In the year 659 from the founding of the City, in the consulship of Sextus Julius Caesar and Lucius Marcius Philippus, the Social War, arising from causes within, threw all Italy into commotion.
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCLVIIII Sex. Julio Caesare et L. Marcio Philippo consulibus intestinis causis sociale bellum tota commouit Italia.
For Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs, when he could not fulfil what he had promised to all the Latins, whom he had enticed with the hope of liberty, roused them to arms.
2 siquidem Liuius Drusus, tribunus plebi, Latinos omnes spe libertatis inlectos cum placito explere non posset, in arma excitauit.
To this was added that dire prodigies terrified the mournful City. For at sunrise a ball of fire flashed forth from the region of the north with a very great crash in the sky.
3 eo accessit, ut maestam urbem prodigia dira terrerent. nam sub ortu solis globus ignis a regione septentrionis cum maximo caeli fragore emicuit.
Among the people of Arretium, when loaves were being broken at banquets, blood flowed from the middle of the loaves as if from wounds in bodies.
4 apud Arretinos cum panes per conuiuia frangerentur, cruor e mediis panibus quasi ex uulneribus corporum fluxit.
Moreover, for seven days on end a hail of stones, mixed even with fragments of potsherds, lashed the earth far and wide. Among the Samnites flame burst out of a vast chasm in the earth and was seen to stretch up to the sky.
5 praeterea per septem continuos dies grando lapidum, inmixtis etiam testarum fragmentis, terram latissime uerberauit. in Samnitibus uastissimo terrae hiatu flamma prorupit et usque in caelum extendi uisa est.
Several Romans besides, while on a journey, saw a ball of golden colour roll down from the sky to the earth and, grown larger, be borne up again from the earth on high towards the rising sun, and by its size hide the sun itself.
6 conplures praeterea in itinere uidere Romani globum coloris aurei caelo ad terram deuolui maioremque factum rursus a terra in sublime ad orientem solem ferri ac magnitudine sua ipsum solem obtexisse.
Drusus, troubled by such great evils, was killed in his own house — by whose hand, indeed, remains uncertain.
7 Drusus tantis malis anxius domi suae incerto quidem auctore interfectus est.
So the Picentes, Vestini, Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini, Samnites, and Lucanians, while they were still plotting a secret revolt, killed at Asculum the praetor Gaius Servius, who had been sent to them as envoy, and at once, shutting the city gates, they proclaimed a massacre and butchered all the Roman citizens.1
8 Igitur Picentes Vestini Marsi Paeligni Marrucini Samnites Lucani cum adhuc occultam defectionem meditarentur, C. Seruium praetorem, legatum ad se missum, apud Asculum occiderunt statimque clausa ciuitate omnes ciues Romanos indicta caede iugularunt.
1The Roman magistrate murdered at Asculum was Quintus Servilius; Orosius gives “C. Servius.”
Most infamous prodigies at once went before a most atrocious destruction. For animals of every kind, which had been accustomed to submit gently to the hands of men and to live among men, left their stalls and pastures and fled with pitiable bleating, neighing, and lowing to the woods and mountains. Dogs too, whose nature it is to be unable to live apart from men, roved about with tearful howling in the manner of wolves.
9 continuo atrocissimam perniciem infamissima praecessere prodigia. namque omnium generum animalia, quae manus hominum blande perpeti atque inter homines uiuere solita erant, relictis stabulis pascuisque cum balatu hinnitu mugituque miserabili ad siluas montesque fugerunt. canes quoque, quorum naturae est extra homines esse non posse, lacrimosis ululatibus uagi luporum ritu oberrarunt.
So the praetor Gnaeus Pompeius, by order of the senate, waged war with the Picentes and was defeated, after the Samnites had set Papius Mutilus over themselves as general, while the Marsi had preferred the arch-pirate Agamemnon.2
10 igitur Cn. Pompeius praetor cum Picentibus iussu senatus bellum gessit et uictus est, postquam sibi Samnites Papium Mutilum imperatorem praefecerant, Marsi autem Agamemnonem archipiratam praeoptauerant.
2Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great; he is the Pompeius of the Social War chapters that follow.
Julius Caesar, defeated in battle by the Samnites, fled with his army cut to pieces. The consul Rutilius chose his kinsman Marius as his legate; and when Marius kept advising him that delay would be useful to the war, and that the raw soldiers ought to be trained in camp for a little while,
11 Iulius Caesar Samnitium pugna uictus caeso fugit exercitu. Rutilius consul Marium propinquum suum legatum sibi legit: quem adsidue summonentem moram bello utilem fore et paulisper in castris exerceri militem oportere tironem,
Rutilius, thinking that he did this from guile, scorned him, and heedlessly threw himself and the whole column of his army into an ambush of the Marsi, where the consul himself was killed, many nobles were slain, and eight thousand Roman soldiers cut down.
12 dolo id eum agere ratus contempsit seseque in insidias Marsorum et uniuersum agmen exercitus sui incautus iniecit, ubi et ipse consul occisus et multi nobiles interfecti et octo milia Romanorum militum caesa sunt.
