[10,0] BOOK X.

[10,1] The year after their consulship occurred the eightieth Olympiad (the one at which 
Torymbas, a Thessalian, won the foot-race), Phrasicles being archon at Athens; and 
Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus were chosen consuls at Rome. 
These men led no army into the field, either to take revenge on those who had injured 
the Romans themselves as well as their allies or to keep guard over their possessions, 
but they devoted their attention to the domestic evils, fearing lest the populace might 
organize against the senate and work some mischief.  For they were being stirred up 
again by the tribunes and instructed that the best of political institutions for free men 
is an equality of rights; and they demanded that all business both private (p165) and 
public should be carried on according to laws. For at that time there did not exist as 
yet among the Romans an equality either of laws or of rights, nor were all their 
principles of justice committed to writing; but at first their kings had dispensed 
justice to those who sought it, and whatever they decree was law.  After they ceased 
to be governed by kings, along with the other functions of royalty that of determining 
what justice is devolved upon the annual consuls, and it was they who decided what 
was just between litigants in any matter whatsoever. These decisions as a rule 
conformed to the character of the magistrates, who were appointed to office on the 
basis of good birth. A very few of them, however, were kept in sacred books and had 
the force of laws; but the patricians alone were acquainted with these, because they 
spent their time in the capital, while the masses, who were either merchants or 
husbandmen and came down to the capital only for the markets at intervals of many 
days, were as yet unfamiliar with them.  The first attempt to introduce this measure 
establishing an equality of rights was made by Gaius Terentius in the preceding year,4 
while he was tribune; but he was forced to leave the business unfinished because the 
plebeians were then in the field and the consuls purposely detained the armies in the 
enemy's country till their term of office expired. 

[10,2] At the time in question Aulus Verginius and the other tribunes took up the measure 
and wished to carry it through. But in order to prevent this from happening and that 
the magistrates might not be compelled to conduct the government in accordance 
(p167) with laws, the consuls, the senate and all the rest of the citizens of greatest 
influence in the commonwealth kept resorting to all manner of devices. There were 
many sessions of the senate and continual meetings of the assembly, and attempts of 
all kinds were made by the magistrates against one another; from all of which it was 
manifest to everyone that some great and irreparable mischief to the commonwealth 
would arise out of this contention. To these human reasonings were added the 
terrible portents sent by the gods, some of which were neither found recorded in the 
public archives nor were the memory of them preserved by any other means. As for 
all the flashes shooting through the sky and outbursts of fire continuing in one place, 
the rumblings of the earth and its continual tremblings that occurred, the spectres, 
now of one shape and now of another, flitting through the air and voices that 
disturbed men's minds, and everything else of that nature which took place, all these 
manifestations were found to have occurred in times past as well, to either a greater 
or lesser degree. But a prodigy which they were unfamiliar with as yet and had never 
heard of, and the one which caused them the greatest terror was this: There 
descended upon the earth from heaven what appeared to be a heavy snowstorm, only 
it brought down, instead of snow, pieces of flesh, some smaller and some larger. 
Most of these while still in mid air were seized by flocks of birds of every kind, which 
flew up and snatched them in their beaks; but those pieces which fell to the ground, 
both in the city itself and in the country, lay there a long time without either changing 
to such a colour as pieces of flesh (p169) acquire with time, or becoming rotten, and no 
bad smell was given off by them. The native soothsayers were unable to conjecture 
the meaning of this prodigy; but in the Sibylline books it was found that the city 
would be involved in a struggle to prevent the enslavement of its citizens after foreign 
enemies had penetrated inside the walls, and that this war against the foreigners 
would begin with civil strife, which they must banish from the city in its inception, 
invoking the gods by sacrifices and prayers to avert the dangers; then they would gain 
the victory over their enemies.  When this had been announced to the multitude, the 
priests who were in charge of such matters first sacrificed victims to the gods who 
remedy and avert evils; after which the senate assembled in the senate-house, the 
tribunes being also present, and considered means of safeguarding and preserving 
the commonwealth. 

[10,3] As for putting an end to their mutual recriminations and acting with unanimity 
concerning public affairs, as the oracles advised, all were in agreement; but how this 
was to be brought about, and which party should take the first step by yielding to the 
other the point at issue and thus put an end to the dissension, caused them no little 
embarrassment. For the consuls and the leaders of the senate declared that the 
tribunes who were proposing new measures and demanding the overthrow of the 
time-honoured constitution were to blame for the disturbance. On the other hand, 
the tribunes denied that they were asking for anything that was either unjust or 
disadvantageous when they wished to introduce a good (p171) system of laws and 
equality of rights, but declared that the consuls and the patrician would be to blame 
for the dissension if they increased the spirit of lawlessness and greed and emulated 
the usual practices of tyrants. These and many like reproaches were uttered by each 
side for many days and the time passed in vain; meanwhile no business in the city, 
either public or private, was being brought to completion. When nothing worth while 
was being accomplished, the tribunes desisted from the kind of harangues and 
accusations they were wont to make against the senate; and calling an assembly of the 
populace, they promised them to bring in a law embodying their demands. This 
being approved of by the populace, they read without further delay the law which they 
had prepared, the chief provisions of which were as follows: That ten men should be 
chosen by the people meeting in a legitimate assembly, men who were at once the 
oldest and the most prudent and had the greatest regard for honour and a good 
reputation; that these men should draw up the laws concerning all matters both 
public and private and lay them before the people; and that the laws to be drawn up 
by them should be exposed in the Forum for the benefit of the magistrates who 
should be chosen each year and also of persons in private station, as a code defining 
the mutual rights of citizens. After the tribunes had proposed this law, they gave 
leave to all who so desired to speak against it, appointing the third market-day for 
this purpose. Many in fact — and those not the least important of (p173) the senators, 
both old and young — did speak against the law, delivering speeches that were the 
result of much thought and preparation; and this went on for many days. Then the 
tribunes, chafing at the loss of time, would no longer permit the opponents of the law 
to speak against it, but appointing a day for ratifying it, urged the plebeians to be 
present in force, assuring them that they should not be bored by any more long 
harangues but should give their votes by tribes concerning the law. After making 
these promises the tribunes dismissed the assembly. 

[10,4] After this the consuls and the most influential of the patricians, going to the 
tribunes, upbraided them more harshly than before, saying that they would not 
permit them to propose laws, and especially laws not recommended by a preliminary 
decree of the senate. For laws were compacts of states affecting all alike, and not of a 
single portion of the residents of states. They further pointed out that it is the first 
step in the most wicked, irremediable and indecent ruination for both states and 
households when the worst element prescribes laws for the best. "And what 
authority," they asked, "have you, tribunes, to introduce or to abrogate laws? Did you 
not receive this magistracy from the senate upon explicit terms? Did you not ask that 
the tribunes might come to the assistance of those of the poor who were injured and 
oppressed, but should meddle with nothing else? But, be that as it may, even if you 
previously possessed some power which you had wrongfully extorted from us, 
because the senate (p175) weakly gave in to each encroachment of yours, have you not 
lost even this power now through the changed character of your elections? For 
neither a decree of the senate appoints you any longer to the magistracy, nor do the 
curiae give their votes concerning you, nor are there offered up to the gods before 
your election the sacrifices appointed by the laws, nor is anything else done in 
connexion with your magistracy that is holy in the eyes of the gods or right in the 
sight of men. What share have you, then, any longer in any of the things that are holy 
and call for reverence — of which the law was one — now that you have renounced 
everything lawful?"  These were the arguments that the older and the young 
patricians, going about the city in organized groups, used with the tribunes. The more 
fair-minded of the plebeians they sought to win over by friendly intercourse, and the 
refractory and turbulent they attempted to terrify with threats of dangers which they 
would incur unless they came to their senses. Indeed, in the case of some who were 
very poor and abject and cared naught for the public interests in comparison with 
their own advantage, they drove them out of the Forum with blows as if they had 
been slaves. 

[10,5] But the person who was attended with the largest number of followers and had the 
most influence of all the young men at that time was Caeso Quintius, the son of 
Lucius Quintius called Cincinnatus, a man of both illustrious birth and of a fortune 
inferior to none, the handsomest of youths to look upon, distinguished above all 
others in warfare, and (p177) possessing a natural talent for speaking. This he freely 
indulged at that time against the plebeians; and he neither spared words hard for free 
men to listen to nor refrained from deeds that matched his words. For these reasons 
the patricians held him in great esteem and urged him to continue on his dangerous 
course, promising to afford him impunity; but the plebeians hated him above all men. 
This man the tribunes determined to remove out of the way first, expecting to terrify 
the rest of the youths and compel them to act sensibly. Having come to this decision 
and got ready their accusations and numerous witnesses, they brought him to trial for 
a crime against the state, for which they fixed death as the penalty. When they had 
summoned him to appear before the populace and the day they had appointed for the 
trial had come, they called an assembly and delivered lengthy speeches against him, 
enumerating all the acts of violence he had committed against the plebeians and 
presenting as witnesses the victims of his acts in person.  When they gave him leave 
to speak, the youth himself, being called upon to make his defence, refused, but asked 
the right to give satisfaction to the private persons themselves for the injuries of 
which they accused him, the hearing to take place before the consuls. His father, 
however, observing that the plebeians were offended by the haughtiness of the youth, 
endeavoured to excuse him by showing that most of the accusations were false and 
deliberately invented against his son; that the instances which he could not deny 
were slight and trivial and not deserving the resentment of the public, and that not 
(p179) even these had proceeded from design or insolence, but from a youthful ambition 
which had led him to do many unpremeditated things in scrimmages — perhaps to 
suffer many too — since he was neither at the prime of life nor at the best age for clear 
judgement.  And he asked the plebeians not only to entertain no resentment for the 
offences which he had committed against a few, but even to feel grateful for the 
services he had constantly rendered to them all in the wars while trying to secure 
liberty for his fellow citizens in private life, supremacy for his country, and for 
himself, if he should be guilty of any offence, friendly consideration and succour from 
the people generally. He proceeded to enumerate all the campaigns and all the battles 
in which he had received from his generals rewards of valour and crowns, how many 
citizens he had shielded in battle, and how often he had been the first man to scale 
the enemy's walls.  And at last he ended with appeals to their compassion and with 
entreaties; in consideration of his fairness toward all men and of his life in general, 
which stood approved as free from all reproach, he asked of the people one single 
favour — to safeguard his son for him. 

[10,6] The people were exceedingly pleased with this speech and were eager to grant the 
life of the youth to his father. But Verginius, perceiving that if he were not punished 
the boldness of the headstrong youths would become intolerable, rose up and said: 
 "As for you, Quintius, not only all your other merits, but also your goodwill toward 
the plebeians is amply attested, and for these you have received (p181) honour. But the 
offensive behaviour of this youth and his haughtiness toward us all admit of no 
palliation or pardon; for though nurtured in your principles, which are so democratic 
and moderate, as we are all aware, he despised your ways of life and grew fond of a 
tyrannical arrogance and a barbarian insolence, and has introduced into our 
commonwealth an emulation of base deeds.  If, therefore, you were unaware hitherto 
of his character, now that you know it, you ought in justice to be indignant on our 
account; but if you were privy to and took part in the foul abuse he was wont to pour 
out upon the unhappy lot of the poor citizens, then you too were base and did not 
deserve the reputation for uprightness that has come to you. But that you did not 
know him to be unworthy of your excellence I myself can bear you witness. 
nevertheless, though I acquit you of joining with him in injuring us at that time, 
I blame you for not joining with us now in resenting those injuries.  And that you 
may know better how great a bane you have reared up unwittingly against the 
commonwealth, how cruel and tyrannical and not even free from the murder of his 
fellow citizens, listen to an ambitious exploit of his and balance it against the rewards 
of valour he received in the wars. And as many of you plebeians as were just now 
affected with the compassion which this man endeavoured to arouse, consider 
whether it is after all well for you to spare such a citizen." 

