 Part 5 of Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrine. Camelos Part 2 After he had thus, like Achilles, invoked curses upon his fellow citizens, he removed from out the city. His case went by default, and he was fined 15,000 s's. This sum, reduced to our money, is 1,500 drachmas. For the s was the current copper coin, and the silver coin worth 10 of these pieces was for that reason called the Denarius, which is equivalent to the drachma. Now there is no Roman who does not believe that justice followed hard upon the imprecations of Camelos, and that he received a requital for his wrongs, which was not pleasing to him but painful. Certainly it was notable and famous. For a greater repulsion encompassed Rome, and a season of dire destruction and peril, not unmixed with this grace assailed the city, whether fortunes so brought things to pass, or whether it is the mission of some god not to neglect virtue that goes unrequited. In the first place, then, it seemed to be a sign of great evil impending when Julius the Sensor died, for the Romans specially revere and hold sacred the office of Sensor. In the second place, before Camelos went into exile, a man who was not conspicuous to be sure, but who was esteemed honest and kindly, Marcos Caedicius, informed the military tribunes of a matter well worth their attention. He said that during the night just passed, as he was going along the so-called New Street, he was hailed by someone in clear tones, and turned and saw no man, but heard a voice louder than man's saying. Hark, though, Marcos Caedicius, early in the morning, go and tell the magistrates that within a little time they must expect the Gauls. At this story the tribunes mocked and gested, and a little while after, Camelos suffered his disgrace. The Gauls were of the Celtic stock, and their numbers were such as it is said that they abandoned their own country, which was not able to sustain them all, and set out in quest for another. There were many myriads of young warriors, and they took along with them a still greater number of women and children. Some of them crossed the Repaean mountains, streamed off towards the northern ocean, and occupied the remotest parts of Europe. Others settled between the Pyrenees and the Alps, near the Senones and the Caltorians, and lived there a long time. But at last they got a taste of wine, which was then for the first time brought to them from Italy. They admired the drink so much, and were also besides themselves with the novel pleasure which it gave, that they seized their arms, took along their families, and made off to the Alps, in quest of the land which produced such fruit, considering the rest of the world barren and wild. The man who introduced wine to them, and was first and foremost in sharpening their appetite for Italy, is said to have been Aaron, a Tuscan. He was a man of prominence, and by nature not prone to evil, but had met with the following misfortune. He was guardian of an orphan boy, who was heir to the greatest wealth in the city, and of amazing beauty, Lucumo by name. This Lucumo, from his youth up, had lived with Aaron, and when he came to man's estate, did not leave his house, but pretended to take delight in his society. He had, however, corrupted Aaron's wife, and been corrupted by her, and for a long time kept the thing a secret. But at last the passions of both culprits increased upon them, so that they could neither put away their desires, nor longer hide them. Therefore the young man made open up tempt to remove the woman and have her to wife. Her husband brought the case to trial, but was defeated by Lucumo, owing to the multitude of his friends and his lavish outlays of money, and for success city. Learning about the Gauls, he betook himself to them, and led them on their expedition into Italy. The Gauls burst in and straightway mastered all the country which the Tuscans occupied of old, namely that stretching from the Alps down to both cities, the names of which bear witness to the story. For the northern sea is called Adria, from the Tuscan city of Adria. The southern is called outright the Tuscan sea. This whole country is studded with trees, has excellent pastridge for flocks and herds, and an abundance of rivers. It had also eighteen cities, large and fair, well equipped for profitable commerce and for sumptuous living. These the Gauls took away from the Tuscans and occupied themselves. But this happened long before the time of which I speak. At this time the Gauls had marched against the Tuscan city of Clusium, and were laying siege to it. The Clusians applied for assistance to the Romans, and begged them to send ambassadors in their behalf with a letter to the barbarians. So there were sent three men of the Fabian Gaines, who were of great repute and owner in the city. The Gauls received them cautiously, because of the name of Rome, seized their attacks upon the city walls, and held a conference with them. When they were asked what wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the Clusians, that they had come up against their city, Brenus, the king of the Gauls, burst into aloft and said, The Clusians wrong us in that, being able to till only a small parcel of earth, they yet are bent on holding a large one, and will not share it with us. Who are strangers, many in number and poor? This is the wrong which ye too suffered, O Romans, formerly at the hands of the Albans, Fidenets and Ardiats, and now lately at the hands of the Vientines, Capinets, and many of the Felescans and Voschians. Ye march against these peoples, and if they will not share their goods with you, ye enslave them, despoil them, and raise their cities to the ground. Not that in so doing, ye are in any wise cruel or unjust, nay, ye are but obeying the most ancient of all laws, which gives to the stronger the goods of his weaker neighbors, the world over, beginning with God himself, and ending with the beasts that perish. For these too are so endowed by nature, that the stronger seeks to have more than the weaker. Seize ye therefore to pity the Colusians, when they beseech them, that ye may not teach the Gauls to be kind and full of pity, toward those who are wronged by the Romans. From this speech the Roman envoys saw that there was no coming to terms with Brannos, and so they slipped into Colusium, and emboldened and incited in citizens to sell ye out against the barbarians with them. Here because they wished to discover the prowess of those warriors, or to display their own. The Colusians made a selly, and in the fight which raged along the walls, one of the Fabii, Quintus Ambustus, drove his horse straight at a stately and handsome Gaul, who was riding far out in front of the rest. At first he was not recognized, because the conflict came swiftly to pass, and his dazzling armor hit his face. But when he had conquered and unhorsed his foe, and was stripping his arms from him, then Brannos recognized him, and called upon the gods to witness how, contrary to the general practice of all mankind, which was deemed just and holy, he had come as an ambassador, but had wrought as an enemy. Then putting a stop to the battle, his straight way led the Colusians alone, and led his host against Rome. But not wishing to have it thought that his people were rejoiced at the outrage, and only wanted some pretext for war, he sent and demanded the offender for punishment, and in the meantime advanced but slowly. When the senate convened in Rome, many denounced the Fabii, and especially the priests, called Fetials, were instant in calling upon the senate, in the name of all the gods, to turn the curse of what had been done upon the one guilty man, and so to make expiation for the rest. These Fetials were instituted by Numa Pompilius, gentlest and justest of kings, to be the guardians of peace, as well as judges and determiners of the grounds on which war could justly be made. The senate referred the matter to the people, and although the priests with one accord denounced Fabius, the multitude so scorned and mocked at religion, as to appoint him military tribune, along with his brothers. The goals on learning this were worth, and suffered nothing to impede their haste, but advanced with all speed. What with their numbers, the splendor of their equipment, and their furious violence, they struck terror wherever they came. Men saw the lands about their cities lost already, and their cities sure to follow at once. But contrary to all expectations, the enemy did them no harm, nor took oath from their fields. But even as they passed close by their cities shouted out, that they were marching in Rome, and ward only on the Romans, but held the rest as friends. Against this onset of the barbarians, the military tribunes led the Romans forth a battle. They were not inferior in numbers, being no fewer than forty thousand men at arms, but most of them were untrained, and had never handled weapons before. Besides, they had neglected all religious rites, having neither sacrificed with good omens, nor consulted the prophets as was meet before the perils of battle. But what most of all confounded their undertakings was the number of their commanders. And yet before this, and on the brink of lesser struggles, they had often chosen a single commander with the title of dictator, not unaware how great an advantage it is when confronting a dangerous crisis to be of one mind in paying obedience to an authority which is absolute, and holds the scales of justice in its own hands. Moreover, their unfair treatment of Camillos was in no slight decree fatal to discipline, since it was now dangerous to hold command without paying regard to the pleasure and caprice of the people. They advanced from the city about eleven miles, and then camped along the river Alia, not far from its confluence with the Tiber. There the barbarians came suddenly upon them, and after a disorderly and shameful struggle they were rooted. Their left wing was at once driven into the river by the Gauls, and destroyed. Their right wing was less cut up, because it withdrew before the enemy's onset from the plain to the hills, from which most of them made their way back to the city. The rest, as many as escaped the enemy's hands, which were weary with slaughter, fled by night to Veyi. They saw the throne was lost and all her people slain. The battle took place just after the summer solstice, when the moon was near the full, on the very day of a former great disaster, on three hundred men of the Fabian Gaens had been cut to pieces by the Tuscans. But the second defeat was so much the worse, that the day on which it fell is called down to the present time, these