[12,0] ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΑΛΙΚΑΡΝΑΣΕΩΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ XII. [12,1] Ὅτι λιμοῦ κατὰ τὴν Ῥώμην γενομένου ἰσχυροῦ ἀνήρ τις οἴκου τε οὐκ ἀφανοῦς καὶ χρήμασιν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα δυνατός, Σπόριος Μαίλιος Εὐδαίμων ἐπίκλησιν ἐπὶ τῆς πολλῆς εὐπορίας νεωστὶ μὲν παρειληφὼς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός, ἡλικίαν δὲ καὶ τάξιν ἔχων ἱππικήν, οἷα μήτε ἀρχὰς παραλαμβάνειν μήτε ἄλλην κοινὴν ἐπιμέλειαν μηδεμίαν, λαμπρὸς εἰ καί τις ἄλλος τὰ πολέμια καὶ πολλοῖς κεκοσμημένος ἀριστείοις, κράτιστον ὑπολαβὼν καιρὸν ἐπιθέσει τυραννίδος, ἐπὶ δημαγωγίαν τοῦ πλήθους ἐτράπετο, τὴν ῥᾳστώνην τῶν ἐπὶ τυραννίδα φερουσῶν ὁδῶν. ἔχων δὲ πολλοὺς ἑταίρους καὶ πελάτας ἄλλους ἄλλῃ διέπεμψε χρήματα δοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων εἰς συναγυρμοὺς τροφῆς καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς Τυρρηνίαν ᾤχετο. ἐν βραχεῖ δὲ χρόνῳ δι´ ἑαυτοῦ τε καὶ τῶν ἑταίρων πολλὴν κατακομίσας ἀγορὰν διεμέτρει τοῖς πολίταις, ἀντὶ δώδεκα δραχμῶν διδράχμου ἀπομετρῶν τὸν μόδιον· ὅσους δὲ αἴσθοιτο παντάπασιν ἀδυνάτους καὶ μηδ´ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐφημέρου τροφῆς ἔχοντας προέσθαι τὸ διάφορον ἄνευ τιμῆς χαριζόμενος. ταύτῃ τῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τὸν δῆμον ἀναλαβὼν καὶ θαυμαστὴν ὅσην δόξαν ἀπενεγκάμενος ᾤχετο πάλιν ἐμπορευσόμενος ἑτέρας ἀγοράς· καὶ παρῆν οὐ διὰ μακροῦ ποταμηγοὺς ἄγων σκάφας πολλὰς πάνυ μεστὰς τροφῆς καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τοῖς 〈πολίταις〉 ἐμέτρει. οἱ δὲ πατρίκιοι ταῦτα πράττοντα ὁρῶντες αὐτὸν δι´ ὑποψίας τε ἐλάμβανον τῆς ἄγαν φιλοτιμίας τοῦ ἀνδρὸς οὐδὲν ἀγαθὸν ἀπολαύσειν οἰόμενοι καὶ συνιστάμενοι κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐσκόπουν, ὅντινα χρὴ τρόπον εὐπρεπέστερον ἄνευ κινδύνου παῦσαι τούτων αὐτὸν τῶν πολιτευμάτων· κρύφα μὲν τὸ πρῶτον καὶ κατ´ ὀλίγους συνιόντες καὶ διαλεγόμενοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἔπειτα καὶ ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ καταβοῶντες, ἐπειδὴ βαρύς τε καὶ ἀφόρητος ἦν ἔργα τε πράττων ὑπερηφανίας μεστὰ καὶ λόγους διεξιὼν αὐθάδεις ὑπὲρ ἑαυτοῦ· ὅς γε πρῶτον μὲν καθεζόμενος ἐπὶ βήματος περιφανοῦς, ὥσπερ ἔθος ἦν τοῖς τὰς ἀρχὰς ἔχουσιν, ἐχρημάτιζε τοῖς προσιοῦσι δι´ ἡμέρας περὶ τὴν σιτοδοσίαν, ἐκβαλὼν τῆς τιμῆς ταύτης τὸν ἀποδειχθέντα ἔπαρχον ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς· ἔπειτα συνεχεῖς ποιούμενος· ἐκκλησίας οὐκ ὂν ἐν ἔθει Ῥωμαίοις ἰδιώτην ἐκκλησίαν συνάγειν πολλὰ μὲν τοῦ Μηνυκίου κατηγόρει πρὸς τὸν δῆμον, ὡς ὄνομα φέροντος ἀρχῆς μόνον, ἔργον δὲ οὐδὲν ἀποδειξαμένου τοῖς πένησιν ὠφέλιμον, πολλὰ δὲ τοὺς πατρικίους διέβαλλε πρὸς τὸν δῆμον, ὡς ταῦτα πράττοντας ἐξ ὧν ὀλίγου τε καὶ οὐδενὸς ἄξιος ὁ δῆμος ἔσται καὶ οὐδ´ ἐπὶ σιτοδείᾳ φροντίδα τῶν ἀπόρων ἔχοντας οὐδεμίαν, οὔτε κοινῇ πάντας οὔτε ἰδίᾳ τοὺς δυνατούς, παντὸς μάλιστα δέον αὐτοὺς χρήμασί τε καὶ σώμασιν ὥσπερ αὐτὸς δὴ κακοπαθεῖν καὶ πάντοθεν ἐπεισάγειν τῇ πόλει τὰς ἀγοράς. ἠξίου τε πρὸς τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἔργα πατρικίων τὰ ὑφ´ ἑαυτοῦ πραττόμενα ἐξετάζειν, ὡς πολὺ καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἀλλήλων διαφέροντα. ἐκείνους μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων εἰς τὸ κοινὸν ἀναλίσκοντας ἔτι καὶ τὴν δημοσίαν γῆν σφετερισαμένους πολὺν ἤδη καρποῦσθαι χρόνον, ἑαυτὸν δὲ τῶν δημοσίων οὐδὲν ἔχοντα ἔτι καὶ τὴν πατρῴαν καταχορηγεῖν οὐσίαν εἰς βοήθειαν τῶν ἀπόρων καί, ἐπειδὰν τὰ ὄντα καταναλώσῃ, δανείσματα ποιεῖσθαι παρὰ φίλων οὐθὲν ἀντικαταλλαττόμενον τῆς τοιαύτης φιλοτιμίας ὅτι μὴ τὴν πολιτικὴν εὔνοιαν, ἧς οὐδὲ τὸν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων