[41.1] “It is the part neither of prudent nor of brave men to acquire the possessions of others by valour and then to allow their own to be lost through cowardice, nor, again, to wage long and incessant wars against the Aequians, the Volscians, the Sabines, and all the rest of your neighbours for the sake of sovereignty and dominion and then to be unwilling to take up arms against your unlawful rulers for the sake of both your security and your liberty. [2] Will you not recover the proud spirit of your country? Will you not come to a decision worthy of the virtue of your ancestors who, because one woman was outraged by one of Tarquin’s sons and because of this calamity put herself to death, became so indignant at her fate and so exasperated, looking upon the outrage as one done to them all alike, that they not only banished Tarquin from the state, but even abolished the monarchy itself and forbade that anyone should thereafter rule over Romans for life with irresponsible power, not only binding themselves by the most solemn oaths, but also invoking curses upon their descendants if in any respect they should act to the contrary? [3] Then, when they refused to bear the tyrannical outrage committed by one licentious youth upon one person of free condition, will you tolerate a many-headed tyranny that indulges in every sort of crime and licentiousness and will indulge still more if you now submit to it? [4] I am not the only man who had a daughter superior in beauty to others whom Appius had openly attempted to violate and besmirch, but many of you also have daughters or wives or comely young sons; and what shall hinder these from being treated in the same manner by another of the ten tyrants or by Appius himself? Unless, indeed, there is some one of the gods who will guarantee that if you permit these calamities of mine to go unavenged the same misfortunes will not come upon many of you, but having pursued its way only as far as my daughter, this lust of tyrants will stop and toward the persons of others, both youths and maidens, will grow chaste! [5] Know of a certainty, however, that it is the part of great folly and stupidity to say that these imagined crimes will not come to pass. For the desires of tyrants are naturally limitless, inasmuch as they have neither law nor fear to check them. Therefore, by effecting for me a just vengeance and also by procuring for yourselves security against suffering the same mistreatment, break now at last your bonds, O miserable me; look up toward liberty, your eyes fixed upon her. [6] What other ground for indignation greater than this will you have, when the tyrants carry off the daughters of citizens like slaves and with the lash lead their brides home? On what occasion will you regain the spirit of free men if you let slip the present one when your bodies are protected by arms?”
[42.1] While he was yet speaking, most of the soldiers cried out, promising to avenge him, and called upon the centurions by name, demanding immediate action; and many, coming forward, made bold to speak openly of any ill-treatment they had suffered. [2] Upon learning of what had happened, the five men, who, as I have stated, had the command of these legions, fearing lest some attack might be made upon them by the rabble, all ran to the general’s headquarters and considered with their friends how they might allay the tumult by surrounding themselves with an armed guard of their own faction. [3] But being informed that the soldiers had retired to their tents and that the disturbance was abated and ended, and being unaware that most of the centurions had secretly conspired to revolt and to unite in freeing their country, they resolved that as soon as it was day they would seize Verginius, who was stirring up the rabble, and keep him in custody, and then, breaking camp and leading their forces against the enemy, would settle down in the best part of their territory and lay it waste, thus keeping their men from meddling any longer with what was going on in the city, partly because of the booty they would acquire and partly because of the battles that would be waged in each instance to secure their own safety. [4] But they succeeded in none of their calculations; for the centurions would not even permit Verginius to go to the generals’ headquarters when he was sent for, suspecting that he might suffer some harm; nay, they even heaped scorn upon the intercepted report that the generals wished to lead the troops against the enemy, saying: “How skilfully you have commanded us in the past, that now also we should take hope and follow you — you who, after assembling a greater army both from the city itself and from our allies than any other generals in the past, have not only failed to gain any victory over the enemy or to do them any harm, but on the contrary have shown a lack of both courage and experience by encamping in cowardly fashion, and also, by permitting your own territory to be ravaged by the enemy, have made us beggars and destitute of all the means by which, when we were superior to our foes in equipment, we conquered them in battle when we had better generals than you! And now our foes erect trophies to commemorate our defeats and are in possession of our tents, our slaves, our arms and our money, which they have seized as plunder.”
