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When Hannibal had encamped at the Vulturnus and the loveliest part of Italy was being reduced to ashes and the smoke was rising everywhere from the burning farms, Fabius continued his march along the Massic range of hills. [2] For a few days the mutinous discontent amongst the troops had subsided, because they inferred from the unusually rapid marching that Fabius was hastening to save Campania from being ravaged and plundered. [3] But when they reached the western extremity of the range and saw the enemy burning the farmsteads of the colonists of Sinuessa and those in the Falernian district, while nothing was said about giving battle, the feeling of exasperation was again roused, and studiously fanned by Minucius. "Are we come here" he would ask, "to enjoy the sight of our murdered allies and the smoking ruins of their homes? [4] Surely, if nothing else appeals to us, ought we not to feel ashamed of ourselves as we see the sufferings of those whom our fathers sent as colonists to Sinuessa that this frontier might be protected from the Samnite foe, whose homes are being [5??] burnt not by our neighbours the Samnites but by a Carthaginian stranger from the ends of the earth who has been allowed to come thus far simply through our dilatoriness and supineness? Have we, alas! [6] so far degenerated from our fathers that we calmly look on while the very country, past which they considered it an affront for a Carthaginian fleet to cruise, has now been filled with Numidian and Moorish invaders? [7] We who only the other day in our indignation at the attack on Saguntum appealed not to men alone, but to treaties and to gods, now quietly watch Hannibal scaling the walls of a Roman colony! [8] The smoke from the burning farms and fields is blown into our faces, our ears are assailed by the cries of our despairing allies who appeal to us for help more than they do to the gods, and here are we marching an army like a herd of cattle through summer pastures and mountain paths hidden from view by woods and clouds! [9] If M. Furius Camillus had chosen this method of wandering over mountain heights and passes to rescue the City from the Gauls which has been adopted by this new Camillus, this peerless Dictator who has been found for us in our troubles, to recover Italy from Hannibal, Rome would still be in the hands of the Gauls, and I very much fear that if [10??] we go on dawdling in this way the City which our ancestors have so often saved will only have been saved for Hannibal and the Carthaginians. [11] But on the day that the message came to Veii that Camillus had been nominated Dictator by senate and people, though the Janiculum was quite high enough for him to sit there and watch the enemy, like the man and true Roman that he was, he came down into the plain. and in the very heart of the City where the Busta Gallica are now he cut to pieces the legions of the Gauls, and the next day he did the same beyond Gabii. [12] Why, when years and years ago we were sent under the yoke by the Samnites at the Caudine Forks, was it, pray, by exploring the heights of Samnium or by assailing and besieging Luceria and challenging our victorious foe that L. Papirius Cursor took the yoke off Roman necks and placed it on the haughty Samnite? [13] What else but rapidity of action gave C. Lutatius the victory? The day after he first saw the enemy he surprised their fleet laden with supplies and hampered by its cargo of stores and equipment. [14] It is mere folly to fancy that the war can be brought to an end by sitting still or making vows to heaven. Your duty is to take your arms and go down and meet the enemy man to man. It is by doing and daring that Rome has increased her dominion not by these counsels of sloth which cowards call caution." [15] Minucius said all this before a host of Roman tribunes and knights, as if he were addressing the Assembly, and his daring words even reached the ears of the soldiery; if they could have voted on the question, there is no doubt that they would have superseded Fabius for Minucius.

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus Summary (Latin, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1929)
load focus Summary (English, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1929)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus English (D. Spillan, A.M., M.D., Cyrus Evans, 1849)
load focus English (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1929)
load focus Latin (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1929)
load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Charles Flamstead Walters, 1929)
hide References (57 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (17):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.20
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.13
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.48
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.24
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.59
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.38
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.27
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.47
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.18
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.34
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.38
  • Cross-references to this page (11):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, M. Minucius Rufus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Massicus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sinuessa
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vulturnus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Busta
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Italia
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), NAVIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ROMA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SINUESSA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), VULTURNUS
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (29):
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