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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [33.1] The following year, when Titus Romilius and Gaius Veturius had succeeded to the consulship and Lucius Icilius and his colleagues were tribunes, chosen to hold the office for the second time in succession, was not all of one tenor, but varied and fraught with great events. For the civili strife, which seemed to have died down at last, was again stirred up by the tribunes, and some foreign wars arose which, without being able to do the commonwealth any harm, did her a great service by banishing the dissension. [2] For it had by now become the regular and customary thing for the commonwealth to be harmonious in time of war and to be at odds in time of peace. All who assumed the consulship, being well aware of this, regarded it as an answer to prayer if a foreign war arose; and when their enemies were quiet, they themselves contrived grievances and excuses for wars, since they perceived that through its wars the commonwealth became great and flourishing, but through seditions humiliated and weak. [3] The consuls of that year, having come to this same conclusion, decided to make an expedition against the enemy, fearing that idle and poor men might because of the prevailing peace begin to raise disturbances; but though they were right in perceiving that the multitude ought to be kept employed in foreign wars, they erred in what they subsequently did. For, whereas they ought, in view of the sickly condition of the commonwealth, to have made the levies with moderation, they resorted instead to violence and compulsion in dealing with the disobedient, granting neither excuse nor pardon to anyone, but harshly imposing the penalties ordained by the laws upon both their persons and their property. [4] While they were doing this, the tribunes took occasion to stir up the masses again with their harangues; and calling an assembly, they denounced the consuls on various scores, but particularly for having ordered many citizens to be haled to prison even though they had invoked the protection of the tribunes; and they said that they themselves on their own responsibility released the people from the levy, having as they did authority to do so under the laws. [5] When this had no effect and they saw the levies being carried out with still greater strictness, they undertook to obstruct them by deeds; and when the consuls resisted with the power of their magistracy also, there were sundry provocations and acts of violence. The consuls were supported by the young patricians, and the tribunes by the poor and idle multitude. [6] That day the consuls proved much superior to the tribunes; but in the course of the following days, as increasing numbers flocked into the city from the country, the tribunes thought they had now acquired an adequate force, and holding one assembly after another, they exhibited their assistants, who were in a bad condition from the blows they had received, and said they would resign their magistracy if they did not get some assistance from the populace.

  [34.1] The multitude sharing in their resentment, the tribunes summoned the consuls to appear before their assembly in order to render an account of their actions. But as these paid no heed to them, they went to the senate, which happened to be deliberating about this very matter, and coming forward, asked the members not to permit either the tribunes themselves to be treated in a most outrageous manner or the populace to be deprived of their assistance. They enumerated all the injuries they had received at the hands of the consuls and their faction, who had insulted not only their authority but also their persons; [2] and they asked that the consuls do one of two things — either, in case they denied that they had done any wrong against the persons of the tribunes contrary to the laws, that they go before the popular assembly and make their denial under oath, or, if they could not bring themselves to take that oath, that they appear before the plebeians to render an account of their conduct; and they (the tribunes) would take the vote of the tribes concerning them. [3] The consuls defended themselves against these charges by saying that the tribunes had begun the violence by their arrogant behaviour and by daring to commit lawless acts against the persons of the consuls, first by ordering their attendants and the aediles to hale to prison magistrates in whom the whole power of the commonwealth is vested, and later by entering the struggle themselves together with the boldest of the plebeians. [4] They pointed out how great a difference there is between the two magistracies — between the consulship, in which the royal power resides, and the tribuneship, which was introduced for the relief of the oppressed and, far from having the right to take the vote of the masses against one of the consuls, has not been given authority to do so against even the meanest of the other patricians, unless the senate shall so vote. And they threatened that they themselves would arm the patricians when the tribunes should take the votes of the plebeians. [5] After such recriminations had lasted the whole day, the senate came to no decision, being unwilling to lessen the power of either the consuls or the tribunes, since they saw that either course would be stand attended with great dangers.

