This collection of very short biographies was at one time attributed to Aurelius Victor. It is now generally agreed that it cannot have been written by him; but it has often been combined with the De Caesaribus to create a brief summary of all ancient Roman history.
This translation has been made from the Latin text in the edition by F. Pichlmayr (1911); click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. The English translation by W.K. Sherwin (1973) was made from a different version of the text.
[1] L Procas, king of the Albans, left his kingdom to his two sons, Amulius and Numitor , on the condition that they would reign alternately, each for one year. Numitor's turn having come, Amulius refused to cede the throne to him; and, to deprive him of the hope of having descendants, he appointed Rhea Sylvia, his daughter, to be a priestess of Vesta. This role obliged her to maintain perpetual virginity, but she was impregnated by the god Mars, and gave birth to Romulus and Remus. At this news, Amulius had her imprisoned, and ordered that her two children be thrown into the Tiber. But the river retreated and left the babies dry on the shore. A she-wolf ran to their cries and fed them with her teats. Shortly afterwards, the shepherd Faustulus picked them up and took them to his wife Acca Laurentia, so that she could raise them.
Afterwards these two brothers put Amulius to death, and restored Numitor, their grandfather, to the throne. They then gathered together a large number of herdsmen, and founded a city, which Romulus named Rome; he had priority, because in the augury Remus saw six vultures, and Romulus saw twelve vultures. In order to protect the city by laws before fortifying it with walls, Romulus forbade all his subjects to cross a rampart that he had built. After Remus mocked this defence by jumping over it, the centurion Celer is said to have killed him with a hoe.
[2] L Romulus offered asylum to all foreigners who wanted to come to him. He soon had formed a considerable army; but, seeing that his soldiers lacked women, he sent envoys to ask for them from neighbouring states. Upon their refusal, he pretended to hold games in honour of Consus. When a multitude of men and women flocked there, Romulus gave a signal to his men, and they kidnapped the girls. Among them, there was one of great beauty; when everyone admired her as she was being led away, the response was given that she was being taken to Talassius. Because the union of this couple was very happy, the custom was introduced of pronouncing the name of Talassius at all weddings.
The men of Caenina were the first to take up arms against the Romans to avenge the rape of the neighbouring peoples' women. Romulus marched against them and defeated them; he killed Acron, their leader, in single combat, and consecrated the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol. For the same reason, the Sabines made war on the Romans. As they approached Rome, they met a young girl, named Tarpeia, who had come down to draw the water necessary for the sacrifices. Titus Tatius promised her the reward she would ask for, if she introduced her troops into the citadel. She asked him for what his soldiers wore on their left arms, meaning their rings and bracelets. After Tatius deceitfully promised this to her, she led the Sabines into the citadel. Then Tatius ordered that they crush her with their shields, which they also carried on their left arms. After Tatius had occupied the Tarpeian hill, Romulus advanced against him, and joined battle with him, in the very place where the Roman forum is now located. There Hostus Hostilius perished, fighting with the greatest valour. Dismayed by his death, the Romans began to flee. At this moment, Romulus vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Stator. His troops stood their ground, either by chance or by divine inspiration. It was then that the women kidnapped by the Romans, advancing on the battlefield, implored their fathers on one side and their husbands on the other to make peace. Romulus agreed to a treaty with the Sabines, and received them into the city. He gave the combined people the name of Quirites, from Cures, a city of the Sabines. He then created a senate of a hundred men, to whom he gave the name of fathers, because of their piety. He also instituted three centuries of knights, which he called Ramnes after his name; and Tatienses from the name of Titus Tatius; and the third Luceres from the grove {lucus} that they shared. Finally, he divided the people into thirty curiae, to each of which he gave the name of one of the Sabine women who had been kidnapped. One day when Romulus was reviewing his army near the Palus Capreae, he disappeared and could not be found. When this led to dissension between the people and the senators, Julius Proculus, an illustrious man, came forward in the assembly, and declared with an oath that Romulus had appeared to him on the Quirinal hill - with a more august appearance, since he had gone to join the immortal gods. Romulus had ordered him to advise the Romans to abstain from all sedition, and to practice virtue; in which case they would become the masters of all nations. The authority of Proculus swayed the people. A temple to Romulus was built on the Quirinal hill, and he was worshipped as a god under the name of Quirinus.
[3] L After the deification of Romulus, there was a long interregnum, accompanied by seditions. Numa Pompilius , the son of Pomponius, was summoned from the city of Cures in the land of the Sabines, and came with the favourable omens of birds. Numa wanted to soften through religion the ferocity of his people, and instituted many sacred ceremonies. He built a temple to Vesta, and chose some Vestal Virgins. He also chose three flamens, who were called Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis. He appointed twelve Salii as priests of Mars, and gave the first priest the name of praesul. He created a pontifex maximus, and built the gates of two-faced Janus. He divided the year into twelve months, with the addition of January and February. He made a large number of good laws, pretending that everything he did was on the instruction of the nymph Egeria, who was his wife. Because of his great love for justice, no one made war against him. He died from an illness, and was buried on the Janiculum, where, many years after his death, a certain Terentius dug up a chest which contained some books. As these books contained only some unimportant details of sacred rites, they were burned by order of the senate.
