are conflicting and confused; and the opinions of modern writers on the subject various and inconsistent.(16)

Under this, or the next year, is placed the commencement of the war of Porsena against the Romans. After his recent defeat, Tarquin had taken refuge with Porsena, king of the town of Clusium. This powerful Etruscan prince promised succour to Tarquin, and led an army against Rome, which was strengthened by Octavius Mamilius, son-in-law of Tarquin, at the head of some revolted Latin states. An engagement took place near the Janiculum,(+7) in which the Romans were worsted. On their retreat over the wooden bridge, the Pons Sublicius, the celebrated exploit of Horatius Cocles was performed, who, supported by Sp. Larcius and T. Herminius, repelled the Etruscans until the Romans had crossed, and afterwards cut off the bridge, (48) whereupon he swam safely across the river. memory of this action, which conferred upon him immortal renown,(9) the people set up a brazen armed statue of him in the Forum, which was still extant in the time of Pliny, and gave him as much public land as he could plough round with a pair of oxen in one day. The inhabitants of the city, being more than 300,000 in number, likewise presented him each with one day's food, at the time of the greatest want of provisions.(50)

In

(46) See Becker, ii. 2, p. 328. The passage of Ulpian de Off. quæst. ap. Dig. i. 13, appears to refer to the judicial office of quæstor under the kings. See Becker, ib. p. 329. A conjecture respecting the origin and meaning of the expression quæstores classici, used in Lydus de Mag. i. 27, may be seen in Niebuhr, Hist. vol. i. p. 430.

(47) The occupation of the Janiculum by Porsena is alluded to in the speech of Appius; Livy, vi. 40.

(48) Virgil represents Cocles as himself breaking off the bridge: 'Pontem auderet quod vellere Cocles ;' Æn. viii. 650.

(49) τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον ἀθάνατον αὐτῷ δόξαν εἰργάσατο, says Dion. Hal. v. 25. Livy remarks: incolumis ad suos tranavit, rem ausus plus famæ habituram ad posteros quam fidei;' ii. 10.

(50) Concerning the rewards of Cocles, see Dion. Hal. v. 25; Livy, ii.10. Plut. Publ. 16; Script. de Vir. Ill. 11. Gellius, iv. 5, states that the statue of Cocles in the Comitium was once struck by lightning; that the Etruscan diviners, who were consulted on the subject, being actuated by a hostile spirit, recommended a mode of expiation which would have aggravated the anger of the gods, instead of appeasing it; and that, being detected in this design, they were sentenced by the people and executed. The mode of

Polybius, writing at an earlier time than the historians whose works have come down to us, likewise relates this story, but he describes Horatius Cocles as having thrown himself into the river, and been drowned, after he had maintained the bridge until it was cut off. (51) If, therefore, Polybius followed the version current in his own time, the story of the grant of land, and of the gift of one day's food, had not as yet been invented.

Rome then underwent a close siege, and the inhabitants were severely tried; but the consuls and Senate had secured the allegiance of the people by taking measures, on the first alarm of war, for affording them relief. Corn was purchased abroad, (52) salt in the hands of private dealers was seized, and sold to the public at cheap rates, the poor were exempted from custom duties and property tax. (53) The Romans had likewise derived

expiation which they had recommended was that the statue should be removed to a lower position, which was so surrounded by buildings that the sun never shone upon it. Instead of this, it was placed in the court of the temple of Vulcan on an eminence. Hence arose the common verse: 'Malum consilium consultori pessimum est.'

The preceding narrative is cited from the Annales Maximi, and, as has been already observed, has all the appearance of a recent antiquarian fiction. Above, vol. i. p. 166. Plutarch, ib. says that the statue was originally set up in the temple of Vulcan, in consequence of Cocles having been lamed by his wounds. This story assigns a totally different reason for the choice of the temple of Vulcan from that given in the Annales Maximi. The Scriptor de Vir. Ill. 11, speaks of the statue of Cocles being placed in the Vulcanal. Pliny mentions the statue as extant in his time: Alia causa, alia auctoritas M. Horatii Coclitis statuæ, quæ durat hodieque, cum hostes a ponte Sublicio solus arcuisset;' N. H. xxxv. 11. A saying of Cocles is recorded by Serv. En. viii. 646, that being reproached in the Comitia with his lameness, he replied: Per singulos gradus admoneor triumphi mei.' Compare Myth. Lat. i. 74, ed. Bode. The lameness of Cocles and his reward of as much land as he could plough round in a day, are mentioned by Plut. An seni sit ger. Resp. c. 27. His lameness is likewise alluded to in Dio Cass. xlv. 32, cf. c. 31. With respect to the mode of measuring land adopted for the reward of Cocles, see Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 90, 91; Pliny, N. H. xviii. 3. (51) vi. 55.