The river Tolenus carried the arms and bodies of the slain into the sight of the legate Marius and bore them along as testimony of the disaster. Marius, at once seizing his forces, crushed the victors unexpectedly and himself killed eight thousand of the Marsi.
13 arma et corpora interfectorum in conspectum Marii legati Tolenus fluuius pertulit atque in testimonium cladis euexit. Marius raptis continuo copiis uictores insperatus oppressit, octo milia et ipse Marsorum interfecit.
Caepio, however, was led into an ambush by the Vestini and Marsi and slaughtered with his army. But Lucius Julius Caesar, after he had fled defeated at Aesernia, gathered forces from every side, fought against the Samnites and Lucanians, and killed many thousands of the enemy.
14 Caepio autem a Vestinis et Marsis deductus in insidias, cum exercitu trucidatus est. L. uero Iulius Caesar postquam apud Aeserniam uictus aufugerat, contractis undique copiis aduersum Samnitas et Lucanos dimicans multa hostium milia interfecit.
And when he had been hailed imperator by the army and had sent messengers to Rome with news of the victory, the senate, as this hope smiled upon it, laid aside the saga — that is, the garment of mourning — which it had put on at the outbreak of the Social War, and recovered the ancient dignity of the toga. Then Marius cut down six thousand of the Marsi and stripped seven thousand of their arms.
15 cumque ab exercitu imperator appellatus esset Romamque nuntios de uictoria misisset, senatus saga, hoc est uestem maeroris, quam exorto sociali bello sumpserat, hac spe adridente deposuit atque antiquum togae decorem recuperauit. Marius deinde sex milia Marsorum cecidit, septem milia armis exuit.
Sulla, sent with twenty-four cohorts to Aesernia, where Roman citizens and soldiers were hard pressed by a very close siege, saved the city and the allies by a very great battle and immense slaughter of the enemy.
16 Sylla cum uiginti et quattuor cohortibus Aeserniam missus, ubi artissima obsidione Romani ciues et milites premebantur, maximo bello et plurima caede hostium urbem sociosque seruauit.
Gnaeus Pompeius routed the Picentes in a heavy battle, and by this victory the senate resumed the broad stripe and the other insignia of rank, whereas at the victory of Caesar, when it first breathed again, it had put on only the toga. The praetor Porcius Cato conquered the Etruscans, and the legate Plotius the Umbrians, at the cost of much blood and with the greatest labour.
17 Cn. Pompeius Picentes graui proelio fudit, qua uictoria senatus laticlauia et cetera dignitatis insignia recepit, cum togas tantummodo uictoria Caesaris primum respirante sumpsisset. Porcius Cato praetor Etruscos, Plotius legatus Vmbros plurimo sanguine inpenso et difficillimo labore uicerunt.
In the consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius and Lucius Porcius Cato, Pompeius long besieged the city of Asculum; nor would he have taken it had he not overcome its people with a very heavy defeat when they burst out onto the plain. Eighteen thousand of the Marsi were slain in that battle together with their general Fraucus, and three thousand captured.
18 Cn. Pompeio L. Porcio Catone consulibus Pompeius diu obsedit Asculum ciuitatem; nec tamen expugnauisset, nisi populum in campum prorumpentem grauissima oppressione uicisset. decem et octo milia Marsorum in ea pugna cum Frauco imperatore suo caesa sunt, capta tria milia.
Four thousand Italian men, however, fleeing from that slaughter, had by chance climbed the ridge of a mountain, their column forced together into one, where, overwhelmed and killed by the snows, they froze in a pitiable death.
19 quattuor milia autem Italici uiri ex ea caede profugi iugum montis coacto in unum agmine forte conscenderant, ubi oppressi exanimatique niuibus miserabili morte riguerunt.
For just as they had stood, stunned with fear of the enemy — some leaning against tree-stumps or rocks, others propped on their arms — all of them, with eyes open and teeth bared, looked like living men; nor was there any sign of death to those gazing from afar except their prolonged immobility, which the vigour of human life can in no way endure for long.
20 namque ita, ut attoniti timore hostium steterant, alii stirpibus uel saxis reclines, alii armis suis innitentes, patentibus cuncti oculis dentibusque nudatis uiuentium in modum uisebantur; nec ullum erat procul intuentibus mortis indicium nisi diuturna immobilitas, quam nullo modo humanae uitae uegetatio diu perpeti potest.
On the same day the Picentes engaged and were defeated; their leader Vidacilius called together his chief men and, after a magnificent feast and generous cups, challenging them all to follow his example, drank poison and perished, all praising his deed but no one following it.
21 eadem die Picentes congressi et uicti sunt, quorum dux Vidacilius conuocatis principibus suis post magnificas epulas largaque pocula cunctos ad exemplum sui prouocans hausto ueneno absumptus est, cunctis factum eius laudantibus sed nemine subsequente.
In the year 661 from the founding of the City, when the Roman army had gone to besiege Pompeii, Postumius Albinus, a man of consular rank and then legate of Lucius Sulla, who had roused against himself the hatred of all the soldiers by his intolerable arrogance, was stoned to death.