πλοῦτον ἡγεῖσθαι τιμιώτερον. οἱ δὲ περὶ αὐτὸν συνεστῶτες ἀεὶ σωτῆρα καὶ πατέρα καὶ κτίστην ἀπεκάλουν τῆς πατρίδος καὶ τὴν μὲν ὑπατικὴν ἐξουσίαν ἐλάττονα χάριν ἢ κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ γενήσεσθαι δοθεῖσαν ἀπέφαινον, ἄλλῃ δέ τινι μείζονι καὶ λαμπροτέρᾳ τιμῇ κοσμεῖν ἠξίουν αὐτόν, ἣν καὶ γένος ἕξει τὸ ἐξ ἐκείνου. ὡς δὲ καὶ τὴν τρίτην ἔξοδον ποιησάμενος ἐπὶ τὰ παραθαλάττια τῆς Ἰταλίας ἔκ τε Κύμης καὶ τῶν περὶ Μισηνὸν λιμένων σιτηγοὺς ὁλκάδας ἄγων πολλὰς κατέπλευσεν εἰς Ὠστίαν, ὃ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐστὶν ἐπίνειον, καὶ † κατέπαυσε ταῖς τροφαῖς τὴν πόλιν, ὡς μηδὲν ἔτι τῆς ἀρχαίας εὐετηρίας διαφέρειν, ἅπας ὁ δῆμος ἕτοιμος ἦν, εἰ γένοιτο τῆς ψήφου κύριος ἐν ἀρχαιρεσίαις, εἴτε ὑπατείαν εἴτε ἄλλην τινὰ τιμὴν μετίοι, μηδενὸς ἐπιτρέποντος μήτε νόμου κωλύοντος μήτ´ ἀνδρὸς ἐναντιουμένου χαρίζεσθαι. ταῦτα ὁρῶντες οἱ προεστηκότες τῆς ἀριστοκρατίας καὶ οὔτε ἐπιτρέπειν ἀξιοῦντες οὔτε κωλύειν δύναμιν ἔχοντες ἐν πολλῇ πάντες ἦσαν ἀθυμίᾳ· καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον διεταράχθησαν, ἐπειδὴ κωλυόντων ἐκκλησίας συνάγειν αὐτὸν καὶ δημηγορεῖν τῶν τε δημάρχων καὶ ὑπάτων, συστραφεὶς ὁ δῆμος ἐκείνους μὲν ἐξέβαλεν ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς, τῷ δὲ Μαιλίῳ πολλὴν ἄδειαν καὶ ῥώμην παρέσχεν. ἐν τοιαύτῃ δὴ καταστάσει τῆς πόλεως ὑπαρχούσης ὁ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἀποδειχθεὶς ἔπαρχος, ἀχθόμενος μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς προπηλακισμοῖς τῶν λόγων, οἷς αὐτὸν ὑβρίζων ὁ Μαίλιος ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις διετέλει, δεδοικὼς δὲ τὸν ἄνδρα μάλιστα τῶν ἄλλων, εἴ τινος ἐπιλάβοιτο ἀρχῆς, μὴ πρότερον τῆς ἀριστοκρατίας αὑτὸν ποιήσηται ἢ τὸν δῆμον ἐξερεθίσας πρὸς αὐτὸν † ποιήσηται διὰ τῶν ἐκ τῆς ἑταιρείας ἐπιβουλήν τινα κατ´ αὐτοῦ μηχανησάμε νος, ἀγανακτῶν τε δι´ ἀμφότερα ταῦτα καὶ ἀπηλλάχθαι προθυμούμενος ἐκείνου μείζονα ἢ κατ´ ἰδιώτην ἰσχὺν ἔχοντος, ἐπιμελῆ ζήτησιν ἐποιεῖτο τῶν ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ λεγομένων τε καὶ πραττομένων. πολλῶν δὲ ὄντων, οἷς ὁ ἀνὴρ συνεργοῖς ἐχρῆτο τῶν ἀπορρήτων, καὶ οὔτε τὰς φύσεις ὁμοίων οὔτε τὰς γνώμας παραπλησίων ἔμελλέ τις ὅπερ εἰκὸς οὐ βέβαιος αὐτῷ ἔσεσθαι φίλος, ἢ διὰ φόβον ἢ διὰ κέρδος ἴδιον· ᾧ τὰ πιστὰ δοὺς ὁ Μηνύκιος ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδενὶ φράσειν ὅστις ἦν, ἅπασαν ἔγνω τήν τε διάνοιαν τοῦ Μαιλίου καὶ τὴν παρασκευήν. ὡς δὲ καὶ τεκμήριον ἔλαβεν ἀναμφίλεκτον καὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν ἐν χερσὶν οὖσαν ἔγνω, λέγει πρὸς τοὺς ὑπάτους· ἐκεῖνοι δ´ οὐκ ἀξιοῦντες ἐφ´ ἑαυτοῖς ποιῆσαι μόνοις ἐπιχειρήσεως τηλικαύτης ἐξέτασιν εἰς τὴν βουλὴν ᾤοντο δεῖν τὸ πρᾶγμα εἰσφέρειν, καὶ συνεκάλουν τὸ συνέδριον εὐθὺς ὡς περὶ πολέμου δή τινος ὑπερορίου βουλευσόμενοι. πληρωθέντος δὲ τοῦ συνεδρίου διὰ ταχέων παρελθὼν ἅτερος αὐτῶν ἔλεξεν, ὅτι πρᾶξις αὐτοῖς μεμήνυται συσκευαζομένη κατὰ τῆς πόλεως πολλῆς πάνυ καὶ ταχείας φυλακῆς δεομένη διὰ τὸ τοῦ κινδύνου μέγεθος· ταύτης δ´ ἔφη μηνυτὴν οὐ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων εἶναί τινα πολιτῶν, ἀλλ´ ὃν αὐτοὶ δι´ ἀρετὴν ἐπὶ τῆς μεγίστης τε καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτης τῷ κοινῷ χρείας ἔταξαν, δοκιμάσαντες αὐτοῦ τήν τε πίστιν καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὰ κοινὰ φιλοτιμίαν ἐκ τῶν παρὰ πάντα τὸν βίον ἐπιτηδευομένων. μετεώρου δὴ τῆς βουλῆς ἐπὶ τῇ προσδοκίᾳ γενομένης ἐκάλει τὸν Μηνύκιον, κἀκεῖνος ἔλεξεν· {ζήτει ἐν τῷ περὶ δημηγοριῶν}.