[4] L Tullus Hostilius , because of his distinguished service in the war against the Sabines, was chosen as the next king. He declared a war against the Albans, which ended with a combat between two sets of three brothers. He destroyed the city of Alba, after Mettius Fufetius had been found guilty of treason, and forced the inhabitants to move to Rome. He built the Curia Hostilia {senate house}. He included the Caelian hill within the bounds of the city. He followed the examples of Numa Pompilius in the sacrifices he offered, but he was unable to make a propitious sacrifice to Jupiter Elicius; therefore he was struck by lightning and was burnt up together with his palace.
When war arose between the Romans and the Albans, their leaders Hostilius and Fufetius decided to end it by the combat of a small number of men. On the side of the Romans, three brothers, named Horatii and on the side of the Albans, three other brothers, named Curiatii, were chosen by agreement. In the first encounter two Romans were killed, and the three Albans were injured. The last Horatius, seeing himself unable to defend himself against three, although he had not received any wounds, pretended to flee. The Curiatii pursued him at unequal intervals, as much as the pain of their wounds allowed; and one after the other, they were killed by him. As he returned laden with their spoils, he met his sister on the way, and she recognised the military cloak of one of the Curiatii, to whom she was engaged. When she began to cry, her brother killed her. For this he was condemned by the duumvirs, but he appealed to the people. His father's tears obtained his pardon, but on condition that he would pass under a yoke. This yoke is still in place on the street, and it is called the Sororium {"sister's yoke"}.
Mettius Fufetius, the leader of the Albans, saw that he had incurred their hatred because he had agreed to end the war with the combat between two sets of three brothers. To rectify this fault, he incited the Veientes and Fidenates against the Romans. When Mettius was summoned by Tullus as an ally, he kept his troops on the slope of a hill to await the result of the battle. Tullus perceived his intentions, and cried out in a loud voice that Mettius had taken up this position by his order. These words so frightened the enemies, that they they were defeated. The next day, Mettius went to congratulate Tullus; but the king ordered that he be tied between four-horse chariots, and torn apart.
[5] L Ancus Marcius , the grandson of Numa Pompilius through his daughter, was similar to his grandfather in fairness and religious devotion, and subdued the Latins in war. He added the (?) Murcian and Janiculan hills to the city, and surrounded the town with new walls. He provided public forests for the use of ships. He instituted the tax on saltworks. He built the first prison. He established the colony of Ostia, convenient for maritime trade at the mouth of the Tiber. He brought in the law of the fetiales, which envoys used for reclaiming property, from the Aequiculi; it is said Rhesus was the first to devise it. After accomplishing these things, he was taken away by a premature death after a few days' illness, which prevented him from fulfilling the promise of being a great king.
[6] L Lucius Tarquinius Priscus was the son of Demaratus of Corinth, who, escaping from the tyranny of Cypselus, migrated to Etruria. He himself was called Lucumo. He set out from the city of Tarquinii and came to Rome. When he arrived, an eagle snatched his cap and, after flying up high, then replaced it. Tanaquil, his wife, who was skilled in augury, interpreted this as a sign of his future kingship. Tarquinius, through wealth and diligence, acquired high status and even gained familiarity with King Ancus. When Ancus died, he left Tarquinius as the guardian of his children, but he seized the throne and governed as if he had obtained it through right. He appointed one hundred 'fathers' to the senate , who were called the lesser gentes. He doubled the number of the centuries of the knights, but he could not change their names due to the authority of the augur Attus Navius, who confirmed the validity of his craft with his razor and whetstone. He subjugated the Latins in war. He built the Circus Maximus and established the Ludi Magni. He triumphed over the Sabines and the ancient Latins. He surrounded the city with a stone wall. He bestowed upon his thirteen-year-old son, who had slain an enemy in battle, the toga praetexta and the bulla, from which these became the insignia of freeborn boys. Afterwards the sons of Ancus secretly sent men to kill him; he was brought out of the palace and killed.
[7] L Servius Tullius , the son of Tullius Corniculanus and Ocresia the captive, was being raised in the house of Tarquinius Priscus, when his head was encircled by the appearance of a flame. Tanaquil saw this and realised that it portended great authority for him. She persuaded her husband to raise him as their own child. When he grew up, he was adopted as a son-in-law by Tarquinius, and after the king was killed, Tanaquil, looking down at the people from an eminence, said that Priscus had received a grave but not a fatal wound, and that in the meantime, while he was recovering, they should obey Servius Tullius. Servius Tullius began to rule somewhat precariously, but he governed the realm justly. He frequently defeated the Etruscans; he added the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline hills to the city; and he built ramparts and ditches. He divided the people into four tribes and distributed grain to the plebs. He established measures, weights, classes and centuries. He persuaded the Latin peoples that, following the example of those who had built a shrine to Diana of Ephesus, they themselves should construct a temple to Diana on the Aventine. After this was done, a heifer of marvellous size was born to one of the Latins, and through a prophetic message given in a dream it was foretold that the people, whose citizen sacrificed that heifer to Diana, would hold the highest power. The Latin man drove the heifer to the Aventine and explained the matter to a Roman priest. The priest craftily said that he must wash his hands with the running water of the river first. While the Latin man went down to the Tiber, the priest sacrificed the heifer. Thus, through this cunning action, he obtained power for the citizens of Rome and glory for himself.
