The
form of this man stands out forever on the pages of Roman history, as
he entered the forum with all the badges of his misery upon him.
[Footnote: See Livy, Book II., chapter xxiii.] His pale and emaciated
body was but partially covered by his wretched tatters; his long hair
played about his shoulders, and his glaring eyes and the grizzled beard
hanging down before him added to his savage wildness. As he passed
along, he uncovered the scars of near twoscore battles that remained
upon his breast, and explained to enquirers that while he had been
serving in the Sabine war, his house had been pillaged and burned by
the enemy; that when he had returned to enjoy the sweets of the peace
he had helped to win, he had found that his cattle had been driven off,
and a tax imposed. To meet the debts that thronged upon him, and the
interest by which they were aggravated, he had stripped himself of his
ancestral farms. Finally, pestilence had overtaken him, and as he was
not able to work, his creditor had placed him in a house of detention,
the savage treatment in which was shown by the fresh stripes upon his
bleeding back.
At the moment a war was imminent, and the forum--the entire city, in
fact--already excited, was filled with the uproar of the angry
plebeians.
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