CHAPTER V. THE WARS WITH THE EQUIANS. CHAP. of the CONTEMPORARY with the wars of the Volscians are those of the Equians in the first century of the republic. These mountaineers, closely allied to the Sabines, attacked the Character eastern frontier of Latium, but they seem to have been Equian more intent on plunder than on permanent conquests and wars. colonisation, like the Volscians. There were no towns of importance in the land of the Equians. They lived more after the true manner of the Sabines, in open villages; and from their mountain fastnesses they made their periodical inroads into the neighbouring Latin territory. The wars of the Romans with such border plunderers, even if they were faithfully described, would be of very little historical interest. But the confused, exaggerated, and worthless statements of the Roman annals, with their endless repetitions and tedious monotony, have the effect of destroying even the scanty interest which they might possess if they were truthful pictures of the manners of the time. After examining them carefully, the critic turns from them with something of disgust and with sore disappointment for having lost so much time in seeking to discover a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff. It will suffice to select one example as an illustration. We take the famous story of Cincinnatus, one of the most famous and most popular Roman heroes of the olden time, the true type of primeval virtue, abstinence, and patriotism. This story is admirably calculated to characterise the general quality of what is supposed to be the history of those wars.' 1 Livy, iii. 25 ff. Arnold, Hist. of Rome, i. 201 ff. BOOK The story of Cincin natus. Peace was concluded with the Equians in the year 459 B.C., and the Romans expected no hostilities on that side. But soon after, the faithless Equians suddenly invaded the country of Tusculum, and their commander Gracchus Cloelius pitched his camp on the hill Algidus, the eastern spur of the Alban range, from whence he laid waste the land of the Roman allies. Here Quintus Fabius appeared before him at the head of an embassy, and demanded satisfaction and compensation. But Cloelius laughed at the ambassadors, and, mocking them, said, they should lay their complaints before an oak-tree, against which his tent was pitched. Then the Romans took the oak and all the gods to witness that the Equians had broken the peace, and had begun an unrighteous war. Without delay the consul Minucius led an army against the Equians. But the chances of war were not in his favour. He was defeated and blockaded in his camp. At this news terror prevailed in Rome, as if the enemy were Equians. at the very gates; for Nautius, the second consul, was far away with his army, fighting with the Sabines, the allies of the Equians. How the consul Minucius was worsted by the How Cincinnatus was dietator. Then there was nothing to be done but to name a dictator, and only one man seemed to be fit to fill the post. appointed That was Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus, a noble patrician, who had filled with distinction all the posts of honour in the republic. He was then living quietly at home, and, like noble Romans of the good old time, cultivated his small estate with his own hands. Now, when the messengers of the senate came to Cincinnatus, to bring him the news that he was nominated as dictator, they found him ploughing his field, and he had taken off his garments, for the heat was very great. Therefore he first asked his wife to bring him his toga, that he might receive the ambassadors of the senate in a becoming manner. And when he had heard their errand, he went with them into the town, accepted the dictatorship, and chose for the master of the horse Lucius Tarquitius, a noble but poor patrician. And he ordered that all the courts of justice should be closed, and all common business suspended, till the danger was averted from the country. Thereupon he summoned all men who could bear arms to meet in the evening on the Field of Mars, every man bringing twelve stakes for the ramparts and provisions for five days, and before the sun went down the army had started off and reached Mount Algidus at midnight. CHAP. V. cinnatus sur the Now when the dictator saw that they were drawing How Cinnear to the enemy, he bade the men halt and throw their baggage in a heap, and he quietly surrounded the camp rounded of the Equians, and gave orders to make a ditch round Equians. the enemy and drive in the stakes. Then the Romans raised a loud cry, so that the Equians were overcome by terror and despair; but the legions of the consul Minucius recognised the war-cry of their countrymen, seized their arms, and sallied forth against the Æquians, who, being thus attacked from both sides, and seeing there was no escape, surrendered themselves and prayed for mercy. Cincinnatus granted them their lives, and dismissed them, making them pass naked under the yoke; but Gracchus Cloelius and the other commanders he kept as prisoners of war, and he divided the spoil among his victorious soldiers. In this manner Cincinnatus rescued the blockaded army and returned in triumph to Rome; and when he had delivered his country from its enemies, he laid down his office, on the sixteenth day, and returned to his fields, crowned with glory and honoured by the people, but poor, and contented in his poverty, as he had been before