The Pipers' Strike of 311

Lately I've been reading a lot of Livy. I'm enjoying his level-headedness: for instance, his scepticism that Romulus and Remus were looked after by a she-wolf, preferring the version in which they were brought up by a prostitute, who was known locally as "The She-Wolf". The early history of Rome is not so different from modern history: a running theme is of people complaining that politicians exaggerate threats of war in order to keep themselves looking good, and the people distracted from sorting out their own rights.

As the Republic matures (I'm talking c300 BC here) I get the sense that Livy doesn't know what to make of the continued superstition, having few comments to add to his narratives of Valerius Corvus (who fought a duel against a Gaul while a raven sat on his head); or the importance accorded to the Keepers of the Sacred Chickens; or the Romans' willingness, in time of plage, to suspend their sophisticated democratic system so that they can appoint a dictator to bang a nail into a temple wall.

Mainly, it's one battle after another, but there is sometimes light relief. Here's Livy's account of the pipe-player's strike of 311 BC:

I should have passed over a little thing that happened in the same year, except that it appeared to be a religious matter. The last Censors had banned the pipers from dining in the Temple of Jupiter. Taking it badly, they went out en masse to Tibur, so there was nobody left in town who could pipe in the sacrifices. The Senate took the matter reverently, and sent envoys to Tibur to make sure they would be restored to Rome.

The people of Tibur dutufilly gave their word, and first gathered the pipers into their assembly, and urged them to go back to Rome; but then, when they couldn't make them, they approached them with a strategy that would not offend their inclination. Some of them invited the pipers to a festival, apparently to celebrate their feasts with music, and got them heavily drunk with wine: on which their sort is very keen.

In this state, helpless in their sleep, they were tossed into wagons and taken them off to Rome, and they didn't notice until the wagons had been left in the marketplace and the sun beat down on them and their hangovers. Then the people gathered round, and prevailed upon them to remain, granting them three days a year on which to dress up and sing, and roam the city with the license that is now a firm custom, and the temple dining rights of those who piped in the sacrifices were restored. This happened while two very large wars were in progress.


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