Servian constitution was extended in the natural process of development. From the first of the five Servian classes a new division had branched off, consisting of the wealthiest citizens, who, without formally constituting a separate class, and without changing the organisation of the eighteen centuries of knights, took service as a species of volunteers, and laid the foundation for what became afterwards the order of the knights (ordo equester). From this time forward the cavalry service was considered a distinction, and attracted more and more the wealthier class of citizens. These now stood forth in a marked manner from the mass of citizens, and constituted a nursery for the senate, for posts of honour in the republic, and for the new nobility.' CHAP. XVI. Roman Nevertheless, even after this seasonable reform, which The changed the character of the cavalry from light to heavy infantry. armed horse, the chief strength of the Roman army continued to be in their infantry. In the armies of the later republic, the allies furnished a contingent of cavalry considerably stronger than the Roman. This never could have happened if the Romans had felt themselves superior in this branch of the service. It was their infantry that conquered the world. When, however, they came in contact with such horsemen as the Gauls and Numidians of Hannibal, the weakness of their own cavalry was bitterly felt, and contributed not a little to the terrible defeats by which the republic was almost overthrown. How the introduction of military pay influenced the tax Military on land we shall discuss in connexion with the agrarian the landpay and laws. tax. of the war. In the first nine years of the war with Veii, the fortune Narrative of war was, according to the reports of the annalists, very Livy, xlii. 61: Equites illis (Romanis) principes iuventutis, equites seminarium senatus; inde lectos in patres consules, inde imperatores creant.' 2 The proportion varied at different times. According to Polybius (vi. 26, § 7) the cavalry of the allies was threefold that of the Romans. Other accounts make their contingent not quite double as strong as the Roman cavalry. The average strength may be assumed to have been double the Roman. 246 BOOK II. The rising of the Alban Lake. fluctuating, and victory was by no means always on the side of the Romans. We hear even that they suffered serious losses and reverses. Veii was too large a town to be surrounded on all sides by a continuous line of works. Several fortified camps were therefore erected in the neighbourhood of the town for the purpose of enabling the besiegers to intercept supplies and aid from without. These fortified camps were stormed by the enemy in the third year of the siege, and the Roman armies were beaten in the field by the Veientes and their allies. But the Romans made fresh exertions, and when the plebeian consular tribunes Genucius and Titinius were beaten in the tenth year of the war by the allies of the Veientes, the Faliscans and Capenatians, and in consequence of this defeat a great panic arose in Rome, the senate resolved to try the effect of a dictatorship-their sheet anchor in times of danger. M. Furius Camillus was the man into whose hand the Romans intrusted their fate. He justified the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and within a short of time brought the long and dangerous war to a happy space and glorious end. So far the story of the last war of the Veientes is simple, dry, and ordinary. But now, with the appearance of Camillus, another spirit is infused into the story. We leave the domain of the natural and the possible, and enter the fabulous region of the miraculous. In the eighth year of the war it is related there was observed a remarkable natural phenomenon connected with the Lake of Alba. The waters of the lake rose suddenly, without any assignable cause, to so great a height that the banks were flooded, and the water at last found its way over the volcanic ridge which enclosed the bed of the lake, and flowed down the hill into the plain. When such wonderful events took place, the Romans were accustomed to consult the Sibylline books or the Etruscan soothsayers, in order to avert any threatened calamity by a solemn expiatory sacrifice. Now, as they were at war with the Etruscans, they did not confide in their soothsayers, but sent an embassy direct to Greece to seek advice at the shrine of the Delphian Apollo.' In the meantime the war CHAP. XVI. assault Meantime Camillus kept the town blockaded with his Camillus army, which had been joined by Latin and Hernican prepares to auxiliaries. But the strong walls could not be stormed Veii. in the ordinary way. Therefore Camillus had a tunnel cut from the Roman camp, under the wall, to the citadel of Veii. When this tunnel was completed, Camillus knew that Veii was in his hands, and he sent to Rome to ask the senate how he should divide the spoils. The senate determined that the whole people should have a share in the spoils of the enemy's town, which was reduced by the exertions of the whole people; and young and old, rich and poor, proceeded from Rome into the camp before 'It is curious that the story ignores the Sibylline books, and mentions only the Etruscan soothsayers and the Delphian Oracle. Can it be that the story is older than that of the alleged purchase of the Sibylline books by Tarquinius? The libri fatales.