the splendour and strength of the nation had declined, and it had been compelled to yield on every side to the encroachments of foreign powers. Still Etruria proper was of all the districts of Italy the richest in large, flourishing, industrious towns, among which Volsinii, Arretium, Perusia, and Cortona were conspicuous. But these separate states, although, as it is reported, enjoying a federal union, seem never to have united for vigorous common action. Special leagues were formed among single towns for special purposes, but the strength of the whole nation was never combined to ward off a common danger. CHAP. X. 326-304 B.C. between and 311 B.C. A peace of forty years had been concluded in the year Renewal 351 B.C. between Rome and Tarquinii. With surprising of war conscientiousness this peace seems to have been observed the on both sides. The greatest dangers and troubles which Romans Rome passed through at the time of the revolt of the Etruscans, Latins, and after the catastrophe of Caudium, were no inducement to the Etruscans to renew the war. Only towards the time when the forty years' peace was drawing to a close, there appear traces of renewed hostilities, and in the year 311 B.C. the war really breaks out. The cause of this is, as usual with Roman writers, put down to the fault of the Etruscans; but it is difficult to believe that, if they had wished for war, they would have waited for the time when the Romans could oppose them vigorously. The war turned on the possession of the colony of Sutrium. All the towns of Etruria, with the exception of Arretium, had, it is reported,' united to attack this strong fort, established for the defence of the Roman boundary. A Roman army that had marched out under the consul Æmilius Barbula, to deliver Sutrium, suffered a reverse." Livy, ix. 32. Livy's expression is exaggerated in the usual manner (see above, p. 98, note 2), for when peace was concluded, only the towns of Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium are mentioned (Livy, ix. 37; Diodorus, xx. 35). 2 Livy (ix. 32) takes great pains to conceal the losses of the Romans and to give a favourable colouring to the engagement. Nevertheless it is not difficult to see that in reality the Romans were worsted. This appears, moreover, as Niebuhr (Röm. Gesch., iii. 325; English translation, iii. 278) justly remarks, from the manner in which the next campaign was opened. BOOK 326-304 B.C. Annals of house. It was now evident that the Etruscan war must be carried on with all possible energy, as it was not likely that the Samnites would fail to make use of the opportunity which the division of the Roman forces offered to them. Livy's account of the Etruscan wars is one of the most the Fabian striking illustrations of the manner in which the simple and meagre traditions of the earlier period were worked up by successive writers into long narratives, full of rhetorical ornament, audacious fiction, repetitions and exaggerations. We are able, from internal evidence, to declare that by far the greater part of the vaunted exploits of Q. Fabius Maximus is an invention or an agglomeration of successive inventions, derived probably from the family traditions of the Fabian house. The Fabians seem, on the whole, to have made free use of the several Etruscan wars for the glorification of their family. The Fabian settlement on the Cremera in the year 479 R.C. is represented as an heroic deed undertaken by this family alone for the whole Roman nation. A suspicious similarity appears between the massacre of the three hundred and six Fabians on the Cremera and the story of the consulship of C. Fabius in the year 358 B.C., when three hundred and seven Romans were made prisoners by the Tarquinians and slain.2 Two years later a Fabius, the consul M. Fabius Ambustus, avenged this disgrace by a brilliant victory over the Tarquinians and Faliscans, on which occasion the fanciful story makes the Etruscan priests rush into battle armed with torches and snakes, to inspire their countrymen with Story of Fabius and the Ciminian wood. courage. Many of these stories of the Fabian annals contain elements for a poetical treatment of history, such as was undertaken at a later period by Nævius and Ennius. More especially do we recognise these features in all that is related of the deeds of Q. Fabius Maximus. He defeats the Etruscans, who besiege Sutrium, in a great battle, takes 1 Livy, ii. 48: 'Velut familiare bellum Fabiorum.' 2 See above, pp. 173, 298. 2 CHAP. X. B.C. thirty-eight standards from them, and captures their camp. 1 Livy, ix. 36. 2 Livy, ix. 36: Silva erat Ciminia magis tum invia atque horrenda, quam nuper fuere Germanici saltus, nulli ad eam diem ne mercatorum quidem adita.' If the Ciminian range was so impassable, how did Livy and his informants fancy that the Etruscans of Tarquinii reached Sutrium?