alliances, from the river. Now concerning these nefaste, our unlucky days, whether we must regard some as such, or whether Heraclée to sort right, in rebuking Hesiod for calling some days good and some bad, in his ignorance, that the nature of every day is one and the same. This question has been fully discussed elsewhere. Still, even in what I am now writing, the mention of a few examples may not be amiss. To begin with, then it was on the fifth day of the months of Hippodromius, which the Athenians call Hecatombeion, that the Beotians won two illustrious victories, which set the Greeks free, that at Loictra and that at Caressus, more than two hundred years earlier, when they conquered La Maia and the Tessalians. Again, on the sixth day of the months of Boeodromion, the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon, on the third day at Plataea and Muckel together, and on the 26th day at Arbela. Moreover, it was about full moon of the same month, that the Athenians won their sea-fight of Naxos, under the command of Cabrius, and about the 20th, that at Salamis, as has been that force in my treatise on days. Further, the months of Targelion has clearly been a disastrous one for the barbarians, for in that months the generals of the king were conquered by Alexander at the Grenicus, and on the 24th of the months the Cartagenaeans were roasted by Timoleon of Sicily. On this day too, of Targelion, it appears that Elion was taken, as Ephorus, Calisthenes, Damastes, and Philarchus have stated. Contrary wise, the months of Metagate Neon, which the Boeotians call Panemos, has not been favourable to the Greeks. On the seventh of this month they were roasted by Antipater in the Battle of Cranon, and utterly undone. Before this, they had fought Philip unsuccessfully at Caeroneia, on that day of the months, and in the same year and on the same day of Metagate Neon, Archidomus, and his army, who had crossed into Italy, were cut to pieces by the barbarians there. The Cartagenaeans also regard with fear the 22nd of this month, because it has ever brought upon them the worst and greatest of their misfortunes. I am not unaware that, at about the time when the mysteries are celebrated, Thebes was raised to the ground for the second time by Alexander, and that afterwards the Athenians were forced to receive a Macedonian garrison on the 20th of Boeodromion, the very day on which they escort the mystic Lachos, force in procession, and likewise the Romans, on the self-same day, saw their army under Caepio, destroyed by the Kimbrie, and later, when Loculus was their general, conquered Tigranis and the Armenians. Both King Attalus and Pompey, the great, died on their own birthdays. In short, one can adduce many cases where the same times and seasons have brought opposite fortunes upon the same man. But this day of the Allia is regarded by the Romans as one of the unluckiest, and its influence extends over two other days of each month throughout the year, since in the presence of calamity, timidity and superstition often overflow all bounds. However, this subject has been more carefully treated in my Roman questions. Now had the goals after this battle followed hard upon the fugitives, naught would have hindered Rome from being utterly destroyed, and all those who remained in her from perishing. Such was the terror which the fugitives infused into the occupants of the city, and which such confusion and delirium versus themselves once more filled. But as it was, the barbarians could not realize the magnitude of their victory, and since the excess of their joy turned to reverly and the distribution of the good things captured in their enemy's camp. For this reason, the throngs who were for abandoning the city had ample time for flight, and those who were for remaining plucked up hope and prepared to defend themselves. Abandoning the rest of the city, they fenced the capital with ramparts and stocked it with missiles. But their first care was for their sacred things, most of which they carried away to the capital. The fire of Vesta, however, was snatched up and carried off by the Vestal virgins in their flight, along with the other sacred things entrusted to their care. However, some writers state that these virgins have watched and bored over nothing more than the ever-living fire, which Numa the King appointed to be worshipped as the first cause of all things. For fire produced more motions than anything else in nature, and all birth is a mode of motion, or is accompanied by motion. All other portions of matter, in the absence of heat, lie inert and dead, yearning for the force of fire to inform them, like a spirit, and on its accession in any manner so ever. They become capable of acting and being acted upon. This principle of fire, then, Numa, who was an extraordinary man, and whose wisdom gave him the repute of holding converse with the muses, is said to have hallowed and ordered to be kept sleepless, that it might image force the ever-living force which orders the universe aright. Others say that this fire is kept burning before the sacred things by way of purification as among the Greeks, and that other objects within the temple are kept hidden from the gaze of all except these virgins whom they call Vestals. The very prevalent story had it, that the famous Palladium of Troy was hidden away there, having been brought to Italy by Ionaeus. There are some who say that it is the Samotration images which are hidden there, and they tell the tale of Dardanus bringing these to Troy, after he had founded that city, and consecrating them there with the celebration of their rights. And of Ionaeus, at the capture of Troy, stealing them away and preserving them until he settled in Italy. Others still, pretending to have larger knowledge in these matters, say that two small jars are stored away there, of which one is open and empty, and the other full and sealed up, and that both are visible only to the holy virgins. But others think that these knowing ones have been led astray by the fact that the virgins, at the time of which I am now speaking, cast the most of their sacred treasures into two jars, and hid them underground in the temple of Quirinius, whence that place, down to the present time, cast the name of Doliola, or jars. However that may be, these virgins took the choicest and most important of their sacred objects and fled away along the river. There it chanced that Luchius Albinius, a man of the common people, was among the fugitives, carrying off his wife and little children with the most necessary household goods upon a wagon. When he saw the virgins with the sacred symbols of the gods in their bosoms, making their way along unattended and in great distress, he speedily took his wife with the children and the household goods down from the wagon, and suffered the virgins to mount upon it and make their escape to a Greek city. The spious act of Albinius and the conspicuous honor which he showed the gods in a season of the greatest danger could not well be passed over in silence. But the priests of the other gods and the aged men who had been consuls and celebrated triumphs could not endure to leave the city, so they put on their robes of state and ceremony following the lead of Fabius, the Pontifex Maximus, and vowed the gods that they would devote themselves to death in their country's behalf. Then they sat themselves down, thus arrayed, on their ivory chairs in the forum, and awaited their fate. On the third day after the battle, Berenus came up to the city with his army, finding its gates open and its walls without defenders. At first he feared a treacherous ambush, being unable to believe that the Romans were in such utter despair. But when he realized the truth, he marched in by the Colleen gate and took Rome. This was a little more than three hundred and sixty years from her foundation, if one can believe that any accurate chronology has been preserved in this matter, when that of even later events is disputed, owing to the confusion caused by this very disaster. However, it would seem that some vague tidings of the calamity and capture of the city made their way at once to Greece. For Heracletus Ponticus, who lived not long after that time, in the streets on the sole, says that out of the west a story prevailed, how an army of Hippodboriians had come from afar and captured a Greek city called Rome, situated somewhere on the shores of the Great Sea. Now I cannot wonder that so fabulous and fictious of writer as Heracletus should deck out the true story of the capture of Rome with his Hippodboriians and his Great Sea. But Aristotle's a philosopher clearly had accurate tidings of the capture of the city by the Gauls, and yet he says that its savior was Luchius, although the forename of Camillus was not Luchius but Marcos. However, these details were matters of conjecture. When he had occupied Rome, Brenus surrounded his capital with a guard. He himself went down through the forum and was amazed to see the men sitting there in public state and perfect silence. They neither rose up to meet their enemies when they approached, nor did they change countenance or color, but sat there quietly at ease and without fear, leaning on their staves and gazing into one another's faces. The Gauls were amazed and perplexed and the unwanted sight and for long time hesitated to approach and touch them regarding them as superior beings. But at last one of them, plucking up his courage, drew near Papyrus Marcos and stretching out his hand, gently grasped his chin and stroked his long beard, whereupon Papyrus, with his staff, smote him a crushing blow on the head. Then the barbarian drew his sword and killed him. After that they fell upon the rest and slew them, made away with everyone else they met, sacked and plundered the houses of the city for many days together, and finally burned them down and leveled them with the ground in their wrath at the defenders of the capital. For these would not surrender at their summons, but when they were attacked, actually repulsed their foes from their emperors with loss. Therefore the Gauls inflicted every outrage upon the city and put to the sword all whom they captured, men and women, old and young, alike. End of Camelus Part 2. Part 6 of Volume 2 of Blutarch's Parallel Lives. