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.



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