[5.1] (9) A thing still more remarkable than this was done by them a few years earlier, though the mistreatment involved the person of a slave. The son, namely, of Publius, one of the military tribunes who had surrendered the army to the Samnites and passed under the yoke, inasmuch as he had been left in dire poverty, was compelled to borrow money for the burial of his father, expecting to repay it out of contributions to be made by his relations. But being disappointed in his expectation, he was seized in lieu of the debt when the time for payment came, as he was very youthful and comely to look upon. [2] He submitted to all the regular tasks which it was usual for slaves to perform for their masters, but with indignant when ordered to put the charms of his body at the disposal of his creditor, and resisted to the utmost. Then, having received many lashes with whips because of this, he rushed out into the Forum, and taking his stand upon a lofty spot where he would have many witnesses to his mistreatment, he released the wanton attempts of the money-lender and displayed the weals raised by the whips. [3] When the people became indignant at this and felt that the matter was deserving of public wrath, the tribunes brought an indictment against the man and he was found guilty of a capital crime. Because of this incident all the Romans who had been enslaved for debt recovered their formed freedom by a law ratified at this time.
[6.1] (10) Demanding that the senate in behalf of those who were in want and in debt . . .
The flesh of freshly slain victims continues to quiver and palpitate until the congenital breath contained in it has forced this way out through the pores and been entirely dissipated. [2] Some such thing is the cause also of earthquakes at Rome; for the city, since it is undermined with large and continuous channels through which the water is conducted, and since it has many breathing-vents like mouths, shoots up their own these vents the breath that is pent up within it. This breath it is which shakes the city and rends the surface of the ground whenever a large and violent mass of air is intercepted and pent up inside.
Fregellae, a city of Italy which originally belonged to the Opicans and later fell to the Volscians. Eth. Fregellanus, as Dionysius, Roman Antiquities xvi, and ever so many others. (Cf. Livy VIII. f.)
Minturnae, a city of the Samnites in Italy. Dionysius xvi. Eth. Minturnensis. (Cf. Livy IX...)
Aecalum, a fortress of Italy. Dionysius, Roman Antiquities xvi.
Iapodes, a Celtic race near Illyria. Dionysius xvi.
EXCERPTS FROM BOOKS XVII AND XVIII
[1.1] (16.11) The Samnite war was once more kindled into flame, beginning from some such cause as the following. After the treaty which the Samnites had made with Rome, they waited a short time and then made an expedition against the Lucanians, who were their neighbours, being moved thereto by some long-standing feud. [2] At first the Lucanians carried on the war relying on their own forces; but getting the worst of it in all the engagements, and having lost many districts already and being in danger of losing all the rest of their land, they were forced to have recourse to the Romans’ assistance. They were conscious, to be sure, of having broken the compact they had made with the Romans earlier, in which they had pledged friendship and alliance, but did not despair of persuading them if they should send to them along with their ambassadors the most prominent boys from every city as hostages. [3] (12) For when the ambassadors arrived and made many entreaties, the senate voted to accept the hostages and to join friendship with the Lucanians; and the popular assembly ratified their vote. [4] Upon the conclusion of the treaty with the emissaries of the Lucanians the oldest and most honoured of the Romans were chosen by the senate and sent as ambassadors to the general council of the Samnites to inform them that the Lucanians were friends and allies of the Romans and to warn them not only to restore the land they had taken away from them but also to commit no further act of hostility, since Rome would not permit her suppliants to be driven out of their own land.
[2.1] (16.13) The Samnites, having listened to the ambassadors, were indignant and declared in their own defence, first of all, that they had not made the peace on the understanding that they were to count no one as their friend or enemy unless the Romans should bid them to do so; and again, that the Romans had not previously made the Lucanians their friends, but only just now, when they were already enemies of the Samnites, thereby trumping up an excuse that was neither just nor seemly for setting aside the treaty. [2] When the Romans answered that subjects who had agreed to follow them and had obtained a termination of the war on that condition must obey all orders of those who had assumed the rule over them, and threatened to make war upon them if they did not voluntarily do as they were ordered, [3] the Samnites, regarding the arrogance of Rome as intolerable, ordered the ambassadors to depart at once, while, as for themselves, they voted to make the necessary preparations for war both jointly and each city for itself.
[3.1] (16.14) The published reason, then, for the Samnite war and the one that was plausible enough to be announced to the world was the assistance extended to the Lucanians who had turned to them for help, since this was a general and time-honoured practice with the Roman state to aid those who were wronged and turned to her for help. But the undisclosed reason and the one which was more cogent in leading them to give up their friendship with the Samnites was the power of that nation, which had already become great, and promised to become greater still if, upon the subjugation of the Lucanians and, because of them, of their neighbours, the barbarian tribes adjoining them were going to follow the same course. The treaty, accordingly, was promptly abrogated after the return of the ambassadors, and two armies were enrolled.
