Ab urbe condita

In face of this opposition he simply said: “Senators, I am not so mindful of your authority as to forget that I am consul. By the same right and authority by which I have conducted wars, now that these wars have been brought to a successful close, Samnium and Etruria subdued, victory and peace secured, I shall celebrate my triumph.” And with that he left the senate.

A sharp contention now broke out between the tribunes of the plebs. Some declared that they should interpose to prevent his obtaining a triumph in a way which violated all precedent, others asserted that they should give him their support in spite of their colleagues.

The matter was brought before the Assembly, and the consul was invited to be present. In his speech he alluded to the cases of the consuls M. Horatius and L. Valerius and the recent one of Gaius Marcius Rutilus, the father of the man who was censor at the time. All these, he said, had been allowed a triumph, not on the authority of the senate but by an order of the people.

He would have brought the question before the people himself had he not been aware that certain tribunes of the plebs who were bound hand and foot to the nobles would veto the proposal.

He regarded the goodwill and favour of a unanimous people as tantamount to all the formal orders that were made. Supported by three of the tribunes against the veto of the remaining seven and against the unanimous voice of the senate he celebrated his triumph on the following day amidst a great outburst of popular enthusiasm.

The records of this year vary widely from each other. Accord — ing to Claudius, Postumius, after taking some cities in Samnium, was routed and put to flight in Apulia, he himself being wounded, and was driven with a small body of his troops to Luceria; the victories in Etruria were won by Atilius and it was he who celebrated the triumph.

Fabius tells us that both consuls conducted the campaign in Samnium and at Luceria, and that the army was transferred to Etruria, but he does not say by which consul.

He also states that at Luceria the losses were heavy on both sides, and that a temple was vowed to Jupiter Stator in that battle. This same vow Romulus had made many centuries before, but only the fanum, that is the site of the temple, had been consecrated.

As the State had become thus doubly pledged, it became necessary to discharge its obligation to the god, and the senate made an order this year for the construction of the temple.

The year following was marked by the consulship of L. Papirius Cursor, who had not only inherited his father's glory but enhanced it by his management of a great war and a victory over the Samnites, second only to the one which his father had won.

It happened that this nation had taken the same care and pains to adorn their soldiery with all the wealth of splendour as they had done on the occasion of the elder Papirius' victory. They had also called in the aid of the gods by submitting the soldiers to a kind of initiation into an ancient form of oath.

A levy was conducted throughout Samnium under a novel regulation; any man within the military age who had not assembled on the captain-general's proclamation, or any one who

had departed without permission, was devoted to Jupiter [*](The Lex Sacrata) and his life

forfeited. The whole of the army was summoned to Aquilonia, and 40,000 men, the full strength of Samnium, were concentrated there. A space, about 200 feet square, almost in the centre of their camp, was boarded off and covered all over with linen

cloth. In this enclosure a sacrificial service was conducted, the words being read from an old linen book by an aged priest, Ovius Paccius, who announced that he was taking that form of service from the old ritual of the Samnite religion. It was the form which their ancestors used when they formed their secret design of wresting Capua from the

Etruscans. When the sacrifice was completed the captain-general sent a messenger to summon all those who were of noble birth or who were distinguished for their military