ea propriae familiae laus leviorem auctorem Licinium facit: cum mentionem eius rei in vetustioribus annalibus nullam inveniam, magis ut belli Gallici causa dictatorem creatum arbitrer inclinat animus. Eo certe anno Galli ad tertium lapidem Salaria via trans pontem Anienis castra habuere.

That praise sought for his own family makes Licinius a less weighty authority; since I find no mention of that matter in the older annals, my mind inclines rather to think that a dictator was created on account of the Gallic war. Certainly in that year the Gauls had their camp at the third milestone on the Via Salaria, across the bridge of the Anio.

Dictator cum tumultus Gallici causa iustitium edixisset, omnes iuniores sacramento adegit ingentique exercitu ab urbe profectus in citeriore ripa Anienis castra posuit. Pons in medio erat, neutris rumpentibus ne timoris indicium esset. Proelia de occupando ponte crebra erant, nec qui potirentur incertis viribus satis discerni poterat.

The dictator, when on account of the Gallic tumult he had proclaimed a iustitium, bound all the younger men by the military oath, and, setting out from the city with a vast army, pitched camp on the nearer bank of the Anio. The bridge was between them, with neither side breaking it, lest there be a token of fear. Skirmishes over seizing the bridge were frequent, nor, with the forces uncertain, could it be sufficiently determined who would gain possession.

Tum eximia corporis magnitudine in vacuum pontem Gallus processit et quantum maxima voce potuit , "Quem nunc" inquit "Roma virum fortissimum habet, procedat agedum ad pugnam, ut noster duorum eventus ostendat utra gens bello sit melior."

Then, a Gaul of exceptional bodily magnitude proceeded onto the vacant bridge and, as loudly as he could , "Whom now," he said, "does Rome have as its bravest man? let him come forward then to combat, so that the event of us two may show which nation is better in war."

[10] Diu inter primores iuvenum Romanorum silentium fuit, cum et abnuere certamen vererentur et praecipuam sortem periculi petere nollent; tum T. Manlius L. Filius, qui patrem a vexatione tribunicia vindicaverat, ex statione ad dictatorem pergit. "Iniussu tuo" inquit, "imperator, extra ordinem nunquam pugnaverim, non si certam victoriam videam: si tu permittis, volo ego illi beluae ostendere, quando adeo ferox praesultat hostium signis, me ex ea familia ortum quae Gallorum agmen ex rupe Tarpeia deiecit." Tum dictator "Macte virtute" inquit "ac pietate in patrem patriamque, T. Manli, esto. Perge et nomen Romanum invictum iuvantibus dis praesta." Armant inde iuvenem aequales; pedestre scutum capit, Hispano cingitur gladio ad propiorem habili pugnam.

[10] For a long time among the foremost of the Roman youths there was silence, since both they were afraid to refuse the contest and were unwilling to seek the exceptional lot of danger; then Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, who had vindicated his father from tribunitian vexation, goes from his post to the dictator. "Without your order," he says, "commander, I would never fight out of turn, not even if I saw a certain victory: if you permit, I wish to show that brute, since he so boldly prances before the standards of the enemy, that I am sprung from that family which cast the column of the Gauls down from the Tarpeian Rock." Then the dictator says, "Be increased in virtue and in piety toward your father and your fatherland, Titus Manlius. Go, and display the Roman name unconquered, with the gods aiding." Then his peers arm the youth; he takes up a foot-soldier’s shield, he is girded with a Spanish sword, handy for closer combat.

Armatum adornatumque adversus Gallum stolide laetum et—quoniam id quoque memoria dignum antiquis visum est—linguam etiam ab inrisu exserentem producunt. Recipiunt inde se ad stationem; et duo in medio armati spectaculi magis more quam lege belli destituuntur, nequaquam visu ac specie aestimantibus pares. Corpus alteri magnitudine eximium, versicolori veste pictisque et auro caelatis refulgens armis; media in altero militaris statura modicaque in armis habilibus magis quam decoris species; non cantus, non exsultatio armorumque agitatio vana sed pectus animorum iraeque tacitae plenum; omnem ferociam in discrimen ipsum certaminis distulerat.

They bring forth the youth, armed and adorned, against the Gaul—foolishly exultant and—since this too seemed worthy of memory to the ancients—even sticking out his tongue in mockery. Thence they retire to their post; and the two, armed, are left in the middle more in the manner of a spectacle than by the law of war, by no means equal to those who judge by sight and appearance. One had a body remarkable for magnitude, refulgent with a parti-colored garment and with arms painted and embossed with gold; in the other was a military stature of the mean, and an aspect in arms more apt for use than for show; no singing, no capering and vain brandishing of weapons, but a breast full of courage and of silent wrath; he had deferred all fierceness to the very crisis of the contest.

Ubi constitere inter duas acies tot circa mortalium animis spe metuque pendentibus, Gallus velut moles superne imminens proiecto laeva scuto in advenientis arma hostis vanum caesim cum ingenti sonitu ensem deiecit; Romanus mucrone subrecto, cum scuto scutum imum perculisset totoque corpore interior periculo volneris factus insinuasset se inter corpus armaque, uno alteroque subinde ictu ventrem atque inguina hausit et in spatium ingens ruentem porrexit hostem. Iacentis inde corpus ab omni alia vexatione intactum uno torque spoliavit, quem respersum cruore collo circumdedit suo. Defixerat pavor cum admiratione Gallos: Romani alacres ab statione obviam militi suo progressi, gratulantes laudantesque ad dictatorem perducunt.

When they took their stand between the two battle-lines, so many of mortals all around hanging in spirit between hope and fear, the Gaul—like a mass overhanging from above—having thrust forward his shield on the left, cast down a vain chopping stroke with his sword, with a huge crash, onto the arms of the approaching enemy; the Roman, with the point raised, when with his shield he had struck the bottom of the other’s shield and, with his whole body having made himself the inner party to the danger of a wound, had insinuated himself between the body and the weapons, with one blow and then another forthwith pierced the belly and the groin and stretched the rushing foe out at full length. Then from the body of the fallen, left untouched by every other vexation, he stripped a single torque, and, spattered with blood, put it around his own neck. Fear together with admiration had fixed the Gauls; the Romans, brisk, advancing from the post to meet their soldier, congratulating and lauding him, lead him to the dictator.

Inter carminum prope in modum incondita quaedam militariter ioculantes Torquati cognomen auditum; celebratum deinde posteris etiam familiae honori fuit. Dictator coronam auream addidit donum mirisque pro contione eam pugnam laudibus tulit.

Amid certain rough, almost song-like verses, jesting in soldierly fashion, the cognomen Torquatus was heard; thereafter it was celebrated and was for an honor to the posterity of the family as well. The dictator added a golden crown as a gift and, before the assembly, extolled that combat with marvelous praises.

[11] Et hercule tanti ea ad universi belli eventum momenti dimicatio fuit, ut Gallorum exercitus proxima nocte relictis trepide castris in Tiburtem agrum atque inde societate belli facta commeatuque benigne ab Tiburtibus adiutus mox in Campaniam transierit. Ea fuit causa cur proximo anno C. Poetelius Balbus consul, cum collegae eius M. Fabio Ambusto Hernici provincia evenisset, adversus Tiburtes iussu populi exercitum duceret. Ad quorum auxilium cum Galli ex Campania redissent, foedae populationes in Labicano Tusculanoque et Albano agro haud dubie Tiburtibus ducibus sunt factae; et, cum adversus Tiburtem hostem duce consule contenta res publica esset, Gallicus tumultus dictatorem creari coegit.

[11] And indeed that combat was of such great moment for the event of the entire war that the army of the Gauls, on the next night, having hastily abandoned their camp, passed into the Tiburtine territory; and from there, a war-alliance having been made and, with provisions kindly furnished by the Tiburtines, soon crossed into Campania. This was the cause why in the next year Gaius Poetelius Balbus, consul, since to his colleague Marcus Fabius Ambustus the province of the Hernici had fallen, led an army against the Tiburtines by order of the people. And when the Gauls had returned from Campania to their aid, foul depredations in the Labican, Tusculan, and Alban fields were perpetrated, with the Tiburtines, without doubt, as leaders; and, although the commonwealth was content with the consul as leader against the Tiburtine enemy, the Gallic tumult compelled a dictator to be appointed.

Creatus Q. Servilius Ahala T. Quinctium magistrum equitum dixit et ex auctoritate patrum, si prospere id bellum evenisset, ludos magnos vovit. Dictator ad continendos proprio bello Tiburtes consulari exercitu iusso manere, omnes iuniores nullo detractante militiam sacramento adegit. Pugnatum haud procul porta Collina est totius viribus urbis in conspectu parentum coniugumque ac liberorum; quae magna etiam absentibus hortamenta animi tum subiecta oculis simul verecundia misericordiaque militem accendebant.

Having been appointed, Q. Servilius Ahala named T. Quinctius Master of the Horse, and, by the authority of the Fathers, he vowed the Great Games, if that war should turn out prosperously. The dictator, in order to hold the Tiburtines fast with their own war, ordered the consular army to remain, and he compelled all the younger men, with no one detracting, into military service by oath. The fighting took place not far from the Colline Gate, with the full forces of the whole city, in the sight of parents, wives, and children; which things—great incentives of spirit even when absent—then, set before their eyes, both modest shame and compassion together were kindling the soldier.

Magna utrimque edita caede avertitur tandem acies Gallorum. Fuga Tibur sicut arcem belli Gallici petunt; palati a consule Poetelio haud procul Tibure excepti, egressis ad opem ferendam Tiburtibus, simul cum iis intra portas compelluntur. Egregie cum ab dictatore tum ab consule res gesta est.

With great slaughter dealt on both sides, the battle-line of the Gauls is at last repelled. In flight they make for Tibur as though the citadel of the Gallic war; scattered, they are intercepted by the consul Poetelius not far from Tibur, and when the Tiburtines went out to bring aid, they are driven within the gates together with them. The affair was conducted excellently both by the dictator and by the consul.

Et consul alter Fabius proeliis primum parvis, postremo una insigni pugna, cum hostes totis adorti copiis essent, Hernicos devincit. Dictator consulibus in senatu et apud populum magnifice conlaudatis et suarum quoque rerum illis remisso honore dictatura se abdicavit. Poetelius de Gallis Tiburtibusque geminum triumphum egit: Fabio satis visum ut ovans urbem iniret.

And the other consul, Fabius, first by small skirmishes, and at last by one notable battle, when the enemy had assailed with all their forces, defeated the Hernici. The dictator, after the consuls had been magnificently extolled in the senate and before the people, and with the honor of his own achievements also remitted to them, abdicated the dictatorship. Poetelium celebrated a twin triumph over the Gauls and the Tiburtines; for Fabius it seemed sufficient to enter the city in an ovation.

Inridere Poeteli triumphum Tiburtes: ubi enim eum secum acie conflixisse? Spectatores paucos fugae trepidationisque Gallorum extra portas egressos, postquam in se quoque fieri impetum viderint et sine discrimine obvios caedi, recepisse se intra urbem; eam rem triumpho dignam visam Romanis. Ne nimis mirum magnumque censerent tumultum exciere in hostium portis, maiorem ipsos trepidationem ante moenia sua visuros.

The Tiburtines mocked Poetelius’s triumph: for where, indeed, had he engaged with them in the battle-line? A few spectators of the flight and trepidation of the Gauls, who had gone out beyond the gates, after they saw that an attack was being made upon themselves also and that those who met them were being cut down without distinction, had withdrawn back within the city; that affair had seemed to the Romans worthy of a triumph. Let them not deem it too marvelous and great to have stirred up a tumult at the enemies’ gates; they themselves would see a greater trepidation before their own walls.

[12] Itaque insequenti anno M. Popilio Laenate Cn. Manlio consulibus primo silentio noctis ab Tibure agmine infesto profecti ad urbem Romam venerunt. Terrorem repente ex somno excitatis subita res et nocturnus pavor praebuit, ad hoc multorum inscitia, qui aut unde hostes advenissent; conclamatum tamen celeriter ad arma est et portae stationibus murique praesidiis firmati. Et ubi prima lux mediocrem multitudinem ante moenia neque alium quam Tiburtem hostem ostendit, duabus portis egressi consules utrimque aciem subeuntium iam muros adgrediuntur; apparuitque occasione magis quam virtute fretos venisse: adeo vix primum impetum Romanorum sustinuere.

[12] Thus, in the following year, with Marcus Popilius Laenas and Gnaeus Manlius as consuls, at the first silence of the night, setting out from Tibur in a hostile column, they came to the city of Rome. Sudden alarm and nocturnal terror brought dread to those roused abruptly from sleep, and, in addition, the ignorance of many as to whence the enemies had arrived; nevertheless a shout to arms was quickly raised, and the gates were strengthened with outposts and the walls with garrisons. And when first light showed a moderate multitude before the ramparts and no enemy other than the Tiburtine, the consuls, having gone out by two gates, on both sides assail the battle line of those now approaching the walls; and it appeared that they had come relying more on opportunity than on valor: to such a degree did they scarcely withstand the first onset of the Romans.

Quin etiam bono fuisse Romanis adventum eorum constabat orientemque iam seditionem inter patres et plebem metu tam propinqui belli compressam.

Indeed, it was established that their arrival had been to the benefit of the Romans, and that a sedition already arising between the patricians and the plebs had been suppressed by fear of so near a war.

Alius adventus hostium fuit agris terribilior: populabundi Tarquinienses fines Romanos, maxime qua ex parte Etruriam adiacent, peragravere rebusque nequiquam repetitis novi consules C. Fabius et C. Plautius iussu populi bellum indixere; Fabioque ea provincia, Plautio Hernici evenere.

Another arrival of the enemies was more terrible for the fields: the marauding Tarquinienses overran the Roman frontiers, especially in that quarter which adjoins Etruria; and, after a demand for restitution had been made in vain, the new consuls, C. Fabius and C. Plautius, by order of the people, declared war; and that province was allotted to Fabius, the Hernici to Plautius.

Gallici quoque belli fama increbrescebat. Sed inter multos terrores solacio fuit pax Latinis petentibus data et magna vis militum ab his ex foedere vetusto, quod multis intermiserant annis, accepta. Quo praesidio cum fulta res Romana esset, levius fuit quod Gallos mox Praeneste venisse atque inde circa Pedum consedisse auditum est.

The report of the Gallic war too was growing. But amid many terrors there was a solace: peace was granted to the Latins who were petitioning, and a great force of soldiers was received from them under the ancient treaty, which they had interrupted for many years. With this protection the Roman commonwealth being supported, it was the less serious that it was heard that the Gauls had soon come to Praeneste and from there had encamped around Pedum.

Dictatorem dici C. Sulpicium placuit; consul ad id accitus C. Plautius dixit; magister equitum dictatori additus M. Valerius. Hi robora militum ex duobus consularibus exercitibus electa adversus Gallos duxerunt.

It was resolved that Gaius Sulpicius be called dictator; the consul Gaius Plautius, summoned for that purpose, named him; a master of the horse was added to the dictator, Marcus Valerius. These men led the picked strengths of the soldiery from the two consular armies against the Gauls.

Lentius id aliquanto bellum quam parti utrique placebat fuit. Cum primo Galli tantum avidi certaminis fuissent, deinde Romanus miles ruendo in arma ac dimicationem aliquantum Gallicam ferociam vinceret, dictatori neutiquam placebat, quando nulla cogeret res, fortunae se committere adversus hostem, quem tempus deteriorem in dies faceret, locis alienis sine praeparato commeatu, sine firmo munimento morantem, ad hoc iis corporibus animisque quorum omnis in impetu vis esset, parva eadem languesceret mora.

That war was somewhat slower than was pleasing to either party. Although at first the Gauls had been so eager for combat, then the Roman soldier, by rushing into arms and an engagement, was somewhat overcoming Gallic ferocity, it did not at all please the dictator, since nothing compelled, to commit himself to Fortune against an enemy whom time was making worse day by day—lingering in foreign places without prepared supply, without firm fortification—and, moreover, with bodies and spirits in which all the force was in the impetus, the same would grow languid with a small delay.

His consiliis dictator bellum trahebat gravemque edixerat poenam, si quis iniussu in hostem pugnasset. Milites aegre id patientes primo in stationibus vigiliisque inter se dictatorem sermonibus carpere, interdum patres communiter increpare quod non iussissent per consules geri bellum: electum esse eximium imperatorem, unicum ducem, qui nihil agenti sibi de caelo devolaturam in sinum victoriam censeat. Eadem deinde haec interdiu propalam ac ferociora his iactare: se iniussu imperatoris aut dimicaturos aut agmine Romam ituros.

With these counsels the dictator was dragging out the war and had proclaimed a grave penalty if anyone should fight the enemy without orders. The soldiers, bearing this with difficulty, at first on the outposts and watches began to carp at the dictator in their talk among themselves, sometimes jointly inveighing against the Fathers because they had not ordered the war to be conducted through the consuls: that an exceptional commander had been chosen, a unique leader, who thinks that, while he does nothing, victory will be let down from heaven into his lap. Then in the daytime they openly bandied about these same things, and fiercer ones: that without the commander’s order they would either fight, or would go to Rome in marching column.

Immiscerique militibus centuriones nec in circulis modo fremere sed iam in principiis ac praetorio in unum sermones confundi atque in contionis magnitudinem crescere turba et vociferari ex omnibus locis ut extemplo ad dictatorem iretur; verba pro exercitu faceret Sex. Tullius, ut virtute eius dignum esset.

And the centurions were mingling with the soldiers, and they were not only growling in circles but now in the principia and the praetorium the conversations were being fused into one, and the crowd was growing to the magnitude of an assembly, and from every place they were vociferating that they should go at once to the dictator; that Sex. Tullius should make words on behalf of the army, as would be worthy of his virtue.

[13] Septimum primum pilum iam Tullius ducebat neque erat in exercitu, qui quidem pedestria stipendia fecisset, vir factis nobilior. Is praecedens militum agmen ad tribunal pergit mirantique Sulpicio non turbam magis quam turbae principem Tullium, imperiis oboedientissimum militem, "Si licet, dictator" inquit, "condemnatum se universus exercitus a te ignaviae ratus et prope ignominiae causa destitutum sine armis oravit me ut suam causam apud te agerem. Equidem, sicubi loco cessum, si terga data hosti, si signa foede amissa obici nobis possent, tamen hoc a te impetrari aequum censerem ut nos virtute culpam nostram corrigere et abolere flagitii memoriam nova gloria patereris.

[13] Tullius was now holding the primus pilus for the seventh time, nor was there in the army, among those who had indeed done service on foot, a man more renowned for deeds. He, going before the column of soldiers, proceeds to the tribunal; and as Sulpicius marveled not so much at the crowd as at Tullius, the leader of the crowd, a soldier most obedient to commands, “If it is permitted, dictator,” he says, “the entire army, thinking itself condemned by you for cowardice and, almost as for ignominy, left disarmed, has begged me to plead its cause before you. For my part, if anywhere ground had been yielded, if backs had been turned to the enemy, if the standards shamefully lost could be thrown in our teeth, yet I would judge this fair to be obtained from you: that you would allow us by valor to correct our fault and to abolish the memory of the outrage with new glory.”

Etiam ad Alliam fusae legiones eandem quam per pavorem amiserant patriam profectae postea a Veiis virtute reciperavere. Nobis deum benignitate, felicitate tua populique Romani, et res et gloria est integra; quamquam de gloria vix dicere ausim, si nos et hostes haud secus quam feminas abditos intra vallum omnibus contumeliis eludunt, et tu imperator noster—quod aegrius patimur—exercitum tuum sine animis, sine armis, sine manibus iudicas esse et, priusquam expertus nos esses, de nobis ita desperasti ut te mancorum ac debilium ducem iudicares esse. Quid enim aliud esse causae credamus, cur veteranus dux, fortissimus bello, compressis, quod aiunt, manibus sedeas?

Even the legions routed at the Allia, having set out, afterward from Veii by valor recovered that same fatherland which they had lost through panic. For us, by the benignity of the gods, by your felicity and that of the Roman people, both our situation and our glory are intact; although I would hardly dare to speak of glory, if both our enemies mock us with every contumely, hidden within the rampart no otherwise than women, and you, our commander—which we endure the more painfully—judge your army to be without spirit, without arms, without hands, and, before you had tested us, so despaired of us that you judged yourself to be the leader of the maimed and the feeble. For what else are we to believe is the cause why a veteran leader, most brave in war, should sit with, as they say, hands tied?