[4.1] (16.15) Postumius the consul, now that his succession to his father’s estate was imminent, thought very highly of himself both because of the reputation of his family and because he had already been honoured with two consulships. [2] His colleague was at first indignant at this, feeling that he was being excluded from an equal share of honours, and he frequently presented his claims against him before the senate; but later, recognizing that in dignity of ancestry, the number of his friends, and in other sources of influence he was inferior to the other (for he was a plebeian and one of those who had but recently come to public notice), he yielded to his colleague and let him have the command of the Samnite war. [3] This was the first thing that aroused prejudice against Postumius, occasioned as it was by his great arrogance; and on top of it came another action that was too offensive for a Roman commander. He chose, namely, about two thousand men out of his army, and taking them to his own estate, ordered them to cut down a thicket without axes; and for a long time he kept the men on his estate performing the tasks of labourers and slaves. [4] (16) After displaying such arrogance before setting out on the campaign, he showed himself even more domineering in the acts which he committed in the course of the campaign itself, thus affording the senate and the people grounds for just hatred. For though the senate had voted that Fabius, who had been consul the year before and had conquered the Samnite tribe called the Pentrians, should remain in the camp and, holding the proconsular power, make war against that part of the Samnites, Postumius nevertheless sent him a letter ordering him to evacuate the Samnite country, on the ground that the command belonged to him alone. [5] And to the envoys sent by the senators to demand that he should not hinder the proconsul from remaining in the camp nor act in opposition to their decrees he gave a haughty answer worthy of a tyrant, declaring that the senate did not govern him, so long as he was consul, but that he governed the senate. [6] Then, having dismissed the envoys, he led his army against Fabius, intending, in case he were not willing to give up command voluntarily, to force him by arms to do so. And coming upon Fabius as he was besieging the town of Cominium, he drove him out of the camp, showing a vast contempt for the ancient usages and an outrageous arrogance. Fabius, accordingly, yielded to his madness and relinquished the command.
[5.1] (16.17) This same Postumius first took Cominium by siege, after spending but a short time in assaults, and then captured Venusia, a populo
us place, and ever so many other cities, of whose inhabitants 10,000 were slain and 6,200 surrendered their arms. [2] Though he accomplished all this, he not only was not granted any mark of favour or honour by the senate, but even lost the esteem which was his before. For when 20,000 colonists were sent out to one of the cities captured by him, the one called Venusia, others were chosen leaders of the colony, while the man who had reduced the city and had made the proposal for the dispatch of the colonists was not found worthy even of that honour. [3] (18) Now if he had borne these reverses with a prudence based upon reason and had assuaged the harshness of the senate by the therapy of courteous words and actions, he would have experienced no further misfortune leading to disgrace. But as it was, being exasperated and harsh in his turn, he not only presented the soldiers with all the booty he had taken from the enemy, but also, before his successor in the command was sent out, dismissed his forces from the standards; and finally, though it was granted to him by neither the senate nor the people, he celebrated a triumph on his own authority. [4] In consequence of all this, still greater hatred flared up on the part of all, and as soon as he turned over his magistracy to the consuls who succeeded him he was cited to a public trial by two tribunes. And being accused before the popular assembly, he was condemned by all the tribes, the indictment calling for a fine of 50,000 denarii.
Ferentinum, a city of the Samnites in Italy. Eth. Ferentanus. Ferentii also is used, as Dionysius, Roman Antiquities XVII.
Milonia, a very prominent city of the Samnites. Dionysius XVII. Eth. Miloniates (?). (cf. Livy X.; .)
Nequinum, a city of the Umbrians. Dionysius, Roman Antiquities XVII. Eth. Nequinates. (cf. Livy X. f.)
Narnia, a city of the Samnites, named from the river Nar which flows past it. Dionysius, Roman Antiquities XVIII. Eth. Narniensis. (cf. Livy X. f.)
Ocriculum, a city of the Tyrrhenians. Dionysius, Roman Antiquities XVIII. Eth. Ocriculanus, idem. (cf. Livy IX..)
EXCERPTS FROM BOOK XIX
[1.1] (17.1) Croton is a city in Italy; likewise Sybaris, so named from the river which flows past it.
[2] When the Lacedaemonians were warring against Messenê and Sparta was stripped of men, the women and especially the maidens who were of marriageable age begged them not to allow them to go unwed and childless. Accordingly, young men were constantly sent from the camp in rotation to have intercourse with the women and they consorted with the first women they met. From these promiscuous women were born boys whom, when they had grown to man’s estate, the Lacedaemonians called Partheniae, among other taunts that they hurled at them. [3] (2) When a sedition occurred and the Partheniae were defeated, they voluntarily withdrew from the city; and sending to Delphi, they received an oracle bidding them sail to Italy and after finding a town in Iapygia called Satyrium and a river Taras, to establish their abode where they should see a goat dipping his beard in the sea. [4] Having made the voyage, they found the river and observed a wild fig-tree growing near the sea and overspread with a vine, one of whose tendrils hung down and touched the sea. Assuming this to be the “goat” which the god had foretold them they would see dipping his beard in the sea, entreaty remained there and made war upon the Iapygians; and they founded the city which they named for the river Taras.