[12,1] When a dire famine broke out in Rome, a certain man of no inconspicuous family and among the most powerful by reason of his riches, Spurius Maelius, who was given the cognomen Felix because of his great wealth, having recently taken over the estate of his father, yet being unable by reason of his youth and equestrian rank to hold magistracies or any other public charge, as brilliant a man as any in warfare and decorated with many prizes for valour, conceived it to be the best time for aiming at a tyranny and turned to currying favour with the multitude, the easiest of all the roads leading to tyranny. 2 Having many friends and clients, he dispatched them in various directions, giving them money from his own funds to collect food, while he himself went to Tyrrhenia. And having in a short (p197) time by his own efforts and those of his friends imported a large store of corn, he distributed it among the citizens, measuring out a peck for two denarii instead of for twelve denarii, and upon all those whom he perceived to be utterly helpless and unable to defray the cost of even their daily subsistence bestowing it without payment. 3 After winning over the people by this kindly service and gaining a most remarkable reputation, he went off again to import further supplies; and he was back before long with a very large number of river boats filled with food, which he distributed to the citizens in the same manner. 4 The patricians, as they observed these activities of his, regarded him with suspicion, thinking that no good would come to them from the man's prodigality; and gathering together in the Forum, they considered how they ought in most seemly fashion and without danger to force him to desist from these political designs. At first they met secretly and in small groups and discussed the matter with one another, but later they clamoured against him openly as well, now that he was offensive and insufferable, not only performing acts full of arrogance, but also delivering haughty speeches in his own behalf. 5 For, in the first place, he sat upon a conspicuous tribunal, as is the custom with those who hold magistracies, and gave advice the whole day long to those who consulted him about the distribution of corn, having relieved of this function the prefect who had been appointed by the senate. 6 Again, calling continual meetings of (p199) the assembly, although it was not customary among the Romans for a private individual to convoke an assembly, he indulged in many denunciations of Minucius before the people, charging that he merely bore the name of magistrate but had performed no useful act in the interest of the poor; and he uttered many reproaches against the patricians before the popular assembly for doing the things which would make the populace of little or no account and for taking no thought, either all of them together or the influential men singly, for the needy even on the occasion of a scarcity of corn, when it was essential above everything else that they, like himself, should submit to hardships both in their fortunes and in their persons and should import provisions into the city from every possible source. 7 He asked the people to weigh his own achievements against the actions of the other patricians and to note how greatly, nay, how utterly, they differed from one another. For they, he said, se nothing from their private fortunes for the common good, but had even appropriated the public land and had for a long time now enjoyed its use, whereas he, who held none of the public possessions, devoted even his paternal inheritance to assisting the needy, and when he had used up the funds on hand, raised loans from his friends, receiving nothing in return for such munificence save only the goodwill of his fellow citizens, a reward which he considered quite as precious as the greatest wealth in the world. 