Utcumque enim se habet res, te de nostra virtute dubitasse videri quam nos de tua verius est. Sin autem non tuum istuc sed publicum est consilium, et consensus aliqui patrum, non Gallicum bellum, nos ab urbe, a penatibus nostris ablegatos tenet, quaeso, ut ea quae dicam non a militibus imperatori dicta censeas sed a plebe patribus—quae si, ut vos vestra habeatis consilia, sic se sua habituram dicat, quis tandem suscenseat?—milites nos esse non servos vestros, ad bellum non in exsilium missos; si quis det signum, in aciem educat, ut viris ac Romanis dignum sit, pugnaturos: si nihil armis opus sit, otium Romae potius quam in castris acturos. Haec dicta sint patribus.

For however the matter stands, it is truer that you seem to have doubted our virtue than that we have doubted yours. But if, however, that is not your plan but a public one, and some consensus of the Fathers, not the Gallic war, keeps us sent away from the city and from our Penates, I beg that you deem what I am going to say to have been spoken not by soldiers to a commander but by the plebs to the Fathers—which, if it were to say that, just as you have your own counsels, so it will have its own, who, pray, would be angry?—that we are soldiers, not your slaves, sent to war, not into exile; if someone should give the signal, let him lead us out into the battle-line—we will fight in a manner worthy of men and of Romans; if there is no need of arms, we will pursue leisure at Rome rather than in the camp. Let these things be said to the Fathers.

Te, imperator, milites tui oramus ut nobis pugnandi copiam facias; cum vincere cupimus, tum te duce vincere, tibi lauream insignem deferre, tecum triumphantes urbem inire, tuum sequentes currum Iovis optimi maximi templum gratantes ovantesque adire." Orationem Tulli exceperunt preces multitudinis et undique, ut signum daret, ut capere arma iuberet, clamabant.

"You, commander, your soldiers beg that you grant us the opportunity of fighting; since we desire to conquer, then to conquer with you as leader, to confer upon you a distinguished laurel, to enter the city triumphing with you, following your chariot to approach the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest, giving thanks and rejoicing." The oration of Tullus was followed by the prayers of the multitude, and on all sides they were shouting that he give the signal, that he order them to take up arms.

[14] Dictator quamquam rem bonam exemplo haud probabili actam censebat tamen facturum quod milites vellent, in se recepit Tulliumque secreto quaenam haec res sit aut quo acta more percontatur. Tullius magno opere a dictatore petere ne se oblitum disciplinae militaris, ne sui neve imperatoriae maiestatis crederet; multitudini concitatae, quae ferme auctoribus similis esset, non subtraxisse se ducem ne quis alius, quales mota creare multitudo soleret, exsisteret; nam se quidem nihil non arbitrio imperatoris acturum. Illi quoque tamen videndum magno opere esse ut exercitum in potestate haberet; differri non posse adeo concitatos animos; ipsos sibi locum ac tempus pugnandi sumpturos, si ab imperatore non detur.

[14] The dictator, although he judged that a good thing had been done by an example hardly defensible, nevertheless undertook to do what the soldiers wished, and in private inquires of Tullius what this affair is, or by what custom it was carried out. Tullius earnestly begged from the dictator not to believe that he had forgotten military discipline, nor his own or the majesty of the imperator; that he had not withheld himself as leader from the agitated multitude, which is commonly like its instigators, lest some other man should arise—the sort which a stirred multitude is wont to create; for he indeed would do nothing not by the judgment of the imperator. For him also, however, it must be carefully seen to that he keep the army in his power; spirits so inflamed cannot be deferred; they themselves will take for themselves the place and time of fighting, if it is not granted by the imperator.

Dum haec loquuntur, iumenta forte pascentia extra vallum Gallo abigenti duo milites Romani ademerunt. In eos saxa coniecta a Gallis; deinde ab Romana statione clamor ortus ac procursum utrimque est. Iamque haud procul iusto proelio res erat, ni celeriter diremptum certamen per centuriones esset; adfirmata certe eo casu Tulli apud dictatorem fides est; nec recipiente iam dilationem re, in posterum diem edicitur acie pugnaturos.

While they were saying these things, two Roman soldiers took away from a Gaul, who was driving them off, the beasts of burden that happened to be grazing outside the rampart. Against them stones were hurled by the Gauls; then from the Roman station a shout arose, and there was a rush forward on both sides. And now the affair was not far from a regular battle, if the combat had not been quickly broken off by the centurions; certainly by that incident Tullius’s credit with the dictator was affirmed; and since the matter now admitted no postponement, it is proclaimed that they will fight in battle line on the following day.

Dictator tamen, ut qui magis animis quam viribus fretus ad certamen descenderet, omnia circumspicere atque agitare coepit ut arte aliqua terrorem hostibus incuteret. Sollerti animo rem novam excogitat, qua deinde multi nostri atque externi imperatores, nostra quoque quidam aetate, usi sunt: mulis strata detrahi iubet binisque tantum centunculis relictis agasones partim captivis, partim aegrorum armis ornatos imponit. His fere mille effectis centum admiscet equites et nocte super castra in montes evadere ac silvis se occultare iubet neque inde ante movere quam ab se acceperint signum.

Nevertheless the Dictator, as one who was descending to the contest relying more on spirits than on strengths, began to look all around and to consider everything, in order by some art to infuse terror into the enemies. With a clever mind he devises a new thing, which thereafter many of our own and of foreign imperatores, even some in our own age, used: he orders the pack-saddles to be taken off the mules, and, with only two little patchwork-cloaks left apiece, mounts muleteers, equipped with arms taken partly from prisoners, partly from the sick. When about a thousand of these had been made up, he mingles with them a hundred horsemen, and by night he orders them to make their way up above the camp into the mountains and to hide themselves in the woods, nor to move from there before they have received a signal from him.

Ipse, ubi inluxit, in radicibus montium extendere aciem coepit sedulo, ut adversus montes consisteret hostis, instructo vani terroris apparatu, qui quidem terror plus paene veris viribus profuit. Primo credere duces Gallorum non descensuros in aequum Romanos; deinde, ubi degressos repente viderunt, et ipsi avidi certaminis in proelium ruunt priusque pugna coepit quam signum ab ducibus daretur.

He himself, when it grew light, began diligently to extend the battle-line at the foothills of the mountains, so that the enemy would take their stand facing the mountains, with an apparatus of hollow terror arrayed, which terror indeed almost profited more than true forces. At first the leaders of the Gauls believed that the Romans would not descend to the level ground; then, when they suddenly saw them had descended, they too, eager for contest, rushed into battle, and the fight began before the signal was given by the leaders.

[15] Acrius invasere Galli dextro cornu; neque sustineri potuissent, ni forte eo loco dictator fuisset, Sex. Tullium nomine increpans rogitansque sicine pugnaturos milites spopondisset? Ubi illi clamores sint arma poscentium, ubi minae iniussu imperatoris proelium inituros?

[15] The Gauls pressed in more keenly on the right wing; nor could they have been withstood, had not the Dictator by chance been in that place, chiding Sextus Tullius by name and asking whether he had thus pledged that the soldiers would fight? Where are those shouts of men demanding arms, where the threats that they would enter the battle without the general’s order?

En ipsum imperatorem clara voce vocare ad proelium et ire armatum ante prima signa; ecquis sequeretur eorum qui modo ducturi fuerint, in castris feroces, in acie pavidi? Vera audiebant; itaque tantos pudor stimulos admovit, ut ruerent in hostium tela alienatis a memoria periculi animis. Hic primo impetus prope vecors turbavit hostes, eques deinde emissus turbatos avertit.

Lo, the commander himself, with a clear voice, calls to battle and goes armed before the foremost standards; would any of those follow who just now were going to lead—fierce in camp, timid in the battle line? They were hearing truths; and so shame applied spurs so great that they rushed upon the enemy’s weapons, their minds alienated from the memory of danger. Here the first onset, almost frenzied, threw the foes into disorder; then the cavalry, sent out, turned the disordered to flight.

Ipse dictator, post quam labantem una parte vidit aciem, signa in laevum cornu confert, quo turbam hostium congregari cernebat, et iis qui in monte erant signum quod convenerat dedit. Ubi inde quoque novus clamor ortus est et tendere obliquo monte ad castra Gallorum visi sunt, tum metu ne excluderentur omissa pugna est cursuque effuso ad castra ferebantur. Ubi cum occurrisset eis M. Valerius magister equitum, qui profligato dextro cornu obequitabat hostium munimentis, ad montes silvasque vertunt fugam plurimique ibi a fallaci equitum specie agasonibusque excepti sunt; et eorum, quos pavor pertulerat in silvas, atrox caedes post sedatum proelium fuit.

The dictator himself, after he saw the battle-line wavering in one part, massed the standards toward the left wing, where he discerned the crowd of the enemy gathering, and he gave to those who were on the mountain the signal that had been agreed upon. When from there as well a new clamor arose and they were seen to be making, by the oblique mountain-slope, toward the camp of the Gauls, then, from fear lest they be excluded, the fight was abandoned, and at a headlong run they were being borne to the camp. When M. Valerius, master of the horse—who, the right wing having been routed, was riding along the enemy’s fortifications—met them, they turned their flight to the mountains and the woods, and very many there were intercepted by the deceptive appearance of horsemen and by the grooms; and of those whom panic had carried into the woods, there was a savage slaughter after the battle had subsided.

Nec alius post M. Furium quam C. Sulpicius iustiorem de Gallis egit triumphum. Auri quoque ex Gallicis spoliis satis magnum pondus saxo quadrato saeptum in Capitolio sacravit.

Nor did any other after Marcus Furius conduct a more just triumph over the Gauls than Gaius Sulpicius. He also consecrated on the Capitol a quite large weight of gold, enclosed with squared stone, from Gallic spoils.

Eodem anno et a consulibus vario eventu bellatum; nam Hernici a C. Plautio devicti subactique sunt, Fabius collega eius incaute atque inconsulte adversus Tarquinienses pugnavit. Nec in acie tantum ibi cladis acceptum quam quod trecentos septem milites Romanos captos Tarquinienses immolarunt; qua foeditate supplicii aliquanto ignominia populi Romani insignitior fuit. Accessit ad eam cladem et vastatio Romani agri, quam Privernates, Veliterni deinde, incursione repentina fecerunt.

In the same year there was warfare also by the consuls with a varied outcome; for the Hernici were vanquished and subdued by C. Plautius, while Fabius his colleague fought incautiously and without counsel against the Tarquinienses. Nor was there so much disaster sustained there in the battle-line as in this: that the Tarquinienses immolated three hundred seven captured Roman soldiers; by the foulness of which punishment the disgrace of the Roman people was made considerably more conspicuous. There was added to that disaster also a devastation of the Roman territory, which the Privernates, then the Veliterni, wrought by a sudden incursion.

Eodem anno duae tribus, Pomptina et Publilia, additae; ludi votivi, quos M. Furius dictator voverat, facti; et de ambitu ab C. Poetelio tribuno plebis auctoribus patribus tum primum ad populum latum est; eaque rogatione novorum maxime hominum ambitionem, qui nundinas et conciliabula obire soliti erant, compressam credebant.

In the same year two tribes, the Pomptina and the Publilia, were added; the votive games, which M. Furius the dictator had vowed, were held; and on electoral bribery (ambitus) a measure was for the first time brought before the people by C. Poetelius, tribune of the plebs, with the Fathers as sponsors; and by that rogation they believed that the ambition especially of new men, who were accustomed to go about the market-days and local gatherings, had been checked.

[16] Haud aeque laeta patribus insequenti anno C. Marcio Cn. Manlio consulibus de unciario fenore a M. Duillio L. Menenio tribunis plebis rogatio est perlata; et plebs aliquanto eam cupidius scivit. Ad bella nova priore anno destinata Falisci quoque hostes exorti duplici crimine quod et cum Tarquiniensibus iuventus eorum militaverat et eos qui Falerios perfugerant cum male pugnatum est, repetentibus fetialibus Romanis non reddiderant. Ea provincia Cn. Manlio obvenit.

[16] Not equally welcome to the senators, in the following year, with Gaius Marcius and Gnaeus Manlius as consuls, a bill about one‑twelfth interest was carried by the tribunes of the plebs Marcus Duilius and Lucius Menenius; and the plebs enacted it with somewhat greater eagerness. For the new wars appointed in the previous year, enemies arose among the Faliscans as well, under a twofold charge: both that their youth had served with the Tarquinienses, and that, when the fighting had gone ill, they did not give back to the Roman fetials, on demand, those who had taken refuge in Falerii. That province fell to Gnaeus Manlius.

Marcius exercitum in agrum Privernatem, integrum pace longinqua, induxit militemque praeda implevit. Ad copiam rerum addidit munificentiam, quod nihil in publicum secernendo augenti rem privatam militi favit. Privernates cum ante moenia sua castris permunitis consedissent, vocatis ad contionem militibus "Castra nunc" inquit "vobis hostium urbemque praedae do, si mihi pollicemini vos fortiter in acie operam navaturos nec praedae magis quam pugnae paratos esse." Signum poscunt ingenti clamore celsique et spe haud dubia feroces in proelium vadunt.

Marcius led the army into the Privernate country, untouched by long peace, and filled the soldier with booty. To the abundance of resources he added munificence, for by setting nothing aside into the public treasury he favored the soldier in augmenting his private estate. When the Privernates had taken their seat with a camp fortified before their own walls, he called the soldiers to an assembly and said: “I now give you the enemy’s camp and city for booty, if you promise me that you will render service bravely in the battle line and be ready no less for the fight than for the booty.” They demand the signal with a mighty shout, and, elate and fierce with no doubtful hope, they go into battle.

Ibi ante signa Sex. Tullius, de quo ante dictum est, exclamat "Adspice, imperator" inquit, "quemadmodum exercitus tuus tibi promissa praestet", piloque posito stricto gladio in hostem impetum facit. Sequuntur Tullium antesignani omnes primoque impetu avertere hostem; fusum inde ad oppidum persecuti, cum iam scalas moenibus admoverent, in deditionem urbem acceperunt.

There, before the standards, Sex. Tullius, about whom mention was made before, cries out: “Look, commander,” he says, “how your army makes good to you its promises,” and, his javelin set down and his sword drawn, he makes a charge against the enemy. All the front-rankers follow Tullius, and at the first onset they drive the enemy back; then, pursuing the routed foe to the town, when they were now setting ladders to the walls, they received the city into surrender.

Triumphus de Privernatibus actus.

A triumph over the Privernates was celebrated.

Ab altero consule nihil memorabile gestum, nisi quod legem novo exemplo ad Sutrium in castris tributim de vicensima eorum qui manumitterentur tulit. Patres, quia ea lege haud paruum vectigal inopi aerario additum esset, auctores fuerunt; ceterum tribuni plebis, non tam lege quam exemplo moti, ne quis postea populum sevocaret, capite sanxerunt: nihil enim non per milites iuratos in consulis verba, quamvis perniciosum populo, si id liceret, ferri posse.

By the other consul nothing memorable was accomplished, except that, with a new precedent, at Sutrium, in the camp, he carried a law, voting by tribes, about a twentieth on those who should be manumitted. The Fathers, because by that law no small tax-revenue had been added to the impoverished treasury, were promoters of it; but the tribunes of the plebs, moved not so much by the law as by the precedent, sanctioned with a capital penalty that no one thereafter should summon the people aside: for there is nothing that could not be carried, through soldiers sworn in the consul’s words, however pernicious to the people, if that were permitted.

Eodem anno C. Licinius Stolo a M. Popilio Laenate sua lege decem milibus aeris est damnatus, quod mille iugerum agri cum filio possideret emancupandoque filium fraudem legi fecisset.

In the same year C. Licinius Stolo was condemned by M. Popilius Laenas, under his own law, to a fine of 10,000 asses, because he possessed 1,000 iugera of land together with his son, and by emancipating his son had perpetrated a fraud upon the law.

[17] Novi consules inde, M. Fabius Ambustus iterum et M. Popilius Laenas iterum, duo bella habuere, facile alterum cum Tiburtibus, quod Laenas gessit, qui hoste in urbem compulso agros vastavit; Falisci Tarquiniensesque alterum consulem prima pugna fuderunt. Inde terror maximus fuit quod sacerdotes eorum facibus ardentibus anguibusque praelatis incessu furiali militem Romanum insueta turbaverunt specie. Et tum quidem velut lymphati et attoniti munimentis suis trepido agmine inciderunt; deinde, ubi consul legatique ac tribuni puerorum ritu vana miracula paventes inridebant increpabantque, vertit animos repente pudor et in ea ipsa quae fugerant velut caeci ruebant.

[17] Thence the new consuls, M. Fabius Ambustus again and M. Popilius Laenas again, had two wars: the one with the Tiburtines was easy, which Laenas conducted, who, the enemy having been driven into the city, devastated their fields; the Faliscans and the Tarquinians routed the other consul in the first battle. Then there was the greatest terror, because their priests, with blazing torches and snakes borne aloft, with a furial gait, disturbed the Roman soldier with an unaccustomed spectacle. And then indeed, as if delirious and thunderstruck, they, in a quaking column, ran into their own defenses; then, when the consul and the legates and the tribunes, mocking and chiding them for fearing empty marvels like boys, were doing so, shame suddenly turned their minds, and into those very things which they had fled they rushed headlong, as if blind.

Discusso itaque vano apparatu hostium, cum in ipsos armatos se intulissent, averterunt totam aciem castrisque etiam eo die potiti praeda ingenti parta victores reverterunt, militaribus iocis cum apparatum hostium tum suum increpantes pavorem. Concitatur deinde omne nomen Etruscum et Tarquiniensibus Faliscisque ducibus ad Salinas perveniunt. Aduersus eum terrorem dictator C. Marcius Rutulus primus de plebe dictus magistrum equitum item de plebe C. Plautium dixit.

Therefore, the vain display of the enemy having been shaken off, when they had charged straight upon the armed men themselves, they routed the whole battle-line and even took the camp that very day; with enormous booty secured, the victors returned, with soldiers’ jokes chiding both the enemy’s apparatus and their own panic. Then the whole Etruscan name is stirred up, and with the Tarquinienses and Falisci as leaders they reach the Salines. Against that alarm the dictator C. Marcius Rutulus, named the first from the plebs, appointed as master of the horse likewise from the plebs C. Plautius.

Id vero patribus indignum videri etiam dictaturam iam in promiscuo esse; omnique ope impediebant ne quid dictatori ad id bellum decerneretur parareturue. Eo promptius cuncta ferente dictatore populus iussit. Profectus ab urbe utraque parte Tiberis, ratibus exercitu, quocumque fama hostium ducebat, traiecto multos populatores agrorum vagos palantes oppressit; castra quoque necopinato adgressus cepit et octo milibus hostium captis, ceteris aut caesis aut ex agro Romano fugatis sine auctoritate patrum populi iussu triumphavit.

That, indeed, seemed to the fathers unworthy: that even the dictatorship was now in the common lot; and they hindered with every resource that anything be decreed or prepared for the dictator for that war. The people ordered it, the dictator, all the more ready to carry everything, consenting. Setting out from the city, and having ferried the army across on rafts to both sides of the Tiber, wherever the report of the enemy led, he overwhelmed many ravagers of the fields, wandering and straggling; he also, attacking the camp unexpectedly, took it, and with eight thousand of the enemy captured, the rest either cut down or driven in flight from Roman territory, he triumphed by the people’s order without the authority of the fathers.

Quia nec per dictatorem plebeium nec per consulem comitia consularia haberi volebant et alter consul Fabius bello retinebatur, res ad interregnum redit. Interreges deinceps Q. Servilius Ahala M. Fabius Cn. Manlius C. Fabius C. Sulpicius L. Aemilius Q. Servilius M. Fabius Ambustus. In secundo interregno orta contentio est, quod duo patricii consules creabantur, intercedentibusque tribunis interrex Fabius aiebat in duodecim tabulis legem esse ut, quodcumque postremum populus iussisset, id ius ratumque esset; iussum populi et suffragia esse.

