16. Then far to North Ebutius, To feed the Porcian kites. And tossed his golden crest, And towards the Master of the Knights So fiercely on the shield, With a good aim and true, Just where the neck and shoulder join, And pierced him through and through; And brave Ebutius Elva Fell swooning to the ground: But a thick wall of bucklers Encompassed him around. His clients from the battle Bare him some little space; And filled a helm from the dark lake, His swimming eyes to light, 17. But meanwhile in the centre Great deeds of arms were wrought; There Aulus the Dictator, And there Valerius fought. To where, amidst the thickest foes, He dropped the lance: he dropped the reins: With eyes like coals of fire; Fast down to earth they spring; A death wound in the face; The priest of Juno's shrine: Valerius smote down Julius, Of Rome's great Julian line; And through all turns of weal and wo And Titus groaned with rage and grief, Valerius struck at Titus, And lopped off half his crest; But Titus stabbed Valerius A span deep in the breast. Ah! wo is me for the good house And with one rush they bore But fiercer grew the fighting Around Valerius dead; For Titus dragged him by the foot, "On, Latines, on!" quoth Titus, For aye Valerius loathed the wrong, In the front rank he fell. Now play the men for the good house That loves the people well!" 19. Then tenfold round the body The roar of battle rose, When a strong northwind blows. And none wist where he lay. Were heaped there in a mound, And corpses stiff, and dying men That writhed and gnawed the ground; And wounded horses kicking, And snorting purple foam: Right well did such a couch befit A Consular of Rome. 20. But north looked the Dictator; Thou hast the keenest sight; Say, what through yonder storm of dust Comes from the Latian right?" 21. Then answered Caius Cossus: I see the dark-gray charger, So Aulus spake, and turned him And rode for death and life. Where fought the Roman host 24. "Herminius! Aulus greets thee; He bids thee come with speed To help our central battle, For sore is there our need: There wars the youngest Tarquin, The Tusculan Mamilius, And Aulus of the seventy fields 25. Herminius beat his bosom, But never a word he spake: He clapped his hands on Auster's mane; He gave the reins a shake. Away, away went Auster Like an arrow from the bow; Black Auster was the fleetest steed 26. Right glad were all the Romans Who, in that hour of dread, Against great odds bare up the war Around Valerius dead, When from the south the cheering 27. Mamilius spied Herminius, And dashed across the way. VOL. IV.-70 "Herminius! I have sought thee 28. All round them paused the battle, Through breastplate and through breast, And fast flowed out the purple blood Over the purple vest. Mamilius smote Herminius Through headpiece and through head, And side by side those chiefs of pride Together fell down dead. Down fell they dead together In a great lake of gore; And still stood all who saw them fall Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning, His flanks all blood and foam, The wolves they howled and whined; But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass, And he left the wolves behind. Through many a startled hamlet Thundered his flying feet: He rushed through the gate of Tusculum, And paused not from his race Till he stood before his master's door For their great prince's fall: 30. But, like a graven image, Black Auster kept his place, With pats and fond caresses, The young Herminia washed and comped, And decked with coloured ribands Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse Forth with a shout sprang Titus, And seized black Auster's rein, Then Aulus sware a fearful oath, And ran at him amain. 3 A "The furies of thy brother From heaven comes down the flame, Full on the neck of Titus The blade of Aulus came: In a wide arch and tall, Of some rich Capuan's hall. Were loosened with dismay When dead, on dead Herminius, The bravest Tarquin lay. 31. And Aulus the Dictator Stroked Auster's raven mane, With heed he looked unto the girths, With heed unto the rein. "Now bear me well, black Auster, Into yon thick array; And thou and I will have revenge 32. So spake he; and was buckling Tighter black Auster's band, When he was aware of a princely pair Did such rare armour gleam; And all who saw them trembled, Scarce gathered voice to speak. And wherefore ride ye in such guise 34. "By many names men call us; Is hung each morn with flowers: High o'er the masts of Syracuse Our marble portal towers: But by the proud Eurotas Is our dear native home; And for the right we come to fight Before the ranks of Rome." 35. No answered those strange horsemen, And Ardea wavered on the left, 36. Then the fierce trumpet-flourish The kites know well the long stern swel Then the good sword of Aulus So comes the Po in flood-time Upon the Celtic plain : So comes the squall, blacker than night, It was a goodly sight To see the thirty standards When the black squall doth blow; And fast Circeium fled. Threw shield and spear away. Amidst the mud and gore, And Tullus of Arpinum, Chief of the Volscian aids, The great Arician seer The hunter of the deer; Felt the good Roman steel, Were mingled in a mass; Sempronius Atratinus Sate in the Eastern Gate. Was no such Pontiff found. And all around the portal, Of horse-hoofs from the east. The sun was hastening down, When he was aware of a princely pair Saw twins so like before; 38. "Hail to the great Asylum! Hail to the hill-tops seven! Hail to the fire that burns for aye, And the shield that fell from heaven! This day, by Lake Regillus, Under the Porcian height, All in the lands of Tusculum Was fought a glorious fight. To-morrow your Dictator Shall bring in triumph home The spoils of thirty cities To deck the shrines of Rome!" 39. Then burst from that great concourse And some ran north, and some ran south, But on rode these strange horsemen, And none who saw their bearing While laurel-boughs and flowers, 40. And all the people