Servius Tullius had two daughters, one fierce and the other mild, and when he saw that the sons of Tarquinius had similar dispositions, he married the fierce daughter to the mild one and the mild daughter to the fierce one, in order to soften the minds of them all through the diversity of their characters. However, whether by chance or by treachery, the mild ones died, and the similarity of their characters united the fierce ones. Immediately Tarquinius Superbus, incited by Tullia, summoned the senate and began to claim the royal power that had belonged to his father. Upon hearing this, Servius hurried to the senate, but he was thrown down the steps by order of Tarquinius, and while he sought refuge at home, he was killed. Tullia immediately rushed to the forum, and she was the first to greet her husband as king. He told her to withdraw from the crowd, and while she was returning home, she ordered the muleteer to drive over her father's body although he was trying to avoid it; hence, that street became known as the Vicus Sceleratus {"Wicked Way"}. Afterwards, Tullia was driven into exile with her husband.
[8] L Tarquinius Superbus earned his nickname {"Proud"} by his character. After assassinating Servius Tullius, he wickedly seized the throne. However, he vigorously conquered the Latins and Sabines in war; he seized Suessa Pometia from the Etruscans; he brought Gabii under his control through a pretended defection by his son Sextus; and established the first Latin Festival. He held games in the circus and constructed the Cloaca Maxima, in which he made use of the entire strength of the people; hence those ditches are called the Fossae Quiritium {"ditches of the Roman citizens"}. When he was building the Capitol, he discovered the head of a man, from which it was recognised that this city would be the head of the nations. After his son had violated Lucretia during the siege of Ardea, he was driven into exile along with his son. He took refuge with Porsenna, the king of Etruria, by whose help he attempted to regain the throne; but he was repelled, and withdrew to Cumae, where he spent the remainder of his life in the utmost ignominy.
[9] L At Ardea, Tarquinius Collatinus, son of the sister of Tarquinius Superbus, lodged in the same tent as the young men of the royal family. It happened that, while they were praising their wives at a rather unrestrained banquet, they decided to put the wives to the test. So they set out for Rome on horseback. There they found the wives of the royal family in revelry and luxury. Then they went to Collatia. They found Lucretia among the her handmaids in the weaving room; and therefore she was judged to be most chaste. In order to seduce her, Sextus Tarquinius returned to Collatia at night and, by right of kinship, entered the house of Collatinus, He burst into the chamber of Lucretia, and violated her chastity. The next day, after summoning her father and husband, she revealed what had happened and then she killed herself with a dagger, which she had hidden in her clothes. They conspired to bring an end to the kings, and avenged the death of Lucretia by forcing them into exile.
[10] L Junius Brutus , the son of the sister of Tarquinius Superbus, because he feared that he might suffer the same fate as his brother, who had been killed by his uncle on account of his wealth and intelligence, pretended foolishness, and therefore he was called Brutus. When the young men of the royal family were going to Delphi, in mockery he was chosen to accompany them, and he brought a staff of wild elder with gold poured into it as a gift to the god. When the oracle replied that whoever kissed his mother first would have the highest power in Rome, he himself kissed the earth. Then, due to the rape of Lucretia, he conspired with Tricipitinus and Collatinus to cause the downfall of the kings. After the kings were banished, he was appointed to be the first consul; and when his sons conspired with the Aquilii and Vitellii to bring the Tarquinii back into the city, he had them beaten with rods and executed. Then in battle against the Tarquinii, he engaged in a fierce duel with Aruns, the son of Tarquinius, in which they both died from mutual wounds. His body was placed in the forum, with a eulogy from his colleague; and the matrons mourned him for a year.
[11] L When Porsenna, king of the Etruscans, was trying to restore the Tarquinii to the city, and had captured the Janiculum in the his attack, Horatius Cocles (so named, because he had lost an eye in another battle) stood in front of the Pons Sublicius, and withstood the line of the enemy alone, until the bridge was broken in his rear, at which he jumped fully armed into the Tiber and crossed over to his own people. For this reason he was publicly given as much land as he could go round with a plough in one day; and a statue of him was placed in the Vulcanal.
[12] L When King Porsenna was besieging the city, Mucius Cordus , a man of Roman steadfastness, approached the senate and asked for permission to defect, promising to kill the king. Having been granted permission, he went to the camp of Porsenna, where he mistook another man for the king and killed him. When he was seized and taken before the king, he placed his right hand in the flame on the altar, inflicting this punishment on the guilty hand because it had erred in killing. The king took pity on him and he was taken away; as if to repay his kindness, Mucius said that three hundred men similar to him were conspiring against the king. The king was frightened by this, and ended the war after receiving hostages. Some fields beyond the Tiber were given to Mucius, and they were named Prata Mucia after him. Also a statue was erected in his honour.
[13] L Porsenna received the noble virgin Cloelia among the hostages. After evading the guards, she left his camp at night, took a horse that chance had provided, and crossed the Tiber. Porsenna demanded her back through envoys, and she was returned. Admiring her bravery, he allowed her to choose some companions to return with her to her homeland. She chose young girls and boys, whose age she knew was vulnerable to harm. A statue of her on horseback was placed in the forum.
[14] L When the Romans were at war with the Veientes, the family of the Fabii demanded them as their personal enemies; and three hundred and six of the family set out under the leadership of Fabius the consul. After winning many victories, they set up camp near the river Cremera. The Veientes, resorting to treachery, brought out cattle from the opposite direction in view of the Fabii. As the Fabii advanced towards them, they fell into an ambush and were all killed except one. The day on which this happened was declared a day of ill omen {nefastus}. The gate through which they had departed was called the Porta Scelerata {"Accursed Gate"}. One of them, left at home due to his young age, generated the family line down to Quintus Fabius Maximus, who thwarted Hannibal and was known as the Delayer by his detractors.
