honors of the state; and the senate could only evade the difficulty by keeping the nation constantly involved in war. At length the soldiers refused to conquer; and Cæ'so Fábius had the mortification to see a certain victory wrested from his hands by the determination of his followers not to pursue their advantages. This unexpected disgrace had such an effect on the Fábii, that they resolved to conciliate the favor of the commonalty, and declared themselves the patrons of popular measures. They thus lost the favor of the senate; and though the affection of the soldiers enabled them to acquire military glory, they were unable to carry any of the measures that they advocated. Weary of disappointment, they resolved to establish a colony of the members of their family, their clients, and dependants, on the frontiers, to guard the Roman territories from the Viren'tes. The number of persons capable of bearing arms mustered by this single house amounted to three hundred and six. They took post on the Creméra, where they were all cut off by the Etrurians (B. c. 476). It is said that only one young man of the Fábii escaped from this ruin of his family, and became the progenitor of a new race; but this is manifestly an exaggeration.

The Etruscans, following up their success, advanced within sight of Rome, formed a camp on the Janic'ulum, ravaged both sides of the river, and crowded the city with fugitives. The consuls, Virgin'ius and Servil'ius, at length attacked the enemy in different quarters, and, after a desperate battle, forced them to retreat. From this time fortune began to favor the Romans, probably on account of the Etrurians being engaged in war with Hiero, king of Syracuse; and peace was at length concluded for forty years (B. c. 470). Niebuhr conjectures, with apparent plausibility, that it was at this time the Romans recovered the territory of which they had been deprived by Porsen'na.

In the year after the conclusion of the peace, Cneíus Genúcius, tribune of the people, impeached the consuls, Fúrius and Man'lius, before the general assembly of the commonalty, for refusing to give effect to the agrarian law. The consuls made a feeble defence; and the patricians, failing to bribe or intimidate the bold tribune, had him assassinated. Taking advantage of the consternation produced by this daring crime, the consuls ordered a general levy, intending to divert the people from their purpose of engaging them in foreign war. This plan would have succeeded, had not the refusal of one man, Vol'ero Publius, to serve in the ranks, after having previously held the commission of centurion, led to a fierce commotion, which frustrated the consular plans. Vol'ero, being chosen tribune by his countrymen, instead of seeking personal revenge, by impeaching the consuls, struck a fatal blow at the supremacy of the patrician faction, by transferring the election of the tribunes from the centuries to the tribes, and establishing the right of the general assembly of the commonalty to deliberate on all matters affecting the common weal, which should be brought before them by the tribunes; a law which was in effect the same as the establishment of the liberty of the press in our own days. While these laws were under discussion, the consul, Ap'pius Claúdius, was pre-eminently distinguished by his opposition to the popular claims; and when they were extorted from the senate, he unwisely vented his dissatisfaction on the army that he led against the Vol'sci. His soldiers, in revenge, fled before

the enemy. Ap'pius punished them by decimation, putting every tenth man to death. When his year of office expired, he was impeached capitally for such atrocious vengeance; but he escaped the penalty of his tyranny by committing suicide.

For several years the Roman history presents little more than a repetition of the struggles between the patricians and plebeians; desultory wars with the Æqui and Vol'sci; and a succession of physical calamities, uniting the horrors of plague, pestilence, and famine. Ap'pius Herdónius, a Sabine adventurer, took advantage of these circumstances, and one night surprised and seized the capitol with an army of about four thousand men, composed of outlaws and slaves (B. c. 459). Instigated by the tribunes, the people refused to take up arms unless security was given that their grievances should be redressed; particularly insisting on the legal restriction of the consular power by a written code, according to the proposal of Terentil'lus (lex Terentilla) a few months before. The consul Valérius promised compliance; and the people stormed the capitol, slew Herdónius, and punished his associates: but Valérius having fallen in the assault, the senate refused to fulfil the conditions he had stipulated.

During the Equian war (B. c. 457), a consular army was intercepted by the enemy in the defiles of Mount Æ'gidus, and so closely blockaded, that there seemed no choice between death or disgraceful submission. Some horsemen, breaking through the hostile lines, brought the news to Rome; and the senate, in alarm, resolved to create a dictator. Their choice fell upon Títus Quinc'tius Cincinnátus, a patrician violently opposed to the popular claims, but celebrated for personal integrity. His son Cæ'so had recently fled from Rome to escape a trial for high crimes and misdemeanors; and Cincinnátus had been reduced to great pecuniary distress by being compelled to pay the surety he had given for his son's appearance. The dictator delivered the consul Minúcius and the army from their danger; but before resigning office he used the absolute power with which he was invested, to recall his son Cæ'so from banishment, and drive his accuser into exile. There is, indeed, some reason to believe, that the dictatorship of Cincinnátus, which has been so much lauded, was a mere artifice to baffle the demand of the people for a written code of laws. It, however, failed of success: the tribunes succeeded in getting their numbers increased from five to ten: Sic'cius Dentátus, a veteran plebeian of approved valor, stimulated his order to fresh exertions in behalf of their freedom; and at length the senate yielded a reluctant assent to the formation of a code.

