BOOK 298-290 B.C. especially those of Papirius, are of the kind which might lead us to fancy that the war must practically have come to an end. But to our surprise we hear not only that at the close of the campaign the legions of Papirius wintered in the neighbourhood of Vescia, to protect Campania, but that the Samnites had in the following year an undisputed superiority over the Romans. We must therefore entertain serious doubts with regard to the victories of Papirius, and we suspect that the domestic annals of the Papirians have done much to extol and to exaggerate the victories of the Roman arms and the heroic deeds of their own family. At the very outset, a striking family likeness is observable between the story of L. Papirius Cursor's victory and that of his father in the second Samnite war, 309 B.C. In each of these years the Samnites make extraordinary preparations, and, contrary to their usual habits, take refuge in religious fanaticism. In both cases a consecrated body of warriors is chosen, distinguished from the rest of the army by a peculiar dress, and sworn with the most solemn oaths to conquer or to die. In both accounts the Samnites, whom we can only imagine to have been poor mountaineers, are represented as covered with gold and silver. The triumphs of the two Papirii are distinguished by the splendour of the spoils. In the first case the Forum is hung with gold and silver shields; the younger Papirius decorates not only the temple of Quirinus and the Forum, but distributes the 1 Compare Livy, ix. 40 and x. 38. The second of these passages contains the detailed account of the mode of swearing the devoted warriors. The former passage, however, is more accurate in describing their arms. Livy says (1. 38) that the consecrated band was called 'legio linteata,' after the linen tent in which the solemn act of taking the oath was performed. This is an error; the name was taken from the 'tunica lintea candida' which distinguished these soldiers from the rest, according to Livy himself (ix. 40): 'Prior forte Iunius commovit hostem . . . sacratos more Samnitium milites, eoque candida veste et paribus candore armis insignes.' 2 In keeping with this is the report (Livy, x. 46) that at the triumph of Papirius 1,830 pounds of silver and 2,533,000 pounds of copper were exhibited and conveyed to the public treasury. spoils also to the allies and to the colonies, to ornament their temples.' CHAP. XII. 298-290 B.C. Campaign of the year In spite of the losses which it is reported that the Samnites suffered in the year 293, they were neither exhausted nor discouraged. They appeared, on the contrary, in the new campaign, 292 B.C., again decidedly to have the ad- 292 B.C. vantage. The newly elected consul, Q. Fabius Maximus Gurges, the son of the chief hero of the war, suffered a reverse in which the Romans lost 3,000 dead and many wounded. The numbers of dead and wounded which are reported in these battles are of no historical value, but a confession of this kind shows at least that the Romans were decidedly beaten. The disaster, however, is said to have been repaired very soon by a victory over the Samnites; the old Q. Fabius, the consul's father, requested to serve under his son as legate, and now the Samnites were defeated. The consul triumphed; and before his It seems to have been a speciality of the Papirian family chronicles to note with particular care all matters that had reference to religious ceremonies. Livy relates (x. 46) that in the night before the battle the consul rose from his couch and ordered the keeper of the sacred fowls (pullarius) to ascertain the will of the gods; that the fowls refused to feed, which was a bad omen; but that the priest, sharing the general ardour of the army, gave a false report and announced happy signs; that Papirius was privately informed of the truth by his nephew, but paid attention only to the official report, and gave the signal for battle, leaving to the gods the task of punishing the priest for his falsehood. Livy goes on to relate that the pullarius, fighting in the foremost ranks, was killed by the first hostile spear, and that thereupon the consul exclaimed: 'The gods are present among us, and have struck down the guilty head.' And when he had said this, a raven gave, with a loud screech, a happy omen of victory. Then, in the heat of the battle, the consul vowed to offer to Jupiter Victor a cup of sweet wine before he himself should have moistened his lips. This characteristic story, like the detailed accounts of the consecration of the devoted Samnite bands, looks as if it was taken from the traditions of a family which paid special attention to religious things. Such a family was that of the Papirii. A Papirius had made a collection of the old ceremonial laws known at a later time as the jus Papirianum, and supposed to contain the laws of the Roman kings.-See Schwegler, Röm. Gesch, i. 24, Anm. 5. 2 Zonaras, viii. 1, 11. Suidas, s. v. Þáßios Mážiμos. Eutropius, ii. 5. Livy, epit. xi. The wounded are very seldom mentioned in the reports of battles. It is probable that a man struck down might be looked upon as killed. The medical staff of the armies of the ancients was no doubt the least effective branch of the service. It is so even with modern armies. BOOK 298-290 B.C. triumphal car walked in chains the victor of Caudium, the high-minded C. Pontius, whom the Romans, destitute of all magnanimity and humanity, delivered up to death by the hand of the executioner. But the Samnites were not yet broken to the yoke. They were only driven back into their mountains by the preponderance of Roman strength. Their resistance was at length overcome in 'great battles," by M. Curius Dentatus, the consul of the year 290, as we learn from the only authority extant, the meagre abridgment of Eutropius, and from the short argument of the lost eleventh book of Livy. But after all they concluded an honourable peace, which acknowledged their independence.