United States or Cayman Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Their conduct was more disgraceful, and greater loss also was sustained in Algidum; their camp too was lost, and the soldiers, stripped of all their arms, munitions, and supplies, betook themselves to Tusculum, determined to procure the means of subsistence from the good faith and compassion of their hosts, and in these, notwithstanding their conduct, they were not disappointed.
Even the rude and unpolished Orations of Cato are a proof of this; as are likewise all our poets, except in particular instances, in which they were obliged to admit a few breaks, to preserve their metre. Thus we find in Naevius, "Vos QUI ACCOLITIS histrum FLUVIUM ATQUE ALGIDUM." And in another place, "Quam nunquam vobis GRAII ATQUE Barbari." But Ennius admits it only once, when he says,
It so happened that the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome from Algidum: this brought some relief to their terror; and, the tumult being calmed, after chiding them for their dread of a vanquished enemy, he set a guard on the gates.
Above all, the perverseness of the consuls, and the disagreement between them, and their contentions in all the councils, terrified them. There are some who state that an unsuccessful battle was fought by these consuls at Algidum, and that such was the cause of appointing a dictator.
Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be held, and the army to march to Algidum; yet we sit down listless at home, quarrelling with each other like women; delighting in present peace, and not seeing that after that short-lived intermission complicated wars are sure to return.
Their armies were routed both by the Sabines at Eretum, and by the Æquans in Algidum. Fleeing from Eretum during the silence of the night, they fortified their camp nearer the city, on an elevated position between Fidenae and Crustumeria; nowhere encountering on equal ground the enemy who pursued them, they protected themselves by the nature of the ground and a rampart, not by valour or arms.
When matters subsequently came to extremities, they were all sent under the yoke, by the Tusculans, unarmed and naked. While returning home in ignominious flight, they were overtaken by the Roman consul at Algidum, and cut to pieces to a man. The other consul also, as soon as the Roman walls ceased to be in danger, now that the enemy had been defeated, set out from Rome.
Quintius laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day, having received it for six months. During those days the consul Nautius engages the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell the Sabines. Fabius Quintus was sent to Algidum as successor to Minucius.
These words had so little effect on any of them that the ambassadors were near being ill-treated, and an army was sent to Algidum against the Romans.
When the consul ascertained that the soldiers gave expression to these sentiments in the camp, having summoned an assembly: "How matters have gone on in Algidum," says he, "I suppose that you, soldiers, have already heard. As became the army of a free people to behave, so have they behaved: through the judicious conduct of my colleague and the valour of the soldiers, the victory has been gained.
Word Of The Day