ceeding in judicial causes, hitherto shut up in the closets of the pontiffs; and hung up to public view, round the Forum, the calendar on white tablets, that all might know when business could be transacted in the courts. To the great displeasure of the nobles, he performed the dedication of the temple of Concord, in the area of Vulcan's temple; and the chief pontiff, Cornelius Barbatus, was compelled by the united instances of the people, to dictate to him the form of words, although he affirmed, that, consistently with the practice of antiquity, no other than a consul, or commander-inchief, could dedicate a temple. This occasioned a law to be proposed to the people, by direction of the senate, that no person should dedicate a temple, or an altar, without an order from the senate, or from a majority of the plebeian tribunes. The incident which I am about to mention would be trivial in itself, were it not an instance of the freedom assumed by plebeians in opposition to the pride of the nobles: Flavius coming to make a visit to his colleague, who was sick, some young nobles who were sitting there agreed among themselves not to pay him the compliment of rising at his entrance; on which he ordered his curule chair to be brought thither, and from his honourable seat of office enjoyed the sight of his enemies tortured with envy. However, Flavius owed his appointment to the ædileship to a faction composed of the lowest class of people, which had gathered strength during the censorship of Appius Claudius: for he was the first who degraded the senate, by electing into it the immediate descendants of freed men; and when he found that no one allowed that election as valid, and that his conduct, in the senate-house, had not procured him the influence in the city which it had been his principal object to attain, he distributed men of the meanest order among all the several tribes, and thus corrupted the assemblies both of the Forum and of the field of Mars. With respect to the election of

Flavius, it excited great indignation in the breasts of most of the nobles, who laid aside their gold rings and bracelets in consequence of it. From that time the state was split into two parties. The uncorrupted part of the people, who fa voured and supported the good, held one side; the faction of the rabble, the other. Quintus Fabius and Publius De cius were then made censors; and Fabius, both for the sake of concord, and at the same time to prevent the elections remaining in the hands of the lowest of the people, purged the rest of the tribes of all the rabble of the Forum, and threw it into four, which he ordered to be called city tribes. And this procedure, we are told, gave such universal satis faction, that, by this regulation in the orders of the state, he obtained the surname of Maximus, which he had not been honoured with by his many victories. The annual review of the knights, on the ides of July, is also said to have been projected and 'instituted by him.

1

1

S

I

t

Submission of the. Marcians accepted. The college of Augurs augmented from four to nine. The law of appeal to the people carried by Valerius the consul. Two more tribes added. War declared against the Sam. nites. Several successful actions. In an engagement against the combined forces of the Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites, and Gauls, Publius Decius, after the example of his father, devotes himself for the army. Dies, and, by his death, procures the victory to the Romans. Defeat of the Samnites by Papirius Cursor. The census held. The lustrum closed. The number of the citizens two hundred and sixty-two thousand, three hundred and twenty-two.

Y.R.450.

B.C.302.

I. UNDER the succeeding consuls, Lucius Genucius, and Servius Cornelius, the state enjoyed almost uninterrupted rest from foreign wars. Colonies were led out to Sora and Alba. For the latter, situated in the country of the Æquans, six thousand colonists were enrolled. Sora had formerly belonged to the Volscian territory, but had fallen into the possession of the Samnites: thither were sent four thousand settlers. This year the freedom of the state was granted to the Arpinians and Trebulans. The Frusinonians were fined a third part of their lands, because it was discovered, that they had endeaVOL. II-2 R

voured to stir up the Hernicians to rebellion; and the heads of that conspiracy, after a trial before the consuls, held in pursuance of a decree of the senate, were beaten with rods and beheaded. However, that the Romans might not pass the year entirely exempt from war, a little expedition was made into Umbria; intelligence being received from thence, that numbers of men, in arms, had, from a certain cave, made excursions into the adjacent country. Into this cave the troops penetrated with their standards, and, the place being dark, they received many wounds, chiefly from stones thrown. At length the other mouth of the cave being found, for it was pervious, both the openings were filled up with wood, which being set on fire, there perished by means of the smoke and heat, no less than two thousand men; many of whom, at the last, in attempting to make their way out, rushed into the very flames. The two Marci, Livius Denter, and Emilius, succeeding to the cónsulship, war broke out again with the Æquans; who, being highly displeased at the colony es tablished within their territory, as if it were a fortress to keep them in awe, made an attempt, with their whole force, to seize it, but were repulsed by the colonists themselves. They caused, however, such an alarm at Rome, that, to quell this insurrection, Caius Junius Bubulcus was nominated dictator: for it was scarcely credible that the Equans, after being reduced to such a degree of weakness, should by themselves alone have ventured to engage in a war. The dictator, taking the field, with Marcus Titinius, master of the horse, in the first engagement, reduced the Æquans to submission; and, returning into the city in triumph, on the eighth day, dedicated, in the character of dictator, the temple of Health, which he had vowed when consul, and contracted for when censor.

Y.R.451. B.C.301.

II. During this year a fleet of Grecians, under the command of Cleonymus, a Lacedæmonian, arrived on the coast

of Italy, and took Thuriæ, a city in the territory of the Sallentines. Against this enemy, the consul Æmilius was sent, who, in one battle, completely defeated them, and without farther opposition drove them on board their ships. Thuriæ was then restored to its old inhabitants, and peace re-established in the country of the Sallentines. In some annals, I find, that Junius Bubulcus was sent dictator into that country, and that Cleonymus, without hazarding an engagement with the Romans, retired out of Italy. He then sailed round the promontory of Brundusium, and, steering down the middle of the Adriatic gulf, because he dreaded, on the left hand, the coasts of Italy destitute of harbours, and, on the right, the Illyrians, Liburnians, and Istrians, nations of savages, and noted in general for piracy, he passed on to the coasts of the Venetians. Here, having landed a small party to explore the country, and, being informed that a narrow beach stretched along the shore, beyond which were marshes, overflowed by the tides; that dry land was seen at no great distance, level in the nearest part, and rising behind into hills, beyond which was the mouth of a very deep river, into which they had seen ships brought round and moored in safety, (this was the river Meduacus,) he ordered his fleet to sail into it and go up against the stream. As the channel would not admit the heavy ships, the troops, removing into the lighter vessels, arrived at a part of the country, occupied by three maritime cantons of the Patavians, settled on that coast. Here they made a descent, leaving a small guard with the ships, made themselves masters of these cantons, set fire to the houses, drove off a considerable booty of men and cattle, and, allured by the sweets of plunder, proceeded still farther from the shore. When news of this was brought to Patavium, where the contiguity of the Gauls kept the inhabitants constantly in arms, they divided their young men into two bands, one of which was led towards the quarter