Livy - THE HISTORY OF ROME (Complete Edition in 4 Volumes)

Before they parted from thence, when Mettus, in conformity to the treaty which had been concluded, asked what orders he had to give, Tullus orders him to keep the youth in arms, that he designed to employ them, if a war should break out with the Veientes. After this both armies returned to their homes. Horatius marched foremost, carrying before him the spoils of the three brothers: his sister, a maiden who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii, met him before the gate Capena: and having recognized her lover's military robe, which she herself had wrought, on her brother's shoulders, she tore her hair, and with bitter wailings called by name on her deceased lover. The sister's lamentations in the midst of his own victory, and of such great public rejoicings, raised the indignation of the excited youth. Having therefore drawn his sword, he run the damsel through the body, at the same time chiding her in these words: "Go hence, with thy unseasonable love to thy spouse, forgetful of thy dead brothers, and of him who survives, forgetful of thy native country. So perish every Roman woman who shall mourn an enemy." This action seemed shocking to the fathers and to the people; but his recent services outweighed its guilt. Nevertheless he was carried before the king for judgment. The king, that he himself might not be the author of a decision so melancholy, and so disagreeable to the people, or of the punishment consequent on that decision, having summoned an assembly of the people, says, "I appoint, according to law, duumvirs to pass sentence on Horatius for35 treason." The law was of dreadful import.36"Let the duumvirs pass sentence for treason. If he appeal from the duumvirs, let him contend by appeal; if they shall gain the cause,37 cover his head; hang him by a rope from a gallows; scourge him either within the pomœrium or without the pomœrium." When the duumvirs appointed by this law, who did not consider that, according to the law, they could38acquit even an innocent person, had found him guilty; one of them says, "P. Horatius, I judge thee guilty of treason. Go, lictor, bind his hands." The lictor had approached him, and was fixing the rope. Then Horatius, by the advice of Tullus,39 a favourable interpreter of the law, says, "I appeal." Accordingly the matter was contested by appeal to the people. On that trial persons were much affected, especially by P. Horatius the father declaring, that he considered his daughter deservedly slain; were it not so, that he would by his authority as a father have inflicted punishment on his son.40 He then entreated that they would not render childless him whom but a little while ago they had beheld with a fine progeny. During these words the old man, having embraced the youth, pointing to the spoils of the Curiatii fixed up in that place which is now called Pila Horatia, "Romans," said he, "can you bear to see bound beneath a gallows amidst scourges and tortures, him whom you just now beheld marching decorated (with spoils) and exulting in victory; a sight so shocking as the eyes even of the Albans could scarcely endure. Go, lictor, bind those hands, which but a little while since, being armed, established sovereignty for the Roman people. Go, cover the head of the liberator of this city; hang him on the gallows; scourge him, either within the pomœrium, so it be only amid those javelins and spoils of the enemy; or without the pomœrium, only amid the graves of the Curiatii. For whither can you bring this youth, where his own glories must not redeem him from such ignominy of punishment?" The people could not withstand the tears of the father, or the resolution of the son, so undaunted in every danger; and acquitted him more through admiration of his bravery, than for the justice of his cause. But that so notorious a murder might be atoned for by some expiation, the father was commanded to make satisfaction for the son at the public charge. He, having offered certain expiatory sacrifices, which were ever after continued in the Horatian family, and laid a beam across the street, made his son pass under it as under a yoke, with his head covered. This remains even to this day, being constantly repaired at the expense of the public; they call it Sororium Tigillum. A tomb of square stone was erected to Horatia in the place where she was stabbed and fell.

