CHAP. 29. (28.)—INSTANCES OF EXTREME COURAGE.
A minute enquiry by whom the greatest valour has ever
been exhibited, would lead to an endless discussion, more especially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted.
Q. Ennius admired T. Cæcilius Denter[1] and his brother to such a
degree, that on their account he added a sixteenth book to his
Annals. L. Siccius Dentatus, who was tribune of the people
in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and A. Aterius,[2] not
long after the expulsion of the kings, has also very numerous
testimonies in his favour. This hero fought one hundred and
twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and
was graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body,
without one on the back. The same man also carried off
thirty-four spoils,[3] was eighteen times presented with the victor's spear,[4] and received twenty-five pendants,[5] eighty-three
torcs,[6] one hundred and sixty bracelets,[7] twenty-six crowns,
(of which fourteen were civic, eight golden, three mural, and
one obsidional), a fisc[8] of money, ten prisoners, and twenty
oxen altogether.[9] He followed in the triumphal processions
of nine generals, who mainly owed their victories to his exertions; besides all which, a thing that I look upon as the most
important of all his services, he denounced to the people T.
Romilius,[10] one of the generals of the army, at the end of his
consulship, and had him convicted of having made an improper
use of his authority.[11]
The military honours of Manlius Capitolinus would have
been no less splendid than his, if they had not been all effaced
at the close of his life. Before his seventeenth year, he had
gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown; he also gained six civic crowns, thirty seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the fore-part of
his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of the
horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in the shoulders
and the thigh. Besides all this, unaided, he saved the Capitol,
when it was attacked by the Gauls, and through that, the
state itself; a thing that would have been the most glorious
act of all, if he had not so saved it, in order that he might, as
its king, become its master.[12] But in all matters of this nature,
although valour may effect much, fortune does still more.
No person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled M.
Sergius,[13] although his great-grandson, Catiline, tarnished the
honours of his name. In his second campaign he lost his right
hand; and in two campaigns he was wounded three and twenty
times; so much so, that he could scarcely use either his hands
or his feet; still, attended by a single slave, he afterwards
served in many campaigns, though but an invalided soldier.
He was twice taken prisoner by Hannibal, (for it was with no
ordinary enemy that he would engage,) and twice did he escape
from his captivity, after having been kept, without a single
day's intermission, in chains and fetters for twenty months.
On four occasions he fought with his left hand alone, two horses
being slain under him. He had a right hand made of iron,
and attached to the stump, after which he fought a battle, and
raised the siege of Cremona, defended Placentia, and took
twelve of the enemy's camps in Gaul. All this we learn from
an oration of his, which he delivered when, in his prætorship,
his colleagues attempted to exclude him from the sacred rites,
on the ground of his infirmities.[14] What heaps upon heaps of
crowns would he have piled up, if he had only had other enemies! For, in matters of this nature, it is of the first importance to consider upon what times in especial the valour of
each man has fallen. What civic crowns did Trebia, what
did the Ticinus, what did Lake Thrasymenus afford? What
crown was there to be gained at Cannæ, where it was deemed
the greatest effort of valour to have escaped[15] from the enemy?
Other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but
Sergius[16] conquered even Fortune herself.[17]
1. There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining who was the
individual here referred to; the subject is discussed at some length by
Hardouin, who shows that it is probable, that it was Lucius Cæcilius, who
was slain in a battle with the Gauls, A.U.C. 470, and in the consulship of
Dolabella and Domitius.—B.
2. The name of this consul has been the subject of much discussion
among the commentators. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, has been referred to, as
calling him Atermius; but in some of the best editions, he is named Aterius. The tribunate of Dentatus took place A.U.C. 299, fifty-five years after
the expulsion of the kings.—B.
3. When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armour and dress,
which might bear testimony to the victory; this was termed the "spolium."
—B.
4. "Hasta pura;" these words, according to Hardouin, signify a lance
without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained
the first victory in a battle; it was also regarded as an emblem of supreme
power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over
another.—B.
5. "Phaleris." These were bosses, discs or crescents of metal, sometimes gold, They were mostly used in pairs, and as ornaments for the
helmet; but we more commonly read of them as attached to the harness of horses, and worn as pendants from the head, so as to produce a terrific
effect when shaken by the rapid movements of the horse.
6. The "torques" was an ornament of gold, twisted spirally and bent
into a circular form, and worn among the upper classes of the Persians,
the Gauls, and other Asiatic and northern nations. They are often found
both in France and Ireland, as well as in this country, but varying greatly
in size and weight.
7. Golden "armillæ," or bracelets, were worn by the Gauls on the arms
and the legs. The Sabines also wore them on the left arm, at the time of
the foundation of Rome.
8. The word "fiscus" signifies a wicker basket or pannier, probably of
peculiar construction, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and
carry about large sums of money. In process of time the word came to
signify a treasure or money-chest.
9. We have nearly the same detail of the honours bestowed on Dentatus
by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 2. Pliny again speaks of Dentatus, and the
honours bestowed upon him, B. xxii. c. 5; and especially notices the "corona graminea," the grass or obsidional crown, as the highest of his honours. The different kinds of honorary crowns are very fully described in
B. xvi. c. 3, 4, and 5; in B. xxii. c. 4, we have a particular account of
the "corona graminea;" in c. 5, mention is made of its having been given
to Dentatus, and, in the next, other individuals are enumerated to whom it
had been presented.—B.
10. T. Romilius Rocus Vaticanus was consul B.C. 455. Having defeated the Æqui, and gained immense booty, instead of distributing it
among the soldiers, he and his colleague sold it, on account of the poverty
of the treasury. They were, in consequence, brought to trial, and Veturius
was sentenced to pay 10,000 asses. He was, however, elected augur in
453, as some compensation for the ill-treatment he had experienced.
11. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, gives an account of the conviction of Romilius, but
says, that it was effected by C. Claudius Cicero, the tribune of the people.
To obviate the discordance in the names, some commentators have proposed to substitute the words "Lucio Siccio" for "Claudio Cicerone."—B.
12. We have an account of the victories, honours, and unfortunate fate of
Manlius in Livy, B. vi. c. 14—20. In enumerating the honours conferred
upon him, the numbers are given somewhat differently in c. 20; thirty
spoils of enemies slain, forty donations from the generals, two mural and
eight civic crowns.—B.
13. M. Sergius Silus. He was one of the city prætors B.C. 197.
14. Among the Jews and other nations of antiquity, it was considered an
essential point for the priests to be without blemish, perfect and free from
disease.—B.
15. In allusion to the compliment paid by the senate to the consul, M.
Terentius Varro, by whose rashness the battle of Cannæ was lost. On his
escape and safe return to Rome, instead of visiting him with censure,
he received the thanks of the senate, "that he had not despaired of the
republic."
16. It appears somewhat remarkable, considering the extraordinary acts
of valour here enumerated, as performed by Sergius, that we hear so little
of him from other sources.—B.
17. Hardouin takes the meaning to be, that though ill fortune overtook
the Romans in their wars with Hannibal, nevertheless Sergius defeated
Fortune herself, in dying before his country was overwhelmed by those
calamities.