[15] L Lucius Valerius , son of Volesus, triumphed first over the Veientes, then over the Sabines, and finally over both nations together. Because he did not appoint a consul in place of his deceased colleague Tricipitinus, and because he had a house in a very secure location on the Velian hill, he fell under suspicion of aspiring to kingship. When he discovered this, he complained to the people, that they should fear such things about him, and he sent men to destroy his own house. He even removed the axes from the fasces and lowered them in the assembly of the people. He proposed a law transferring the right of appeal from the magistrates to the people. Hence he was called Publicola. When he died, he was given a public burial and honoured with a year of mourning by the matrons.
[16] L Tarquinius, after he was expelled, sought refuge with Mamilius, his son-in-law, at Tusculum, and he stirred up the men of Latium into a heavy onslaught on the Romans. A. Postumius was appointed dictator and fought against the enemy at Lake Regillus. When victory was in doubt, the magister equitum ordered the horsemen to remove the bridles from their horses so they would be carried forward with irresistible force, by which they routed the Latin army and captured their camp. But amongst them there appeared two young men of remarkable courage, riding white horses. The dictator sought to honour them with suitable rewards, but he could not find them; he deduced that they were Castor and Pollux, and dedicated a temple to them in their joint name.
[17] L Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus repudiated his very insolent son Caeso, who was also branded by the censors. Caeso fled to the Volsci and Sabines, who, under the leadership of Cloelius Gracchus, were waging war against the Romans and besieging the consul Q. Minucius with his army on Mount Algidus. Quinctius was proclaimed dictator; the envoys, sent across the Tiber to summon him, found him ploughing naked. After putting on his insignia, he freed the consul from the siege. For this, he was given a golden crown and a siege crown. He defeated the enemy, accepted the surrender of their leader, and led him before the triumphal chariot on the day of his triumph. After sixteen days, he laid down the dictatorship he had received and returned to farming. After twenty years he was again appointed dictator. He ordered Spurius Maelius, who was seeking kingship, to be killed by Servilius Ahala, the magister equitum; the house of Maelius was levelled to the ground; hence that place is called Aequimelium.
[18] L Mennius Agrippa, surnamed Lanatus , was chosen as leader against the Sabines and triumphed over them. When the people had seceded from the senators because they were enduring the tribute and military service, and they would not be persuaded to return, Agrippa said to them: "Once, when the other limbs of the body saw the belly idle, they rebelled against it and refused to serve it. But when they themselves began to fail, they understood that the belly distributed the food that it received throughout all the limbs, and they became reconciled with it. Thus, the senate and the people, like a single body, will perish through discord, but thrive through harmony." Persuaded by this fable, the people returned. However, they created tribunes of the plebs to defend their liberty against the arrogance of the nobility. Menenius, on the other hand, died in such great poverty that the citizens contributed, each with a quadrans, to have him buried in a place provided publicly by the senate.
[19] L Gaius Marcius, surnamed Coriolanus because he captured the city of Corioli from the Volsci, received a choice of rewards from Postumius for his outstanding military exploits, but accepted only a horse and a guest-friend, setting an example of courage and devotion. As consul, faced with a severe shortage of grain, he arranged for wheat brought from Sicily to be sold at a high price to the people, so that the plebs, on account of this injustice, would cultivate fields instead of causing unrest. When for this reason he was summoned to trial by the tribunes of the plebs Decius, he withdrew to the Volsci. He incited them, under the leadership of Titus Tatius, against the Romans, and he set up camp four miles from the city. Although he could not be swayed by an embassy of citizens, he was moved by his mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia, accompanied by a number of matrons, to abandon the war; and he was killed as a traitor. A temple of Fortuna Muliebris was established there.
[20] L Fabius Ambustus gave one of his two daughters in marriage to Licinius Stolo , a plebeian, and the other to Aulus Sulpicius, a patrician. When the plebeian daughter visited her sister, whose husband was a military tribune with consular power, she was inordinately frightened by the sight of the lictors' fasces placed at the door. Because she was mocked by her sister for this, she complained to her husband, who, with the help of his father-in-law, as soon as he took on the position of tribune of the plebs, passed a law that one of the consuls should be chosen from the plebeians. Despite the opposition of Appius Claudius, the law was enacted; and Licinius Stolo became the first plebeian consul. He also enacted a law that no one should be allowed to possess more than five hundred iugera of land. Although he himself had five hundred iugera, he also possessed another five hundred in the name of his emancipated son; and when brought to trial, he was the first person ever to be punished by his own law.
[21] L The Roman people, unable to bear their seditious magistrates, created decemvirs to write laws. These men presented them on twelve tablets, translated from the books of Solon. But then they extended their term of office as magistrates by an agreement to hold onto power. One of them, Appius Claudius, fell in love with Virginia, the daughter of Virginius, who was serving as a centurion on Mount Algidus. Because he was unable to seduce her, he bribed a client to claim her as his slave, thinking that he would easily succeed in the claim, as he was both the accuser and the witness. When the father learnt of the situation on the day of the trial and saw that his daughter had already been given to them, he asked to have a final conversation with her in private, and then took her aside and killed her. Carrying her body on his shoulders, he went off to the army and roused the soldiers to avenge the crime. They appointed ten tribunes, occupied the Aventine, forced the decemvirs to resign from office, and punished them all with either death or exile. Appius Claudius was killed in prison.
