by Aldus Marius on Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:51 am
Salvete amici!
Actually it wasn't Horatius who called his soldiers "Citizens"; it was Gaius Iulius Caesar. Seems, towards the end of the Gallic campaign (or was it the Civil Wars?), that his soldiers (even the illustrious Tenth Legion!) were beginning to complain. They had a point; most of them had been serving under him way past their normal discharge dates, often with no pay and sometimes with no provisions. Old men who could no longer chew field rations had first taken the Oath as underage teens. They had served through every kind of hardship, and, oh yeah, there'd been a lot of that business about sticking sharp pointy objects between other peoples' ribs while trying not to get stuck themselves. So they sent a delegation to tell the Great One that it was time for them to be released to go home.
Gaius Iulius listened, and Gaius Iulius decided. He called together all the men in an assembly and told them they would be granted their discharges, that Caesar only needed time to arrange them. And the next word out of his mouth was "Quirites..."
The soldiers must've felt like they'd been smacked in the face with a mule-strap. It was one thing to ask to be made mere Citizens again. It was quite another to have it done; after all the shared hardships, the unit pride, the rivalries between Centurions, the routine (and most of these men had known no other life!)--all those years of being addressed as fellow-soldiers by a commander they almost worshipped, to have that same man call them "Quirites" instead made a sting that would not go away. And the ease with which he'd been ready to dismiss them! --They rushed Caesar en masse, throwing themselves at his feet, begging tearfully to be taken back, for all their honor rested with him and in their service. Any civilian-side aspirations and concerns had suddenly paled to insignificance.
To his credit, Gaius Iulius accepted their offer, though they had to earn back his respect all over again. To their credit, they did...and something tells me there weren't many more discharge requests in Caesar's Legions!
And now ya know...
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.