matters. But an expression seasonably uttered determined the matter whilst still undecided; for when a meeting of the senate, a little after this, was being held in the Curia Hostilia regarding these questions, and some troops returning from relieving guard passed through the forum in their march, a centurion in the comitium cried out, "Standard-bearer, fix your standard! it is best for us to remain here." Which expression being heard, both the senate came out from the senate-house, and all cried out that "they embraced the omen," and the commons, who were collected around, joined their approbation. The law (under discussion) being rejected, the building of the city commenced in several parts at once. Tiles were supplied at the public expense. The privilege of hewing stone and felling timber wherever each person wished was granted, security being taken that they would finish the buildings on that year. Their haste took away all attention to the regulating the course of the streets, whilst, setting aside all distinction of property, they build on any part that was vacant. That is the reason why the ancient sewers, at first conducted through the public streets, now in many places pass under private houses, and why the form of the city appears more like one taken up by individuals, than regularly portioned out (by commissioners).
Book VI
Successful operations against the Volscians, and Æquans, and Prænestines. Four tribes were added. Marcus Manlius, who had defended the Capitol from the Gauls, being condemned for aspiring to regal power, is thrown from the Tarpeian rock; in commemoration of which circumstance a decree of the senate was passed, that none of the Manlian family should henceforward bear the cognomen of Marcus. Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, tribunes of the people, proposed a law that consuls might be chosen from among the commons; and after a violent contest, succeeded in passing that law, notwithstanding the opposition of the patricians, the same tribunes of the commons being for five years the only magistrates in the state; and Lucius Sextius was the first consul elected from the commons.
1
The transactions of the Romans, from the building of the city of Rome to the capture of the same city, first under kings, then under consuls, and dictators, and decemvirs, and consular tribunes, their wars abroad, their dissensions at home, I have exhibited in five books: matters obscure, as well by reason of their very great antiquity, like objects which from their great distance are scarcely perceptible, as also because in those times the use of letters, the only faithful guardian of the memory of events, was inconsiderable and rare: and, moreover, whatever was contained in the commentaries of the pontiffs, and other public and private records, were lost for the most part in the burning of the city. Henceforwards, from the second origin of the city, which sprung up again more healthfully and vigorously, as if from its root, its achievements at home and abroad, shall be narrated with more clearness and authenticity. But it now stood erect, leaning chiefly on the same support, Marcus Furius, by which it had been first raised; nor did they suffer him to lay down the dictatorship until the end of the year. It was not agreeable to them, that the tribunes during whose time of office the city had been taken, should preside at the elections for the following year: the administration came to an interregnum. Whilst the state was kept occupied in the employment and constant labour of repairing the city, in the mean time a day of trial was named by Caius Marcius, tribune of the people, for Quintus Fabius, as soon as he went out of office, because whilst an ambassador he had, contrary to the law of nations, appeared in arms against the Gauls, to whom he had been sent as a negotiator; from which trial death removed him so opportunely that most people thought it voluntary. The interregnum commenced. Publius Cornelius Scipio was interrex, and after him Marcus Furius Camillus. He nominates as military tribunes with consular power, Lucius Valerius Publicola a second time, Lucius Virginius, Publius Cornelius, Aulus Manlius, Lucius Æmilius, Lucius Postumius. These having entered on their office immediately after the interregnum, consulted the senate on no other business previous to that which related to religion. In the first place they ordered that the treaties and laws which could be found, should be collected; (these consisted of the twelve tables, and some laws made under the kings.) Some of them were publicly promulgated; but such as appertained to religious matters were kept secret chiefly by the pontiffs, that they might hold the minds of the people fettered by them. Then they began to turn their attention to the subject of desecrated days; and the day before the fifteenth day of the calends of August, remarkable for a double disaster, (as being the day on which the Fabii were slain at Cremera, and afterwards the disgraceful battle attended with the ruin of the city had been fought at Allia,) they called the Allian day from the latter disaster, and they rendered it remarkable for transacting no business whether public or private. Some persons think, that because Sulpicius, the military tribune, had not duly offered sacrifice on the day after the ides of July, and because, without having obtained the favour of the gods, the Roman army had been exposed to the enemy on the third day after, an order was also made to abstain from all religious undertakings on the day following the ides: thence the same religious observance was derived with respect to the days following the calends and the nones.
2
But it was not long allowed them to consult in quiet regarding the means of raising the city, after so grievous a fall. On the one side their old enemies, the Volscians, had taken arms, to extinguish the Roman name: on the other, some traders brought (intelligence) that a conspiracy of the leading men of Etruria from all the states had been formed at the temple of Voltumna. A new cause of terror also had been added by the defection of the Latins and Hernicians, who, since the battle fought at the lake Regillus, had remained in friendship with the Roman people with fidelity not to be questioned. Accordingly, when such great alarms surrounded them on every side, and it became apparent to all that the Roman name laboured not only under hatred with their enemies, but under contempt also with their allies; it was resolved that the state should be defended under the same auspices, as those under which it had been recovered, and that Marcus Furius should be nominated dictator. He, when dictator, nominated Caius Servilius Ahala master of the horse; and a suspension of all public business being proclaimed, he held a levy of the juniors, in such a manner as to divide them into centuries after they had sworn allegiance to him. The army, when raised and equipped with arms, he divided into three parts. One part he opposed to Etruria in the Veientian territory; another he ordered to pitch their camp before the city. A military tribune, Aulus Manlius, commanded the latter; those who were sent against the Etrurians, Lucius Æmilius commanded. The third part he led in person against the Volscians; and not far from Lanuvium, (the place is called ad Mæcium,) he set about storming their camp. Into these, who set out to the war from motives of contempt, because they thought that all the Roman youth were cut off by the Gauls, the fact of having heard that Camillus was appointed to the command struck such terror, that they fenced themselves with a rampart, and the rampart itself with trees piled up together, lest the enemy might by any means reach to the works. When Camillus observed this, he ordered fire to be thrown into the fence opposed to him; and it so happened that a very strong wind was turned towards the enemy. He therefore not only opened a passage by the fire, but the flames being directed against the camp, by the vapour also and the smoke, and by the crackling of the green timber as it burned, he so confounded the enemy that the Romans had less difficulty in passing the rampart into the camp of the Volscians, than they had experienced in climbing over the fence which had been consumed by the fire. The enemy being routed and cut down, after the dictator had taken the camp by assault, he gave up the booty to the soldiers, which was so much the more agreeable, as it was less expected, the commander being by no means profusely generous. Then having pursued them in their flight, after he had depopulated the entire Volscian land, he at length in the seventieth year forced the Volscians to a surrender. After his victory he passed from the Volscians to the Æquans, who were also preparing for hostilities: he surprised their army at Bolæ, and having attacked not only their camp, but their city also, he took them at the first onset.
3
When
