Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (17 page)

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that no harm would come to the Romans because of the younger man's decision.

Lucius Furius led the Romans against the enemy; the Romans started losing and began to flee. Camillus then harangued the soldiers for cowardice, and ran to the front line to lead them once again into battle. The soldiers followed the old man and eventually won the battle. Later, when Camillus was again appointed dictator, he named as his master of the horse the same Lucius Furius whose failure to follow his advice had endangered the army. Because of his heroism, Camillus was later called ''the second founder of Rome."

Titus Manlius Torquatus

Some time later there lived one Lucius Manlius, who had once been dictator but was very unpopular in Romeso much so that after his dictatorship expired, a tribune, with the support of the common people, attacked him legally and sought to prosecute him. There were two reasons for his unpopularity: First, he was a harsh general and abusive to those whom he enlisted; his harshness had gained him the nickname Imperiosus. Second, he did not allow his son Titus to live the life one would expect a young nobleman to live. Titus was not allowed to live in the city, to consort with other young noblemen, or to achieve public recognition; instead, his father forced him to work in the country like a slave. Why? Because Titus stuttered. The tribune inflamed the people's anger against Lucius Manlius Imperiosus. Titus himself, however, was sad and angry that he was another source of his father's unpopularity. He formed a plan.

Secretly he armed himself with a knife one morning and, arriving at the gates of the city, went straight to the house of M. Pomponius the tribune. He told the doorman to tell his master that it was Titus Manlius, the son of Lucius, and that he needed to meet with him. The tribune had him brought in immediately, hoping that the son was very angry at his father or was bringing some new charge against his father, or had some advice for conducting the case. After giving and receiving greetings, Manlius told the tribune that there were some things that he wanted to discuss

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with him, but without any witnesses present. Once those present had been told to leave, he drew his knife and, standing above the tribune's couch and pointing his knife blade at him, he threatened to stab him unless he swore, on words that he had already written, that he would never call an assembly for the sake of prosecuting his father. The tribune, shaking with fear, swore the oath, as he was forced to do; how could he not do so, seeing the blade flashing before his eyes, himself unarmed, the young man very strong, fierce, andwhich was more frighteningnot too smart? He swore the oath and later let it be known that he had stopped his prosecution after being forced by the threat of violence.


As much as the common people would have preferred to be given the opportunity to convict so cruel and arrogant a master, nonetheless they did not think it bad that the son had done the bold deed for his father. It was all the more praiseworthy because the father's harshness had not turned his son's mind from his duty to his father. (Livy VII.5.3-8)

Soon afterward the Gauls again threatened Rome; they pitched their camp about 5 kilometers from the city. A bridge over the river Anio separated the two armies, and the two sides had frequent skirmishes for possession of the bridge. Finally, an enormous Gaul advanced to the bridge and said, "I call upon the the bravest man that Rome has to come forward to a duel, so the outcome of our duel may show which of our peoples is superior in war!" The Gaul was huge, and no Roman made a move to fight him in single combat until Titus Manlius asked the dictator if he could leave his position to go fight the Gaul, who now was sticking out his tongue at the Romans. The dictator agreed.

Manlius did no taunting, no prancing about, no pointless display of his agility with a sword; he just had a heart full of courage and quiet rage, for he was bringing all his ferocity to decide the contest. When they stood between the two armies, with the hearts of so many people full of hope and fear, the Gaul, towering over Manlius like a mountain, held his shield in front on his left arm, and slashed his sword down onto the shield of his advancing enemy; his sword made a great noise, but caused no wound. The Roman lifted up his sword and, with his shield, lifted up the bottom part of his opponent's shield; then he slipped his whole body between his opponent's body and weapons, making himself free from the

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danger of wounds. He made two quick slashes with his sword, opening up his opponent's abdomen. His opponent's body lay stretched out over a vast area. Manlius left the body of the dead Gaul free from any abuse, and took for spoils only one blood-splattered necklace [ torquis in Latin], which he put around his own neck. (Livy VII.10.8-12)

Titus Manlius received a nickname for his bravery and victory: Torquatus (Wearing a Necklace). His family likewise was honored with the nickname.

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