Because they did not wish the consular comitia to be held either by a plebeian dictator or by a consul, and the other consul, Fabius, was detained by war, the matter returned to an interregnum. The interreges in succession were Q. Servilius Ahala, M. Fabius, Cn. Manlius, C. Fabius, C. Sulpicius, L. Aemilius, Q. Servilius, M. Fabius Ambustus. In the second interregnum a contention arose, because two patrician consuls were being created; and with the tribunes interceding, the interrex Fabius said that in the Twelve Tables there was a law that whatever the people had last ordered, that should be law and ratified; that the decree of the people is the suffrages.

Cum intercedendo tribuni nihil aliud quam ut differrent comitia valuissent, duo patricii consules creati sunt, C. Sulpicius Peticus tertium M. Valerius Publicola eodemque die magistratum inierunt,

Since, by interceding, the tribunes had achieved nothing other than to defer the elections, two patrician consuls were elected, C. Sulpicius Peticus for the third time and M. Valerius Publicola, and on the same day they entered upon the magistracy,

[18] Quadringentesimo anno quam urbs Romana condita erat, quinto tricesimo quam a Gallis reciperata, ablato post undecimum annum a plebe consulatu [patricii consules ambo ex interregno magistratum iniere, C. Sulpicius Peticus tertium M. Valerius Publicola]. Empulum eo anno ex Tiburtibus haud memorando certamine captum, sive duorum consulum auspicio bellum ibi gestum est, ut scripsere quidam, seu per idem tempus Tarquiniensium quoque sunt vastati agri ab Sulpicio consule, quo Valerius adversus Tiburtes legiones duxit.

[18] In the four hundredth year since the city of Rome was founded, in the thirty-fifth since it was recovered from the Gauls, with the consulship taken away from the plebs after the eleventh year [both patrician consuls entered office from an interregnum, C. Sulpicius Peticus for the third time, M. Valerius Publicola]. Empulum that year was captured from the Tiburtines in a not-to-be-remembered engagement, whether the war there was conducted under the auspices of the two consuls, as some have written, or at the same time the fields of the Tarquinians also were devastated by the consul Sulpicius, while Valerius led the legions against the Tiburtines.

Domi maius certamen consulibus cum plebe ac tribunis erat. Fidei iam suae non solum virtutis ducebant esse, ut accepissent duo patricii consulatum, ita ambobus patriciis mandare: quin aut toto cedendum esse ut plebeius iam magistratus consulatus fiat, aut totum possidendum quam possessionem integram a patribus accepissent. Plebes contra fremit: quid se vivere, quid in parte civium censeri, si, quod duorum hominum virtute, L. Sexti ac C. Licini, partum sit, id obtinere universi non possint?

At home the consuls had a greater contest with the plebs and the tribunes. They were accounting it to their good faith now, not only to their valor, that, since two patricians had received the consulship, so to commit both to patricians: nay rather, that either there must be a total cession, that the consulship now become a plebeian magistracy, or it must be possessed in its entirety, the possession which they had received intact from the patres. The plebs, on the contrary, roar: what is the point of living, what of being reckoned in the body of citizens, if that which by the virtue of two men, L. Sextius and C. Licinius, has been brought forth, they all cannot maintain?

Vel reges vel decemviros vel si quod tristius sit imperii nomen patiendum esse potius quam ambos patricios consules videant nec in vicem pareatur atque imperetur sed pars altera in aeterno imperio locata plebem nusquam alio natam quam ad serviendum putet. Non desunt tribuni auctores turbarum, sed inter concitatos per se omnes vix duces eminent. Aliquotiens frustra in campum descensum cum esset multique per seditiones acti comitiales dies, postremo vicit perseverantia consulum: plebis eo dolor erupit, ut tribunos actum esse de libertate vociferantes relinquendumque non campum iam solum sed etiam urbem captam atque oppressam regno patriciorum maesta sequeretur.

Either kings or decemvirs, or, if there be any name of rule more grievous, must rather be endured than that they should see both consuls patricians, and that there be no obeying and commanding in turn, but the other part, placed in eternal imperium, think that the plebs was born for nothing else than serving. Tribunes, authors of tumults, are not lacking; but among a populace stirred up of itself scarcely do leaders stand out. Several times the descent into the field was in vain, and many comitial days were driven along by seditions; at last the perseverance of the consuls prevailed: the grief of the plebs thereupon burst forth to such a degree that, with the tribunes vociferating that liberty was at stake and that not the field now only but even the city, captured and oppressed by the kingship of the patricians, must be abandoned, the plebs, sorrowful, followed.

Consules relicti a parte populi per infrequentiam comitia nihilo segnius perficiunt. Creati consules ambo patricii, M. Fabius Ambustus tertium T. Quinctius. In quibusdam annalibus pro T. Quinctio M. Popilium consulem invenio.

The consuls, abandoned by a portion of the people because of the thin attendance, nonetheless carry through the comitia no less briskly. The consuls elected were both patricians: Marcus Fabius Ambustus for the 3rd time, and Titus Quinctius. In certain annals I find Marcus Popilius as consul in place of Titus Quinctius.

[19] Duo bella eo anno prospere gesta: cum Tarquiniensibus Tiburtibusque ad deditionem pugnatum. Sassula ex his urbs capta; ceteraque oppida eandem fortunam habuissent, ni universa gens positis armis in fidem consulis venisset. Triumphatum de Tiburtibus; alioquin mitis victoria fuit.

[19] Two wars that year were conducted prosperously: there was fighting with the Tarquinienses and the Tiburtines to the point of surrender. Sassula, a city among these, was captured; and the other towns would have had the same fortune, had not the whole nation, with arms laid down, come into the protection of the consul. A triumph was celebrated over the Tiburtines; otherwise the victory was lenient.

In Tarquinienses acerbe saevitum; multis mortalibus in acie caesis ex ingenti captivorum numero trecenti quinquaginta octo delecti, nobilissimus quisque, qui Romam mitterentur; volgus aliud trucidatum. Nec populus in eos qui missi Romam erant mitior fuit: medio in foro omnes virgis caesi ac securi percussi. Id pro immolatis in foro Tarquiniensium Romanis poenae hostibus redditum.

Against the Tarquinienses it was savagely raged; with many men cut down in the battle-line, out of the vast number of captives 358 were selected—each the most noble—to be sent to Rome; the rest of the common crowd was butchered. Nor was the people any gentler toward those who had been sent to Rome: in the middle of the forum all were beaten with rods and struck by the axe. This was rendered as punishment to the enemies for the Romans immolated in the forum of the Tarquinienses.

Res bello bene gestae ut Samnites quoque amicitiam peterent effecerunt. Legatis eorum comiter ab senatu responsum; foedere in societatem accepti.

The successes in war brought it about that the Samnites too sought friendship. To their legates a courteous reply was given by the senate; they were received into alliance by a treaty.

Non eadem domi quae militiae fortuna erat plebi Romanae. Nam etsi unciario fenore facto levata usura erat, sorte ipsa obruebantur inopes nexumque inibant; eo nec patricios ambo consules neque comitiorum curam publicaue studia prae privatis incommodis plebs ad animum admittebat. Consulatus uterque apud patricios manet; consules creati C. Sulpicius Peticus quartum M. Valerius Publicola iterum.

At home the Roman plebs did not have the same fortune as in military service. For although, with “uncial” interest decreed, the interest had been eased, the needy were overwhelmed by the principal itself and entered into debt‑bondage (nexum); for that reason the plebs admitted neither the two patrician consuls nor any concern for the elections or public pursuits to mind in preference to their private hardships. Both consulships remain with the patricians; the consuls elected were C. Sulpicius Peticus for the fourth time and M. Valerius Publicola for the second time.

In bellum Etruscum intentam civitatem, quia Caeritem populum misericordia consanguinitatis Tarquiniensibus adiunctum fama ferebat, legati Latini ad Volscos convertere, nuntiantes exercitum conscriptum armatumque iam suis finibus imminere; inde populabundos in agrum Romanum venturos esse. Censuit igitur senatus neutram neglegendam rem esse; utroque legiones scribi consulesque sortiri provincias iussit. Inclinavit deinde pars maior curae in Etruscum bellum, postquam litteris Sulpici consulis, cui Tarquinii provincia evenerat, cognitum est depopulatum agrum circa Romanas salinas praedaeque partem in Caeritum fines avectam et haud dubie iuventutem eius populi inter praedatores fuisse.

Upon the commonwealth being intent on the Etruscan war, because rumor was reporting that the Caerite people, out of pity of consanguinity, had been joined to the Tarquinienses, the Latin legates turned to the Volsci, announcing that a levied and armed army was already threatening their borders; from there they would come marauding into the Roman territory. The senate therefore decreed that neither matter should be neglected; it ordered legions to be enrolled for both and the consuls to draw lots for the provinces. Then the greater share of concern inclined toward the Etruscan war, after it was learned from letters of the consul Sulpicius, to whom Tarquinii had fallen as a province, that the land around the Roman salt-works had been ravaged, and that part of the booty had been carried off into the territory of the Caerites, and that without doubt the youth of that people had been among the raiders.

Itaque Valerium consulem, Volscis oppositum castraque ad finem Tusculanum habentem, revocatum inde senatus dictatorem dicere iussit. T. Manlium L. filium dixit. Is cum sibi magistrum equitum A. Cornelium Cossum dixisset, consulari exercitu contentus ex auctoritate patrum ac populi iussu Caeritibus bellum indixit.

Itaque Valerius the consul, assigned against the Volsci and holding a camp at the Tusculan boundary, having been recalled from there, the senate ordered to appoint a dictator. He appointed T. Manlius, son of L. He, when he had named A. Cornelius Cossus as Master of the Horse, content with a consular army, by the authority of the fathers and by order of the people, declared war against the Caerites.

[20] Tum primum Caerites, tamquam in verbis hostium vis maior ad bellum significandum quam in suis factis, qui per populationem Romanos lacessierant, esset, verus belli terror invasit, et quam non suarum virium ea dimicatio esset cernebant; paenitebatque populationis et Tarquinienses exsecrabantur defectionis auctores; nec arma aut bellum quisquam apparare sed pro se quisque legatos mitti iubebat ad petendam erroris veniam. Legati senatum cum adissent, ab senatu reiecti ad populum deos rogaverunt, quorum sacra bello Gallico accepta rite procurassent, ut Romanos florentes ea sui misericordia caperet quae se rebus adfectis quondam populi Romani cepisset; conversique ad delubra Vestae hospitium flaminum Vestaliumque ab se caste ac religiose cultum invocabant: eane meritos crederet quisquam hostes repente sine causa factos? Aut, si quid hostiliter fecissent, consilio id magis quam furore lapsos fecisse, ut sua vetera beneficia, locata praesertim apud tam gratos, novis corrumperent maleficiis florentemque populum Romanum ac felicissimum bello sibi desumerent hostem, cuius adflicti amicitiam cepissent?

[20] Then for the first time the Caerites, as though there were greater force in the enemy’s words to signify war than in their own deeds by which they had provoked the Romans through depredation, were invaded by the true terror of war, and they perceived that this contest was not of their strength; they repented of the depredation and execrated the Tarquinians, authors of the defection; and no one was preparing arms or war, but each for himself was ordering that envoys be sent to seek pardon for their error. When the envoys had approached the senate, and were referred by the senate to the people, they besought the gods—whose sacred rites, received in the Gallic War, they had duly attended—that that pity on their behalf would take hold of the flourishing Romans which had once taken hold of themselves when the fortunes of the Roman people were afflicted; and turning toward the shrines of Vesta they invoked the hospitality of the flamines and the Vestal Virgins, by them chastely and religiously observed by their care: could anyone believe that they had deserved this—that they had suddenly been made enemies without cause? Or, if they had done anything in a hostile spirit, that they had done it through misjudgment rather than frenzy—so that they should corrupt their ancient benefactions, placed especially with men so grateful, by new malefactions, and choose for themselves as an enemy the Roman people flourishing and most fortunate in war, whose friendship, when they were in distress, they had embraced?

Ne appellarent consilium, quae vis ac necessitas appellanda esset. Transeuntes agmine infesto per agrum suum Tarquinienses, cum praeter viam nihil petissent, traxisse quosdam agrestium populationis eius, quae sibi crimini detur, comites. Eos seu dedi placeat, dedere se paratos esse, seu supplicio adfici, daturos poenas.

They should not appeal to deliberate counsel where force and necessity ought to be appealed. The Tarquinienses, transiting in a hostile column through their fields, when they had sought nothing beyond a road, had drawn along certain rustics as companions in that depredation which is imputed to them as a charge. Those men—if it be pleasing that they be surrendered—they were prepared to surrender; or, if to be visited with punishment, they would pay the penalties.

Caere, sacrarium populi Romani, deversorium sacerdotum ac receptaculum Romanorum sacrorum, intactum inviolatumque crimine belli hospitio Vestalium cultisque dis darent. Movit populum non tam causa praesens quam vetus meritum, ut maleficii quam beneficii potius immemores essent. Itaque pax populo Caeriti data indutiasque in centum annos factas in senatus consultum referri placuit.

At Caere—the sacrarium of the Roman people, the lodging of the priests, and the receptacle of the Roman sacred things—they should grant it to be untouched and inviolate from the guilt of war, in view of the hospitality of the Vestals and the duly honored gods. The people were moved not so much by the present case as by the old merit, so that they were forgetful rather of the wrongdoing than of the benefaction. And so peace was granted to the Caerite people, and it was resolved that a truce made for 100 years be recorded in a senatorial decree.

In Faliscos eodem noxios crimine vis belli conversa est; sed hostes nusquam inventi. Cum populatione peragrati fines essent, ab oppugnatione urbium temperatum; legionibusque Romam reductis reliquum anni muris turribusque reficiendis consumptum et aedis Apollinis dedicata est.

Against the Faliscans, guilty of the same crime, the force of war was turned; but the enemy were found nowhere. After the borders had been traversed with a depredation, they refrained from the assault of cities; and with the legions led back to Rome, the remainder of the year was consumed in repairing the walls and towers, and the temple of Apollo was dedicated.

[21] Extremo anno comitia consularia certamen patrum ac plebis diremit, tribunis negantibus passuros comitia haberi ni secundum Liciniam legem haberentur, dictatore obstinato tollere potius totum e re publica consulatum quam promiscuum patribus ac plebi facere. Prolatandis igitur comitiis cum dictator magistratu abisset, res ad interregnum rediit. Infestam inde patribus plebem interreges cum accepissent, ad undecimum interregem seditionibus certatum est.

[21] At the end of the year the consular elections broke off the contest between the patricians and the plebs, the tribunes declaring that they would not allow the comitia to be held unless they were held according to the Licinian law, while the dictator was resolute to abolish the consulship altogether from the commonwealth rather than make it common to patricians and plebs. Accordingly, with the elections being postponed, when the dictator had left office, the matter reverted to an interregnum. Then, when the interreges found the plebs hostile to the patricians, the struggle went on with seditions down to the eleventh interrex.

Legis Liciniae patrocinium tribuni iactabant: propior dolor plebi fenoris ingravescentis erat curaeque privatae in certaminibus publicis erumpebant. Quorum taedio patres L. Cornelium Scipionem interregem concordiae causa observare legem Liciniam comitiis consularibus iussere. P. Valerio Publicolae datus e plebe collega C. Marcius Rutulus.

The tribunes were vaunting the patronage of the Licinian law; the nearer pain for the plebs was of usury growing heavier, and private cares were bursting out in public contests. Out of weariness at these things, the patres ordered L. Cornelius Scipio, interrex, for the sake of concord, to observe the Licinian law in the consular elections. To P. Valerius Publicola there was given, from the plebs, as colleague C. Marcius Rutilus.

Inclinatis semel in concordiam animis novi consules fenebrem quoque rem, quae distinere una animos videbatur, levare adgressi solutionem alieni aeris in publicam curam verterunt quinqueviris creatis quos mensarios ab dispensatione pecuniae appellarunt. Meriti aequitate curaque sunt, ut per omnium annalium monumenta celebres nominibus essent; fuere autem C. Duillius P. Decius Mus M. Papirius Q. Publilius et T. Aemilius. Qui rem difficillimam tractatu et plerumque parti utrique, semper certe alteri gravem cum alia moderatione tum impendio magis publico quam iactura sustinuerunt.

Once minds had inclined to concord, the new consuls, attempting also to lighten the usury-matter, which alone seemed to keep minds apart, turned the settlement of debt into a public care by creating a board of five, whom they called mensarii from the dispensation of money. By their equity and diligence they earned to be celebrated by name through the records of all annals; they were C. Duillius, P. Decius Mus, M. Papirius, Q. Publilius, and T. Aemilius. They sustained a most difficult affair in its handling—very often burdensome to both parties, and certainly always to one—both with other moderation and with an outlay borne rather by the public than by private loss.

Tarda enim nomina et impeditiora inertia debitorum quam facultatibus aut aerarium mensis cum aere in foro positis dissolvit, ut populo prius caveretur, aut aestimatio aequis rerum pretiis liberavit, ut non modo sine iniuria sed etiam sine querimoniis partis utriusque exhausta vis ingens aeris alieni sit.

For the slow-moving accounts (nomina), hampered more by the inertia of the debtors than by their resources, either the treasury (aerarium), by tables with bronze set up in the Forum, dissolved them—so that provision was first made for the people—or an appraisal, with equitable prices of goods, released them; so that the huge mass of debt was exhausted not only without injury but even without complaints from either party.

Terror inde vanus belli Etrusci, cum coniurasse duodecim populos fama esset, dictatorem dici coegit. Dictus in castris —eo enim ad consules missum senatus consultum est— C. Iulius, cui magister equitum adiectus L. Aemilius. Ceterum foris tranquilla omnia fuere:

Then a groundless terror of the Etruscan war, when there was a report that 12 peoples had conspired, compelled that a dictator be named. He was named in the camp — for a senatorial decree had been sent to the consuls for that purpose — C. Julius, to whom L. Aemilius was added as Master of the Horse. But otherwise, outside, all things were tranquil:

[22] Temptatum domi per dictatorem, ut ambo patricii consules crearentur, rem ad interregnum perduxit. Duo interreges, C. Sulpicius et M. Fabius, interpositi obtinuere quod dictator frustra tetenderat, mitiore iam plebe ob recens meritum levati aeris alieni, ut ambo patricii consules crearentur. Creati ipse C. Sulpicius Peticus, qui prior interregno abiit, et T. Quinctius Poenus; quidam Caesonem, alii Gaium praenomen Quinctio adiciunt, ad bellum ambo profecti, Faliscum Quinctius, Sulpicius Tarquiniense, nusquam acie congresso hoste cum agris magis quam cum hominibus urendo populandoque gesserunt bella; cuius lentae velut tabis senio victa utriusque pertinacia populi est, ut primum a consulibus, dein permissu eorum ab senatu indutias peterent.

[22] The attempt at home through the dictator, that both consuls be created patricians, brought the matter to an interregnum. Two interreges, Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, put in between, achieved what the dictator had striven for in vain—the plebs now milder on account of the recent service of the lightening of debt—namely, that both consuls be created patricians. Created were Gaius Sulpicius Peticus himself, who first departed from the interregnum, and Titus Quinctius Poenus; some add Caeso, others Gaius, as the praenomen to Quinctius. Both set out to war—Quinctius against the Faliscans, Sulpicius against Tarquinia—and with the enemy nowhere engaging in pitched battle, they waged wars by burning and ravaging the fields rather than the men; by which slow canker, as it were of rot, the obstinacy of both peoples was overcome, so that first they sought truces from the consuls, then, with their permission, from the senate.

In quadraginta annos impetraverunt.

They obtained a truce for forty years.

Ita posita duorum bellorum quae imminebant cura, dum aliqua ab armis quies esset, quia solutio aeris alieni multarum rerum mutaverat dominos, censum agi placuit. Ceterum cum censoribus creandis indicta comitia essent, professus censuram se petere C. Marcius Rutulus, qui primus dictator de plebe fuerat, concordiam ordinum turbavit; quod videbatur quidem tempore alieno fecisse, quia ambo tum forte patricii consules erant, qui rationem eius se habituros negabant; sed et ipse constantia inceptum obtinuit et tribuni omni vi reciperaturi ius consularibus comitiis amissum adiuverunt, et cum ipsius viri maiestas nullius honoris fastigium non aequabat, tum per eundem, qui ad dictaturam aperuisset viam, censuram quoque in partem vocari plebes volebat. Nec variatum comitiis est, quin cum Manlio [Naevio censor] Marcius crearetur.

