Ab urbe condita

Both the consuls celebrated a triumph over the Samnites A striking figure in the procession was Decius, wearing his decorations; in their extempore effusions the soldiers repeated his name as often as that of the consul. Mutiny of Troops in Campania.

—Soon after this an audience was granted to deputations from Capua and from Suessa, and at their request it was arranged that a force should be sent to winter in those two cities to act as a check upon the Samnites.

Even in those days a residence in Capua was by no means conducive to military discipline; having pleasures of every kind at their command, the troops became enervated and their patriotism was undermined. They began to hatch plans for seizing Capua by the same criminal means by which its present holders had taken it from its ancient possessors.

“They richly deserved,” it was said, “to have the precedent which they had set turned against themselves. Why should people like the Campanians who were incapable of defending either their possessions or themselves enjoy the most fertile territory in Italy, and a city well worthy of its territory, in preference to a victorious army who had driven off the Samnites from it by their sweat and blood?

Was it just that these people who had surrendered themselves into their power should be enjoying that fertile and delightful country while they, wearied with warfare, were struggling with the arid and pestilential soil round the City, or suffering the ruinous consequences of an evergrowing interest which were awaiting them in Rome?”

This agitation which was being conducted in secret, only a few being yet taken into the conspirators' confidence, was discovered by the new consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, to whom Campania had been allotted as his province, his colleague, Q. Servilius, being left in the City.

Taught by years and experience —he had been four times consul as well as Dictator and censor —he thought his best course would be, after he was in possession of the facts as ascertained through the tribunes, to frustrate any chance of the soldiers carrying out their design by encouraging them in the hope of executing it whenever they pleased. The troops had been distributed amongst the cities of Campania, and the contemplated plan had been propagated from Capua throughout the entire force.

The consul caused a rumour, therefore, to be spread that they were to occupy the same winter quarters the following year. As there appeared to be no necessity for their carrying out their design immediately, the agitation quieted down for the present.

After settling the army in their summer quarters, whilst all was quiet among the Samnites the consul began to purify it by getting rid of the mutinous spirits.

Some were dismissed as having served their time; others were pronounced to be incapacitated through age or infirmity ; others were sent home on furlough, at first separately, then selected cohorts were sent together, on the ground that they had passed the winter far from their homes and belongings. A large number were transferred to different places, ostensibly for the needs of the service. All these the other consuls and the praetor detained in Rome on various imaginary pretexts.

At first, unaware of the trick that was being played upon them, they were delighted to revisit their homes.

They soon, however, found out that even those who were first sent away were not rejoining the colours and that hardly any were disbanded but those who had been in Campania, and amongst these mainly the leading agitators. At first they were surprised, and then they felt a well-grounded apprehension that their plans had leaked out.

“Now,” they said, “we shall have to suffer courtmartial, informers will give evidence against us, we shall one after another be executed in secret; the reckless and ruthless tyranny of the consuls and senators will be let loose on us.” The soldiers,

seeing how those who were the backbone of the conspiracy had been cleverly got rid of by the consuls, did not venture to do more than whisper these things to one another.

One cohort, which was stationed not far from Antium, took up a position at Lantulae in a narrow pass between the mountains and the sea to intercept those whom the consul was sending home on the various pretexts mentioned above.

They soon grew to a very numerous body, and nothing was wanting to give it the form of a regular army except a general. They moved on into the Alban district, plundering as they went, and entrenched themselves in a camp under the hill of Alba Longa.

After completing their entrenchments they spent the rest of the day in arguing about the choice of a leader, as they had not sufficient confidence in any one amongst themselves. But who could be invited from Rome?

Which of the patricians or plebeians would expose himself to such peril, or to whom could the cause of an army maddened by injustice be safely committed? The next day found them still engaged in the discussion, when some of those who had been dispersed in the marauding expedition brought back the

information that Titus Quinctius was cultivating a farm in the neighbourhood and had lost all interest in his City and the honourable distinctions he had won.

This man belonged to a patrician house, and after achieving great reputation as a soldier, had his military career cut short by a wound which made him lame in one of his feet, and he betook himself to a rural life, far from the Forum and its party struggles.