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Anecdotes of the Latin and Samnite Wars
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ANECDOTES OF THE LATIN AND SAMNITE WARS
[108] THE conquest of Italy by Rome was attended by many
interesting events, of which we propose to relate here
some of the more striking. The capture and burning of
Rome by the Gauls, and the dispersal of her army and
people, ruinous as it seemed, was but an event in her
career of conquest. The city was no sooner rebuilt than
the old regime of war was resumed, and it was no longer
a struggle between neighboring cities, but of Rome
against powerful confederacies and peoples, such as the
Volscians, the Etruscans, the Latins, the Campanians,
and the Samnites, the final conquest of which gave her
the dominion of Italy.
The war with the Latins was attended with some
circumstances showing strongly the stern and
indomitable spirit of the Romans. This war was carried
into Campania, in Southern Italy; and here, on a
celebrated occasion, when the two armies lay encamped
in close vicinity on the plain of Capua, the Roman
consuls issued a strict order against skirmishing or
engaging in single encounters with the enemy. The two
peoples were alike in arms and in language, and it was
feared that such chance combats might lead to confusion
and disaster.
[109] The only man to disobey this order was T. Manlius, the
son of one of the consuls. A Latin warrior, Germinus
Metius, of Tusculum, challenged young Manlius to meet
him in single combat; and the youthful warrior, fired
by ambition and warlike zeal, and eager to sustain the
honor of Rome, accepted the challenge, despite his
father's order. If killed, his fault would be atoned;
if successful, victory over a noted warrior must win
him pardon and praise.
The duel that ensued was a fierce and gallant one. It
ended in the triumph of the young Roman, who laid his
antagonist dead at his feet. Shouts of triumph from the
Roman soldiers hailed his victory; and when he had
despoiled his slain foe of his arms, and borne them
triumphantly from the field, the exultation of the
Romans was as unbounded as the chagrin of the Latins
was deep. Towards his father's tent the young victor
proudly went, through exulting lines of troops, and
laid his spoils in triumph at the feet of the stern old
man.
The poor youth, the rejoicing soldiers, knew not the
man with whom they had to deal. A military order had
been disobeyed. To old Manlius the fact that the
culprit was his son, and that he had added honor to the
Roman arms, weighed nothing. Discipline stood above
affection or victory. Turning coldly away, the
iron-hearted old Roman ordered that the soldiers should
be immediately summoned to the prætorium, or general's
tent, and that his son should be beheaded before them.
This cruel and inhuman order filled the whole army with
horror. Yet none dared interfere, and
[110] the unnatural mandate was obeyed, in full view an army
whose late exultation was turned to deep woe and
indignation. The youngest soldiers never forgave the
consul for his inhuman act, but regard him with
abhorrence to the end of his life. But their hatred was
mingled with fear and respect, and the stern lesson
taught was doubtless felt for years in the discipline
of the armies of Rome.
The next event worthy of record took place in the
vicinity of Mount Vesuvius, under whose very shadow a
fierce battle was fought between the Latin and Roman
armies, with the then silent volcano as witness. Two
centuries more were to pass before Rome would learn
what fearful power lay sleeping in this long voiceless
mountain.
Before the battle joined, the gods, as usual, were
appealed to. During the night both consuls had dreamed
the same dream. A figure of more than human stature and
majesty had appeared to them, and told them that the
earth and the gods of the dead claimed as their victims
the general of one party and the army of the other.
When the sacrifices were made, the signs given by the
entrails of the victims signified the same thing. It
was resolved, therefore, that if the army of Rome
anywhere gave way, the general commanding on that side
should devote himself, and the army of the enemy with
him, to the gods of death and the grave. "Fate," said
the augurs, "requires the sacrifice of a general from
one party and an army from the other. Let it be our
general and the Latin army that shall perish."
[111] It was the left wing of the Romans, commanded by the
consul Publius Decius, that first gave way. The consul
at once accepted his fate. By the direction of the
chief priest, he wrapped his consular toga around his
head, holding it to his face with his hand, and then
set his feet upon a javelin, and repeated after the
priest the words devoting him to the gods of death.
Then, arming himself at all points, and wrapping his
toga around his body in the manner usual in sacrifices,
he sprang upon his horse, and spurred headlong into the
ranks of the enemy, where he soon fell dead.
This sacrifice filled the Romans with hope, and the
Latins, who understood its meaning, with dismay. Yet
the latter, after being driven back, soon recovered,
and, despite the self-devotion of Decius, would
probably have won the victory had not the remaining
consul brought up his reserve troops just in time. In
the end the Latins were utterly defeated, and Vesuvius
looked down on the massacre of one army by the swords
of another, scarcely a fourth of the Latins escaping.
Thus the gods seemed to keep their word, though
probably the Roman reserve force had more to do with
the victory than all the gods of Rome.