[43.1] Verginius, moved by anger and no longer standing in awe of the generals, now inveighed against them with greater assurance, called them despoilers and plagues of their country, and exhorting all the centurions to take up the standards and lead the army home. [2] But most of them were still afraid to remove the sacred standards, and again, did not think it either right or safe at all to desert their commanders and generals. For not only does the military oath, which the Romans observe most strictly of all oaths, bid the soldiers follow their generals wherever they may lead, but also the law has given the commanders authority to put to death without a trial all who are disobedient or desert their standards. [3] Verginius, accordingly, perceiving that these scruples kept them in awe, proceeded to show them that the law had set aside their oath, since it is necessary that the general who commands the forces should have been legally appointed, whereas the power of the decemvirs was illegal, inasmuch as it had exceeded the term of a year, for which it had been granted. And to do the bidding of those who were commanding illegally, he declared, was not obedience and loyalty, but folly and madness. [4] The soldiers, hearing these arguments, approved of them; and encouraging one another and inspired also by Heaven with a certain boldness, they took up the standards and set out from the camp. However, as was to be expected among men of various dispositions and not all of them entertaining the best intentions, there were bound to be some, both soldiers and centurions, who remained with the oligarchs, though they were not so numerous as the others, but far fewer. [5] Those who departed from the camp marched throughout the entire day, and when evening came on, arrived in Rome, no one having announced their approach. Hence they caused the inhabitants no slight dismay, since they thought that a hostile army had entered the city; and there was shouting and disorderly running to and fro throughout the city. Nevertheless, the confusion did not last long enough to produce any mischief. For the soldiers, passing through the streets, called out that they were friends and had come for the good of the commonwealth; and they made their words match their deeds, as they did no harm to anyone. [6] Then, proceeding to the hill called the Aventine, which of all the hills included in Rome is the most suitable for an encampment, they put down their arms near the temple of Diana. The following day they strengthened their camp, and having appointed ten tribunes, at the head of whom was Marcus Oppius, to take care of their common interests, they remained quiet.
[44.1] There soon came to them as reinforcements from the army at Fidenae the ablest centurions of the three legions there, bringing with them a large force. These had long been disaffected toward the generals at Fidenae, ever since those men had caused the death of Siccius the legate, as I have related, but were afraid of beginning the revolt earlier, because they considered the five legions at Algidum to be attached to the decemvirate; but at the time in question, as soon as they heard of the revolt of the others, they were glad to embrace the opportunity presented to them by Fortune. [2] These legions also were commanded by ten tribunes, who had been appointed during their march, the most prominent of whom was Sextus Malius. After joining the others, they put down their arms and left it to the twenty tribunes to speak and act in all matters as representatives
of the whole group. Out of these twenty they appointed two persons, Marcus Oppius and Sextus Malius, who were the most prominent, to determine policies. These established a council consisting of all the centurions and handled all matters in conjunction with them. [3] While their intentions were not as yet generally known, Appius, inasmuch as he was conscious of having been the cause of the present disturbance and of the evils that were expected to result from it, no longer thought fit to transact any of the public business, but stayed at home. Spurius Oppius, however, who had been placed in command of the city together with him, although he too had been alarmed at first, believing that their enemies would immediately attack them and had indeed come for this purpose, nevertheless, when he found that they had attempted nothing revolutionary, relaxed from his fear and summoned the senators from their homes to the senate-house, sending for each one individually. [4] While these were still assembling, the commanders of the army at Fidenae arrived, full of indignation that both the camps had been abandoned by the soldiers, and they endeavoured to persuade the senate to resent this action as it deserved. When the senators were to deliver their opinions one after another, Lucius Cornelius declared that the soldiers who were posted on the Aventine must return that very day to their camps and carry out the orders of their generals, though they should not be subject to trial for anything that had happened, save only the authors of the revolt, who should be punished by the generals. [5] If, however, they did not do as commanded, the senate should deliberate concerning them as concerning men who had abandoned the post to which they had been assigned by their generals and had violated their military oath. Lucius Valerius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[6] But it behooved me neither to make no mention of the Roman laws which I found written on the Twelve Tables, since they are so venerable and so far superior to the codes of the Greeks, nor to go on and extend my account of them farther than was necessary.
