About twenty years after this deed there was a great war between the Romans and the Latins (for the Latins demanded that one consul should always be of their nation, and, this being denied to them, made war against Rome) and this same Manlius was consul. Now it was needful that there should be discipline of the strictest sort in the army; and also, because the Latins spake the same tongue as did the Romans, and had their arms and all other things that appertained to war the same, the Consuls issued a decree that no man should fight with the enemy, save only at his post in the army.
Now it chanced that Titus Manlius, son of the Consul, being captain of a squadron of horsemen, rode so far with his squadron (the horsemen being sent out in all directions to spy out the country) that he was scarce the length of a spear's throw from the camp of the enemy, at a certain part where the horsemen of Tusculum had their station. The leader of these horsemen was Metius, a certain man of noble birth and renowned among his countrymen for his valour. This Metius, seeing the Roman horsemen, and Manlius the Consul's son riding in the front, and knowing him who he was (for indeed all the men of note in the two armies were known to each other), cried out, "Are ye minded, ye men of Rome, being but one squadron, to do battle with the Latins and their allies? What are the Consuls doing, and their two armies?" To this Manlius made answer, "They will come in due time; aye, one that is mightier than they, even Jupiter, will come also: Jupiter, who is witness to the treaties which ye have broken. If at the Lake Regillus we fought with you till ye were weary, so here also we will give you such entertainment as ye shall little like." Then said Metius, "Art thou willing, then, in the meanwhile, while the day on which ye will make so mighty a stir is yet coming, to fight here with me, that from the issue of our meeting all men may know by how much a Latin horseman is better than a horseman of the Romans?" Thereupon anger, or shame that he should seem to shrink from such combat, or, it may be, the will of fate, that none may escape, stirred the young man's haughty spirit, so that, taking no account of his father's commands or of the decree of the Consuls, he thrust himself headlong into a combat in which it mattered but little whether he was vanquished or no. The other horsemen removed themselves far off to look at the combat, leaving a space of clear ground for the two, who, driving their horses over the plain, met in the midst with their spears levelled. The spear of Metius crossed the horse's neck of Manlius, and the spear of Manlius passed above the head of the Latin. After this they wheeled their horses about, and Manlius, rising first to deal a second blow, smote the horse of the Latin between the ears; and when the horse felt the wound he reared himself upon his hind legs and shook off his rider; and when the man, sorely shaken by so grievous a fall, would have raised himself by help of his shield and spear, the Roman smote him with his spear in the throat, so that the point came out through his ribs, making him fast to the earth. Then Manlius gathered the spoils from the dead man, and rode back to the camp, his squadron following him with great joy. Being come to the camp, he went to the general's tent, knowing not what fate awaited him or whether he had earned praise or punishment. Then he said to his father, "I desired that all men should know that I am truly thy son; and therefore, having been challenged to combat, I fought, and now bring back these spoils from the enemy whom I slew." But the Consul, so soon as he heard these words, turning his face from his son, commanded that the bugle should be sounded and the soldiers called to an assembly. And when the men had come together in great numbers, he said, "Titus Manlius, thou hast had no respect to the authority of the Consuls or to the dignity of thy father, and, disobeying our decree, hast fought with the enemy elsewhere than in thy place, loosening thereby, so far as in thee lay, that military discipline by which up to this time the commonwealth of Rome hath stood and been established. And me thou hast brought into these straits, that I must forget either the commonwealth or myself and my own kindred. Rather, therefore, will we suffer ourselves for our own fault than suffer the commonwealth to suffer for us at so great a loss to itself. Truly we two shall be a warning, sad indeed yet wholesome, to our youth in time to come. As for myself, I am truly troubled, not only by that love for my children which is natural to all men, but also by the valour which, led astray by a false appearance of glory, thou hast shown this day. Nevertheless, seeing that the Consuls' power must either be established for ever by thy death or abolished for ever by thy escape, I judge that thou thyself also, if there is aught of my blood in thee, wilt not refuse to die, and so establish again that military discipline which thou hast weakened by thy misdoing. Go, lictor, bind him to the stake."
All that were present in the assembly stood stricken with terror at so cruel a command, and stood silent, but rather from fear than from obedience, each seeming to see the axe made ready against himself. Thus were they overwhelmed with astonishment, and stood holding their peace. But when the young man's head was smitten off and the blood was seen to pour forth, then, recovering themselves, they cried aloud and spared neither lamentations nor curses. Afterwards for the young man they made a soldiers funeral with all the zeal that they could show, covering his body with the spoils of war and burning it on a pile in a place without the rampart of the camp. From that day, when men would speak of some savage command or exercising of power, they are wont to call it a "Manlian rule." As for Titus Manlius the father, when he came back in triumph to Rome (for the Romans were victorious in the war, as will be told hereafter) the elders only went forth to meet him; the young men, both then and ever afterwards, so long as he lived, turned from him with hatred and curses.
