put to no expense, but that they should not be prevented
redeeming themselves at their own cost; and that those
who had not the money at present should receive a
loan from the public coffer, and security given to
the people by their sureties and properties; Titus
Manlius Torquatus, a man of primitive, and, as some
considered, over-rigorous severity, being asked his
opinion, is reported thus to have spoken: “Had
the deputies confined themselves to making a request,
in behalf of those who are in the hands of the enemy,
that they might be ransomed, I should have briefly
given my opinion, without inveighing against any one.
For what else would have been necessary but to admonish
you, that you ought to adhere to the custom handed
down from your ancestors, a precedent indispensable
to military discipline. But now, since they have
almost boasted of having surrendered themselves to
the enemy, and have claimed to be preferred, not only
to those who were captured by the enemy in the field,
but to those also who came to Venusia and Canusium,
and even to the consul Terentius himself; I will not
suffer you to remain in ignorance of things which
were done there. And I could wish that what I
am about to bring before you, were stated at Canusium,
before the army itself, the best witness of every
man’s cowardice or valour; or at least that one
person, Publius Sempronius, were here, whom had they
followed as their leader, they would this day have
been soldiers in the Roman camp, and not prisoners
in the power of the enemy. But though the enemy
was fatigued with fighting, and engaged in rejoicing
for their victory, and had, the greater part of them,
retired into their camp, and they had the night at
their disposal for making a sally, and as they were
seven thousand armed troops, might have forced their
way through the troops of the enemy, however closely
arrayed; yet they neither of themselves attempted
to do this, nor were willing to follow another.
Throughout nearly the whole night Sempronius ceased
not to admonish and exhort them, while but few of
the enemy were about the camp, while there was stillness
and quiet, while the night would conceal their design,
that they would follow him; that before daybreak they
might reach places of security, the cities of their
allies. If as Publius Decius, the military tribune
in Samnium, said, within the memory of our grandfathers;
if he had said, as Calpurnius Flamma, in the first
Punic war, when we were youths, said to the three hundred
volunteers, when he was leading them to seize upon
an eminence situated in the midst of the enemy:
LET US DIE, SOLDIERS, AND BY OUR DEATHS RESCUE THE
SURROUNDED LEGIONS FROM AMBUSCADE;—if Publius
Sempronius had said thus, he would neither have considered
you as Romans nor men, had no one stood forward as
his companion in so valorous an attempt. He points
out to you the road that leads not to glory more than
to safety; he restores you to your country, your parents,
your wives and children. Do you want courage