There which caused such a hurry and confused cla- | 290. B. C. 462.] The Furii, some writers mour, every one calling to arms, as in some have called Fusii: this I mention, lest any measure resembled the consternation of a city taken by storm. Luckily Quintius the consul had returned from Algidum; this proved a remedy for their fears; he calmed the tumult, upbraiding them with being afraid of a vanquished people, and posted guards at the gates. He then convened the senate, and having, by their directions, issued a proclamation for a cessation of all civil business,* marched out to protect the frontiers, leaving Quintus Servilius to command in the city; but he found no enemy in the country. The other consul encountered the Æquans with extraordinary success; for he attacked them on the road while heavy laden with booty, which so embarrassed their motions, as to render them unfit for action, and took severe revenge for the devastations which they had committed. He succeeded so effectually that few made their escape, and the whole of the booty was recovered. On this the consul Quintius returned to the city, and took off the prohibition of business, when it had continued four days. The general survey was then held, and the lustrum was closed by Quintius; the number of citizens rated in the survey, being one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides the orphans of both sexes. Nothing memorable passed afterwards in the country of the Equans: they took shelter in their towns, abandoning their surrounding possessions to fire and devastation. The consul, after having repeatedly carried hostilities and depredations through every part of the enemy's country, returned to Rome with great glory, and abundance of spoil. IV. The next consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus, [Y. R. Justitium: quia us sistebatur. In cases of great and immediate danger, all proceedings at law were suspended; the shops also were shut, and all civil business stopped unt.l the alarm was over. †The lustrum was a period of five years, at the expiration of which a general review of the people was held, and their number, state, and circumstances inquired into. The senate also was reviewed by one of the censors: and if any one, by his behaviour, had rendered himself unworthy of a place in that body, or had sunk his fortune below the requisite qualification, his name was passed over by the censor, in reading the roll of senators: and thus he was held to be excluded from the senate. When the business was done, the censor, to whose lot it fell, condidit lustrum, closed the lustrum, by offering a solemn sacrifice in the Campus Martius. VOL. I.-O should think there was a difference in the senate with such dismay, that by a decree, in that form which has been always deemed to be appropriated to cases of extreme exigency, the other consul Postumius was charged, "to take care, that the commonwealth should receive no detriment." It was judged most expedient that the consul himself should remain at Rome, in order to enlist all who were able to bear arms; and that Titus Quintius should be sent as proconsul to the relief of the camp, with an army composed of the allies; to complete the number of which, the Latines, Hernicians, and the colony at Antium, were ordered to supply Quintius with subitary soldiers; this was the appellation then given to auxiliaries called out on a sudden emergency. hind: being thus shut out from assistance, and having often in vain essayed, by every kind of effort, to open himself a passage, he fell, fighting with great bravery. The consul, on the other hand, hearing that his brother was surrounded, turned back on the enemy, and while forgetting all caution, he rushed too precipitately into the thick of the fight, he received a wound, and was, not without difficulty, carried off by his attendants. This both damped the courage of his own men, and rendered the enemy more daring; and so highly were the latter elated by the death of the lieutenant-general, and the consul's being wounded, that no force could afterwards withstand them, so as to prevent their driving the Romans back to their camp, and V. For some time there was a great variety compelling them to submit again to a siege, of movements, and many attempts made, both with both strength and hopes considerably dion one side and on the other; for the enemy, minished; they were even in danger of utter relying on their superiority in number, endea- destruction, had not Titus Quintius, with the voured to weaken the force of the Romans, by troops supplied by the Latines and Hernicians, obliging them to divide it into many parts, in come to their relief. He attacked the Equans hopes that it would prove insufficient to with- on their rear, whilst their attention was emstand them on every different quarter. At the ployed on the Roman camp, and as they were same time that the siege of the camp was car-insultingly exhibiting to view the head of the ried on, a part of their forces was sent to ravage lieutenant-general; and a sally being made the lands of the Romans, and to attempt even from the camp at the same time, on a signal Rome itself if a favourable occasion should of- given by him at some distance, a great number fer. Lucius Valerius was left to guard the city, of the enemy were surrounded and cut off. and the consul Postumius was sent to protect Of the Equans who were employed in the the frontiers from the enemy's incursions. No Roman territories, the number slain was less, degree of vigilance and activity was