Thus, with the care of the two wars that were impending set aside, while there was some respite from arms, because the release of debt had changed the owners of many properties, it was decided to hold a census. However, when an assembly had been proclaimed for creating censors, Gaius Marcius Rutulus, who had been the first dictator from the plebs, having declared that he was seeking the censorship, disturbed the concord of the orders; for it did indeed seem that he had acted at an inopportune time, because both consuls then by chance were patricians, who said they would not take account of his candidacy; but both he himself, by constancy, maintained his undertaking, and the tribunes, about to recover with all force the right lost in the consular elections, aided him; and since the majesty of the man himself fell short of no pinnacle of honor, then the plebs wanted through this same man, who had opened the way to the dictatorship, to call the censorship also into its share. Nor was there any change in the elections, but that Marcius was elected together with Manlius [Naevius as censor].

Dictatorem quoque hic annus habuit M. Fabium, nullo terrore belli sed ne Licinia lex comitiis consularibus observaretur. Magister equitum dictatori additus Q. Servilius. Nec tamen dictatura potentiorem eum consensum patrum consularibus comitiis fecit quam censoriis fuerat.

This year too had a dictator, M. Fabius, with no terror of war, but so that the Licinian law might not be observed at the consular elections. Q. Servilius was added to the dictator as master of the horse. Nor, however, did the dictatorship make the consensus of the Fathers at the consular elections more potent for him than it had been at the censorial.

[23]M. Popilius Laenas a plebe consul, a patribus L. Cornelius Scipio datus.

[23]M. Popilius Laenas, consul by the Plebs; by the Fathers, L. Cornelius Scipio was given.

Fortuna quoque inlustriorem plebeium consulem fecit; nam cum ingentem Gallorum exercitum in agro Latino castra posuisse nuntiatum esset, Scipione gravi morbo implicito Gallicum bellum Popilio extra ordinem datum. Is impigre exercitu scripto, cum omnes extra portam Capenam ad Martis aedem convenire armatos iuniores iussisset signaque eodem quaestores ex aerario deferre, quattuor expletis legionibus, quod superfuit militum P. Valerio Publicolae praetori tradidit, auctor patribus scribendi alterius exercitus, quod ad incertos belli eventus subsidium rei publicae esset. Ipse iam satis omnibus instructis comparatisque ad hostem pergit; cuius ut prius nosceret vires quam periculo ultimo temptaret, in tumulo, quem proximum castris Gallorum capere potuit, vallum ducere coepit.

Fortune too made the plebeian consul more illustrious; for when it had been reported that a huge army of Gauls had pitched camp in the Latin countryside, Scipio being entangled in a grievous illness, the Gallic war was assigned to Popilius out of the regular order. He, promptly with the army enrolled, when he had ordered all the armed young men to assemble outside the Capena Gate at the Temple of Mars and the quaestors to carry the standards there from the treasury, with four legions filled up, handed over what was left of the soldiers to P. Valerius Publicola, the praetor, advising the Fathers to levy another army so that it might be a reserve of the commonwealth against the uncertain outcomes of the war. He himself now, with everything sufficiently equipped and prepared, advances against the enemy; and in order first to learn their strength before he should test it by an ultimate peril, he began to draw a rampart on a mound which, being nearest to the Gauls’ camp, he was able to seize.

Gens ferox et ingenii avidi ad pugnam cum procul visis Romanorum signis ut extemplo proelium initura explicuisset aciem, postquam neque in aequum demitti agmen vidit et cum loci altitudine tum vallo etiam tegi Romanos, perculsos pavore rata, simul opportuniores quod intenti tum maxime operi essent, truci clamore adgreditur. Ab Romanis nec opus intermissum— triarii erant, qui muniebant—et ab hastatis principibusque, qui pro munitoribus intenti armatique steterunt, proelium initum. Praeter virtutem locus quoque superior adiuvit, ut pila omnia hastaeque non tamquam ex aequo missa vana, quod plerumque fit, caderent sed omnia librata ponderibus figerentur; oneratique telis Galli, quibus aut corpora transfixa aut praegravata inhaerentibus gerebant scuta, cum cursu paene in adversum subissent, primo incerti restitere; dein, cum ipsa cunctatio et his animos minuisset et auxisset hosti, impulsi retro ruere alii super alios stragemque inter se caede ipsa foediorem dare; adeo praecipiti turba obtriti plures quam ferro necati.

A fierce people and eager in disposition for combat, when, the standards of the Romans having been seen from afar, it had deployed its battle-line as though about to enter the engagement at once, after it saw that its column could not be let down into level ground and that the Romans were covered both by the height of the place and also by a rampart, thinking them struck with terror, and at the same time more “opportune” because they were then most intent upon the work, attacks with a truculent shout. On the Roman side neither was the work interrupted—the triarii were the ones fortifying—and the battle was begun by the hastati and principes, who, intent and armed, stood in front of the fortifiers. Besides valor, the higher ground also helped, so that all the pila and spears did not fall vainly as if hurled from an equal level, which commonly happens, but all, balanced in their weights, were planted fast; and the Gauls, laden with missiles—by which either their bodies were transfixed, or they bore their shields weighed down with shafts sticking in them—when at a run they had come up almost face to face, at first, uncertain, halted; then, since that very hesitation had both diminished their spirits and increased the enemy’s, driven back they rushed headlong, some over others, and made among themselves a wreck more hideous than the slaughter itself; to such a degree that more were crushed in the headlong crowd than were killed by steel.

[24] Necdum certa Romanis victoria erat; alia in campum degressis supererat moles. Namque multitudo Gallorum, sensum omnem talis damni exsuperans, velut nova rursus exoriente acie integrum militem adversus victorem hostem ciebat; stetitque suppresso impetu Romanus, et quia iterum fessis subeunda dimicatio erat et quod consul, dum inter primores incautus agitat, laevo umero matari prope traiecto cesserat parumper ex acie. Iamque omissa cunctando victoria erat, cum consul volnere alligato reuectus ad prima signa "quid stas, miles?" inquit; "non cum Latino Sabinoque hoste res est, quem victum armis socium ex hoste facias; in beluas strinximus ferrum; hauriendus aut dandus est sanguis.

[24] Nor was victory yet certain for the Romans; another mass remained for those who had descended into the plain. For the multitude of the Gauls, surpassing all sense of such a loss, as if with a battle line rising anew, was stirring fresh soldiery against the victorious enemy; and the Roman, with his impetus suppressed, stood fast, both because a contest had to be undergone again by the weary, and because the consul, while incautiously riding among the foremost, with his left shoulder nearly pierced through by a mataris (javelin), had withdrawn for a little from the line. And now victory was being let slip by delaying, when the consul, his wound bound up, having ridden back to the front standards, said, "Why do you stand, soldier? it is not with a Latin and Sabine enemy that the matter stands, whom, once conquered by arms, you make an ally out of an enemy; against beasts we have drawn steel; blood must be drawn or given.

Propulistis a castris, supina valle praecipites egistis, stratis corporibus hostium superstatis; complete eadem strage campos qua montes replestis. Nolite exspectare dum stantes vos fugiant; inferenda sunt signa et vadendum in hostem." His adhortationibus iterum coorti pellunt loco primos manipulos Gallorum; cuneis deinde in medium agmen perrumpunt. Inde barbari dissipati, quibus nec certa imperia nec duces essent, vertunt impetum in suos; fusique per campos et praeter castra etiam sua fuga praelati, quod editissimum inter aequales tumulos occurrebat oculis, arcem Albanam petunt.

"You have driven them from the camp, you have hurled them headlong down the sloping valley, you have stood over the bodies of the enemy laid low; fill with the same slaughter the plains with which you have filled the mountains. Do not wait until, while they stand, they flee from you; the standards must be borne forward and you must advance upon the enemy." At these exhortations, rousing themselves again, they drive from their position the front maniples of the Gauls; then, with wedges, they break through into the middle of the battle-line. From there the barbarians, scattered, who had neither fixed commands nor leaders, turn their onset upon their own men; and, poured out over the fields and borne in flight even past their own camp, they make for the Alban citadel, which, the loftiest among the level hills, met their gaze.

Consul non ultra castra insecutus, quia et volnus degravabat et subicere exercitum tumulis ab hoste occupatis nolebat, praeda omni castrorum militi data victorem exercitum opulentumque Gallicis spoliis Romam reduxit. Moram triumpho volnus consulis attulit eademque causa dictatoris desiderium senatui fecit, ut esset qui aegris consulibus comitia haberet. Dictator L. Furius Camillus dictus addito magistro equitum P. Cornelio Scipione reddidit patribus possessionem pristinam consulatus.

Not pursuing beyond the camp, because both the wound weighed him down and he did not wish to subject his army to hills occupied by the enemy, the consul, with all the booty of the camp given to the soldiery, led the victorious army, rich with Gallic spoils, back to Rome. The consul’s wound brought a delay to the triumph, and the same cause created in the senate a desire for a dictator, so that there might be someone who would hold the elections with the consuls being ill. The dictator L. Furius Camillus being named, with the Master of the Horse P. Cornelius Scipio added, restored to the patricians their former possession of the consulship.

Ipse ob id meritum ingenti patrum studio creatus consul collegam Ap. Claudium Crassum dixit.

He himself, for that merit, was created consul by the great zeal of the Fathers, and named Ap. Claudius Crassus as colleague.

[25] Prius quam inirent novi consules magistratum, triumphus a Popilio de Gallis actus magno fauore plebis; mussantesque inter se rogitabant num quem plebeii consulis paeniteret; simul dictatorem increpabant, qui legis Liciniae spretae mercedem privata cupiditate quam publica iniuria foediorem cepisset, ut se ipse consulem dictator crearet.

[25] Before the new consuls entered upon office, a triumph by Popilius over the Gauls was celebrated with great favor of the plebs; and murmuring among themselves they kept asking whether anyone regretted the plebeian consul; at the same time they were rebuking the dictator, who had taken, as the price for the Licinian Law scorned, a recompense more shameful in private cupidity than in public wrong—namely, that the dictator should create himself consul.

Annus multis variisque motibus fuit insignis: Galli ex Albanis montibus, quia hiemis vim pati nequiuerant, per campos maritimaque loca vagi populabantur; mare infestum classibus Graecorum erat oraque litoris Antiatis Laurensque tractus et Tiberis ostia, ut praedones maritimi cum terrestribus congressi ancipiti semel proelio decertarint dubiique discesserint in castra Galli, Graeci retro ad naues, victos se an victores putarent. Inter hos longe maximus exstitit terror concilia populorum Latinorum ad lucum Ferentinae habita responsumque haud ambiguum imperantibus milites Romanis datum, absisterent imperare iis quorum auxilio egerent: Latinos pro sua libertate potius quam pro alieno imperio laturos arma. Inter duo simul bella externa defectione etiam sociorum senatus anxius, cum cerneret metu tenendos quos fides non tenuisset, extendere omnes imperii vires consules dilectu habendo iussit: civili quippe standum exercitu esse, quando socialis [coetus] desereret.

The year was remarkable for many and diverse commotions: the Gauls from the Alban mountains, because they had been unable to endure the force of winter, were wandering and ravaging through the plains and the maritime places; the sea was infested by fleets of Greeks, and the shores of the Antiates coast, the Laurentine tract, and the mouths of the Tiber, so that maritime pirates, having engaged with those on land, once fought it out in a two-sided and doubtful battle and withdrew uncertain—into their camp the Gauls, the Greeks back to their ships—whether they should think themselves vanquished or victors. Among these, by far the greatest terror arose from the councils of the Latin peoples held at the grove of Ferentina, and an answer by no means ambiguous was given to those commanding Roman soldiers: that they should desist from ordering those whose help they needed; that the Latins would bear arms for their own liberty rather than for another’s dominion. Between two foreign wars at once, and with the defection of the allies as well, the senate, anxious—since it perceived that those whom loyalty had not held must be held by fear—ordered the consuls, by holding a levy, to stretch all the forces of imperium: for a civil (citizen) army must be stood upon, since the allied host was deserting.

Vndique non urbana tantum sed etiam agresti iuventute decem legiones scriptae dicuntur quaternum milium et ducenorum peditum equitumque trecenorum, quem nunc novum exercitum, si qua externa vis ingruat, hae vires populi Romani, quas vix terrarum capit orbis, contractae in unum haud facile efficiant; adeo in quae laboramus sola crevimus, diuitias luxuriamque.

On all sides, not only with urban but also with rural youth, ten legions are said to have been enrolled, each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry; which new army now, should any external force press in, these forces of the Roman people—which the orb of lands can scarcely contain—if contracted into one would hardly bring about; so far have we grown only in the things we labor under: riches and luxury.

Inter cetera tristia eius anni consul alter Ap. Claudius in ipso belli apparatu moritur; redieratque res ad Camillum, cui unico consuli, vel ob aliam dignationem haud subiciendam dictaturae vel ob omen faustum ad Gallicum tumultum cognominis, dictatorem adrogari haud satis decorum visum est patribus. Consul duabus legionibus urbi praepositis, octo cum L. Pinario praetore diuisis memor paternae virtutis Gallicum sibi bellum extra sortem sumit, praetorem maritimam oram tutari Graecosque arcere litoribus iussit. Et cum in agrum Pomptinum descendisset, quia neque in campis congredi nulla cogente re volebat et prohibendo populationibus quos rapto vivere necessitas cogeret satis domari credebat hostem, locum idoneum statiuis delegit.

Among the other sad things of that year, the other consul, Ap. Claudius, dies in the very apparatus of war; and the matter had reverted to Camillus, to whom, as the sole consul, either on account of a distinction not to be subjected to a dictatorship, or on account of the auspicious omen for a Gallic tumult of his cognomen, it seemed to the Fathers not sufficiently decorous to have a dictator arrogated. The consul, with two legions posted for the city, and eight divided with L. Pinarius the praetor, mindful of paternal virtue, takes upon himself, outside the lot, the Gallic war; he ordered the praetor to guard the maritime shore and to ward the Greeks from the littorals. And when he had descended into the Pomptine country, because he was unwilling to meet in the plains when nothing compelled, and believed that by preventing depredations he would sufficiently tame the enemy whom necessity drove to live by rapine, he chose a place suitable for fixed encampment.

[26] Ubi cum stationibus quieti tempus tererent, Gallus processit magnitudine atque armis insignis; quatiensque scutum hasta cum silentium fecisset, provocat per interpretem unum ex Romanis qui secum ferro decernat. M. erat Valerius tribunus militum adulescens, qui haud indigniorem eo decore se quam T. Manlium ratus, prius sciscitatus consulis voluntatem, in medium armatus processit. Minus insigne certamen humanum numine interposito deorum factum; namque conserenti iam manum Romano coruus repente in galea consedit, in hostem versus.

[26] When, while at their outposts, they were passing a time of quiet, a Gaul advanced, remarkable for magnitude and arms; and, shaking his shield with his spear, after he had made silence, he challenges through an interpreter one of the Romans to decide with him by steel. There was M. Valerius, a young military tribune, who, thinking himself no less worthy of that honor than T. Manlius, first, having asked the consul’s will, advanced armed into the midst. The contest of men was made less notable as a human affair by the numen of the gods interposed; for, as the Roman was now joining hand-to-hand, a raven suddenly settled on his helmet, facing the enemy.

Quod primo ut augurium caelo missum laetus accepit tribunus, precatus deinde, si diuus, si diua esset qui sibi praepetem misisset, volens propitius adesset. Dictu mirabile, tenuit non solum ales captam semel sedem sed, quotienscumque certamen initum est, levans se alis os oculosque hostis rostro et unguibus appetit, donec territum prodigii talis visu oculisque simul ac mente turbatum Valerius obtruncat; coruus ex conspectu elatus orientem petit. Hactenus quietae utrimque stationes fuere; postquam spoliare corpus caesi hostis tribunus coepit, nec Galli se statione tenuerunt et Romanorum cursus ad victorem etiam ocior fuit.

Which as an augury sent from the sky the tribune at first gladly received; then, having prayed that, if it were a god or a goddess who had sent him an auspicious bird, he would be present willing and propitious. Marvelous to relate, the bird not only kept the perch once seized, but, whenever the contest was joined, lifting itself with its wings it assailed the enemy’s face and eyes with beak and talons, until, terrified at the sight of such a prodigy and thrown into disorder in his eyes as well as in his mind, Valerius cuts him down; the raven, carried aloft from sight, makes for the east. Thus far the pickets on both sides had been quiet; after the tribune began to strip the body of the slain enemy, the Gauls did not keep their post, and the running of the Romans toward the victor was even swifter.

Ibi circa iacentis Galli corpus contracto certamine pugna atrox concitatur. Iam non manipulis proximarum stationum sed legionibus utrimque effusis res geritur. Camillus laetum militem victoria tribuni, laetum tam praesentibus ac secundis dis ire in proelium iubet; ostentansque insignem spoliis tribunum, "hunc imitare, miles" aiebat, "et circa iacentem ducem sterne Gallorum cateruas." Di hominesque illi adfuere pugnae depugnatumque haudquaquam certamine ambiguo cum Gallis est; adeo duorum militum eventum, inter quos pugnatum erat, utraque acies animis praeceperat.

Ibi, around the body of the fallen Gaul, with the engagement drawn together, a savage combat is stirred up. Now the action is carried on not by the maniples of the nearest posts, but with the legions on both sides poured out. Camillus orders the soldiery, glad at the victory of the tribune, glad to go into battle with such present and favorable gods; and displaying the tribune distinguished with the spoils, he was saying, “Imitate this man, soldier, and around the prostrate leader lay low the bands of the Gauls.” Both gods and men were present to the battle, and it was fought out with the Gauls by no means in a doubtful contest; so greatly had both battle lines anticipated in their minds the issue of the two soldiers between whom it had been fought.

Inter primos, quorum concursus alios exciuerat, atrox proelium fuit: alia multitudo, priusquam ad coniectum teli veniret, terga vertit. Primo per Volscos Falernumque agrum dissipati sunt; inde Apuliam ac mare inferum petierunt.

Among the foremost, whose concourse had aroused others, there was an atrocious battle: another multitude, before it came within the cast of a missile, turned their backs. At first they were scattered through the country of the Volsci and the Falernian field; thence they made for Apulia and the lower sea.

Consul contione advocata laudatum tribunum decem bubus aureaque corona donat; ipse iussus ab senatu bellum maritimum curare cum praetore iunxit castra. Ibi quia res trahi segnitia Graecorum non committentium se in aciem videbantur, dictatorem comitiorum causa T. Manlium Torquatum ex auctoritate senatus dixit. Dictator magistro equitum A. Cornelio Cosso dicto comitia consularia habuit aemulumque decoris sui absentem M. Valerium Coruum— id enim illi deinde cognominis fuit—summo fauore populi, tres et viginti natum annos, consulem renuntiavit.

The consul, an assembly having been called, after praising the tribune, presents him with ten oxen and a golden crown; he himself, ordered by the senate to take care of the maritime war, joined camp with the praetor. There, because the matter seemed to be dragged out by the sluggishness of the Greeks, who did not commit themselves into the battle-line, he, by authority of the senate, named a dictator for the sake of the comitia, T. Manlius Torquatus. The dictator, with A. Cornelius Cossus named master of the horse, held the consular elections and proclaimed as consul—his rival in his own renown—M. Valerius Corvus (for that was thereafter his cognomen), with the utmost favor of the people, twenty-three years old, though absent.

Collega Coruo de plebe M. Popilius Laenas, quartum consul futurus, datus est. Cum Graecis a Camillo nulla memorabilis gesta res; nec illi terra nec Romanus mari bellator erat. Postremo cum litoribus arcerentur, aqua etiam praeter cetera necessaria usui deficiente Italiam reliquere.

A colleague to Corvus from the plebs, M. Popilius Laenas, destined to be consul for the fourth time, was assigned. With the Greeks, under Camillus, nothing memorable was done; neither were they warriors on land, nor was the Roman a warrior at sea. Finally, when they were kept away from the shores, with water too—besides the other things necessary for use—failing, they left Italy.

