Anecdotes Of The Latin And Samnite Wars
The conquest of Italy by Rome was attended by many interesting events,
of which we propose to relate here some of the more striking. The
capture and burning of Rome by the Gauls, and the dispersal of her army
and people, ruinous as it seemed, was but an event in her career of
conquest. The city was no sooner rebuilt than the old regime of war was
resumed, and it was no longer a struggle between neighboring cities, but
f Rome against powerful confederacies and peoples, such as the
Volscians, the Etruscans, the Latins, the Campanians, and the Samnites,
the final conquest of which gave her the dominion of Italy.
The war with the Latins was attended with some circumstances showing
strongly the stern and indomitable spirit of the Romans. This war was
carried into Campania, in Southern Italy; and here, on a celebrated
occasion, when the two armies lay encamped in close vicinity on the
plain of Capua, the Roman consuls issued a strict order against
skirmishing or engaging in single encounters with the enemy. The two
peoples were alike in arms and in language, and it was feared that such
chance combats might lead to confusion and disaster.
The only man to disobey this order was T. Manlius, the son of one of
the consuls. A Latin warrior, Geminus Metius, of Tusculum, challenged
young Manlius to meet him in single combat; and the youthful warrior,
fired by ambition and warlike zeal, and eager to sustain the honor of
Rome, accepted the challenge, despite his father's order. If killed, his
fault would be atoned; if successful, victory over a noted warrior must
win him pardon and praise.
The duel that ensued was a fierce and gallant one. It ended in the
triumph of the young Roman, who laid his antagonist dead at his feet.
Shouts of triumph from the Roman soldiers hailed his victory; and when
he had despoiled his slain foe of his arms, and borne them triumphantly
from the field, the exultation of the Romans was as unbounded as the
chagrin of the Latins was deep. Towards his father's tent the young
victor proudly went, through exulting lines of troops, and laid his
spoils in triumph at the feet of the stern old man.
The poor youth, the rejoicing soldiers, knew not the man with whom they
had to deal. A military order had been disobeyed. To old Manlius the
fact that the culprit was his son, and that he had added honor to the
Roman arms, weighed nothing. Discipline stood above affection or
victory. Turning coldly away, the iron-hearted old Roman ordered that
the soldiers should be immediately summoned to the praetorium, or
general's tent, and that his son should be beheaded before them.
This cruel and inhuman order filled the whole army with horror. Yet none
dared interfere, and the unnatural mandate was obeyed, in full view of
an army whose late exultation was turned to deepest woe and indignation.
The youngest soldiers never forgave the consul for his inhuman act, but
regarded him with abhorrence to the end of his life. But their hatred
was mingled with fear and respect, and the stern lesson taught was
doubtless felt for years in the discipline of the armies of Rome.
The next event worthy of record took place in the vicinity of Mount
Vesuvius, under whose very shadow a fierce battle was fought between the
Latin and Roman armies, with the then silent volcano as witness. Two
centuries more were to pass before Rome would learn what fearful power
lay sleeping in this long voiceless mountain.
Before the battle joined, the gods, as usual, were appealed to. During
the night both consuls had dreamed the same dream. A figure of more than
human stature and majesty had appeared to them, and told them that the
earth and the gods of the dead claimed as their victims the general of
one party and the army of the other. When the sacrifices were made, the
signs given by the entrails of the victims signified the same thing. It
was resolved, therefore, that if the army of Rome anywhere gave way, the
general commanding on that side should devote himself, and the army of
the enemy with him, to the gods of death and the grave. "Fate," said the
augurs, "requires the sacrifice of a general from one party and an army
from the other. Let it be our general and the Latin army that shall
perish."
It was the left wing of the Romans, commanded by the consul Publius
Decius, that first gave way. The consul at once accepted his fate. By
the direction of the chief priest, he wrapped his consular toga around
his head, holding it to his face with his hand, and then set his feet
upon a javelin, and repeated after the priest the words devoting him to
the gods of death. Then, arming himself at all points, and wrapping his
toga around his body in the manner usual in sacrifices, he sprang upon
his horse, and spurred headlong into the ranks of the enemy, where he
soon fell dead.
This sacrifice filled the Romans with hope, and the Latins, who
understood its meaning, with dismay. Yet the latter, after being driven
back, soon recovered, and, despite the self-devotion of Decius, would
probably have won the victory had not the remaining consul brought up
his reserve troops just in time. In the end the Latins were utterly
defeated, and Vesuvius looked down on the massacre of one army by the
swords of another, scarcely a fourth of the Latins escaping. Thus the
gods seemed to keep their word, though probably the Roman reserve force
had more to do with the victory than all the gods of Rome.