[10,7] Having spoken thus, he asked Marcus Volscius, one of his colleagues, to rise up and 
tell what he knew about the youth. When all had become silent and full of 
expectation, Volscius, after a short pause, said:  "I should have preferred, citizens, to 
(p183) receive from this man private satisfaction, such as the law affords me, for the 
terrible and worse than terrible wrongs I have suffered; but having been prevented 
from obtaining this by reason of poverty and lack of influence and because of my 
being one of the common crowd, now, when it is possible, I shall take the rτle of a 
witness, since I can not take that of an accuser. Hear from me, then, the things I have 
suffered, how cruel, how irreparable they were.  I had a brother, Lucius, whom 
I loved above all men. He and I supped with a friend and afterwards, as night came 
on, we rose and departed. When we had passed through the Forum, Caeso here fell 
in with us as he was revelling with other insolent youths. At first they laughed at us 
and abused us, as young men when drunk and arrogant are apt to abuse the humble 
and poor; and when we were vexed at them, Lucius9 spoke out frankly to this man. 
But Caeso here, thinking it outrageous to have anything said to him that he did not 
like, ran up to him, and beating and kicking him and showing every other form of 
cruelty and abuse, killed him. And when I cried out and was doing all I could to 
defend him, Caeso, leaving my brother Lucius where he already lay dead, fell to 
beating me in turn, and ceased not until he saw me cast down upon the ground 
motionless and speechless, so that he took me to be dead. After that he went (p185) away 
rejoicing, as if over a noble deed. As for us, some persons who came along later took 
us up, covered with blood, and carried us home, my brother being dead, as I said, 
and I half dead and having little hope of living.  This happened in the consulship of 
Publius Servilius and Lucius Aebutius, when the city was attacked by the great 
pestilence, which both of us caught. At that time, therefore, it was not possible for me 
to obtain justice against him, since both consuls were dead; then, when Lucius 
Lucretius and Titus Veturius had succeeded to the office, I wished to bring him to 
trial, but was prevented by the war, both consuls having left the city.  After they 
returned from the campaign, I often cited him to appear before those magistrates, but 
as often as I approached them — as many of the citizens know — I received blows 
from him. These are the things I have suffered, plebeians, and I have related them to 
you with complete truthfulness." 

[10,8] After he had finished speaking, an outcry arose from those who were present and 
many rushed to take vengeance out of hand; but they were prevented both by the 
consuls and also by the majority of the tribunes, who were unwilling to introduce a 
pernicious custom into the commonwealth. Indeed, the most honourable element 
among the plebeians too was unwilling to deprive of a defence those who were in 
jeopardy of their lives.  Upon this occasion, therefore, a regard for justice restrained 
the impulse of the bolder spirits, and the trial was put off; though no small contest 
and questioning arose concerning the defendant's person, whether he should be kept 
in (p187) chains in the meantime or should give sureties for his appearance, as his father 
required. The senate, assembling, ordered that if bail were offered his person should 
be free till the trial.  The next day the tribunes assembled the populace and, the 
youth not appearing for trial, they caused a vote to be passed for his condemnation 
and compelled his sureties, ten in number, to pay over the sums agreed upon in case 
of their failure to produce his person.  Caeso, accordingly, having fallen a victim to a 
plot of this sort — for the tribunes had contrived the whole business and Volscius had 
borne false witness, as became clear later — went into exile in Tyrrhenia. His father 
sold the greater part of his estate and repaid the sureties the sums agreed upon, 
leaving nothing for himself but one small farm lying on the other side of the river 
Tiber, on which there was an humble cottage; and there, cultivating the farm with the 
help of a few slaves, he led a laborious and miserable life because of his grief and 
poverty, neither visiting the city nor greeting his friends nor taking part in the 
festivals nor allowing himself any other pleasure. The tribunes,10 however, were 
greatly disappointed in their expectations; for the contentiousness of the young men, 
far from being chastened by the unhappy fate of Caeso, grew much more vexatious 
and excessive as they fought the law with both actions and words. The result was that 
the tribunes were unable to accomplish anything more, the whole time of their 
magistracy being taken up with these contests. The populace, however, chose them 
again as their magistrates for the following year. 

[10,9] (p189)  When Publius Valerius Publicola and Gaius Claudius Sabinus had assumed 
the consular power, a danger greater than ever before came upon Rome from a 
foreign war; and it was brought upon her by the civil dissension inside the walls, as 
both the Sibylline oracles and the portents sent by Heaven had foretold the year 
before. I shall relate not only the cause from which the war arose, but also the action 
taken by the consuls during that contest.  The men who had assumed tribuneship for 
the second time in the hope of securing the ratification of the law, observing that one 
of the consuls, Gaius Claudius, had an inborn hatred of the plebeians, inherited from 
his ancestors, and was prepared to defeat the plans afoot by every possible means, 
that the most influential of the youths had reached the point of open desperation, 
with no possibility of their being subdued by forcible means, and above all, that most 
of the populace were yielding to the blandishments of the patricians and no longer 
exhibiting the same zeal for the law, resolved to take a bolder course toward their 
goal, by which they expected to dumbfound the populace and unseat the consul. 
 First, then, they caused all manner of rumours to be spread throughout the city; 
afterwards they sat in council publicly throughout the whole day from early morning 
without admitting any outsiders to their counsels and discussions. Then, when it 
seemed to them to be the proper time for putting their plans into execution, they 
forged letters and contrived to have these delivered to them by an unknown person as 
they sat in the Forum; and as soon as they had perused them, they sprang up, 
(p191) beating their foreheads and assuming downcast countenances.  And when a large 
crowd had flocked together and was conjecturing that some dreadful intelligence was 
contained in the letters, they ordered the heralds to proclaim silence and then said: 
"Your plebeians are in the gravest peril, citizens; and if some benevolence of the gods 
had not provided for those who were on the point of suffering injustice, we should all 
have fallen into dire calamities. We ask you to have a little patience till we acquaint 
the senate with the information we have received and after consulting with them take 
the necessary measures."  Having spoken this, they went to the consuls. While the 
senate was assembling, many reports of all kinds circulated in the Forum, as some 
persons, by previous arrangement, talking in groups, retailed the stories suggested to 
them by the tribunes, and others named the things they most dreaded to have happen 
as the matters that had been reported to the tribunes.  One said that the Aequians 
and the Volscians, having received Caeso Quintius, the man condemned by the 
populace, had chosen him general of both nations with absolute power, had raised 
numerous forces, and were upon the point of marching on Rome; another said that 
by the concerted plan of the patricians he was being brought back by foreign troops in 
order that the magistracy which was the guardian of the plebeians might be abolished 
now and forever; and still another said that not all the patricians had decided on this 
course, but only the young men.  Some ventured to state that Caeso was (p193) actually 
inside the city, in hiding, and was about to seize the most advantageous positions. 
While the whole city was shaken by expectation of these calamities and all men 
suspected and were on their guard against one another, the consuls assembled the 
senate, and the tribunes, going in, acquainted them with the reports that were being 
received. The one who addressed them on behalf of the others was Aulus Verginius, 
and he spoke as follows: 

[10,10] "As long as there seemed to us to be nothing definite about the dangers that were 
being reported, but there were only vague rumours and nothing to confirm them, we 
were reluctant, senators, to lay before you the reports about them, both because we 
suspected there would be great disturbances, as would be likely in a time of dreadful 
rumours, and also because we were afraid of appearing to you to have acted with 
greater precipitancy than prudence.  We did not, however, ignore or neglect these 
reports, but inquired with all possible diligence into the truth of them. And since the 
divine providence, by which our commonwealth is ever preserved, is rightly bringing 
to light the hidden plans and wicked attempts of those who are enemies to the gods; 
since we have letters, just now received from foreign friends, who thus show their 
goodwill to us and whose names you shall later hear; since information given here at 
home coincides and agrees with the reports sent in from outside; and since these 
matters no longer admit of delay or postponement, being at our very doors, we have 
decided to report them to you, as is proper, before laying them before the populace. 
Know, then, that a conspiracy has been formed (p195) against the populace by men of 
prominence, among whom, it is said, there is a small number — not many — even of 
the older men who meet in this chamber, though the larger number are knights who 
are not members of the senate, whose names it is not yet the time to tell you. They 
intend, now, as we learn, to take advantage of a dark night and attack us while we are 
asleep, when we can neither provide against anything that is taking place nor get 
together in a body to defend ourselves, and, rushing into our houses, to cut the 
throats, not only of us tribunes, but of all the other plebeians also who have ever 
opposed them in defence of their liberty or may oppose them for the future. And 
after they have made away with us, they believe that then at last they will easily bring 
about the abrogation, by a unanimous vote on your part, of the compacts you made 
with the populace. But perceiving that they need for their purpose a body of foreign 
troops secretly got in readiness — and that no moderate force — they have to this end 
adopted as their leader one of your exiles, Caeso Quintius, a man whom, though 
convicted of the murder of his fellow citizens and of raising a sedition in the state, 
some of the members of this body contrived to save from paying the penalty, letting 
him go out of the city unharmed, and have promised to restore him to his country and 
are offering him magistracies and honours and other rewards for his help. And he 
on his part has promised to bring to their assistance as large a force of the Aequians 
(p197) and Volscians as they shall ask for. He himself will soon appear at the head of the 
most daring, whom he will introduce into the city secretly, a few at a time and in 
small bodies; the rest of the force, as soon as we who are the leaders of the populace 
are destroyed, will fall next upon the rest of the poor, if any of them cling to their 
liberty. These are the dreadful and wicked plans, senators, which they have 
concocted under cover of darkness and intend to carry out without either fearing the 
anger of the gods or heeding the indignation of men. 

[10,11] "Being tossed about on such a rough sea of perils, fathers, we come to you as 
suppliants, calling to witness the gods and lesser divinities to whom we sacrifice in 
common; and reminding you of the many great wars we have waged side by side with 
you, we implore you not to allow us to suffer this cruel and wicked fate at the hands of 
our enemies, but to assist us and share our indignation, joining with us in exacting 
suitable punishment from those who have formed these designs — from all of them 
preferably, but if that may not be, then at least from the authors of this nefarious 
conspiracy. First of all we ask, senators, that you will pass a measure that is in every 
respect just, to the effect that the investigation of the matters of which we have been 
informed shall be conducted by us, the tribunes. For, apart from the justice of this 
request, those investigations are bound to be strictest which are made by those whose 
own lives soldier in danger. If there are any among you who are not disposed to 
show a conciliatory spirit at all, but oppose every man who speaks in favour of the 
populace, I should like to inquire of them what there is in our demands that 
displeases them and what course (p199) they intend to recommend to you. Will it be to 
make no investigation whatever, but to ignore so awful and abominable a plot that is 
forming against the populace? Yet who would say that those who take that line are 
honest, and are not rather tainted with the same corruption and sharers in the 
conspiracy, and then, because they are afraid they will be discovered, vigorously 
oppose the inquiry into the truth? To such, surely, you would not rightly pay any 
heed. Or will they demand that those who are to have authority to determine the 
truth of these reports shall be, not we, the tribunes, but the senate and the consuls? 
What, then, is to prevent the leaders of the populace also from saying the same thing 
in case some plebeians, conspiring against the consuls and the senate, should plot the 
abolition of the latter — that, namely, the investigation of the plebeians would justly 
be made by the very men who have assumed the protection of the populace? What, 
then, will be the consequence of this procedure? Why, that no inquiry will ever be 
made into any secret matter. But, just as we would never make this demand — for 
partisan zeal arouses suspicion — so you would not be doing right in paying heed to 
those who insist upon the same course against us; on the contrary, you should look 
upon them as the common enemies of the state. However, senators, nothing is so 
necessary in the present juncture as haste; for the danger is acute, and delay in 
providing for our security is unseasonable in the presence of dangers that delay not. 
Do you, therefore, putting aside your rivalry and your long harangues, pass at once 
whatever decree seems conducive to the public good." 

[10,12] When he had thus spoken, great consternation (p201) and embarrassment came 
upon the senate. They discussed and talked over with one another the difficulty of 
either course — either to grant or to refuse the tribunes permission to make 
investigations by themselves of a matter of general concern and great importance. 
And one of the consuls, Gaius Claudius, suspecting their intentions, rose up and 
spoke as follows: 
"I am not afraid, Verginius, that these men here will imagine that I am an 
accomplice in the conspiracy which you say is being formed against you and the 
populace, and that then, out of fear for myself or for some relation of mine who is 
guilty of this charge, I have risen to oppose you; for the whole course of my life clears 
me of any suspicion of the sort. But what I consider to be advantageous for both the 
senate and the people I will say in all good faith and without reservation. Verginius 
seems to me to be greatly, or rather totally, mistaken if he imagines that any of us will 
same either that a matter of so great importance and necessity ought to be left 
uninvestigated or that the magistrates of the populace ought not to take part in or be 
present at the inquiry. No man is so foolish or so ill-disposed toward the populace as 
to say that. If, then, anyone should ask me what possessed me to rise up to oppose 
those measures which I agree to and admit to be just, and what my purpose is in 
speaking, by Heaven I will ell you. I believe, senators, that sensible men ought to 
examine minutely the beginnings and basic principles of every measure; for of 
whatever nature these may be, such also must be all discussion about (p203) them. 
Well then, learn from me what the basic principle of this measure is and what the 
purpose of the tribunes is. These men would not be able to carry out now any of the 
undertakings they were prevented from accomplishing last year if both you were to 
oppose them as before and the populace were no longer to espouse their quarrel with 
the same zeal. Since they were aware of these difficulties, they considered by what 
means not only you might be compelled to yield to them contrary to your judgement, 
but the populace also might be forced to assist them in everything they should desire. 
But finding no true or just basis for gaining both these ends, after trying various 
plans and turning the matter this way and that, they at last hit upon some such 
reasoning as this: 'Let us accuse some prominent men of a conspiracy to overthrow 
the power of the populace and of having decided to cut the throats of those who 
assure the safety of the populace.  And after we have contrived to have these reports 
talked about for a long time throughout the city and when the multitude at last 
believe them to be trustworthy — and they will do so because of their fear — let us 
devise a way to have letters delivered to us in the presence of many by an unknown 
person. Then let us go to the senate, express our indignation, make angry complaints 
and demand authority to investigate the reports. For if the patricians oppose our 
demand, we will seize this opportunity to malign them before the populace, and by 
this means the whole body of the plebeians will become enraged against them and 
will be ready to support us in everything we desire; and, on the other hand, if they 
grant it, let us banish those (p205) of them who are of the most noble birth and have 
opposed us the most, both older men and young, as persons we have discovered to be 
guilty of the charge. These men, then, in their fear of being condemned, will either 
come to terms with us to make no further opposition or else will be compelled to 
leave the city. By this means we shall thoroughly devastate the opposition.' 

