Ab urbe condita

For there is this further reason why so famous a battle could not be transferred to this later date, namely, that during the three years which preceded and followed the consulship of Cossus war was impossible owing to pestilence and famine, so that some of the annals, as though they were records of deaths, supply nothing but the names of the consuls.

The third year after his consulship has the name of Cossus as a consular tribune, and in the same year he is entered as Master of the Horse, in which capacity he fought another brilliant cavalry action.

Every one is at liberty to form his own conjecture; these doubtful points, in my belief, can be made to support any opinion. The fact remains that the man who fought the battle placed the newly-won spoils in the sacred shrine near Jupiter himself, to whom they were consecrated, and with Romulus in full view —two witnesses to be dreaded by any forger —and that he described himself in the inscription as “A. Cornelius Cossus, Consul.” [*](The latter part of this chapter is as a piece of historical criticism unique in classical literature. Niebuhr says that it was evidently added after the book had been published and read by Augustus.)

The[*](Conquest of Fidenae)M. Cornelius Maluginensis and L. Papirius Crassus were the next consuls. Armies were led into the territories of the Veientines and Faliscans and men and cattle were carried off.

The enemy was nowhere found in the open, nor was there any opportunity of fighting.

Their cities, however, were not attacked, for the people were visited by an epidemic. Spurius Maelius, a tribune of the plebs, tried to get up disturbances, but failed to do so. Relying upon the popularity of the name he bore, he had impeached Minucius and brought forward a proposal for the confiscation of the property of Servilius Ahala on the plea that Maelius had been the

victim of false charges by Minucius, whilst Servilius had been guilty of putting a citizen to death without trial.[*](The Maelius whom Ahala had killed was regarded by the plebs as a martyr to their cause.)

people paid less attention to these accusations than even to their author; they were much more concerned about the increasing virulence of the epidemic and the terrifying portents; most of all about the reports of frequent earthquakes which laid the houses in the country districts in ruins.