[45.1] After the overthrow of the decemvirate the first persons to receive the consular office from the people in a centuriate assembly were, as I have stated, Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus, who were not only of their own nature favourable to the populace, but had also inherited that political creed from their ancestors. In fulfilment of the promises they had made to the plebeians, when they persuaded them to lay down their arms, that in their administration they would consult all the interests of the people, they secured the ratification in centuriate assemblies of various laws, most of which I need not mention, laws with which the patricians were displeased though they were ashamed to oppose them, and particularly the one which ordained that the laws passed by the populace in its tribal assemblies should apply to all the Romans alike, having the same force as those which should be passed in the centuriate assemblies. The penalties provided for such as should abrogate or transgress this law, in case they were convicted, were death and the confiscation of their estates. [2] This law put an end to the controversies previously carried on by the patricians against the plebeians when they refused to obey the laws enacted by the latter and would not at all regard the measures passed in the tribal assemblies as joint decrees of the whole state, but as merely private matters for the plebeians only; whereas they considered that any resolution the centuriate assembly passed applied not only to themselves but to the rest of the citizens as well. [3] It has been mentioned earlier that in the tribal assemblies the plebeians and the poor prevailed over the patricians, whereas in the centuriate assemblies the patricians, though far less numerous, had the upper hand over the plebeians.
[46.1] When this law, together with some others of a popular nature, as I have related, had been ratified by the consuls, the tribunes immediately, believing a fitting occasion had arrived for punishing Appius and his colleagues, thought they ought to bring charges against them, but not to put them all on trial at the same time, in order to prevent their helping one another in any way, but one by one; for they concluded that in this way they would be easier to manage. [2] And considering which one of them would be the most suitable to begin with, they determined to call Appius to account first, since he was hated by the people, not only because of his other crimes, but particularly because of his recent lawless acts with regard to the maiden. For they judged that if they convicted him they would easily get the better of the others, whereas, if they should begin with those of humbler station, they imagined that the resentment of the citizens, which is always more violent in the earlier trials, would be milder toward the most eminent men if they were tried last — as had often happened before. [3] Having resolved upon this course, they took the decemvirs into custody and appointed Verginius to be the accuser of Appius without drawing lots. Thereupon Appius was cited before the tribunal of the people to answer an accusation brought against him in their assembly by Verginius; and he asked for time to prepare his defence. He was haled to prison to be guarded until his trial, as bail was not allowed him; but before the day appointed for the trial came, he met his death in prison, — according to the suspicion of most people, by order of the tribunes, but according to the report of those who wished to clear them of this charge, by hanging himself. [4] After him, Spurius Oppius was brought before the tribunal of the people by another of the tribunes, Publius Numitorius, and being allowed to make his defence, was unanimously condemned, committed to prison, and put to death the same day. The rest of the decemvirs punished themselves by voluntary exile before they were indicted. The estates both of those who had been put to death and of those who had made their escape were confiscated by the quaestors. [5] Marcus Claudius, who had attempted to take away the maiden as his slave, was also accused by Icilius, her betrothed; however, by putting the blame on Appius, who had ordered him to commit the crime, he escaped death, but was condemned to perpetual banishment. Of the others who had been the instruments of the decemvirs in any crime, none had a public trial, but impunity was granted to them all. This course was proposed by Marcus Duilius, the tribune, when the citizens were already showing irritation and were expecting that . . . would be . . . enemies.
