Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [46.1] After she had spoken thus, all the women with their children threw themselves at the feet of the king and remained prostrate till those who were present raised them from the ground and promised to do everything that was reasonable and in their power. Then, having ordered them to withdraw from the council and having consulted together, they decided to make peace. And first a truce was agreed upon between the two nations; then the kings met together and a treaty of friendship was concluded. [2] The terms agreed upon by the two, which they confirmed by their oaths, were as follows: that Romulus and Tatius should be kings of the Romans with equal authority and should enjoy equal honours; that the city, preserving its name, should from its founder be called Rome; that each individual citizen should as before be called a Roman, but that the people collectively should be comprehended under one general appellation and from the city of Tatius be called Quirites, and that all the Sabines who wished might live in Rome, joining in common rites with the Romans and being assigned to tribes and curiae. [3] After they had sworn to this treaty and, to confirm their oaths, had erected altars near the middle of the Sacred Way, as it is called, they mingled together. And all the commanders returned home with their forces except Tatius, the king, and three persons of the most illustrious families, who remained at Rome and received those honours which their posterity after them enjoyed; these were Volusus Valerius and Tallus, surnamed Tyrannius, with Mettius Curtius, the man who swam cross the lake with his arms, and with them there remained also their companions, relations and clients, no fewer in number than the former inhabitants.

  [47.1] Everything being thus settled, the kings thought proper, since the city had received a great increase of people, to double the number of the patricians by adding to the most distinguished families others from among the new settlers equal in number to the old, and they called these “new patricians.” Of these a hundred persons, chosen by the curiae, were enrolled with the original senators. [2] Concerning these matters almost all the writers of Roman history agree. But some few differ regarding the number of the newly-enrolled senators, for they say it was not a hundred, but fifty, that were added to the senate. [3] Concerning the honours, also, which the kings conferred on the women in return for having reconciled them, not all the Roman historians agree; for some write that, besides many other signal marks of honour which they bestowed upon them, they gave their names to the curiae, which were thirty, as I have said, that being the number of the women who went upon the embassy. [4] But Terentius Varro does not agree with them in this particular, for he says that Romulus gave the names to the curiae earlier than this, when he first divided the people, some of these names being taken from men who were their leaders and others from districts; and he says that the number of the women who went upon the embassy was not thirty, but five hundred and twenty-seven, and he thinks it very improbable that the kings would have deprived so many women of this honour to bestow it upon only a few of them. But as regards these matters, it has not seemed to me fitting either to omit all mention of them or to say more than is sufficient.

  [48.1] Concerning the city of Cures from which Tatius and his followers came (for the course of my narrative requires that I should speak of them also, and say who they were and whence), we have received the following account. In the territory of Reate, when the Aborigines were in possession of it, a certain maiden of that country, who was of the highest birth, went into the temple of Enyalius to dance. [2] The Sabines and the Romans, who have learned it from them, give to Enyalius the name of Quirinus, without being able to affirm for certain whether he is Mars or some other god who enjoys the same honours as Mars. For some think that both these names are used of one and the same god who presides over martial combats; others, that the names are applied to two different gods of war. [3] Be that as it may, this maiden, while she was dancing in the temple, was on a sudden seized with divine inspiration, and quitting the dance, ran into the inner sanctuary of the god; after which, being with child by this divinity, as everybody believed, she brought forth a son named Modius, with the surname Fabidius, who, being arrived at manhood, had not a human but a divine form and was renowned above all others for his warlike deeds. And conceiving a desire to found a city on his own account, [4] he gathered together a great number of people of the neighbourhood and in a very short time built the city called Cures: he gave it this name, as some say, from the divinity whose son he was reputed to be, or, as others state, from a spear, since the Sabines call spears cures. This is the account given by Terentius Varro.