22 Anno ab urbe condita DCLXI cum ad obsidendos Pompeios Romanus isset exercitus et Postumius Albinus uir consularis, tunc L. Syllae legatus, intolerabili superbia omnium in se militum odia suscitasset, lapidibus occisus est.
Sulla the consul declared that the blood of citizens could be expiated only by the blood of the enemy; and the army, stirred by its consciousness of this deed, entered battle in such a way that each man saw that he must perish unless he conquered. Eighteen thousand Samnites were slain in that battle; Sulla also pursued and killed Juventius, an Italian general, and a great host of his people.3
23 Sylla consul ciuilem cruorem non nisi hostili sanguine expiari posse testatus est: cuius rei conscientia permotus exercitus ita pugnam adortus est, ut sibi unusquisque pereundum uideret nisi uicisset. decem et octo milia Samnitium illo proelio caesa sunt; Iuuentium quoque, Italicum ducem, et magnum ipsius populum persecutus occidit.
3Sulla was serving as a legate in 89 BC; his first consulship came in 88. Appian (Civil Wars 1.50) names the Italian general Cluentius, not Juventius.
The consul Porcius Cato, who had command of the Marian forces, having accomplished a number of things vigorously, boasted that Gaius Marius had done no greater; and for this reason, when he was waging war against the Marsi at the Fucine Lake, he was struck down by the son of Gaius Marius in the tumult of battle, as if by an unknown hand.
24 Porcius Cato consul Marianas copias habens cum aliquanta strenue gessisset, gloriatus est, C. Marium non maiora fecisse, et ob hoc, cum ad lacum Fucinum contra Marsos bellum gereret, a filio C. Marii in tumultu belli quasi ab incerto auctore prostratus est.
The legate Gaius Gabinius was killed while storming the enemy camp. The Marrucini and Vestini were laid waste by Sulpicius, legate of Pompeius, who pursued them. Popaedius and Obsidius, Italian generals, were crushed and killed by that same Sulpicius near the river Teanus in a dreadful battle.
25 C. Gabinius legatus in expugnatione hostilium castrorum interfectus est. Marrucini Vestinique Sulpicio legato Pompei persequente uastati sunt. Popaedius et Obsidius, Italici imperatores, ab eodem Sulpicio apud flumen Teanum horribili proelio oppressi et occisi sunt.
Pompeius, on entering Asculum, had the prefects, the centurions, and all their leading men beaten with rods and beheaded with the axe; he sold the slaves and all the booty at auction, and ordered the rest to depart, free indeed, but naked and destitute; and although the senate hoped that some relief for the public pay would come from this booty, Pompeius nevertheless contributed nothing of it to the needy treasury.
26 Pompeius Asculum ingressus praefectos centuriones cunctosque principes eorum uirgis cecidit securique percussit, seruos praedamque omnem sub hasta uendidit, reliquos liberos quidem sed nudos et egentes abire praecepit; et cum de hac praeda opitulationem aliquam in usum stipendii publici senatus fore speraret, nihil tamen Pompeius ex ea egenti aerario contulit.
For at that same time, since the treasury had been utterly drained and money was lacking for the grain allowance, the public lands around the Capitol which had been handed over into the possession of the pontiffs, augurs, decemvirs, and flamens were sold under the pressure of want, and a sufficient sum of money was received to serve as relief for the time of need.
27 namque eodem tempore cum penitus exhaustum esset aerarium et ad stipendium frumenti deesset expensa, loca publica quae in circuitu Capitolii pontificibus auguribus decemuiris et flaminibus in possessionem tradita erant, cogente inopia uendita sunt et sufficiens pecuniae modus, qui ad tempus inopiae subsidio esset, acceptus est.
Indeed, at that very time the riches of all the overthrown cities and stripped lands, scraped together from every side, were being heaped into the bosom of that very City, while Rome herself, driven by shameful want, was auctioning off the chief parts of herself.
28 equidem tunc in sinus ipsius ciuitatis euersarum omnium urbium nudatarumque terrarum abrasae undique opes congerebantur, cum ipsa Roma turpi adigente inopia praecipuas sui partes auctionabatur.
Let her consider, then, what her times were then, when, like an insatiable belly that consumes everything and is always hungry, she herself, more wretched than all the cities she made wretched, leaving nothing, had nothing, and was driven by the goad of famine at home to keep up the turmoil of war.
29 quamobrem consideret tunc tempora sua, cum quasi inexplebilis uenter cuncta consumens et semper esuriens cunctis urbibus, quas miseras faciebat, ipsa miserior nihil relinquens nihil habebat et stimulo domesticae famis ad continuationem bellicae inquietudinis trudebatur.
At the same time King Sothimus, entering Greece with large Thracian auxiliaries, ravaged all the territory of Macedonia, and at length, overcome by the praetor Gaius Sentius, was forced to return to his kingdom.
30 Isdem temporibus rex Sothimus cum magnis Thracum auxiliis Graeciam ingressus cunctos Macedoniae fines depopulatus est tandemque a C. Sentio praetore superatus redire in regnum coactus est.