Ambassadors having been sent to the principal Grecian states and colonies for the purpose of collecting the best codes of celebrated legislators, on their return, ten persons, hence called decemviri, were chosen, with consular power, to arrange and digest a body of laws. A new constitution was established, known in history as the laws of the Twelve Tables, which continued, down to the time of the emperors, to be the basis of all civil and penal jurisprudence. It established the legal equality of all the citizens; but it preserved some of the most odious privileges of the aristocracy, especially the exclusive eligibility to the consulship, and it prohibited the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians (B. c. 450). The patricians, hoping to procure some modification in laws

which they regarded as ruinous to their interests, and the plebeians, gratified by the advantages they had obtained, united to continue the decemviral authority for another year. The decem'virs, now secure of power, threw off the mask, grievously oppressed the people, and treacherously betrayed old Sic'cius Dentátus, whose approved valor they dreaded, to the enemy. At length Ap'pius, one of their number, attempted to make Virginia, the daughter of a brave officer, the victim of his lust, by illegally assigning her as a slave to one of his creatures. Her father, Vir'ginius, slew the girl in the public court to save her from dishonor, and, aided by her lover Icil'ius, raised such a storm against the decemvirs, that they were forced to resign their office, and the ancient forms of government were restored. The tribunician power was not only re-established, but formidably increased by a law of the consul Valérius (B. c. 446), which invested the votes of the commons

with the force of laws.*

Civil commotions were renewed in consequence of the exertions made by the tribune Canuléius to abolish the law against intermarriages, and to open the consulship to plebeians. The repeal of the marriage-law was conceded, after a difficult struggle (B. c. 455); and the second popular demand was evaded by transferring the consular power to the annual commanders of the legions, who were to be six in number, and one half chosen from the people (B. c. 443). But even this concession was for some time evaded by the senate, under the pretence of informalities in the election of those officers. Soon afterward (B. c. 442), new magistrates, called censors, were chosen, not only to regulate the taking of the census, but also to superintend public morals; a power that soon enabled these magistrates to take rank among the very highest dignitaries of the state. These changes, however, did not conciliate the people, and a severe famine (B. c. 438) aggravated their discontent. In the midst of this distress, Spúrius Mæ'lius, a plebeian knight, purchased with his private fortune a large quantity of corn in Tuscany, which he distributed gratuitously to the people. His object probably was to become the first plebeian consul, which laudable object the patricians perverted into the crime of aiming at the sovereignty. They therefore appointed Cincinnátus dictator, who at once sent Spurius Ahála, his master of the horse, to summon Mæ'lius before his tribunal. The knight was standing unarmed in the forum when thus called upon to take his trial; he showed some reluctance to obey the dictator's command, and was cut down by Ahála. The old dictator applauded this murder of a defenceless man as an act of patriotism; but the people took a different view of the transaction, and Ahála only escaped condemnation by voluntary exile.

While these commotions raged in the city, the Romans were engaged in desultory wars against the Sabines, the Equians, and the Volscians, which generally terminated to the advantage of the republic, though they led to no decisive result. A more important affair was the war against Veii, provoked by Lar Tolum'nius, king of the Veien'tes, who put to death the Roman ambassadors to the people of Fidena. Satisfaction being refused for this outrage (B. c. 404), the Romans came to

• Lex Valeria; ut quod tributim plebes jussisset, populum teneret. tTribuni militum consulari potestate.

the resolution of destroying Veii, which, being the richest city of Etruria, had long been a dangerous rival of their republic. To effect this object, it was necessary to have a permanent standing army; and a property-tax was levied to supply payment for the troops. After the blockade and siege had continued nearly ten years, Fúrius Camillus, who had distinguished himself by defeating the Etrurian armies that attempted to aid the Veien'tes, was chosen dictator. By his directions a mine was constructed from the Roman camp into the Veientine citadel, through which an entrance was obtained, and Veii taken (B. c. 395). Its riches were shared by the soldiers, its inhabitants enslaved or held to ransom, and the images of its gods transferred to Rome.

