bune of the soldiers, and first centurion, which they now call primipili. The soldiers were incensed against him, because he had always opposed their licentious proceedings, and, to avoid being concerned therein, had fled from Lautulæ. This was the only proposal with which the senate refused to com ply; on which Salonius, earnestly intreating the conscript fathers not to pay greater regard to his promotion, than to the public concord, prevailed on them to let that also pass. There was another requisition, equally unreasonable, that a deduction of one-third should be made from the pay of the cavalry, because they had opposed the conspiracy. They at that time received triple the pay of the foot.

XLII. Besides these regulations, I find in some writers, that Lucius Genucius, plebeian tribune, proposed a law to the people, that no one should lend money at interest. Likewise, that, by other orders of the commons, it was enacted, that no person should hold the same public office a second time with. in ten years, or enjoy two offices in the same year; and, that it should be lawful to elect both the consuls from among the plebeians. If all these concessions were really made, it is evident that the revolters possessed no small degree of strength. According to the accounts of other historians, Valerius was not nominated dictator, but the whole business was managed by the consuls; nor was it before they came to Rome, but in the city itself, that the conspirators became so desperate as to have recourse to arms. That the attack by night was not at the country-seat of Titus Quintius, but at the house of Caius Manlius, on whom they laid violent hands, and made him their leader; then, marching out as far as the fourth stone, they took possession of a strong post; also, that no mention of a reconciliation was first made by the commanders, but that after the troops had marched out to battle, mutual salutations suddenly took place; and that the soldiers, mixing together, began to shake hands, and em

brace each other with tears; and that the consuls, finding the minds of the soldiers averse from fighting, were obliged to make the proposition to the senate, of admitting the revolters to terms. So that in no circumstance do the ancient writers of the history agree, except in relating that there was a mutiny, and that it was composed. The report of this sedition, and the heavy war, undertaken at the same time against the Samnites, induced several nations to forsake the alliance of the Romans; and besides the Latines, who were known, for a long time past, to be in a disposition to break the treaty, the Privernians also, by a sudden incursion, ravaged Norba and Setia, colonies of the Romans, which lay in their neighbourhood.

keme

that

THE

HISTORY OF ROME.

BOOK VIII.

The Latines, in conjunction with the Campanians, revolt; send ambassadors to Rome, to propose, as the condition of peace, that one of the consuls shall in future be chosen from among them. Their requisition rejected with disdain. Titus Manlius, the consul, puts his own son to death, for fighting, although successfully, contrary to orders. Decius, the other consul, devotes himself for the army. The Latines surrender. Manlius returning to the city, none of the young men go out to meet him. Minutia, a vestal, condemned for incest. Several matrons convicted of poisoning. Laws then first made against that crime. The Ausonians, Privernians, and Palæpolitans subdued. Quintus Publilius the first instance of a person continuing in command, after the expiration of his of fice, and of a triumph decreed to any person not a consul. Law against confinement for debt. Quintus Fabius, master of the horse, fights the Samnites, with success, contrary to the orders of Lucius Papirius, dictator; and, with difficulty, obtains pardon, through the intercession of the people. Successful expedition against the Samnites.

I. THE new consuls were now in office, Caius Plautius a second time, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus, Y.R.414. when messengers from Setia and Norba brought

B.C.338.

information to Rome of the revolt of the Privernians, with complaints of the damages sustained by those colonies. News also arrived that an army of Volscians, headed by the people of Antium, had taken post at Satricum. Both these wars fell by lot to Plautius, who, marching first to Privernum, came to an immediate engagement. The ene

my, after a slight resistance, were entirely defeated, and their town taken, but this was restored to the inhabitants, being first secured by a strong garrison, while two-thirds of their lands were taken from them. From thence the victorious army was led to Satricum against the Antians: there a furious battle was fought, with a great effusion of blood on both sides. A storm separated the combatants, while there was no evident advantage on either part; the Romans, however, no wise disheartened by the fatigue of an engagement so indecisive, prepared for battle against the next day. But the Volscians, when they had reckoned up their loss, found not in themselves the same degree of resolution for making a second trial, and marched off in the night to Antium, with all the hurry of a defeat, leaving behind their wounded, and part of their baggage. A vast quantity of arms was found, both in the field and in the camp: these the consul declared an offering to Mother Lua*, and, entering the enemy's country, laid it all waste as far as the sea-coast. The other consul, Æmilius, on marching into the Sabellan territory, found neither a camp of the Samnites, nor legions to oppose him; but, while he was wasting their country with fire and sword, ambassadors came to him, suing for peace. He referred them to the senate; where, when they were admitted to an audidence, laying aside their fierceness of spirit, they requested of the Romans that peace might be restored between the two nations, and that they might be at liberty to carry on war against the Sidicinians: these requests, they alleged, they were the better entitled to make, as "they had united in friendship with the Roman people, at a time when their own affairs were in a flourishing state, not in a season of distress, as the Campanians had done; and, because those, against whom they wished to take arms, were the Sidicinians, who had ever been enemies to them, and never friends to the Ro

* Otherwise called Ops, Rhea, and Terra, the earth.

mans; who had neither, as the Samnites, sought their friend-
ship in time of peace; nor, as the Campanians, their assist-
ance in war; nor were connected with them in any way, ei-
ther of alliance or subjection."

II. The prætor Tiberius Æmilius, having required the
opinion of the senate respecting the demands of the Sam-
nites, and the senate having voted a renewal of the treaty
with them, gave them this answer, that, "as the Romans
had given no cause to hinder the uninterrupted continuance
of their friendship, so neither did they now object to its be-
ing revived; since the Samnites showed an unwillingness to
persevere in a war, which they had brought on themselves
through their own fault. That, as to what regarded the
Sidicinians, they did not interfere with the liberty of the
Samnite nation to determine for themselves with respect to
peace and war." The treaty being concluded, and the am-
bassadors returning home, the Roman army was immediately
withdrawn from thence, after receiving a year's pay for the
soldiers, and corn for three months; which were the condi-
tions stipulated by the consul, on his granting them a truce,
until the ambassadors should return. The Samnites marched
against the Sidicinians, with the same troops which they had
employed in the Roman war, sanguine in their expectation
of getting immediate possession of the enemy's capital. On
this the Sidicinians proposed, first, to the Romans, to put
themselves under their dominion; but the senate rejected
the proposal, as made too late, and forced from them merely
by extreme necessity; then the same offer was made to, and
accepted by the Latines, who were ready to commence hos-
tilities on their own account. Nor did even the Campanians
refrain from taking a part in this quarrel, much stronger im-
pressions being left on their minds by the ill-treatment re-
ceived from the Samnites, than by the kindness of the Ro-
mans. Out of such a number of nations, one vast army was