History of Rome

​When the reinforcement of the legions that were in the provinces was being discussed, it was suggested by certain senators that the time had come no longer to tolerate those things which, in doubtful circumstances, had been endured in one way or another, now that fear had at last been removed by the favor of the gods.

​With the senators’ expectations raised, they then specified the twelve Latin colonies which, in the consulship of Q. Fabius and Q. Fulvius, had refused to supply soldiers. ​They pointed out that these colonies had now for nearly six years enjoyed an exemption from military service as if for the sake of honor and favor, while in the meantime the good and obedient allies, in return for their loyalty and obedience to the Roman people, had been exhausted by continuous levies every single year.

​At these words, the memory of a matter almost forgotten was not so much renewed in the minds of the senators as their anger was provoked.

​Therefore, allowing the consuls to bring forward no other business first, they decreed that the consuls should summon to Rome the magistrates and ten leading men from Nepete, Sutrium, Ardea, Cales, Alba, Carseolis, Sora, Suessa, Setia, Circeii, Narnia, and Interamna—for these were the colonies involved in this matter;

​they were to command them that each of those colonies should provide double the maximum number of infantry it had ever supplied to the Roman people since the enemy had been in Italy, and one hundred and twenty cavalry each;

​if any colony could not make up that number of cavalry, it should be permitted to supply three infantrymen instead of one cavalryman; the infantry and cavalry were to be chosen from the wealthiest men and sent wherever outside Italy there was need of reinforcement;

​if any of them should refuse, it was resolved that the magistrates and envoys of that colony should be detained, and that no audience with the senate should be granted to them, even if they requested it, until they had executed the orders;

​furthermore, an annual tax of one as per thousand asses of property should be imposed and exacted from these colonies, and a census should be conducted in these colonies according to a formula provided by the Roman censors—

​and it was resolved that the same formula as for the Roman people should be given—and the results should be brought to Rome by the sworn censors of the colonies before they went out of office.

​When, in accordance with this decree of the senate, the magistrates and leading men of those colonies had been summoned to Rome, and the consuls had commanded the soldiers and the tax, they began to refuse and protest, some more vehemently than others;

​they declared that so great a number of soldiers could not be made up, and that they would scarcely succeed even if only the single quota according to the formula were commanded; they begged and implored that they might be allowed to approach the senate and plead for mercy.

​They had committed nothing, they said, for which they deserved to be destroyed; but even if they had to perish, neither their own fault nor the anger of the Roman people could make them supply more soldiers than they actually had.

​The consuls remained obstinate, ordering the envoys to stay in Rome and the magistrates to go home to hold the levies; they declared that no one would grant them an audience with the senate unless the full number of soldiers commanded had been brought to Rome.

​Thus, with the hope of approaching the senate and pleading for mercy cut off, the levy in those twelve colonies, where the number of younger men had increased during the long exemption, was completed without difficulty.