  [49.1] But Zenodotus of Troezen, a . . . historian, relates that the Umbrians, a native race, first dwelt in the Reatine territory, as it is called, and that, being driven from there by the Pelasgians, they came into the country which they now inhabit, and changing their name with their place of habitation, from Umbrians were called Sabines. [2] But Porcius Cato says that the Sabine race received its name from Sabus, the son of Sancus, a divinity of that country, and that this Sancus was by some called Jupiter Fidius. He says also that their first place of abode was a certain village called Testruna, situated near the city of Amiternum; that from there the Sabines made an incursion at that time into the Reatine territory, which was inhabited by the Aborigines together with the Pelasgians, and took their most famous city, Cutiliae, by force of arms and occupied it; [3] and that, sending colonies out of the Reatine territory, they built many cities, in which they lived without fortifying them, among others the city called Cures. He further states that the country they occupied was distant from the Adriatic about two hundred and eighty stades and from the Tyrrhenian Sea a little less than a thousand stades. [4] There is also another account given of the Sabines in the native histories, to the effect that a colony of Lacedaemonians settled among them at the time when Lycurgus, being guardian to his nephew Eunomus, gave his laws to Sparta. For the story goes that some of the Spartans, disliking the severity of his laws and separating from the rest, quitted the city entirely, and after being borne through a vast stretch of sea, made a vow to the gods to settle in the first land they should reach; for a longing came upon them for any land whatsoever. [5] At last they made that part of Italy which lies near the Pomentine plains and they called the place where they first landed Foronia, in memory of their being borne through the sea, and built a temple owing to the goddess Foronia, to whom they had addressed their vows; this goddess, by the alteration of one letter, they now call Feronia. And some of them, setting out from thence, settled among the Sabines. It is for this reason, they say, that many of the habits of the Sabines are Spartan, particularly their fondness for war and their frugality and a severity in all the actions of their lives. But this is enough about the Sabine race.

  [50.1] Romulus and Tatius immediately enlarged the city by adding to it two other hills, the Quirinal, as it is called, and the Caelian; and separating their habitations, each of them had his particular place of residence. Romulus occupied the Palatine and Caelian hills, the latter being next to the Palatine, and Tatius the Capitoline hill, which he had seized in the beginning, and the Quirinal. [2] And cutting down the wood that grew on the plain at the foot of the Capitoline and filling up the greatest part of the lake, which, since it lay in a hollow, was kept well supplied by the waters that came down from the hills, they converted the plain into a forum, which the Romans continue to use even now; there they held their assemblies, transacting their business in the temple of Vulcan, which stands a little above the Forum. [3] They built temples also and consecrated altars to those gods to whom they had addressed their vows during their battles: Romulus to Jupiter Stator, near the Porta Mugonia, as it is called, which leads to the Palatine hill from the Sacred Way, because this god had heard his vows and had caused his army to stop in its flight and to renew the battle; and Tatius to the Sun and Moon, to Saturn and to Rhea, and, besides these, to Vesta, Vulcan, Diana, Enyalius, and to other gods whose names are difficult to be expressed in the Greek language; and in every curia he dedicated tables to Juno called Quiritis, which
remain even to this day. [4] For five years, then, the kings reigned together in perfect harmony, during which time they engaged in one joint undertaking, the expedition against the Camerini; for these people, who kept sending out bands of robbers and doing great injury to the country of the Romans, would not agree to have the case submitted to judicial investigation, though often summoned by the Romans to do so. After conquering the Camerini in a pitched battle (for they came to blows with them) and later besieging and taking their town by storm, they disarmed the inhabitants and deprived them of a third part of their land, which they divided among their own people. [5] And when the Camerini proceeded to harass the new settlers, they marched out against them, and having put them to flight, divided all their possessions among their own people, but permitted as many of the inhabitants as wished to so to live at Rome. These amounted to about four thousand, whom they distributed among the curiae, and they made their city a Roman colony. Cameria was a colony of the Albans planted long before the founding of Rome, and anciently one of the most celebrated habitations of the Aborigines.