8 Those who were leagued with him were continually failing him as the saviour, father and founder of the fatherland; and declaring that the giving of the consular power to him would be a favour incommensurate with the greatness of (p201) his deeds, they wished to distinguish him with some greater and more brilliant honour, which should also be enjoyed by his posterity. 9 When he had made his third trop to the maritime districts of Italy and had sailed back to Ostia, the seaport of Rome, bringing many merchantmen laden with corn from Cumae and the harbours round Misenum, and had deluged the city with provisions, so that none of the old-time abundance was any longer lacking, the whole populace was ready, as soon as it was empowered to vote for magistrates, to grant him whatever honour he might seek, whether the consulship or some other magistracy, paying no heed to any law that forbade it or to any man who opposed it. 10 When the leaders of the aristocracy perceived this, they were all in great dejection, neither being willing to permit it nor yet having the power to prevent it. And they were still more disturbed because, when both the tribunes and the consuls forbade him to convoke assemblies and harangue the people, the populace banded together and drove those magistrates out of the Forum, while affording great assurance and strength to Maelius. 11 While the city was in this state, the man who had been appointed prefect of the corn supply became angered at the abusive language with which Maelius kept insulting him in the meetings of the assembly, and feared the man more than any others, lest, if he should obtain some magistracy, he might make himself (p203) more powerful than the aristocracy or, by rousing the people against him (Minucius), might, through the agency of the men of his own faction, contrive some plot against him, and being indignant on both these accounts and being eager to be rid of him as a man having greater power than befitted one in private station, he proceeded to make a careful investigation of both his speeches and his actions. 12 And as those whom Maelius employed as confederates in his secret plans were numerous and were neither alike in their natures nor similar in their opposites, there was bound to be someone who, in all probability, would not continue a steady friend to him, either because of fear or for personal advantage; and when Minucius had given this man pledges that he would not reveal his identity to anyone, he learned the entire purpose of Maelius and his plans for accomplishing it. 13 After he had obtained incontrovertible proof and learned that the execution of the plot was imminent, he informed the consuls. Those magistrates, not feeling it right to carry out by themselves alone the investigation of so serious a plot, thought they ought to lay the matter before the senate; and they straightway called that body together, ostensibly to deliberate about some foreign war. 14 A full meeting of the senate being soon present, one of the consuls came forward and stated that information had been given them of a plot forming against the commonwealth, one that required very (p205) vigorous and prompt precautionary measures because of the magnitude of the danger. He added that the informant was not just an ordinary citizen, but a man whom the senators themselves because of his merits had placed in a position of the greatest and most essential service to the state, having satisfied themselves of his good faith and his zeal for the public interests as shown by his deportment throughout his whole life. 15 Then, when the senate was quite wrought up with expectation, he called Minucius, who said: - - -