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Volume 2 of Blutarch's Parallel Lives of the noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrine. Camelus Part 3. The siege lasted a long time and the Gauls began to lack provisions. They therefore divided their forces. Some remained with their king and watched the capital, others ravaged the country roundabout, falling upon the villages and sacking them, not altogether in one body, but scattered about by commands and companies, some here, some there, moved by their successes to great confidence and the fear of nothing. The largest and best discipline body of them marched upon the city of Addea, where Camelus was staying since his exile. He lived in complete retirement and privacy. It is true, but cherished the hopes and plans not of a man who eagerly desired to escape the notice and hands of the enemy, but of one who sought to avenge himself upon them if occasion offered. Therefore, seeing that the Ardians were of sufficient numbers but lacked courage through the inexperience and effeminacy of their generals, he began to reason with the young men first to the effect that the mishap of the Romans ought not to be led to the valour of the Gauls, nor the sufferings of that infatuated people to the prowess of men who did not deserve their victory, but rather to the dictates of fortune. It was a fine thing, he said, even at dangerous risks to repel the attack of an alien and barbarous folk whose only end in getting the mastery was, as in the work of fire, the utter destruction of what it conquered. But in the present case, if they were bold and zealous, he would find occasion to give them a victory without any danger. After gaining the support of the young men, Camelus went to the rulers and councilors of Ardia, and when he had won them over also, he armed all who were of age for service and kept them together within the walls that they might not be perceived by the enemy who were near. These had scored the country roundabout and then camped in the plain without care or concern and heavily encumbered with their abundant booty. When night had fallen upon them, putting an end to their carousels, and silence reigned throughout their camp, Camelus, acquainted with this by his scouts, led forth the Ardians. Passing widely over the intervening space, they reached the camp about midnight, and the shouts and trumpet blasts on every hand confounded the men, who were scarcely brought to their senses by the din, heavy as they were with drunkenness and sleep. A few of them were sobered by fear, armed themselves and made resistance to Camelus and his men, so that they fell fighting. But most were still mustered by sleep and wine when they were fallen upon and slain without their arms. A few only ran from the camp under cover of darkness, and when they came were seen straggling about the fields, but horsemen pursued them and cut them to pieces. Rumour quickly carried news of this exploit to the neighbouring cities, uncalled to arms many of those who were of age for service, particularly the Romans, who had made their escape from the battle on the Alia and were in Veyi. These lamented among themselves, saying, Oh what a leader has heaven robbed Rome in Camelus, only to adorn Ardia with his victories. The city which bore and reared such a hero is dead and gone, and we, for lack of generals, sit pent up within alien walls and see Italy ruined before our very eyes. Come, let us send to Ardia and demand our own general, or take our arms and go ourselves to him. For he is no longer an exile, nor are we citizens, now that our country is no more, but is mastered by the enemy. So said so done, and they sent and asked Camelus to take the command, but he refused to do so before the citizens on the capital had legally elected him. They were preserving the country, as he thought, and if they had commands for him he would gladly obey, but against their wishes he would meddle with nothing whatsoever. This noble restraint on the part of Camelus was much admired, but it was hard to see how the matter could be referred to the capital. Nay, rather, it seemed utterly impossible, while the enemy held the city, for the messenger to elude them and reach the acropolis. But there was a certain young man, Pontius Caminius, by name, who was, in spite of his ordinary birth, a lover of glory and honor. He volunteered to attempt the task. He took no letter with him to the defenders of the capital, lest this, in the event of his capture, should help the enemy to discover the purpose of Camelus. But under the coarse garments which he wore, he carried some pieces of quark. The greater part of his journey was made by daylight and without fear, but as night came on, he found himself near the city. He could not cross the river by the bridge, since the barbarians were guarding it, so he wrapped his light and scanty garments about his head, fastened the quarks to his body, and thus supported, swam across, came out on the other side, and went on towards the city. Always giving a wide berth to those of the enemy who were watchful and wakeful, as he judged by their fires and noise, he made his way to the carmental gate, where there was the most quiet, at which the capital in hill was most sheer and steep, and which was girt about by a huge and jagged cliff. Up this he mounted and perceived, and finally reached, with great pains and difficulty, the centuries posted where the wall was lowest, hailing them, and telling them who he was, he was pulled up over the wall and taken to the Roman magistrates. The senate quickly convening, he appeared before it, announced the victory of Camelus, about which they had not heard, and explained to them the will and pleasure of his fellow soldiers. He exhorted them to confirm Camelus in his command, since he was the only man whom the citizens outside would obey. When the senate had heard his message, and deliberated upon it, they appointed Camelus dictator, and sent Pontius back again by the way he had come, wherein he repeated his former good fortune. For he eluded the enemy's notice, and brought the senate's message to the Romans outside the city. These gave eager welcome to the tidings, so that, when Camelus came, he found twenty thousand men already under arms. He collected still more from the allies, and made preparations for his attack. Thus Camelus was chosen dictator for the second time, and proceeding to Veyi, he put himself at the head of the soldiers there, and collected more from the allies, with the purpose of attacking the enemy. But in Rome, some of the barbarians chanced to pass by the spot, where Pontius had made his way, by night up to the capital, and noticed in many places the marks, made by his hands and feet and clambering up. And many places also, where the plants that grew upon the rocks had been torn away, and the earth displaced. They advised their king of this, and he too came and made inspection. At the time he said nothing, but when evening came, he assembled the nimblest men and the best mountain climbers of the Gauls, and said to them, The enemy has shown us that there is a way up to them, of which we knew not, and one which men can traverse and tread. It would be a great shame for us, after such a beginning, as we have made, to fail at the end, and to give the place up as impregnable, when the enemies themselves show us where it can be taken. For where it is easy for one man to approach it, there it will be no difficult matter for many to go one by one, nay, they will support and aid one another greatly in the undertaking. So speaks their king, and the Gauls eagerly undertook to do his will. About midnight a large band of them scaled the cliff and made their way upward in silence. They climbed on all fours over places which were precipitous and rough, but which yielded to their efforts better than they had expected, until the foremost of them reached the heights, put themselves in array, and had all but seized the outwork and fallen upon the sleeping watch. Neither man nor dog was aware of their approach. But there were some sacred keys near the temple of Juno, which were usually fed without stint, but at that time, since provisions barely sufficed for the garrison alone, they were neglected and in evil plight. The creature is naturally sharp of hearing, and afraid of ever reaching it. And these, being specially wakeful and restless by reason of their hunger, perceived the approach of the Gauls, dashed at them with loud cries, and so waked all the garrison. At once the barbarians, now that they were detected, spared the no noise, and came on more impetuously to the attack. The defenders, snatching up in haste whatever weapon came to hand, made the best shift they could. Manlius, first of all, a man of consular dignity, mighty in body and exceeding stout of heart, confronting two of the enemy at once, cut off the right hand of one of them with his sword, as he was lifting his battle-axe, and dashing his shield into the face of the other, tumbled him backwards down the cliff. Then, taking his stand on the wall with those who ran to his aid, and formed about him, he repulsed the rest of the enemy. who had reached the top in no great numbers, and showed no prowess to much their daring. So the Romans escaped out of their peril. At break of day they cast the captain of the watch down the cliff among the enemy, but voted to Manlius a mead of victory, which did him more honours and service. They collected for him the rations which each man of them received for one day, namely, half a pound of native spelt, and the rest of them, and the rest of them, and the rest of them, half a pound of native spelt, Roman weight, and an eighth of a pint of wine, Greek measure. After this, the case of the Goals was less hopeful. They lacked provisions, being shut off from foraging through fear of Camillus, and disease lurked amongst them. They were encamped amid ruins, where a multitude of corpses had been cast at random, and, besides, an air made dry and acrid by vast quantities of ashes waves, which wind and heat sent flying abroad, made breathing hurtful. But what most of all affected them was the complete change in their mode of life. They had come at all at once from regions of shade, where easy refuge could be had from the heats of summer, into a land which was low-lying and had an unnatural climate towards autumn. Then there was their long and idle sitting down before the capital. They were now willing away the seventh months of its siege. For all these reasons the mortality was great in their camp, so many were as a dead, but they could no longer be buried. All this, however, brought no relief to the besieged, for famine increased upon them, and their ignorance of what Camilus was doing made them dejected. No messenger could come from him, because the city was now closely watched by the barbarians. Wherefore, both parties being in such a plight, a compromise was proposed, at first by the outposts as they encountered one another. Then, since those in authority sought