[2.1] (17.3) Artimedes of Chalcis had an oracle bidding him, wherever he should find the male covered by the female, there to abide and to sail no farther. When he had sailed round Pallantium in Italy, he beheld a vine twining over a wild fig-tree; and reflecting that the vine was feminine and the fig-tree masculine, and the clinging was the sexual “covering,” he assumed that the oracle had its fulfilment. Accordingly, he drove out the barbarians who were in possession of the place and colonized it himself. [2] The place is called Rhegium, either because there was an abrupt headland or because in this place the earth split and set off from Italy Sicily which lies opposite, or else it is named after some ruler who bore this name.
[3.1] (17.4) When Leucippus the Lacedaemonian inquired where it was fated for him and his followers to settle, the god commanded them to sail to Italy and settle that part of the land where they should stay a day and a night after landing. The expedition made land near Callipolis, a seaport of the Tarentines; and Leucippus, pleased with the nature of the place, persuaded the Tarentines to permit them to encamp there for a day and a night. [2] When several days had passed and the Tarentines asked them to depart, Leucippus paid no heed for them, claiming that he had received the land from them under a compact for day and night; and so long as there should be either of these he would not give up the land. So the Tarentines, realizing that they had been tricked, permitted them to remain.
[4.1] (17.5) The Locrians, having settled the Italian promontory of Zephyrium, were called Zephyrians.
They decided that he should remain in the place where he was and conduct the war that was threatening from that quarter.
They were scattered among the forests and ravines and mountain fastnesses.
[2] (6) A certain Tarentine who was shameless and addicted to every form of sensual pleasure was nicknamed Thaïs because of his beauty, which was licentious and prostituted to base ends among boys.
After enlisting the plebeians they departed.
The most frivolous and dissolute of all in the city.
[5.1] (17.7) Postumius was sent as ambassador to the Tarentines. As he was making an address to them, the Tarentines, far from paying heed to him or thinking seriously, as men should do who are sensible and are taking counsel for a state which is in peril, watched rather to see if he would make any slip in the finer points of the Greek language, and then laughed, became exasperated at his truculence, which they called barbarous, and finally were ready to drive him out of the theatre. [2] As the Romans were departing, one of the Tarentines standing beside the exit was a man named Philonides, a frivolous fellow who because of his besotted condition in which he passed his whole life was called Demijohn; and this man, being still full of yesterday’s wine, as soon as the ambassadors drew near, pulled up his garment, and assuming a posture most shameful to behold, bespattered the sacred robe of the ambassador with the filth that is indecent even to be uttered.
[3] (8) When laughter burst out from the whole theatre and the most insolent clapped their hands, Postumius, looking at Philonides, said: “We shall accept the omen, you frivolous fellow, in the sense that you Tarentines give us what we do not ask for.” Then he turned to the crowd and showed his defiled robe; but when he found that the laughter of everybody became even greater and heard the cries of some who were exulting over and praising the insult, he said: [4] “Laugh while you may, Tarentines! Laugh! For long will be the time that you will weep hereafter.” When some became embittered at this threat, he added: “And that you may become yet more angry, we say this also to you, that you will wash out this robe with much blood.” [5] The Roman ambassadors, having been insulted in this fashion by the Tarentines both privately and publicly and having uttered the prophetic words which I have reported, sailed away from their city.
[6.1] (17.8) As soon as Aemilius, with the cognomen Barbula, had assumed the consulship, Postumius and those who had been sent with him as ambassadors to Tarentum arrived in the city, bringing no answer, to be sure, but relating the insults that had been offered them and exhibiting the robe of Postumius as proof of their story. When great indignation was shown by all, Aemilius and his fellow consul assembled the senate and considered what course they ought to take, remaining in session from early morning until sunset; and this they did for many days. [2] (10) The question was not whether the terms of peace had been violated by the Tarentines, since all were agreed upon that point, but when an army should be sent against them. For there were some who advised against undertaking this war as yet, while the Lucanians, the Bruttians, and the large and warlike race of Samnites were in rebellion and Tyrrhenia, lying at their very doors, was still unconquered, but only after these nations had been subdued, preferably all of them, but if that should not be possible,
at least those lying eastward and close to Tarentum. But others thought the opposite course advisable, namely, not to wait for a moment, but to vote for war at once. [3] When it was time for counting the votes, those in the latter group were found to be more numerous than those who advised postponing the war to another time. And the populace ratified the decision of the senate. The MS. adds: See the section on Stratagems.
[7.1] (17.11) . . . it is the nature of those birds which hover round this spot in rather leisurely flight to be of good omen to those who wish to save their own possessions; and it is the nature of those birds which dart forward in swift and impetuous flight to be of good omen to those who covet the possessions of others. For the latter are providers and hunters of the things that are lacking, whereas the former are watchers and guardians of the things on hand.
[2] (12) He went through the whole country of the enemy setting fire to the fields which had crops of grain already ripe and cutting down the fruit-trees.
Democracies experience something of the same sort as do the seas; for just as the latter are agitated by the winds, though it is their nature to be tranquil, so the former are disturbed by the demagogues, though they have in themselves no evil.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 113