CHAPTER XVI. ~~ STORIES OF CERTAIN GREAT ROMANS.
In the three hundred and ninety-third year after the building of the city there was seen suddenly to open in the market-place a great gulf of a deepness that no man could measure. And this gulf could not be filled up though all the people brought earth and stones and the like to cast into it. But at the last there was sent a message from the gods that the Romans must enquire what was that by which more than all things the State was made strong. "For," said the soothsayer, "this thing must be dedicated to the Gods in this place if the commonwealth of Rome is to stand fast for ever." And while they doubted, one Marcus Curtius, a youth that had won great renown in war, rebuked them saying, "Can ye doubt that Rome hath nothing better than arms and valour?" Then all the people stood silent; and Curtius, first beholding the temples of the immortal gods that hung over the market-place and the Capitol, and afterwards stretching forth his hands both to heaven above and to this gulf that opened its mouth to the very pit, as it were, of hell, devoted himself for his country; and so, being clothed in armour and with arms in his hand, and having his horse arrayed as sumptuously as might be, he leapt into the gulf; and the multitude, both of men and women, threw in gifts and offerings of the fruits of the earth, and afterwards the earth closed together.
About the space of thirteen years after these things there was again war with the Gauls; and when the Romans had levied a great army of ten legions of men, Camillus the Consul (being son to that Camillus that the city in time past) marched therewith into the Latin plain, and pitched his camp near to the marshes by the sea, over against the camp of the Gauls.
And while the two armies lay quiet, a Gaul of great stature, and having splendid arms, came forth, who, striking his shield with his spear, by way of token that he would have silence, challenged by the mouth of an interpreter any one that would of the men of Rome to do battle with him. Thereupon a certain Marcus Valerius, thinking that he might win for himself like renown with Manlius, that was surnamed of the Twisted Chain, came forth fully armed into the space between the two armies, having first obtained permission of the Consul. When these two were about to join battle, a crow lighted suddenly upon the helmet of Valerius, with his face towards the Gaul. And Valerius received it with joy as an augury sent from heaven, crying out, "May the god or goddess that hath sent this bird of good omen to me be favourable to me and succour me." Then, marvellous to relate, the bird not only remained steadfast in the place whereupon it had lighted, but as soon as the two began to fight together, raised itself upon its wings, and wounded with its beak and claws the face and eyes of the enemy, so that, terrified by so marvellous a thing, he was easily slain by Valerius. Now, up to this time the foremost lines of both armies had remained quiet; but when Valerius began to strip the spoils from the body of the dead man, the Gauls ran forward to hinder him. Then with yet greater speed ran the Romans to his help; and there was a great fight about the dead body. And Camillus seeing that the men were confident by reason not only of the valour of Valerius, but also of the manifest favour of the Gods, he cried aloud, "Soldiers, do as Valerius hath done, and slay multitudes of Gauls as he hath slain their champion." Thus was there won a great victory over the Gauls, for though some of them fought valiantly, the greater part fled before even the Romans had come within a spear's cast of them. As for Valerius, he was made Consul in the year following, though he was but twenty and three years of age (It was not lawful in those days that a man should be Consul till he was forty and two years of age); and he and his posterity after him had for themselves the surname of Corvus, which is, being interpreted, a crow. In the four hundred and twelfth year after the building of the city there was war between the Romans and the Samnites, in which war, when the one Consul, Valerius, had won a great victory, the other, Cornelius, was well-nigh destroyed together with his army. For, leading his soldiers into a certain narrow pass, he did not perceive that it was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and that these were also on the higher ground above him. And while he doubted what he should do (for it was no longer possible that he should return by the same way by which he came), a certain Decius Mus, being a tribune of the soldiers, perceived a hill above the camp of the enemy, and that this hill might easily be climbed by soldiers lightly armed. Thereupon he said to the Consul, "Cornelius, seest thou that hill? Thereby we may save ourselves if we only make haste and occupy it; for the Samnites are blind that they have not occupied it before. Give me only the front rank and the spearmen of one legion; and when with these I shall have climbed to the top, do thou move forward with the legions, fearing nothing, for the Samnites cannot follow thee, having to pass this hill. As for us, the fortune of the Roman people or our own valour will deliver us." And when he had said this, leading his men by secret paths, he climbed to the top of the hill, the Samnites not perceiving what he did. And while these doubted what they should do for wonder and fear, the Consul escaped with his army. As to Decius also, they knew not whether they should surround the hill on all sides, and so shut him in, or, leaving a way open, should attack him when he should have come down to the plain. And while they doubted, darkness came upon them.