—See Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch., iii. 327; English translation, iii. 279. The absurdity and self-contradiction of this narrative are so striking that we wonder how they escaped Livy. He had said (chap. xxxv.) that the Etruscans were defeated and retired into the Ciminian mountains. Now he relates that Fabius left them behind when he marched across the mountains, and he left them behind, not as a beaten and discomfited army, but in such a condition that he found it necessary to deceive them as to his movements, by keeping his cavalry in his rear and making them believe that he was going to remain in his camp. Besides, the description of the pathless Ciminian mountains is hardly in keeping with the dispatch of the heavy baggage in advance of the army. See Niebuhr, Röm. Gesch., iii. 327; English translation, iii. 279. BOOK III. B.C. pathless mountains, carefully confining their questions to what was most necessary, so that they might not betray 326-304 themselves as foreigners; but they found that they were hardly suspected, as no one could conceive it possible that a stranger would venture through the Ciminian forest. They penetrated as far as Umbria where the Camertines declared themselves ready to receive the Roman army as friends, if it came into their neighbourhood. After Fabius had crossed the mountains with his army, he laid waste and plundered the rich country round about. The consequence was that an Etruscan army larger than ever before' assembled near Sutrium, was surprised by the Romans, and defeated with a loss of 60,000 men. How in the end Fabius appears again before Sutrium, south of the Ciminian forest, remains a mystery. What could have been the use of his celebrated march into the interior of Etruria if he had not even drawn away the enemy from the siege of Sutrium? What is improbable in this representation is avoided in other annals,' which, as Livy reports, placed the victory of Fabius, not near Sutrium, but north of the Ciminian forest, at Perusia. The victory was decisive, as Livy imagines, wherever it may have been won, for it induced the towns of Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium to conclude a treaty of peace with Rome for thirty years.2 Fabius and The greatness of Q. Fabius is not displayed in his military exploits only. To the victory over his enemies he added the yet more glorious victory over himself. While he was overthrowing the Etruscans, his colleague Marcius was hard pressed by the Samnites. A second disaster like that at Caudium seemed impending. Only a dictator could inspire new hopes, and one man only, the old and tried Papirius Cursor, was worthy of the general confidence. But by which consul should Papirius be appointed dictator ? Marcius was surrounded by his Also Diodorus, xx. 35. 2 Another contradiction, as Arretium (Livy, ix. 32) had not joined the Etruscan league against Rome. enemies, wounded, perhaps dead, and the other consul was Fabius Maximus, the irreconcilable enemy of Papirius, who, in his dictatorship, had, from jealousy and envy, sought his life, under the pretext of vindicating military discipline, and had with difficulty been prevented from shedding the blood of his rival. In spite of this, the senate sent messengers to Fabius with the request that by virtue of his office he should appoint Papirius Cursor as dictator. Silently and with gloomy looks Fabius listened to the embassy. The hatred of his enemy was struggling in him against the love of his country. But in the stillness of the night he rose, as was customary on the appointment of a dictator, and conferred on his worst enemy, Papirius Cursor, the highest office of the state, making himself thereby his subordinate. Then, without adding one word, he dismissed the ambassadors, unmoved by their praises or their thanks for the sacrifice he had made of his private feelings. CHAP. X. 326-304 and B.C. The campaign of Papirius Cursor against the Samnites Triumphs was the last led by the old hero. He took the command of of Papirius the army which had been formed for the defence of the Fabius. city when the march of Fabius into the interior of Etruria had terrified the senate. With this army he delivered the consul Marcius from his dangerous situation, and defeated the Samnites in a great battle. He celebrated a splendid triumph. It was remembered that a number of gilt and silver shields, which in later times decorated the Roman Forum on festive occasions, were first seen in Rome in the triumphal procession of Papirius, who had taken them as spoils of war from a chosen band of the Samnites. But the triumph which Q. Fabius celebrated was still more brilliant and more highly deserved. His campaigns had been one unbroken success. After his victory at Sutrium he defeated the Umbrians; then he gained a glorious triumph at the Vadimonian Lake over an army of Etruscans 'such as had never before been opposed to the Romans;' 2 'Livy, ix. 40: 'Præstantiore quam dictator victoria triumphans.' Livy, ix. 39: Ad Vadimonis lacum Etrusci quantis numquam alias ante simul copiis simul animis dimicarunt.' This assertion sounds strange after the |