  [51.1] But in the sixth year, the government of the city devolved once more upon Romulus alone, Tatius having lost his life as the result of a plot which the principal men of Lavinium formed against him. The occasion for the plot was this. Some friends of Tatius had led out a band of robbers into the territory of the Lavinians, where they seized a great many of their effects and drove away their herds of cattle, killing or wounding those who came to the rescue. [2] Upon the arrival of an embassy from the injured to demand satisfaction, Romulus decided that those who had done the injury should be delivered up for punishment to those they had wronged. Tatius, however, espousing the cause of his friends, would not consent that any persons should be taken into custody by their enemies before trial, and particularly Roman citizens by outsiders, but ordered those who complained that they had been injured to come to Rome and proceed against the others according to law. [3] The ambassadors, accordingly, having failed to obtain any satisfaction, went away full of resentment; and some of the Sabines, incensed at their action, followed them and set upon them while they were asleep in their tents, which they had pitched near the road when evening overtook them, and not only robbed them of their money, but cut the throats of all they found still in their beds; those, however, who perceived the plot promptly and were able to make their escape got back to their city. After this ambassadors came both from Lavinium and from many cities, complaining of this lawless deed and threatening war if they should not obtain justice.

  [52.1] This violence committed against the ambassadors appeared to Romulus, as indeed it was, a terrible crime and one calling for speedy expiation, since it had been in violation of a sacred law; and finding that Tatius was making light of it, he himself, without further delay, caused those who had been guilty of the outrage to be seized and delivered up in chains to the ambassadors to be led away. [2] But Tatius not only was angered at the indignity which he complained he had received from his colleague in the delivering up of the men, but was also moved with compassion for those who were being led away (for one of the guilty persons was actually a relation of his); and immediately, taking his soldiers with him, he went in haste to their assistance, and overtaking the ambassadors on the road, he took the prisoners from them. [3] But not long afterwards, as some say, when he had gone with Romulus to Lavinium in order to perform a sacrifice which it was necessary for the kings to offer to the ancestral gods for the prosperity of the city, the friends and relations of the ambassadors who had been murdered, having conspired against him, slew him at the altar with the knives and spits used in cutting up and roasting the oxen. [4] But Licinius writes that he did not go with Romulus nor, indeed, on account of any sacrifices, but that he went alone, with the intention of persuading those who had received the injuries to forgive the authors of them, and that when weight people became angry because the men were not delivered up to them in accordance with the decision both of Romulus and of the Roman senate, and the relations of the slain men rushed upon him in great numbers, he was no longer able to escape summary justice and was stoned to death by them. [5] Such was the end to which Tatius came, after he had warred against Romulus for three years and had been his colleague for five. His body was brought to Rome, where it was given honourable burial; and the city offers public libations to him every year.

  [53.1] But Romulus, now established for the second time as sole ruler, expiated the crime committed against the ambassadors by forbidding those who had perpetrated the outrage the use of fire and water; for upon the death of Tatius they had all fled from the city. After that, he brought to trial the Lavinians who had conspired against Tatius and who had been delivered up by their own city, and when they seemed to plead, with considerable justice, that they had but avenged violence with violence, he freed them of the charge. [2] After he had attended to these matters, he led out his army against the city of Fidenae, which was situated forty stades from Rome and was at that time both large and populous. For on an occasion when the Romans were oppressed by famine and provisions which the people of Crustumerium had sent to them were being brought down the river in boats, the Fidenates crowded aboard the boats in great numbers, seized the provisions and killed some of the men who defended them, and when called upon to make satisfaction, they refused to do so. [3] Romulus, incensed at this, made an incursion into their territory with a considerable force, and having possessed himself of a great quantity of booty, was preparing to lead his army home; but when the Fidenates came out against him, he gave them battle. After a severe struggle, in which many fell on both sides, the enemy were defeated and put to flight, and Romulus, following close upon their heels, rushed inside the walls along with the fugitives. [4] When the city had been taken at the first assault, he punished a few of the citizens, and left a guard of three hundred men there; and taking from the inhabitants a part of their territory, which he divided among his own people, he made this city also a Roman colony. It had been founded by the Albans at the same time with Nomentum and Crustumerium, three brothers having been the leaders of the colony, of whom the eldest built Fidenae.