[10,13] "These were their plans, senators, and during the time you saw them holding 
sessions this plot was being spun by them against the best of your members and this 
net was being woven against the noblest of the knights. To prove that this is true 
requires very few words on my part. For come, tell me, Verginius and you others 
who are to suffer these dreadful evils, who are the foreign friends from whom you 
received the letters? Where do they live? How did they become acquainted with you? 
Or by what means do they know what is being discussed here? Who do you defer 
naming these man and keep promising to do it later on, instead of having named 
them long since? And who is the man who brought the letters to you? Why do you not 
bring him before us, that we may begin first of all with him to pursue the inquiry 
whether these reports are true or, as I maintain, your own fictions? And the 
informations that come from persons here, which you say agree with the foreign 
letters, what are they and by whom given? Why do you conceal the proofs and not 
ring them to light? But I suspect it is impossible to find proof of such things as 
neither have happened nor will happen. These are indications, senators, not of a 
conspiracy against the tribunes here, but of treachery and an evil purpose against you 
(p207) which these men have been secretly cherishing. For the facts themselves cry 
aloud. But you senators are to blame for this, since you made the first concessions to 
them and armed their senseless magistracy with great power when you permitted 
Caeso Quintius to be tried by them last year on false charges and permitted so great a 
defender of the aristocracy to be destroyed by them. For this reason they no longer 
show any moderation nor do they lop off the men of birth one by one, but are already 
rounding up the good men en masse and expelling them from the city. And, in 
addition to all the other evils, they demand that no one of you even speak in 
opposition to them, but by exposing him to suspicions and accusations as an 
accomplice in those secret plots they try to terrify him and promptly call him an 
enemy of the populace and cite him to appear before their assembly to stand trial for 
what he has said here.  But another occasion will be more suitable for discussing this 
matter. For the present I will curtail my remarks and will cease running on at greater 
length, merely advising you to guard against these men as disturbers of the 
commonwealth and as publishing the germs of great evils. And not here alone do I 
say these things, while intending to conceal them from the populace; on the contrary, 
I shall there also employ a frankness that is merited, showing them that no mischief 
hangs over their heads unless it be wicked and deceitful leaders who under the guise 
of friendship are doing the deeds of enemies." 
When the consul had thus spoken, there was shouting and much applause by all 
present; and without (p209) even permitting the tribunes to reply, they dismissed the 
session. Then Verginius, calling an assembly of the populace, inveighed against both 
the senate and the consuls, and Claudius defended them, repeating the same things 
he had said in the senate. The more fair-minded among the plebeians suspected that 
their fear was unwarranted, while the more simple-minded, giving credence to the 
reports, thought it real; but all among them who were ill-disposed and were forever 
craving a change did not have the foresight to examine into the truth or falsehood of 
the reports, but sought an occasion for sedition and tumult. 

[10,14] While the city was in such turmoil, a man of the Sabine race, of no obscure birth 
and powerful because of his wealth, Appius Herdonius by name, attempted to 
overthrow the supremacy of the Romans, with a view either of making himself tyrant 
or of winning dominion and power for the Sabine nation or else of gaining against 
name for himself. Having revealed his purpose to many of his friends and explained 
to them his plan for executing it, and having received their approval, he assembled 
his clients and the most daring of his servants and in a short time got together a force 
of about four thousand men. Then, after supplying them with arms, provisions and 
everything else that is needed for war, he embarked them on river-boats and, sailing 
down the river Tiber, landed at that part of Rome where the Capitol stands, not a full 
stade distant from the river. It was then midnight and there was profound quiet 
throughout (p211) the entire city; with this to help him he disembarked his men in haste, 
and passing through the gate which was open (for there is a certain sacred gate of the 
Capitol, called the porta Carmentalis, which by the direction of some oracle is always 
left open), he ascended the hill with his troops and captured the fortress. From there 
he pushed on to the citadel, which adjoins the Capitol, and took possession of that 
also. It was his intention, after seizing the most advantageous positions, to receive the 
exiles, to summon the slaves to liberty, to promise the needy an abolition of debts, 
and to share the spoils with any other citizens who, being themselves of low 
condition, envied and hated those of lofty station and would have welcomed a change. 
The hope that both inspired him with confidence and deceived him, by leading him to 
believe that he should fail of none of his expectations, was based on the civil 
dissension, because of which he imagined that neither any friendship nor any 
intercourse would any longer exist between the populace and the patricians. And if 
none of these expectations should turn out according to his wish, he had resolved in 
that event to call in not only the Sabines with all their forces, but also the volscians 
and as many from the other neighbouring peoples as desired to be delivered from the 
hated domination of the Romans. 

[10,15] It so happened, however, that all his hopes were disappointed; for neither the 
slaves deserted to him nor did the exiles return nor did the unfranchised and the 
debtors seek their private advantage at the expense of the public good, and the 
reinforcements from outside did not have time enough to prepare (p213) for war, since 
within three or four days all told the affair was at an end, after causing the Romans 
great fear and turmoil. For upon the capture of the fortresses, followed by a sudden 
outcry and flight of all those living near those places — save those who were slain at 
once — the mass of the citizens, not knowing what the peril was, seized their arms 
and rushed together, some hastening to the heights of the city, others to the open 
places, which were very numerous, and still others to the plains near by. Those who 
were past the prime of life and were incapacitated in bodily strength occupied the 
roofs of the houses together with the women, thinking to fight from there against the 
invaders; for they imagined that every part of the city was full of fighting. But when 
it was day and it came to be known what fortresses of the city were taken and who the 
person was who had possession of them, the consuls, going into the Forum, called the 
citizens to arms. The tribunes, however, summoned the populace to an assembly and 
declared that, while they did not care to do anything opposed to the advantage of the 
commonwealth, they thought it just, when the populace were going to undertake so 
great a struggle, that they should go and meet the danger upon fixed and definite 
terms. "If, therefore," they went on to say, "the patricians will promise you, and are 
willing to give pledges, confirmed by oaths, that as soon as this war is over they will 
allow you to appoint lawgivers and for the future to enjoy equal rights in the 
government, let us assist them in freeing the fatherland. But if they consent to no 
reasonable conditions, why do we incur danger and give up our lives for them, when 
we are to reap (p215) no advantage?" While they were speaking thus and the people 
were persuaded and would not listen to even a word from those who offered any 
other advice, Claudius declared that he had no use for such allies, who were not 
willing to come to the aid of the fatherland voluntarily, but only for a reward, and that 
no moderate one; but the patricians by themselves, he said, taking up arms in their 
own persons and in the persons of the clients who adhered to them, joined also by 
any of the plebeians who would voluntarily assist them in the war, must with these 
besiege the fortresses. And if even so their force should seem to them inadequate, 
they must call on the Latins and the Hernicans, and, if necessary, must promise 
liberty to the slaves and invite all sorts of people rather than those who harboured a 
grudge against them in times like these.  But the other consul, Valerius, opposed 
this, believing that they ought not to render the plebeians, who were already 
exasperated, absolutely implacable against the patricians; and he advised them to 
yield to the situation, and while arraying against their foreign foes the demands of 
strict justice, to combat the long-winded discourses of their fellow citizens with terms 
of moderation and reasonableness.  When the majority of the senators decided that 
this advice was the best, he appeared before the popular assembly and made a 
decorous speech, at the end of which he swore that if the people would assist in this 
war with alacrity and conditions in the city should become settled, he would permit 
the tribunes to lay before the populace for decision the law which they were trying to 
introduce concerning an equality (p217) of laws, and would use his utmost endeavours 
that their vote should be carried into effect during his consulship. But it was fated, it 
seems, that he should perform none of these promises, the doom of death being near 
at hand for him. 

[10,16] After the assembly had been dismissed in the late afternoon, they all flocked to 
their appointed places, giving in their names to the generals and taking the military 
oath. During that day, then, and all the following night they were thus employed. The 
next day the centurions were assigned by the consuls to their commands and to the 
sacred standards; and the crowd which lived in the country also in great numbers 
flocked in. Everything being soon made ready, the consuls divided the forces and 
drew lots for their commands. It fell to the lot of Claudius to keep guard before the 
walls, lest some army from outside should come to the relief of the enemy in the city; 
for everybody suspected that there would be very serious turmoil, and they feared 
that all their foes would fall upon them at the same time with united forces. To 
Valerius Fortune assigned the siege of the fortresses. Commanders were appointed 
to occupy the other strong places also that lay within the city, and others were posted 
in the streets leading to the Capitol, to prevent the slaves and the poor from going 
over to the enemy — the thing of which they were most afraid. No assistance reached 
them in time from any of their allies save only from the Tusculans, who, the same 
night they heard of the invasion, had made ready to march, their commander 
(p219) being Lucius Mamilius, a man of action, who held the chief magistracy in their 
city at that time. These alone shared the danger with Valerius and aided him in 
capturing the fortresses, displaying all goodwill and alacrity. The fortresses were 
attacked from all sides; some of the attackers, fitting vessels of bitumen and burning 
pitch to their slings, hurled them over the hills from the roofs of neighbouring houses, 
and others, gathering bundles of dry faggots, raised lofty heaps of them against the 
steep parts of the cliff and set them on fire when they could commit the flames to a 
favourable wind. All the bravest of the troops, closing their ranks, went up by the 
roads that had been built to the summits. But neither their numbers, in which they 
were greatly superior to the enemy, were of any service to them when they were 
ascending by a narrow road, full of broken fragments of rock the came crashing down 
upon them from above, where a small body of men would be a match for a large one; 
nor was their constancy in dangers, which they had acquired by their training in 
many wars, of any advantage to them when forcing their way up steep heights. For it 
was not a situation that called for the display of the daring and perseverance of 
hand-to-hand fighting, but rather for the tactics of fighting with missiles.  Moreover, the 
blows made by missiles shot from below up to lofty targets were slow on arrival and 
ineffective, naturally, even if they hit their mark, while the blows of missiles hurled 
down from above came with high speed and violence, the very weight of the weapons 
contributing to the (p221) force with which they were thrown. Nevertheless, the men 
attacking the ramparts were not easily discouraged, but bravely endured the hard 
rations of unavoidable dangers, ceasing not from their toils either by day or by night. 
At last, when the missiles of the besieged gave out and their strength failed them, the 
Romans reduced the fortresses on the third day.  In this action they lost many brave 
men, among them the consul, who was universally acknowledged to have been the 
best of them all; he, even after he had received many wounds, did not retire from 
danger until a huge rock, crashing down upon him as he was mounting the other wall, 
snatched from him at once the victory and himself life. As the fortresses were being 
taken, Herdonius, who was remarkable for his physical strength and brave in action, 
after piling up an incredible heap of dead bodies about him, perished under a 
multitude of missiles. Of those who had aided him in seizing the fortresses some few 
were taken alive, but the greater part either killed themselves with their swords or 
hurled themselves down the cliffs. 