Notwithstanding his great services, Camillus was condemned to exile on the charge of having embezzled part of the plunder of Veii; but scarcely had he departed, when the Romans were involved in the most calamitous war that has yet occurred in their history. The barbarous Gauls, having crossed the Alps in numerous hordes, laid waste the fertile fields of Etrúria, and besieged the important city of Clúsium. The Etrurians sought aid from the Romans, who sent some of the young nobility to remonstrate with the Bren'nus, or chieftain of the Gauls. This barbarous chieftain treated the deputies with such scorn, that, forgetting their sacred character, they entered the besieged city, and joined in a sally of the garrison. The Bren'nus, enraged at such a violation of the law of nations, demanded satisfaction from the senate; and when this was refused, broke up his camp, and marched direct against Rome. A body of troops, hastily levied to repel the invasion, took post on the river Al'lia, about eleven miles from Rome (B. c. 389). In the very commencement of the engagement, the Romans, seized with sudden panic, broke and fled; they were pursued with dreadful slaughter to their very gates; and had not the victors paused to gather the spoil, an end would have been put to the Roman name and nation.

To defend the city of Rome against such an enemy was impossible; it was therefore resolved to place the best troops as a garrison in the citadel, supplying them with whatever provisions remained in the city, while the mass of the population should seek refuge in the neighboring towns. The priests and principal objects of religious reverence were removed to the old Pelasgic city, Cæ're Agyl'la. About eighty of the chief pontiffs and patricians, probably devoting themselves, according to the superstition of the age, for the safety of the republic, remained quietly sitting on their curule chairs in the forum. When the Gauls entered the city, they were amazed to find it deserted pursuing their march, they entered the forum, and slew those whom they found there. They then laid siege to the capitol; but soon became weary of so tedious a task, especially after their attempt to take the citadel by storm had been frustrated by the cackling of the sacred geese kept in the temple of Juno, and the valor of Mar'cus Man'lius. They finally agreed to quit the city, on receiving a ransom of one thousand pounds' weight of gold. According to the ordinary legend, Camil'lus, recalled from banishment by a hasty decree of the people assembled at Veii, appeared with an army while the gold was being weighed, defeated the Gauls, and liberated his country. Polyb'ius, a Greek historian, gives a much more probable account. He says, that the Gauls returned home

to protect their own country from an invasion of the Ven'eti, and intimates that they bore off their plunder without interruption.

SECTION IV. From the Rebuilding of the City to the first Punic War. FROM B. C. 363 TO B. c. 264.

So helpless was Rome after the departure of the Gauls, that it was exposed to repeated insults from the neighboring townships, which had hitherto been subject to its sway. The citizens looked forward with dismay to the task of rebuilding their walls and houses; they clamored for an immediate removal to Veii, and were with difficulty prevented from accomplishing their purpose by the firmness of Camil'lus. While the subject was under discussion, a lucky omen, probably preconcerted, decided the irresolute. Just as a senator was rising to speak, a centu rion, coming with his company to relieve guard, gave the usual word of command: "Ensign, plant your colors; THIS IS THE BEST PLACE TO STAY IN!"* The senators rushed out of the temple, exclaiming, "A happy omen: the gods have spoken-we obey." The multitude caught the enthusiasm, and exclaimed with one voice, "ROME FOR EVER !"

Under the prudent guidance of Camil'lus, the military strength of Rome was renewed, and the states which had triumphed in the recent humiliation of the city were forced again to recognise its superiority. Man'lius, the brave defender of the capitol, finding himself excluded from office by the jealousy of his brother patricians, declared himself the patron of the plebeians. This revived the old dissensions with all their former virulence. Camillus was appointed dictator; and by his orders Man'lius was brought to trial, convicted of treason, and thrown from the Tarpeian rock (B. c. 382). A plague, which burst forth soon after, was popularly attributed to the anger of the gods at the destruction of the hero who had saved their temples from pollution. By their triumph over Man'lius, and their steadiness in opposing popular claims, the patricians acquired such strength, that the populace became overawed, and the commons ceased to display the spirit and courage they had previously shown in their contests with the nobles. "Rome was

on the point of degenerating into a miserable oligarchy; her name is the utmost we should have known of her, had not her irretrievable decline been arrested at the moment by the appearance of two men, who changed the fate of their country and of the world." t

The renovators of the constitution were Caíus Licin'ius Stólo, and Lúcius Seu'tius Lateránus. They were aided in their patriotic labors by Marcus Fábius Ambus'tus, a patrician, the father-in-law of Licin' ius, who is said to have favored the popular cause to gratify the ambition of a favorite daughter. There were three rogations, or bills, brought forward by Licin'ius: the first opened the consulship to the plebeians; the second prohibited any person from renting more than five hundred acres of public land, and forbade any individual to feed on a common pasturage more than one hundred of large, and five hundred of small cattle. It also fixed the rents of the public lands at the tenth † Niebuhr.

• Hic manebimus optimé.