Cuius populi ea cuiusque gentis classis fuerit nihil certi est. Maxime Siciliae fuisse tyrannos crediderim; nam ulterior Graecia ea tempestate intestino fessa bello iam Macedonum opes horrebat.

Of what people, and of what nation, that fleet was, nothing is certain. I would most of all believe it to have been the tyrants of Sicily; for Further Greece, at that time wearied by internal (intestine) war, already shuddered at the power of the Macedonians.

[27] Exercitibus dimissis, cum et foris pax et domi concordia ordinum otium esset, ne nimis laetae res essent, pestilentia civitatem adorta coegit senatum imperare decemviris ut libros Sibyllinos inspicerent; eorumque monitu lectisternium fuit. Eodem anno Satricum ab Antiatibus colonia deducta restitutaque urbs quam Latini diruerant. Et cum Carthaginiensibus legatis Romae foedus ictum, cum amicitiam ac societatem petentes venissent.

[27] With the armies dismissed, since both abroad there was peace and at home the concord of the orders brought repose, lest things be too joyous, a pestilence assailing the community compelled the senate to order the decemvirs to inspect the Sibylline books; and at their prompting there was a lectisternium. In the same year Satricum, a colony having been led out by the Antiates, was restored, and the city which the Latins had razed was rebuilt. And with Carthaginian envoys at Rome a treaty was struck, since they had come seeking friendship and alliance.

Idem otium domi forisque mansit T. Manlio Torquato [L.f.] C. Plautio consulibus. Semunciarium tantum ex unciario fenus factum et in pensiones aequas triennii, ita ut quarta praesens esset, solutio aeris alieni dispensata est; et sic quoque parte plebis adfecta fides tamen publica privatis difficultatibus potior ad curam senatui fuit. Leuatae maxime res, quia tributo ac dilectu supersessum.

The same quiet at home and abroad remained with T. Manlius Torquatus [L.f.] and C. Plautius as consuls. The interest was made semuncial instead of uncial, and the payment of debt was arranged into equal installments for a three-year period, such that a fourth part was payable at once; and even so, with a portion of the plebs affected, public credit was nevertheless a higher concern to the senate than private difficulties. Matters were greatly alleviated, because there was a forbearance from the tribute and the levy (conscription).

Tertio anno post Satricum restitutum a Volscis M. Valerius Coruus iterum consul cum C. Poetelio factus, cum ex Latio nuntiatum esset legatos ab Antio circumire populos Latinorum ad concitandum bellum, prius quam plus hostium fieret Volscis arma inferre iussus, ad Satricum exercitu infesto pergit. Quo cum Antiates aliique Volsci praeparatis iam ante, si quid ab Roma moveretur, copiis occurrissent, nulla mora inter infensos diutino odio dimicandi facta est. Volsci, ferocior ad rebellandum quam ad bellandum gens, certamine victi fuga effusa Satrici moenia petunt; et ne in muris quidem satis firma spe, cum corona militum cincta iam scalis caperetur urbs, ad quattuor milia militum praeter multitudinem imbellem sese dedidere.

In the third year after Satricum had been restored by the Volsci, M. Valerius Corvus was made consul again with C. Poetelius; and when it had been reported from Latium that legates from Antium were going around the Latin peoples to incite war, he was ordered to bring arms against the Volsci before more enemies should be made, and he proceeds to Satricum with a hostile army. There the Antiates and other Volsci, with forces already prepared beforehand in case anything should be set in motion from Rome, met him; no delay was made for fighting between foes inflamed with long-standing hatred. The Volsci, a nation fiercer to rebel than to wage war, defeated in the contest, in headlong rout make for the walls of Satricum; and not even on the walls with hope sufficiently firm, when the city, ringed by soldiers and now being taken by ladders, was being captured, about four thousand soldiers, besides the non-combatant multitude, surrendered themselves.

Oppidum dirutum atque incensum: ab aede tantum Matris Matutae abstinuere ignem: praeda omnis militi data. Extra praedam quattuor milia deditorum habita; eos vinctos consul ante currum triumphans egit; venditis deinde magnam pecuniam in aerarium redegit. Sunt qui hanc multitudinem captivam servorum fuisse scribant, idque magis veri simile est quam deditos venisse.

The town was dismantled and burned: only from the temple of Mother Matuta did they withhold fire: all the booty was given to the soldiery. Apart from the booty, four thousand of the surrendered were kept; the consul, triumphing, drove them bound before his chariot; then, when they had been sold, he paid a great sum into the treasury. There are those who write that this captive multitude was of slaves, and that is more likely than that the surrendered were sold.

[28] Hos consules secuti sunt M. Fabius Dorsuo Ser. Sulpicius Camerinus. Auruncum inde bellum ab repentina populatione coeptum; metuque ne id factum populi unius consilium omnis nominis Latini esset, dictator—uelut adversus armatum iam Latium—L. Furius creatus magistrum equitum Cn. Manlium Capitolinum dixit; et cum—quod per magnos tumultus fieri solitum erat—iustitio indicto dilectus sine vacationibus habitus esset, legiones quantum maturari potuit in Auruncos ductae.

[28] These consuls were followed by Marcus Fabius Dorsuo and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus. Then a war with the Aurunci was begun by a sudden depredation; and from fear lest that deed of a single people should be the policy of the whole Latin name, a dictator—as if against Latium already in arms—Lucius Furius was appointed; and he named Gnaeus Manlius Capitolinus master of the horse. And when—as was wont to be done amid great tumults—a iustitium having been proclaimed, a levy was held without exemptions, the legions, as fast as could be hastened, were led against the Aurunci.

Ibi praedonum magis quam hostium animi inventi; prima itaque acie debellatum est. Dictator tamen, quia et ultro bellum intulerant et sine detractatione se certamini offerebant, deorum quoque opes adhibendas ratus inter ipsam dimicationem aedem Iunoni Monetae vovit; cuius damnatus uoti cum victor Romam revertisset, dictatura se abdicavit. Senatus duumuiros ad eam aedem pro amplitudine populi Romani faciendam creari iussit; locus in arce destinatus, quae area aedium M. Manli Capitolini fuerat.

There the spirits were found to be those of brigands rather than of enemies; and so the war was finished in the first battle-line. The Dictator, however, because they had of their own accord brought war and were offering themselves to the contest without shirking, thinking that the resources of the gods also should be employed, in the very struggle vowed a temple to Juno Moneta; and, being bound by that vow, when he had returned victorious to Rome, he abdicated the dictatorship. The Senate ordered that two commissioners (duumvirs) be created to build that temple in proportion to the amplitude of the Roman People; a site on the Citadel was designated, the plot which had been the area of the house(s) of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus.

Consules dictatoris exercitu ad bellum Volscum usi Soram ex hostibus, incautos adorti, ceperunt.

The consuls, employing the dictator’s army for the Volscian war, seized Sora from the enemy, having assailed them off their guard.

Anno postquam uota erat aedes Monetae dedicatur C. Marcio Rutulo tertium T. Manlio Torquato iterum consulibus. Prodigium extemplo dedicationem secutum, simile vetusto montis Albani prodigio; namque et lapidibus pluit et nox interdiu visa intendi; librisque inspectis cum plena religione civitas esset, senatui placuit dictatorem feriarum constituendarum causa dici. Dictus P. Valerius Publicola; magister equitum ei Q. Fabius Ambustus datus est.

In the year after the temple of Moneta had been vowed, it is dedicated, with Gaius Marcius Rutilus consul for the third time and Titus Manlius Torquatus for the second. A prodigy immediately followed the dedication, similar to the ancient prodigy of the Alban Mount; for it both rained stones and night was seen to be intensified in the daytime; and when the books had been inspected, since the state was filled with religious scruple, it pleased the senate that a dictator be named for the purpose of instituting holy days. Publius Valerius Publicola was named; a Master of the Horse was given to him, Quintus Fabius Ambustus.

Non tribus tantum supplicatum ire placuit sed finitimos etiam populos, ordoque iis, quo quisque die supplicarent, statutus. Iudicia eo anno populi tristia in feneratores facta, quibus ab aedilibus dicta dies esset, traduntur; et res haud ulla insigni ad memoriam causa ad interregnum redit. Ex interregno, ut id actum videri posset, ambo patricii consules creati sunt, M. Valerius Coruus tertium A. Cornelius Cossus.

It pleased them to go to supplication not for three days only but that the neighboring peoples as well [should do so], and an order was set for them, on which day each should supplicate. It is handed down that in that year the people’s judgments were grim against the money-lenders, for whom a day had been appointed by the aediles; and, with no affair of any distinguished cause for memory, the state returned to an interregnum. From the interregnum, as if to make it seem that this had been the object, both consuls were created patricians, M. Valerius Corvus for the third time and A. Cornelius Cossus.

[29] Maiora iam hinc bella et viribus hostium et vel longinquitate regionum vel temporum spatio quibus bellatum est dicentur. Namque eo anno adversus Samnites, gentem opibus armisque validam, mota arma; Samnitium bellum ancipiti Marte gestum Pyrrhus hostis, Pyrrhum Poeni secuti. Quanta rerum moles.

[29] From here on greater wars will be recounted, greater both in the strength of the enemies and in either the remoteness of the regions or the span of the times during which they were fought. For in that year arms were raised against the Samnites, a people strong in resources and in arms; the Samnite war, carried on with doubtful fortune; Pyrrhus the enemy; Pyrrhus was followed by the Carthaginians. What a mass of events.

Quotiens in extrema periculorum ventum, ut in hanc magnitudinem quae vix sustinetur erigi imperium posset. Belli autem causa cum Samnitibus Romanis, cum societate amicitiaque iuncti essent, extrinsecus venit, non orta inter ipsos est. Samnites Sidicinis iniusta arma, quia viribus plus poterant, cum intulissent, coacti inopes ad opulentiorum auxilium confugere Campanis sese coniungunt.

How often it was come to the extremity of perils, that the empire could be raised to this magnitude which is scarcely sustained. But the cause of the war between the Romans and the Samnites—though they had been joined by a compact of society and amity—came from outside; it did not arise between themselves. When the Samnites had brought unjust arms against the Sidicini, because they were superior in forces, the needy, compelled to take refuge in the aid of the more opulent, joined themselves to the Campanians.

Campani magis nomen ad praesidium sociorum quam vires cum attulissent, fluentes luxu ab duratis usu armorum in Sidicino pulsi agro in se deinde molem omnem belli verterunt. Namque Samnites, omissis Sidicinis ipsam arcem finitimorum [Campanos] adorti, unde aeque facilis victoria, praedae atque gloriae plus esset, Tifata, imminentes Capuae colles, cum praesidio firmo occupassent, descendunt inde quadrato agmine in planitiem quae Capuam Tifataque interiacet. Ibi rursus acie dimicatum; adversoque proelio Campani intra moenia compulsi, cum robore iuventutis suae acciso nulla propinqua spes esset, coacti sunt ab Romanis petere auxilium.

Since the Campanians had brought to the protection of their allies more of a name than of strength, flowing in luxury and removed from the hardening that comes from the practice of arms, once driven from the Sidicinian territory they then turned the whole mass of the war upon themselves. For the Samnites, leaving the Sidicinians aside, assailed the very citadel of their neighbors, the [Campanians], where victory would be equally easy but there would be more of booty and of glory; having seized Tifata, the hills overhanging Capua, with a strong garrison, from there they descended in a square formation into the plain which lies between Capua and Tifata. There again the battle was fought in array; and with the engagement adverse, the Campanians, driven within the walls, when the strength of their youth had been cut down and there was no near hope, were compelled to seek aid from the Romans.

[30] Legati introducti in senatum maxime in hanc sententiam locuti sunt. "Populus nos Campanus legatos ad uos, patres conscripti, misit amicitiam in perpetuum, auxilium in praesens a vobis petitum. Quam si secundis rebus nostris petissemus, sicut coepta celerius, ita infirmiore vinculo contracta esset; tunc enim, ut qui ex aequo nos venisse in amicitiam meminissemus, amici forsitan pariter ac nunc, subiecti atque obnoxii vobis minus essemus; nunc, misericordia vestra conciliati auxilioque in dubiis rebus defensi, beneficium quoque acceptum colamus oportet, ne ingrati atque omni ope diuina humanaque indigni videamur.

[30] The envoys, introduced into the senate, spoke chiefly to this purport. "The Campanian people has sent us, envoys, to you, Conscript Fathers, to request friendship in perpetuity, and aid for the present from you. Which, if we had sought in our prosperous circumstances, as it would have been entered upon more quickly, so it would have been contracted with a weaker bond; for then, since we would remember that we had come into friendship on equal terms, we might perhaps have been friends equally as now, but less subject and beholden to you; now, won over by your compassion and defended by aid in our doubtful circumstances, we ought also to cultivate the benefit received, lest we seem ungrateful and unworthy of every divine and human help.

Neque hercule, quod Samnites priores amici sociique vobis facti sunt, ad id valere arbitror ne nos in amicitiam accipiamur sed ut ii vetustate et gradu honoris nos praestent; neque enim foedere Samnitium, ne qua nova iungeretis foedera, cautum est.

Nor, by Hercules, do I judge that the fact that the Samnites were earlier made your friends and allies has the force that we should not be received into friendship, but rather that they, by antiquity and by rank of honor, should surpass us; for it was not stipulated in the treaty of the Samnites that you should join no new treaties.

"Fuit quidem apud vos semper satis iusta causa amicitiae, velle eum vobis amicum esse qui vos appeteret: Campani, etsi fortuna praesens magnifice loqui prohibet, non urbis amplitudine, non agri ubertate ulli populo praeterquam vobis cedentes, haud parva, ut arbitror, accessio bonis rebus vestris in amicitiam venimus vestram. Aequis Volscisque, aeternis hostibus huius urbis, quandocumque se moverint, ab tergo erimus, et quod vos pro salute nostra priores feceritis, id nos pro imperio vestro et gloria semper faciemus. Subactis his gentibus quae inter nos uosque sunt, quod propediem futurum spondet et virtus et fortuna vestra, continens imperium usque ad nos habebitis.

"Indeed, among you there has always been a sufficiently just cause of friendship: that he should wish to be your friend who makes toward you. We Campanians, although present fortune forbids us to speak magnificently, yielding to no people save to you in the amplitude of our city and the fertility of our land, come into your friendship as, I judge, no small accession to your good estate. Against the Aequians and the Volsci, the eternal enemies of this city, whenever they shall stir, we shall be at their rear; and what you shall first have done for our safety, that we shall always do for your imperium and glory. When those nations which are between us and you have been subdued—which both your virtue and your fortune pledge will be soon—you will have a continuous imperium reaching to us.

Acerbum ac miserum est quod fateri nos fortuna nostra cogit: eo ventum est, patres conscripti, ut aut amicorum aut inimicorum Campani simus. Si defenditis, vestri, si deseritis, Samnitium erimus; Capuam ergo et Campaniam omnem vestris an Samnitium viribus accedere malitis, deliberate.

It is bitter and miserable what our fortune compels us to confess: it has come to this, Conscript Fathers, that we Campanians are to be either of friends or of enemies. If you defend us, we are yours; if you desert us, we shall be the Samnites’; therefore whether you prefer that Capua and all Campania accede to your forces or to the Samnites’, deliberate.

"Omnibus quidem, Romani, vestram misericordiam, vestrum auxilium aequum est patere, iis tamen maxime, qui ea implorantibus aliis auxilium dum supra vires suas praestant, [ante] omnes ipsi in hanc necessitatem venerunt. Quamquam pugnauimus verbo pro Sidicinis, re pro nobis, cum videremus finitimum populum nefario latrocinio Samnitium peti et, ubi conflagrassent Sidicini, ad nos traiecturum illud incendium esse. Nec enim nunc, quia dolent iniuriam acceptam Samnites sed quia gaudent oblatam sibi esse causam, oppugnatum nos veniunt.

"To all indeed, Romans, it is fair that your mercy, your assistance be open; yet most of all to those who, while others were imploring it, furnished help beyond their own strength, [before] all have themselves come into this necessity. Although we fought in word for the Sidicini, in reality for ourselves, when we saw that a neighboring people was being targeted by the nefarious banditry of the Samnites, and that, once the Sidicini had been consumed, that conflagration would pass over to us. For it is not now because the Samnites grieve at an injury received, but because they rejoice that a pretext has been offered to them, that they come to attack us.

An, si ultio irae haec et non occasio cupiditatis explendae esset, parum fuit quod semel in Sidicino agro, iterum in Campania ipsa legiones nostras cecidere? Quae est ista tam infesta ira quam per duas acies fusus sanguis explere non potuerit? Adde huc populationem agrorum, praedas hominum atque pecudum actas, incendia villarum ac ruinas, omnia ferro ignique vastata.

Or, if this were the vengeance of wrath and not an occasion for satisfying cupidity, was it too little that once in Sidicinian territory, again in Campania itself, they felled our legions? What sort of wrath so hostile is this, which blood poured out through two battle-lines could not sate? Add to this the devastation of the fields, the booty of men and of cattle driven off, the burnings of villas and their ruins—everything laid waste with iron and fire.

Hiscine ira expleri non potuit? Sed cupiditas explenda est. Ea ad oppugnandam Capuam rapit; aut delere urbem pulcherrimam aut ipsi possidere volunt.

Could their ire not be satisfied by these things? But cupidity must be satisfied. That drives them to attack Capua; they wish either to destroy the most beautiful city or to possess it themselves.

Sed vos potius, Romani, beneficio vestro occupate eam quam illos habere per maleficium sinatis. Non loquor apud recusantem iusta bella populum; sed tamen, si ostenderitis auxilia vestra, ne bello quidem arbitror vobis opus fore. Usque ad nos contemptus Samnitium pervenit, supra non ascendit; itaque umbra vestri auxilii, Romani, tegi possumus, quidquid deinde habuerimus, quidquid ipsi fuerimus, vestrum id omne existimaturi.

But you rather, Romans, preoccupy it by your benefaction than allow those men to have it through maleficence. I do not speak among a people that recusant of just wars; but yet, if you display your aid, I think you will not even need war. The contempt of the Samnites has reached as far as us; it does not climb higher; and so under the shadow of your aid, Romans, we can be covered—whatever thereafter we shall have had, whatever we ourselves shall have been, we shall reckon all of it as yours.

Vobis arabitur ager Campanus, vobis Capua urbs frequentabitur; conditorum, parentium, deorum immortalium numero nobis eritis; nulla colonia vestra erit, quae nos obsequio erga vos fideque superet.

For you the Campanian land will be ploughed, for you the city Capua will be frequented; in the number of founders, parents, and immortal gods you will be to us; there will be no colony of yours that surpasses us in obedience toward you and in loyalty.

"Adnuite, patres conscripti, nutum numenque vestrum invictum Campanis et iubete sperare incolumem Capuam futuram. Qua frequentia omnium generum multitudinis prosequente creditis nos illinc profectos? Quam omnia uotorum lacrimarumque plena reliquisse?

"Give assent, Conscript Fathers; let your nod and numen, unconquered, be for the Campanians, and bid them hope that Capua will be safe. With what a concourse, a multitude of every kind escorting, do you think we set out from there? How full of every kind of vows and tears did we leave it?

In qua nunc exspectatione senatum populumque Campanum, coniuges liberosque nostros esse? Stare omnem multitudinem ad portas viam hinc ferentem prospectantes certum habeo. Quid illis nos, patres conscripti, sollicitis ac pendentibus animi renuntiare iubetis?

In what expectation do you suppose the Campanian senate and people, and our wives and children, now to be? I hold it certain that the whole multitude stands at the gates, looking out upon the road leading from here. What do you bid us, Conscript Fathers, report back to them, anxious and hanging in suspense?

Alterum responsum salutem victoriam lucem ac libertatem; alterum—ominari horreo quae ferat. Proinde ut aut de vestris futuris sociis atque amicis aut nusquam ullis futuris nobis consulite."

The one response [promises] safety, victory, light, and liberty; the other—I shudder to augur what it may bring. Accordingly, take counsel about us, either as your future allies and friends, or as never to be any for you."

