secured with troops; and when daylight showed but an inconsiderable force before the walls, and that the enemy were none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls, having gone forth from the two gates, attack on either side the army of these now advancing up to the walls; and it became obvious that they had come relying rather on the opportunity than on their valour, for they hardly sustained the first charge of the Romans. Nay more, it was evident that their coming proved an advantage to the Romans, and that a disturbance just arising between the patricians and commons was checked by the dread of a war so near them. In the next war there was another irruption of the enemy, more terrible to the country than to the city. The Tarquinians overran the Roman frontiers, committing depredations on that side more especially where they are contiguous to Etruria; and restitution being demanded in vain, the new consuls, Cneius Fabius and Caius Plautius, proclaimed war on them by order of the people; and that province fell to the lot of Fabius, the Hernicians to Plautius. A rumour of a Gallic war also was gaining ground. But amid their many terrors, they had some consolation from a peace granted to the Latins at their own request, as also from a considerable reinforcement of soldiers received from them in conformity with an old treaty, which, they had for several years ceased to observe. When the Roman cause was supported by this aid, the tidings that the Gauls had come to Præneste and were encamped near to Pedum, were less heeded. It was determined that Caius Sulpicius should be appointed dictator. Caius Plautius the consul, being sent for for the purpose, nominated him; Marcus Valerius was assigned as master of the horse to the dictator. These having selected the best of the soldiers out of the two consular armies, led them against the Gauls. This war was more tedious than was satisfactory to either party. When at first the Gauls only were desirous of fighting, afterwards the Roman soldiers considerably surpassed the ferocity of the Gauls in their ardour for arms and battle; it by no means met the approbation of the dictator when no urgent necessity existed to run any hazard against an enemy, whose strength time and inconvenient situation would daily impair, in total inactivity, without provisions previously laid up or any fortified situation; besides, being persons of such minds and bodies, that all their force lay in brisk exertion, whilst the same flagged by short delay. On these considerations the dictator protracted the war, and denounced a severe penalty against any one who should fight against the enemy without orders. The soldiers, being much dissatisfied with this, first censured the dictator, in their conversation, when on guard and on the watches; sometimes they found fault with the patricians in general, for not having commanded the war to be conducted by the consuls. "That an excellent general, an extraordinary commander, had been selected, who thinks that whilst he does nothing victory will fly down from heaven into his lap." Afterwards they gave expression to these same sentiments openly during the day, and to others still more outrageous; that "they would either fight without the general's orders, or would proceed in a body to Rome." The centurions, too, began to mix with the soldiers; and they murmured not only in their own quarters, but now their observations began to be confounded together at head-quarters and at the general's tent, and the crowd increased to the magnitude of an assembly, and they now shouted from all quarters that "they should go forthwith to the dictator; that Sextus Tullius should speak in behalf of the army, so as became his courage."
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Tullius was now for the seventh time first centurion of a legion, nor was there in the army, at least among those who served in the infantry, a man more distinguished by his conduct. He, at the head of a body of the soldiers, proceeds to the tribunal, and to Sulpicius, not more surprised at the crowd than at Tullius, the leader of the crowd, a soldier most obedient to command, he says: "Dictator, the whole army, conceiving that they have been condemned by you of cowardice, and kept without their arms by way of disgrace, has entreated me to plead their cause before you. In truth, if having deserted our post any where, if turning our backs to the enemy, if the disgraceful loss of our standards could be laid to our charge, I would still think it but just that we should obtain this from you, that you would suffer us to redeem our fault by our bravery, and to blot out the memory of our disgrace by newly acquired glory. Even the legions defeated at the Allia, when they afterwards set out from Veii, recovered by their valour the same country which they had lost through a panic. We, by the bounty of the gods, your good fortune, and that of the Roman people, have both our cause and our glory uninjured. Though of glory I would scarcely venture to say any thing; since both the enemy scoff at us with every kind of insult, as women hiding ourselves behind a rampart; and you, our general, what we grieve at still more, judge your army to be without spirit, without arms, without hands; and before you had made trial of us, you have so despaired of us, as to consider yourself to be the leader of a set of maimed and disabled men. For what else shall we believe to be the reason why you, a veteran general, most valiant in war, sit down with hands folded, as they say. But however it may be, it is fitter that you should seem to doubt of our courage than we of yours. If however this plan of proceeding be not your own, but a public one, if some concerted scheme of the patricians, and not the Gallic war, keeps us exiled from the city, from our homes, I beg that you consider what I may say here, as addressed not by soldiers to their general, but to the patricians by the commons, who tell you that as ye have your separate plans, so will they have theirs. Who in the name of goodness can be angry that we (consider ourselves) your soldiers, not your slaves? as men who have been sent to war, not into exile? as men who, if any one give the signal, and lead them out into the field, will fight as becomes men and Romans? as men who, if there be no need of arms, would spend their idle time in Rome rather than in a camp? Consider these observations as addressed to the patricians. As your soldiers, we entreat you, general, to afford us an opportunity of fighting. We both desire to conquer, and also to conquer with you for our leader; to confer on you the distinguished laurel, with you to enter the city in triumph; following your car with congratulations and rejoicings, to approach the temple of Jupiter supremely great and good." The entreaties of the multitude followed the speech of Tullius; and from every side they cried out, that he would give the signal, that he would order them to take arms.
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The dictator, though he saw that a good result was brought about by a precedent not to be approved of, yet took on himself to do what the soldiers wished, and inquires of Tullius privately, what the nature of this transaction was, or on what precedent it was done? Tullius earnestly entreated the dictator "not to believe him forgetful of military discipline, of himself, nor of the respect due to his general; that he had not declined to put himself at the head of the excited multitude, who generally were like to their instigators, lest any other person might step forward, such an excited multitude were wont to elect. That for his own part he would do nothing without the orders of his general; that he also however must carefully see, that he keep the army in obedience. That minds so excited could not be put off: that they would choose for themselves time and place, if they were not granted by the general." While they are conversing in this way, it so happened, that as a Gaul was driving away some cattle feeding on the outside of the rampart two Roman soldiers took them from him. Stones were thrown at them by the Gauls, then a shout was raised at the next Roman post, and several ran forward on both sides. And now matters were not far from a regular engagement, had not the contest been quickly stopped by the centurions. By this event the testimony of Tullius was certainly confirmed with the dictator; and the matter not admitting of further delay, a proclamation is issued that they were to fight on the day following. The dictator however, as one who went into the field relying more on the courage of his men than on their numerical strength, began to look about and consider how he might by some artifice strike terror into the enemy. With a sagacious mind he devises a new project, which many generals both of our own and of foreign countries have since adopted, some indeed in our own times. He orders the panniers to be taken from the mules, and two side-cloths only being left, he mounts the muleteers on them, equipped with arms partly belonging to the prisoners, and some to the sick. About a thousand of these being equipped, he mixes with them one hundred horsemen, and orders them to go up during the night into the mountains over the camp and to conceal themselves in the woods, and not to stir from thence, till they should receive a signal from him. As soon as day dawned, he himself began to extend his line along the bottom of the mountain, for the express purpose that the enemy should face the mountains. The measures for infusing groundless terror being now completed, which terror indeed proved almost more serviceable