[10,17] The war with the brigands being thus ended, the tribunes rekindled the cicvil 
strife once more by demanding of the surviving consul the fulfilment of the promises 
made to them by Valerius, who perished in the fighting, with regard to the 
introduction of the law. But Claudius for a time kept procrastinating, now by 
performing lustrations for the city, now by offering sacrifices of thanksgiving to the 
(p223) gods, and again by entertaining the multitude with games and shows. When all 
his excuses had been exhausted, he finally declared that another consul must be 
chosen in place of the deceased; for he said that the acts performed by him all would 
be neither legal nor lasting, whereas those performed by two of them would be 
legitimate and valid. Having put them off with this pretence, he appointed a day for 
the election, when he would nominate his colleague. In the meantime the leading 
men of the senate, consulting together in private, agreed among themselves upon the 
person to whom they would entrust the magistracy. And when the day appointed for 
the election had come and the herald had called the first class, the eighteen centuries 
of knights together with the eighty centuries of foot, consisting of the wealthiest 
citizens, entering the appointed place, chose as consul Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, 
whose son Caeso Quintius the tribunes had brought to trial for his life and compelled 
to leave the city. And no other class being called to vote — for the centuries which had 
voted were three more in be than the remaining centuries — the populace departed, 
regarding it as a grievous misfortune that a man who hated them was to be possessed 
of the consular power. Meanwhile the senate sent men to invite the consul and to 
conduct him to the city to assume his magistracy. It chanced that Quintius was just 
then ploughing a piece of land for sowing, he himself following the gaunt oxen that 
were breaking up the fallow; he had no tunic on, wore a small loin-cloth (p225) and had 
a cap upon his head. Upon seeing a crowd of people come into the field he stopped his 
plough and for a long time was at a loss to know who they were or what they wanted 
of him; then, when some one ran up to him and bade him make himself more 
presentable, he went into the cottage and after putting on his clothes came out to 
them. Thereupon the men who were sent to escort him all greeted him, not by his 
name, but as consul; and clothing him with the purple-bordered robe and placing 
before him the axes and the other insignia of his magistracy, they asked him to follow 
them to the city. And he, pausing for a moment and shedding tears, said only this: "So 
my field will go unsown this year, and we shall be indicate danger of having not 
enough to live on." Then he kissed his wife, and charging her to take care of things at 
home, went to the city.  I am led to related these particulars for no other reason than 
to let all the world see what kind of men the leaders of Rome were at that time, that 
they worked with their own hands, led frugal lives, did not chafe under honourable 
poverty, and, far from aiming at positions of royal power, actually refused them when 
offered. For it will be seen that the Romans of to-day do not bear the least 
resemblance to them, but follow the very opposite practices in everything — with the 
exception of a very few by whom the dignity of the commonwealth is still maintained 
and a resemblance to those men preserved. But enough on this subject. 

[10,18] Quintius, having succeeded to the consulship, caused the tribunes to desist from 
their new measures and from their insistence upon the proposed (p227) law by 
announcing that if they did not cease disturbing the commonwealth he would give 
notice of an expedition against the Volscians and would lead all the Romans out of 
the city. When the tribunes said they would not permit him to enrol an army, he 
called an assembly of the populace and declared that since they had all taken the 
military oath, swearing that they would follow the consuls in any wars to which they 
should be called and would neither desert the standards nor do anything else 
contrary to law, and since he had assumed the consular power, he held them all 
bound to him by their oaths. Having said this and sworn that he would invoke the 
law against those who disobeyed, he ordered the standards to be brought out of the 
temples. "And to the end," he added, "that you may renounce all agitation by 
demagogues during my consulship, I will not withdraw the army from the enemy's 
country until my whole term of office has expired. Expect therefore, to pass the 
winter in the field and prepare everything necessary against that time." Having 
terrified them with these threats, when he saw that they had become more orderly 
and begged to be let off from the campaign, he said he would grant them a respite 
from war upon these conditions, that they create no more disturbances but allow him 
to administer his office as he wished to the end, and that in their dealings with one 
another they give as well as receive strict justice. 

[10,19] The tumult having been appeased, he restored of all plaintiffs recourse to courts of 
law, a matter for a long time delayed; and he himself decided most suits, with fairness 
and justice, sitting (p229) on the tribunal the whole day and showing himself easy of 
access, mild and humane to all who came to him for judgement. By this means he 
made the government seem so truly an aristocracy that neither tribunes were 
needed by those who through poverty, humble birth or any other point of inferiority 
were oppressed by their superiors, nor was any desire for new legislation longer felt 
by those who wished for a government based on equal rights; but all were contented 
and pleased with the law and order which then came to prevail in the commonwealth. 
Not only for these actions was Quintius praised by the populace, but also for 
refusing the consulship when, upon his completion of the appointed term of office, it 
was offered to him a second time, and for not even being pleased when that great 
honour was tendered him. For the senate attempted to retain him in the consulship, 
using many entreaties, because the tribunes for the third time had so managed that 
they did not have to lay down their office; for they were confident that he would 
oppose the tribunes and make them drop their new measures, partly out of respect 
and partly out of fear, and they also saw that the populace did not refuse to be 
governed by a good man. But Quintius answered that he not only did not approve of 
this unwillingness on the part of the tribunes to give up their power, but he would not 
himself incur the same censure as they had. Then he called an assembly of the 
populace, and having inveighed in a long speech against those who would not resign 
their magistracies, and taken solemn oaths with reference to his refusal to take the 
consulship again before he had retired from his first term, he announced a day for the 
election; then on the appointed (p231) day having named the consuls, he returned to 
that little cottage of his and lived, as before, the life of a farmer working his own land. 

[10,20] Quintus Fabius Vibulanus (for the third time) and Lucius Cornelius having 
succeeded to the consulship and being employed in exhibiting the traditional games, 
a chosen body of the Aequians, amounting to about six thousand men and lightly 
equipped, set out from their confines by night and came, while it was still dark, to the 
city of Tusculum, which belongs to the Latin race and is not less than a hundred 
stades distant from Rome. And finding the gates not locked and the walls 
unguarded, it being a time of peace, they took the town by assault, to gratify their 
resentment against the Tusculans because these were always zealously assisting the 
Romans and particularly because they alone had aided them in their struggle when 
they were besieging the Capitol. The Aequians did not kill very many men in taking 
the city, since those inside, except such as were unable to flee because of illness or 
age, had forestalled them by crowding out three other gates just before the capture of 
the place; but they made slaves of their wives, children and domestics, and plundered 
their effects. As soon as news of the disaster was brought to Rome by those who had 
escaped capture, the consuls thought they ought to assist the fugitives promptly and 
restore their city to them; but the tribunes opposed them and would not permit an 
army to be enrolled until a votes should be taken concerning the law. While the 
senators were expressing their (p233) indignation and the expedition was being delayed, 
other messengers arrived, from the Latin nation, reporting that Antium had openly 
revolted by the joint action of the Volscians, who were the original inhabitants of the 
place, and of the Romans who had come to them as colonists and had received a 
portion of the land. Messengers from the Hernicans also arrived during these same 
days, informing them that a large force of Volscians and Aequians had marched forth 
and was already in the country of the Hernicans. All these things being reported at 
the same time, the senators resolved to make no further delay, but to go to the rescue 
with all their forces, and that both consuls should take the field; and if any of the 
Romans or the allies should decline to serve, to treat them as enemies.  When the 
tribunes also yielded, the consuls, having enrolled all who were of military age and 
sent for the forces of the allies, hastily marched out, leaving a third part of their own 
army to guard the city. Fabius, accordingly, marched in haste against the Aequians 
who were in the Tusculans' territory.  Most of these had already left the city after 
plundering it, but a few remained to guard the citadel, which is very strong and does 
not require a large garrison. Some state that the garrison of the citadel, seeing the 
army marching from Rome — for all the region lying between may be easily seen from 
a height — came out of their own accord; others say that after being reduced by 
Fabius to the necessity of surrendering they handed over the fortress by capitulation, 
stipulating (p235) that their lives should be spared and submitting to pass under the yoke. 

[10,21] After Fabius had restored the city to the Tusculans, he broke camp in the late 
afternoon and marched with all possible speed against the enemy, upon hearing that 
the combined forces of the Volscians and the Aequians lay near the town of Algidum. 
And having made a forced march all that night, he appeared before the enemy at early 
dawn, as they lay encamped in a plain without either a ditch or a palisade to defend 
them, inasmuch as they were in their own country and were contemptuous of their 
foe. Then, exhorting his troops to acquit themselves as brave men should, he was 
the first to charge into the enemy's camp at the head of the horse, and the foot, 
uttering their war-cry, followed. Some of the enemy were slain while they were still 
asleep and others just as they had got up and were attempting to defend themselves; 
but most of them scattered in flight. The camp having been taken with great ease, 
Fabius permitted the soldiers to keep for themselves the booty and the prisoners, 
except those who were Tusculans. Then, after a short stay there, he led them to 
Ecetra, which was at that time the most prominent city of the Volscian nation and the 
most strongly situated. When he had encamped near this city for many days in 
hopes that those inside would come out to fight, and no army issued forth, he laid 
waste their land, which was full of men and cattle; for the Volscians, surprised by the 
suddenness of the attack upon them, had not had time to remove their 
(p237) possessions out of the fields. These things also Fabius permitted his soldiers to 
plunder; and after spending many days in ravaging the country, he led the army home. 
The other consul, Cornelius, marching against the Romans and Volscians in 
Antium, found an army awaiting him before their borders; and arraying his forces 
against them, he killed many, and after putting the rest to flight, encamped near the 
city. But when the inhabitants no longer ventured to come out for battle, he first laid 
waste to their land and then surrounded the city with a ditch and palisades. Then 
indeed the enemy were compelled to come out again from the city with all their 
forces, a numerous and disorderly multitude; and engaging in battle and fighting with 
less bravery than before, they were shut up inside the city a second time, after a 
shameful and unmanly flight.  But the consul, giving them no log any rest, planted 
scaling-ladders against the walls and broke down the gates with battering-rams; then, 
as the besieged with difficulty and painfully tried to fight them off, he with little 
trouble took the town by storm. He ordered that such of their effects as consisted of 
gold, silver and copper should be turned in to the treasury, and that the slaves and 
the rest of the spoils should be taken over and sold by the quaestors; but to the 
soldiers he granted the apparel and provisions and everything else of the sort that 
they could use for booty.  Then, selecting both from the colonists and from the 
original inhabitants of Antium those who were the most prominent and had been the 
authors of the revolt — and there were many of these — he ordered them to be 
scourged (p239) with rods for a long time and then beheaded. After accomplishing 
these things he too led his army home. The senate went to meet these consuls as they 
approached the city and decreed that they both should celebrate a triumph. And 
when the Aequians sent heralds to sue for peace, they concluded with them a treaty 
for the termination of the war, in which it was stipulated that the Aequians should 
retain the cities and land which they possessed at the time of the treaty and be subject 
to the Romans without paying any tribute, but sending to their assistance in time of 
war a certain number of troops, like the rest of the allies. Thus ended that year. 

[10,22] The following year Gaius Nautius (chosen for the second time) and Lucius 
Minucius succeeded to the consulship, and were for a time waging a war inside the 
walls, concerning the rights of citizens, against Verginius and the other tribunes, who 
had obtained the same magistracy now for the fourth year. But when war was 
brought upon the commonwealth by the neighbouring peoples and there was fear 
that they might be deprived of their empire, the consuls gladly accepted the 
opportunity presented to them by Fortune; and having held the military levy, and 
divided both their own forces and those of the allies into three bodies, they left one of 
them in the city, commanded by Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, and themselves taking 
the other two, they marched out in haste, Nautius against the Sabines and Minucius 
against the Aequians. For both these nations had revolted from the Roman rule at 
the same time. The Sabines had done so openly, and had advanced as far (p241) as 
Fidenae, which was in the possession of the Romans; the two cities are forty stades 
apart. As for the Aequians, though nominally they were observing the terms of the 
alliance they had recently made, in reality they too were acting like enemies; for 
they had made war upon the Latins, the allies of the Romans, claiming that they had 
made no compact of friendship with that nation. Their army was commanded by 
Cloelius Gracchus, a man of action who had been invested with absolute authority, 
which he increased to more nearly royal power. This leader, marching as far as the 
city of Tusculum, which the Aequians had taken and plundered the year before, only 
to be driven out of it by the Romans, seized a great number of men and all the cattle 
he found in the fields, and destroyed the crops, which were then ripe. When an 
embassy arrived, sent by the Roman senate, which demanded to know what 
provocation had induced the Aequians to make war upon the allies of the Romans, 
though they had recently sworn to a treaty of peace with them and no cause of offence 
had since arisen between the two nations, and the envoys advised Cloelius to release 
the Tusculan prisoners whom he held, to withdraw his forces and to stand trial for the 
injuries and damage he had done to the Tusculans, he delayed a long time without 
even giving audience to them, pretending that he was occupied with some business or 
other.  And when he did see fit to have them introduced and they had delivered the 
senate's message, he said: "I (p243) wonder at you, Romans, why in the world, when you 
yourselves regard all men as enemies, even those from whom you have received no 
injury, because of your lust for dominion and tyranny, you do not concede to the 
Aequians the right to take vengeance on these Tusculans here, who are our enemies, 
inasmuch as we made no agreement with regard to them at the time we concluded the 
treaty with you.  Now if you claim that any interest of your own is suffering injustice 
or injury at our hands, we will afford you proper indemnity in accordance with the 
treaty; but if you have come to exact satisfaction on behalf of the Tusculans, you have 
no reckoning with me on that subject, but go talk to yonder oak" — pointing to one 
that grew near by. 