* The third Samnite war appears, therefore, even in the Roman reports, which are alone handed down to us, by no third Sam- means as an unbroken series of victories on the part of the End and character of the nite war. Exhaustion of the Samnites. Romans. On the contrary, it almost seems that the Romans, in spite of repeated defeats in the field, only maintained on the whole the upper hand through their greater perseverance, their political and diplomatic superiority over the Samnites, and through the greater inherent strength of their state, which, as we have said before, was the most powerful in Italy at that time; and, like the wars with Pyrrhus, with the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Spaniards, and the Lusitanians, the third war with Samnium plainly shows that the Roman constitution, with its rapid change of military commanders elected by popular suffrage, was labouring under disadvantages, scarcely outweighed by the thorough military training, the calm heroism, and the common obligation of the citizens to serve in the army. The Romans concluded peace without having completely defeated the Samnites. Samnium retained even 2 Eutropius, ii. 5. Livy, epit. xi.: Foedus renovatum est.' The common obligation of the citizens to serve in the army' is rather a clumsy way of expressing the German Allgemeine Wehrpflicht,' which, as it does not exist in England by law, is ignored by the English vocabulary. It is a very true remark which Livy puts into the mouth of Scipio Africanus (Livy, xxvi. 41); Ea fato quodam data nobis sors est, ut magnis omnibus bellis victi vicerimus.' 6 now its independence. No Roman colony was established in the country of the Samnites, no portion of it was taken from them. Still the success of the Roman policy was great. It was proved now that the Samnites were unable to shake the republic. These brave mountaineers were exhausted at last. From this time the Samnites did not venture again to take up the struggle against Rome with their own unaided strength. Their only hope for the future was, by uniting themselves to some of Rome's powerful enemies, to avenge themselves on the hated town which had stopped them in their progress, and had snatched Campania from their grasp. Among the mercenaries of Pyrrhus, among the allies of Hannibal, and even in the civil war in their dying struggle with the iron Sulla, they showed even to their last breath their old courage and inextinguishable hatred of Rome. CHAP. XII. 298-290 B.C. As after the end of the second Samnite war, so now, The colony the senate was intent on securing by Roman colonies of Venusia, the ground that had been gained. On the borders of Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania, the colony of Venusia was established, and the extraordinarily large number of 20,000 colonists sent there.' Thus they had a stronghold in the midst of former enemies and doubtful friends; its position in the neighbourhood of Tarentum pointed to the direction from which the next war-storm would burst over Italy. 2 of the Sabines. The long wars with Samnium were followed by the Subjection subjection of the Sabines. These had been quiet and hardly mentioned for a century and a half. What their policy had been during the Samnite wars is nowhere stated. They were certainly not among the enemies of Rome; for we should in that case have heard of Roman victories over them. Most probably they were, like the Marsians, Apulians, and Lucanians, allied with Rome, though their services are never mentioned. They were * This is the usual practice of the Roman historians. See above, p. 276, with note 1. BOOK 298-290 B.C. The His tory of Livy. now made Roman citizens without the full franchise,' i.e. subjects of Rome, preparatory to their reception into the tribes and to the enjoyment of all the rights of Roman citizens.2 Our knowledge of the last three years of the war and of the subsequent events is extremely scanty, for the tenth book of Livy breaks off with the year 292 B.C., and as the whole of the second decade, containing books eleven to twenty-one, is lost, we are deprived for the time from 292 B.C. to 218 B.C. of the guide who has accompanied us so far in doubtful and intricate paths. We begin to feel his real worth at a time when his history is wanting. It is true he has often disappointed our expectations. He has omitted conscientiously to collect, compare, and sift the materials for the ancient history of Rome, which were accessible to him in abundant stores. He did not give himself the trouble to solve doubts and remove difficulties, even where it was possible for him to do so. Partly owing to indifference for historical accuracy in the older parts of his work, and partly because he preferred to occupy himself with narratives of dramatic effect and with the display of rhetorical skill, he is silent as to the contradictions that present themselves, and passes quickly over wide gaps. The spirit of the ancient times of the Roman people is beyond his grasp. His feelings and opinions are those of the declining republic. These he applies to the old time. That which has disappeared or faded away he cannot conjure up and invest with new life. He is moreover a partisan and a Roman patriot. He stands always on the side of the 1 Cives sine suffragio. * Velleius Paterculus, i. 14. This notice, however, can refer only to a small portion of the Sabines, for they appear, even in much later times, to have ranked among the allies (fœderati) of Rome. Polybius (ii. 24) mentions them as belonging to the same class as the Etruscans and Umbrians. They were at that time not even socii, like the Latins and Samnites (see Appendix to vol. ii.). Livy (xxviii. 45) mentions an ager Sabinus, and, besides, the towns of Reate, Nursia, and Amiternum, i.e., the most important Sabine towns. This shows that the notions of the ancient historians about the geography of the country of the Sabines were very vague. |