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Often appears with: siege and fortification · justice as a virtue · forms of government · constitutions and founding law · censorship and the press · battle and tactics · strategy and the aims of war · slavery and bondage · faction, party, and civil strife · diplomacy and embassies · crime and punishment · aemilian law
Usually: narrative (11) · indignation (4) · injustice endured (3) · detachment (3) · skepticism (3) · speech or oration (2) · the test or trial (2) · curiosity (2) · argument (1) · dialogue (1)
“one man and one intellect, properly qualified for the particular undertaking, is a host in itself and of extraordinary efficacy.” Polybius, The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) · insight
“The nexi, both those who were imprisoned, and those who were now at liberty, hurried into the streets from all quarters and implored the protection of the Quirites.” Titus Livius (Livy), Roman History, Books I-III · observation
“And since there can be no villa where there is no farm and that well cultivated, how can you call this house of yours a villa which has no land appurtenant to it and no cattle or horses?” Marcus Porcius Cato (the Elder) and Marcus Terentius Varro, Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Var · precept
At Sutrium, Romans fight Etruscans after sieges and a long standoff, winning when the second Roman line supports the battle; later, Fabius takes over and disputes at Rome over censorial law begin.
were scarce sufficient to guard the camp; and, among the Romans, so numerous were the wounds, that more wounded men died after the battle than had fallen in the field. 33. Quintus Fabius, consul for the ensuing year, succeeded to the command of the army at Sutrium; the colleague given to him was Caius Marcius Rutilus. On the one side, Fabius brought with him a reinforcement from Rome, and on the other, a new army ha…
Appius Claudius argues he is not bound by the Aemilian law on censorial duration, while his opponent attacks his family’s past tyranny and demands that the law’s newest order governs.
held to be the law, and valid:--yet neither he, nor any of those who had been created censors subsequent to the passing of that law, could be bound by it." 34. While Appius urged such frivolous arguments as these, which carried no conviction whatever, the other said, "Behold, Romans, the offspring of that Appius, who being created decemvir for one year, created himself for a second; and who, during a third, without …
The debate continues as Appius’s opponent denounces his refusal to resign the censorship, compares his actions to earlier abuses, and argues the people are bound by the latest law.
proceeding of their colleague, three gave their support to Appius, on his appealing to them, and he held the censorship alone, to the great disgust of all ranks of men. 35. While such was the state of affairs at Rome, the Etrurians had laid siege to Sutrium, and the consul Fabius, as he was marching along the foot of the mountains, with a design to succour the allies, and attempt the enemy's works, if it were by any…
With Thraso removed, Roman influence collapses and Hieronymus aligns with Carthage: ambassadors from Appius Claudius are dismissed, Hannibal’s agents secure an alliance, and Sicilia is divided by the Himera.
subjected to torture, either concealed himself or fled, so great was their confidence in the fortitude and fidelity of Theodotus, and so great was his firmness in concealing their secret. 6. Thus on the removal of Thraso, who formed the only bond which held together the alliance with the Romans, immediately affairs clearly indicated defection. Ambassadors were sent to Hannibal, who sent back in company with a young …
Manius Acilius moves after Heraclea’s reduction, sends Appius Claudius with troops to secure mountain heights near Corax, sacrifices to Hercules at Pyra on Mount Oeta, and begins a siege of Naupactum.
they might apply to him at Corinth. He then gave directions to Diophanes, to convene immediately a general council of the Achaeans, that he might settle some business with them. 32. In this assembly he complained of their having acquired possession of the island of Zacynthus by unfair means, and demanded that it should be restored to the Romans. Zacynthus had formerly belonged to Philip, king of Macedonia, and he ha…
Sulla fights near Praeneste and Rome: a Samnite commander nearly breaks in, Balbus and Sylla counterattack around four o’clock in the afternoon, and Sylla’s forces drive the enemy back.
cut off vast numbers of the enemy, insomuch that Carbo, the prime supporter of the cause, fled by night from his charge of the army, and sailed over into Libya. In the last struggle, however, the Samnite Telesinus, like some champion, whose lot it is to enter last of all into the lists and take up the wearied conqueror, came nigh to have foiled and overthrown Sylla before the gates of Rome. For Telesinus with his s…
Romans under Appius Claudius and Marcellus prepare to assault Syracuse at Hexapylus and by sea, but Archimedes’ defenses and inventions thwart them, turning assault attempts into a long blockade.