[10,23] The Romans, though thus insulted by the man, did not immediately give way to 
their resentment and lead their army forth, but sent a second embassy to him and 
likewise the priests called fetiales, calling the gods and lesser divinities to witness that 
if they were unable to obtain satisfaction they should be obliged to wage a holy war; 
and after that they sent out the consul. When Gracchus learned that the Romans 
were approaching, he broke camp and retired with his forces to a greater distance, the 
enemy following close at his heels. His purpose was to lead them on into a region 
where he would have an advantage over them; and that is what in fact happened. For 
waiting until he found a valley surrounded by hills, he then, as soon as the Romans 
had entered it in pursuit of him, faced about and encamped astride the road that led 
out of the valley. (p245) As a consequence the Romans were unable to choose for their 
camp the place they preferred, but had to take the one the situation offered, where it 
was not easy either to get forage for the horses, the place being surrounded by hills 
that were bare and difficult of access, or to bring in provisions for themselves out of 
the enemy's country, since what they had brought from home had been consumed, 
nor yet easy to shift their camp while the enemy lay before them and blocked the 
exits. Choosing, therefore, to force their way out, they engaged in l and were repulsed, 
and after receiving many wounds were shut up again in the same camp. Cloelius, 
elated by this success, began to surround the place with a ditch and palisades and had 
great hopes of forcing them by famine to deliver up their arms to him. The news of 
this disaster being brought to Rome, Quintus Fabius, who had been left as prefect in 
charge of the city, chose out of his own army a body of the fittest and strongest men 
and sent them to the assistance of the consul; they were commanded by Titus 
Quintius, who was quaestor and an ex-consul. And sending a letter to Nautius, the 
other consul, who commanded the army in the country of the Sabines, he informed 
him of what had happened to Minucius and asked him to come in haste. Nautius 
committed the guarding of the camp to the legates and he himself with a small 
squadron of cavalry made a forced ride to Rome; and arriving in the city while it was 
still deep night, he took counsel with Fabius and the oldest of the other citizens 
concerning the measures that should be taken. When all were of the opinion (p247) that 
the situation required a dictator, he named Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus to that 
magistracy. Then, having attended to this business, he himself returned to the camp. 

[10,24] Fabius, the prefect of the city, sent men to invite Quintius to come and assume 
his magistracy. It chanced that Quintius was on this occasion also engaged in some 
work of husbandry; and seeing the approaching throng and suspecting that they were 
coming after him, he put on more becoming apparel and went to meet them. When 
he drew near, they brought to him horses decked with magnificent trappings, placed 
beside him twenty-four axes with the rods and presented to him the purple robe and 
the other insignia with which aforetime the kingly office had been adorned. Quintius, 
when he learned that he had been appointed dictator, far from being pleased at 
receiving so great an honour, was actually vexed, and said: "This year's crop too will 
be ruined, then, because of my official duties, and we shall all go dreadfully hungry." 
After that he went into the city and first encouraged the citizens by delivering a 
speech before the populace calculated to raise their spirits with good hopes; then, 
after assembling all the men in their prime, both of the city and of the country, and 
sending for the forces of the allies, he appointed as his Master of Horse Lucius 
Tarquinius, a man who because of his poverty had been overlooked, but valiant in 
war. After which he led out his forces, now that he had them assembled, and joined 
Titus Quintius, the quaestor, who was awaiting (p249) his arrival; and taking with him 
Quintius' forces also, he led them against the enemy. After observing the nature of 
the places in which the camps lay, he posted a part of his army on the heights, in 
order that neither another relief force nor any provisions might reach the Aequians, 
and he himself marched forward with the remainder arrayed as for battle. Cloelius, 
unmoved by fear — for the force he had was no small one and he himself was looked 
upon as no craven in spirit when it came to fighting — awaited his attack, and a 
severe battle ensued. After this had continued for a long time, and the Romans 
because of their continuous wars endured the toil, and the horse kept relieving the 
foot wherever the latter were hard pressed, Gracchus was beaten and shut up once 
more in his camp. After that Quintius surround edit with a high palisade, fortified 
with many towers; and when he learned that Gracchus was in distress for want of 
provisions, he not only himself made continual attacks upon the camp of the 
Aequians, but also ordered Minucius to make a sortie on the other side. 
Consequently the Aequians, lacking provisions, despairing of aid from any allies, 
and besieged on many sides, were compelled to send envoys to Quintius with the 
tokens of suppliants to treat for peace. Quintius said he was ready to make peace with 
the rest of the Aequians and grant them immunity for their persons if they would lay 
down (p251) their arms and pass under the yoke one at a time; but as for Gracchus, their 
commander, and those who had planned the revolt with him, he would treat them as 
enemies, and he ordered them to bring these men to him in chains.  When the 
Aequians consented to do so, the last demand he made of them was this — that, 
inasmuch as they had enslaved the inhabitants of Tusculum, a city in alliance with the 
Romans, and plundered it, though they had received no injury from the Tusculans, 
they should in turn put at his disposal one of their own cities, Corbio, to be treated in 
like manner. The envoys, having received this answer, disappeared, and not long 
afterward returned, bringing with them in chains Gracchus and his associate. They 
themselves, laying down their arms, left their camp and, pursuant to the general's 
orders, marched through the Roman camp one by one under the yoke; and they 
delivered up Corbio according to their agreement, merely asking that the inhabitants 
of free condition might leave the city, in exchange for whom they released the 
Tusculan captives. 

[10,25] Quintius, having taken possession of Corbio, ordered choicest of the spoils to be 
carried to Rome and permitted all the rest to be distributed by centuries both to the 
troops that had been with him and to those that had been sent ahead with Quintius 
the quaestor. As for the forces which had been shut up in their camp with Minucius 
the consul, he said that he had already bestowed a great gift upon them in delivering 
them from death. After doing these things and forcing Minucius to resign his 
magistracy, he returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph more (p253) brilliant than 
that of any other general, having in the space of sixteen days in all from that on which 
he had received the magistracy saved an army of his fellow citizens, defeated a first-
rate force of the enemy, plundered one of their cities and left a garrison in it, and 
brought back the leader of the war and the other prominent men bound in chains. 
But — what most of all was worthy of admiration about him — though he had 
received so great power for six months, he did not take full advantage of the law, but 
having called the people together in assembly and given them an account of his 
achievements, he abdicated his magistracy. And when the senate wanted him to 
accept as much of the conquered land as he wished, together with slaves and money 
out of the spoils, and to relieve his poverty with deserved riches which he had 
acquired most honourably from the enemy by his own toils, he refused to do so. Also 
when his friends and relations offered him magnificent gifts and placed their greatest 
happiness in assisting such a man, he thanked them for their zeal, but would accept 
none of their presents. Instead, he retired again to that small farm of his and resumed 
his life of a farmer working his own land in preference to the life of a king, glorying 
more in his poverty than others in their riches. Not long afterwards Nautius also, 
the other consul, returned to Rome with his forces, after defeating the Sabines in a 
pitched battle and overrunning a large part of their country. 

[10,26] After these consuls came the eighty-first Olympiad (the one at which 
Polymnastus of Cyrenκ (p255) won the foot-race), the archon at Athens being Callias, in 
whose term of office Gaius Horatius and Quintus Minucius succeeded to the 
consulship at Rome. During their term of office the Sabines made another expedition 
against the Romans and laid waste much of their territory; and the country people 
who had fled from their fields arrived in great numbers, reporting that all the country 
between Crustumerium and Fidenae was in possession of the enemy. The Aequians 
also, who had been recently conquered, were once more in arms. The flower of their 
army, marching by night to the city of Corbio, which they had handed over to the 
Romans the year before, and finding the garrison there asleep, put all to the sword 
except a few who chanced to be late to bed. The rest of the Aequians marched in great 
force to Ortona, a city of the Latin nation, and took it by storm; and the injuries they 
were unable to inflict on the Romans they inflicted in their resentment on the 
Romans' allies. For they put to death all the men who were in the prime of life 
except those who had escaped at once while the city was being taken, and enslaved 
their wives and children together with the aged; then, hastily gathering together all 
the possessions they could carry off, they returned home before all the Latins could 
come to the rescue. As news of these disasters was brought simultaneously both by 
the Latins and by those of the garrison who had escaped, the senate voted to send out 
an army and that both consuls should take the field. But Verginius and his fellow 
tribunes, who held the same (p257) power for the fifth year, sought to prevent this, as 
they had also done in the preceding years, opposing the levies announced by the 
consul stone demanding that the war inside the walls should first be terminated by 
allowing the populace to decide about the law which the tribunes were trying to 
introduce regarding an equality of rights; and the populace joined with them in 
uttering many invidious charges against the senate. But as the time dragged on and 
neither the consuls would consent to a preliminary vote by the senate or to the laying 
of the law before the populace, nor the tribunes to allow the levies to be made and the 
army to take the field, and many speeches were made and charges hurled back and 
forth both in the meetings of the assembly and in the senate, all in vain, another 
measure that was introduced against the senate and misled its members did indeed 
appease the dissension then raging, but proved the source of many other great gains 
to the populace. I shall now give an account of the manner in which the populace 
secured this power. 

[10,27] While the territory of both the Romans and their allies was being laid waste and 
plundered and the enemy marched through it as through a solitude, in the confidence 
that no army would come out against them by reason of the dissension then raging in 
the city, the consuls assembled the senate with the intention of deliberating finally 
this time about the whole situation. After many speeches had been made, the person 
who was first asked his opinion was Lucius Quintius, who had been dictator the year 
before, a man who had the reputation of being not (p259) only the ablest general but 
also the wisest statesman of his time. The opinion he expressed was as follows: That 
they should preferably persuade both the tribunes and the rest of the citizens to 
postpone to more suitable times their decision regarding the law, which was not at all 
pressing at the moment, and to undertake with all alacrity the war that was at hand 
and all but at their gates, and not to allow their empire, which they had acquired with 
many toils, to be lost in a shameful and pusillanimous fashion. But if the populace 
would not be persuaded, he advised that the patricians should arms themselves 
together with their clients, and associating with themselves such of the other citizens 
as were willing to take part in this most glorious struggle for the fatherland, to engage 
in the war with alacrity, taking as leaders of the expedition all the gods who protect 
the Roman state. For one or the other of two honourable and just destinies would be 
theirs: they would either win a victory more brilliant than all which they or their 
ancestors had ever won, or die fighting bravely for the noble prizes that victory brings 
with it. He added that neither he himself would be wanting in this glorious enterprise, 
but would be present and fight with a spirit equal to that of the most robust, nor 
would any of the others of the older men be wanting who had any regard for liberty 
and a good name. 

[10,28] All the others approving of this advice and there being no one to speak in 
opposition, the consuls called an assembly of the populace; and when all the people of 
the city had come together in expectation of hearing something new, Gaius 
(p261) Horatius, one of the consuls, came forward and attempted to persuade the 
plebeians to submit willingly to this campaign also. But as the tribunes opposed this 
and the populace gave heed to them, the consul again came forward and said: 
"A fine and wonderful thing, indeed, have you tribunes accomplished, Verginius, in 
dividing the populace from the senate; and, so far as it rests with you, we have lost all 
the advantages which we possessed, whether inherited from our ancestors or 
acquired by our own toils. As for us, however, we shall not part with them without a 
struggle, but shall take up arms along with all who desire the preservation of the 
fatherland and shall enter the struggle holding before our deeds the buckler of fair 
hopes. And if any god watches over noble and just struggles, and if Fortune, which 
long has been exalting this commonwealth, has not yet abandoned it, we shall have 
the victory over our enemies; or, if any divide is opposed to and stands in the way of 
the preservation of the commonwealth, at any rate our affection and zeal for it will 
not perish, but we shall choose the best of all deaths — to die for the fatherland. As 
for you, stay here and keep house with the women, O fine and noble protectors of the 
commonwealth, after abandoning, or rather betraying, us; but life for you will be 
neither honourable, if we conquer, nor safe, if things go otherwise with us. Unless, 
indeed, you are buoying yourselves up with the bleak hope that when the patricians 
are all destroyed the enemy will spare you in consideration of (p263) this service and will 
allow you to enjoy your country, your liberty, your empire and all the other blessings 
you now have, notwithstanding that you, when you displayed the noblest spirit, 
deprived these very enemies of much land, razed many of their cities and enslaved 
their inhabitants, and erected many great trophies and monuments of your enmity 
against them which not even all time to come will ever blot out.  But why do I charge 
this against the populace, which never became cowardly of its own accord, and not 
rather against you tribunes, Verginius, who are the authors of these fine measures? 
We, then, who must needs show no ignoble spirit, have taken our resolution and 
nothing shall hinder us from undertaking the struggle in defence of the fatherland; 
but upon you, who abandon and betray the commonwealth, will come a punishment 
not to be scorned, as vengeance from the gods, if so be that you escape the 
punishment of men; yet you will not escape that either.  And do not imagine that 
I am trying to terrify you, but be assured that those of us who will be left behind here 
to guard teach shall, in case the enemy should prove victorious, show that spirit 
which it befits them to show. Have there not indeed been instances already of 
barbarians who, when they were on the point of being captured by the enemy, 
resolved not to yield to them either their wives, their children or their cities, but to 
burn the cities and slay their dear ones? And will it fail, then, to occur to the 
Romans, to whom it is a heritage from their fathers to rule over others, to show this 
same spirit in their own case? They will never be so degenerate, but will begin with 
you who are their worst enemies and only afterwards (p265) turn to their loved ones. 
Consider these matters before you hold your assemblies and introduce new laws." 

