Ab urbe condita

The soldiers mustered in large numbers and the consul began: “Since you, T. Manlius, have shown no regard for either

the authority of a consul or the obedience due to a father, and in defiance of our edict have left your post to fight against

the enemy, and have done your best to destroy the military discipline through which the Roman State has stood till now unshaken, and have forced upon me the necessity of forgetting either my duty to the republic or my duty to myself and my children, it is better that we should

suffer the consequences of our offence ourselves than that the State should expiate our crime by inflicting great injury upon itself. We shall be a melancholy example, but one that will be profitable to the young men of the future.

My natural love of my children and that proof of courage which from a false sense of honour you

have given, move me to take your part, but since either the consuls' authority must be vindicated by your death or forever abrogated by letting you go unpunished, I would believe that even you yourself, if there is a drop of my blood in your veins, will not shrink from restoring by your punishment the military discipline which has been weakened by your misconduct.

Go, lictor, bind him to the stake.” All were paralysed by such a ruthless order; they felt as if the axe was directed against each of them; fear rather than discipline kept them motionless.

For some moments they stood transfixed in silence, then suddenly, when they saw the blood pouring from his severed neck, their voices rose in unrestrained and angry complaint; they spared neither laments nor curses.

The body of the youth covered with his spoils was cremated on a pyre erected outside the rampart, with all the funeral honours that the soldiers' devotion could pay. “Manlian orders” were not only regarded with horror for the time, but were looked upon as setting a frightful precedent for the future.

The terrible severity of the punishment, however, made the soldiers more obedient to their general, and not only did it lead to greater attention being paid to the pickets and sentry duties and the ordering of the outposts, but when they went

into battle for the final contest, this severity proved to be of the greatest service.

The battle was exactly like one fought in a civil war; there was nothing in the Latin army different from the Roman except their courage. At[*](Changes in the Roman Military System.) first the Romans used the large round shield called the clipeus, afterwards, when the soldiers received pay, the smaller oblong shield called the scutum was adopted.

The phalanx formation, similar to the Macedonian of the earlier days, was abandoned in favour of the distribution into companies (manipuli); the rear portion being broken up into smaller divisions.

The foremost line consisted of the hastati, formed into fifteen companies, drawn up at a short distance from each other.