The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls
- Автор: Macgregor Mary
- Год: 1914
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Зарубежная литература для детей
Электронная книга - «The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls». Краткое содержание книги:
The Story of Greece: Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Macgregor
The Story of Rome, From the Earliest Times to the Death of Augustus, Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Esther Miller MacGregor
The Consuls and officers of the army vowed to observe this treaty, and six hundred knights were given as hostages to the Samnites.
But Pontius, had he been wise, would have gained the consent of the Senate and people of Rome to his terms, before he was content.
To the Romans, the demands of Pontius seemed severe, but yet deeper was the humiliation they were to endure.
The entire army, along with the Consuls, were forced to pass beneath the yoke, in the presence of, their foe. It was the only way of escape from the pass of the Caudine Forks.
Giving up their arms, and wearing only a kilt which reached from their waist to their knees, the vanquished army filed sullenly out of the gorge beneath the yoke.
This was no unusual humiliation, but was the custom in those days, and equal to our demand that arms should be laid down on the surrender of a garrison.
Pontius was indeed strangely kind to his conquered foes, ordering carriages for the wounded, and giving them food to eat on the march back to Rome.
But nothing could comfort the Romans, whose pride had been gravely wounded by being forced to pass beneath the yoke.
In silence, shame written clear upon their faces, they marched gloomily along, with no desire to reach the end of their journey.
When they drew near to Rome, those who lived in the country slipped away to their homes, hoping that none would notice them. Those who lived in the city waited until it was dark that they might enter unseen.
The Consuls were not able to shun the attention of the crowd, for they entered the city during the day. But they, too, were so ashamed that they deemed themselves no longer fit to be Consuls, and escaping from the people as soon as possible, they shut themselves up in their homes.
Rome was a gloomy city for days after the return of the disgraced army.
The senators laid aside their gold rings, and no longer wore on their robes the red border which was the sign of their rank. In sombre attire and with grave faces they sat in the Senate-house, or paced the streets, thinking of the disgrace that had overtaken their people.
Shops were shut, business was laid aside, while the citizens mourned alike for those who had returned as for those who had been slain.
Ere long new Consuls were elected, and they, with the Senate, agreed that the treaty made with Pontius must not be kept.
Postumius then offered to go back to the Samnites, with his colleague and officers, as a punishment for agreeing to so humiliating a treaty. To this proposal the Senate gave its approval.
The Consuls and officers were then stripped of all save the kilt which they had worn when they passed beneath the yoke, and thus, with their hands tied behind them, they were sent back to the Samnites.’
‘These men are forfeited to you in atonement for the broken treaty,’ cried those who accompanied the miserable penitents, when at length they stood in the presence of Pontius.
But the Samnite general refused to receive such atonement. ‘Either,’ said he, ‘you must put your army back in the Caudine Forks, or you must keep the treaty to which your Consuls agreed.’
As the Romans refused to do this, the second Samnite war continued to be waged.
CHAPTER XLIII
THE DISGRACE OF THE CAUDINE FORKS AVENGED
A year after the Romans had been, as they felt, disgraced at the Caudine Forks, they determined to blot out their humiliation.
The old annalists, whose one desire was to increase the glory of Rome, wrote of great victories and marvellous deeds achieved by the legions, but historians of a later day say that not all the stories told by these ancient writers are true.
It is one of these old annalists who tells that in 320 B.C. Papirius Cursor marched with an army into Apulia. He did not venture through the fatal pass of the Caudine Forks, but took his men along the coast. If this was a longer way it was at least safer than through the valley.
Reaching Luceria, Papirius took it from the Samnites, and not only so, but he recaptured all the arms and standards which the Romans had lost at the Caudine Forks. The hostages too, who had been taken to Luceria by the Samnites, the Consul found and set free.
Then, that the enemy might never dare to boast of the victory which they had won over the Romans, Papirius made seven thousand Samnite soldiers pass beneath the yoke.
And, by the favour of the gods, Pontius was commander of the city, so that the humiliation he had erstwhile forced upon the Romans he had now himself to endure.
After this victory, the Consul returned to Rome and enjoyed a triumph.
The chief object of the war was to secure Campania. After many battles, in which now one army, now the other was victorious, a decisive one was fought in 314 B.C., when the Romans utterly defeated the Samnites. The whole of Campania was now in the hands of Rome.
So as to protect her new possessions, the Romans sent a colony to Ponza, an island lying off the Campanian and Latin coasts. A new interest thus arose in the sea: in 312 B.C. commissioners were appointed to look after the ships of Rome and see that they were in good repair. The following year the Romans had a small fleet ready to sail along the coast of Campania.
Rome was not yet prepared to test her fleet by fighting at sea, but she was now able to send troops to the coast towns of her enemies.
It was about this time that the Consul Appius Claudius began to build the great road between Rome and Capua, which was called The Appian Way.
CHAPTER XLIV
FABIUS AMONG THE CIMINIAN HILLS
One of the most famous heroes of the second Samnite war was Fabius.
Before the disgrace of the Caudine Forks, Fabius, who was an ardent warrior, had fought a battle against the command of the Dictator, Papirius. That he was victorious did not make Papirius less angry with his disobedience. Indeed so angry was he, that he ordered that Fabius should at once be beheaded. But the soldiers threatened to mutiny if the order was carried out, and so for the time the life of the young soldier was saved.
Knowing that the Dictator would take the first opportunity to carry out the sentence he had pronounced, Fabius waited only until it was dark and then fled from the camp to Rome.
When he reached the city he summoned the Senate to meet, meaning to beg for protection from the wrath of the Dictator.
But before the Senate had assembled, Papirius, who had followed Fabius, dashed into the Forum and ordered the runaway to be arrested.
The father of Fabius then besought the tribunes to interfere between his son and the Dictator, declaring that if they did not do so, he would appeal to the Assembly of the people.
But although the tribunes disapproved of the severity of Papirius, they did not dare to interfere, for the power of the Dictator was supreme.
The people, however, who had now gathered in the Forum, speedily took the matter into their own hands. With one voice they begged Papirius to forgive Fabius for their sake.
Papirius, whose passion had had time to cool, was pleased that the people should ask him to be merciful, and he promised to pardon the disobedient soldier.
In 310 B.C., Fabius was elected Consul, along with Marcius. Together the two Consuls set out, each with his own army, to the relief of Sutrium, which town had already been besieged for a year by the Etruscans.
Roman troops had tried again and again, but without success, to raise the siege.
New hope was aroused in Sutrium when the citizens heard that both the Consuls were on the way to their relief. Before they had accomplished anything, however, Marcius was forced to leave his colleague to march against the Samnites, who were in Apulia, plundering the allies of Rome.