THE HISTORY OF ROME (Complete Edition in 4 Volumes) - Livy

Скачать книгу

would you be willing that they should become Romans, you Veientians? Would ye prefer that this should be a desert in your possession, or a city of the enemy? For my part I can see nothing more impious. Is it because ye are averse to building, ye are prepared to incur this guilt, this disgrace? Even though no better, no more ample structure could be erected throughout the entire city than that cottage of our founder, is it not better to dwell in cottages, like shepherds and rustics, amid your sacred places and your household gods, than to go publicly into exile? Our forefathers, strangers and shepherds, when there was nothing in these places but woods and marshes, erected a new city in a very short time; do we, with a Capitol and citadel safe, and the temples of the gods still standing, feel it irksome to build up what has been burnt? and what we individually would have done, if our private residence had been burned down, shall we as a body refuse to do in the case of a public conflagration?

      54

      "What, if by some evil design of accident a fire should break out at Veii, and the flames spread by the wind, as may happen, should consume a considerable portion of the city; are we then to seek Fidenæ, or Gabii, or any other city to remove to? Has our native soil so slight a hold on us, or this earth which we call mother; or does our love of country lie merely in the surface and in the timber of the houses? For my part, I will acknowledge to you, whilst I was absent, though I am less disposed to remember this as the effect of your injustice than of my own misfortune, as often as my country came into my mind, all these circumstances occurred to me, the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the face of the country familiar to my eyes, and this sky, beneath which I had been born and educated; may these now induce you, by their endearing hold on you, to remain in your present settlement, rather than they should cause you to pine away through regret, after having left them. Not without good reason did gods and men select this place for founding a city: these most healthful hills; a commodious river, by means of which the produce of the soil may be conveyed from the inland countries, by which maritime supplies may be obtained; close enough to the sea for all purposes of convenience, and not exposed by too much proximity to the dangers of foreign fleets; a situation in the centre of the regions of Italy, singularly adapted by nature for the increase of a city. The very size of so new a city is a proof. Romans, the present year is the three hundred and sixty-fifth year of the city; for so long a time are you waging war amid nations of such long standing; yet not to mention single cities, neither the Volscians combined with the Æquans, so many and such strong towns, nor all Etruria, so potent by land and sea, occupying the breadth of Italy between the two seas, can cope with you in war. And as the case is so, where, in the name of goodness, is the wisdom in you who have tried (this situation) to make trial now of some other, when, though your own valour may be removed elsewhere, the fortune of this place certainly cannot be transferred? Here is the Capitol, where, a human head being found, it was foretold that in that place would be the head of the world, and the chief seat of empire. Here, when the Capitol was to be freed by the rites of augury, Juventas and Terminus, to the very great joy of our fathers, suffered not themselves to be moved. Here is the fire of Vesta, here the Ancilia sent down from heaven, here are all the gods propitious to you if you stay."

      55

      Camillus is said to have moved them as well by other parts of his speech, but chiefly by that which related to religious matters. But an expression seasonably uttered determined the matter whilst still undecided; for when a meeting of the senate, a little after this, was being held in the Curia Hostilia regarding these questions, and some troops returning from relieving guard passed through the forum in their march, a centurion in the comitium cried out, "Standard-bearer, fix your standard! it is best for us to remain here." Which expression being heard, both the senate came out from the senate-house, and all cried out that "they embraced the omen," and the commons, who were collected around, joined their approbation. The law (under discussion) being rejected, the building of the city commenced in several parts at once. Tiles were supplied at the public expense. The privilege of hewing stone and felling timber wherever each person wished was granted, security being taken that they would finish the buildings on that year. Their haste took away all attention to the regulating the course of the streets, whilst, setting aside all distinction of property, they build on any part that was vacant. That is the reason why the ancient sewers, at first conducted through the public streets, now in many places pass under private houses, and why the form of the city appears more like one taken up by individuals, than regularly portioned out (by commissioners).

      Book VI

       Table of Contents

      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.

      1

      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

Скачать книгу