Ab urbe condita

Appius Claudius was sent against the Volscians, the Aequi were left for Quinctius to deal with. Appius displayed the same savage temper in the field that he had shown at home, only it was more unrestrained because he was not now fettered by the tribunes.

He hated the commons with a more intense hatred than his father had felt, for they had got the better of him and had carried their Law though he had been elected consul as being the one man who could thwart the tribunitian power —a

Law, too, which former consuls, from whom the senate expected less than from him, had obstructed with less trouble. Anger and indignation at all this goaded his imperious nature into harassing his army by ruthless discipline.

No violent measures, however, could subdue them, such was the spirit of opposition with which they were filled. They did everything in a perfunctory, leisurely, careless, defiant way; no feeling of shame or fear restrained them.

If he wished the column to move more quickly they deliberately marched more slowly, if he came up to urge them on in their work they all relaxed the energy they had been previously exerting of their own accord;

in his presence they cast their eyes down to the ground, when he passed by they silently cursed him, so that the courage which had not quailed before the hatred of the plebs was sometimes shaken.

After vainly employing harsh measures of every kind, he abstained from any further intercourse with his soldiers, said that the army had been corrupted by the centurions, and sometimes called them, in jeering tones, tribunes of the plebs, and Voleros.

LIX. None of this escaped the notice of the Veientines, and they pressed on more vigorously in the hope that the Roman army would show the same spirit of disaffection towards Appius which it had shown towards Fabius.

But it was much more violent towards Appius than it had been towards Fabius, for the soldiers not only refused to conquer, like the army of Fabius, but they wished to be conquered. When led into action they broke into a disgraceful flight and made for their camp, and offered no resistance till they saw the Volscians actually attacking their entrenchments and doing frightful execution in their rear.

Then they were compelled to fight, in order that the victorious enemy might be dislodged from their rampart; it was, however, quite evident that the Roman soldiers only fought to prevent the capture of the camp; otherwise they rejoiced in their ignominious defeat.

Appius' determination as in no way weakened by this, but when he was meditating more severe measures and ordering an assembly of his troops, the officers of his staff and the military tribunes gathered round him and warned him on no account to try how far he could stretch his authority, for its force wholly depended upon the free consent of those who obeyed it.