Ab urbe condita

There was a time when it might have been said to me, “Yes, for you were a patrician descended from the liberators at our country, and your family held the consulship in the very year when this City first possessed consuls.”

Now, however, the consulship is open to you, plebeians, as much as to us who are patricians; it is not the reward of high birth as it once was, but of personal merit. Look forward then, soldiers, to securing all the highest honours!

If with the sanction of the gods you men have given me this new name at Corvinus, I have not forgotten the old cognomen of our family; I have not forgotten that I am a Publicola.[*](See p. 78, Vol. I.)

I always study and always have studied the interests of the Roman plebs, both at home and in the field, whether as a private citizen or holding public office, whether as military tribune or as consul. I have been consistent to this aim in all my successive consulships.

And now for what is immediately before us: go on with the help at heaven, and win with me for the first time a triumph over your new foes —the Samnites.”

Nowhere was there ever a general who endeared himself more to his soldiers by cheerfully sharing every duty with the humblest

of his men In the military sports when the soldiers got up contests of speed and strength among themselves he was equally ready to win or to lose, and never thought any man unworthy to be his antagonist.

He showed practical kindness as circumstances required; in his language he was not less mindful of other men's liberty than of his own dignity, and what made him most popular was that he displayed the same qualities in discharging the duties of his office which he had shown as a candidate for it.

Following up their commander's words, the whole army marched out of camp with extraordinary alacrity.

In no battle that was ever fought did men engage with strength more equally matched, or more assured hopes of victory on both sides, or a stronger spirit of self-confidence unaccompanied, however, by any feeling of contempt for their opponents.

The fighting temper of the Samnites was roused by their recent achievements and the double victory won a few days previously; the Romans on the other hand were inspired by their glorious record of four centuries of victory reaching back to the foundation of the City.

But each side felt some anxiety at meeting a new and untried foe.