that time. Critical examination of the Story of Cincinnatus. narrative. That this story belongs less to the region of history Impossibithan to that of fancy is evident from the physical im- lities of the possibilities it contains. The distance between Rome and the hill Algidus is more than twenty miles. This distance the Roman army under Cincinnatus is said to have accomplished between nightfall and midnight, II. BOOK though the soldiers were burthened with three or four times the usual number of stakes for intrenchments.1 Then, after such a march, the men were set to work to make a circumvallation round the whole Equian army, which itself inclosed the army of Minucius, and must, therefore, have occupied a considerable extent of ground. The work of circumvallation was accomplished in the same night, uninterrupted by the Equians, though the Romans at the very commencement had raised a shout to announce their arrival to the blockaded army of Minucius. With these details the story is, of course, mere nonsense. But if, following the example of Dionysius, we strip off from the popular legend all that is fanciful, exaggerated, or impossible, and place the heroic deed of Cincinnatus on such a footing that it assumes an air of probability, we shall gain nothing, because by such a rationalising process we shall not be able to convert a legend into genuine history. 2 We arrive at the same conclusion by observing the fact that the story of Cincinnatus, in its general and characteristic features, is related no less than five times.3 ' Polybius, xviii. 1, § 8. 2 Dionysius, x. 24 The five versions of the story of Cincinnatus are:- 1. In the year 467 B.C., Q. Fabius defeats the Equians and compels them to sue for peace; they promise to send a contingent of auxiliaries to the Romans (Dionysius, ix. 59). In the year 466 the Equians break the peace; they invade the territory of the Latins. Q. Fabius is sent to demand satisfaction (Dionysius, ix. 60). In 464 T. Quinctius, being then ex-consul, marches to rescue the Roman army (Dionysius, ix. 63; Livy, iii. 4). 2. In the year 460 Cincinnatus is fetched from the plough to take the consulship (Dionysius, x. 17). 3. In the year 459 Q. Fabius defeats the Equians, and compels them to sue for peace and to promise a contingent of auxiliaries (Dionysius, x. 24). In 458 the Equians break the peace and invade the territory of the Latins. Q. Fabius is sent to demand satisfaction (Livy, iii. 25). The Romans are blockaded in their camp. T. Quinctius, as dictator (according to Livy, iii. 26), or as ex-consul (according to Dionysius, x. 23), marches to the relief of the Roman army. 4. In the year 443, the Equian general Clœlius is blockaded (Livy, iv. 9). 5. In the year 440, Cincinnatus is fetched from the plough to be made dictator (Cicero, de Senect., 10). It is quite characteristic of a popular legend that it should not be chronologically fixed. The authors of the oldest Consular Fasti seem not to have known CHAP. V. of the Equian wars. The wars of the Equians, like those of the Volscians, lasted during the first century of the republic. Sometimes, among the periodical enemies of Rome and Latium, Duration the name of the Sabines occurs-a name by which, in all probability, no other people than the Equians are to be understood, just as the Volscians are sometimes called Auruncans. We have already noticed it as probable that in some of the family chronicles the name 'Sabine' was employed, instead of the distinctive names of the particular branches of the Sabine stock, and that in this way the Latin war of the year 503 B.C. is also called a Sabine war.1 Thus the Sabines were now and then introduced into the Equian wars; and we have no means of knowing where the seats of these Sabines were and what their relation was to the Equians. 2 Herdo nius. This is particularly evident in the story of the seizure Seizure of of the Capitol (460 B.C.) by the Sabine Appius Herdonius. the Capitol by the It is related that Roman exiles and slaves, under the Sabine command of Appius Herdonius, surprised and took the Capitol by night; but to which party the exiles belonged is not explained. It is very unlikely that the enemies who seized the Capitol were Roman exiles at all. For, however hot the quarrel between the classes may have been, it is certain that it did not lead to the banishment of great numbers. The mentioning of the slaves is still more mysterious. Revolts of slaves, at a time when there are comparatively but few, are highly improbable. On the other hand, sudden invasions and the taking of strongholds seem not to have been very unusual in the wars of those times. In the year 477 B.C., the Janiculus it, or to have paid no attention to it. For this reason the great victory over the Æquians is not ascribed to Cincinnatus as consul or regular magistrate, but either as dictator or ex-consul. Popular tales and legends are careless of regular titles and dignities. The great favourites of the people are generally invested with no official rank. The Rolands and the Wallaces are simple knights. Coriolanus never was consul, nor was Horatius Cocles or Scævola. 1 See p. 106. 2 Sir G. C. Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman History, ii. 173, n. 21: There is nothing in the history of the previous years which accounts for the existence of a large body of Roman exiles at this time: the Tarquinian exiles must be supposed to be exhausted.' |