[22] L On the advice of an oracular response due to a pestilence, the Romans sent ten envoys, led by Q. Ogulnius , to bring Aesculapius from Epidaurus. When they arrived and were marvelling at his huge statue, a venerable, but not terrifying, snake slipped out of his sanctuary. It made its way through the city, causing everyone to be astonished, and headed to the Roman ship, where it settled in Ogulnius' tent. The envoys, carrying the god with them, sailed to Antium, where the snake crossed the calm water and sought the nearby shrine of Aesculapius. After a few days it returned to the ship and, while it was being carried against the flow of the Tiber, it leaped onto a nearby island where a temple was built for it; and then with extraordinary speed the pestilence abated.
[23] L When Furius Camillus was besieging the Faliscans, an elementary school teacher brought the sons of the leading men to him. Camillus handed him over to be led back into the city and to be beaten by the same boys. Immediately the Faliscans surrendered to him because of his great righteousness. He subdued Veii in a winter siege and triumphed over them. Later an accusation was made against him that he had triumphed with white horses and that he had unfairly divided the spoils. He was brought to trial by Apuleius Saturninus, a tribune of the plebs; he was condemned and went into exile in Ardea. Soon afterwards, when the Gallic Senones left their barren lands and besieged the town of Clusium in Italy, three Fabii were sent from Rome to tell the Gauls to withdraw from the siege. One of them, against the laws of nations, went into battle and killed the leader of the Senones. The Gauls, angered by this, demanded the surrender of the envoys; and when their request was denied, they marched towards Rome and defeated the Roman army at the river Allia, on the 18th day of July; this day was declared a day of ill omen {nefastus}. known as the day of Allia. The victorious Gauls entered the city; at first they revered like gods the noble elders, who sat in their curule chairs with their insignia of office, but then they despised them as mere men and killed them. The remaining young men, along with Manlius, fled to the Capitol, where they were besieged but then saved by the virtue of Camillus. Camillus was appointed dictator in his absence; he gathered the remaining forces and massacred the Gauls in an unexpected attack. He prevented the Roman people from migrating to Veii, and thus he restored both the town to its citizens and the citizens to their town.
[24] L Manlius, named Capitolinus for defending the Capitol, offered himself as a volunteer soldier at the age of sixteen. He was decorated with thirty-seven military awards by his leaders, and he had twenty-three scars on his body. When the city was captured, he was the one who persuaded the men to seek refuge in the Capitol. One night, he was awakened by the noise of a goose, and threw down the Gauls who were climbing up. He was hailed by the citizens as their patron, and given a gift of spelt. He also received a house on the Capitol at public expense. Puffed up with pride, he was accused by the senate of having hidden away the Gallic treasures, and he released bound debtors with his own money. He was imprisoned on a charge of seeking to become king, but was released with the consent of the people. He was accused again, when he persisted even more seriously in the same crime, but the trial was adjourned because the Capitol could still be seen. Then he was brought to trial in a different location; he was convicted, and thrown off the Tarpeian Rock. His house was demolished, and his property was confiscated. His family abandoned the cognomen of Manlius.
[25] L The Fidenates, ancient enemies of the Romans, killed the envoys sent to them, in order to fight more bravely because they had no hope of pardon. Quinctius Cincinnatus was sent as dictator against them. Cornelius Cossus , his magister equitum, killed Lars Tolumnius, the leader of the Fidenates, with his own hand. He then dedicated the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius, the second to do this after Romulus.
[26] L When Publius Decius Mus was a military tribune, under the consuls Valerius Maximus and Cornelius Cossus during the Samnite War, the army was trapped by the enemy in the narrow passes of Mount Gaurus. After receiving the troops that he requested, he managed to escape to higher ground and terrified the enemy. He himself escaped unharmed through the sleeping guards in the dead of night. For this, he was awarded the civic crown by the army. As consul in the Latin War, together with his colleague Manlius Torquatus, he set up camp near the river Veseris. Both consuls had dreams predicting victory, but only if the leader fell in battle. Decius, after comparing dreams with his colleague, agreed with him that the one whose wing faltered in battle, would devote himself to the gods of the underworld. When his own part of the line started to give way, Decius devoted himself and the enemy to the gods of the underworld, with the aid of Valerius the pontifex. He charged into the enemy, and left the victory to his own army.
[27] L Publius Decius , son of Decius, in his first consulship triumphed over the Samnites and consecrated their spoils to Ceres. In his second and third consulships, he achieved much in both domestic and military affairs. In his fourth consulship, when Fabius Maximus was his colleague, the Gauls, Samnites, Umbrians, and Etruscans conspired against the Romans. Decius led the army into battle, and when his wing started to give way, he emulated his father's example. He summoned the pontifex Marcus Livius and vowed himself and the enemies to the gods of the underworld reciting the solemn words while leaning on a spear. He charged into the enemy, and left the victory to his own army. His body was given a magnificent burial, with a eulogy from his colleague.
[28] L Titus Manlius Torquatus had been relegated to the countryside by his father, because of the slowness of his intellect and the difficulty he had in speaking. One day he learned that the tribune of the plebs Pomponius was bringing his father to trial. He went off at once, entered the city by night, and obtained a private interview with the tribune. Then he drew his sword and forced the tribune in great terror to abandon the accusation. When Sulpicius was dictator, as military tribune he killed a Gallic challenger. He placed the torque that he had taken from him around his own neck. As consul he executed his own son with an axe, because he had fought against his orders. He defeated the Latins at the river Veseris, when his colleague Decius devoted himself. He later declined the consulship, saying that neither could he tolerate the vices of the people nor could the people tolerate his severity.