  [35.1] When the tribunes were repulsed there also, failing to get any help, they went again to the popular assembly and considered what they ought to do. Some, particularly the most turbulent, thought the plebeians should take arms and again withdraw from the city to the Sacred Mount, where they had encamped on the first occasion, and from there make war against the patricians, since these had violated the compact they had made with the populace by openly overthrowing the tribunician power. [2] But the majority thought they ought not to leave the city nor to bring charges against all the patricians as a body for the lawless acts committed by some particular persons against the tribunes, provided they could obtain the relief offered by the laws, which ordain that those who have insulted the persons of the tribunes may be put to death with impunity. The more intelligent did not regard either course as fitting, either to leave the city or to put persons to death without a trial, and particularly consuls, who held the chief magistracy, but they advised them to transfer their resentment to those who were assisting the consuls and to exact from these the punishment ordained by the laws. [3] Now if the tribunes had been carried away by their passion that day to do anything against the consuls or the senate, nothing would have prevented the commonwealth from being destroyed by its own hands, so ready were all to rush to arms and engage in civil war. But as it was, by deferring matters and giving themselves time for better reasoning, they not only themselves grew more moderate, but also appeased the resentment of the multitude. [4] Then, during the following days, they announced the third market-day from that one as the day when they would assemble the populace and impose a monetary fine upon the consuls; after which they dismissed the assembly. But when the time drew near, they refrained from imposing even this fine, alleging that they granted the favour at the intercession of men who were the oldest and most honoured. [5] After that they assembled the populace and told them that they had pardoned the insults to themselves, doing this at the request of many worthy men whom it was not right to refuse, but that as for the wrongs done to the populace, they would both avenge them and prevent their recurrence. For they would again propose not only the law concerning the allotment of land, the enactment of which had been postponed for thirty years, but also the one concerning an equality of laws, which their predecessors had proposed but had not put to vote.

  [36.1] Having made these promises and confirmed them by oaths, they appointed days on which they would hold an assembly of the populace and take their votes concerning the laws. When the time came, they first proposed the agrarian law, and after discussing it at great length, called upon any of the plebeians who so desired to speak in favour of the law. [2] Many came forward, and enumerating the exploits they had performed in the wars, expressed their indignation that they who had taken so much land from their enemies had received no part of it themselves, while they saw that those who were powerful by reason of their riches and their friends had appropriated and now enjoyed, by the most violent means, the possessions that belonged to all; and they demanded that the populace should share, not only in the dangers that were undertaken for the common good, but also in the pleasures and profits that resulted from those dangers. And the multitude listened to them with pleasure. But the one wh
o encouraged them the most and refused to tolerate even a word from the opponents of the law was Lucius Siccius, surnamed Dentatus, who related very many great exploits of his own. [3] He was a man of remarkable appearance, was in the very prime of life, being fifty-eight years old, capable of conceiving practical measures and also, for a soldier, eloquent in expressing them. This man, then, came forward and said:

  “If I, plebeians, should choose to relate my exploits one by one, a day’s time would not suffice me; hence I shall give a mere summary, in the fewest words I can. [4] This is the fortieth year that I have been making campaigns for my country, and the thirtieth that I have continued to hold some military command, sometimes over a cohort and sometimes over a whole legion, beginning with the consulship of Gaius Aquillius and Titus Siccius, to whom the senate committed the conduct of the war against the Volscians. I was then twenty-seven years of age and in rank I was still under a centurion. [5] When a severe battle occurred and a rout, the commander of the cohort had fallen, and the standards were in the hands of the enemy, I alone, exposing myself in behalf of all, recovered the standards for the cohort, repulsed the enemy, and was clearly the one who saved the centurions from incurring everlasting disgrace — which would have rendered the rest of their lives more bitter than death — as both they themselves acknowledged, by crowning me with a golden crown, and Siccius the consul bore witness, by appointing me commander of the cohort. [6] And in another battle that we had, in which it happened that the primipilus of the legion was thrown to the ground and the eagle fell into the enemy’s hands, I fought in the same manner in defence of the whole legion, recovered the eagle and saved the primipilus. In return for the assistance I then gave him he wished to resign his command of the legion in my favour and to give me the eagle; but I refused both, being unwilling to deprive the man whose life I had saved of the honours he enjoyed and of the satisfaction resulting from them. The consul was pleased with my behaviour and gave me the post of primipilus in the first legion, which had lost its commander in the battle.