[31] Semmotis deinde legatis, cum consultus senatus esset, etsi magnae parti urbs maxima opulentissimaque Italiae, uberrimus ager marique propinquus ad varietates annonae horreum populi Romani fore videbatur, tamen tanta utilitate fides antiquior fuit responditque ita ex auctoritate senatus consul. "Auxilio uos, Campani, dignos censet senatus; sed ita vobiscum amicitiam institui par est, ne qua vetustior amicitia ac societas violetur. Samnites nobiscum foedere iuncti sunt; itaque arma, deos prius quam homines violatura, adversus Samnites vobis negamus; legatos, sicut fas iusque est, ad socios atque amicos precatum mittemus, ne qua vobis vis fiat." Ad ea princeps legationis- sic enim domo mandatum attulerant—"quando quidem" inquit, "nostra tueri adversus vim atque iniuria iusta vi non voltis, vestra certe defendetis; itaque populum Campanum urbemque Capuam, agros, delubra deum, diuina humanaque omnia in vestram, patres conscripti, populique Romani dicionem dedimus, quidquid deinde patiemur dediticii vestri passuri". Sub haec dicta omnes, manus ad consules tendentes, pleni lacrimarum in vestibulo curiae procubuerunt.

[31] Then, with the envoys removed, when the senate had been consulted, although to a large part it seemed that the city, the greatest and most opulent of Italy, with a most fertile territory and close to the sea for the varieties of the grain-supply, would be the granary of the Roman people, nevertheless fidelity proved older than so great an utility; and the consul, by authority of the senate, replied thus. "The senate judges you, Campanians, worthy of aid; but it is fitting that friendship be established with you on such terms that no older friendship and alliance be violated. The Samnites are joined to us by treaty; and so we deny you arms against the Samnites—arms that would violate the gods before men; we will send envoys, as fas and ius allow, to our allies and friends to entreat that no violence be done to you." To this the leader of the embassy—so in fact they had brought their mandate from home—"since indeed," he said, "you are unwilling to protect what is ours against violence and injury by just force, you will at least defend what is yours; accordingly, we have surrendered the Campanian people and the city of Capua, the fields, the shrines of the gods, all things divine and human, into your dominion, conscript fathers, and that of the Roman people—whatever we shall henceforth suffer, as your dediticii are to suffer." Upon these words they all, stretching their hands to the consuls, full of tears, fell prostrate in the vestibule of the curia.

Commoti patres vice fortunarum humanarum, si ille praepotens opibus populus, luxuria superbiaque clarus, a quo paulo ante auxilium finitimi petissent, adeo infractos gereret animos, ut se ipse suaque omnia potestatis alienae faceret. Tum iam fides agi visa deditos non prodi; nec facturum aequa Samnitium populum censebant, si agrum urbemque per deditionem factam populi Romani oppugnarent. Legatos itaque extemplo mitti ad Samnites placuit.

The senators were moved by the vicissitude of human fortunes, that that people, prepotent in wealth, renowned for luxury and arrogance, from whom a little before the neighboring peoples had sought assistance, should carry spirits so broken as to make itself and all its things subject to an alien power. Then already good faith seemed to be at issue, that the surrendered not be betrayed; nor did they deem that the Samnite people would be doing what was equitable, if they were to attack the land and the city which by surrender had been made the Roman people’s. Accordingly it was decided that envoys be sent forthwith to the Samnites.

Data mandata, ut preces Campanorum, responsum senatus amicitiae Samnitium memor, deditionem postremo factam Samnitibus exponerent; peterent pro societate amicitiaque, ut dediticiis suis parcerent neque in eum agrum qui populi Romani factus esset hostilia arma inferrent; si leniter agendo parum proficerent, denuntiarent Samnitibus populi Romani senatusque verbis, ut Capua urbe Campanoque agro abstinerent. Haec legatis agentibus in concilio Samnitium adeo est ferociter responsum, ut non solum gesturos se esse dicerent id bellum sed magistratus eorum e curia egressi stantibus legatis praefectos cohortium vocarent iisque clara voce imperarent ut praedatum in agrum Campanum extemplo proficiscerentur.

Mandates were given that they should set forth to the Samnites the pleas of the Campanians, the response of the senate mindful of the friendship with the Samnites, and, finally, the deditio that had been made; that they should petition, for the sake of alliance and amity, that they spare their dediticii and not bring hostile arms into that land which had become the Roman People’s; if by dealing gently they should make too little progress, they were to denounce to the Samnites, in the words of the Roman People and the senate, that they must abstain from the city of Capua and the Campanian territory. While the envoys were prosecuting these matters in the council of the Samnites, the reply was given so ferociously that they not only said they would prosecute that war, but their magistrates, having gone out from the curia with the envoys standing, summoned the prefects of the cohorts and ordered them in a clear voice to set out at once to go plundering into the Campanian territory.

[32] Hac legatione Romam relata, positis omnium aliarum rerum curis patres fetialibus ad res repetendas missis, belloque, quia non redderentur, sollemni more indicto, decreverunt ut primo quoque tempore de ea re ad populum ferretur; iussuque populi consules ambo cum duobus exercitibus profecti, Valerius in Campaniam, Cornelius in Samnium, ille ad montem Gaurum, hic ad Saticulam castra ponunt. Priori Valerio Samnitium legiones—eo namque omnem belli molem inclinaturam censebant— occurrunt; simul in Campanos stimulabat ira tam promptos nunc ad ferenda, nunc ad accersenda adversus se auxilia. Ut vero castra Romana viderunt, ferociter pro se quisque signum duces poscere, adfirmare eadem fortuna Romanum Campano laturum opem qua Campanus Sidicino tulerit.

[32] With this embassy reported back to Rome, the fathers, all other concerns laid aside, sent the fetial priests to demand restitution, and, since it would not be given back, declared war by solemn custom; they decreed that at the earliest possible time the matter should be brought before the people. And by order of the people both consuls set out with two armies: Valerius into Campania, Cornelius into Samnium; the former pitches camp at Mount Gaurus, the latter at Saticula. The Samnite legions confront the earlier Valerius—for they judged that the whole mass of the war would incline there—while at the same time anger was goading them against the Campanians, so prompt now to bring, now to summon, auxiliaries against them. And when they saw the Roman camp, each man fiercely for his part demanded the signal from the leaders, asserting that by the same fortune Roman aid would be brought to the Campanian as the Campanian had brought to the Sidicinian.

Valerius levibus certaminibus temptandi hostis causa haud ita multos moratus dies signum pugnae proposuit, paucis suos adhortatus ne novum bellum eos novusque hostis terreret: quidquid ab urbe longius proferrent arma, magis magisque in imbelles gentes eos prodire. Ne Sidicinorum Campanorumque cladibus Samnitium aestimarent virtutem; qualescumque inter se certaverint, necesse fuisse alteram partem vinci. Campanos quidem haud dubie magis nimio luxu fluentibus rebus mollitiaque sua quam vi hostium victos esse.

Valerius, after not delaying many days and with light skirmishes for the purpose of testing the enemy, set forth the signal for battle, having briefly exhorted his men that neither a new war nor a new enemy should terrify them: the farther from the city they carried their arms, the more and more they were advancing upon unwarlike nations. Let them not assess the valor of the Samnites by the defeats of the Sidicini and the Campani; however those contended among themselves, it was necessary that one party be conquered. The Campani indeed had been conquered undoubtedly more by excessive luxury, by affairs overflowing with prosperity, and by their own softness than by the force of the enemies.

Quid autem esse duo prospera in tot saeculis bella Samnitium adversus tot decora populi Romani, qui triumphos paene plures quam annos ab urbe condita numeret; qui omnia circa se, Sabinos Etruriam Latinos Hernicos Aequos Volscos Auruncos, domita armis habeat; qui Gallos tot proeliis caesos postremo in mare ac naues fuga compulerit? Cum gloria belli ac virtute sua quemque fretos ire in aciem debere, tum etiam intueri cuius ductu auspicioque ineunda pugna sit, utrum qui, audiendus dumtaxat, magnificus adhortator sit, verbis tantum ferox, operum militarium expers, an qui et ipse tela tractare, procedere ante signa, versari media in mole pugnae sciat. "Facta mea, non dicta uos, milites" inquit, "sequi volo, nec disciplinam modo sed exemplum etiam a me petere.

What, moreover, are two prosperous wars of the Samnites across so many ages in comparison with so many decorations of the Roman people, who counts almost more triumphs than years since the city was founded; who has all around him—the Sabines, Etruria, the Latins, the Hernici, the Aequians, the Volscians, the Aurunci—subdued by arms; who has driven the Gauls, slaughtered in so many battles, at last in flight into the sea and onto ships? While, relying on the glory of war and on his own virtue, each man ought to go into the battle-line, he ought also to consider under whose leadership and auspices the battle is to be undertaken—whether it be one who is to be listened to only, a magnificent exhorter, fierce merely in words, inexperienced in military operations, or one who knows himself as well how to handle weapons, to advance before the standards, to be engaged in the very mass of the fight. "My deeds, not my words, soldiers," he said, "I want you to follow, and to seek from me not discipline only but example as well.

Non factionibus [modo] nec per coitiones usitatas nobilibus sed hac dextra mihi tres consulatus summamque laudem peperi. Fuit cum hoc dici poterat: patricius enim eras et a liberatoribus patriae ortus, et eodem anno familia ista consulatum quo urbs haec consulem habuit: nunc iam nobis patribus vobisque plebei promiscuus consulatus patet nec generis, ut ante, sed virtutis est praemium. Proinde summum quodque spectate, milites, decus.

Not by factions [only] nor by the coalitions customary to the nobles, but by this right hand have I won for myself three consulships and the highest praise. There was a time when this could be said: for you were a patrician and sprung from the liberators of the fatherland, and that family held a consulship in the same year in which this city had a consul; but now the consulship lies open in common to us patricians and to you plebeians, and is the prize not of birth, as before, but of virtue. Therefore, soldiers, aim at every supreme honor.

Non, si mihi novum hoc Coruini cognomen dis auctoribus homines dedistis, Publicolarum vetustum familiae nostrae cognomen memoria excessit; semper ego plebem Romanam militiae domique, privatus, in magistratibus parvis magnisque, aeque tribunus ac consul, eodem tenore per omnes deinceps consulatus colo atque colui. Nunc, quod instat, dis bene iuvantibus novum atque integrum de Samnitibus triumphum mecum petite."

No: if you men have given me this new cognomen “Corvinus,” with the gods as authors, the ancient cognomen of the Publicolae of our family has not passed from memory; I have always cherished the Roman plebs in warfare and at home, as a private citizen, in magistracies small and great, equally as tribune and as consul, with the same tenor through all my successive consulships I cherish and have cherished. Now, as to what is at hand, with the gods kindly aiding, seek with me a new and entire triumph over the Samnites."

[33] Non alias militi familiarior dux fuit omnia inter infimos militum haud gravate munia obeundo. In ludo praeterea militari, cum velocitatis viriumque inter se aequales certamina ineunt, comiter facilis; vincere ac vinci voltu eodem nec quemquam aspernari parem qui se offerret; factis benignus pro re, dictis haud minus libertatis alienae quam suae dignitatis memor; et, quo nihil popularius est, quibus artibus petierat magistratus, iisdem gerebat. Itaque universus exercitus incredibili alacritate adhortationem prosecutus ducis castris egreditur.

[33] At no other time was a commander more familiar to the soldier, by undertaking without reluctance all the duties among the lowest of the soldiers. Moreover, in the military training, when men equal among themselves in speed and strength enter contests, he was affably easy; to conquer and to be conquered with the same countenance, and to spurn no peer who offered himself; in deeds generous as the situation allowed, in words no less mindful of another’s liberty than of his own dignity; and—than which nothing is more popular—by the same arts with which he had sought magistracies, by those same he administered them. And so the entire army, with incredible alacrity, having followed up the leader’s exhortation, goes forth from the camp.

Proelium, ut quod maxime unquam, pari spe utrimque, aequis viribus, cum fiducia sui sine contemptu hostium commissum est. Samnitibus ferociam augebant novae res gestae et paucos ante dies geminata victoria, Romanis contra quadringentorum annorum decora et conditae urbi aequalis victoria; utrisque tamen novus hostis curam addebat. Pugna indicio fuit quos gesserint animos; namque ita conflixerunt ut aliquamdiu in neutram partem inclinarent acies.

The battle, as that which most ever, was joined with equal hope on both sides, with equal forces, with confidence in themselves without contempt of the enemy. For the Samnites their ferocity was increased by new exploits and, a few days before, a doubled victory; for the Romans, by contrast, the honors of four hundred years and a victory coeval with the founded city; yet to both alike the new foe added concern. The fight was an indication of what spirits they bore; for they so clashed that for some time the battle-lines inclined to neither side.

Tum consul trepidationem iniciendam ratus, quando vi pelli non poterant, equitibus immissis turbare prima signa hostium conatur. Quos ubi nequiquam tumultuantes in spatio exiguo voluere turmas vidit nec posse aperire in hostes viam, reuectus ad antesignanos legionum, cum desiluisset ex equo, "nostrum" inquit, "peditum illud, milites, est opus; agitedum, ut me videritis, quacumque incessero in aciem hostium, ferro viam facientem, sic pro se quisque obvios sternite; illa omnia, qua nunc erectae micant hastae, patefacta strage vasta cernetis." Haec dicta dederat, cum equites consulis iussu discurrunt in cornua legionibusque in mediam aciem aperiunt viam. Primus omnium consul invadit hostem et cum quo forte contulit gradum obtruncat.

Then the consul, thinking that trepidation must be injected, since they could not be driven back by force, with the cavalry sent in tries to throw into confusion the foremost standards of the enemy. When he saw that, making turmoil to no purpose, in the narrow space they were wheeling their squadrons and could not open a way into the foe, having ridden back to the front‑rankers of the legions, after he had leapt down from his horse, he says: "That is a task for our infantry, soldiers; come on then—just as you see me, wherever I advance into the enemy’s battle‑line, making a way with iron, so let each man for himself strew those who meet him; all those places where now upright spears flash you will behold laid open by a vast slaughter." He had given these words, when the horsemen, at the consul’s order, dart out to the wings and open a way for the legions into the middle of the line. First of all, the consul attacks the enemy and cuts down the man with whom by chance he had matched step.

Hoc spectaculo accensi dextra laevaque ante se quisque memorandum proelium cient; stant obnixi Samnites, quamquam plura accipiunt quam inferunt volnera.

Enflamed by this spectacle, on the right and on the left each man before him rouses a memorable battle; the Samnites stand braced, although they receive more wounds than they inflict.

Aliquamdiu iam pugnatum erat; atrox caedes circa signa Samnitium, fuga ab nulladum parte erat: adeo morte sola vinci destinaverant animis. Itaque Romani cum et fluere iam lassitudine vires sentirent et diei haud multum superesse, accensi ira concitant se in hostem. Tum primum referri pedem atque inclinari rem in fugam apparuit; tum capi, occidi Samnis; nec superfuissent multi, ni nox victoriam magis quam proelium diremisset.

For quite some time now they had been fighting; an atrocious slaughter around the standards of the Samnites, and there was as yet flight from no quarter: to such a degree had they determined in spirit to be conquered only by death. Therefore the Romans, since they felt their forces already ebbing with weariness and that not much of the day remained, inflamed with anger, rouse themselves against the enemy. Then for the first time it appeared that ground was being given and that the matter was inclining toward flight; then the Samnites were captured and killed; nor would many have survived, if night had not broken off the victory rather than the battle.

Et Romani fatebantur nunquam cum pertinaciore hoste conflictum, et Samnites, cum quaereretur quaenam prima causa tam obstinatos mouisset in fugam, oculos sibi Romanorum ardere visos aiebant vesanosque voltus et furentia ora; inde plus quam ex alia ulla re terroris ortum. Quem terrorem non pugnae solum eventu sed nocturna profectione confessi sunt. Postero die vacuis hostium castris Romanus potitur, quo se omnis Campanorum multitudo gratulabunda effudit.

And the Romans admitted that never had they been in conflict with a more pertinacious enemy; and the Samnites, when it was asked what first cause had moved men so obstinate into flight, said that the eyes of the Romans had seemed to them to blaze, and their faces to be insane and their mouths frenzied; from that arose more terror than from any other thing. This terror they confessed not only by the outcome of the fight but by their nocturnal departure. On the next day the Roman takes possession of the enemy’s empty camp, into which the whole multitude of the Campanians poured themselves rejoicing.

[34] Ceterum hoc gaudium magna prope clade in Samnio foedatum est. Nam ab Saticula profectus Cornelius consul exercitum incaute in saltum caua valle peruium circaque insessum ab hoste induxit nec prius quam recipi tuto signa non poterant imminentem capiti hostem vidit. Dum id morae Samnitibus est quoad totum in vallem infimam demitteret agmen, P. Decius tribunus militum conspicit unum editum in saltu collem, imminentem hostium castris, aditu arduum impedito agmini, expeditis haud difficilem.

[34] However, this rejoicing was befouled by a nearly great disaster in Samnium. For, having set out from Saticula, the consul Cornelius led the army incautiously into a pass traversable by a hollow valley and around it occupied by the enemy, nor did he see the foe looming over their head until the standards could not be withdrawn in safety. While this was a delay to the Samnites, until he had let down the whole column into the lowest valley, Publius Decius, military tribune, espies a single hill raised in the pass, overhanging the enemies’ camp, with an approach steep for a hindered column, but for unencumbered men by no means difficult.

Itaque consuli territo animi "uidesne tu" inquit, "A. Corneli, cacumen illud supra hostem? Arx illa est spei salutisque nostrae, si eam, quoniam caeci reliquere Samnites, impigre capimus. Ne tu mihi plus quam unius legionis principes hastatosque dederis; cum quibus ubi evasero in summum, perge hinc omni liber metu, teque et exercitum serva; neque enim moveri hostis, subiectus nobis ad omnes ictus, sine sua pernicie poterit.

Therefore to the consul, terrified in mind, he says: "Do you see, A. Cornelius, that peak above the enemy? That is the citadel of our hope and safety, if we—since the Samnites, in their blindness, have left it—seize it energetically. Do not give me more than the principes and hastati of a single legion; with them, once I have gotten out onto the top, go on from here free from all fear, and preserve yourself and the army; for the enemy, lying beneath us and exposed to every blow, will not be able to move without his own perdition."

Nos deinde aut fortuna populi Romani aut nostra virtus expediet." Conlaudatus ab consule accepto praesidio vadit occultus per saltum; nec prius ab hoste est visus quam loco quem petebat appropinquavit. Inde admiratione paventibus cunctis, cum omnium in se vertisset oculos, et spatium consuli dedit ad subducendum agmen in aequiorem locum et ipse in summo constitit vertice. Samnites dum huc illuc signa vertunt utriusque rei amissa occasione neque insequi consulem nisi per eandem vallem, in qua paulo ante subiectum eum telis suis habuerant, possunt, nec erigere agmen in captum super se ab Decio tumulum; sed cum ira in hos magis, qui fortunam gerendae rei eripuerant, tum propinquitas loci atque ipsa paucitas incitat; et nunc circumdare undique collem armatis volunt, ut a consule Decium intercludant, nunc viam patefacere, ut degressos in vallem adoriantur.

“Then either the fortune of the Roman people or our own valor will extricate us.” Praised by the consul and, a detachment having been received, he goes hidden through the woodland pass; nor was he seen by the enemy before he approached the place he was seeking. Then, with all trembling in admiration, when he had turned everyone’s eyes upon himself, he both gave the consul space to draw off the column into more level ground and himself took his stand on the topmost summit. The Samnites, while they turn their standards hither and thither, the opportunity for both courses lost, can neither pursue the consul except through the same valley in which a little before they had held him exposed beneath their missiles, nor raise their column onto the hill seized above them by Decius; but both anger against those who had snatched away the fortune of carrying the affair through, and the nearness of the place, and even their very fewness, spur them on; and now they want to surround the hill on all sides with armed men, so that they may cut off Decius from the consul, now to open a way, so that they may assail those who have gone down into the valley.

Incertos quid agerent nox oppressit. Decium primum spes tenuit cum subeuntibus in adversum collem ex superiore loco se pugnaturum; deinde admiratio incessit quod nec pugnam inirent nec, si ab eo consilio iniquitate loci deterrentur, opere se valloque circumdarent. Tum centurionibus ad se vocatis: "Quaenam illa inscitia belli ac pigritia est?