[10,29] After he had said this and many things to the same purport, he brought before 
them the oldest patricians in tears, at sight of whom many of the plebeians could not 
even themselves refrain from weeping. When great compassion had been aroused 
both by the age and the dignity of these men, the consul, after a short pause, said: 
"Are you not ashamed, citizens, and ready to sink beneath the earth, when these old 
men are going to take up arms in defence of you who are young? Will you bear to 
abandon these leaders whom you always called fathers? Wretched men that you are, 
and unworthy even to be called citizens of this land settled by men who carried their 
fathers on their shoulders,33 men to whom the gods granted a safe passage through 
arms and through fire!" When Verginius perceived that the people were moved by 
these words, he was afraid lest, contrary to his desire, they might consent to join in 
the war; and coming forward, he said: "As for us, we are neither abandoning nor 
betraying you, fathers, nor would we desert you, even as we have hitherto never 
declined taking part in any expedition; on the contrary, we choose both to live with 
you and to suffer with you whatever Heaven shall decree. But since we have at all 
times been zealous in your service, we desire to receive from you a moderate favour — 
that, even as we share the common dangers with you, so we may also enjoy an 
equality (p267) of rights, by instituting as safeguards of our liberty laws which we shall 
all alike use always. However, if this proposal offends you and you do not deign to 
grant this favour to your fellow citizens, but regard it as a capital crime to give the 
populace an equal share of rights, we shall no longer contend with you; but we shall 
ask another favour of you, upon obtaining which we may possibly no longer stand in 
need of new laws. We have a shrewd suspicion, however, that we shall not obtain 
even this favour — one which, while doing no injury to the senate, will bring to the 
populace a kind of honour and general goodwill." 

[10,30] When the consul replied that if the tribunes would yield on this measure to the 
senate they would be denied nothing else that was reasonable, and ordered him to 
state what they desired, verginius, after a short conference with his colleagues, said 
he would announce it in the senate. Thereupon, when the consuls had convened the 
senate, Verginius came forward, and after presenting to that body all the just 
demands of the populace, asked that the magistracy which protected the populace 
should be doubled and that instead of five tribunes ten should be chosen every year. 
Most of the senators thought this would cause no harm to the commonwealth and 
advised granting it without offering any opposition; this opinion was first offered by 
Lucius Quintius, who at that time had the greatest authority in the senate. Only one 
person, Gaius Claudius, spoke against it. He was the son of Appius Claudius, who had 
on every occasion opposed the measures of the plebeians when any of them were 
contrary to law; he had inherited (p269) the political principles of his father, and when 
he himself was consul, had prevented the inquiry concerning the knights accused of 
conspiracy from being committed to the tribunes. This man made a long speech, 
pointing out that the populace, if their magistracy were doubled, would not be any 
more moderate or worthy, but more stupid and more troublesome. For the tribune 
seem to be chosen thereafter, he said, would not receive the magistracy upon certain 
definite terms, so as to adhere to the established customs, but would again bring up 
the question of the allotment of lands and that of an equality of privileges, and all of 
them in turn would seek both by their words and by their actions to increase the 
power of the populace and abolish the privileges of the senate. This speech ha a great 
effect upon most of the senators. Then Quintius brought them over again by 
showing that it was to the interest of the senate that there should be many champions 
of the populace. For there would be less harmony among many than among a few, 
and there was just one way of relieving the commonwealth, a way that Appius 
Claudius, the father of Gaius, had been the first to perceive — namely, if there should 
be dissension and lack of unanimity in the college of tribunes.  This opinion 
prevailed, and the senate passed a decree that the populace should be permitted to 
appoint ten tribunes each year, but that no one of the men then in office should be 
eligible. Verginius and his colleagues, having got this preliminary decree from the 
senate, laid it before the populace; and when they had secured the ratification (p271) of 
the law embodying the measure, they chose ten tribunes for the following year. 
After the sedition was appeased the consuls enrolled their forces and drew lots for 
their commands. To Minucius fell the war against the Sabines and to Horatius that 
against the Aequians; and both set out in haste. The Sabines garrisoned their cities 
and permitted everything in the country districts to be pillaged; but the Aequians sent 
an army to oppose the Romans. 8 Though they fought brilliantly, they were unable to 
overcome the Roman army, but were compelled to retire to their cities after the loss 
of the small town in defence of which they were fighting. Horatius, after putting the 
enemy to flight, ravaged a large part of their country, razed the walls of Corbio and 
demolished the houses to their foundations, then led his army home. 

[10,31] The following year, when Marcus Valerius and Spurius Verginius were consuls, 
no army of the Romans went out of their borders, but there were fresh outbreaks of 
civil strife between the tribunes and the consuls, as a result of which the former 
wrested away some part of the consular power. Before this time the power of the 
tribunes was limited to the popular assembly and they had no authority either to 
convene the senate or to express an opinion there, that being a prerogative of the 
consuls. The tribunes of the year in question were the first who undertook to 
convene the senate, the experiment being made by Icilius, the head of their college, a 
man of action and, for a Roman, not lacking in eloquence. (p273) For he too was at that 
time proposing a new measure, asking that the region called the Aventine be divided 
among the plebeians for the building of houses. This is a hill of moderate height, not 
less than twelve stades in circuit, and is included within the city; not all of it was then 
inhabited, but it was public land and thickly wooded. In order to get this measure 
introduced, the tribune went to the consuls of the year and to the senate, asking them 
to pass the preliminary vote for the law embodying the measure and to submit it to 
the populace. But when the consuls kept putting it off and protracting the time, he 
sent his attendant to them with orders that they should follow him to the office of the 
tribunes and call together the senate. And when one of the lictors at the orders of the 
consuls drove away the attendant, Icilius and his colleagues in their resentment 
seized the lictor and led him away with the intention of hurling him down from the 
rock. The consuls, though they looked upon this as a great insult, were unable to 
use force or to rescue the man who was being led away, but invoked the assistance of 
the other tribunes; for no one but another tribune has a right to stop or hinder any of 
the actions of those magistrates. Now the tribunes had all come to this decision at 
the outset, that no one of their number should either introduce any new measure on 
his own initiative, unless they all concurred in it, or oppose any proceedings which 
met with the approval of the (p275) majority; and just as soon as they had assumed their 
magistracy they had confirmed this agreement by sacrifices and mutual oaths, 
believing that the power of the tribuneship would be most effectively rendered 
impregnable if dissension were banished from it.  It was in pursuance, then, of this 
sworn compact that they ordered the consuls' guardian to be led away, declaring this 
to be the unanimous decision of their body. Nevertheless, they did not persist in their 
resentment, but released the man at the intercession of the oldest senators; for they 
were not only concerned about the odium that would attend such a procedure, if they 
should be the first to punish a man by death for obeying an order of the magistrates, 
but also feared that with this provocation the patricians might be driven to take 
desperate measures. 

[10,32] After this action the senate was assembled and the consuls indulged in many 
accusations against the tribunes. Then Icilius took the floor and attempted to justify 
the tribunes' resentment against the lictor, citing the sacred laws which did not 
permit either a magistrate or a private citizen to offer any opposition to a tribune; and 
as for his attempt to convene the senate, he showed them that he had done nothing 
out of the way, using for this purpose many arguments of every sort, which he had 
prepared beforehand. After answering these accusations, he proceeded to introduce 
his law concerning the hill. It was to this effect: All the parcels of land held by private 
citizens, if justly acquired, should remain (p277) in the possession of the owners, but 
such parcels as had been taken by force or fraud by any persons and built upon 
should be turned over to the populace and the present occupants reimbursed for their 
expenditures according to the appraisal of the arbitrators; all the remainder, 
belonging to the public, the populace should receive free of cost and divide up among 
themselves. He also pointed out that this measure would be advantageous to the 
commonwealth, not only in many other ways, but particularly in this, that it would 
put an end to the disturbances raised by the poor concerning the public land that was 
held by the patricians. For he said they would be contented with receiving a portion of 
the city, inasmuch as they could have no part of the land lying in the country because 
of the number and power of those who had appropriated it. After he had spoken 
thus, Gaius Claudius was the only person who opposed the law, while many gave their 
assent; and it was voted to give this district to the populace. Later, at a centuriate 
assembly called by the consuls, the pontiffs being present together with the augurs 
and two sacrificers and offering the customary vows and imprecations, the law was 
ratified. It is inscribed on a column of bronze, which they set up on the Aventine after 
taking it into the sanctuary of Diana. When the law had been ratified, the plebeians 
assembled, and after drawing lots for the plots of ground, began to build, each man 
taking as large an area as he could; and sometimes two, three, or even more joined 
together to build one house, and drawing lots, some had the lower and others the 
upper stories. That year, then, was employed in building houses. 

[10,33] The following year, when Titus Romilius and Gaius Veturius had succeeded to 
the consulship and Lucius Icilius and his colleagues were tribunes, chosen to hold the 
office for the second time in succession, was not all of one tenor, but varied and 
fraught with great events. For the civili strife, which seemed to have died down at last, 
was again stirred up by the tribunes, and some foreign wars arose which, without 
being able to do the commonwealth any harm, did her a great service by banishing 
the dissension. For it had by now become the regular and customary thing for the 
commonwealth to be harmonious in time of war and to be at odds in time of peace. 
All who assumed the consulship, being well aware of this, regarded it as an answer to 
prayer if a foreign war arose; and when their enemies were quiet, they themselves 
contrived grievances and excuses for wars, since they perceived that through its wars 
the commonwealth became great and flourishing, but through seditions humiliated 
and weak. The consuls of that year, having come of the this same conclusion, 
decided to make an expedition against the enemy, fearing that idle and poor men 
might because of the prevailing peace begin to raise disturbances; but though they 
were right in perceiving that the multitude ought to be kept employed in foreign wars, 
they erred in what they subsequently did. For, whereas they ought, in view of the 
sickly condition of the commonwealth, to have made the levies with moderation, they 
resorted instead to violence and compulsion in dealing with the disobedient, granting 
neither excuse nor pardon to anyone, but harshly imposing the penalties ordained by 
the laws upon both their (p281) persons and their property. While they were doing this, 
the tribunes took occasion to stir up the masses again with their harangues; and 
calling an assembly, they denounced the consuls on various scores, but particularly 
for having ordered many citizens to be haled to prison even though they had invoked 
the protection of the tribunes; and they said that they themselves on their own 
responsibility released the people from the levy, having as they did authority to do so 
under the laws. When this had no effect and they saw the levies being carried out 
with still greater strictness, they undertook to obstruct them by deeds; and when the 
consuls resisted with the power of their magistracy also, there were sundry 
provocations and acts of violence. The consuls were supported by the young 
patricians, and the tribunes by the poor and idle multitude.  That day the consuls 
proved much superior to the tribunes; but in the course of the following days, as 
increasing numbers flocked into the city from the country, the tribunes thought they 
had now acquired an adequate force, and holding one assembly after another, they 
exhibited their assistants, who were in a bad condition from the blows they had 
received, and said they would resign their magistracy if they did not get some 
assistance from the populace. 

[10,34] The multitude sharing in their resentment, the tribunes summoned the consuls to 
appear before their assembly in order to render an account of their actions. But as 
these paid no heed to them, they went to the senate, which happened to be 
deliberating about this very matter, and coming forward, asked the members not to 
permit either (p283) the tribunes themselves to be treated in a most outrageous manner 
or the populace to be deprived of their assistance. They enumerated all the injuries 
they had received at the hands of the consuls and their faction, who had insulted not 
only their authority but also their persons; and they asked that the consuls do one of 
two things — either, in case they denied that they had done any wrong against the 
persons of the tribunes contrary to the laws, that they go before the popular assembly 
and make their denial under oath, or, if they could not bring themselves to take that 
oath, that they appear before the plebeians to render an account of their conduct; and 
they (the tribunes) would take the vote of the tribes concerning them. The consuls 
defended themselves against these charges by saying that the tribunes had begun the 
violence by their arrogant behaviour and by daring to commit lawless acts against the 
persons of the consuls, first by ordering their attendants and the aediles to hale to 
prison magistrates in whom the whole power of the commonwealth is vested, and 
later by entering the struggle themselves together with the boldest of the plebeians. 
They pointed out how great a difference there is between the two magistracies — 
between the consulship, in which the royal power resides, and the tribuneship, which 
was introduced for the relief of the oppressed and, far from having the right to take 
the vote of the masses against one of the consuls, has not been given authority to do 
so against even the meanest of the other patricians, unless the senate shall so vote. 
And they threatened that they themselves would arm the patricians when the 
tribunes should take the votes of the plebeians. After such recriminations (p285) had 
lasted the whole day, the senate came to no decision, being unwilling to lessen the 
power of either the consuls or the tribunes, since they saw that either course would be 
stand attended with great dangers. 

