[8.1] “But if any of you, though convinced of the reasonableness of what I have said, nevertheless fear the numbers of the enemy, let them learn by a few words of instruction, or rather from their own memory, that what they dread is not formidable. Let them consider, in the first place, that the greater part of our enemies have been forced to take up arms against us, as they have often shown us by both actions and words, and that the number of those who willingly and eagerly fight for the tyrants is very small, in fact only an insignificant fraction of ours; and secondly, that all wars are won, not by the forces which are larger in numbers, but by those which are superior in valour. [2] It would tedious to cite as examples all the armies of the Greeks as well as barbarians which, though superior in numbers, were overcome by forces so very small that the reports about the numbers engaged are not even credible to most people. But, to omit other instances, how many wars have you yourselves won, with a smaller force than you now have, when arrayed against enemies more numerous than all these the enemy have now got together? Well, then, can it be that, though you indeed continue to be formidable to those whom you have repeatedly overcome in battle, you are nevertheless contemptible in the eyes of these Latins and their allies, the Volscians, because they have never experienced your prowess in battle? But you all knew that our fathers conquered both of these nations in many battles. [3] Is it reasonable, then, to suppose that the condition of the conquered has been improved after so many disasters and that of the conquerors impaired after so many successes? What man in his senses would say so? I should indeed be surprised if any of you feared the numbers of the enemy, in which there are few brave men, or scorned your own army, which is so numerous and so brave that none exceeding it either in courage or in numbers was ever assembled in any of our former wars.
[9.1] “There is also this very great encouragement to you, citizens, neither to dread nor to shirk what is formidable, that the principal members of the senate are all present as you see, ready to share the fortunes of the war in common with you, though they are permitted by both their age and the law to be exempt from military service. [2] Would it not, then, be shameful if you who are in the vigour of life should flee from what is formidable, while these who are past the military age, pursue it, and if the zeal of the old men, since it lacks the strength to slay any of the enemy, should at least be willing to die for the fatherland, while the vigour of you young men, who have it in your power, if successful, to save both yourselves and them to be victorious, or, in case of failure, to suffer nobly while acting nobly, should neither make trial of Fortune nor leave behind you the renown that valour wins. [3] Is it not an incentive to you, Romans, that just as you have before your eyes the record of the many wonderful deeds performed by your fathers, whom no words can adequately praise, so your posterity while reap the fruits of many illustrious feats of your own, if you achieve success in this war also? To the end, therefore, that neither the bravery of those among you who have chosen the best course may go unrewarded, nor the fears of such as dread what is formidable more than is fitting go unpunished, learn from me, before we enter this engagement, what it will be the fate of each of them to receive. [4] To anyone who performs any great or brave deed in this battle, as proved by the testimony of those acquainted with his actions, I will not only give at once all the usual honours which it is in the power of every man to win in accordance with our ancestral customs, but will also add a portion of the land owned by the state, sufficient to secure him from any lack of the necessities of life. But if a cowardly and infatuate mind shall suggest to anyone an inclination to shameful flight, to him I will bring home the very death he endeavoured to avoid; for such a citizen were better dead, both for his own sake and for that of others. And it will be the fate of those put to death in such a manner to be honoured neither with burial nor with any of the other customary rites, but unenvied and unlamented, to be torn to pieces by birds and beasts of prey. [5] Knowing these things beforehand, then, do you all cheerfully enter the engagement, taking fair hopes as your guides to fair deeds, assured that by the hazard of this one battle, if it be attended by the best outcome and the one we all wish for, you will obtain the greatest of all advantages: you will free yourselves from the fear of tyrants, will repay to your country that gave you birth the gratitude she justly requires of you for your rearing, will save your children who are still infants and your wedded wives from suffering irreparable outrages at the hands of the enemy, and will render the short time your aged fathers have yet to live most agreeable to them. [6] Oh, happy those among you to whom it shall be given to celebrate the triumph for this war, while your children, your wives and your parents welcome you back! But glorious and envied for their bravery will those be who shall sacrifice their lives for their country. Death, indeed, is decreed to all men, both the cowardly and the brave; but an honourable and a glorious death comes to the brave alone.”
[10.1] While he was still speaking these words to spur them to valour, a kind of confidence inspired by Heaven seized the army and they all, as if with a single soul, cried out together, “Be of good courage and lead us on.” Postumius commended their alacrity and made a vow to the gods that if the battle were attended with a happy and glorious outcome, he would offer great and expensive sacrifices and institute costly games to be celebrated annually by the Roman people; after which he dismissed his men to their ranks. [2] And when they had received the watchword from their commanders and the trumpets had sounded the charge, they gave a shout and fell to, first, the light-armed men and the horse on each side, then the solid ranks of foot, who were armed and drawn up alike; and all mingling, a severe battle ensued in which every man fought hand to hand. [3] However, both sides were extremely deceived in the opinion they had entertained of each other, for neither of them thought a battle would be necessary, but expected to put the enemy to flight at the first onset. The Latins, trusting in the superiority of their horse, concluded that the Roman horse would not be able even to sustain their onset; and the Romans were confident that by rushing into the midst of danger in a daring and reckless manner they should terrify their enemies. Having formed these opinions of one another in the beginning, they now saw everything turning out just the opposite. Each side, therefore, no longer founding their hopes of safety and of victory on the fear of the enemy, but on their own courage, showed themselves brave soldiers even beyond their strength. And various and sudden shifting fortunes marked their struggle.
