The History of Rome, Books 09 to 26

by Livy

Thence he turned his course to Capua, which was wantoning under a long course of prosperity, and the indulgence of fortune: amid the general corruption, however, the most conspicuous feature was the extravagance of the commons, who exercised their liberty without limit. Pacuvius Calavius had rendered the senate subservient to himself and the commons, at once a noble and popular man, but who had acquired his influence by dishonourable intrigues. Happening to hold the chief magistracy during the year in which the defeat at the Trasimenus occurred, and thinking that the commons, who had long felt the most violent hostility to the senate, would attempt some desperate measure, should an opportunity for effecting a change present itself; and if Hannibal should come into that quarter with his victorious army, would murder the senators and deliver Capua to the Carthaginians; as he desired to rule in a state preserved rather than subverted (for though depraved he was not utterly abandoned), and as he felt convinced that no state could be preserved if bereaved of its public council, he adopted a plan by which he might preserve the senate and render it subject to himself and the commons. Having assembled the senate, he prefaced his remarks by observing, "that nothing would induce him to acquiesce in a plan of defection from the Romans, were it not absolutely necessary; since he had children by the daughter of Appius Claudius, and had a daughter at Rome married to Livius: but that a much more serious and alarming matter threatened them, than any consequences which could result from such a measure. For that the intention of the commons was not to abolish the senate by revolting to the Carthaginians, but to murder the senators, and deliver the state thus destitute to Hannibal and the Carthaginians. That it was in his power to rescue them from this danger, if they would resign themselves to his care, and, forgetting their political dissensions, confide in him." When, overpowered with fear, they all put themselves under his protection, he proceeded: "I will shut you up in the senate-house, and pretending myself to be an accomplice in the meditated crime, I will, by approving measures which I should in vain oppose, find out a way for your safety. For the performance of this take whatever pledge you please." Having given his honour, he went out; and having ordered the house to be closed, placed a guard in the lobby that no one might enter or leave it without his leave.

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Then assembling the people, he thus addressed them: "What you have so often wished for, Campanians, the power of punishing an unprincipled and detestable senate, you now have, not at your own imminent peril, by riotously storming the houses of each, which are guarded and garrisoned with slaves and dependants, but free and without danger. Take them all, shut up in the senate-house, alone and unarmed; nor need you do any thing precipitately or blindly. I will give you the opportunity of pronouncing upon the life or death of each, that each may suffer the punishment he has deserved. But, above all, it behoves you so to give way to your resentment, as considering that your own safety and advantage are of greater importance. For I apprehend that you hate these particular senators, and not that you are unwilling to have any senate at all; for you must either have a king, which all abominate, or a senate, which is the only course compatible with a free state. Accordingly you must effect two objects at the same time; you must remove the old senate and elect a new one. I will order the senators to be summoned one by one, and I shall put it to you to decide whether they deserve to live or die: whatever you may determine respecting each shall be done; but before you execute your sentence on the culprit, you shall elect some brave and strenuous man as a fresh senator to supply his place." Upon this he took his seat, and, the names having been thrown together into an urn, he ordered that the name which had the lot to fall out first should be proclaimed, and the person brought forward out of the senate-house. When the name was heard, each man strenuously exclaimed that he was a wicked and unprincipled fellow, and deserved to be punished. Pacuvius then said, "I perceive the sentence which has been passed on this man; now choose a good and upright senator in the room of this wicked and unprincipled one." At first all was silence, from the want of a better man whom they might substitute; afterwards, one of them, laying aside his modesty, nominating some one, in an instant a much greater clamour arose; while some denied all knowledge of him, others objected to him at one time on account of flagitious conduct, at another time on account of his humble birth, his sordid circumstances, and the disgraceful nature of his trade and occupation. The same occurred with increased vehemence with respect to the second and third senators, so that it was evident that they were dissatisfied with the senator himself, but had not any one to substitute for him; for it was of no use that the same persons should be nominated again, to no other purpose than to hear of their vices, and the rest were much more mean and obscure than those who first occurred to their recollection. Thus the assembly separated, affirming that every evil which was most known was easiest to be endured, and ordering the senate to be discharged from custody.

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Pacuvius, having thus rendered the senators more subservient to himself than to the commons by the gift of their lives, ruled without the aid of arms, all persons now acquiescing. Henceforward the senators, forgetful of their rank and independence, flattered the commons; saluted them courteously; invited them graciously; entertained them with sumptuous feasts; undertook those causes, always espoused that party, decided as judges in favour of that side, which was most popular, and best adapted to conciliate the favour of the commons. Now, indeed, every thing was transacted in the senate as if it had been an assembly of the people. The Capuans, ever prone to luxurious indulgence not only from natural turpitude, but from the profusion of the means of voluptuous enjoyment which flowed in upon them, and the temptations of all the luxuries of land and sea; at that time especially proceeded to such a pitch of extravagance in consequence of the obsequiousness of the nobles and the unrestrained liberty of the commons, that their lust and prodigality had no bounds. To a disregard for the laws, the magistrates, and the senate, now, after the disaster of Cannae, was added a contempt for the Roman government also, for which there had been some degree of respect. The only obstacles to immediate revolt were the intermarriages which, from a remote period, had connected many of their distinguished and influential families with the Romans; and, which formed the strongest bond of union, that while several of their countrymen were serving in the Roman armies, particularly three hundred horsemen, the flower of the Campanian nobility, had been selected and sent by the Romans to garrison the cities of Sicily.

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