atque suos in priora castra, quæ pro Geronii monibus erant. Justâ quoque acie et collatis signis dimicatum, quidam auctores sunt primo concursu Pœnum usque ad castra fusum, inde eruptione factâ repente versum terrorem in Romanos; Num. Decimii Samnitis deinde interventu prælium restitutum. Hunc, principem genere ac divitiis non Boviani modo, unde erat, sed toto Samnio, jussu dictatoris octo millia peditum et equites quingentos ducentem in castra, ab tergo quum apparuisset Hannibali, speciem parti utrique præbuisse novi præsidii cum Q. Fabio ab Româ venientis : Hannibalem insidiarum quoque aliquid timentem recepisse suos : Romanum, insecutum, adjuvante Samnite, duo castella eo die expugnâsse: sex millia hostium cæsa, quinque admodum Romanorum. tamen, in tam pari prope clade, famam egregiæ victoriæ cum vanioribus literis magistri equitum Romam perlatam.

XXV. De his rebus persæpe et in senatu et in concione actum est. Quum, lætâ civitate, dictator unus nihil nec famæ, nec literis, crederet; ut vera omnia essent, secunda se magis, quam adversa, timere diceret; tum M. Metilius,* tribunus plebis, Id enim ferendum esse negat. Non præsentem solum dictatorem obstitisse rei bene gerendæ, sed absentem etiam gestæ obstare: et in ducendo bello sedulo

5

1 Collatis signis. "With standards advanced to the charge."

2 Boviani. Bovianum was in the heart of Samnium, and the chief town of the Pentrians, on the Via Numicia.

3 Quinque admodum R. "Full five thousand Romans."

4 M. Metilius. The Metilii seem often to have been tribunes; another is mentioned in Liv. v. 11.

5 Tribunus plebis. "When the plebeians, impoverished by long wars and cruelly oppressed by the patricians, at length seceded, in the year 494 B.C., to the Mons Sacer, the patricians were

obliged to grant to the plebeians the right of appointing tribunes (tribuni plebis), with more efficient powers to protect their own order than those which were possessed by the heads of the tribes. The purpose for which they were appointed was only to afford protection against any abuse on the part of the patrician magistrates."— Smith's Dict. Antiq. Their powers afterwards were very much enlarged.

6 Id enim fer. Enim, like the Greek yap, introduces the thoughts of a speaker, and need not be translated in English.

tempus terere, quo diutius in magistratu1 sit, solusque et Romæ et in exercitu imperium habeat. Quippe consulum alterum in acie cecidisse; alterum, specie classis Punicæ persequendæ, procul ab Italiâ ablegatum. Duos prætores3 Siciliâ atque Sardiniâ occupatos, quorum neutra hoc tempore provincia prætore egeat. M. Minucium, magistrum equitum, ne hostem videret, ne quid rei bellica gereret, prope in custodiam habitum. Itaque Hercule, non Samuium modo, quo jam, tanquam trans Iberum agro, Pœnis concessum sit, et Campanum Calenumque et Falernum agros pervastatos esse, sedente Casilini dictatore, et legionibus populi Romani agrum suum tutante: exercitum, cupientem pugnare, et magistrum equitum, clausos prope intra vallum retentos; tanquam hostibus captivis, arma adempta. tandem ut abscesserit inde dictator, ut obsidione liberatos, extra vallum egressos, fudisse ac fugâsse hostes. Quas ob res, si antiquus animus plebi Romanæ esset, audaciter se laturum fuisse de abrogando Q. Fabii imperio: nunc modicam rogationem promulgaturum de æquando magistri equitum et dictatoris jure: nec tamen, ne ita quidem, prius mittendnm ad exercitum Q. Fabium, quam consulem in locum C. Flaminii suffecisset. Dictator concionibus se abstinuit, in actione minime populari ne in senatu quidem satis æquis auribus

1 Diutius in magis. The period of office was only six months.

2 Alterum in acie....alterum. Flaminius had been killed at the battle of Lake Trasimenus, and Cn. Servilius despatched to protect the shores of Italy (Cap. XI.)

3 Duos præt. T. Otacilius Crassus in Sicily, and A. Cornelius Mammula in Sardinia. When the plebeians obtained a share in the Consulate, the judicial functions attached to that office were transferred to a special magistrate called a Prætor, or Prætor Urbanus: a second

was added when Sicily became subject to Rome, and was called Prætor Peregrinus: two more were created for the government of the two first provinces, Sicily and Sardinia.

4 Tanquam trans Ib. The Romans had made a treaty with Hasdrubal, the brother-in-law of Hannibal, which fixed the Iberus as the northern limit of Carthaginian rule in Spain.

5 Laturum. The Future in rus, from fero. The full expression for bringing forward a bill was Legem ad populum ferre.

2

audiebatur tunc, quum hostem verbis extolleret, bienniique clades per temeritatem atque inscientiam ducum acceptas referret;1 magistroque equitum, quod contra dictum suum pugnâsset, rationem diceret reddendam esse. Si penes se summa imperii consiliique sit, propediem effecturum, ut sciant homines, bono imperatori haud magni fortunam momenti esse; mentem rationemque dominari. Se in tempore et sine ignominiâ servâsse exercitum, quam multa millia hostium occidisse, majorem gloriam esse. Hujus generis orationibus frustra habitis, et consule creato M. Atilio Regulo, ne præsens de jure imperii dimicaret, pridie quam rogationis ferendæ dies adesset, nocte ad exercitum abiit. Luce ortâ, quum plebis concilium esset, magis tacita invidia dictatoris, favorque magistri equitum animos versabat, quam satis audebant homines ad suadendum, quod vulgo placebat, prodire; et, favore superante, auctoritas tamen rogationi deerat. Unus inventus est suasor legis, C. Terentius Varro, qui priore anno prætor fuerat, loco non humili solum, sed etiam sordido, ortus. patrem lanium3 fuisse ferunt, ipsum institorem mercis ; filioque hoc ipso in servilia ejus artis ministeria usum.

XXVI. Is juvenis, ubi ex eo genere quæstûs pecunia a patre relicta animos ad spem liberalioris fortunæ fecit, togaque et forum placuere, proclamando pro sordidis hominibus

1 Acceptas ref. "To put down to the account of." The other side of the account would be expressed by Expensas referre alicui.

2 M. Atilio Regulo. Probably the son of the famous M. Atilius Regulus of the first Punic War.

3 Lanium. "Varro, his enemies said, was a butcher's son: nay, it was added that he had himself been a butcher's boy, and had only been enabled by the fortune which his father had left him to throw aside his ignoble calling, and to aspire

to public offices. So Cromwell was called a brewer: but Varro had been successively elected quæstor, plebeian and curule ædile, and prætor, while we are not told that he was ever tribune : and it is without example in Roman history that a mere demagogue, of no family, with no other merits, civil or military, should be raised to such nobility." Arnold, Hist. Rom. III. 129.

+ Institorem. "A hawker." Cf. Juv. VII. 221. "Institor hibernæ tegetis niveique cadurci."