left unem- but their defeat and dispersion was more comployed in any particular: watches were sta-plete Being divided into separate parties, tioned in the town, out-posts before the gates. and busied in collecting plunder, they were atand guards along the walls; and, as was neces- tacked by Postumius in several places, where sary in a time of such general confusion, a ces- he had posted troops in convenient situations; sation of civil business was observed for seve-when, not knowing what course to take, and ral days. Meanwhile, at the camp, the consul pursuing their flight in great disorder, they fell Furius, after having endured the seige for some in with Quintius, who, after his victory, was time, without making any effort, burst forth from the Decuman gate,* on the enemy, when they least expected him; and though he might have pursued their flying troops with advantage, yet, fearing lest an attack might be made on the camp from the opposite side, he halted. Another Furius, who was a lieutenant-general, and brother to the consul, hastily pushed forward too far; and so eagerly intent was he on the pursuit, that he neither perceived his own party retreating, nor the enemy intercepting him be * The Decuman gate was in the rear of the encampment. For the order and disposition of a Roman camp, see Adam's Roman Antiquities. returning home with the wounded consul. Then did the consular army, exerting themselves with extraordinary alacrity, take full vengeance for the consul's wound, and for the loss of the lieutenant-general and the cohorts. Many heavy losses were sustained on both sides in the course of that campaign: but it is diffi cult at this distance of time, to assign, with any degree of certainty, the precise number of those who were engaged, and of those who fell. Yet Valerius Antius undertakes to estimate them, affirming that, of the Romans there fell in the country of the Hernicians five thousand three hundred; that, of the plundering parties of the quans, who spread themselves over the observation of the allies, of the low state to which the commonwealth was reduced by the pestilence, the answer which they received, demonstrated a great dejection of spirits: that the Roman territories, two thousand four hun- which the thinness of the senate afforded to dred were slain by the consul Aulus Postumius; that the other body of them, who, while they were carrying off the spoil, fell in with Quintius, escaped not without a much greater loss, there being slain of these, four thou-" the Hernicians themselves, with the assistsand, (and pretending exactness, he adds,) two hundred and thirty. After this, the troops returned to Rome, and the order for cessation of civil business was discharged. The sky appeared as on fire in many places. and other portents either occurred to people's sight, or were formed by terror in their imaginations. To avert the evils which these foreboded, a proclamation was issued for a solemn festival, to be observed for three days, during which all the temples were filled with crowds, both of men and women, supplicating the favour of the gods. The cohorts of the Latines and Hernicians were then dismissed by the senate to their respective homes, with thanks for their spirited behaviour. During the campaign, a thousand men, who came from Antium after the battle, but too late to be of any service, were sent off in a manner little less than ignominious. ance of the Latines, must provide for their own safety. That the city of Rome, through the sudden anger of the gods, was depopulated by sickness. If they (the Romans) should find any respite from that calamity, they would, as they had done the year before, and on all occasions, give assistance to their allies." Thus the ambassadors departed, carrying home the most sorrowful intelligence; as they now found themselves obliged, with their own single strength, to support a war, to which they had hardly been equal, even when assisted by the power of Rome. The enemy remained not long in the country of the Hernicians, but proceeded thence, with hostile intentions, into the Roman territory; which, without the injuries of war, was now become a desert. Without meeting there one human being even unarmed, and finding every place through which they passed destitute, not only of troops, but of the culture of the husbandman, they yet came as far as the third stone on the Gabian road. By this time Æbutius the Roman consul was dead, and his colleague Servilius so ill, that there was very little hope of his recovery; most of the leading men were seized by the distemper, as were the greater part of the patricians, and almost every one of military age; so that they wanted strength, not only to form the expeditions which were requisite in a conjuncture so alarming, but even to mount the guards, where no exertion was necessary. The duty of the watches was performed by such of the senators in person, as by their age and strength were VI. The elections were then held, and Lucius Æbutius and Publius Servilius being chosen consuls, entered on their office, on the calends of August, which was at that time considered as the beginning of the year with respect to them. [Y. R. 291. B. C. 461.] This was a season of great distress; for, during this year, a pestilential disorder spread itself, not only through the city, but over the country, affecting both men and cattle with equal malignity; the violence of the disorder was increased by admitting into the city the cattle, and also he inhabitants of the country, who fled thither for shelter