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Notes Display Latin text | Translated by Rev. Canon Roberts Book VII Chapter 41: Mutiny of Troops in Campania. The End.[342 BC] | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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There was a universal shout of approval, and Titus Quinctius advancing to the front asserted that his men would submit to the authority of the dictator. He implored Valerius to take up the cause of his unhappy fellow-citizens, and when he had taken it up to maintain it with the same integrity that he had always shown in his public administration. For himself he demanded no conditions, he would not place his hope in anything but his innocence, but for the soldiers there must be the same guarantee that was given in the days of their fathers to the plebs and afterwards to the legions, namely, that no man should be punished for having taken part in the secession. The dictator expressed his approval of what had been said, and after telling them all to hope for the best he galloped back to the City, and after obtaining the consent of the senate, brought a measure before the people who were assembled in the Petilian Grove granting immunity to all who had taken part in the secession. He then begged the Quirites to grant him one request, which was that no one should ever either in jest or earnest bring that matter up against any one. A military Lex Sacrata was also passed, enacting that no soldier's name should be struck off the muster-roll without his consent (1). An additional provision was subsequently embodied in it, forbidding any one who had once been military tribune from being made to serve afterwards as a centurion. This was in consequence of a demand made by the mutineers with respect to Publius Salonius, who had been every year either military tribune or centurion of the first class. They were incensed against him because he had always opposed their mutinous projects and had fled from Lautulae to avoid being mixed up with them. As this proposal was aimed solely at Salonius the senate refused to allow it. Then Salonius himself appealed to the senators not to consider his dignity of more importance than the harmony of the State, and at his request they ultimately passed it. Another demand just as impudent was that the pay of the cavalry should be reduced. At that time they were receiving three times the infantry pay -- because they had acted against the mutineers. (1): "They deprecated the power of striking their names off the list of soldiers, partly because it degraded them to an inferior rank, that of the Capite Censi, who were considered unfit to bear arms and partly because whilst they were on military service they were protected from being personally attached for debts; and partly, also, because service in Campania bore an agreeable aspect and might furnish a poor man with the means of relieving himself from his embarrassments." -- Arnold, I. p. 123. Event: Mutiny of Troops in Campania |