it best, Sulpicius, the military tribune of the Romans, held a conference with Bronus, and it was agreed that on the delivery of a thousand pounds of gold by the Romans the goal should straight away depart out of the city and the country. Oasts were sworn to these terms, and the gold was brought to be weighed. But the gold stampered with the scales, secretly at first, then they openly pulled the balance back out of its poise. The Romans were incensed at this, but Berenus, with a mocking laugh, stripped off his sword, and added it, belt and all to the weights. When Sulpicius asked, what means this? What else, said Berenus, but woe to the vangished? And the friars passed at once into a proverb. Some of the Romans were incensed, and though they ought to go back again with their gold, and endure the siege, others urged acquiescence in the mild injustice. Their shame lay, they argued, not in giving more, but in giving at all. This they consented to do because of the emergency. It was not honourable, but it was necessary. While they were thus at odds, in the matter, both with the golds and with themselves, Camillus led his army up to the gates of the city. On learning what was going on, he ordered the rest of his army to follow in battle array, and deliberately, while he himself, with the flower of his men, pressed on, and presently came to the Romans. These all made way for him, in decorous silence acknowledging him as their dictator. Thereupon he lifted the gold from the scales, and gave it to his attendants, and then ordered the golds to take their scales and weights and be off, saying that it was the custom with the Romans to deliver their city with iron and not with gold. When Berenus in Vras declared that he was wronged by this breaking of the agreement, Berenus answered that the compact was not legally made nor binding, since he himself had already been chosen dictator, and there was no other legal ruler. The agreement of the golds had therefore been made with men, who had no power in the case. Now, however, they must say what they wanted, for he was come with legal authority to grant pardon to those who asked it, and to inflict punishment on the guilty, unless they showed repentance. At this Berenus raised a clamour and began a skirmish, in which both sides got no further, then drawing their sword and pushing one another confusedly about, since the action took place in the heart of the ruined city, where no battle array was possible. But Berenus soon came to his senses, and led his golds off to their camp, with the loss of a few only. During the ensuing night he broke camp and abandoned the city, with his whole poor force, and after a march of about eight miles, and camped along the Gabinian way. At break of day Camelus was upon him, in glittering array, his Romans now full of confidence, and after a long and fierce battle, routed the enemy with great slaughter, and took their camp. Of the fugitives, somewhere at once pursued and cut down, but most of them scattered abroad, only to be fallen upon and slain by the people of the surrounding villages and cities. So strangely was Rome taken, and more strangely still delivered, after the barbarians had held it seven months in all. They entered it a few days after the Eads of July, and were driven out about the Eads of February. Camelus celebrated a triumph, as it was meet that a man should do, who had saved the country that was lost, and who now brought the city back again to itself. For the citizens outside, with their wives and children, accompanied his triumphal chariot as it entered the city, and those who had been besieged on the capital, and had notably escaped death by starvation, came forth to meet them, all embracing one another, and weeping for the joy that was theirs. The priests and ministers of the gods, bringing whatever sacred objects they had either buried on the spot, or carried off with them, when they took to flight, displayed them, thus preserved in safety to the citizens, who called the world to come sights with delight, believing in their hearts that the gods themselves were now coming back to Rome with them. After Camelus had made sacrifices to the gods, and purified the city in the manner prescribed by those who were worst in such rites, he restored the existing temples, and erected a new one to rumour and voice. Having sought out carefully the spot where by night the voice from heaven, announcing the coming of the barbarian host, had fallen upon the ears of Marcus Caedicius. Owing to the zeal of Camelus and the abundant labours of the priesthood, the sights of the temples were at last uncovered, but it proved a grievous undertaking. And since the city had also to be built up again from a state of utter destruction, the multitude were overwhelmed with despair of the task, and shrank from it. They were bereft of all things, and for the present needed some rest, and repose after their sufferings, instead of toiling and dearing themselves out on a task for which they had neither means nor strength. And so it was that insensibly their thoughts turned again to Veii, a city which remained intact and was equipped with all things needful. This gave opportunity for mischievous agitations to such as were wanted to consult only the people's will and pleasure, and ready ear was given to seditious speeches against Camelus. He had an eye it was said, only to his own ambition and fame, when he would deprive them of a city that stood ready to receive them, and forced them to pitch their tents among a mass of ruins, while they rebuilt what had become a monstrous funeral pyre. He wished not merely to be a leader and general of Rome, but to thrust Romulus to one side and be styled its founder. The Senate therefore, fearful of this clamour, would not suffer Camelus, much as he wished it, to lay down his office within a year, although no other dictator had served more than six months. Meanwhile the senators, by dint of kindly greetings and persuasive words, tried to soften and convert the people, pointing out the sepulchres and tomes of their fathers, and calling to their remembrance the shrines and holy places which Romulus or Numa or some other king had consecrated and left to their care. Among other signs from heaven they laid chief stress on the newly severed head that was found when the foundation of the capital were dug, showing, as it did, that the place where it was found was fated to be the head of Italy. Also on the sacred fire of Vesta, which had been kindled anew by her virgins after the war. If they should quench and extinguish this again by their abandonment of the city, it would be a disgrace to them whether they saw that city occupied by immigrants and aliens or abandoned to flocks and herds. Thus did the senators remonstrate with people, both individually in private and often in the public assemblies. They, in their turn, were moved to compassion by the wailing complaints of the multitude, who lamented the helplessness to which they were come, and begged, now that they had been saved alive as it were from a shipwreck, in nakedness and destitution, that they be not forced to piece together the fragments of their ruined city when another stood already to receive them. Accordingly, Camelus decided that the question should be debated and settled in council. He himself spoke at great length in exhortation to preserve their common country, and everyone else who wished did likewise. Finally he called upon Lucius Lucretius, to whom custom gave the first vote, and bade him declare his opinion first, and then the other senators in the order do. Silence fell, and Lucretius was on the point of beginning, when it chanced that the centurion with a squad of the day watch passed by outside, and calling with a loud voice on the man, who, led with the standard, bade him halt and plant his standard there, for that was the best place to settle down and stay in. The utterance fell at the crisis of their anxious thought for the uncertain future, and Lucretius said, with a devout obeisance, that he cast his vote with the God. The rest one by one followed his example. Then the inclinations of the multitude were marvelously changed. They exhorted and incited one another to the work, and pitched upon their several sites, not by an orderly assignment, but as each man found it convenient and desirable. Therefore the city was rebuilt, with confused and narrow streets, and amazes of houses owing to their haste and speed. Within a year's time, it is said, a new city had arisen, with walls to guard it and homes in which to dwell. Those who had been deputed by Camelus to recover and mark out anew the sacred palaces found them all in utter confusion. When they came to the Shrine of Mars, in their circuit of the Palatium, they found that it had been demolished and burned by the barbarians like the rest. But as they were clearing away and renovating the place, they came upon the ogre stuff of Romulus, buried deep in a great heap of ashes. The ogre stuff is curved at one end, and is called Letium. It is used to mark off the different quarters of the heavens, in the ceremonies of divination by the flight of birds, and so Romulus had used this one, for he was a great diviner. But when he vanished from among men, the priests took his stuff and kept it in violet, like any other sacred object. They are finding this at that time and sketched, when all the rest had perished, gave them more pleasing hopes for Rome. They thought it a token that assured her of everlasting safety. End of Camelus Part 3 Part 7 of Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrine. Camelus Part 4 They were not yet done with these pressing tasks, when a fresh war broke upon them. The Aequians, Volskans and Latins burst into their territory all at once, and the tooth-cancelates sieged to Sutrium and city allied with Rome. The military tribunes in command of the army, having encamped near Mount Markius, were besieged by the Latins, and were in danger of losing their camp. Wherefore, they sent to Rome for aid, and Camelus was appointed dictator for the third time. Two stories are told about this war, and I will give the fabulous one first. They say that the Latins, either as a pretext for war, or because they really wished to revive the ancient affinity between the two peoples, sent and demanded from the Romans freeborn virgins in marriage. The Romans were in doubt what to do, for they dreaded war in their unsettled and unrestored condition, and yet they suspected that this demand for wives was really a call for hostages disguised under the specious name of intermarriage. In their perplexity, a serving maid named Tutula, or as some call her