from the enemy's ravages. Such a collection of animals of every kind nearly suffo-qualified for it; the care of posting and visiting cated the citizens by the intolerable stench; these, was intrusted to the plebeian ædiles; on while the country people crowded together in them devolved the whole administration of afnarrow apartments, suffered no less from the fairs, and the dignity of the consular authority. heat, the want of rest, and their attendance on VII. The commonwealth in this forlorn each other; besides which, mere contact serv-state, without a head, without strength, was ed to propagate the infection. While they could saved from destruction by its guardian deities, scarcely support the weight of the calamities who inspired the Volscians and Æquans with under which they laboured, ambassadors from the spirit of banditti, rather than of warriors; the Hernicians suddenly arrived with intelli- for so far were they from conceiving any hope, gence, that the Equans and Volscians in con- either of mastering, or even of approaching junction had encamped in their territory, and the walls of Rome, and such an affect had the from thence were ravaging the country with distant view of the houses and adjacent hills, very numerous forces. Besides the proof, to divert their thoughts from the attempt, that murmurs spread through all the camp, each being turned to public business, several inter asking the other, "why they should throw regna having expired, Publius Valerius Pubaway their time without employment, and licola, on the third day after he had entered on without booty, in a waste and desert coun- the office of interrex, caused Lucius Lucretius try, among the putrid carcasses of men and Tricipitinus and Titus Veturius, or Vetusius, cattle; when they might repair to places Geminus, to be elected consuls. [Y. R. 292. that had felt no distress; to the territory of B. C. 460.] These assumed their office on the Tusculum, where every kind of opulence third of the ides of August, at which time the abounded?" and accordingly, they hastily put state had recovered its strength so far as to be themselves in motion, and, crossing the country, able not only to repel an attack, but to act offenpassed on through the territory of Lavici, to sively on occasion. Wherefore, on the Hernithe Tusculan hills; and to that quarter was the cians sending information, that the enemy had whole storm and violence of the war directed. made an irruption into their frontiers, they Meanwhile, the Hernicians and Latines, cheerfully promised to assist them. Two consuprompted not only by compassion, but also by lar armies were raised. Veturius was sent to the shame which they must incur, if they neith- carry on an offensive war against the Volscians. er gave opposition to the common enemy, Tricipitinus being appointed to protect the terrimarching to attack the city of Rome, nor even tories of the allies from all incursions, prowhen their allies were besieged, afforded them ceeded no farther than the country of the Herany assistance, united their forces, and proceed-nicians. Veturius, in the first engagement, ed to Rome. Not finding the enemy there, and pursuing their tracks by such intelligence as they could procure. they met them coming down from the heights of Tusculum to the Alban vale. There an engagement ensued, in which they were by no means a match for the combined forces, and the fidelity ot the allies proved, for the present, unfortunate to them. The mortality occasioned by the distemper at Rome was not less than what the sword caused among the allies. The consul Servilius, with many other illustrious persons, died: namely, Marcus Valerious and Titus Tirginius Rutilus augurs; Servius Sulpicius, principal curio; while, among persons of inferior note, the virulence of the disorder spread its ravages on every side. The senate, unable to discover a prospect of relief in any human means, directed the people to have recourse to vows and to the deities: they were ordered to go, with their wives and children, to offer supplications, and implore the favour of the gods; and all being thus called out by public authority, to perform what each man was strongly urged to by his own private calamities, they quickly filled the places of worship. In every temple, the prostrate matrons, sweeping the ground with their hair, implored a remission of the displeasure of heaven, and deliverance from the pestilence. VIII. From that time, whether it was owing to the gods having become propitious, or to the more unhealthy season of the year being now past the people began to find their health gradually restored. And now their attention routed and dispersed his enemy. While Lucretius lay encamped among the Hernicians, a party of plunderers, unobserved by him, marched over the Prænestine mountains, and from thence descended into the plains. These laid waste all the country about Præneste and Gabii, and from the latter turned their course towards the high grounds of Tusculum. Even Rome was very much alarmed, more so by the unexpectedness of the affair, than that they wanted strength to defend themselves. Quintus Fabius had the command in the city. He armed the young men, posted guards, and soon put every thing into a state of safety and tranquillity. The enemy therefore, not daring to approach the walls, but hastily carrying off whatever they could find in the adjacent places, set out on their return, making a long circuit, and while their caution relaxed, in proportion as they removed to a grester distance, they fell in with