Download Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus

LUCIUS QUNCTIUS CINCINNATUS
THE HISTORY OF ROME, VOLUME I BY TITUS LIVIUS
3.26
An immense body of Sabines came in their ravages almost up to the walls of the City.
The fields were ruined, the City thoroughly alarmed. Now the plebeians cheerfully took
up arms, the tribunes remonstrated in vain, and two large armies were levied. Nautius led
one of them against the Sabines, formed an entrenched camp, sent out, generally at night,
small bodies who created such destruction in the Sabine territory that the Roman borders
appeared in comparison almost untouched by war. Minucius was not so fortunate, nor did
he conduct the campaign with the same energy; after taking up an entrenched position not
far from the enemy, he remained timidly within his camp, though he had not suffered any
important defeat. As usual, the enemy were emboldened by the lack of courage on the
other side. They made a night attack on his camp, but as they gained little by a direct
assault they proceeded the following day to invest it. Before all the exits were closed by
the circumvallation, five mounted men got through the enemies' outposts and brought to
Rome the news that the consul and his army were blockaded. Nothing could have
happened so unlooked for, so undreamed of; the panic and confusion were as great as if it
had been the City and not the camp that was invested. The consul Nautius was summoned
home, but as he did nothing equal to the emergency, they decided to appoint a Dictator to
retrieve the threatening position of affairs. By universal consent L. Quinctius Cincinnatus
was called to the office.
It is worth while for those who despise all human interests in comparison with riches,
and think that there is no scope for high honours or for virtue except where lavish wealth
abounds, to listen to this story. The one hope of Rome, L. Quinctius, used to cultivate a
four-acre field on the other side of the Tiber, just opposite the place where the dockyard
and arsenal are now situated; it bears the name of the " Quinctian Meadows." There he
was found by the deputation from the senate either digging out a ditch or ploughing, at all
events, as is generally agreed, intent on his husbandry. After mutual salutations he was
requested to put on his toga that he might hear the mandate of the senate, and they
expressed the hope that it might turn out well for him and for the State. He asked them, in
surprise, if all was well, and bade his wife, Racilia, bring him his toga quickly from the
cottage. Wiping off the dust and perspiration, he put it on and came forward, on which
the deputation saluted him as Dictator and congratulated him, invited him to the City and
explained the state of apprehension in which the army were. A vessel had been provided
for him by the government, and after he had crossed over, he was welcomed by his three
sons, who had come out to meet him. They were followed by other relatives and friends,
and by the majority of the senate. Escorted by this numerous gathering and preceded by
the lictors, he was conducted to his house. There was also an enormous gathering of the
plebs, but they were by no means so pleased to see Quinctius; they regarded the power
with which he was invested as excessive, and the man himself more dangerous than his
power. Nothing was done that night beyond adequately guarding the City.
3.27
The following morning the Dictator went, before daylight, into the Forum and named
as his Master of the Horse, L. Tarquitius, a member of a patrician house, but owing to his
poverty he had served in the infantry, where he was considered by far the finest of the
Roman soldiers. In company with the Master of the Horse the Dictator proceeded to the
Assembly, proclaimed a suspension of all public business, ordered the shops to be closed
LUCIUS QUNCTIUS CINCINNATUS
THE HISTORY OF ROME, VOLUME I BY TITUS LIVIUS
throughout the City, and forbade the transaction of any private business whatever. Then
he ordered all who were of military age to appear fully armed in the Campus Martius
before sunset, each with five days' provisions and twelve palisades. Those who were
beyond that age were required to cook the rations for their neighbours, whilst they were
getting their arms ready and looking for palisades. So the soldiers dispersed to hunt for
palisades; they took them from the nearest places, no one was interfered with, all were
eager to carry out the Dictator's edict. The formation of the army was equally adapted for
marching or, if circumstances required, for fighting; the Dictator led the legions in
person, the Master of the Horse was at the head of his cavalry. To both bodies words of
encouragement were addressed suitable to the emergency, exhorting them to march at
extra speed, for there was need of haste if they were to reach the enemy at night; a
Roman army with its consul had been now invested for three days, it was uncertain what
a day or a night might bring forth, tremendous issues often turned on a moment of time.
The men shouted to one another, "Hurry on, standard-bearer!" "Follow up, soldiers!" to
the great gratification of their leaders. They reached Algidus at midnight, and on finding
that they were near the enemy, halted.