Night overtook them uncertain what they should do. At first hope held Decius that, with them coming up the opposing hill, he would fight from a higher position; then astonishment set in because they neither entered upon battle nor, if they were deterred from that plan by the disadvantage of the ground, did they surround themselves with a work and rampart. Then, the centurions having been called to him: "What is that unskill in war and sluggishness?"

Aut quonam modo isti ex Sidicinis Campanisque victoriam pepererunt? Huc atque illuc signa moveri ac modo in unum conferri modo educi videtis; opus quidem incipit nemo, cum iam circumdati vallo potuerimus esse. Tum vero nos similes istorum simus, si diutius hic moremur quam commodum sit.

Or by what method did those fellows win victory over the Sidicini and the Campanians? You see the standards being moved hither and thither, now gathered into one, now drawn out; indeed no one begins the work, though by now we could already have been enclosed with a rampart. Then indeed let us be like those men, if we linger here any longer than is expedient.

Agitedum ite mecum ut, dum lucis aliquid superest, quibus locis praesidia ponant, qua pateat hinc exitus, exploremus." Haec omnia sagulo gregali amictus centurionibus item manipularium militum habitu ductis? Ne ducem circumire hostes notarent, perlustravit.

"Come then, go with me, so that, while some light still remains, we may explore in what places they are posting their garrisons, and by what way an exit lies open from here." All this, wrapped in a common soldier’s cloak, with the centurions likewise led in the guise of manipular soldiers? Lest the enemy should note the leader going the rounds, he reconnoitered.

[35] Vigiliis deinde dispositis ceteris omnibus tesseram dari iubet, ubi secundae vigiliae bucina datum signum esset, armati cum silentio ad se convenirent. Quo ubi, sicut edictum erat, taciti convenerunt, "hoc silentium, milites," inquit, "omisso militari adsensu in me audiendo servandum est. Ubi sententiam meam vobis peregero, tum quibus eadem placebunt in dextram partem taciti transibitis; quae pars maior erit, eo stabitur consilio.

[35] Then, the watches having been arranged, he orders the watchword to be given to all the rest: that, when the signal for the second watch had been given by the buccina, they should, armed, assemble to him in silence. When, to that place, as it had been proclaimed, they assembled silently, “this silence, soldiers,” he says, “with the military acclamation omitted, must be preserved while listening to me. When I have set forth my opinion to you, then those to whom the same shall be pleasing will silently pass over to the right side; whichever side shall be the greater, by that counsel it will be stood.”

Nunc quae mente agitem audite. Non fuga delatos nec inertia relictos hic vos circumvenit hostis: virtute cepistis locum, virtute hinc oportet evadatis. Veniendo huc exercitum egregium populo Romano servastis: erumpendo hinc uosmet ipsos servate; digni estis qui pauci pluribus opem tuleritis, ipsi nullius auxilio egueritis.

Now hear what I am revolving in my mind. It is not as men swept away by flight nor left behind through inertia that the enemy has encircled you here: by valor you seized the position; by valor you must escape from here. By coming hither you have preserved for the Roman people a distinguished army: by breaking out hence, save your very selves; you are worthy—few bringing help to many—and you yourselves have needed the aid of no one.

Cum eo hoste res est, qui hesterno die delendi omnis exercitus fortuna per socordiam usus non sit, hunc tam opportunum collem imminentem capiti suo non ante viderit quam captum a nobis, nos tam paucos tot ipse milibus hominum nec ascensu arcuerit nec tenentes locum, cum diei tantum superesset, vallo circumdederit. Quem videntem ac vigilantem sic eluseritis, sopitum oportet fallatis, immo necesse est; in eo enim loco res sunt nostrae ut vobis ego magis necessitas vestrae index quam consilii auctor sim. Neque enim, maneatis an abeatis hinc, deliberari potest, cum praeter arma et animos armorum memores nihil vobis fortuna reliqui fecerit fameque et siti moriendum sit, si plus quam viros ac Romanos decet ferrum timeamus.

Our business is with an enemy who yesterday did not make use of the fortune of annihilating the whole army through sloth; who did not see so opportune a hill, looming over his own head, before it was seized by us; who, we being so few against his so many thousands of men, neither barred the ascent nor, when we were holding the position, with so much of the day remaining, enclosed us with a rampart. Him, seeing and vigilant, since you have thus outplayed, you must deceive when he is asleep—nay, it is necessary; for our affairs are in such a position that I am for you more an indicator of your necessity than an author of counsel. For it cannot be deliberated whether you remain or depart hence, since besides your arms and spirits mindful of arms fortune has left you nothing; and you must die of hunger and thirst, if we fear the steel more than befits men and Romans.

Ergo una est salus erumpere hinc atque abire; id aut interdiu aut nocte faciamus oportet. Ecce autem aliud minus dubium; quippe, si lux exspectetur, quae spes est non vallo perpetuo fossaque nos saepturum hostem, qui nunc corporibus suis subiectis undique cinxerit, ut videtis, collem? Atqui si nox opportuna est eruptioni, sicut est, haec profecto noctis aptissima hora est.

Therefore there is one salvation: to break out from here and depart; it is proper that we do this either by day or by night. See, however, another point less doubtful; indeed, if daylight is awaited, what hope is there that the enemy will not fence us in with a continuous rampart and ditch—the enemy who now, with their bodies thrust beneath, have encircled the hill on all sides, as you see? And yet, if night is opportune for an eruption, as it is, this assuredly is the most fitting hour of the night.

Signo secundae vigiliae convenistis, quod tempus mortales somno altissimo premit; per corpora sopita vadetis vel silentio incautos fallentes vel sentientibus clamore subito pavorem iniecturi. Me modo sequimini, quem secuti estis; ego eandem quae duxit huc sequar fortunam. Quibus haec salutaria videntur, agitedum in dextram partem pedibus transite."

At the signal of the second watch you assembled, at which time mortals are pressed by the deepest sleep; you will go through slumbering bodies, either deceiving the incautious by silence, or, if they become aware, about to inject panic into them with a sudden clamor. Only follow me, whom you have followed; I will follow the same Fortune that led us hither. To those to whom these measures seem salutary, come now, pass over on foot to the right-hand side."

[36] Omnes transierunt; vadentemque per intermissa custodiis loca Decium secuti sunt. Iam evaserant media castra, cum superscandens vigilum strata somno corpora miles offenso scuto praebuit sonitum; quo excitatus vigil cum proximum mouisset erectique alios concitarent, ignari ciues an hostes essent, praesidium erumperet an consul castra cepisset, Decius, quoniam non fallerent, clamorem tollere iussis militibus torpidos somno insuper pavore exanimat, quo praepediti nec arma impigre capere nec obsistere nec insequi poterant. Inter trepidationem tumultumque Samnitium praesidium Romanum obviis custodibus caesis ad castra consulis peruadit.

[36] All crossed; and they followed Decius as he went through places where the guards were intermitted. They had already cleared the middle of the camp, when a soldier, climbing over the bodies of the watchmen laid low by sleep, by his shield having struck something gave a sound; at which the watchman, roused, when he had stirred the nearest and those, once raised, were exciting others—unaware whether they were citizens or enemies, whether a garrison was bursting out or the consul had seized the camp—Decius, since they would not be deceived, having ordered the soldiers to raise a shout, stupefies those torpid with sleep, and in addition with panic, by which, impeded, they could neither briskly seize their arms nor resist nor pursue. Amid the trepidation and tumult of the Samnites, the Roman garrison, the meeting guards having been cut down, makes its way to the consul’s camp.

Aliquantum supererat noctis iamque in tuto videbantur esse, cum Decius "macte virtute" inquit, "milites Romani, este; vestrum iter ac reditum omnia saecula laudibus ferent; sed ad conspiciendam tantam virtutem luce ac die opus est, nec vos digni estis quos cum tanta gloria in castra reduces silentium ac nox tegat; hic lucem quieti opperiamur." Dictis obtemperatum; atque ubi primum inluxit, praemisso nuntio ad consulem castra ingenti gaudio concitantur; et tessera data incolumes reverti, qui sua corpora pro salute omnium haud dubio periculo obiecissent, pro se quisque obviam effusi laudant, gratulantur, singulos universos servatores suos vocant, dis laudes gratesque agunt, Decium in caelum ferunt. Hic Deci castrensis triumphus fuit incedentis per media castra cum armato praesidio coniectis in eum omnium oculis et omni honore tribunum consuli aequantibus. Ubi ad praetorium ventum est, consul classico ad contionem convocat orsusque meritas Deci laudes interfante ipso Decio distulit contionem; qui auctor omnia posthabendi dum occasio in manibus esset, perpulit consulem ut hostes et nocturno pavore attonitos et circa collem castellatim dissipatos adgrederetur: credere etiam aliquos ad se sequendum emissos per saltum vagari.

Some portion of the night still remained and they already seemed to be in safety, when Decius said, "Well done in valor, Roman soldiers, be so; your march and return all ages will carry forth with praises; but for beholding so great valor there is need of light and day, nor are you men worthy to be covered by silence and night as you return to the camp with such glory; here let us await the light in quiet." The words were obeyed; and as soon as it grew light, with a messenger sent ahead to the consul the camp is stirred to immense joy; and, the watchword given that those who had exposed their bodies to an undoubted peril for the safety of all had returned unharmed, each man, pouring out to meet them, praises and offers congratulations; they call each and all their saviors, they render praises and thanks to the gods, they bear Decius to the sky. Here was Decius’s camp-triumph, as he advanced through the midst of the camp with an armed escort, with the eyes of all fixed upon him, and with every honor making the tribune equal to the consul. When they came to the praetorium, the consul summons an assembly by the trumpet, and, having begun Decius’s merited praises, with Decius himself interrupting he deferred the assembly; he, an advocate of postponing everything while the opportunity was in hand, prevailed upon the consul to attack the enemies, both thunderstruck by the nocturnal panic and scattered in little forts around the hill: he believed also that some who had been sent out to follow him were wandering through the pass.

Iussae legiones arma capere egressaeque castris, cum per exploratores notior iam saltus esset, via patentiore ad hostem ducuntur; quem incautum improuiso adortae, cum palati passim Samnitium milites, plerique inermes, nec coire in unum nec arma capere nec recipere intra vallum se possent, paventem primum intra castra compellunt, deinde castra ipsa turbatis stationibus capiunt. Perfertur circa collem clamor fugatque ex suis quemque praesidiis. Ita magna pars absenti hosti cessit: quos intra vallum egerat pavor—fuere autem ad triginta milia—omnes caesi, castra direpta.

The legions, ordered to take up arms and having gone out from the camp, since the pass was now better known through the scouts, are led by a more open way toward the enemy; and, having assailed him incautious by an unforeseen attack—since the Samnite soldiers were scattered everywhere, most unarmed, and could neither come together into one nor take up arms nor withdraw within the rampart—they first drive the panic-stricken within the camp, then seize the camp itself, the pickets thrown into confusion. A clamor is borne around the hill and puts each to flight from his own posts. Thus a great part yielded to an absent enemy: those whom fear had driven within the rampart—there were about thirty thousand—were all cut down, the camp plundered.

[37] Ita rebus gestis consul advocata contione P. Deci non coeptas solum ante sed cumulatas nova virtute laudes peragit et praeter militaria alia dona aurea corona eum et centum bubus eximioque uno albo opimo auratis cornibus donat. Milites, qui in praesidio simul fuerant, duplici frumento in perpetuum, in praesentia bubus priuis binisque tunicis donati. Secundum consulis donationem legiones gramineam coronam obsidialem, clamore donum approbantes, Decio imponunt; altera corona, eiusdem honoris index, a praesidio suo imposita est.

[37] Thus, the deeds accomplished, the consul, an assembly having been called, brings to completion the praises of P. Decius, not only begun before but augmented by a new valor, and, besides other military gifts, he presents him with a golden crown and a hundred cattle, and one exceptional white, fat beast with gilded horns. The soldiers who had been together in the garrison were endowed with double grain-rations in perpetuity, and for the present with oxen severally and with two tunics apiece. After the consul’s donation, the legions, approving the gift with a shout, place upon Decius the grassy crown, the obsidial (siege) crown; another crown, a badge of the same honor, was placed by his own garrison.

His decoratus insignibus bouem eximium Marti immolavit, centum boues militibus dono dedit qui secum in expeditione fuerant. Iisdem militibus legiones libras farris et sextarios vini contulerunt; omniaque ea ingenti alacritate per clamorem militarem, indicem omnium adsensus, gerebantur.

Adorned with these insignia, he immolated to Mars a choice ox; he gave as a gift 100 oxen to the soldiers who had been with him on the expedition. To these same soldiers the legions contributed pounds of spelt and sextarii of wine; and all these things were carried out with immense alacrity, by the military shout—the index of everyone’s assent.

Tertia pugna ad Suessulam commissa est; quia fugatus a M. Valerio Samnitium exercitus, omni robore iuventutis domo accito, certamine ultimo fortunam experiri statuit. Ab Suessula nuntii trepidi Capuam, inde equites citati ad Valerium consulem opem oratum veniunt. Confestim signa mota relictisque impedimentis castrorum cum valido praesidio raptim agitur agmen; nec procul ab hoste locum perexiguum, ut quibus praeter equos ceterorum iumentorum calonumque turba abesset, castris cepit.

The third battle was joined at Suessula; for the army of the Samnites, routed by M. Valerius, having summoned home all the vigor of their youth, resolved to test fortune in a final contest. From Suessula alarmed messengers went to Capua, and from there cavalry, called out, came to Valerius the consul to beg for aid. Forthwith the standards were moved, and, the camp impedimenta left with a strong guard, the column was driven rapidly; and not far from the enemy he seized for a camp a very narrow place, as for men from whom, apart from their horses, the throng of the other beasts of burden and the camp-servants was absent.

Samnitium exercitus, velut haud ulla mora pugnae futura esset, aciem instruit; deinde, postquam nemo obvius ibat, infestis signis ad castra hostium succedit. Ibi ut militem in vallo vidit missique ab omni parte exploratum quam in exiguum orbem contracta castra essent—paucitatem inde hostium colligentes—rettulerunt, fremere omnis acies complendas esse fossas scindendumque vallum et in castra inrumpendum; transactumque ea temeritate bellum foret, ni duces continuissent impetum militum. Ceterum, quia multitudo sua commeatibus gravis et prius sedendo ad Suessulam et tum certaminis mora haud procul ab rerum omnium inopia esset, placuit, dum inclusus paveret hostis, frumentatum per agros militem duci: interim quieto Romano, qui expeditus quantum umeris inter arma geri posset frumenti secum attulisset, defutura omnia.

The army of the Samnites, as though there were going to be no delay of the battle, draws up its battle-line; then, after no one came to meet them, with hostile standards it advances up to the enemy’s camp. There, when it saw soldiers on the rampart and when men sent out from every side to explore reported back how the camp had been contracted into a scant circle—inferring from that the paucity of the enemy—the whole line roared that the ditches must be filled, the rampart cut down, and that one should burst into the camp; and the war would have been finished by that rashness, if the commanders had not restrained the soldiers’ onrush. Moreover, because their multitude, burdensome in supplies, both by sitting earlier at Suessula and then by the delay of the engagement, was not far from a scarcity of everything, it was resolved that, while the enemy, shut in, was starving, the soldiers be led out through the fields to forage for grain: meanwhile, that everything would fail the quiet Roman, who, light-equipped, had brought with him as much grain as could be carried on the shoulders amid arms.

Consul palatos per agros cum vidisset hostes, stationes infrequentes relictas, paucis milites adhortatus ad castra oppugnanda ducit. Quae cum primo clamore atque impetu cepisset, pluribus hostium in tentoriis suis quam in portis valloque caesis signa captiva in unum locum conferri iussit; relictisque duabus legionibus custodiae et praesidii causa, gravi edicto monitis ut, donec ipse revertisset, praeda abstinerent, profectus agmine instructo, cum praemissus eques velut indagine dissipatos Samnites ageret, caedem ingentem fecit. Nam neque quo signo coirent inter se neque utrum castra peterent an longiorem intenderent fugam, territis constare poterat; tantumque fugae ac formidinis fuit, ut ad quadraginta milia scutorum- nequaquam tot caesis—et signa militaria cum iis quae in castris capta erant ad centum septuaginta ad consulem deferrentur.

When the consul saw the enemy scattered over the fields and the pickets left thinly manned, after briefly exhorting the soldiers he led them to assault the camp. When he had taken it at the first shout and onset, with more of the enemy cut down in their own tents than at the gates and rampart, he ordered the captured standards to be gathered into one place; and, leaving two legions for the sake of guard and garrison, with a severe edict warning them to abstain from plunder until he himself returned, he set out with the column in battle order, while the cavalry sent ahead, as if by a game-drive, herded the scattered Samnites, and he wrought a huge slaughter. For, terror-stricken, they could not determine by what signal they should rally among themselves, nor whether they should make for the camp or aim at a longer flight; and so great was the panic and rout that as many as 40,000 shields— not by any means with so many slain— and military standards, together with those which had been captured in the camp, to 170, were carried to the consul.

Tum in castra hostium reditum ibique omnis praeda militi data.

Then there was a return to the enemy’s camp, and there all the booty was given to the soldiers.

[38] Huius certaminis fortuna et Faliscos, cum in indutiis essent, foedus petere ab senatu coegit et Latinos iam exercitibus comparatis ab Romano in Paelignum vertit bellum. Neque ita rei gestae fama Italiae se finibus tenuit sed Carthaginienses quoque legatos gratulatum Romam misere cum coronae aureae dono, quae in Capitolio in Iovis cella poneretur; fuit pondo viginti quinque. Consules ambo de Samnitibus triumpharunt sequente Decio insigni cum laude donisque, cum incondito militari ioco haud minus tribuni celebre nomen quam consulum esset.

[38] The fortune of this combat compelled the Falisci, though they were under a truce, to seek a treaty from the senate, and it turned the war of the Latins—now that their armies were prepared—from the Roman onto the Paelignian. Nor did the fame of the deed confine itself within the borders of Italy, but the Carthaginians also sent legates to Rome to offer congratulations, with the gift of a golden crown, to be placed on the Capitol in Jupiter’s cella; it was 25 pounds in weight. Both consuls triumphed over the Samnites, with Decius following, distinguished with praise and gifts, while, in unpolished military jest, the tribune’s name was no less celebrated than that of the consuls.

Campanorum deinde Suessulanorumque auditae legationes, precantibusque datum ut praesidium eo in hiberna mitteretur, quo Samnitium excursiones arcerentur.

Then the embassies of the Campanians and the Suessulans were heard, and, upon their entreaties, it was granted that a garrison be sent thither into winter‑quarters, whereby the incursions of the Samnites might be warded off.

Iam tum minime salubris militari disciplinae Capua instrumento omnium voluptatium delenitos militum animos avertit a memoria patriae, inibanturque consilia in hibernis eodem scelere adimendae Campanis Capuae per quod illi eam antiquis cultoribus ademissent: neque immerito suum ipsorum exemplum in eos versurum; cur autem potius Campani agrum Italiae uberrimum, dignam agro urbem, qui nec se nec sua tutari possent, quam victor exercitus haberet qui suo sudore ac sanguine inde Samnites depulisset? An aequum esse dediticios suos illa fertilitate atque amoenitate perfrui, se militando fessos in pestilenti atque arido circa urbem solo luctari aut in urbe insidentem labem crescentis in dies fenoris pati?

Already then Capua, least salutary for military discipline, as the instrument of all pleasures, turned the allured minds of the soldiers away from the memory of the fatherland; and in the winter quarters plans were being entered upon, by the same crime, to take Capua from the Campanians, by which they had taken it from its ancient cultivators: and not without desert would their own example be turned upon them; why, moreover, should the Campanians rather hold the most fertile land of Italy, a city worthy of the land, who could defend neither themselves nor their own, than that the victorious army should hold it, which with its own sweat and blood had driven the Samnites from there? Was it equitable that their surrendered subjects (dediticii) should enjoy that fertility and pleasantness, while they, wearied by soldiering, wrestle with the pestilential and arid soil around the city, or in the city suffer the incumbent blight of usury growing by the day?