the consul Lucretius, who having procured intelligence of all their motions, lay with his troops drawn up, and impatient for the combat. These the consul, with premeditated resolution, attacked who, terrified and thrown into disorder by this sudden appearance of danger, and though considerably greater in number, were easily routed and put to flight. He then drove them into deep valleys, from which, being surrounded by his troops, it was difficult to escape. On this occasion the Volscian race was nearly extinguished. I find in some histories, that there fell, in the field and the pursuit, thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy; that one thousand two hundred and fifty were made pris- | commonwealth. If the gods, in their anger, oners; and that twenty-seven military standards had sent a tribune like him, during the last were taken. However, though, in those ac- year, while sickness and war raged together, his counts the numbers may be somewhat exag- designs could not have been prevented. When gerated, the slaughter certainly was very great. both the consuls were dead, and the enfeebled The victorious consul, possessed of an immense state lay overwhelmed in universal anarchy and booty, returned to his former post. The con- confusion, he would probably have introduced suls then made a junction of their forces. The laws for abolishing the consular government, Volscians and Æquans also united their shat- and would have become a leader to the Voltered troops. On which ensued the third battle scians and Æquans in an attack upon the city. in the course of that campaign. The same good And, after all, where was the occasion for such fortune attended the Romans, the enemy being a law? If a consul, in his behaviour towards routed with the loss of his camp. the citizens, proved himself arbitrary or cruel, was it not in the tribune's power to bring him to a trial? to prosecute him, where his judges would be those very persons, against one of whom the injury was committed? His manner of acting tended to render, not the consular government, but the office of tribune, odious and intolerable; because, from being in a state of peace and amity with the patricians, he was forcing it back into the old evil practices. But it was not intended to beseech him to desist from proceeding as he had begun. Of you the other tribunes," said Fabius, “we request, that ye will, first of all, consider, that your office was instituted for the protection of individuals, and not for the destruction of any part of the community; that ye were created tribunes of the commons, not foes of the patricians. It reflects as much dishonour on you, as it does concern on us, that the commonwealth should be invaded in the absence of its chief magistrates. Take measures with your colleague, that he may adjourn this business until the arrival of the consuls; ye will not hereby lessen your rights, but ye will lessen the odium which such proceedings must excite. Even the Æquans and Volscians, when the consuls were carried off last year by the sickness, refrained from adding to our afflictions by a cruel and implacable prosecution of war." The tribunes accordingly made application to Terentillus, and the business being suspended in appearance, but in reality suppressed, the consuls were immediately called home. IX. Thus did the course of affairs at Rome return into its former channel, and successes abroad immediately excited commotions at home. Caius Terentillus Arsa was tribune of the people that year. He, taking advantage of the absence of the consuls, as an opportunity favourable to tribunitian intrigues, entertained the commons for several days with railings against the arrogance of the patricians; but levelled his invectives chiefly against the consular government, as possessing an exorbitant degree of power, and intolerable in a free state: "In name," he said, "it was less odious than regal government; while, in fact, it was rather more oppressive-as, instead of one tyrant, two had been set over them, invested with immoderate and unlimited rule; who, while they themselves were priviledged and uncontrolled, directed every terror of the laws, and every kind of severity against the commons. Now, in order to prevent their continuing for ever to possess this arbitrary influence, he would propose, that five commissioners be appointed to compose a set of laws for the regulation of the consular | government. Whatever share of authority the people should think proper to intrust in the hands of the consuls, such they should enjoy; but they should not hold their own will and absolute determinations as law." When this decree was published, the patricians were filled with dread, lest, in the absence of the consuls, the yoke might be imposed on them: the senate was called together by the præfect of the city, Quintus Fabius, who inveighed against the proposition, and the author of it, with such vehemence, as to omit no kind of threats, or means of intimidation, which could have been applied, had both the consuls, provoked to the highest, stood beside the tribune. He urged, that this man had lain in ambush, and watching his opportunity, had made an assault on the X. Lucretius returned with a very great quantity of spoil, and much greater glory. He added to the glory which he had acquired, by exposing, on his arrival, all the spoil in the field of Mars, in order that every one should have an opportunity, during three days, to recognise and carry home his share of the same. remainder not having claimants, was sold. The |