(52) Livy, ii. 9, mentions the Volscian country and Cuma as the places from which corn was obtained. Dionysius, v. 26, names Cuma and the Pomentine plain; which two statements agree. Dionysius, ib. says that the Romans applied to the Latins for assistance, but met with a refusal. Livy says nothing of this.

(53) Dionysius speaking of the measures of the consuls respecting the poor, says: καὶ γὰρ ἀτελεῖς αὐτοὺς ἁπάντων ἐψηφίσαντο εἶναι τῶν κοινῶν τελῶν, ὅσα βασιλευομένης τῆς πόλεως ἐτέλουν, καὶ ἀνεισφόρους τῶν εἰς τὰ

encouragement from a favourable omen which occurred at this moment. A short time before his expulsion, Tarquin had employed some potters at Veii to make a chariot of clay, to be placed on the summit of the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. When this fabric was baked, instead of shrinking, as is ordinarily the case with works of clay, it swelled so as to be with difficulty withdrawn from the oven. This preternatural increase of size portended an increase of power to those who became possessed of the chariot.(5) The Veientes, accordingly, refused to give it up to the Romans; saying that it belonged to Tarquin, not to those who had expelled him. But a few days afterwards, the victor in a chariot-race at Veii, being carried away by his horses, was unable to stop them until they overthrew him at the Ratumene gate of the Capitol. (55) The Veientes now saw that it was the

στρατιωτικὰ καὶ τοὺς πολέμους ἀναλισκομένων ἐποίησαν ; ν. 22. Dionysius here speaks of the taxes of the poor as if they had been uniform under the kings: whereas, according to his own representation, a new and equitable system of taxation was introduced by Servius, which was replaced by an unjust and oppressive poll-tax of ten drachmas, by Tarquin II.; see, iv. 43. Livy makes a similar antithesis between the regal and consular periods: Itaque hæc indulgentia patrum, asperis postmodum rebus in obsidione ac fame, adeo concordem civitatem tenuit, ut regium nomen non summi magis quam infimi horrerent;' ii. 9. This account implies that in the second year of the Republic, it was found expedient to resort to extraordinary measures of financial relief, in order to attach the poorer class of citizens to the new state of things. This, again, does not agree with Livy's account of the detestation with which the reign of Tarquin had been regarded. Quæ libertas ut lætior esset, proximi regis superbia fecerat;' ii. 1. The present measure of relief appears to have been converted by other writers into one of the Valerian laws, and to have been related without any reference to the war with Porsena: see Plut. Publ. 11, where the effect of the exemption of the poor from property tax is stated to be that it made them more industrious-not that it made them better affected to the consular government, and more hostile to Tarquin. See above, p. 12, n. 41.

(54) Among a long list of prodigies in Livy, xxi. 62, it is mentioned that at Cære,sortes extenuatæ,' and again in xxii. 1, at Falerii, 'sortes suâ sponte attenuatæ.' These two prodigies, both at Etruscan towns, were the converse of the prodigy of the clay chariot; they were unlucky, as they consisted in the shrinking of the sacred lots. See above, vol. i. p. 162, n. 101.

(55) Veii is distant from Rome from ten to twelve miles. See Gell's Topography of Rome, ed. Bunbury, p. 440. It is moreover, on the opposite side of the Tiber, which was then only crossed by one wooden bridge. The story of the charioteer being run away with to the Capitol must therefore be fabulous. It should be observed that the Ratumene gate of the Capitol was the gate most distant from Veii. Nardini, Analisi della carta de' dintorni di Roma (ed. 2), vol. iii. P. 428.

will of Jupiter that the fictile chariot should go to Rome, and they delivered their work, with its accompanying good prognostic, to the enemies of Tarquin.(56)

Next follows the exploit of Mucius, who went as a volunteer, with the approbation of the Senate, to attempt the assassination of Porsena, and slew the king's secretary by mistake for the king himself. As the story is told by Livy, Mucius, upon being brought before the royal tribunal, announced that he was only one of 300 noble Roman youths, who had sworn to take away the king's life, and that the lot had fallen on him first, but that the others would follow. On being threatened with torture or death by fire, he thrust his right hand into a burning altar, and held it in the flames without shrinking; from which circumstance he acquired the name of Scævola, the 'lefthanded.'(57) Porsena was so terrified at the hardihood of the Roman, and the prospect of his own danger, that he dismissed Mucius, and sent ambassadors to treat with Rome.(58) The account of this transaction given by Plutarch is similar; he states, however, that Porsena was induced to treat, rather by his admiration of the courage of the Romans, than by his fear of the 300 conspirators. (59) The

