21. Thus having rescued a
Roman army from inevitable destruction, having defeated a powerful
enemy, having taken and fortified their city, and still more, having
refused any part of the spoil, he resigned his dictatorship, after
having enjoyed it but fourteen days. The senate would have enriched
him, but he declined their proffers, choosing to retire once more to
his farm and his cottage, content with competency and fame.
22. But this repose from foreign invasion did not lessen the tumults
of the city within. The clamours for the Agra'rian law still
continued, and still more fiercely, when Sic'cius Denta'tus, a
plebeian advanced in years, but of an admirable person and military
deportment, came forward to enumerate his hardships and his merits.
This old soldier made no scruple of extolling the various achievements
of his youth; indeed, his merits more than supported his ostentation.
23. He had served his country in the wars forty years: he had been an
officer thirty, first a centurion, and then a tribune; he had fought
one hundred and twenty battles, in which, by the force of his single
arm, he had saved a multitude of lives; he had gained fourteen
civic,[5] three mural,[6] and eight golden crowns; besides
eighty-three chains, sixty bracelets, eighteen gilt spears, and
twenty-three horse-trappings, whereof nine were for killing the enemy
in single combat; moreover, he had received forty-five wounds in
front, and none behind.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215