No More Learning

[192] The Capitol had been burnt
before in civil war,[193] but that was the crime of private persons.
Now it had been openly assaulted by the people of Rome and openly
burnt by them. And what was the cause of war? what the recompense for
such a disaster? Were we fighting for our country?

King Tarquinius Priscus had vowed to build this temple in the Sabine
war, and had laid the foundations on a scale that suited rather his
hope of the city's future greatness than the still moderate fortunes
of the Roman people. Later Servius Tullius, with the aid of Rome's
allies, and Tarquinius Superbus, with the spoils of the Volscians
after the capture of Suessa Pometia,[194] continued the building. But
the glory of completing it was reserved for the days of freedom. After
the expulsion of the kings, Horatius Pulvillus, in his second
consulship[195] dedicated this monument on such a magnificent scale,
that in later days, with all her boundless wealth, Rome has been able
to embellish but never to enlarge it. After an interval of four
hundred and fifteen years, in the consulship of Lucius Scipio and
Caius Norbanus,[196] it was burnt and rebuilt on the same site. Sulla
after his victory undertook the task of restoring it, but did not
dedicate it. This only was lacking to justify his title of 'Fortune's
Favourite'. [197] Much as the emperors did to it, the name of Lutatius
Catulus[198] still remained upon it up to the time of Vitellius. [199]
This was the temple that was now ablaze.

The besieged suffered more panic than their assailants.
The 73
Vitellian soldiers lacked neither resource nor steadiness in moments
of crisis. But on the other side the troops were terrified, the
general[200] inert, and apparently so paralysed that he was
practically deaf and dumb. He neither adopted others' plans nor formed
any of his own, but only drifted about from place to place, attracted
by the shouts of the enemy, contradicting all his own orders. The
result was what always happens in a hopeless disaster: everybody gave
orders and nobody obeyed them. At last they threw away their weapons
and began to peer round for a way of escape or some means of hiding.
Then the Vitellians came bursting in, and with fire and sword made one
red havoc. A few good soldiers dared to show fight and were cut to
pieces. Of these the most notable were Cornelius Martialis,[201]
Aemilius Pacensis,[202] Casperius Niger, and Didius Scaeva. Flavius
Sabinus, who stood unarmed and making no attempt to escape, was
surrounded together with the consul Quintius Atticus,[203] whose empty
title made him a marked man, as well as his personal vanity, which had
led him to distribute manifestoes full of compliments to Vespasian and
insults against Vitellius. The rest escaped by various means. Some
disguised themselves as slaves: some were sheltered by faithful
dependants: some hid among the baggage. Others again caught the
Vitellians' password, by which they recognized each other, and
actually went about demanding it and giving it when challenged, thus
escaping under a cloak of effrontery.

When the enemy first broke in, Domitian had taken refuge with the 74
sacristan, and was enabled by the ingenuity of a freedman to escape
among a crowd of worshippers in a linen dress,[204] and to take refuge
near the Velabrum with Cornelius Primus, one of his father's
dependants. When his father came to the throne, Domitian pulled down
the sacristan's lodging and built a little chapel to Jupiter the
Saviour with an altar, on which his adventures were depicted in marble
relief. Later, when he became emperor, he dedicated a huge temple to
Jupiter the Guardian with a statue of himself in the lap of the god.

Sabinus and Atticus were loaded with chains and taken to Vitellius,
who received them without any language or looks of disfavour, much to
the chagrin of those who wanted to see them punished with death and
themselves rewarded for their successful labours.