Filotis, advised the magistrates to send her to the enemy with some maid servants of the Camelus sort and most genteel appearance, all arrayed like freeborn brides. She would attend to the rest. The magistrates yielded to her persuasions, choose out as many maid servants as she sought meat for her purpose, arrayed them in fine raiment and gold, and handed them over to the Latins, who were encamped near the city. In the night, the rest of the maidens stole away the enemy's swords, while Tutula, or Filotis, climbed a wild victory of great height, and after spreading out her cloak behind her, held out a lighted torch towards Rome, this being the signal agreed upon between her and the magistrates, though no other citizen knew of it. Hence it was that the soldiers sell it out of the city tumultuously, as the magistrates urged them on, calling out one another's names and with much ado getting into rank and file. They stormed the entrenchments of the enemy, who were fast asleep and expecting nothing of the sort, captured their camp and slew most of them. This happened on the nuns of what was then called Quintilis, now July, and the festival since held on that day is in remembrance of the exploit. For, to begin with, they run out of the city gate in throngs, calling out loudly many local and common names, such as Gaines, Marcus Luzius, and the like, in imitation of the way the soldiers once called aloud upon each other in their haste. Next, the maid servants in gay attire find about jesting and joking with the men they meet. They have a mock battle, too, with one another, implying that they once took a hand in the struggle with the Latins. And as they feast, they sit in the shade of a fig tree's branches. The day is called the Caprotin nonce, from the wild victory, as they suppose, from which the maid held forth the torch. This goes by the name of Caprificus. But others say that most of what is said and done at this festival has reference to the fate of Romulus. For on this same day he vanished from sight, outside the city gates, in sudden darkness and tempest, and as something during an eclipse of the sun. The day, they say, is called the Caprotin nonce, from the spot where he thus vanished. For the she goat goes by the name of Capra, and Romulus vanished from sight while harrowing an assembly of the people at the goat's march, as has been stated in his life. But most writers adopt the other account of this war, which runs thus. Camillus, having been a pointed dictator for the third time, and learning that the army under the military tribunes was besieged by the Latins and Wolskins, was forced to put under arms even those of the citizens who were exempt from military duty by reason of advancing years. Fetching a long circuit around Mount Marcus, and thus eluding the enemy's notice, he planted his army securely in their rear, and then, by lighting many fires, made known his presence there. The besieged Romans at once took heart and proposed to sell him out and join battle. But the Latins and Wolskins retired within their trenches, fenced themselves in with a great wooden pellicide, and barricaded their camp on all sides, for they now had a hostile force in front and rear, and were determined to await reinforcements from home. At the same time they expected aid from the Tuscans also. Camillus, perceiving their design and fearful of being himself surrounded by the enemy, as he had surrounded them, made haste to improve his opportunity. The enemy's barricades were of wood and a strong wind blew down from the mountains at sunrise. Accordingly, he equipped himself with fury darts, and, leading his forces out towards daybreak, ordered part of them to attack with missiles and loud cries at an opposite point, while he himself, with those appointed to hurl fire, took his post where the wind was wont to smite the enemy's trenches with the greatest force, and awaited the propitious moment. One battle had been joined and the sun rose, and the wind burst force with fury. He gave orders for an onset and scattered no end of fury darts along the trenches. The flames speedily found food in the crowded timbers of the wooden palisades and spread in all directions. The Latins had nothing at hand with which to ward off or quench them, and when at length their camp was full of fire, they were huddled together into a small space, and at last forced to dash out against an enemy, who were drawn up in full battle array in front of the trenches. Few of them made their escape, and those who were left behind in the camp were all upright to the fire, until the Romans put it out and fell upon their booty. This business dispatched. He left his son, Lukeus, in command of the camp to guard the captives and the booty, while he himself invaded the enemy's country. He captured the city of the Iachvians, brought the Voskians to terms, and strideway led his army towards Sutrium. He was not yet apprised of the fate of the Sutrians, but thought they were still in peril of siege by the Tuscans, and so hasten to relieve them. But they had already surrendered their city to the enemy, and been sent off in utter destitution, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. As Camillus became marching along, they met him, with their wives and children, all lamenting their misfortunes. Camillus himself was filled with compassion at the sight, and noticed that his Romans too, with the Sutrians hanging upon their necks in supplication, were moved to tears and anger at their lot. He therefore determined to make no postponement of his vengeance, but to march straight upon Sutrium that very day. He reasoned that men, who had just taken a prosperous and opulent city, leaving none of their enemies in it, and expecting none from without, would be found wholly relaxed in discipline and off their guard, and he reasoned correctly. He not only passed and noticed through the city's territory, but was actually at its gates and in command of its walls before the enemy knew it. For not a man of them was on guard, but they were all scattered among the houses of the city, drinking and feasting, and even when they perceived that their enemies already had the mastery, they were so sluggishly disposed by a reason of satiety and drunkenness, that many did not so much as try to flee, but awaited there in the houses, the most shameful of all death, or gave themselves up to their enemies. The city of Sutrium was thus twice captured in a single day, and it came to pass that those who had won it, lost it, and those who had first lost it, won it back, and all by reason of Camillus. The triumph decreed him for these victories, brought him no less favor and renown that his first two had done, and those citizens who had been most envious of him, and referred to ascribe all his successes to an unbounded good fortune, rather than to a native valor, were forced by these new exploits to set the man's glory to the credit of his ability and energy. Now of all those who fought him with hatred and envy, the most conspicuous was Marcus Manlius, the man who first thrust the Gauls down the cliff when they made their night attack upon the capital, and for this reason had been surnamed Capitolinus. This man aspired to be chief in the city, and since he could not in the fairest way outstrip Camillus in the race for glory, he had recourse to the wanted and usual art of those that would found attorney. He courted, that is, the favor of the multitude, especially of the debtor class, defending some and leading their causes against their creditors, snatching others from arrest and preventing their trial by process of law. In this way, great numbers of indignant folks soon formed a party about him, and their bold and riotous conduct in the forum gave the best citizens much to fear. To quell their disorder, Quintus Capitolinus was made dictator, and he cast Manlius into prison. There, upon the people put on the garb of mourners, a thing done only in times of great public calamity, and the Senate, courted by the tumult, ordered that Manlius be released. He, however, when released, did not mend his ways, but grew more defiantly seditious, and filled the whole city with faction. Accordingly, Camillus was made, again, military tribune. When Manlius was brought to trial, the view from the place was a great obstacle in the way of his accusers. For the spot where Manlius had stood when he fought his night battle with the Gauls, overlooked the forum from the Capitol, and moved the hearts of the spectators to pity. Manlius himself, too, stretched out his hands towards the spot, and wept as he called to man's remembrance his famous struggle there, so that the judges knew not what to do, and once and again postponed the case. They were unwilling to acquit the prisoner of his crime, when the proofs of it were so plain, and they were unable to execute the law upon him, when, owing to the place of trial, his saving exploit was, so to speak, in every eye. So Camillus, sensible of all this, transferred the court outside the city to the petal in groove, when there is no view of the Capitol. There the prosecutor made his indictment, and the judges were able to forget the man's past services in their righteous anger of his present crimes. So then Manlius was convicted, carried to the Capitol, and thrust down the rock, thus making one and the same spot a monument of his most fortunate actions, and of his greatest misfortunes. The Romans, besides, raised his house to the ground, and built there a temple to the goddess they call Moneta. They decreed also that in future no patrician should ever have a house on the Capitol in hell. Camillus, called now to be military tribune for the sixth time, declared the honor being already well on in years, and fearful, perhaps, of the envy of men, and the resentment of the gods which often follows upon such glorious successes as his. But the most manifest reason was his bodily weakness, for it chanced that in those days he was sick. The people, however, would not relieve him of the office. He had no need, they cried, to fight in the ranks of the cavalry, or the men at arms, but only to console an ordain, and so they forced him to undertake the command, and with one of his colleagues, Lucius Furius, to lead the army at once against the enemy. These were the Prennestines and Vosgins, who, with a large force, were laying waste to the lands of the Roman allies. Marching forth, therefore, and encamping near the enemy, he himself thought it best to protract the war, that so, in case a battle should at last be necessary, he might be strong of body for the decisive struggle. But Lucius, his colleague, carried away by his desire for glory, would