3.28
The Dictator, after riding round and reconnoitring as well as he could in the night the
position and shape of the camp, commanded the military tribunes to give orders for the
baggage to be collected together and the soldiers with their arms and palisades to resume
their places in the ranks. His orders were carried out. Then, keeping the formation in
which they had marched, the whole army, in one long column, surrounded the enemies'
lines. At a given signal all were ordered to raise a shout; after raising the shout each man
was to dig a trench in front of him and fix his palisade. As soon as the order reached the
men, the signal followed. The men obeyed the order, and the shout rolled round the
enemies' line and over them into the consul's camp. In the one it created panic, in the
other rejoicing. The Romans recognised their fellow-citizens' shout, and congratulated
one another on help being at hand. They even made sorties from their outposts against the
enemy and so increased their alarm. The consul said there must be no delay, that shout
meant that their friends had not only arrived but were engaged, he should be surprised if
the outside of the enemies' lines was not already attacked. He ordered his men to seize
their arms and follow him. A nocturnal battle began. They notified the Dictator's legions
by their shouts that on their side too the action had commenced. The Aequi were already
making preparations to prevent themselves from being surrounded when the enclosed
enemy began the battle; to prevent their lines from being broken through, they turned
from those who were investing them to fight the enemy within, and so left the night free
for the Dictator to complete his work. The fighting with the consul went on till dawn. By
this time they were completely invested by the Dictator, and were hardly able to keep up
the fight against one army. Then their lines were attacked by Quinctius' army, who had
completed the circumvallation and resumed their arms. They had now to maintain a fresh
conflict, the previous one was in no way slackened. Under the stress of the double attack
they turned from fighting to supplication, and implored the Dictator on the one side and
the consul on the other not to make their extermination the price of victory, but to allow
them to surrender their arms and depart. The consul referred them to the Dictator, and he,
in his anger, determined to humiliate his defeated enemy. He ordered Gracchus Cloelius
LUCIUS QUNCTIUS CINCINNATUS
THE HISTORY OF ROME, VOLUME I BY TITUS LIVIUS
and others of their principal men to be brought to him in chains, and the town of Corbio
to be evacuated. He told the Aequi he did not require their blood, they were at liberty to
depart; but, as an open admission of the defeat and subjugation of their nation, they
would have to pass under the yoke. This was made of three spears, two fixed upright in
the ground, and the third tied to them across the top. Under this yoke the Dictator sent the
Aequi.
3.29
Their camp was found to be full of everything-for they had been sent away with only
their shirts on-and the Dictator gave the whole of the spoil to his own soldiers alone.
Addressing the consul and his army in a tone of severe rebuke, "You, soldiers," he said,
"will go without your share of the spoil, for you all but fell a spoil yourselves to the
enemy from whom it was taken; and you, L. Minucius, will command these legions as a
staff officer, until you begin to show the spirit of a consul." Minucius laid down his
consulship and remained with the army under the Dictator's orders. But such
unquestioning obedience did men in those days pay to authority when ably and wisely
exercised, that the soldiers, mindful of the service he had done them rather than of the
disgrace inflicted on them, voted to the Dictator a gold crown a pound in weight, and
when he left they saluted him as their "patron." Quintus Fabius, the prefect of the City,
convened a meeting of the senate, and they decreed that Quinctius, with the army he was
bringing home, should enter the City in triumphal procession. The commanding officers
of the enemy were led in front, then the military standards were borne before the general's
chariot, the army followed loaded with spoil. It is said that tables spread with provisions
stood before all the houses, and the feasters followed the chariot with songs of triumph
and the customary jests and lampoons. On that day the freedom of the City was bestowed
on L. Mamilius the Tusculan, amidst universal approval. The Dictator would at once have
laid down his office had not the meeting of the Assembly for the trial of M. Volscius
detained him: fear of the Dictator prevented the tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius
was condemned and went into exile at Lanuvium. Quinctius resigned on the sixteenth day
the dictatorship which had been conferred upon him for six months. During that period
the consul Nautius fought a brilliant action with the Sabines at Eretum, who suffered a
severe defeat, in addition to the ravaging of their fields. Fabius Quintus was sent to
succeed Minucius in command at Algidus. Towards the end of the year, the tribunes
began to agitate the Law, but as two armies were absent, the senate succeeded in
preventing any measure from being brought before the plebs. The latter gained their
point, however, in securing the re-election of the tribunes for the fifth time. It is said that
wolves pursued by dogs were seen in the Capitol; this prodigy necessitated its
purification. These were the events of the year.
Source:
Electronic Text Center, Alderman Library, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA [Last accessed: 17th November 2011]
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Liv1His.html