cus Postumius Regillensis. The war
against the AEquans was intrusted to the latter, a man of depraved mind,
which victory manifested more effectually than war. For having with
great activity levied an army and marched it to Bolae, after breaking
down the spirits of the AEquans in slight engagements, he at length
forced his way into the town. He then turned the contest from the enemy
to his countrymen; and when during the assault he had proclaimed, that
the plunder should belong to the soldiers, after the town was taken he
broke his word. I am more inclined to believe that this was the cause of
the displeasure of the army, than that in a city lately sacked and in a
colony still young there was less booty found than the tribune had
represented. An expression of his heard in the assembly, which was very
silly and almost insane, after he returned into the city on being sent
for on account of some tribunitian disturbances, increased this bad
feeling; on Sextus, a tribune of the commons, proposing an agrarian law,
and at the same time declaring that he would also propose that colonists
should be sent to Bolae; for that those who had taken them by their arms
were deserving that the city and lands of Bolae should belong to them, he
exclaimed, "Woe to my soldiers, if they are not quiet;" which words,
when heard, gave not greater offence to the assembly, than they did soon
after to the patricians. And the plebeian tribune being a sharp man and
by no means devoid of eloquence, having found among his adversaries this
haughty temper and unbridled tongue, which by irritating and exciting he
could urge into such expressions as might prove a source of odium not
only to himself, but to his cause and to the entire body, he strove to
draw Postumius into discussion more frequently than any of the college
of military tribunes. Then indeed, after so brutal and inhuman an
expression, "Romans," says he, "do ye hear him threatening woe to his
soldiers as to slaves? Yet this brute will appear to you more deserving
of so high an honour than those who send you into colonies, after having
granted to you cities and lands; who provide a settlement for your old
age, who fight against such cruel and arrogant adversaries in defence
of your interests. Begin then to wonder why few persons now undertake
your cause. What are they to expect from you? is it honours which you
give to your adversaries rather than to the champions of the Roman
people. You felt ind