[29] L When Camillus was pursuing the remnants of the Senones, the military tribune Valerius advanced alone against a huge Gallic challenger, although everyone else was terrified. A crow coming from the rising sun landed on his helmet and pecked at the face and eyes of the Gaul during the fight. Valerius defeated the enemy and was named Corvinus. Then, when a huge crowd, burdened with debt, tried to occupy Capua under the leadership of Quinctius, whom they had forced to take the command, Valerius took on the debts and suppressed the tumult.
[30] L The consuls Titus Veturius and Spurius Postumius, while waging war against the Samnites, were led into an ambush by the enemy commander Pontius Telesinus; he sent pretended deserters to the Romans, who reported that Luceria in Apulia was being besieged by the Samnites. Two roads led there, one longer and safer, the other shorter and more dangerous. In their haste the Romans chose the shorter route, and Pontius caught them in an ambush at a place called the Caudine Forks. He then summoned his father Herennius and asked what should be done. His father said that either all of them should be killed, to break their strength, or all should be released to win their goodwill. Pontius rejected both suggestions, and sent them all the Romans under the yoke after making a treaty, which was later disavowed by the Romans. Postumius was surrendered to the Samnites, but they did not accept him.
[31] L Lucius Papirius, known as Cursor for his swiftness, upon learning as consul that he had advanced against the Samnites despite unfavourable omens, returned to Rome to repeat the auspices. He ordered Fabius Rullus, whom he had placed in command of the army, not to engage in battle with the enemy. But Fabius, prompted by an opportunity, did fight. When Papirius returned, he wanted to execute him; Fabius fled to the city, but the tribunes did not protect him as a supplicant. Then his father through his tears and the people through their prayers obtained his pardon. Papirius triumphed over the Samnites. He also severely rebuked the praetor of Praenestine, and said "Lictor, untie the axes". When he saw the praetor terrified by the fear of death, he ordered the lictor to cut out a tree root which was an obstruction to walkers.
[32] L Quinctus Fabius Rullianus, the first of that family to be called Maximus on account of his virtue, as magister equitum narrowly escaped being executed by Papirius after the victory over the Samnites. He triumphed first over the Apulians and Nucerians, then over the Samnites, and for the third time over the Gauls, Umbrians, Marsians, and Etruscans. As censor, he removed freedmen from the tribes. He refused to become censor again, saying that it was not in the interest of the state for the same individuals to hold the office of censor more than once. He was the first man to establish the custom that on the Ides of July the Roman knights, riding on horseback, cross over from the Temple of Honour to the Capitol. Upon his death, so much money was collected through the generosity of the people that his son was able to provide a public distribution of meat and a banquet.
[33] L Marcus Curius Dentatus first triumphed over the Samnites, when he pacified them all the way to the upper sea. Upon returning to the assembly, he said: "I have taken so much land that it would have become a wilderness, had I not taken so many people; and I have taken so many people that they would have perished from hunger, had I not taken so much land." He triumphed again over the Sabines. For the third time, he entered the city in triumph over the Lucanians. He drove Pyrrhus of Epirus out of Italy. He distributed forty iugera of land individually among the people. He then assigned the same amount to himself, saying that no one should need more than that. When the Samnites' envoys offered him gold, while he was roasting turnips on his hearth, he said: "I prefer to have these in my earthenware dishes and to command those who have gold." When he was accused of misusing money, he brought out a wooden bowl that he used for sacrifices, and swore that he had not brought more than that from the enemy's spoils to his home. With funds from the enemy's spoils, he brought water from the Anio River into the city. As tribune of the plebs, he forced the senators to approve the elections in which plebeian magistrates were chosen. For these merits, he received a public gift of a house in Tiphata and five hundred iugera of land.
[34] L Appius Claudius Caecus included even freedmen as members of the Senate during his censorship. He deprived the flute-players of the right to feast and sing in public. [ Two families were assigned to the rites of Hercules, the Potitii and the Pinarii. ] He bribed the Potitii, the priests of Hercules, to teach public slaves the rituals of Hercules, which led to his own blindness and the complete destruction of the Potitii family. He vehemently opposed sharing the consulship with the plebeians. He objected to Fabius being sent to war without a colleague. He subdued the Sabines, Samnites, and Etruscans in battle. He paved a road all the way to Brundisium with stone; hence it is called the Appian Way. He brought the Aqua_Aniensis into the city. He held the office of censor alone for a period of five years. When the question of peace with Pyrrhus was being discussed and his envoy Cineas was seeking to win the favour of influential men through bribes, Appius, now old and blind, was carried in a litter to the Senate; and he eloquently rejected the very dishonourable terms.
[35] L Pyrrhus, king of Epirus , who was descended from Achilles on his father's side, and from Hercules on his mother's side, consulted Apollo about war, when he was hoping to conquer the world but saw that the Romans were powerful opponents. Apollo ambiguously responded:
"I say that you, descendant of Aeacus, the Romans can conquer."
Taking this statement in the sense he wanted, Pyrrhus made war against the Romans with the help of the Tarentines. He perturbed the consul Laevinus at Heraclea by the novelty of his elephants. And when he saw the Romans dying with wounds to their front, he said: "I could soon have conquered the world with such soldiers." When his friends congratulated him, he replied: "What use is such a victory to me, in which I lose the main strength of my army?" He set up camp twenty miles from the city, and returned the captives to Fabricius for free. Seeing the new army of Laevinus, he said that he had the same fate in fighting against the Romans as Hercules had against the Hydra. After being defeated by Curius and Fabricius, he fled to Tarentum, and then crossed over to Sicily. He soon returned to Locri in Italy, and tried to take away the money of Proserpine, but it was lost in a shipwreck. He then returned to Greece, where he was struck down by a blow from a tile while besieging Argos. His body was taken to Antigonus, king of Macedonia, and given a magnificent burial.