[10,35] When the tribunes were repulsed there also, failing to get any help, they went 
again to the popular assembly and considered what they ought to do. Some, 
particularly the most turbulent, thought the plebeians should take arms and again 
withdraw from the city to the Sacred Mount, where they had encamped on the first 
occasion, and from there make war against the patricians, since these had violated 
the compact they had made with the populace by openly overthrowing the tribunician 
power. But the majority thought they ought not to leave the city nor to bring 
charges against all the patricians as a body for the lawless acts committed by some 
particular persons against the tribunes, provided they could obtain the relief offered 
by the laws, which ordain that those who have insulted the persons of the tribunes 
may be put to death with impunity. The more intelligent did not regard either course 
as fitting, either to leave the city or to put persons to death without a trial, and 
particularly consuls, who held the chief magistracy, but they advised them to transfer 
their resentment to those who were assisting the consuls and to exact from these the 
punishment ordained by the laws. Now if the tribunes had been carried away by 
their passion that day to do anything (p287) against the consuls or the senate, nothing 
would have prevented the commonwealth from being destroyed by its own hands, so 
ready were all to rush to arms and engage in civil war. But as it was, by deferring 
matters and giving themselves time for better reasoning, they not only themselves 
grew more moderate, but also appeased the resentment of the multitude. Then, 
during the following days, they announced the third market-day from that one as 
the day when they would assemble the populace and impose a monetary fine upon 
the consuls; after which they dismissed the assembly. But when the time drew near, 
they refrained from imposing even this fine, alleging that they granted the favour at 
the intercession of men who were the oldest and most honoured. After that they 
assembled the populace and told them that they had pardoned the insults to 
themselves, doing this at the request of many worthy men whom it was not right to 
refuse, but that as for the wrongs done to the populace, they would both avenge them 
and prevent their recurrence. For they would again propose not only the law 
concerning the allotment of land, the enactment of which had been postponed for 
thirty years, but also the one concerning an equality of laws, which their predecessors 
had proposed but had not put to vote. 

[10,36] Having made these promises and confirmed them by oaths, they appointed days 
on which they would hold an assembly of the populace and take their votes 
concerning the laws. When the time came, they first proposed the agrarian law, and 
after discussing it at great length, called upon any of the plebeians who so desired to 
speak in favour of the law. Many came forward, and enumerating the (p289) exploits 
they had performed in the wars, expressed their indignation that they who had taken 
so much land from their enemies had received no part of it themselves, while they 
saw that those who were powerful by reason of their riches and their friends had 
appropriated and now enjoyed, by the most violent means, the possessions that 
belonged to all; and they demanded that the populace should share, not only in the 
dangers that were undertaken for the common good, but also in the pleasures and 
profits that resulted from those dangers. and the multitude listened to them with 
pleasure. But the one who encouraged them the most and refused to tolerate even a 
word from the opponents of the law was Lucius Siccius, surnamed Dentatus, who 
related very many great exploits of his own. He was a man of remarkable 
appearance, was in the very prime of life, being fifty-eight years old, capable of 
conceiving practical measures and also, for a soldier, eloquent in expressing them. 
This man, then, came forward and said: 
"If I, plebeians, should choose to relate my exploits one by one, a day's time would 
not suffice me; hence I shall give a mere summary, in the fewest words I can. This is 
the fortieth year that I have been make gate campaigns for my country, and the 
thirtieth that I have continued to hold some military command, sometimes over a 
cohort and sometimes over a whole legion, beginning with the consulship of Gaius 
Aquillius and Titus Siccius, to whom the senate committed (p291) the conduct of the 
war against the Volscians. I was then twenty-seven years of age and in rank I was still 
under a centurion. When a severe battle occurred and a rout, the commander of 
the cohort had fallen, and the standards were in the hands of the enemy, I alone, 
exposing myself in behalf of all, recovered the standards for the cohort, repulsed the 
enemy, and was clearly the one who saved the centurions from incurring everlasting 
disgrace — which would have rendered the rest of their lives more bitter than death — 
as both they themselves acknowledged, by crowning me with a golden crown, and 
Siccius the consul bore witness, by appointing me commander of the cohort.  And in 
another battle that we had, in which it happened that the primipilus of the legion 
was thrown to the ground and the eagle fell into the enemy's hands, I fought in the 
same manner in defence of the whole legion, recovered the eagle and saved the 
primipilus. In return for the assistance I then gave him he wished to resign his 
command of the legion in my favour and to give me the eagle; but I refused both, 
being unwilling to deprive the man whose life I had saved of the honours he enjoyed 
and of the satisfaction resulting from them. The consul was pleased with my 
behaviour and gave me the post of primipilus in the first legion, which had lost its 
commander in the battle. 

[10,37] "These, plebeians, are the noble actions (p293) which brought me distinction and 
preferment. After I had already gained an illustrious name and was famous, 
I submitted to the hardships of all the other engagements, being ashamed to blot out 
the memory of the honours and favours I had received for my former actions. And all 
the time since then I have continued to take part in campaigns and undergo their 
hardships without fearing or even considering my danger. From all these campaigns 
I received prizes for valour, spoils, crowns, and the other honours from the consuls. 
In a word, during the forty years I have continued to serve I have fought about one 
hundred and twenty battles and received forty-five wounds, all in front and not one 
behind; twelve of these I happened to receive in one day, when Herdonius the Sabine 
seized the citadel and the Capitol. As to rewards for valour, I have brought out of 
those contests fourteen civic crowns, bestowed upon me by those I saved in battle, 
three mural crowns for having been the first to mount the enemy's walls and hold 
them, and eight others for my exploits on the battlefield, with which I was honoured 
by the generals; and, in addition to these, eighty-three gold collars, one hundred and 
sixty gold bracelets, eighteen spears, twenty-five splendid decorations, . . . nine of 
whom I voluntarily encountered and overcame when they challenged someone of our 
men to fight in single combat. Nevertheless, citizens, this Siccius, (p295) who has 
served so many years in your defence, fought so many battles, been honoured with so 
many prizes for valour, who never shirked or declined any danger, but . . . in pitched 
battles and assaults upon walled towns, among the foot and among the horse, with 
all, with a few, and alone, whose body is covered be with wounds, and who has had a 
share in winning this country much fertile land, both that which you have taken from 
the Tyrrhenians and the substitutes and that which you possess after conquering the 
Aequians, the Volscians and the Pometini — this Siccius, I say, has not received even 
the least portion of this land as his to possess, nor has any one of you plebeians who 
have shared in the same hardships. But the most violent and shameless men of the 
city hold the finest part of it and have had the enjoyment of it for many years, without 
having either received it from you as a gift or purchased it or being able to show any 
other just title to it. If, indeed, they had borne an equal share of the hardships with 
the rest of us when we were acquiring this land and had then demanded to have a 
larger share of it than we, while it would not, even so, have been either just or 
democratic that a few should appropriate what belongs to all in common, yet there 
would at least be some excuse for the greed of these men; but when, though they 
cannot point to any great or daring deed of theirs in payment for which they seized by 
force the possessions that belong to us, they act in this shameless manner and even 
when convicted do not give them up, who can bear it? 

[10,38] (p297)  "Come now, if aught of what I have said is false, in Heaven's name let one of 
these grand men come forward and show what illustrious and noble achievements he 
relies on to claim a larger share of the land than I. Has he served more years, fought 
more battles, received more wounds, or excelled me in the number of crowns, 
decorations, spoils, and the other ornaments of victory — in fact, shown himself a 
man by whom our enemies have been weakened and our country rendered more 
illustrious and powerful? Nay, let him show the tenth part of what I have cited to you. 
But of these men the majority could not produce even the smallest fraction of my 
exploits; and some would be found not to have undergone as many hardships as the 
meanest plebeian. For their brilliancy does not lie in arms, but in words, nor is their 
power exerted against their enemies, but against their friends; and they do not regard 
the commonwealth in which they dwell as belonging to all alike, but as their own 
private property — as if they had not been aided by us in gaining their freedom from 
tyranny, but had received us as an inheritance from the tyrants. I say nothing of the 
other insults, small and great, which they continue to heap upon us, as you all know; 
3 but they have gone so far in their arrogance that they forbid any one of us even to 
utter a free word in behalf of our country or even to open our mouths. Nay, they 
accused Spurius Cassius, who first proposed the allotment of land, a man who had 
been honoured with three consulships and two most brilliant triumphs and had 
shown greater ability in both military undertakings and political counsels than 
anyone of that age (p299)— this man, I say, they accused of aiming at tyranny and 
defeated him by means of false testimony, for no other reason than because he was a 
lover of his country and a lover of the people, and they destroyed him by shoving him 
over the cliff. And again, when Gnaeus Genucius, one of our tribunes, revived this 
same measure after the lapse of eleven years and summoned the consuls of the 
preceding year to trial for having neglected to carry out the decree which the senate 
had passed respecting the appointment of the commissioners to divide the land, since 
they could not destroy him openly, they made away with him secretly the day before 
the trial. In consequence, great fear came upon the succeeding tribunes, and not one 
of them would thereafter expose himself to this danger, but for now the thirtieth year 
we endure this treatment, as if we had lost our power under a tyranny. 

[10,39] "The other things I pass over; but your present magistrates, because they thought 
it their duty to help those of the plebeians who were oppressed, though by law you 
had made these magistrates sacred and inviolable, what dreadful treatment have they 
not suffered? Were they not driven out of the Forum with blows, kicks and every form 
of outrage? And you, do you endure to suffer such treatment and not seek means of 
taking revenge on the perpetrators, at least by your votes, in which alone you can 
show your freedom? But even now, plebeians, pluck up the courage of free men and, 
now that the (p301) tribunes propose it, ratify the agrarian law, not tolerating even a 
word from those of the opposite opinion. As for you, tribunes, you need no 
exhortation to do this task, since you began it and in not yielding do well. And if the 
self-willed and shameless young men obstruct you by overturning the voting-urns, 
snatching away the ballots or committing any other disorders in connexion with the 
voting, show them what power your college possesses. And since you cannot depose 
the consuls from power, bring to trial the private persons whom they use as the 
agents of their violence and take the votes of the populace concerning them, after 
charging them with attempting to violate and overthrow your magistracy contrary to 
the sacred laws." 

[10,40] When he had spoken to this effect, the plebeians were so won over by his words 
and showed so great indignation against their adversaries that, as I said at the outset, 
they were unwilling to tolerate even another word from those who were intending to 
speak against the law. Icilius the tribune, however, rose and said that everything 
else Siccius had said was excellent, and he praised the man at length; but as to not 
permitting those who wished to oppose the measure to speak, that, he declared, was 
neither just nor democratic, especially as the debate was about a law which would 
make justice superior to violence. For such an opportunity would be used by those 
who entertained no sentiments of equality and justice toward the masses to disturb 
them again and cause factious divisions about the interests of the commonwealth. 
Having spoken thus and assigned (p303) the following day to the opponents of the law, 
he dismissed the assembly. The consuls, on their side, called a private meeting of 
those patricians who were the bravest and in the highest repute in the city at the time, 
and showed them that they must hinder the law from passing, first by their words, 
and if they could not persuade the populace, then by their deeds. They bade them all 
come early in the morning to the Forum with as many friends and clients as each of 
them could get together; then some of them should take their stand round the 
tribunal itself and the comitium and remain there, while others, forming in groups, 
took up positions in many different parts of the Forum, in order to keep the plebeians 
divided and hinder them from uniting in one body. This seemed to be the best plan, 
and before it was broad daylight the greater part of the Forum was occupied by the 
patricians. 

[10,41] After that the tribunes and the consuls appeared and the herald bade anyone who 
so desired to speak against the law. But though many good men came forward, the 
words of none of them could be heard by reason of the tumult and disorderly 
behaviour of the assembly. For some cheered and encouraged the speakers, while 
others were for throwing them out or for shouting them down; but neither the 
applause of the supporters nor the clamour of the opponents prevailed. When the 
consuls were incensed at this and protested that the populace had begun the violence 
by refusing to tolerate a word, the tribunes attempted to justify them by saying that, 
inasmuch as the plebeians kept hearing the same arguments for now the fifth year, 
they were doing nothing remarkable if they did not care to put (p305) up with stale and 
trite objections. When most of the day had been spent in these contests and the 
populace insisted upon giving their votes, the youngest of the patricians, regarding 
the situation as no longer endurable, hindered the plebeians when they wished to 
divide themselves by tribes, took away the voting-urns from those who were in charge 
of them, and beating and pushing such of the attendants as would not part with them, 
sought to drive them from the comitium. But when the tribunes cried out and 
rushed into their midst, the youths made way for those magistrates and permitted 
them to go in safety wherever they wished, but of the rest of the populace they did not 
let pass either those who were in the tribunes' train or those who in various parts of 
the Forum were endeavouring amid the uproar and disorder to move toward them; 
hence the assistance of the tribunes was of no avail. In the end, at any rate, the 
patricians prevailed and would not permit the law to be ratified. Those who were 
reputed to have assisted the consuls with the greatest zeal on this occasion were of 
three families, the Postumii, the Sempronii, and third, the Cloelii, all of them men 
most illustrious for the dignity of their birth, very powerful because of their bands of 
followers, and distinguished for their wealth, their reputation and their exploits in 
war. These, it was agreed, were the chief agents in preventing the law from being ratified. 