[11.1] First, the Romans posted in the centre of the line, where the dictator stood with a chosen body of horse about him, he himself fighting among the foremost, forced back that part of the enemy that stood opposite to them, after Titus, one of the sons of Tarquinius, had been wounded in the right shoulder with a javelin and was no longer able to use his arm. [2] Licinius and Gellius, indeed, without inquiring into the probabilities or possibilities of the matter, introduce King Tarquinius himself, a man approaching ninety years of age, fighting on horseback and wounded. When Titus had fallen, those about him, after fighting a little while and taking him up while he was yet alive, showed no bravery after that, but retired by degrees as the Romans advanced. Afterwards they again stood their ground and advanced against the enemy when Sextus, the other son of Tarquinius, came to their relief with the Roman exiles and the flower of the horse. [3] These, therefore, recovering themselves, fought again. In the meantime Titus Aebutius and Mamilius Octavius, the commanders of the foot on either side, fought the most brilliantly of all, driving their opponents before them wherever they charged and rallying those of their own men who had become disordered; and, then, challenging each other, they came to blows and in the encounter gave one another grievous wounds, though not mortal, the Master of the Horse driving his spear through the corslet of Mamilius into his breast, and Mamilius running the other through the middle of his right arm; and both fell from their horses.
[12.1] Both of these leaders having been carried off the field, Marcus Valerius, who had again been appointed legate, took ov
er the command of the Master of the Horse and with his followers attacked those of the enemy who confronted him; and after a brief resistance on their part he speedily drove them far out of the line. But to this body of the enemy also came reinforcements from the Roman exiles, both horse and light-armed men; and Mamilius, having by this time recovered from his wound, appeared on the field again at the head of a strong body both of horse and foot. In this action not only Marcus Valerius, the legate, fell, wounded with a spear (he was the man who had first triumphed over the Sabines and raised the spirit of the commonwealth when dejected by the defeat it had received at the hands of the Tyrrhenians), but also many other brave Romans at his side. [2] A sharp conflict took place over his body, as Publius and Marcus, the sons of publicola, protected their uncle with their shields; but they delivered him to their shield-bearers undespoiled and still breathing a little, and sent him back to the camp. For their own part, such was their courage and ardour, they thrust themselves into the midst of the enemy, and receiving many wounds, as the Roman exiles pressed closely round them, they perished together. [3] After this misfortune the line of the Romans was forced to give way on the left for a long distance and was being broken even to the centre. When the dictator learned of the rout of his men, he hastened to their assistance with the horse he had about him. And ordering the other legate, Titus Herminius, to take a top of horse, and passing behind their own lines, to force the men who fled to face about, and if they refused obedience to kill them, he himself with the best of his men pushed on towards the thick of the conflict; and when he came near the enemy, he spurred on ahead of the rest with a loose rein. [4] And as they all charged in a body in this terrifying manner, the enemy, unable to sustain their frenzied and savage onset, fled and many of them fell. In the meantime the legate Herminius also, having rallied from their route those of his men who had been put to flight, brought them up and attacked the troops arrayed under Mamilius; and encountering this general, who both for stature and strength was the best man of his time, he not only killed him, but was slain himself while he was despoiling the body, someone having pierced his flank with a sword. [5] Sextus Tarquinius, who commanded the left wing of the Latins, still held out against all the dangers that beset him, and was forcing the right wing of the Romans to give way. But when he saw Postumius suddenly appear with the flower of the horse, he gave over all hope and rushed into the midst of the enemy’s ranks, where, being surrounded by the Romans, both horse and foot, and assaulted on all sides with missiles, like a wild beast, he perished, but not before he had killed many of those who came to close quarters with him. Their leaders having fallen, the Latins at once fled en masse, and their camp, abandoned by the men who had been left to guard it, was captured; from this camp the Romans took much valuable booty. [6] Not only was this a very great defeat for the Latins, from the disastrous effects of which they suffered a very long time, but their losses were greater than ever before. For out of 40,000 foot and 3000 horse, as I have said, less than 10,000 survivors returned to their homes in safety.