[Sidenote: The siege turned into a blockade, B.C. 214. Coss. Q. Fabius Maximus IV. M. Claudius Marcellus III.] +9.+ Nor was Appius Claudius more successful. He, too, was compelled by similar difficulties to desist from the attempt; for while his men were still at a considerable distance from the wall, they began falling by the stones and shots from the engines and catapults. The volleys of missiles, indeed, were ext…
In the siege of Capua, Hannibal surrounds Appius Claudius’s position, attacks with cavalry and infantry to try to draw the Romans out, fails, and withdraws to consult further tactics.
[Sidenote: Hannibal determines on creating a diversion by threatening Rome.] These considerations convinced Hannibal that it was impossible to raise the siege by an open attack, and he therefore changed his tactics. He imagined that if by a secret march he could suddenly appear in the neighbourhood of Rome, he might by the alarm which he would inspire in the inhabitants by his unexpected movement, perhaps do somethi…
Livy turns to Rome’s internal crisis during impending war: debtors’ misery, the abuses of creditors and nexi, crowd violence, and consul Appius versus Servilius over how to moderate remedies.
misfortunes, and to form ties of hospitality with them. At no previous period had the Latin nation been on more friendly terms both politically and personally with the Roman government. But a war with the Volscians was imminent, and the State was torn with internal dissensions; the patricians and the plebeians were bitterly hostile to one another, owing mainly to the desperate condition of the debtors. They loudly c…
A tribune again tries to obstruct levies for agrarian reform; Appius Claudius argues tribunician power can be neutralized by winning allies among tribunes, enabling consuls to proceed against Veii and resist Etruscan hopes for Roman internal division.
his soldiers toward him. The patricians, however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family. They elected Marcus Fabius consul; Gnaeus Manlius was assigned as a colleague to Fabius. This year also found a tribune to support an agrarian law. This was Tiberius Pontificius, who, pursuing the same tactics, as if it had succeeded in the case of Spurius Licinius, obstructed the levy for a little time. The p…
Rome’s government shifts from consuls to decemvirs, led by Appius Claudius, who quickly administers justice without appeal and models restraint in a case involving Publius Sestius’s household.
should be admitted among them: at length the point was conceded to the patricians, provided that the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and the other devoting laws were not repealed. In the three hundred and second year after the foundation of Rome, the form of government was a second time changed, the supreme power being transferred from consuls to decemvirs as it had passed before from kings to consuls. The change…
The decemvirs publish and have the people vote the Ten Tables, then pursue additional tables, as ambition rises and Appius Claudius uses electoral maneuvering to control the next decemvirate.
judge he was if accused: and relinquished his right,[42] so that he might add what had been taken from the power of the office to the liberty of the people. While highest and lowest alike obtained from them this prompt administration of justice, undefiled, as if from an oracle, at the same time their attention was devoted to the framing of laws; and, the ten tables being proposed amid the intense expectation of all,…
Livy describes how Appius Claudius and the decemvirs push through a levy by suppressing junior patricians’ speech, then assign decemvirs to command or accompany campaigns, with Appius for maintaining city order.
that the levy should be held at the very earliest opportunity; that the decemvirs should lead the armies, whither each thought proper: and that no other matter should take precedence. The junior patricians almost succeeded in getting this resolution passed on a division. Accordingly, Valerius and Horatius, rising again with greater vehemence, loudly demanded that it should be allowed them to express their sentiments…
Appius Claudius commits a forcible seizure of Verginia through a staged claim of servitude, using a dependent to drag her from the forum while her father Verginius and betrothed Lucius Icilius resist.
with military honours at the public expense. He was buried amid the great grief of the soldiery, and with the worst possible infamy of the decemvirs among the common people. Another monstrous deed followed in the city, originating in lust, and attended by results not less tragical than that deed which had brought about the expulsion of the Tarquins from the city and the throne through the violation and death of Lucr…
At the villa publica by the Campus Martius, Appius Claudius, Cornelius Merula, and others debate what counts as a Roman villa, contrasting lavish town-like ornament with productive farm property.
when I was your guest a few days ago at your Reatine villa on my way to lake Velinus to settle the controversy between the people of Interamna and Reate.[160] "But" he added, "is not this villa, which our ancestors constructed, simpler and so better than that elaborate one of yours at Reate: do you see any where here any furniture of citrus wood or ormolu, any decorations of vermillion or blue, any tessellations or …