trieve his doubted honor.35 The old man, accordingly, joined the army. His counsels and his son's awakened energies brought about an action altogether favorable to the Roman arms; and a triumph was soon celebrated in the city, which none who witnessed it could behold unmoved. Close behind the chariot of the Consul, as he was borne up towards the Capitol, rode his lieutenants, as was the wont in any triumphal march; but among them was the father, as was never the wont at any time, following his son with the same affectionate spirit that he had shown in his excuse before the Senate and in his service on the field.36 The nearness of extremes, however, was never more apparent than on that day of general rejoicing, when Caius Pontius, the heroic Samnite general, was led aside from the triumphal procession, in which he had walked among the captives, as it began to ascend the Capitol, and slain in prison,37 the thank-offering of Fabius Gurges to his father and his applauding countrymen.

All these names belong to the popular party, of whose members, as we have to observe their errors, it is well to know the good that can fairly be as

35 Liv., Epit. XI. Dion Cass., Fragm., XXXVI., ed. Reimar.

36" Triumphantis currum equo insidens sequi, quem ipse parvulum triumphis suis gestaverat, in maxima voluptate posuit." Val. Max., V. 7, sect. 1. The death of Fabius, the father, occurred not long after this time; and every man in Rome is said to have brought contributions

66

to the expenses of the funeral. De Vir. Illust., XXXII. "The old Fabius," says Arnold, with his usual spirit, was the Talbot of the fifth century of Rome; and his personal prowess, even in his old age, was no less celebrated than his skill as a general." Hist. Rome, Vol. II. p. 363.

37 Liv., Epit. XI.

cribed to them. We can further judge them by contrast; the opposition of Appius Claudius or of Postumius Megellus being as decisive, negatively, concerning them as the deeds and opinions of Fabius, Decius, or Volumnius are positive testimony in their regard. Postumius Megellus, of great Patrician family, is first mentioned as a Curule Edile,39 who distinguished himself by prosecuting many of the numerous offenders against the laws concerning public lands and usury. He afterwards appears as the object, himself, of a prosecution conducted by a certain Tribune, and as having escaped trial only by being appointed lieutenant to one of the Consuls then taking the field."9 The turbulence of the magistrate or the citizen was the excellence of the warrior, and at three different elections Postumius was returned Consul, towards the close of the former, and twice again during the present wars."

41

once

On his third election, Postumius, somewhat strangely, claimed the charge of the campaign against the Samnites, who were already virtually subdued; and as there was no particular necessity of hurrying his operations, he turned aside from his march to visit some newly conquered lands of which he had got possession. The secret of his choosing the campaign in Samnium was plain; hero as he was, Pos

38 The year of his ædileship, however, is unknown, and I but suppose this office to have been the first of those Postumius is mentioned as having filled. The prosecutions are recorded in Liv., X. 33.

39 Liv., X. 46.

40 A. C. 304. Liv., IX. 44. 41 A. C. 294. Liv., X. 32. A. C. 291. Dion. Hal., Exc., XVI. 15.

42

tumius was also a rich man, to whom gains were better than any laurels. Finding that the new estate needed a great deal of labor to be made productive, he set two thousand of his soldiers upon clearing the woods and preparing 12 for the cultivation or the use to which he liked to put his large domains. At his own time, he led his men forward to Cominium, a town in the centre of the enemy's country, which Fabius Gurges, the Consul, and with his father's aid the victor, of the preceding year, was then besieging, with an army under his orders, as Proconsul. To him Postumius sent forward, bidding him resign his command, which he, the Consul, claimed for himself; but Fabius appealed to the Senate, who straightway despatched some of their own members to prevent Postumius from doing so great an affront to themselves as well as to the Proconsul of their appointment. Postumius replied to the Senators who sought him, that they were not to govern him, but that he was to govern them; 13 and on his arrival at Cominium, he instantly dismissed Fabius from the siege. The town soon surrendered to Postumius; and others besides Cominium were speedily reduced to submission by the skill and gallantry he always showed in his military achievements. At his proposal, a colony was sent to one of the captured cities; but he counted in vain upon the advantageous, perhaps in his case the lucrative, office

τῆς Βουλῆς.

42 Dion. Hal., Exc., XVI. 15. 43 Οὐ τὴν βουλὴν ἄρχειν ἑαυτοῦ, XVI. 16. φήσας, ἕως ἐστὶν ὕπατος, ἀλλ ̓ αὐτὸν

Dion. Hal., Exc.,

successor.

of commissioner to the new settlement; and when he found that others were appointed in his stead, he turned over all the public booty to his soldiers, whom he then disbanded without waiting the arrival of his There were few to declare themselves in his support when he returned to Rome and went through the form of appealing to the people" from the refusal of the Senate to grant him a triumph; and though he did triumph, it was because he was too haughty to yield to any opposition he might have aroused. On being accused, however, of illegal conduct by two of the Tribunes, there was not a Tribe but voted for his condemnation; and he was obliged to submit to the shame and, as it was to him, the misery of an enormous fine.

Curius Dentatus, in many respects the foremost member of the popular party, was a man of very dif ferent mould, though as fierce a warrior.45 Tribune a few years before, he had baffled the designs of Appius Claudius, presiding as Interrex over the consular elections, to prevent the choice of any Plebeian candidate; and he had compelled the whole Patrician party whom Appius led to promise their assent to

44 Livy (X. 37) relates these doings about the triumph in connection with the second consulship of Postumius; but the account of Dionysius (Exc., XVI. 18) is here followed, on account of its greater consistency.

45 His account of his campaign against the Sabines is that of a bar

barian : "Tantum agri cepi, ut

solitudo futura fuerit, nisi tantum hominum cepissem; tantum porro hominum cepi, ut fame perituri fuissent, nisi tantum agri cepissem.” De Vir. Illust., XXXIII. Words which I would not quote except to open another view of the destruction which it was the work of the Romans to accomplish.