Summary of Book VII
Two new magistracies were added, the praetorship and
the curule aedileship. The citizens were afflicted with a
pestilence, and this the death of Furius Camillus rendered
memorable. While a remedy for stopping it was being
sought in new religious observances, scenic exhibitions were
given for the first time. Lucius Manlius having been cited
by Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the plebs, to answer for
his ruthless conduct of the levy and for having relegated
his son to the country without making any charge against
him, the young man himself whose relegation was being
used against his father entered the bed-room of the
tribune, and drawing his sword, compelled him to swear,
after a form which he dictated to him, that he would
not go on with the prosecution. At this time all sorts of
precious things were cast into a chasm which had opened
to a great depth in Rome. Into it leaped Curtius, fully
armed and bestriding his horse; and so it was closed
over. Titus Manlius, the youth who had saved his father
from the persecution of the tribune, went down to confront
a Gaul who had challenged any Roman soldier to single
combat; and, having slain him, took from him a golden
necklace, which he afterwards wore himself and from it
was given the name of Torquatus. Two tribes were
added, the Pomptina and the Publilia. Licinius Stolo
was condemned, under a statute that had been enacted,
because he possessed more than five hundred
iugera of land.
Marcus Valerius, a tribune of the soldiers, killed a Gaul
by whom he had been challenged, while a raven perched
on the Roman's crest and with beak and talons attacked
his enemy; from this circumstance he received the name
of Corvus, and the next year was, for his bravery, elected
[p. 517]
consul, at the age of twenty-three. Friendship was made
with the Carthaginians. The Campanians, when hard
pressed in war by the Samnites, asked aid against them from
the senate, and, failing to obtain it, surrendered their city
and territory to the Roman People. In view of this action,
the Roman People voted to go to war with the Samnites, to
defend these their possessions. The army was led by
Aulus Cornelius, the consul, into a difficult position, and
was in great danger, but was saved by the act of Publius
Decius Mus, a tribune of the soldiers, who by occupying a
hill which commanded the ridge on which the Samnites had
encamped, afforded the consul an opportunity of withdrawing to more favourable ground; after which, though
encircled by the enemy, Decius himself broke through.
The Roman soldiers who had been left in garrison at Capua
conspired to seize the city, and fearful of punishment, on
the detection of their crime, revolted from the Roman
People, but were restored to their country through the
influence of the dictator, Marcus Valerius Corvus, who
by his counsel had recalled them from their madness.
The book also comprises victorious campaigns against
the Hernici, Gauls, Tiburtes, Privernates, Tarquinienses,
Samnites, and Volsci.