Nor did the peace with Alba continue long. The dissatisfaction of the populace, because the fortune of the state had been hazarded on three soldiers, perverted the weak mind of the dictator; and because honourable measures had not turned out well, he began to conciliate their affections by perfidious means. Accordingly, as one formerly seeking peace in war, so now seeking war in peace, because he perceived that his own state possessed more courage than strength, he stirs up other nations to make war openly and by proclamation:41 for his own people he reserves treachery under the mask of alliance. The Fidenates, a Roman colony, having gained over the Veientes as partisans in the confederacy, are instigated to declare war and take up arms under a compact of desertion on the part of the Albans. When Fidenæ had openly42 revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettus and his army from Alba, marches against the enemy. When he crossed the Anio, he pitches his camp at the43conflux of the rivers. Between that place and Fidenæ, the army of the Veientes had crossed the Tiber. These, in line of battle, occupied the right wing near the river; the Fidenates are posted on the left nearer the mountains. Tullus stations his own men opposite the Veientian foe; the Albans he opposes to the legion of the Fidenates. The Alban had not more courage than fidelity. Neither daring therefore to keep his ground, nor to desert openly, he files off slowly to the mountains. After this, when he supposed he had gone far enough, he44 halts his entire army; and being still irresolute in mind, in order to waste time, he opens his ranks. His design was, to turn his forces to that side to which fortune should give success. At first the Romans who stood nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks were uncovered by the departure of their allies; then a horseman in full gallop announces to the king that the Albans were moving off. Tullus, in this perilous juncture, vowed twelve Salii, and temples to Paleness and Panic. Rebuking the horseman in a loud voice, so that the enemy might hear him, he orders him to return to the fight, "that there was no occasion for alarm; that by his order the Alban army was marching round to fall on the unprotected rear of the Fidenates." He likewise commands him to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; this expedient intercepted from a great part of the Roman infantry the view of the Alban army retreating. Those who saw it, believing what they had heard the king say, fought with the greater ardour. The alarm is now transferred to the enemy; they had both heard what had been pronounced so audibly, and a great part of the Fidenates, as having been joined as colonists to the Romans, understood Latin. Therefore, that they might not be intercepted from the town by a sudden descent of the Albans from the hills, they take to flight. Tullus presses forward, and having routed the wing of the Fidenates, returned with greater fury against the Veientes, disheartened by the panic of the others: nor did they sustain his charge; but the river, opposed to them behind, prevented a precipitate flight. Whither when their flight led, some, shamefully throwing down their arms, rushed blindly into the river; others, while they linger on the banks, doubting whether to fly or fight, were overpowered. Never before had the Romans a more desperate battle.

Then the Alban army, that had been spectators of the fight, was marched down into the plains. Mettus congratulates Tullus on his defeat of the enemy; Tullus on his part addresses Mettus with great civility. He orders the Albans to unite their camp with the Romans, which he prayed might prove beneficial to both; and prepares a sacrifice of purification for the next day. As soon as it was light, all things being in readiness, according to custom, he commands both armies to be summoned to an assembly. The heralds,45 beginning at the outside, summoned the Albans first. They, struck46 too with the novelty of the thing, in order to hear the Roman king harangue, crowded next to him. The Roman legions, under arms, by concert surrounded them; a charge had been given to the centurions to execute their orders without delay. Then Tullus begins as follows: "Romans, if ever before at any other time in any war there was (an occasion) on which you should return thanks, first to the immortal gods, next to your own valour, that occasion was yesterday's battle. For the contest was not more with enemies than with the treachery and perfidy of allies, a contest which is more serious and more dangerous. For that a false opinion may not influence you, the Albans retired to the mountains without my orders, nor was that my command, but a stratagem and the pretence of a command: that so your attention might not be drawn away from the fight, you being kept in ignorance that you were deserted, and that terror and dismay might be struck into the enemy, conceiving themselves to be surrounded on the rear. Nor does that guilt, which I now state, extend to all the Albans. They followed their leader; as you too would have done, if I had wished my army to make a move to any other point from thence. Mettus there is the leader of that march, the same Mettus is the contriver of this war; Mettus is the violator of the treaty between Rome and Alba. Let another hereafter attempt the like conduct, unless I now make of him a signal example to mankind." The centurions in arms stand round Mettus, and the king proceeds with the rest as he had commenced: "It is my intention, and may it prove fortunate, auspicious, and happy to the Roman people, to myself, and to you, O Albans, to transplant all the inhabitants of Alba to Rome: to grant your people the rights of citizenship, and to admit your nobles into the rank of senators: to make one city, one republic; that as the Alban state was formerly divided from one people into two, so it may now return into one." On hearing this the Alban youth, unarmed, surrounded by armed men, however divided in their sentiments, yet restrained by the common apprehension, continue silent. Then Tullus proceeded: "If, Mettus Fuffetius, you were capable of learning fidelity, and how to observe treaties, that lesson would have been taught you by me, while still alive. Now, since your disposition is incurable, do you at least by your punishment teach mankind to consider those things sacred which have been violated by you. As therefore a little while since you kept your mind divided between the interest of Fidenæ and of Rome, so shall you now surrender your body to be torn asunder in different directions." Upon this, two chariots drawn by four horses being brought, he ties Mettus extended at full length to their carriages: then the horses were driven on in different directions, carrying off the mangled body on each carriage, where the limbs had been fastened by the cords. All turned away their eyes from so shocking a spectacle. That was the first and last instance of a punishment among the Romans regardless of the laws of humanity. In other cases we may boast that no nation whatever adopted milder forms of punishment.