trembled, Alone found voice to speak: "The Gods who live forever Have fought for Rome to-day! Through billows and through gales Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door, Be hung with garlands all, With joyous trumpet-sound, And each with olive crowned; And pass in solemn order Before the sacred dome, Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren Who fought so well for Rome." VIRGINIA. of the Patrician money-lenders. Children often became slaves in consequence of the misfor tunes of their parents. The debtor was imprisoned, not in a public jail under the care of impartial public functionaries, but in a private workhouse belonging to the creditor. Frightful stories were told respecting these dungeons. were common; that tight stocks, heavy chains, scanty measures of food, were used to punish wretches guilty of nothing but poverty; and that brave soldiers, whose breasts were covered with honourable scars, were often mark A COLLECTION Consisting exclusively of warsongs would give an imperfect, or rather an erroneous notion of the spirit of the old Latin ballads. The Patricians, during about a century and a half after the expulsion of the kings, held all the high military commands. A Plebeian, even though, like Lucius Siccius, he were distinguished by his valour and know-It was said that torture and brutal violation ledge of war, could serve only in subordinate posts. A minstrel, therefore, who wished to celebrate the early triumphs of his country, could hardly take any but Patricians for his heroes. The warriors who are mentioned in the two preceding lays, Horatius, Lartius, Her-ed still more deeply on the back by the scourges minius, Aulus Posthumius, Æbutius Elva, Sempronius Atratinus, Valerius Poplicola, were all members of the dominant order; and a poet who was singing their praises, whatever his own political opinions might be, would naturally abstain from insulting the class to which they belonged, and from reflecting on the sys-able though not proportioned to their numerical tem which had placed such men at the head of the legions of the commonwealth. of high-born usurers. The Plebeians were, however, not wholly without constitutional rights. From an early period they had been admitted to some share of political power. They were enrolled in the centuries, and were allowed a share, consider strength, in the disposal of those high dignities from which they were themselves excluded. Thus their position bore some resemblance to that of the Irish Catholics during the interval between the year 1792 and the year 1829. The Plebeians had also the privilege of annually appointing officers, named Tribunes, who had no active share in the government of the Commonwealth, but who, by degrees, acquired a power which made them formidable even to the ablest and most resolute Consuls and Dicta tors. The person of the Tribune was inviola ble; and, though he could directly effect little, he could obstruct every thing. But there was a class of compositions in which the great families were by no means so courteously treated. No parts of early Roman history are richer with poetical colouring than those which relate to the long contest between the privileged houses and the commonalty. The population of Rome was, from a very early period, divided into hereditary castes, which, indeed, readily united to repel foreign enemies, but which regarded each other, during many years, with bitter animosity. Between those castes there was a barrier hardly less strong than that which, at Venice, parted the mem- During more than a century after the institubers of the Great Council from their country-tion of the Tribuneship, the Commons strugmen. In some respects indeed, the line which separated an Icilius or a Duilius from a Posthumius or a Fabius was even more deeply marked than that which separated the rower of a gondola from a Contarini or a Morosini. At Venice the distinction was merely civil. At Rome it was both civil and religious. Among the grievances under which the Plebeians suffered, three were felt as peculiarly severe. They were excluded from the highest magistracies; they were excluded from all share in the public lands; and they were ground down to the dust by partial and barbarous legislation touching pecuniary contracts. The ruling class in Rome was a moneyed class; and it made and administered the laws with a view solely to its own interest. Thus the relation between lender and borrower was mixed up with the relation between sovereign and sub. ject. The great men held a large portion of the community in dependence by means of advances at enormous usury. The law of debt, framed by creditors, and for the protection of creditors, was the most horrible that has ever been known among men. The liberty, and even the life, of the insolvent were at the mercy gled manfully for the removal of grievances under which they laboured; and, in spite of many checks and reverses, succeeded in wringing concession after concession from the stubborn aristocracy. At length, in the year of the city 378, both parties mustered their whole strength for their last and most desperate conflict. The popular and active Tribune, Caius Licinius, proposed the three memorable laws which are called by his name, and which were intended to redress the three great evils of which the Plebeians complained. He was supported, with eminent ability and firmness, by his colleague, Lucius Sextius. The struggle appears to have been the fiercest that ever in any community terminated without an appeal to arms. If such a contest had raged in any Greek city, the streets would have run with blood. But, even in the paroxysms of faction, the Roman retained his gravity, his respect for law, and his tenderness for the lives of his fellow-citizens. Year after year Licinius and Sextius were re-elected Tribunes. Year after year, if the narrative which has come down to us is to be trusted, they continued to exert, to the full extent, their power of stopping |