[13.1] It is said that in this battle two men on horseback, far excelling in both beauty and stature those our human stock produces, and just growing their first beard, appeared to Postumius, the dictator, and to those arrayed about him, and charged at the head of the Roman horse, striking with their spears all the Latins they encountered and driving them headlong before them. And after the flight of the Latins and the capture of their camp, the battle having come to an end in the late afternoon, two youths are said to have appeared in the same manner in the Roman Forum attired in military garb, very tall and beautiful and of the same age, themselves retaining on their countenances as having come from a battle, the look of combatants, and the horses they led being all in a sweat. [2] And when they had each of them watered their horses and washed them at the fountain which rises near the temple of Vesta and forms a small but deep pool, and many people stood about them and inquired if they brought any news from the camp, they related how the battle had gone and that the Romans were the victors. And it is said that after they left the Forum they were not seen again by anyone, though great search was made for them by the man who had been left in command of the city. [3] The next day, when those at the head of affairs received the letters from the dictator, and besides the other particulars of the battle, learned also of the appearance of the divinities, they concluded, as we may reasonably infer, that it was the same gods who had appeared in both places, and were convinced that the apparitions had been those of Castor and Pollux.
[4] Of this extraordinary and wonderful appearance of these gods there are many monuments at Rome, not only the temple of Castor and Pollux which the city erected in the Forum at the place where their apparitions had been seen, and the adjacent fountain, which bears the names of these gods and is to this day regarded as holy, but also the costly sacrifices which the people perform each year through their chief priests in the month called Quintilis, on the day known as the Ides, the day on which they gained this victory. But above all these things there is the procession performed after the sacrifice by those who have a public horse and who, being arrayed by tribes and centuries, ride in regular ranks on horseback, as if they came from battle, crowned with olive branches and attired in the purple robes with stripes of scarlet which they call trabeae. They begin their procession from a certain temple of Mars built outside the walls, and going through several parts of the city and the Forum, they pass by the temple of Castor and Pollux, sometimes to the number even of five thousand, wearing whatever rewards for valour in battle they have received from their commanders, a fine sight and worthy of the greatness of the Roman dominion. [5] These are the things I have found both related and performed by the Romans in commemoration of the appearance of Castor and Pollux; and from these, as well as from many other important instances, one may judge how dear to the gods were the men of those times.
[14.1] Postumius encamped that night on the field and the next day he crowned those who had distinguished themselves in the battle; and having appointed guards to take care of the prisoners, he proceeded to offer to the gods the sacrifices in honour of the victory. While he still wore the garland on his head and was laying the first burnt offerings on the altars, some scouts, running down from the heights, brought him word that a hostile army was marching against them. It consisted of chosen youth of the Volscian nation who had been sent out, before the battle was ended, to assist the Latins. [2] Upon hearing of this he ordered all his men and to stay in the camp, each under his own standards, maintaining silence and keeping their ranks till he himself should give the word what to do. On the other side, the generals of the Volscians, encamping out of sight of the Romans, when they saw the field covered with dead bodies and both camps intact, and no one, either enemy or friend, stirring out of the entrenchments, were for some time amazed and at a loss to guess what turn of fortune had produced this state of affairs. But when they had learned all about the battle from those who were making their escape from the rout, they consulted with the other leaders what was to be done. [3] The boldest of them thought it best to attempt to take the camp of the Romans by assault, while many of the foe were still disabled from their wounds and all were exhausted by toil, and the arms of most of them were useless, some having their edges blunted and others being broken, and no fresh forces from home were yet at hand to relieve them, whereas their own army was large and valiant, splendidly armed and experienced in war, and by coming suddenly upon men who were not expecting it was sure to appear formidable even to the boldest.
[15.1] But to the most prudent among them it did not seem a safe risk to attack without allies men who were valiant warriors and had just destroyed so great an army of the Latins, as they would be putting everything to the hazard in a foreign country where, if any misfortune happened, they would have no place of refuge. These advised, therefore, to provide rather for a safe retreat to their own country as soon as possible and to look upon it as a great gain if they sustained no loss from this
expedition. [2] But still others disapproved of both these courses, declaring that readiness to rush into battle was mere youthful bravado, while unreasoning flight back to their own country was shameful; for, whichever of these courses they took, the enemy would regard it as being just what they desired. The opinion of these, therefore, was that at present they ought to fortify their camp and get everything in readiness for a battle, and that, dispatching messengers to the rest of the Volscians, they should ask them to do one of the two things, either to send another army that would be a match for that of the Romans or to recall the army they had already sent out. [3] But the opinion that prevailed with the majority and received the sanction of those in authority was to send spies to the Roman camp, assured of safety under the title of ambassadors, who should greet the general and say that, as allies of the Romans sent by the Volscian nation, they were sorry they had come too late for the battle, since they would now received little or no thanks for their zeal; but anyway they congratulated the Romans upon their good fortune in having won a great battle without the assistance of allies; then, after the ambassadors had tricked the Romans by the friendliness of their words and had got them to confide in the Volscians as their friends, they were to spy out everything and bring back word concerning the Romans’ strength, their arms, their preparations, and anything they were planning to do. And when the Volscians should be thoroughly acquainted with these matters, they should then take counsel whether it was better to send for another army and attack the Romans or to return home with their present force.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 51
