[152] We always follow here the chronology of Cato; in Varro and in the Capitoline Fasti whole years are interpolated. This difference is founded upon a monstrous mistake, which Varro makes in the period between the conquest of Rome by the Gauls and the Licinian law. That conquest is dated by him three years earlier than it is in any of the other accounts: from the building of the city to the Gallic invasion, Varro and Cato agree with one another. Varro’s mode of reckoning tallies with the Greek one, and therefore it is sometimes used for synchronistical purposes. But there is not one among the ancient historians who makes use of these patch works: Polybius, especially, follows the era of Cato, which is also to be preferred on this account, that it may always be shown with certainty why Cato has reckoned in such or such a manner. A perfectly satisfactory Roman chronology is an impossibility: it was only in the first Punic war that the beginning of the year first remained fixed.
[153] See above, p. 501.
[154] Reprinted in the Kleine historische und philologische Schriften. Vol. II. p. 241-256.—G. Ed.
[155] “The benefit of the assignation of land was brought about at a period, when the people was sorely in want of its domestic circumstances being bettered, but too late for it to have been granted.” R. H. III, p. 488.
[156] There is evidently, by some mistake, the Lex Publilia mentioned instead of the Lex Valeria Horatia; as the former merely referred to administrative measures, whilst the latter was still the only valid form for actual laws. See above, p. 321.—G. Ed.
[157] To C. Fabricius.
[158] This dignity must have been abolished before the Punic war, between 471 and 489.
[159] One is not to imagine, that the whole of the phalanx, sixteen thousand men, stood always in one compact mass sixteen files deep; but the Macedonians advanced by smaller divisions of about four hundred and twenty, as is done in most cases even now. These were able to move, and to find spaces to pass through, which was impossible for the great phalanx, when it had closed its ranks. This closing in was the resource of the last moment, and then this mass was impenetrable.
[160] We may see from this, what may be done by determination; as it was such an excellent cavalry, and so vastly superior in numbers.
J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.