not be checked in his ardor for battle, and incited the same feelings in the inferior officers of the army. So, Camillus, fearing lessed based thoughts that out of petty jealousy he was trying to rob younger men of the successes, to which they eagerly aspired, consented with reluctance, that Lucius should lead the forces out to battle, while he himself, on account of his sickness, was left behind in the camp with a few followers. Lucius conducted the battle rashly, and was discomfited, whereupon Camillus, perceiving the root of the Romans, could not restrain himself, but sprang up from his couch, and ran with his attendants to the gate of the camp. Through the fugitives he pushed his way to their pursuers. Those of his men who had passed him into the camp, wheeled about at once and followed him, and those who came bearing down on him from outside, halted and formed their lines about him, exhorting one another not to abandon their general. In this way for that day the enemy were turned back from their pursuit. On the next day Camillus led his forces out, joined battle with the enemy, defeated them utterly and took their camp, actually bursting into it along with those who fled to it, and slaying most of them. After this learning that the city of Satricum had been taken by the Tuscans, and its inhabitants, all Romans, put to the sword, he sent back to Rome the main body of his army, comprising the men at arms. While he himself, with the youngest and most ardent of his men, fell suddenly upon the Tuscans, who held the city, and mastered them, expelling some and slaying the rest. He returned with much spoil to Rome, having proved that those citizens were the most sensible of all, who did not fear the bodily age and weakness of a leader possessed of experience and courage, but chose him out though he was ill and did not wish it, rather than younger men who craved and solicited the command. They showed the same good sense, when the Tusculans were reported to be on the brink of a revolt, in ordering Camillus to select one of his five colleagues as an aide, and march out against them. Although all the five wished and begged to be taken, Camillus passed the rest by and selected Lucius Furios to everyone's surprise. For he was the man who had just now been eager to hazard a struggle with the enemy against the judgment of Camillus, and had been worsted in the battle. But Camillus wished, as it would seem, to hide away his misfortune and wipe away the disgrace of the man, and so preferred him above all the rest. But the Tusculans, when once Camillus was on the march against them, said so rectifying their transgression as craftily as they could. Their fields were found full of men, tillings of soil and pestering flocks, as in times of peace. Their gates lay wide open, their boys were at school cunning their lessons, and of the people, the artisans were to be seen in their workshops, plowing their trades. The men of leisure, sauntered over the forum, clad in their usual garb. While the magistrates bustled about, assigning quarters for the Romans, as though they expected and were conscious of no evil. Their performances did not bring Camillus into any doubt of their intended treachery, but out of pity for the repentance that followed so close upon their treachery, he ordered them to go to the senate and beg for a remission of its wrath. He himself also helped to make their prayers effectual, so that their city was observed from all charges and received the rights of Roman citizenship. Such were the most conspicuous achievements of his sixth tribunship. After this, Lechinius Stolo stirred up the great dissession in the city, which brought the people into collision with the senate. The people insisted that, when two consuls were appointed, one of them must certainly be a plebeian and not both patricians. Tribunes of the people were choosing, but the multitude prevented the consular elections from being duly held. Owing to this lack of magistrates, matters were getting more and more confused, and so Camillus was for the fourth time appointed dictator by the senate, so much against the wishes of the people. He was not eager for the office himself, nor did he wish to oppose men, whose many and great struggles gave them the right to say boldly to him. Your achievements have been in the field with us, rather than in politics with the patricians. It is through hate and envy that they have now made you dictator. They hope that you will crush the people if you prevail, or be crushed yourself if you fail. However, he tried to ward off the threatening evils. Having learned the day on which the tribunes intended to propose their law, he issued a proclamation, making it a day of general master, and summoned the people from the forum into the campus marches, with threats of heavy fines upon the disobedient. The tribunes, on the contrary, for their part, opposed his threats with solemn oaths that they would find him fifty thousand silver drachmas if he did not cease trying to rob the people of its vote and its law. Then, either because he feared a second condemnation to exile, a penalty and becoming to a man of his years and achievements, or because he was not able, if he wished, to overcome the might of the people, which was now become resistless and invincible, he withdrew to his house, and after alleging sickness for several days resigning his office. But the senate appointed another dictator, and he, after making Stoloch himself the very leader of this edition, his master of horse, suffered the law to be enacted. It was the most vexatious law for the patrician, for it prohibited anyone from owning more than five hundred acres of land. At that time then, Stoloch was a resplendent figure owing to his victory at the polls, but little while after he himself was found to be possessed of what he forbade others to own, and so paid the penalty fixed by his own law. There remained, however, the strife over the consular elections, which was the main problem in the dissensions, and it was its first cause, and gave the senate most concern in its contention with the people. But suddenly clear tidings came, that the Gauls had once more set out from the Adriatic sea, many mirrored strong, and were marching on Rome. With the word the actual deeds of war kept pace. The country was ravaged, and its population, all who could not more easily fly to Rome for refuge, scattered among the mountains. The stirrer put an end to the dissension in the city, and brought together into conference, both the rich and the poor, the senate and the people. Always one mind chose Camilla's dictator for the fifth time. He was now quite old, lacking little of eighty years, but recognizing the peril and the necessity which it laid upon him, he neither made excuse, as before, nor assorted to pretext, but instantly took upon him the command, and went to levying his soldiers. Knowing that the prowess of the barbarians lay chiefly in their swords, which they played in true barbaric fashion, and with no skill at all, a mere slashing blows at head and shoulders. He had helmets forged, for most of his men, which were all iron and smooth of surface, that the enemy's swords might slip off from them or be shattered by them. He also had the long shields of his men rimmed round with bronze, since their wood could not of itself ward off the enemy's blows. The soldiers themselves he trained to use their long javelins like spears, to trust them under the enemy's swords and catch the downward strokes upon them. When the Gauls were near at hand, being encamped on the Anio, and encumbered with untold plunder, Camelos let his forces out and posted them in a gently sloping glade with many hollows, so that the largest part of them were concealed, and the part that could be seen had the look of shutting themselves up in hilly places out of fear. This opinion of them Camelos wished to strengthen, and therefore made no defense of those who were plundered even at his very feet, but fenced in his trenches and lay quiet, until he saw that some of the enemy were scattered abroad in foraging parties, while those in the camp did nothing but gorge themselves with meat and drink. Then, while it was yet night, he sent his light-armed troops forward to hinder the barbarians from falling into battle array, and throw them into confusion as they issued from the camp. Just before dawn, he let his men at arms down into the plain, and drew them up in battle array, many in number and full of spirit, as the barbarians no thought, not few untimid as they had expected. To begin with, it was this which shattered the confidence of the Gauls, who sorted beneath them to be attacked first. Then again, the light-armed folk fell upon them, forced them into action before they had taken their usual order and been arrayed in companies, and so compelled them to fight at random and in utter disorder. Finally, when Camillo slid his men at arms to the attack, the enemy raised their swords on high and rushed for close carters. But the Romans thrust their javelins into their faces, received their strokes and the parts that were shielded by iron, and so turned the edge of their metal, which was soft and weakly tempered, so much so that their swords quickly bent up double, while their shields were pierced and weighed down by the javelins, which struck in them. Therefore, they actually abandoned their own weapons and tried to possess themselves of those of their enemies, and to turn aside the javelins by grasping them in their hands. But the Romans, seeing them thus disarmed, at once took to using their swords, and there was a great slaughter of their furmost ranks, while the rest fled every weather over the plain. The hilltops and high places had been occupied beforehand by Camillos, and they knew that their camp could easily be taken, since, in their overweaving confidence, they had neglected to fortify it. This battle, as they say, was fought 13 years after the capture of Rome and produced in the Romans a firm feeling of confidence regarding the goals. They had mightily feared these barbarians, who had been conquered by them in the first instance, as they felt, in consequence of sickness and extraordinary misfortunes, rather than of any prowess in their conquerors. At any rate, so great had their terror been, that they made a law exempting priests from military service, except in case of a Gallic war. This was the last military exploit performed by Camillos, for the capture of Velitrae was a direct sequel of this campaign, and it yielded to him without a struggle. But the greatest of his civil contests yet remained, and it was harder to wage it now against the people which