423 It was during this
year that Cn. Flavius, the son of a freedman, born in a humble
station of life, but a clever plausible man, became curule aedile.
I find in some annalists the statement that at the time of the
election of aediles he was acting as apparitor to the aediles, and
when he found that the first vote was given in his favour, and
was disallowed on the ground that he was a clerk, he laid aside
his writing tablet and took an oath that he would not follow that
profession. Licinius Macer, however, attempts to show that he
had given up the clerk's business for some time as he had been a
tribune of the plebs, and had also twice held office as a triumvir,
the first time as a triumvir nocturnus,424 and afterwards as one of
the three commissioners for settling a colony. However this
may be, there is no question that he maintained a defiant
attitude towards the nobles, who regarded his lowly origin with
contempt. He made public the legal forms and processes which
had been hidden away in the closets of the pontiffs; he exhibited
a calendar written on whitened boards in the Forum, on which
were marked the days on which legal proceedings were allowed;
to the intense disgust of the nobility he dedicated the temple
of Concord on the Vulcanal. At this function the Pontifex
Maximus, Cornelius Barbatus, was compelled by the unanimous
voice of the people to recite the usual form of devotion in
spite of his insistence that in accordance with ancestral usage
none but a consul or a commander-in-chief could dedicate a
temple. It was in consequence of this that the senate authorised
a measure to be submitted to the people providing that no
one should presume to dedicate a temple or an altar without
being ordered to do so by the senate or by a majority of the
tribunes of the plebs.
I will relate an incident, trivial enough in itself, but affording
a striking proof of the way in which the liberties of the plebs
were asserted against the insolent presumption of the nobility.
Flavius went to visit his colleague, who was ill. Several young
nobles who were sitting in the room had agreed not to rise when
he entered, on which he ordered his curule chair to be brought,
and from that seat of dignity calmly surveyed his enemies, who
were filled with unutterable disgust.
The elevation of Flavius to the aedileship was, however, the
work of a party in the Forum who had gained their power during
the censorship of Appius Claudius. For Appius had been the
first to pollute the senate by electing into it the sons of freed-
men, and when no one recognised the validity of these elections
and he failed to secure in the Senate-house the influence which
he had sought to gain in the City, he corrupted both the Assembly
of Tribes and the Assembly of Centuries by distributing the
dregs of the populace amongst all the tribes. Such deep indigna-
tion was aroused by the election of Flavius that most of the
nobles laid aside their gold rings and military decorations as a
sign of mourning.
From that time the citizens were divided into two parties;
the uncorrupted part of the people, who favoured and supported
men of integrity and patriotism, were aiming at one thing, the
"mob of the Forum" were aiming at something else. This
state of things lasted until Q. Fabius and P. Decius were made
censors. Q. Fabius, for the sake of concord, and at the same
time to prevent the elections from being controlled by the
lowest of the populace, threw the whole of the citizens of the
lowest classthe mob of the Forum into four tribes and
called them the City Tribes. Out of gratitude for his action,
it is said, he received an epithet which he had not gained by all
his victories, but which was now conferred upon him for the
wisdom he had shown in thus adjusting the orders in the State
the cognomen Maximus.
It is stated that he also instituted the annual parade of the
cavalry on July 5.
Book 10
BOOK X
303-293 B.C.
THE THIRD SAMNITE WAR
Ch. 1