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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.
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.
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.
When such fortune manifested itself on that side where Camillus, the life and soul of the Roman interest, was, a great alarm had fallen on another quarter. For almost all Etruria, taking up arms, were besieging Sutrium, allies of the Roman people, whose ambassadors having applied to the senate, imploring aid in their distress, obtained a decree, that the dictator should at the earliest opportunity bear aid to the Sutrians. And when the circumstances of the besieged would not suffer them to brook the delay of this hope, and the small number of the townsmen were spent with labour, watching, and wounds, all which fell heavily on the same individuals, and when, the city being delivered up to the enemy by a capitulation, they were leaving their habitations in a miserable train, being discharged without their arms with only a single garment; at that juncture Camillus happened to come up at the head of the Roman army. And when the mournful crowd prostrated themselves at his feet, and the address of the leading men, wrung from them by extreme necessity, was followed by the weeping of women and boys, who were dragged along by the companions of their exile, he bade the Sutrians to give over their lamentations: that he brought with him grief and tears to the Etrurians. He then orders the baggage to be deposited, and the Sutrians to remain there with a small guard left with them, and the soldiers to follow him in arms. Having thus proceeded to Sutrium with his army disencumbered, he found, as he expected, every thing in disorder, as usually happens in success; no advanced guard before the walls, the gates lying open, and the conquerors dispersed, carrying out the booty from the houses of the enemy. Sutrium is therefore taken a second time on the same day; the Etrurians, lately victorious, are cut down in every quarter by their new enemy, nor is time afforded them to collect and form one body, or even to take up arms. When each pushed eagerly towards the gates, to try if by any chance they could throw themselves into the fields, they found the gates shut; for the dictator had given those orders in the first instance. Upon this some took up arms, others, who happened to be armed before the tumult came on them, called their friends together in order to make battle; which would have been kindled by the despair of the enemy, had not criers, sent in every direction through the city, issued orders that their arms should be laid down, that the unarmed should be spared, and that no one should be injured except those who were armed. Then even those whose minds had been, in their last hope, obstinately bent on fighting, when hopes of life were offered, threw down their arms in every direction, and surrendered themselves unarmed to the enemy, which fortune had rendered the safer method. Their number being considerable, they were distributed among several guards; the town was before night restored to the Sutrians uninjured and free from all the calamities of war, because it had not been taken by force but delivered up on terms.
Camillus returned to the city in triumph, being victorious in three wars at the same time. By far the greatest number of the prisoners whom he led before his chariot were from among the Etrurians. And these being sold by auction, such a sum of money was raised, that after paying the matrons the price of their gold, out of that which was over and above, three golden bowls were made; which, inscribed with the name of Camillus, it is certain, lay, before the burning of the Capitol, in the recess of Jupiter's temple at the feet of Juno. On that year such of the Veientians, Capenatians, and Faliscians as had come over to the Romans during the wars with those nations, were admitted into the state, and land was assigned to these new citizens. Those also were recalled by a decree of the senate from Veii, who, from a dislike to building at Rome, had betaken themselves to Veii, and had seized on the vacant houses there. And at first there was a murmuring on their part disregarding the order; then a day having been appointed, and capital punishment [denounced against any one] who did not return to Rome, from being refractory as they were collectively, rendered them when taken singly obedient, each through fear for himself. And Rome both now increased in numbers, and rose throughout its entire extent by its buildings, the state assisting in the expenses, and the ædiles urging on the work as if public, and private persons (for the want felt of accommodation stimulated them) hastening to complete the work; and within a year a new city was erected. At the termination of the year an election was held of military tribunes with consular power. Those elected were, Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus, Quintus Servilius Fidenas a fifth time, Lucius Julius Iulus, Lucius Aquillius Corvus, Lucius Lucretius Tricipitinus, Servius Sulpicius Rufus. They led one army against the Æquans, not to war, (for they owned themselves conquered,) but from motives of animosity, to lay waste their territories, lest they should leave them any strength for new designs; the other into the territory of Tarquinii. Here Cortuosa and Contenebra, towns belonging to the Etrurians, were taken by storm and demolished. At Cortuosa there was no contest; having attacked it by surprise, they took it at the first shout and onset; the town was plundered and burned. Contenebra sustained a siege for a few days; and it was continual labour, abated neither by night nor by day, that reduced them. When the Roman army, having been divided into six parts, each [division] relieved the other in the battle one hour in six in rotation, and the paucity of numbers exposed the same individual townsmen, wearied as they were, to a contest ever new, they at length yielded, and an opportunity was afforded to the Romans of entering the city. It was the wish of the tribunes that the spoil should be made public property; but the order [that such should be so] was too late for their determination. Whilst they hesitate, the spoil already became the property of the soldiers; nor could it be taken from them, except by means calculated to excite dissatisfaction. On the same year, that the city should not increase by private buildings only, the lower parts of the Capitol also were built of hewn stone; a work deserving of admiration even amid the present magnificence of the city.