[36] L Vulsinii, a noble town in Etruria, almost perished because of its luxury. The slaves, whom its citizens had rashly freed, and then admitted into their senate, conspired to overpower them. After suffering many indignities, they secretly sought help from Rome, and Decius Mus was sent to them. All the freedmen were either imprisoned and killed by him or returned as slaves to their masters.
[37] L Appius Claudius was the brother of Caecus, and was named Caudex after he defeated the Vulsinians. He was sent as consul to free the Mamertines, whose citadel was being besieged by the Carthaginians and Hieron, king of Syracuse. Initially, he crossed the strait in a fishing boat to observe the enemy, and negotiated with the Carthaginian general to withdraw the garrison from the citadel. Returning to Regium, he captured a five-banked enemy ship with infantry forces, and with it he transported a legion to Sicily. He expelled the Carthaginians from Messana and in a battle near Syracuse he accepted the surrender of Hieron, who, terrified by the danger, sought the friendship of the Romans and later proved to be a most faithful ally to them.
[38] L Gnaeus Duellius , who was sent as commander against the Carthaginians in the first Punic War, because he saw that they had great power at sea, built a strong fleet and was the first to introduce boarding bridges of iron, despite the mockery of the enemy; thus, during the fight, he seized the enemy's ships, which were defeated and captured. Himilco, the leader of the Carthaginian fleet, fled to Carthage and asked the senate what they thought he should do. When everyone shouted that he should fight, he said, "That is what I did, and I was defeated." In this way he evaded the punishment of crucifixion; for among the Carthaginians, unsuccessful commanders were punished by crucifixion. Duellius was granted the right of returning home from dinner with a torchbearer and a flute player leading the way, at public expense.
[39] L Atilius Calatinus , who was sent as commander against the Carthaginians, expelled the enemy's garrisons from the very large and well fortified cities of Enna, Drepanum, and Lilybaeum. He captured Panormus. After roaming all over Sicily, with a few ships he defeated a large enemy fleet led by Hamilcar . But when he hurried to relieve the besieged city of Catina, he was trapped by the Carthaginians in a narrow pass. There, the military tribune Calpurnius Flamma, with three hundred companions, climbed to a higher position and rescued the consul, although he himself fell fighting along with his three hundred men. When Calpurnius recovered after being found half-dead by Atilius, he was a great terror to the enemies. Atilius celebrated a glorious triumph.
[40] L Marcus Atilius Regulus , as consul, defeated the Sallentini and celebrated a triumph. He was the first Roman commander to lead a fleet to Africa. He captured sixty-three Carthaginian warships after defeating Hamilcar. He captured two hundred towns and two hundred thousand people. While he was away, his wife and children were maintained by public funds because of their poverty. Soon afterwards, he was captured by the skill of Xanthippus, a Spartan mercenary, and confined to prison. When he was sent as an envoy to Rome to negotiate the exchange of captives, having taken an oath that he would not return unless he was successful, he persuaded the senate not to accept the terms. He left the embraces of his wife and children, and returned to Carthage, where he was thrown into a wooden chest that had nails driven inwards, and punished with sleeplessness and pain.
[41] L Quintus Lutatius Catulus, after setting out with three hundred ships against the Carthaginians in the first Punic War, sank or captured six hundred of their ships laden with supplies and other cargo, under the command of Hanno, near the Aegates Islands between Sicily and Africa; and thereby he brought the war to an end. He granted peace on the condition that the Carthaginians should withdraw from Sicily, Sardinia, and the other islands between Italy and Africa, and stay away from Spain on this side of the river Ebro.
[42] L Hannibal , son of Hamilcar, when he was nine years old, was brought to the altars by his father, and swore that he would have perpetual hatred against the Romans. From then on, he was a companion and soldier in his father's military campaigns. After his father's death, since he was seeking a pretext for war, he destroyed Saguntum, a city allied to the Romans, within six months. Then, after crossing the Alps into Italy, he defeated P. Scipio at Ticinus, Sempronius Longus at Trebia, Flaminius at Trasimene, and Paullus and Varro at Cannae. When he could have captured the city, he turned towards Campania, where he grew slack from its luxuries; and when he did set up camp three miles from the city, he was driven back by storms. He was first frustrated by Fabius Maximus, then repulsed by Valerius Flaccus, then put to flight by Gracchus and Marcellus, and then recalled to Africa, where he was defeated by Scipio. He fled to Antiochus, king of Syria, and made him an enemy of the Romans. After Antiochus was defeated, he went off to king Prusias of Bithynia; and, when a Roman delegation sought to take him from there, he took the poison, which he kept under a gem in his ring, and was placed in a stone coffin in Libyssa, on which is inscribed to this day: 'Here lies Hannibal'.
[43] L Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, nicknamed Verrucosus due to a wart on his lips, and Ovicula due to his mild character, triumphed as consul over the Ligurians. He broke the power of Hannibal by delaying. He permitted Minucius, the magister equitum, to share equal command with himself, but came to his aid when Minucius was in danger. He trapped Hannibal in the Falernian territory. He prevented Marius Statilius from defecting to the enemy by giving him a horse and weapons; and to a very brave Lucanian man, who was frequently absent because of his love for a woman, he gave the same woman as a gift, after buying her. He retook Tarentum from the enemy and transferred a statue of Hercules from there, which he dedicated on the Capitol. He negotiated the ransom of captives with the enemy; when the agreement was rejected by the senate, he sold his estate for two hundred thousand sesterces and fulfilled his promise.