-Livy, v. 15. BOOK Camillus offers sacrifice in Veii. The capture of Veii. The triumph of Camillus. The dividing of the spoil. Veii, awaiting the moment when they could break into the conquered town with the victorious soldiers. At last the day for storming the town arrived, and Camillus let the Roman army advance to the walls, and pretend to attack them. But while the Veientes were engaged in defending the walls, a select body of men advanced through the tunnel. At their head was Camillus himself, and when he arrived at the place where the tunnel ended and where there was only a thin wall to break through, inside the temple of Juno in the citadel of Veii, he heard the high priest of the Veientes, who was performing a sacrifice before the king, say that whoever presented this offering to the tutelar goddess of Veii would be victorious in battle. At this moment the Romans burst forth out of the ground, Camillus seized the victim, and offered it on the altar of the goddess, and his troops dispersed themselves from the citadel over the whole town, and opened the gates to their comrades. Camillus Thus Veii fell into the hands of the Romans. surveyed the extent of the town from the citadel, and measured the greatness of the victory. Then he veiled his head, and implored the gods that, if too great happiness and success had attended him, they should impose upon him a moderate retribution. And when he had thus prayed, and, according to the solemn custom, had turned himself round, he tripped with his foot and fell down, for a good sign, as he supposed; for he thought, by this slight misfortune, to turn away the jealousy of the gods. A more splendid triumphal procession than that which Camillus celebrated on his return from Veii had never been seen in Rome. In a chariot drawn by four white horses, and wearing the insignia of the Capitoline Jupiter, Camillus rode through the sacred street towards the Capitol; and his soldiers, flushed with joy and triumphing over the spoils, followed him, singing songs of praise in honour of their victorious leader. But soon discontent and dissension arose. Camillus had made a vow to dedicate the tenth part of the spoils to the Delphian Apollo, and demanded now from each person the tenth part of all the booty he had taken. It was decided by the pontifices that nobody could keep in his own possession what was dedicated to the god, without incurring the divine vengeance. The tenth part of the conquered land must also be consecrated to the god. It was estimated, therefore, and copper was taken from the state treasury to buy gold for the amount. But as there was not so much gold to be obtained, the matrons gave up their ornaments, and as a requital of their good deed they were suffered to ride in chariots inside the town at the feasts of the gods. A bowl was made out of the gold thus obtained, and a ship was sent to Delphi to convey the offering to Apollo. When the ship was come near to Sicily, it was attacked by pirates and taken to the island of Lipara, where the pirates lived. But when their captain, Timasitheos, saw that the Romans had a sacrificial offering for the Delphian god on board, he let them go unhurt in their ship, and in this way won for himself the friendship of the Roman people, which was of great benefit to his descendants in the first Punic war, when the Romans took the island of Lipara.' But the consecrated offering was placed in the temple of Delphi, and was among its choicest treasures until the Phokian Onomarchos carried it off in the year 401 B.C., forty years later. Only the basis, which was of brass, remained, and was to be seen even in Appian's time. Thus Apollo received the tenth part of the spoils of the town which, by his help, had fallen into the hands of the Romans. But the people had ceased to love Camillus, and, from the very height of his glory, he was brought down to great misery. The tribunes accused him of having unjustly divided the spoils of Veii, nay, of having embezzled a part of them. The people were also much exasperated, because at his triumph he drove four white horses and bore with him things which belonged to the gods alone. For this reason, when 1 Diodorus, xiv. 93. 2 Appian, ii. 8. CHAP. XVI. |