16.
The consulship of Marcus Valerius and1 Publius Postumius. This year a successful war was waged against the Sabines, and the consuls triumphed. More elaborate preparations for war were then made by the Sabines.
[2]
To confront them, and to prevent any sudden peril arising from Tusculum, in which quarter hostility, though not openly avowed, was none the [p. 271]less suspected, Publius Valerius was made consul for2 the fourth time and Titus Lucretius for the second.
[3]
A schism which occurred between the advocates of war and those of peace amongst the Sabines resulted in the transfer of some part of their strength to the Romans.
[4]
For Attius Clausus, afterwards known at Rome as Appius Claudius, himself a champion of peace, was hard bested by the turbulent war-party, and finding himself no match for them, left Inregillus, with a large band of clients, and fled to Rome. These people were made citizens and given land across the Anio.
[5]
The “Old Claudian Tribe” was the name used later, when new tribesmen had been added, to designate those who came from this territory.3 Appius, having been enrolled in the senate, came in a short time to be regarded as one of its leading members.
[6]
The consuls led an army into the country of the Sabines, and by wasting their fields, and afterwards by a battle, so crushed the enemy's strength that there could be no fear for a long time of any outbreak of hostilities in that region.
[7]
They then returned to Rome and triumphed. Publius Valerius, universally regarded as the foremost citizen, both in military and in civil qualities, died in the following year, when Agrippa Menenius and Publius Postumius were consuls. He was a man of extraordinary reputation, but so poor that money was wanting for his burial, and it was furnished from the treasury of the state.
[8]
He was mourned by the matrons as Brutus had been. In the same year two Latin colonies, Pometia and Cora, revolted to the Aurunci. The [p. 273]Aurunci were the first to be attacked. Upon the4 defeat of the great army which had boldly issued forth to meet the invasion of their territory by the consuls, the whole weight of the Auruncan war fell upon Pometia.
[9]
After the battle, as well as during its progress, no quarter was given. The slain had somewhat outnumbered the prisoners, and the prisoners were indiscriminately slaughtered. Even the hostages, of whom three hundred had been received, were not spared in the rage of war.5 This year also a triumph was celebrated at Rome.
1 B.C. 505-503
2 B.C. 505-503
3 By 241 B.C. the number of tribes had grown to thirty-five. After this date no new tribes were added, but newly incorporated districts were assigned to one or another of the already existing tribes. Thus certain members of the Claudian Tribe lived elsewhere than in the district “across the Anio,” and those who came to Rome for elections from the original seat of the tribe were called the “Old Claudian Tribe.” See note in Conway's edition of this Book.
4 B.C. 505-503
5 Livy has nowhere told us about these hostages. In chap. xxii. 2 the same towns give the same number of hostages. Obviously he has made distinct episodes out of different versions of the same story, misled no doubt by the different dates assigned by different annalists to the affair of Pometia.
Livy. Books I and II With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
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