The next event which we have to relate took place during the second
Samnite war. Its hero was L. Papirius Cursor, one of the favorite heroes
of Roman tradition, and the avenger of the disgrace of the Caudine
Forks, the story of which we have next to tell. This famous soldier is
said to have possessed marvellous swiftness of foot and gigantic
strength, with extraordinary capacity for food, while his iron
strictness of discipline was at times relieved by a rough humor. All
this made his memory popular with the Romans, who boasted that Alexander
the Great would have found in him a worthy champion, had that conqueror
invaded Italy.
The event we have now to narrate occurred early in the war. One of the
consuls, being taken ill, was ordered to name a dictator to replace him,
and chose Papirius Cursor. This champion appointed Q. Fabius Rullianus,
another famous soldier, his master of the horse, and marched out to
attack the Samnites.
As it happened, the auspices taken by the dictator at Rome before
marching to the seat of war were of no particular significance. Not
satisfied with them, he decided to take them again, and returned to Rome
for this purpose, the auspices being of a kind which could only be taken
within the city walls. He ordered the master of the horse to remain
strictly on the defensive during his absence.
Fabius did not obey this order. He attacked the enemy and gained some
advantage. The annals say that he won a great victory, defeating the
Samnites with a loss of twenty thousand men; but the annals have a habit
of magnifying small affairs into large ones where they have any object
to gain.
On hearing that his orders had been disobeyed, Papirius hurried back to
the camp in a violent rage, and with the intention of making such an
example of discipline as Manlius had made in the execution of his son.
On reaching camp he ordered that Fabius should be immediately executed.
His authority as dictator gave him power for this violent act; but he
failed to reckon on the spirit of the soldiers, who supported Fabius to
a man, and broke into a violent demonstration that was almost mutiny. So
strong was their feeling that the furious dictator found himself obliged
to halt in his purpose.
But Fabius knew too well the iron nature of his antagonist to trust his
life in his hands. That night he fled from the camp to Rome, and
immediately appealed to the senate for protection. Papirius followed in
hot haste, and while the senators were still assembling arrived in Rome,
where, under his authority as dictator, he gave order for the arrest of
the culprit. In this critical situation the prisoner's father, M.
Fabius, appealed to the tribunes for the protection of his son, saying
that he proposed to carry the case before the assembly of the people.
The tribunes found themselves in a dilemma. Papirius warned them not to
sanction so flagrant a breach of military discipline, nor to lessen the
majesty of the office of dictator, and they found themselves hesitating
between their duty to support the absolute power of the dictator and
their abhorrence of an exercise of this power that must shock the
feelings of the whole Roman people. The people themselves relieved their
tribunes from this difficulty. They hastily met in assembly, and by a
unanimous vote implored the dictator to be merciful, and for their sakes
to forgive Fabius. His authority thus acknowledged, Papirius yielded,
and declared that he pardoned the master of the horse. "And the
authority of the Roman generals," says Livy, "was established no less
firmly by the peril of Q. Fabius than by the actual death of the young
T. Manlius."
It was well for Rome that Fabius was spared, for he afterwards proved
one of their ablest generals. The time came, also, when he was able to
confer a benefit upon Papirius Cursor. This was during a subsequent war
with the Etruscans, in which he commanded as consul and gained great
victories. Meanwhile a Roman army was defeated by the Samnites, and on
the news of this defeat reaching Rome the senate at once resolved to
appoint Papirius once more as dictator.
But this appointment must be made by a consul. One consul was with the
defeated army, perhaps dead. It was necessary to apply to Fabius, the
other consul, and the declared enemy of the proposed dictator. To
overcome his personal feelings, a deputation of the highest senators was
sent him, who read him the senate's decree and strongly urged him to
support it. Fabius listened in dead silence, not answering by word or
look. When they had ended, he abruptly withdrew from the room. But at
dead of night he pronounced, in the usual form, the nomination of
Papirius as dictator. When the deputies thanked him for his noble
conquest over his feelings, he listened still in dead silence, and
dismissed them without a word in answer.
We must now pass over years of war, in which both Fabius and Papirius
gained honor and fame, and come to an occasion in which the son of
Fabius led a Roman army as consul, and met with a severe defeat by a
Samnite army. He had been tricked by the Samnites, and great indignation
was aroused against him in Rome. It was proposed to remove him from his
office, a disgrace which no consul ever experienced in Roman history. It
was also proposed that old Fabius should be appointed dictator. But the
aged soldier, to preserve the honor of his son, offered to go with him
as his lieutenant, and the offer was accepted by the senate.
A second battle ensued, in the heat of which the consul became
surrounded by the enemy, and his aged father led the charge to his
rescue. His example animated the Romans, they followed him in a vigorous
assault, and a complete victory was won. Twenty thousand Samnites were
slain, four thousand taken prisoners, and with them their general, C.
Pontius. After other victories the younger Fabius returned to Rome and
was given a triumph, while behind him rode his old father on horseback,
as one of his lieutenants, delighting in the honor conferred on his son.
The Samnite general was made to walk in the procession, and at its end
was taken to the prison under the Capitoline Hill and there beheaded. It
was thus that Rome dealt with its captured foes.