  [37.1] “These, plebeians, are the noble actions which brought me distinction and preferment. After I had already gained an illustrious name and was famous, I submitted to the hardships of all the other engagements, being ashamed to blot out the memory of the honours and favours I had received for my former actions. And all the time since then I have continued to take part in campaigns and undergo their hardships without fearing or even considering my danger. From all these campaigns I received prizes for valour, spoils, crowns, and the other honours from the consuls. [2] In a word, during the forty years I have continued to serve I have fought about one hundred and twenty battles and received forty-five wounds, all in front and not one behind; twelve of these I happened to receive in one day, when Herdonius the Sabine seized the citadel and the Capitol. [3] As to rewards for valour, I have brought out of those contests fourteen civic crowns, bestowed upon me by those I saved in battle, three mural crowns for having been the first to mount the enemy’s walls and hold them, and eight others for my exploits on the battlefield, with which I was honoured by the generals; and, in addition to these, eighty-three gold collars, one hundred and sixty gold bracelets, eighteen spears, twenty-five splendid decorations, . . . nine of whom I voluntarily encountered and overcame when they challenged someone of our men to fight in single combat. [4] Nevertheless, citizens, this Siccius, who has served so many years in your defence, fought so many battles, been honoured with so many prizes for valour, who never shirked or declined any danger, but . . . in pitched battles and assaults upon walled towns, among the foot and among the horse, with all, with a few, and alone, whose body is covered be with wounds, and who has had a share in winning this country much fertile land, both that which you have taken from the Tyrrhenians and the substitutes and that which you possess after conquering the Aequians, the Volscians and the Pometini — this Siccius, I say, has not received even the least portion of this land as his to possess, nor has any one of you plebeians who have shared in the same hardships. But the most violent and shameless men of the city hold the finest part of it and have had the enjoyment of it for many years, without having either received it from you as a gift or purchased it or being able to show any other just title to it. [5] If, indeed, they had borne an equal share of the hardships with the rest of us when we were acquiring this land and had then demanded to have a larger share of it than we, while it would not, even so, have been either just or democratic that a few should appropriate what belongs to all in common, yet there would at least be some excuse for the greed of these men; but when, though they cannot point to any great or daring deed of theirs in payment for which they seized by force the possessions that belong to us, they act in this shameless manner and even when convicted do not give them up, who can bear it?

  [38] “Come now, if aught of what I have said is false, in Heaven’s name let one of these grand men come forward and show what illustrious and noble achievements he relies on to claim a larger share of the land than I. Has he served more years, fought more battles, received more wounds, or excelled me in the number of crowns, decorations, spoils, and the other ornaments of victory — in fact, shown himself a man by whom our enemies have been weakened and our country rendered more illustrious and powerful? Nay, let him show the tenth part of what I have cited to you. [2] But of these men the majority could not produce even the smallest fraction of my exploits; and some would be found not to have undergone as many hardships as the meanest plebeian. For their brilliancy does not lie in arms, but in words, nor is their power exerted against their enemies, but against their friends; and they do not regard the commonwealth in which they dwell as belonging to all alike, but as their own private property — as if they had not been aided by us in gaining their freedom from tyranny, but had received us as an inheritance from the tyrants. I say nothing of the other insults, small and great, which they continue to heap upon us, as you all know; [3] but they have gone so far in their arrogance that they forbid any one of us even to utter a free word in behalf of our country or even to open our mouths. Nay, they accused Spurius Cassius, who first proposed the allotment of land, a man who had been honoured with three consulships and two most brilliant triumphs and had shown greater ability in both military undertakings and political counsels than anyone of that age — this man, I say, they accused of aiming at tyranny and defeated him by means of false testimony, for no other reason than because he was a lover of his country and a lover of the people, and they destroyed him by shoving him over the cliff. [4] And again, when Gnaeus Genucius, one of our tribunes, revived this same measure after the lapse of eleven years and summoned the consuls of the preceding year to trial for having neglected to carry out the decree which the senate had passed respecting the appointment of the commissioners to divide the land, since they could not destroy him openly, they made away with him secretly the day before the trial. [5] In consequence, great fear came upon the succeeding tribunes, and not one of them would thereafter expose himself to this danger, but for now the thirtieth year we endure this treatment, as if we had lost our power under a tyranny.

  [39.1] “The other things I pass over; but your present magistrates, because they thought it their duty to help those of the plebeians who were oppressed, though by law you had made these magistrates sacred and inviolable, what dreadful treatment have they not suffered? Were they not driven out of the Forum with blows, kicks and every form of outrage? And you, do you endure to suffer such treatment and not seek means of taking revenge on the perpetrators, at least by your votes, in which alone you can show your freedom? [2] But even now, plebeians, pluck up the courage of free men and, now that the tribunes propose it, ratify the agrarian law, not tolerating even a word from those of the opposite opinion. [3] As for you, tribunes, you need no exhortation to do this task, since you began it and in not yielding do well. And if the self-willed and shameless young men obstruct you by overturning the voting-urns, snatching away the ballots or committing any other disorders in connexion
with the voting, show them what power your college possesses. [4] And since you cannot depose the consuls from power, bring to trial the private persons whom they use as the agents of their violence and take the votes of the populace concerning them, after charging them with attempting to violate and overthrow your magistracy contrary to the sacred laws.”