CHAPTER XVI.

THE SOCIAL WAR.

B.C. 89.

THE war still continued. The consuls Strabo and Cato took the field. L. Julius Caesar, the consul of B.C. 90, was appointed to command an army with the title of proconsul. He fell on the enemy somewhere, while they were moving from one place to another, killed eight thousand of them as the number is reported, and picked up the arms of many more who fled. The siege of Asculum was continued by Caesar, but he fell sick before the town, and being unable to stay any longer he appointed C. Baebius his successor.

The confederates on the Hadriatic coast, before they heard of the change of disposition in the inhabitants of Etruria, sent by a long circuitous path over the Apennines fifteen. thousand men to help the Etrurians. The consul Cn. Pompeius Strabo fell on these men and killed five thousand of them. The rest attempted to find their way home through a country without roads and in bad weather. They had nothing to eat except the mast from the trees on the Apennines, and half of them died of hunger and fatigue.

It is impossible to make a satisfactory chronology of the events of this war. We have nothing to guide us except the meagre Epitome of Livy and Appian's compilation. The Epitome records a defeat of the Marsi by the consul Cn. Pompeius, and we have Cicero's evidence to the fact that Pompeius in his consulship was opposed to the Marsi. Cicero,

at this time a mere youth, was serving in the Roman army, and he records a conference between Pompeius and P. Vettius Cato or Scato, as the name is written in the manuscripts. The meeting took place between the two camps, and there was present, besides the Roman and the confederate generals, Sextus Pompeius, the brother of the consul, a learned and wise man. Cato saluted Sextus Pompeius, who said, "By what name shall I address you ?" Cato replied, "As one who wishes to be your friend, and by necessity is your enemy." The conference was conducted fairly, without any fear or suspicion, and no great signs of animosity. The Romans and the Italian nations had become by long intercourse almost one people, and so the folly of the Romans appears still greater in refusing to admit the Italians to the citizenship.

In this year the services of Sulla were more conspicuous. The Italian Minatius Magius, with the legion which he had raised in the country of the Hirpini, took Herculaneum in Campania in conjunction with the Roman commander T. Didius, the man who had distinguished himself by the bloody massacre in Spain (p. 138). Didius was killed in this campaign, and perhaps in the assault on Herculaneum. Stabiae, which had fallen into the hands of Papius Mutilus in B.C. 90, was recovered by Sulla on the last day of April B.c. 89, but the town was destroyed, and when the elder Pliny wrote it was only a village. While Sulla was encamped near the hills about Pompeii, and as it seems was besieging the town, the confederate commander, L. Cluentius or Juventius, as Orosius names him, took a position within three miles of Sulla's camp. The Roman commander was irritated at seeing an enemy so near him, and without waiting for some of his men, who were out foraging, he attacked Cluentius. The Romans were driven back, but being joined by the foragers, they put Cluentius to flight, and he removed his camp to a greater distance. Cluentius was now joined by some Gauls, who must have come along the east side of the peninsula and have crossed the Apennines into Campania. When the two armies again approached, a Gaul of huge stature came forward and challenged any Roman to single

combat. This is a usual story in Roman history; but instead of a Roman on this occasion accepting the challenge, a Moor of short stature fought and killed the big man. The Gauls fled on seeing their countryman fall, and the rest of the troops of Cluentius being thrown into disorder, fled towards Nola. Sulla pursued the enemy and killed thirty thousand. The people of Nola opened only one gate to receive the fugitives for fear of the Romans entering with them, which gave Sulla another opportunity of attacking the enemy under the walls of Nola, and slaughtering twenty thousand more, among whom was the commander Cluentius. Thus according to this very improbable story fifty thousand of the confederates fell on one day. Orosius indeed reduces the twenty thousand to eighteen thousand, but that does not materially diminish the loss of the enemy. The confederates, it may be true, were completely beaten and no quarter would be given, but the soldiers of the enemy could run as fast as the Romans could pursue, and some of them would certainly escape. There is no notice of the capture of Pompeii by Sulla. If he did take the place, we must conclude that it did not suffer like Stabiae, for Pompeii continued to exist until it was covered with ashes by the eruption of Vesuvius A.D. 79.