[47.1] After the domestic disturbances ceased, the consuls assembled the senate and procured the passing of a decree that they should lead out the army in all haste against the enemy. And the people having ratified the decree of the senate, Valerius, one of the consuls, marched with one half of the army against the Aequian and the Volscians; for these two nations had joined forces. [2] Understanding that the Aequians had gained assurance from their former successes and had come to entertain a great contempt for the Roman forces, he wished to increase their confidence and boldness by creating the false impression that he dreaded coming to close quarters with them, and in every move he simulated timidity. [3] For instance, he chose for his camp a lofty position difficult of access, surrounded it with a deep ditch, and erected high ramparts. And when the enemy repeatedly challenged him to battle and taunted him with cowardice, he bore it with patience and remained quiet. But upon learning that their best forces had set out to plunder the territory of the Hernicans and the Latins and that there was left in the camp a garrison that was neither large nor able, he thought this was the fitting moment, and leading out his army in regular formation, he drew it up as for battle. [4] Then, when no one came out to meet him, he held it in check that day, but on the next day led it against their camp, which was not very strong. When the enemy’s detachments which had earlier gone out after forage heard that their camp was besieged, they speedily returned, though they did not put in an appearance all together and in good order, but scattered and in small parties, everyone coming up as he could; and those in the camp, as soon as they saw their own men approaching, took courage and sallied out in a body. [5] Upon this, a great battle ensued, with much slaughter on both sides, a battle in which the Romans, gaining the victory, put to flight those who fought in closed ranks, and pursuing those who fled, killed some and made others prisoners; and taking possession of their camp, they seized much money and vast booty. After accomplishing this, Valerius now
freely overran the enemy’s country and laid it waste.
[48.1] Marcus Horatius, who had been sent out to prosecute the war against the Sabines, when he learned of the exploits of his colleague, likewise marched out of camp and promptly led all his forces against the Sabines, who were not inferior in numbers and were thoroughly acquainted with the art of war. For they displayed spirit and great boldness against their opponents in consequence of their former successes, not only all of them in common, but particularly their commander; for he was both a good general and also a gallant fighter at close quarters. [2] And since the cavalry displayed great zeal, he won a most brilliant victory, killing many of the enemy and taking far more of them prisoners, and also gaining possession of their abandoned camp, in which he found not only the baggage of the enemy in great quantity but also all the booty they had taken from the Romans’ territory, and rescued a great many of his own people who had been taken prisoner. For the Sabines, in their contempt of the Romans, had not packed up and sent away their booty before the battle. [3] The effects belonging to the enemy he allowed the soldiers to take as spoils after he had first selected such a portion of them as he intend to consecrate to the gods; but the booty he restored to the owners.
[49.1] After accomplishing these things he led his forces back to Rome, and Valerius arrived at about the same time. Both of them, being greatly elated by their victories, expected to celebrate brilliant triumphs; however, the matter did not turn out according to their expectation. [2] For the senate, having been convened in their case while they lay encamped outside the city in the Field of Mars, as it was called, and being informed of the exploits of both, would not permit them to perform the triumphal sacrifice, since many of the senators opposed their demand openly, [3] and particularly Gaius Claudius, uncles, as I have stated, to Appius who had established the oligarchy and had been put to death recently by the tribunes. Claudius reproached them for the laws they had got enacted by which they had weakened the power of the senate and for the other policies they had constantly pursued; and, last of all, he told of the killing of some of the decemvirs, whom they had betrayed to the tribunes, and the confiscation of the estates of the others, in violation, as he claimed, of their oaths and covenants; [4] for he maintained that the compact entered into by the patricians with the plebeians had been made on the basis of a general amnesty and impunity for what was past. He added that Appius had not perished by his own hand, but by the treachery of the tribunes before his trial, in order that he might not by standing trial either get a chance to speak or obtain mercy, — as might well have been the case if the man had come into court citing in his defence his illustrious lineage and the many good services he had rendered to the commonwealth, appealing too to the oaths and pledges of good faith, on which men rely when accommodating their differences, bringing forward his children and relations, displaying even the humble garb of the suppliant, and doing many other things that move the multitude to compassion. [5] When Claudius had poured out all these accusations against the consuls and all who were present had expressed their approval, it was decided that the consuls ought to be content if they were not punished; but that they were not in the least worthy of celebrating triumphs or of gaining any concessions of that sort.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 106
