Camillus dör och romerska teatern föds

År 365 f.Kr. härjade en svår sjukdom i Rom. En av stadens främste medborgare, Marcus Furius Camillus, avled som en konsekvens av sjukdomen. Livius beskriver att denne mans bortgång sörjdes av hela staden:

”For he was truly a man of singular excellence whether in good or evil fortune; foremost in peace and in war before his banishment, and in exile even more distinguished, whether one thinks of the yearning of his countrymen who called on him in his absence to save their captured City, or of the success with which on being restored to his country he restored the country itself at the same time; after this for five and twenty years—for he survived so long—he maintained his glorious reputation, and was deemed worthy of being named next after Romulus, as Rome’s second Founder”

För att stävja sjukdomen anordnades lectisternium (en bankett för gudarna), den tredje i stadens historia (se del V för beskrivning). När detta inte hjälpte sägs det att folket försökte blidka gudarna genom inrättandet av sceniska framträdanden. Livius beskriver ingående hur teatern kom att utvecklas:

”This was a new departure for a warlike people, whose only exhibitions had been those of the circus; but indeed it began in a small way, as most things do, and even so was imported from abroad. Without any singing, without imitating the action of singers, players who had been brought in from Etruria danced to the strains of the flautist and performed not ungraceful evolutions in the Tuscan fashion. Next the young Romans began to imitate them, at the same time exchanging jests in uncouth verses, and bringing their movements into a certain harmony with the words. And so the amusement was adopted, and frequent use kept it alive. The native professional actors were called histriones, from ister, the Tuscan word for player; they no longer—as before—alternately threw off rude lines hastily improvised, like the Fescennines, but performed medleys, full of musical measures, to melodies which were now written out to go with the flute, and with appropriate gesticulation. Livius [Andronicus] was the first, some years later, to abandon saturae and compose a play with a plot. Like everyone else in those days, he acted his own pieces; and the story goes that when his voice, owing to the frequent demands made upon it, had lost its freshness, he asked and obtained the indulgence to let a boy stand before the flautist to sing the monody, while he acted it himself, with a vivacity of gesture that gained considerably from his not having to use his voice. From that time on actors began to use singers to accompany their gesticulation, reserving only the dialogue parts for their own delivery. When this type of performance had begun to wean the drama from laughter and informal jest, and the play had gradually developed into art, the young men abandoned the acting of comedies to professionals and revived the ancient practice of fashioning their nonsense into verses and letting fly with them at one another; this was the source of the after-plays which came later to be called exodia, and were usually combined with Atellan farces… Amongst the humble origins of other institutions it has seemed worth while to set down the early history of the play, that it might be seen how sober were the beginnings of an art that has nowadays reached a point where opulent kingdoms could hardly support its mad extravagance”

Konflikt mellan plebejer och patricier

Plebejerna klagade att över att rätten för en plebej att inneha konsulämbetet inte utnyttjades. Patricier fortsatte att väljas till ämbetet. De menade att de lika gärna kunde leva under en kung eller decemvirer:

”… rather than seethe consuls both patricians and have no turns at obeying and commanding, while a part of the people thought themselves established forever in authority and the commons born for no other end than servitude”

Flera gånger gick plebejerna ned till Campus Martius (där valen ägde rum) utan att få en plebej vald. Livius berättar att tribunerna förhindrade församlingen år 352 f.Kr. i syfte att en plebej skulle erhålla det ena konsulämbetet. Flera interregnum följde eftersom de inte kunde komma överens. För att återfå harmoni mellan klasserna beordrade senaten att lagen om delade ämbeten skulle följas, och plebejen Gaius Marcius Rutulus valdes till konsul (han hade tidigare utsetts till den förste diktatorn från plebejernas klass, och kom sedermera bli den förste att utnämnas till censor), tillsammans med Publius Valerius Publicola.

Konsulerna instiftade även en ny policy angående skulder. Trots att räntesatser fått ett tak på en procent (sedan folkets tribuner år 357 f.Kr. genomfört en sådan stadga) var många plebejer skuldsatta. Konsulerna utsåg en kommission som skulle göra skuldsättning till en sak för staten:

”In the discharge of a very difficult duty, involving always a hardship for one of the parties, and in most instances for both, they managed matters wisely in other respects, and, in particular, they expended without throwing away the public funds. For with long-standing accounts, embarrassed more by the debtors’ neglect than by their lack of means, they dealt in one of the following ways: either they paid them out of the treasury—taking security for the people first—at the banking tables they had set up in the Forum; or they settled them upon a valuation, at fair prices, of the debtor’s effects. And so, not only without injustice, but even without complaint from either side, a vast amount of indebtedness was cleared off”

Krig mot gallerna

År 348 f.Kr. utbröt krig mot gallerna. En gallisk krigare kom till det romerska lägret för att utmana dem till tvekamp. Titus Manlius hade besegrat en gall på detta sätt några år tidigare, och en man vid namn Marcus Valerius ansåg sig lika värdig att anta en sådan utmaning:

”But the human interest of the combat was eclipsed by the intervention of the gods; for the Roman was in the very act of engaging, when suddenly a raven alighted on his helmet, facing his adversary. This the tribune first received with joy, as a heavensent augury, and then prayed that whosoever, be it god or goddess, had sent the auspicious bird might attend him with favour and protection. Marvellous to relate, the bird not only held to the place it had once chosen, but as often as the combatants closed, it rose on its wings and attacked the enemy’s face and eyes with beak and talons, till he was terrorstruck with the sight of such a portent, and bewildered at once in his vision and his mind, was dispatched by Valerius,—whereupon the raven flew off towards the east and was lost to sight”

Romarna vann kriget, och Marcus Valerius fick tillnamnet Corvus.

Krig mot samniterna

Livius börjar i denna bok beskriva kriget mot en av Roms främsta historiska fiender: samniterna. Detta var det första kriget av tre som kom att gå till historien (böckerna som beskriver kriget mot Pyrrhus har emellertid tyvärr gått förlorade):

“Wars of greater magnitude, in respect both of the forces of our enemies and of the remoteness of their countries and the long periods of time involved, now fall to be related. For in that year the sword was drawn against the Samnites, a people powerful in arms and in resources; and hard upon the Samnite war, which was waged with varying success, came war with Pyrrhus, and after that with the Carthaginians. How vast a series of events! How many times the extremity of danger was incurred, in order that our empire might be exalted to its present greatness, hardly to be maintained!”

Konflikten med samniterna tog sin början när campanierna sökte stöd hos romarna mot detta folk. Ett avtal med samniterna gjorde dock att romarna inte ville bistå med vapenmakt, men de skickade sändebud till samniterna för att förhandla. Campanierna erbjöd sig då att bli romerska vasaller, något senaten accepterade.

Sändebuden som skickades till samniterna ignorerades, och fetialer skickades för att förklara krig i enlighet med sedvanan. Konsulen Marcus Valerius Corvus ledde en armé mot Campanien för att möta samniterna:

”He said that they ought, as they went into action, not only to rely every man on his own courage and martial glory, but also to consider under whose command and auspices they would have to fight; whether he were one who only merited a hearing as a brilliant orator, warlike only in his words, and ignorant of military operations, or one who knew himself how to handle weapons, to advance before the standards, and to play his part in the press and turmoil of a battle”

Corvus var en populär och framstående general, och soldaterna följde honom beredvilligt. De besegrade även samniterna i Campanien. Men en andra romersk armé under konsulen Aulus Cornelius hade marscherat mot Samnium. Han hade lett sin armé in i en trång skogspassage och omringats på både sidor av fienden.

Tribunen Publius Decius lyckades dock ta sig till en närliggande kulle med några av soldaterna och lyckades hålla samniterna stånd medan resten av armén flydde till säkerhet. När Decius och hans män återvände till armén ärades han av alla:

”To the gods they offered praise and thanks, and Decius they extolled to the skies… The battle having sped thus, the consul called an assembly, and pronounced a panegyric upon Decius, in which he rehearsed, in addition to his former services, the fresh glories which his bravery had achieved. Besides other military gifts, he bestowed on him a golden chaplet and a hundred oxen, and one choice white one, fat, and with gilded horns. Following the consul’s award, the legions, accompanying the gift with their cheers, placed on Decius’s head a wreath of grass, to signify his rescuing them from a siege; and his own detachment crowned him with a second wreath, indicative of the same honour. Adorned with these insignia, he sacrificed the choice ox to Mars, and presented the hundred others to the soldiers who had served with him on the expedition”

Konsulen Valerius Corvus besegrade även samniterna i Suessula. Båda konsulerna erhöll en triumf i Rom.

Uppror i armén

En garnison placerades i Capua i Campanien. Garnisonen ville ha den bördiga jorden för sig själva och planerade ett uppror. Konsulen Gajus Marcius Kutulus avskedade så småningom upprorsmakarna, men dessa samlades i syfte att marschera mot Rom. I Rom utsågs Corvus till diktator för att möta de upproriska romarna. Men fosterlandskänslan gjorde att ingen ville påbörja striden:

”As soon as they came within sight of one another and recognized one another’s arms and ensigns, all were at once reminded of their fatherland, and their anger cooled. Men were not yet so hardy in shedding the blood of countrymen; they knew no wars but those with outside nations, and thought that frenzy could go no further than secession from their people. And so on either side both the leaders and their men began to seek for ways to meet and confer together… Corvinus embraced all his fellow-citizens, particularly the soldiers, and above all others, his own army. He now came forward to parley, and being recognized, was instantly accorded a silent attention, in which his opponents showed as great respect for him as did his followers”

De båda sidorna försonades och krig kunde undvikas.