  [54.1] After this war Romulus undertook another against the Camerini, who had attacked the Roman colonists in their midst while the city of Rome was suffering from a pestilence; it was this situation in particular that encouraged the Camerini, and believing that the Roman nation would be totally destroyed by the calamity, they killed some of the colonists and expelled the rest. [2] In revenge for this Romulus, after he had a second time made himself master of the city, put to death the authors of the revolt and permitted his soldiers to plunder the city; and he also took away half the land besides that which had been previously granted to the Roman settlers. And having left a garrison in the city sufficient to quell any future uprising of the inhabitants, he departed with his forces. As the result of this expedition he celebrated a second triumph, and out of the spoils he dedicated a chariot and four in bronze to Vulcan, and near it he set up his own statue with an inscription in Greek characters setting forth his deeds. [3] The third war Romulus engaged in was against the most powerful city of the Tyrrhenian race at that time, called Veii, distant from Rome about a hundred stades; it is situated on a high and craggy rock and is as large as Athens. The Veientes made the taking of Fidenae the pretext for this war, and sending ambassadors, they bade the Romans withdraw their garrison from that city and restore to its original possessors the territory they had taken from them and were now occupying. And when their demand was not heeded, they took the field with a great army and established their camp in a conspicuous place near Fidenae. [4] Romulus, however, having received advance information of their march, had set out with the flower of his army and lay ready at Fidenae to receive them. When all their preparations were made for the struggle, both armies advanced into the plain and came to grips, and they continued fighting with great ardour for a long time, till the coming on of night parted them, after they had proved themselves evenly matched in th
e struggle. This was the course of the first battle.

  [55.1] But in a second battle, which was fought not long afterwards, the Romans were victorious as the result of the strategy of their general, who had occupied in the night a certain height not far distant from the enemy’s camp and placed there in ambush the choicest both of the horse and foot that had come to him from Rome since the last action. [2] The two armies met in the plain and fought in the same manner as before; but when Romulus raised the signal to the troops that lay in ambush on the height, these, raising the battle cry, rushed upon the Veientes from the rear, and being themselves fresh while the enemy were fatigued, they point them to flight with no great difficulty. Some few of them were slain in battle, but the great part, throwing themselves into the Tiber, which flows by Fidenae, with the intention of swimming across the river, were drowned; for, being wounded and spent with labour, they were unable to swim across, while others, who did not know how to swim and had not looked ahead, having lost all presence of mind in face of the danger, perished in the eddies of the river. [3] If, now, the Veientes had realized that their first plans had been ill-advised and had remained quiet after this, they would have met with no greater misfortune; but, as it was, hoping to repair their former losses and believing that if they attacked with a larger force they would easily conquer in the war, they set out a second time against the Romans with a large army, consisting both of the levy from the city itself and of others of the same race who in virtue of their league came to their assistance. [4] Upon this, another severe battle was fought near Fidenae, in which the Romans were victorious, after killing many of the Veientes and taking more of them prisoners. Even their camp was taken, which was full of money, arms and slaves, and likewise their boats, which were laden with great store of provisions; and in these the multitude of prisoners were carried down the river to Rome. [5] This was the third triumph that Romulus celebrated, and it was much more magnificent than either of the former. And when, not long afterwards, ambassadors arrived from the Veientes to seek an end to the war and to ask pardon for their offences, Romulus imposed the following penalties upon them: to deliver up to the Romans the country adjacent to the Tiber, called the Seven Districts, and to abandon the salt-works near the mouth of the river, and also to bring fifty hostages as a pledge that they would attempt no uprising in the future. [6] When the Veientes submitted to all these demands, he made a treaty with them for one hundred years and engraved terms of it on pillars. He then dismissed without ransom all the prisoners who desired to return home; but those who preferred to remain in Rome — and these were far more numerous than the others — he made citizens, distributing them among the curiae and assigning to them allotments of land on this side of the Tiber.