Haec agitata occultis coniurationibus necdum volgata in omnes consilia invenit novus consul C. Marcius Rutulus, cui Campania sorte provincia evenerat, Q. Servilio collega ad urbem relicto. Itaque cum omnia ea, sicut gesta erant, per tribunos comperta haberet, et aetate et usu doctus quippe qui iam quartum consul esset dictatorque et censor fuisset, optimum ratus differendo spem quandocumque vellent consilii exsequendi militarem impetum frustrari, rumorem dissipat in iisdem oppidis et anno post praesidia hibernatura—diuisa enim erant per Campaniae urbes manaverantque a Capua consilia in exercitum omnem. Eo laxamento cogitationibus dato quieuit in praesentia seditio.

The new consul, C. Marcius Rutulus, to whom Campania had fallen by lot as his province, with his colleague Q. Servilius left at the city, discovers these plans, agitated in secret conspiracies and not yet spread to all. And since he had all those things, just as they had been done, ascertained through the tribunes, taught by both age and experience—indeed, seeing that he was now consul for the fourth time and had been dictator and censor—judging it best, by deferring the hope of executing the plan whenever they might wish, to frustrate the military impetus, he spreads a rumor in those same towns that even a year later the garrisons would be wintering—for they had been distributed through the cities of Campania, and the plans had flowed from Capua into the whole army. With that relaxation given to their thoughts, the sedition quieted for the present.

[39] Consul educto in aestiua milite, dum quietos Samnites habebat, exercitum purgare missionibus turbulentorum hominum instituit, aliis emerita dicendo stipendia esse, alios graves iam aetate aut viribus parum validos; avidam in commeatus mittebantur, singuli primo, deinde et cohortes quaedam, quia procul ab domo ac rebus suis hibernassent; per speciem etiam militarium usuum, cum alii alio mitterentur, magna pars ablegati. Quam multitudinem consul alter Romae praetorque alias ex aliis fingendo moras retinebat. Et primo quidem ignari ludificationis minime inviti domos reuisebant; postquam neque reverti ad signa primos nec ferme alium quam qui in Campania hibernassent praecipueque ex his seditionis auctores mitti viderunt, primum admiratio, deinde haud dubius timor incessit animos consilia sua emanasse: iam quaestiones, iam indicia, iam occulta singulorum supplicia impotensque et crudele consulum ac patrum in se regnum passuros.

[39] The consul, having led the soldiery out into summer quarters, while he had the Samnites quiet, set about purging the army by discharges of turbulent men, alleging that some had completed their terms of service, others were now burdensome with age or scarcely sound in strength; eager for furloughs, they were sent off, at first singly, then even certain cohorts, because they had wintered far from home and their affairs; under the guise too of military usages, as some were sent one way, others another, a great part were detached. That multitude the other consul at Rome and the praetor held back by feigning one delay after another. And at first indeed, unaware of the trick, they revisited their homes not at all unwillingly; but after they saw that neither did the first men return to the standards, nor in general anyone save those who had wintered in Campania, and especially from these the authors of the sedition, were being sent, first astonishment, then a not doubtful fear entered their minds that their plans had leaked out: now they would endure investigations, now denunciations, now secret punishments of individuals, and the unrestrained and cruel dominion of the consuls and the Fathers over themselves.

Haec qui in castris erant occultis sermonibus serunt, neruos coniurationis electos arte consulis cernentes.

Those who were in the camp disseminate these things in occult conversations, discerning that the sinews of the conjuration had been picked out by the consul’s art.

Cohors una, cum haud procul Anxure esset, ad Lautulas saltu angusto inter mare ac montes consedit ad excipiendos quos consul aliis atque aliis, ut ante dictum est, causis mittebat. Iam valida admodum numero manus erat nec quicquam ad iusti exercitus formam praeter ducem deerat. Incompositi itaque praedantes in agrum Albanum perveniunt et sub iugo Albae Longae castra vallo cingunt.

One cohort, when it was not far from Anxur, took up position at the Lautulae, a narrow pass between the sea and the mountains, to intercept those whom the consul, for one cause and another, as was said before, was sending out. Already the band was quite strong in numbers, and nothing was lacking to the form of a regular army except a leader. Accordingly, in loose order and plundering, they came into the Alban countryside and, beneath the ridge of Alba Longa, they encircled a camp with a rampart.

Perfecto inde opere reliquum diei de imperatore sumendo sententiis decertant, nulli ex praesentibus satis fidentes: quem autem ab Roma posse exciri? Quem patrum aut plebis esse qui aut se tanto periculo sciens offerat aut cui ex iniuria insanientis exercitus causa recte committatur? Postero die cum eadem deliberatio teneret, ex praedatoribus vagis quidam compertum attulerunt T. Quinctium in Tusculano agrum colere, urbis honorumque immemorem.

With the work thereupon completed, they spent the rest of the day fighting it out in opinions over appointing a commander, trusting sufficiently in none of those present: but whom could be summoned from Rome? Who is there of the patricians or of the plebs who either would knowingly offer himself to so great a peril, or to whom, in view of the outrage of a maddened army, the cause could rightly be committed? On the next day, when the same deliberation held them, some of the wandering marauders brought verified tidings that T. Quinctius was tilling a field in the Tusculan district, unmindful of the city and of its honors.

Patriciae hic vir gentis erat; cui cum militiae magna cum gloria actae finem pes alter ex volnere claudus fecisset, ruri agere vitam procul ambitione ac foro constituit. Nomine audito extemplo agnovere virum et, quod bene verteret, acciri iusserunt. Sed parum spei erat voluntate quicquam facturum; vim adhiberi ac metum placuit.

He was a man of a patrician clan; and when one foot, lame from a wound, had brought to an end a military service conducted with great glory, he resolved to live in the countryside, far from ambition and the forum. The name having been heard, they at once recognized the man and, with a wish that it might turn out well, ordered that he be summoned. But there was little hope that he would do anything by his own will; it was decided to apply force and fear.

Itaque silentio noctis cum tectum villae qui ad id missi erant intrassent, somno gravem Quinctium oppressum, nihil medium aut imperium atque honorem aut ubi restitaret mortem ni sequeretur denuntiantes, in castra pertraxerunt. Imperator extemplo adveniens appellatus, insigniaque honoris exterrito subitae rei miraculo deferunt et ad urbem ducere iubent. Suo magis inde impetu quam consilio ducis conuolsis signis infesto agmine ad lapidem octauum viae, quae nunc Appia est, perveniunt; issentque confestim ad urbem, ni venire contra exercitum dictatoremque adversus se M. Valerium Coruum dictum audissent et magistrum equitum L. Aemilium Mamercum.

Therefore, in the silence of the night, when those who had been sent for that purpose had entered the roof of the villa, they seized Quinctius, heavy with sleep, proclaiming that there was no middle course—either command and honor, or, if he should stand his ground, death unless he followed—and they dragged him into the camp. Arriving at once and being hailed as commander, they present to the man, startled at the marvel of the sudden affair, the insignia of honor, and order him to lead to the city. Then, more by their own impulse than by the counsel of the leader, with the standards uprooted, in a hostile column they reach the eighth milestone of the road which now is the Appian Way; and they would have gone straightaway to the city, had they not heard that an army was coming against them and that a dictator had been named against them, M. Valerius Corvus, and a master of horse, L. Aemilius Mamercus.

[40] Ubi primum in conspectum ventum est [et] arma signaque agnovere, extemplo omnibus memoria patriae iras permulsit. Nondum erant tam fortes ad sanguinem civilem nec praeter externa noverant bella, ultimaque rabies secessio ab suis habebatur; itaque iam duces, iam milites utrimque congressus quaerere ac conloquia: Quinctius, quem armorum etiam pro patria satietas teneret nedum adversus patriam, Coruinus omnes caritate ciues, praecipue milites, et ante alios suum exercitum complexus. [Is] ad conloquium processit.

[40] When first they came into sight [and] recognized the arms and standards, at once the memory of the fatherland soothed everyone’s angers. They were not yet so bold for civil blood, nor had they known wars other than external ones, and a secession from their own was held to be the utmost frenzy; and so now the leaders, now the soldiers on both sides began to seek meetings and colloquies: Quinctius, whom even a surfeit of arms on behalf of the fatherland would restrain, much less against the fatherland; Corvinus, embracing all the citizens with affection, especially the soldiers, and before others his own army. [He] advanced to a colloquy.

Cognito ei extemplo haud minore ab adversariis verecundia quam ab suis silentium datum.

Once he was recognized, there was at once granted to him a silence, with no less respect from the adversaries than from his own.

"Deos" inquit "immortales, milites, vestros meosque ab urbe proficiscens ita adoraui veniamque supplex poposci ut mihi de vobis concordiae partae gloriam non victoriam darent. Satis fuit eritque unde belli decus pariatur: hinc pax petenda est. Quod deos immortales inter nuncupanda uota expoposci, eius me compotem uoti vos facere potestis, si meminisse voltis non vos in Samnio nec in Volscis sed in Romano solo castra habere, si illos colles quos cernitis patriae vestrae esse, si hunc exercitum civium vestrorum, si me consulem vestrum, cuius ductu auspicioque priore anno bis legiones Samnitium fudistis, bis castra vi cepistis.

“The immortal gods,” he said, “soldiers, yours and mine, as I was setting out from the city I thus worshiped, and as a suppliant I begged grace, that they would grant me from you the glory of concord achieved, not of victory. There has been, and will be, enough whence the honor of war may be procured: from here peace must be sought. That which I earnestly demanded of the immortal gods while the vows were being pronounced, you can make me a partaker of that vow, if you are willing to remember that you have your camp not in Samnium nor among the Volsci, but on Roman soil; if those hills which you behold belong to your fatherland; if this army is of your fellow citizens; if I am your consul, under whose leadership and auspice last year you twice routed the legions of the Samnites, twice took their camp by force.”

Ego sum M. Valerius Coruus, milites, cuius vos nobilitatem beneficiis erga vos non iniuriis sensistis, nullius superbae in vos legis, nullius crudelis senatus consulti auctor, in omnibus meis imperiis in me severior quam in uos. Ac si cui genus, si cui sua virtus, si cui etiam maiestas, si cui honores subdere spiritus potuerunt, iis eram natus, id specimen mei dederam, ea aetate consulatum adeptus eram, ut potuerim tres et viginti annos natus consul patribus quoque ferox esse non solum plebi. Quod meum factum dictumue consulis gravius quam tribuni audistis?

Ego sum M. Valerius Corvus, soldiers, whose nobility you have sensed by benefits toward you, not by injuries, the author of no haughty law against you, of no cruel senatorial decree, in all my commands more severe upon myself than upon you. And if for anyone lineage, if for anyone his own virtue, if for anyone even majesty, if for anyone honors have been able to subject men’s spirits, to those I was born, that proof of myself I had given, at such an age I had acquired the consulship that, at 23 years old as consul, I might have been ferocious toward the Fathers as well, not only toward the plebs. What deed or dictum of mine as consul have you heard more severe than that of a tribune?

Eodem tenore duo insequentes consulatus gessi, eodem haec imperiosa dictatura geretur; ut neque in hos meos et patriae meae milites [sim] mitior quam in uos—horreo dicere—hostes. Ergo vos prius in me strinxeritis ferrum quam in vos ego; istinc signa canent, istinc clamor prius incipiet atque impetus, si dimicandum est. Inducite in animum quod non induxerunt patres auique vestri, non illi qui in Sacrum montem secesserunt, non hi qui postea Auentinum insederunt.

In the same tenor I have carried two ensuing consulships, in the same way this imperious dictatorship will be conducted; so that I [should be] no milder toward these soldiers of mine and of my fatherland than toward you—I shudder to say it—enemies. Therefore you will have drawn steel against me sooner than I against you; from that side the signals will sound, from that side the clamor and the onset will first begin, if there must be fighting. Resolve upon what your fathers and grandfathers did not resolve upon, not those who withdrew to the Sacred Mount, not those who afterwards occupied the Aventine.

Exspectate, dum vobis singulis, ut olim Coriolano, matres coniugesque crinibus passis obviae ab urbe veniant. Tum Volscorum legiones, quia Romanum habebant ducem, quieverunt: uos, Romanus exercitus, ne destiteritis impio bello. T. Quincti, quocumque istic loco seu volens seu invitus constitisti, si dimicandum erit, tum tu in novissimos te recipito; fugeris etiam honestius tergumque civi dederis quam pugnaveris contra patriam.

Wait until, for each of you, as once for Coriolanus, mothers and wives with hair disheveled come out from the city to meet you. Then the legions of the Volsci, because they had a Roman as their leader, kept quiet; you, a Roman army, do not desist from an impious war. T. Quinctius, in whatever place there you have taken your stand, whether willing or unwilling, if there must be fighting, then withdraw yourself into the very rearmost ranks; you will even have fled more honorably and have given your back to a fellow citizen than fought against your fatherland.

Nunc ad pacificandum bene atque honeste inter primos stabis et conloquii huius salutaris interpres fueris. Postulate aequa et ferte; quamquam vel iniquis standum est potius quam impias inter nos conseramus manus."

Now for pacification you will stand well and honorably among the foremost, and you will be the interpreter of this salutary colloquy. Demand equitable things and bear them; although even with inequitable ones we must stand rather than join impious hands among ourselves."

T. Quinctius plenus lacrimarum ad suos versus "me quoque" inquit, "milites, si quis usus mei est, meliorem pacis quam belli habetis ducem. Non enim illa modo Volscus aut Samnis sed Romanus verba fecit, vester consul, vester imperator, milites, cuius auspicia pro vobis experti nolite adversus vos velle experiri. Qui pugnarent vobiscum infestius, et alios duces senatus habuit: qui maxime vobis, suis militibus, parceret, cui plurimum uos, imperatori vestro, crederetis, eum elegit.

T. Quinctius, full of tears, turning toward his own men, said, "me too," he said, "soldiers, if there is any use of me, you have a better leader for peace than for war. For not only did a Volscian or a Samnite speak those words, but a Roman—your consul, your commander, soldiers—whose auspices you have experienced on your behalf; do not wish to experience them against yourselves. The senate also had other leaders who would have fought with you more hostilely; the one who would most spare you, his own soldiers, the one in whom you—your commander—would place the most trust, it chose.

Pacem etiam qui vincere possunt volunt: quid nos velle oportet? Quin omissis ira et spe, fallacibus auctoribus, nos ipsos nostraque omnia cognitae permittimus fidei?"

"Even those who can conquer want peace: what ought we to want? Why not, with anger and hope—deceitful counselors—set aside, entrust ourselves and all that is ours to proven good faith?"

[41] Approbantibus clamore cunctis T. Quinctius ante signa progressus in potestate dictatoris milites fore dixit; oravit ut causam miserorum civium susciperet susceptamque eadem fide qua rem publicam administrare solitus esset tueretur: sibi se privatim nihil cavere; nolle alibi quam in innocentia spem habere; militibus cauendum, quod apud patres semel plebi, iterum legionibus cautum sit ne fraudi secessio esset.

[41] As all approved with a shout, T. Quinctius, having advanced before the standards, said that the soldiers would be in the power of the dictator; he begged that he take up the cause of the wretched citizens and, once taken up, defend it with the same fidelity with which he was accustomed to administer the commonwealth: that he was taking no precautions for himself privately; that he wished to have hope nowhere but in innocence; that care must be taken for the soldiers, because by the Fathers once for the plebs, a second time for the legions, it had been provided that the secession should not be to their detriment.

Quinctio conlaudato, ceteris bonum animum habere iussis, dictator equo citato ad urbem reuectus auctoribus patribus tulit ad populum in luco Petelino ne cui militum fraudi secessio esset. Oravit etiam bona venia Quirites ne quis eam rem ioco serioue cuiquam exprobraret. Lex quoque sacrata militaris lata est ne cuius militis scripti nomen nisi ipso volente deleretur; additumque legi ne quis, ubi tribunus militum fuisset, postea ordinum ductor esset.

Quinctius having been praised, and the rest being ordered to keep good courage, the dictator, with his horse urged on, was borne back to the city and, with the senators as sponsors, proposed to the people in the Peteline Grove that the secession should be a harm to no one of the soldiers. He also entreated, with your good leave, Quirites, that no one reproach anyone with that matter, in joke or in earnest. A sacred military law was likewise passed that the name of any enrolled soldier should not be deleted unless he himself wished it; and it was added to the law that no one, once he had been a tribune of the soldiers, should thereafter be a leader of the ranks (centurion).

Id propter P. Salonium postulatum est ab coniuratis, qui alternis prope annis et tribunus militum et primus centurio erat, quem nunc primi pili appellant. Huic infensi milites erant, quod semper adversatus novis consiliis fuisset et, ne particeps eorum esset, [qui] ab Lautulis fugisse[n]t. Itaque cum hoc unum propter Salonium ab senatu non impetraretur, tum Salonius obtestatus patres conscriptos ne suum honorem pluris quam concordiam civitatis aestimarent, perpulit ut id quoque ferretur. Aeque impotens postulatum fuit ut de stipendio equitum—merebant autem triplex ea tempestate—aera demerentur, quod adversati coniurationi fuissent.

This was demanded on account of Publius Salonius by the conspirators, a man who almost in alternate years was both tribune of soldiers and first centurion, whom they now call the primus pilus. Against him the soldiers were hostile, because he had always opposed new counsels and, so that he might not be a sharer with those who had fled from Lautulae. And so, when this one thing, on account of Salonius, was not obtained from the senate, then Salonius, adjuring the Conscript Fathers not to value his honor more than the concord of the state, prevailed upon them that this too should be carried. Equally unbridled was the demand that, concerning the stipend of the cavalry—they were earning triple at that time—bronze should be deducted, because they had opposed the conspiracy.

[42] Praeter haec invenio apud quosdam L. Genucium tribunum plebis tulisse ad plebem ne fenerare liceret; item aliis plebi scitis cautum ne quis eundem magistratum intra decem annos caperet neu duos magistratus uno anno gereret utique liceret consules ambos plebeios creari. Quae si omnia concessa sunt plebi, apparet haud parvas vires defectionem habuisse. Aliis annalibus proditum est neque dictatorem Valerium dictum sed per consules omnem rem actam neque antequam Romam veniretur sed Romae eam multitudinem coniuratorum ad arma consternatam esse nec in T. Quincti villam sed in aedes C. Manli nocte impetum factum eumque a coniuratis comprehensum ut dux fieret; inde ad quartum lapidem profectos loco munito consedisse; nec ab ducibus mentionem concordiae ortam sed repente, eum in aciem armati exercitus processissent, salutationem factam et permixtos dextras iungere ac complecti inter se lacrimantes milites coepisse coactosque consules, cum viderent aversos a dimicatione militum animos, rettulisse ad patres de concordia reconcilianda.

[42] Besides these things I find in certain writers that L. Genucius, tribune of the plebs, carried before the plebs that it should not be permitted to lend at interest; likewise, by other plebiscites it was provided that no one should take the same magistracy within ten years, nor hold two magistracies in one year, and that in any case it should be permitted that both consuls be created plebeians. If all these things were granted to the plebs, it appears that the defection had no small powers. In other annals it is recorded that Valerius was not named dictator, but that the whole affair was conducted through the consuls, and that not before they came to Rome, but at Rome, that multitude of conspirators was thrown in consternation to arms; and that not upon the villa of T. Quinctius but upon the house of C. Manlius an attack was made by night, and that he was seized by the conspirators to be made leader; then that they set out to the fourth milestone and took up position in a fortified place; and that mention of concord did not arise from the leaders, but suddenly, when the armed army had advanced into battle-line, a salutation was made, and the mingled soldiers began to join right hands and to embrace one another weeping, and that the consuls, compelled, when they saw the spirits of the soldiers averse from combat, referred to the Fathers about concord being restored.

Adeo nihil praeterquam seditionem fuisse eamque compositam inter antiquos rerum auctores constat.

Adequately, it is agreed among the ancient authors of affairs that it was nothing other than a sedition, and that it was settled.

Et huius fama seditionis et susceptum cum Samnitibus grave bellum aliquot populos ab Romana societate avertit, et praeter Latinorum infidum iam diu foedus Privernates etiam Norbam atque Setiam, finitimas colonias Romanas, incursione subita depopulati sunt

And both the report of this sedition and the grave war undertaken with the Samnites turned several peoples away from the Roman alliance; and, besides the long-unfaithful treaty of the Latins, the Privernates also, by a sudden incursion, laid waste Norba and Setia, neighboring Roman colonies.