Of all he adversaries and enviers of his glory, Marcus Manlius was the
most distinguished, he who first drove back the Gauls when they made
their night attack upon the Capitol, and who for that reason had
been named Capitolinus. This man, affecting the first place in the
commonwealth, and not able by noble ways to outdo Camillus's reputation,
took that ordinary course toward usurpation of absolute power, namely,
to gain the multitude, those of them especially that were in debt;
defending some by pleading their causes against their creditors,
rescuing others by force, and not suffering the law to proceed against
them; insomuch that in a short time he got great numbers of indigent
people about him, whose tumults and uproars in the forum struck terror
into the principal citizens. After that Quintius Capitolinus, who was
made dictator to suppress these disorders, had committed Manlius to
prison, the people immediately changed their apparel, a thing never done
but in great and public calamities, and the senate, fearing some tumult,
ordered him to be released. He, however, when set at liberty, changed not
his course, but was rather the more insolent in his proceedings,filling
the whole city with faction and sedition. They chose, therefore,
Camillus again military tribune; and a day being appointed for Manlius
to answer to his charge, the prospect from the place where his trial was
held proved a great impediment to his accusers; for the very spot where
Manlius by night fought with the Gauls overlooked the forum from the
Capitol, so that, stretching forth his hands that way, and weeping, he
called to their remembrance his past actions, raising compassion in all
that beheld him. Insomuch that the judges were at a loss what to do, and
several times adjourned the trial, unwilling to acquit him of the crime,
which was sufficiently proved, and yet unable to execute the law while
his noble action remained, as it were, before their eyes. Camillus,
considering this, transferred the court outside the gates to the
Peteline Grove, from whence there is no prospect of the Capitol Here
his accuser went on with his charge, and his judges were capable of
remembering the duly resenting his guilty deeds. He was convicted,
carried to the Capitol, and flung headlong from the rock; so that one
and same spot was thus the witness of his greatest glory, and monument
of his most unfortunate end. The Romans, besides, razed his house, and
built there a temple to the goddess they call Moneta, ordaining for
the future that none of the patrician order should ever dwell on the
Capitoline.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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