[44] L Publius Scipio Nasica was judged by the senate to be the best of men, and received the Mother of the Gods as a guest. When he learned that he had been proclaimed as consul by Gracchus against the auspices, he resigned from office. As censor, he removed the statues that some ambitious persons were setting up in the forum. As consul, he captured Delminium, a city of the Dalmatians. He refused the title of imperator offered by the soldiers and the triumph offered by the senate. He was the pre-eminent in eloquence, most knowledgeable in law, and very wise in character; hence he was commonly called Corculum {"Sage"}.
[45] L Marcus Marcellus defeated Viridomarus, the leader of the Gauls, in single combat. He dedicated the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius, the third to do so after Romulus. He was the first to teach soldiers how to yield ground without turning their backs. He showed how Hannibal could be defeated, with the help of the narrowness of the locality near Nola. He besieged Syracuse for three years. When a triumph was denied to him by the senate due to intrigue, of his own accord he triumphed on the Alban Mount. As consul for the fifth time, he was trapped in an ambush by Hannibal, and given a magnificently burial. His bones were sent back to Rome, but they were intercepted by robbers and lost.
[46] L While Hannibal was devastating Italy, the Mother of the gods was summoned from Pessinus, in accordance with the response of the Sibylline Books. When she was being carried against the flow of the Tiber, she suddenly came to a standstill in the middle of the sea. And when she could not be moved by any amount of force, it was discovered in the books that she could only be moved by the hand of the most chaste woman. Then the Vestal Virgin Claudia , who was falsely suspected of incest, prayed to the goddess that, if she recognised that she was pure, the goddess would follow her; and attaching her belt to the ship, she moved it. While the temple was being built, the statue of the Mother of the Gods was given to Nasica, who was considered to be the best of men, to act as its host.
[47] L Marcus Porcius Cato , whose family lived in Tusculum, was invited to Rome by Valerius Flaccus. He was a military tribune in Sicily, a very brave quaestor under Scipio, and a very just praetor; during his praetorship, he subjugated Sardinia, where he was educated in Greek literature by Ennius. As consul, he defeated the Celtiberians and, to prevent them from rebelling, he sent letters to each city ordering them to demolish their walls. Each city thought that it alone was receiving the command, and complied. In the war against the Syrians, as military tribune under M. Acilius Glabrio, he drove away the enemy garrison from the heights of Thermopylae. As censor, he removed from the senate L. Flaminius, a former consul, because, in order to provide a spectacle for a courtesan, he had ordered a man to be brought out of prison and then strangled at a banquet in Gaul. Cato was the first to build a basilica in his own name. He resisted the matrons who demanded the repeal of the Oppian Law, which took away their ornaments. He was a tireless prosecutor of evil men, and he prosecuted Galba when he was eighty years old. He himself was prosecuted forty-four times, and always acquitted with honour. He proposed that Carthage should be destroyed. He had a son when he was eighty years old. His image is often displayed at funerals.
[48] L Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, crossed from Spain to Italy at the head of a large army, and Roman power would have been ended if he had been able to join Hannibal. On hearing of his approach, Claudius Nero , who was encamped in Apulia, a short distance from Hannibal, left part of his army in the camp, and immediately marched with picked troops to confront Hasdrubal. After he joined his colleague Livius near the city of Sena and the banks of the Metaurus, together they completely defeated Hasdrubal. After this victory Nero returned to his camp with as much speed as he had left, and cast Hasdrubal's head at the bottom of his brother's rampart. When he saw this, Hannibal admitted that he had been defeated by the bad fortune of Carthage. As a reward for this, Livius entered the city of Rome in a triumph, and Nero entered in an ovation.
[49] L Publius Scipio , called Africanus on account of his virtue, was believed to be the son of Jupiter, because when he was conceived, a snake appeared in his mother's bed, and a serpent surrounded the infant himself, but did no harm. When he went to the Capitol in the dead of night, dogs never barked at him. He did nothing before he had sat for a long time in Jupiter's shrine, as if receiving divine thoughts. At the age of eighteen, he saved his father at Ticinus with extraordinary courage. By his authority he restrained the young noblemen who wanted to abandon Italy after the disaster at Cannae. He led the remnants safely through the enemy camp to Canusium.
At the age of twenty-four, he was sent as praetor to Spain and captured New Carthage on the day he arrived. He refused to allow a very beautiful maiden to be brought to him, although everyone rushed to see her, and stood as surety for her father. He drove Hasdrubal and Mago, Hannibal's brothers, out of Spain. He established friendship with Syphax, king of the Moors, and he received Massinissa as an ally. He returned home victorious, and was appointed consul before the normal time. He then crossed over with a fleet to Africa, as his colleague yielded to him. He broke into the camps of Hasdrubal and Syphax in a single night. He defeated Hannibal, who had been recalled from Italy. He imposed terms on the defeated Carthaginians. In the war against Antiochus, he went as legate to his brother and received back his captured son without ransom. When he was accused of extortion by the tribune of the plebs Petillius Actaeus, he tore up the account book in the sight of the people. "On this day," he said, "I conquered Carthage; therefore, for good fortune, let us go to the Capitol and supplicate the gods!" Then he went into voluntary exile, where he spent the rest of his life. When he was dying, he asked his wife not to have his body taken back to Rome.
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