l11inucius attacks the Dictator's Authority.-When I-Iannibal had encamped at the V ulturnus and the loveliest part of Italy was being reduced to ashes and the smoke was rising everywhere from the burning farms, Fabius continued his march along the Iassic range of hills. For a fc\v days the ll1utinous discontent amongst the troops had subsided, because they inferred from the unusually rapid marching that Fabius ,vas hastening to save Campania from being ravaged and plundered. But when they reached the \vestern extremity of the range and sa\v the enemy burning the farmsteads of the colonists of Sinuessa and those in the Falernian district, whi1e nothing ,vas said about giving battle, the feeling of exasperation was again roused, and studiously fanned by l\linucius. "Are we come here," he \vouid ask" " to enjoy the sight of our murdered allies and the smoking ruins of their homes ? Surely, if nothing else appeals to us, ought we not to feel ashamed of ourselves as \ve see the sufferings of those whom our fathers sent as colonists to Sinuessa that this frontier might be protected from the Samnite foe, whose homes are being burnt not by our neighbours the Samnites but by a Carthaginian stranger from the ends of the earth who has been allo,ved to come thus far simply through our dilatoriness and supineness? I-lave we, alas! so far degenerated from our fathers that \VC caIn11y look on while the very country, past which they considered it an affront for a Carthaginian fleet to cruise) has now been filled with Numidian and 1\loorish invaders? We who only the other day in our indignation at the attack on Saguntum appealed not to men alone, but to treaties and to gods, now quietly watch Hannibal scaling the "valls of a Roman colony! The smoke from the burning farms and fields is blo,vn into our faces, our ears are assailed by the cries of our despairing allies \"ho appeal to us for help more than they do to the gods, and here are we marching an army like a herd of cattle through summer pastures and mountain paths hidden from view by woods and clouds! If I. Furius Camillus had chosen this method of wandering over mountain heights and passes to rescue the City from the Gauls which has been adopted by this new Camillus, this peerless Dicta or \vho has been found for us i:1 our troubles, to recover Italy from Hannibal, Rome would still be in the hands of the Gauls, and I very much fear that if we go on dawdling in this way the City which our ancestors have so often saved will only have been saved for Hannibal and the Carthaginians. But on the day that the message came to Veii that CamiHus had been nominated Dictator by senate and people, though the J aniculum was quite high enough for him to sit there and watch the enemy, like the man and true Roman that he ,vas, he came down into the plain} and in the very heart of the City where the Busta Gallica are now he cut to pieces the legions of the Gauls, and the next day he did the same beyond Gabii. Why, when years and years ago we were sent under the yoke by the Samnites at the Caudine Forks, ,vas it, pray, by exploring the heights of Samnium or by assailing and besieging Luceria and challenging our victorious foe that L. Papirius Cursor took the yoke off Roman necks and placed it on the haughty Samnite? 'What else but rapidity of action gave C. Lutatius the victory? The da y after he first saw the enemy he surprised their fleet laden with supplies and hampered by its cargo of stores and equipment. It is mere folly to fancy that the war can be brought to an end by sitting still or making vows to heaven. Your duty is to take your arms and go down and meet the enemy man to n1an. It is by doing and daring that Rome has increased her dominion not by these counsels of sloth which cowards call caution." Minucius said all this before a host of Roman tribunes and knights, as if he ",-ere addressing the Assembly, and his daring words even reached the ears of the soldiery; if they could have voted on the question, there is no doubt that they ,vould have superseded Fabius for l\1inucius.