The next event which we have to relate took place
during the second Samnite war. Its hero was L. Papirius
Cursor, one of the favorite heroes of Roman tradition,
and the avenger of the disgrace of the Caudine Forks,
the story of which we have next to tell. This famous
soldier is said to have possessed marvellous swiftness
of foot and gigantic strength,
[112] with extraordinary capacity for food, while his iron
strictness of discipline was at times relieved by a
rough humor. All this made his memory popular with the
Romans, who boasted that Alexander the Great would have
found in him a worthy champion, had that conqueror
invaded Italy.
The event we have now to narrate occurred early in the
war. One of the consuls, being taken ill, was ordered
to name a dictator to replace him, and chose Papirius
Cursor. This champion appointed Q. Fabius Rullianus,
another famous soldier, his master of the horse, and
marched out to attack the Samnites.
As it happened, the auspices taken by the dictator at
Rome before marching to the seat of war were of no
particular significance. Not satisfied with them, he
decided to take them again, and returned to Rome for
this purpose, the auspices being of a kind which could
only be taken within the city walls. He ordered the
master of the horse to remain strictly on the defensive
during his absence.
Fabius did not obey this order. He attacked the enemy
and gained some advantage. The annals say that he won a
great victory, defeating the Samnites with a loss of
twenty thousand men; but the annals have a habit of
magnifying small affairs into large ones where they
have any object to gain.
On hearing that his orders had been disobeyed, Papirius
hurried back to the camp in a violent rage, and with
the intention of making such an example of discipline
as Manlius had made in the execution of his son. On
reaching camp he ordered that Fabius should be
immediately executed. His
au- [113] thority as dictator gave him power for this violent
act; but he failed to reckon on the spirit of the
soldiers, who supported Fabius to a man, and broke into
a violent demonstration that was almost mutiny. So
strong was their feeling that the furious dictator
found himself obliged to halt in his purpose.
But Fabius knew too well the iron nature of his
antagonist to trust his life in his hands. That night
he fled from the camp to Rome, and immediately appealed
to the senate for protection. Papirius followed in hot
haste, and while the senators were still assembling
arrived in Rome, where, under his authority as
dictator, he gave order for the arrest of the culprit.
In this critical situation the prisoner's father, M.
Fabius, appealed to the tribunes for the protection of
his son, saying that he proposed to carry the case
before the assembly of the people.
The tribunes found themselves in a dilemma. Papirius
warned them not to sanction so flagrant a breach of
military discipline, nor to lessen the majesty of the
office of dictator, and they found themselves
hesitating between their duty to support the absolute
power of the dictator and their abhorrence of an
exercise of this power that must shock the feelings of
the whole Roman people. The people themselves relieved
their tribunes from this difficulty. They hastily met
in assembly, and by a unanimous vote implored the
dictator to be merciful, and for their sakes to forgive
Fabius. His authority thus acknowledged, Papirius
yielded, and declared that he pardoned the master of
the horse.
[114] "And the authority of the Roman generals," says Livy,
"was established no less firmly by the peril of Q.
Fabius than by the actual death of the young T.
Manlius."
It was well for Rome that Fabius was spared, for he
afterwards proved one of their ablest generals. The
time came, also, when he was able to confer a benefit
upon Papirius Cursor. This was during a subsequent war
with the Etruscans, in which he commanded as consul and
gained great victories. Meanwhile a Roman army was
defeated by the Samnites, and on the news of this
defeat reaching Rome the senate at once resolved to
appoint Papirius once more as dictator.
But this appointment must be made by a consul. One
consul was with the defeated army, perhaps dead. It was
necessary to apply to Fabius, the other consul, and the
declared enemy of the proposed dictator. To overcome
his personal feelings, a deputation of the highest
senators was sent him, who read him the senate's decree
and strongly urged him to support it. Fabius listened
in dead silence, not answering by word or look. When
they had ended, he abruptly withdrew from the room. But
at dead of night he pronounced, in the usual form, the
nomination of Papirius as dictator. When the deputies
thanked him for his noble conquest over his feelings,
be listened still in dead silence, and dismissed them
without a word in answer.
We must now pass over years of war, in which both
Fabius and Papirius gained honor and fame, and come to
an occasion in which the son of Fabius
[115] led a Roman army as consul, and met with a severe
defeat by a Samnite army. He had been tricked by the
Samnites, and great indignation was aroused against him
in Rome. It was proposed to remove him from his office,
a disgrace which no consul ever experienced in Roman
history. It was also proposed that old Fabius should be
appointed dictator. But the aged soldier, to preserve
the honor of his son, offered to go with him as his
lieutenant, and the offer was accepted by the senate.
A second battle ensued, in the heat of which the consul
became surrounded by the enemy, and his aged father led
the charge to his rescue. His example animated the
Romans, they followed him in a vigorous assault, and a
complete victory was won. Twenty thousand Samnites were
slain, four thousand taken prisoners, and with them
their general, C. Pontius. After other victories the
younger Fabius returned to Rome and was given a
triumph, while behind him rode his old father on
horseback, as one of his lieutenants, delighting in the
honor conferred on his son. The Samnite general was
made to walk in the procession, and at its end was
taken to the prison under the Capitoline Hill and there
beheaded. It was thus that Rome dealt with its captured
foe.
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