had come back flushed with victory, and bent on electing a plebeian consul, contrary to the established law. But the Senate opposed their demands, and would not suffer Camillos to lay aside his office, thinking that, with the aid of his great power and authority, they could make a better fight in defense of their aristocracy. But once, when Camillos was seated in state, and dispatching public business in the forum, an officer, sent by the tribunes of the people, ordered him to follow, actually laying hands upon him as though to hail him away. All at once such cries and tumult as had never been heard before filled the forum, the friends of Camillos thrusting the plebeian officer down from the tribunal, and the multitude below ordering him to drag the dictator away. Camillos perplexed at the issue, did not renounce his office, but taking the senators with him, marched off to their place of meeting. Before he entered this, turning to the capital, he prayed the gods to bring the present tumult to their happiest end, solemnly vowing to build a temple to concord when the confusion was over. In the senate there was a great conflict of opposing views, but nevertheless, the mother course prevailed, concession was made to the people, and permission given them to elect one of the consuls from their own body. When the dictator announced this to the people, as the will and pleasure of the senate, at once, as was to be expected, they were delighted to be reconciled with the senate, and escorted Camillos to his home with loud applause. On the following day, they held an assembly, and voted to build a temple of concord, as Camillos had voted, and to have it face the forum and place of assembly, to commemorate what had now happened. They voted also to add a day to the so-called Latin festival, and thereafter to celebrate four days, and that all Romans at once performed sacrifices with garlands on their heads. At the elections held by Camillos, Marcus Aemilius was chosen consul from the patricians, and Lucius Sixtus first consul from the plebeians. This was the last public act of Camillos. In the year following, a pestilential sickness visited Rome, carrying off an incalculable number of the common people, and most of the magistrates. Camillos also died at this time, and he was full ripe for death, if any man ever was, considering his years and the completeness of his life. Yet his loss grieved the Romans more than that of all those who perished of the plague at this time. End of Camillos Part 8 of Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Graham Redman Volume 2 of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrin Aristides Part 1 Aristides, the son of Lycemicus, belonged to the tribe Antiochus and to the D. Melopici. As regards his substance, stories differ, some having it that he passed all the days of his life in severe poverty, and that at his death he left behind him two daughters who for a long time were not sought in marriage because of their indigents. But in contradiction of this story, which so many writers give, Demetrius of Filiarum, in his Socrates, says he knows of an estate in Filiarum which belonged to Aristides, the one in which he lies buried, and regards as proofs of his opulent circumstances, first his office of Archon Iponomotus, which only he could hold who obtained it by lot from among the families carrying the highest property assessments. These were called Pentecostium adimni, or 500 bushelars. Second his banishment in ostracism, for no poor men, but only men from great houses which incurred envy because of their family prestige were liable to ostracism. Third and last, the fact that he left in the precinct of Dionysus as offerings for victory some Kheregic tripods, which even in our day were pointed out as still bearing the inscription, the tribe Antiochus was victorious, Aristides was Kheregus, Archestratus was Poed. Now this last argument, though it seems very strong, is really very weak. For both Epaminondas, who as all men know was reared and always lived in great poverty, and Plato the philosopher, took it upon themselves to furnish munificent public performances. The first of men trained to play the flute, the second of boys trained to sing and dance. But Plato received the money that he spent thereon from Dion of Syracuse and Epaminondas from Pilopidas. Good men wage no savage and relentless war against the gifts of friends, but while they look upon gifts taken to be stored away and increase the receiver's wealth as ignoble and mean, they refuse none which promote an unselfish and splendid munificence. However, as regards the tripods, Panicius tries to show that Demetrius was deceived by identity of name. From the Persian Wars, he says, down to the end of the Peloponnesian War, only two Aristides are recorded as victorious Corrigi, and neither of them is identical with the son of Lycemicus. One was the son of Xenophilus, and the other lived long afterwards, as is proved by the inscription itself, which is written in the character used after Euclides, as well as by the last name Archestratus, of whom there is no record during the Persian Wars, while during the time of the Peloponnesian War his name often appears as that of a choral poet. This argument of Panicius should be more closely examined as to its validity, but to banishment in ostracism everyone was liable who was superior to the common run of men in reputation or lineage or eloquence, and so it was that Daemon, the teacher of Pericles, was ostracised because he was thought to be rather extraordinary in his wisdom. Furthermore, Edomineus says that Aristides obtained the office of Archon not by lot, but by the election of the Athenians, and if he was made Archon after the Battle of Plataea as Demetrius himself has written, it is certainly very credible that in view of such a reputation and such successes as he there won, he should be deemed worthy, for his valour, of an office which men who drew lots for it obtained for their wealth. In fact Demetrius is clearly ambitious to rescue not only Aristides, but also Socrates, from what he deems the great evil of poverty, for he says that Socrates owned not only his house, but also seventy miners out at interest with Crito. Aristides was an intimate friend of that Cleisthenes who set the state in order after the expulsion of the tyrants. He also admired and emulated, above all other statesmen, Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian. He therefore favoured an aristocratic form of government and ever had opposed to him as champion of the people the mysticlies the son of Neoclies. Some say that even as boys and fellow pupils from the outset, in every word and deed, whether serious or trivial, they were at variance with one another, and that by this very rivalry their natures were straightway made manifest, the one as dexterous, reckless and unscrupulous, easily carried with impetuosity into any and every undertaking, the other as established on a firm character, intent on justice, and admitting no falsity or vulgarity or deceit, not even in any sport whatsoever. But Aristun of Seos says that this enmity of theirs, which came to be so intense, had its origin in the love affair. They were both enamoured of Stisileus, who was of Seonberth, and in beauty of Persum, the most brilliant of youths. And they cherished their passion so immoderately that not even after the boy's beauty had faded did they lay aside their rivalry. But, as though they had merely taken preliminary practice and exercise in that, they presently engaged in matters of state also, with passionate heath, and opposing desires. Themistocles joined a society of political friends, and so secured no inconsiderable support and power. Hence, when someone told him that he would be a good ruler over the Athenians if he would only be fair and impartial to all, he replied, Never may I sit on a tribunal where my friends are to get no more advantage from me than strangers. But Aristides walked the way of statesmanship by himself on a private path of his own, as it were, because in the first place he was unwilling to join with any comrades in wrongdoing, or to vex them by withholding favours, and in the second place he saw that power derived from friends incited many to do wrong, and so was on his guard against it, deeming it as a matter of self-pity. It is quite right that the good citizen should base his confidence only on serviceable and just conduct. However, since Themistocles was a reckless agitator and opposed and thwarted him in every measure of state, Aristides himself also was almost compelled—partly in self-defense and partly to curtail his adversaries' power, which was increasing through the favour of the many— to set himself in opposition to what Themistocles was trying to do, thinking it better that some advantages should escape the people than that his adversary, by prevailing everywhere, should become too strong. Finally there came a time when he opposed and defeated Themistocles in an attempt to carry some really necessary measure. Then he could no longer hold his peace, but declared, as he left the assembly, that there was no safety for the Athenian state unless they threw both Themistocles and himself into the death pit. On another occasion he himself introduced a certain measure to the people and was carrying it through successfully, in spite of the attacks of the opposition upon it, but just as the presiding officer was to put it to the final vote, perceiving from the various speeches that had been made in opposition to it the inexpediency of his measure, he withdrew it without a vote, and oftentimes he would introduce his measures through other men that Themistocles might not be driven by the spirit of rivalry with him to oppose what was expedient for the state. Altogether admirable was his steadfast constancy amid the revulsions of political feeling. He was not unduly lifted up by his honours and faced adversity with a calm gentleness, while in all cases alike he considered it his duty to give his services to his country freely and without any reward, either in money or, what meant far more, in reputation. And so it befell, as the story goes, that when the verses composed by Iscalus upon Ampherius were recited in the theatre, he wishes not to seem, but rather just to be, and reap a harvest from deep furrows in a mind from which there spring up honourable counsellings. All the spectators turned their eyes on Aristides, feeling that he, above all men, was possessed of such excellence. It was not only against the inclinations of his good will and personal favour that he was a most strenuous champion of justice, but also against those of