An event happened about this time which shows that the Roman discipline was either not well maintained, or that one commander at least had made himself intolerable to his men. Aulus Postumius Albinus, whom Livy's Epitome names commander of the fleet, was murdered by his own soldiers. Orosius terms Albinus a man of consular rank and the legatus of the consul Sulla, but Sulla was not consul till the next year (B.c. 88). Both Orosius and the Epitome place the murder of Albinus before the defeat of Cluentius. Albinus appears to be the consul of B.C. 99, the colleague of M. Antonius. The soldiers of Albinus were placed under Sulla, but he did not punish them for their mutiny. He said that "the soldiers would bestir themselves the more in the war and make amends for their fault by their courage." Sulla was looking to the consulship and to the command against Mithridates, and as he wished to be popular with the army,

he would not punish the mutineers who had killed their general. These men fought bravely in the battles with Cluentius and thus made good the expectations of their general.

Sulla now advanced south to the country of the Hirpini to attack the town of Aeculanum or Aeclanum, which was on the Via Appia about fifteen miles south-east of Beneventum (Benevento). The people of Aeculanum were expecting the arrival of the Lucani on that very day to bring them help, and they asked Sulla to allow them time to consider what they would do. Sulla saw their purpose and he gave them one hour, during which he surrounded the walls, which were made of wood, with bundles of vine cuttings, and when the time had expired, he made ready to burn the place. The townsmen were terrified and surrendered. Sulla gave up Aeculanum to be sacked by his men. He spared the other towns which voluntarily surrendered, and finally reduced to submission all the country of the Hirpini.

After this success Sulla entered Samnium which was the stronghold of the confederates. The Samnite general Papius Mutilus held the passes which led into this mountain region, but Sulla took his men by a circuitous way and fell suddenly on the enemy. The confederates being surprised were completely defeated with great loss. Their army was dispersed, and Mutilus who was wounded in the fight made his escape with a few of his men to Aesernia, which was in the possession of the confederates. This is Appian's narrative. The name of Mutilus does not occur again in the history of the Social War. We might conjecture that he died of his wound, but a man of the same name, Papius Mutilus, afterwards perished in Sulla's proscription, which fact has led to the conjecture that Mutilus survived the war. There is also a passage in Appian's Civil War (iv. 25) which by a correction of a name has been referred to this famous confederate leader, who, if this correction is accepted, lived to the time of the proscription of the triumviri. Frontinus records a stratagem of Sulla, which seems to show that he entered the country of the Samnites by the upper part of the valley of

the Volturnus, and that the enemy was not taken by surprise. According to Frontinus, Sulla was hemmed in by the enemy in the narrow valley near Aesernia; but he was a man who never failed to get out of a difficulty. He asked for a conference with Mutilus about terms of peace. The conference came to no result, but an armistice was made, during which Sulla observed that the enemy relaxed his vigilance. Accordingly one night he led all his men off, leaving a single trumpeter behind, who was ordered to sound the different watches just as if the Romans were in their camp, and as soon as the fourth and last watch was sounded, the trumpeter might follow. Thus Sulla got all his men safely away with his baggage and military engines. A dark night might render such a retreat possible, but unless the enemy was at a great distance, it is difficult to conceive how Sulla's retreat was not discovered by the noise which would be made by the removal of his heavy material; and the distance between the two camps was not sufficient to prevent the sound of the trumpet being heard, for that is the essential part of the stratagem. We may suppose that Mutilus followed Sulla when his retreat was discovered, and the battle which was fought may be that which Appian has described; but even this supposition does not entirely reconcile the two narratives. Sulla left Aesernia behind him and crossed the ridge of the Apennines to Bovianum, where the confederate congress was then sitting. Bovianum (Bojano) is in the midst of the mountains near the source of the river Tifernus (Biferno), which flows down a long narrow valley into the Hadriatic. It may be conjectured that the confederates had been already driven from Corfinium and that their cause in the northern part of the confederation was in a bad condition. The old town of Bovianum was on an eminence, for Appian describes it as having three heights or citadels. While the townsmen in one of these places were directing all their attention to Sulla's movements, some of the Roman soldiers were sent round to seize either of the other two heights, and if they succeeded, they were ordered to give a signal by raising a smoke. When the smoke appeared, Sulla attacked that part of