(56) Plut. Publ. 13. The augury of the clay chariot swelling in the furnace is alluded to by Pliny, Ñ. H. xxviii. 4. The clay chariot on the top of the Capitoline temple is also mentioned by him, xxxv. 45. The same story is told by Festus, in Ratumenna porta, p. 274, but with this variation, that when the Veientine charioteer is overturned near the Capitol, the fictile chariot is supposed to be already on the top of the temple of Jupiter, having been previously recovered in war. A different story is given by Solinus. Excusso aurigâ, quem Rutumannam nominabant, relicto certamine ad Capitolium quadriga prosiluit, nec ante substitit, quamlibet obviis occursibus impedita, quam Tarpeium Jovem ternâ dextrâtione lustraret;

c. 45.

(57) Athenodorus, in his work addressed to Octavia the sister of Augustus Cæsar, gave to Mucius the name of Opsigonus; Plut. Publ. 17. Concerning this Athenodorus, see Smith's Dict. in v. He is called Caius Mucius Cordus by Dion. Hal. v. 25, Zonaras, vii. 12, and Script. de Vir. Ill. 12.

(58) Livy, ii. 12, 13. Compare Script. de Vir. Ill. ib. The assassination of an enemy in the manner attempted by Mucius is justified by Grotius de J. B. et P. iii. 4, § 18, and by Puffendorf, viii. 6, § 16.

(59) Publ. 17. Zonaras, vii. 12, gives the same story, and attributes the negotiation of Porsena to fear. It is likewise told in Polyæn. viii. 8, where the same motive is assigned. The exploit of Mucius is mentioned by Cic. pro Sext. 21.

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version adopted by Dionysius is different. He omits altogether the characteristic incident of the hand thrust into the fire— doubtless as being improbable; and although, like Livy, he describes Porsena as negotiating from fear, yet he throws in the additional motive of the loss of a plundering party, cut off by a Roman ambush, which Livy does not connect with this event. (60) He likewise says that the authorities differ on the point, whether Mucius was immediately sent back by Porsena, or was detained as a hostage in the Etruscan camp.(61)

The ambassadors sent by Porsena to Rome offer peace on three conditions:-1 The restitution of the property of Tarquin. 2 The cession to the Veientes of the territory north of the Tiber, called Septem pagi, which had been taken from them by the Romans. (62) 3 The delivery of hostages from the principal families.(63) The Romans reject the first, but comply with the last two of these conditions; and the hostages are accordingly given up.(64) Dionysius says that the Romans accompanied the rejection

(60) v. 27-31. The number three hundred is mentioned by Dionysius, as well as by Livy, Plutarch, Zonaras, the writer de Vir. Ill. and Polyænus. This threat of Mucius is conceived as a stratagem: KAIVÓTATOV ἐνθυμηθεὶς ὁ Μούκιος ἀπάτης τρόπον, says Dionysius; c. 29. ἕτερον τρόπον Loopioaro Tòv Expóv, Zonaras: terrorem geminat dolo, Florus. Livy describes the Roman ambush, on the southern side of the Tiber; but does not connect it with the exploit of Mucius, ii. 11. Plutarch converts it into a battle with a separate army, in which Valerius kills 5000 Etruscans; Publ. 17.

(61) v. 31. Dionysius prefers the latter account: kai ráx' âv en tout' aλnoorεpov. Plutarch likewise says that there are various versions of the adventure of Mucius: τὸ δὲ περὶ Μούκιον εἴρηται μὲν ὑπὸ πολλῶν καὶ διαφόρως· λεκτέον δὲ ᾗ μάλιστα πιστεύεται καὶ ἡμῖν ; Public. 17. The deed of Mucius was considered as the chief cause of the salvation of Rome from Porsena : αἰτιωτάτῳ δόξαντι γεγονέναι τῆς καταλύσεως τοῦ πολέμου; Dion. c. 35. Paulus Diaconus likewise says, in his abridgment of Festus: 'Mucia prata trans Tiberim, dicta a Mucio, cui a populo data fuerant pro eo, quod Porsenam, Etruscorum regem, suâ constantiâ ab urbe dimovit;' p. 144.

(62) This territory is stated to have been ceded by the Veientes to Romulus; Dion. Hal. ii. 52.

(63) Dion. Hal. v. 31; Livy, ii. 13; Plut. Publ. 18.

(64) Plutarch says that the hostages were twenty in number, ten youths and ten virgins, all patricians. Livy afterwards represents Pontius the Samnite as reproaching the Romans with their breach of faith respecting these hostages: Obsides Porsenæ dedistis: furto eos subduxistis;' ix. 11.