his anger and hatred. At any rate a story is told how he was once prosecuting an enemy in court, and after he had made his accusation the judges were loath to hear the defendant at all, and demanded that their vote be taken against him straight way. But Aristides sprang to his feet, and seconded the culprit's plea for a hearing and the usual legal procedure. And again, when he was serving as private arbitrator between two men, on one of them saying that his opponent had done Aristides much injury, tell me rather, he said, whether he has done thee any wrong. It is for thee not for myself that I am seeking justice. When he was elected overseer of the public revenues, he proved clearly that large sums had been embezzled not only by his fellow officials, but also by those of former years, and particularly by the Mr. Cleese. The man was clever, but of his hand had no control. For this cause the Mr. Cleese banded many together against Aristides, prosecuted him for theft at the auditing of his accounts, and actually got a verdict against him according to Adaminius. But the first and best men of the city were incensed at this, and he was not only exempted from his fine, but even appointed to administer the same charge again. Then he pretended to repent him of his former course, and made himself more pliable, thus giving pleasure to those who were stealing the common funds, by not examining them or holding them to strict account, so that they gorge themselves with the public monies, and then lauded Aristides to the skies, and pleaded with the people in his behalf, eagerly desirous that he be once more elected to his office. But just as they were about to vote, Aristides rebuked the Athenians. Verily, said he, when I served you in office with fidelity and honour, I was reviled and persecuted. But now that I am flinging away much of the common fund to thieves, I am thought to be an admirable citizen. For my part I am more ashamed of my present honour than I was of my former condemnation, and I am sore distressed for you because it is more honourable in your eyes to please base men than to guard the public monies. By these words, as well as by exposing their thefts, he did indeed stop the mouths of the men who were then testifying loudly in his favour, but he won genuine and just praise from the best citizens. Now, when date is on being sent by Darius ostensibly to punish the Athenians for burning Sardis, but really to subdue all the Hellenes, put in at Marathon with all his armament, and went to ravaging the country, then of the ten generals appointed by the Athenians for the conduct of the war, it was Miltiades who enjoyed the greatest consideration, but in reputation and influence Aristides was second. By adopting at that time the opinion of Miltiades about the battle to be fought, he did much to turn the scale in its favour. And since each general held the chief authority for a single day in turn, when the command came round to him, he handed it over to Miltiades, thereby teaching his fellow officers that to obey and follow men of wisdom is not disgraceful, but dignified and salutary. By thus appeasing the jealousy of his colleagues and inducing them to be cheerfully contented in the adoption of a single opinion, and that the best, he confirmed Miltiades in the strength which comes from an unrestricted power. For each of the other generals at once relinquished his own right to command for a day in turn, and put himself under the orders of Miltiades. In the battle the Athenian centre was the hardest pressed, and it was there that the barbarians held their ground the longest, over against the tribes Leontis and Antiochus. There then the mysticlies and Aristides fought brilliantly ranged side by side, for one was a Leontid, the other an Antiochid. When the Athenians had routed the barbarians and driven them aboard their ships, and saw that they were sailing away not toward the islands, but into the gulf toward Attica under compulsion of wind and wave, then they were afraid lest the enemy find Athens empty of defenders, and so they hastened homeward with nine tribes and reached the city that very day. But Aristides was left behind at Marathon with his own tribe to guard the captives and the booty. Nor did he belay his reputation, but though silver and gold lay about in heaps, and though there were all sorts of raiment and untold wealth besides in the tents, and captured utensils, he neither desired to meddle with it himself, nor would he suffer any one else to do so, although certain ones helped themselves without his knowledge. Among these was Calias the torchbearer. Some barbarian it seems rushed up to this man, supposing him to be a king from his long hair and the headband that he wore, made obeisance to him, and taking him by the hand in supple and fashion showed him a great mass of gold buried up in a sort of pit. Calias, most savage and lawless of men, took up the gold, but the man, to prevent his betraying the matter to others, he slew. From this circumstance, they say, his descendants are called by the comic poets Lacko Plutae, or pit wealthies, in sly allusion to the place where Calias found his gold. Aristides at once received the office of Archon eponymous, and yet Demetrius of Filiarum says that it was a little while before his death and after the battle of Plotia that the man held this office. But in the official records, after Xanthippides, in whose year of office Mardonius was defeated at Plotia, you cannot find, long as the list is, so much as the name Aristides. Whereas immediately after Finippus, in whose year of office the victory at Marathon was won, an Aristides is recorded as Archon. Of all his virtues, it was his justice that most impressed the multitude, because of its most continual and most general exercise. Wherefore, though poor and a man of the people, he acquired that most kingly and godlike surname of the Just. This, no kings or tyrants ever coveted, nay, they rejoiced to be so-named besiegers, or thunderbolts, or conquerors, and some eagles or hawks, cultivating the reputation which is based on violence and power as it seems, rather than on virtue. And yet divinity, to which such men are eager to adapt and conform themselves, is believed to have three elements of superiority, incorruption, power, and virtue, and the most reverend, the divinest of these, is virtue. For vacuum, and the ultimate elements partake of incorruption, and great power, is exhibited by earthquakes, and thunderbolts, and rushing tornadoes, and invading floods. But in fundamental justice nothing participates except through the exercise of intelligent reasoning powers. Therefore, considering the three feelings which are generally entertained towards divinity, envy, fear, and honorable regard, men seem to envy and felicitate the deities for their incorruption and perpetuity, to dread and fear them for their sovereignty and power, but to love and honor and revere them for their justice. And yet, although men are thus disposed, it is immortality of which our nature is not capable, and power, the chief disposal of which is in the hands of fortune, that they eagerly desire. While as for virtue the only divine excellence within our reach, they put it at the bottom of the list, unwisely too, since a life passed in power and great fortune and authority needs justice to make it divine. By injustice it is made bestial. Now, to resume, it befell Aristides to be loved at first because of this surname, but afterwards to be jealously hated, especially when the mysticies set the story going among the multitude, that Aristides had done away with the public courts of justice by his determining and judging everything in private, and that, without anyone perceiving it, he had established for himself a monarchy saving only the armed bodyguard. And besides, the people too must by this time have become greatly elated over their victory. They thought nothing too good for themselves, and were therefore vexed with those who towered above the multitude in name and reputation. So they assembled in the city from all the country round, and ostracized Aristides, giving to their envious dislike of his reputation the name of fear of tyranny. Now the sentence of ostracism was not a chastisement of base practices. Nay, it was speciously called a humbling and docking of oppressive prestige and power. But it was really a merciful exorcism of the spirit of jealous hate, which thus vented its malignant desire to injure not in some irreparable evil, but in a mere change of residence for ten years. And when ignoble men of the baser sort came to be subjected to this penalty, it ceased to be inflicted at all, and hyperbolas was the last to be thus ostracized. It is said that hyperbolas was ostracized for the following reason. Alcibiades and Nicias had the greatest power in the state, and were at odds. Accordingly, when the people were about to exercise the ostracism, and were clearly going to vote against one or the other of these two men, they came to terms with one another, united their opposing factions, and effected the ostracism of hyperbolas. The people were incensed at this, for they felt that the institution had been insulted and abused. And so they abandoned it utterly and put an end to it. The method of procedure, to give a general outline, was as follows. Each voter took an ostracon, or pot-shirt, wrote on it the name of that citizen whom he wished to remove from the city, and brought it to a place in the Agora, which was all fenced about with railings. The archons first counted the total number of ostraca cast, for if the voters were less than six thousand, the ostracism was void. Then they separated the names, and the man who had received the most votes they proclaimed banished for ten years, with the right to enjoy the income from his property. Now at the time of which I was speaking, as the voters were inscribing their ostraca, it is said that an unlettered and utterly boorish fellow handed his ostracon to Aristides, whom he took to be one of the ordinary crowd, and asked him to write Aristides on it. He, astonished, asked the man what possible wrong Aristides had done him. None whatever was the answer, I don't even know the fellow, but I am tired of hearing him everywhere called the Just. On hearing this, Aristides made no answer, but he wrote his name on the ostracon, and handed it back. Finally, as he was departing the city, he lifted up his hands to heaven, and prayed, a prayer the opposite as it seems of that which Achilles made, that no crisis might overtake the Athenians, which should compel the people to remember Aristides. End of Aristides, part one. Recording by Graham Redman.