[10,42] The next day the tribunes, having associated with themselves the most prominent 
plebeians, considered how they should deal with the situation, (p307) after adopting the 
general principle, accepted by all, not to bring the consuls themselves to trial, but 
only their attendants who held no office, since their punishment would be a made of 
less concern to most citizens, as Siccius suggested. But the number of the persons to 
be indicted, the name that should be given to the offence, and the amount of the fine 
were matters to which they gave careful consideration. Now while those who were 
naturally more truculent advised going in all these matters to a greater and more 
terrifying length, and the more reasonable, on the contrary, to a more moderate and 
humane extent, the man who took the lead for the latter opinion and won the assent 
of the others was Siccius, who had made the speech in the popular assembly in favour 
of the land-allotment. They resolved, then, to let the rest of the patricians alone, but 
to bring the Cloelii, the Postumii and the Sempronii before the popular assembly to 
stand trial for their acts; and to make the charge against them that, whereas the 
sacred laws, which the senate and the assembly had enacted concerning the tribunes, 
had given no one authority to compel the tribunes to submit, like the other citizens, to 
anything against their will, these men had restrained them and prevented them from 
carrying through the deliberation concerning the law. As for the penalty in these 
trials, they decided to fix neither death, banishment, nor any other invidious 
punishment, lest that very thing should become the cause of their salvation, but that 
their estates should be consecrated to Ceres — thus choosing the mildest punishment 
provided by the law. (p309) While this was going on the time arrived when the trials of 
the men were to take place. The consuls and the other patricians who had been 
invited to the senate-house — the most influential had been summoned — decided to 
let the tribunes carry out the trials, lest, if they were hindered, they might do some 
greater mischief, and to allow the enraged plebeians to spend their fury upon the 
goods of these men, to the end that they might be milder for the future, after taking 
some revenge, however slight, upon their enemies, particularly since a monetary fine 
was a misfortune that could easily be made up to the sufferers. And so in fact it 
turned out.  For when the men had been condemned by default, the populace ceased 
from its anger, and also it seemed that a moderate and statesmanlike power of 
rendering assistance had been restored to the tribunes, while as for the convicted 
men, their estates were ransomed by the patricians from those who had purchased 
them from the treasury for the same price they had paid for them and were restored 
to the owners. As a result of their handling the matter in this fashion the pressing 
dangers were dispelled. 

[10,43] Not long afterwards, when the tribunes again introduced the subject of the law, 
the sudden announcement that enemies had made an attack upon Tusculum 
furnished a sufficient reason for preventing such action. For the Tusculans, coming to 
Rome in great numbers, said that the Aequians had come against them with a large 
army, that they had (p311) already plundered their country, and unless some assistance 
were speedily sent, they would be masters of the city within a few days. Upon this the 
senate ordered that both consuls should go to the rescue; and the consuls, having 
announced a levy, summoned all the citizens to arms. On this occasion also there 
was something of a sedition, as the tribunes opposed the levy and would not permit 
the punishments ordained by law to be inflicted on the disobedient. But they 
accomplished nothing. For the senate met and passed a resolution ordering that the 
patricians should take the field with their clients, and declaring that to such of the 
other citizens as were willing to take part in this expedition undertaken for the 
preservation of the fatherland the gods were propitious, but to those who deserted the 
consuls they were unpropitious. When the decree of the senate was read in the 
assembly, many also of the populace voluntarily consented to enter the struggle, the 
more respectable moved by shame if they should not succour an allied city which 
because of its attachment to the Romans was always suffering some injury at the 
hands of is foes. Among these was Siccius, who in the popular assembly had 
inveighed against those who had appropriated the public land, and he brought with 
him a cohort of eight hundred men; these were, like himself, past the military age 
and not subject to the compulsion of the laws, but as they honoured him because of 
his many great services, they did not think it right to desert him when he was setting 
out to war. Indeed, this contingent of the force which set out at that time was far 
superior to (p313) the rest of the army in point both of experience in action and of 
courage in the face of dangers. The majority of those who followed along were led to 
do so out of goodwill toward the oldest citizens and because of their exhortations. 
And there was a certain element which was reduce to undergo any peril for the sake 
of the booty that is acquired in campaigns. Thus in a short time an army took the field 
that was sufficient in numbers and most splendidly equipped. The enemy, who had 
learned in advance that the Romans intended to lead out an army against them, were 
returning homeward with their forces. But the consuls, making a forced march, came 
up with them while they lay encamped on a high and steep hill near the city of 
Antium and placed their camp not far from that of the foe.  For some time both 
armies remained in their camps; then the Aequians, despising the Romans for not 
having taken the initiative in attacking, and judging their army to be insufficient in 
numbers, sallied out and cut off their provisions, drove back those who were sent out 
for provender or fodder for their horses, fell suddenly upon those who went for water, 
and challenged them repeatedly to battle. 

[10,44] The consuls, seeing this, resolved to put off the fighting no longer. During those 
days it was Romilius' turn to decide whether to fight or not, and it was he who gave 
the watchword, drew up the army and determined the proper moment both for 
beginning and for ending battle. He, having ordered (p315) the battle standards to be 
raised and led his army out of the camp, posted the horse and foot according to their 
companies, each in their proper places, and then, summoning Siccius, said: "We, 
Siccius, are going to engage the enemy here; but as for you, while we are still waiting 
and preparing on both sides for the contest, do you march by yonder transverse road 
to the top of the hill where the enemy's camp is placed and give battle to the men 
inside, in order that those who are engaged with us may either, fearing for their 
stronghold and eager to relieve it, show their backs and thus be easily defeated, as 
likely they will be when they are making a hasty retreat and are all forcing their way 
into one road, or may, by staying here, lose their camp. For not only is the force 
guarding it not a match for you, in all probability, believing as it does that its whole 
security depends on the natural strength of the position, but the force with you, eight 
hundred men, veterans of many wars, should be sufficient to capture by a bold stroke 
mere tent-guards when thrown into confusion by your unexpected attack." And 
Siccius replied: "For my part, I am ready to obey in everything; but the task is not so 
easy as it seems to you. For the cliff on which the camp is situated is lofty and steep, 
and I see no road leading to it except the one by which the enemy will come down 
against us, and it is probable that there is an adequate guard placed over it; but even 
if it should chance to be a very small and weak one, it will be able to hold out against a 
much larger force than the one I have, and the place itself will afford the guard 
security against being captured. (p317) Do then, if possible, reconsider your purpose, 
for the attempt is hazardous; but if you are absolutely determined to fight two battles 
at the same time, then order a sufficient force of chosen men to follow me and the 
older men. For we are not going up to take the place by surprise, but by main force 
and openly." 

[10,45] Although Siccius wanted to go on and finish his explanation, the consul 
interrupted him and said: "There is no need of many words. But if you can bring 
yourself to obey my orders, go at once and do not play the general; if, however, you 
decline and run away from the danger, I shall use other men for the task. As for you, 
who fought those hundred and twenty battles and served those forty years and whose 
body is covered with wounds, since you came voluntarily, depart without either 
encountering the enemy or seeing them; and instead of your arms, sharpen once 
more your words which you will expend without stint against the patricians. Where 
now are those many prizes given you for valour, those collars, bracelets, spears, and 
decorations, those crowns from the consuls, those spoils gained in single combat, and 
all your other tiresome boasting which we had to endure hearing from you the other 
day? For when you were tested in this single instance where the danger was real, you 
proved what sort of man you were — a braggart practising bravery in imagination, not 
in reality." Siccius, stung by these reproaches, answered: "I am aware, Romilius, 
that the choice lies before you either to destroy me while alive and make me (p319) a 
mere nobody bearing the most shameful reputation for cowardice, or that I shall die 
a miserable and obscure death, hacked to pieces by the enemy, because I too seemed 
to be one of those who insist on showing the spirit of free men. For you are sending 
me, not to a doubtful, but to a predetermined death. Yet I will undertake even this 
task and endeavour, showing myself no coward, either to capture the camp or, failing 
in that, gallantly to die. And I ask you, fellow soldiers, if you hear of my death, to bear 
witness for me to the rest of the citizens that I fell a sacrifice to my valour and to my 
great frankness of speech."  Having thus answered the consul, with tears in his eyes, 
and embraced all his intimate friends, he set out at the head of his eight hundred 
men, all dejected and weeping, believing that they were taking the road to death. And 
all the rest of the army were moved to compassion at the sight, expecting to see these 
men no more. 

[10,46] Siccius, however, turned off by a different road, not the one which Romilius had 
in mind, and marched along the flank of the hill. Then — for there was a thicket with 
a heavy growth of trees in it — he led his men into it, halted there and said: "We have 
been sent by the commander, as you see, to perish. For he expected us to take the 
transverse road, which we could not possibly have ascended without coming into full 
view of the enemy. But I will lead you by a way that is out of the enemy's sight and 
I have (p321) great hopes of gaining some paths that will bring us over the summit to 
their camp. So I bid you have the best of hopes." Having said this, he led the way 
through the thicket, and after going a good distance, by good fortune came upon a 
man who was on his way home from a farm somewhere; and ordering him to be 
seized by the youngest men of his company, he took him for his guide. This man, 
leading them round the hill, brought them after along time to the height adjacent to 
the camp, from which there was a short and easy descent to their goal. While this 
was happening, the forces of the Romans and of the Aequians engaged and fought 
steadfastly, since they were equally matched and displayed the same ardour. For a 
long time they continued to be evenly balanced as they now attacked one another and 
now withdrew, horse against horse and foot against foot; and prominent men fell on 
both sides. Then the battle took a definite turn. For Siccius and his men, when they 
came near the camp of the Aequians, found that part of it unguarded, since the entire 
force appointed to guard it had gone to the other side that faced the field of battle, in 
order to witness the conflict; and bursting into the camp with great ease, they found 
themselves immediately overhead in relation to the guards. Then, uttering their 
war-cry, they attacked them on the run. The garrison, confounded by this unexpected 
danger and not imagining that their assailants were so few in name, but supposing 
that the other consul had arrived with his army, hurled themselves out of the camp, 
most of them not even (p323) holding on to their arms. Siccius and his men slew all of 
them they overtook, and after possessing themselves of their camp, marched against 
those who were in the plain.  The Aequians, perceiving from the flight and outcries 
of their men that their camp had been taken, and then, not long afterwards, seeing 
the enemy falling upon their rear, no longer displayed any valour, but broke their 
ranks and endeavoured to save themselves, some by one way and some by another. 
And here they met with their greatest loss of life; for the Romans did not give over the 
pursuit till night, killing all whom they captured.  The man who slew the largest 
number of them and performed the most brilliant deeds was Siccius, who, when he 
saw that the enemy's resistance was at an end, it being now dark, returned with his 
cohort to the camp which they had taken, filled with great joy and much exultation. 
All his men, safe and uninjured, having not only suffered none of the calamities they 
had expected, but also won the greatest glory, called him their father, their preserver, 
their god, and every other honourable appellation, and could not sate themselves 
with embracing him and showing every other mark of affection. In the meantime the 
rest of the Roman army with the consuls was returning from the pursuit to their camp. 

[10,47] It was now midnight when Siccius, full of resentment against the consuls for 
having sent him to his death, resolved to take from them the glory of the victory; and 
having communicated his intention (p325) to his companions and received their 
approval, every one of them admiring the sagacity and daring of the man, he took his 
arms and ordering the rest to do the same, he first slaughtered all the Aequians he 
found in the camp, as well as the horses and beasts of burden; then he set fire to the 
tents, which were full of arms, corn, apparel, warlike stores and all the other articles, 
very many in number, which they were carrying off as part of the Tusculan booty. 
After everything had been consumed by the flames, he left the camp about break of 
day, carrying with him nothing but his arms, and after a hurried march came to 
Rome. As soon as armed men were seen singing paeans of victory and marching in 
haste, all covered with blood, the people flocked to them, earnestly desiring both to 
see them and to hear their exploits. When they had come as far as the Forum, they 
gave an account to the tribunes of what had pas; and those magistrates, calling an 
assembly, ordered them to tell their story to all. When a large crowd had gathered, 
Siccius came forward and not only announced to them the victory, but also described 
the nature of the battle, showing that by his own valour and that of the eight hundred 
veterans with him, whom the consuls had sent to be slain, the camp of the Aequians 
had been taken and the army arrayed against the consuls had been put to flight. He 
asked them to give thanks for the victory to no one else, and ended by adding these 
words: "We have come with our lives and our arms safe, but have brought with us 
nothing else, great or small, of (p327) the things we captured." The populace, upon 
hearing this, burst into compassion and tears, as they observed the age of the men 
and recalled their deeds of valour; and they were filled with resentment and 
indignation against those who had attempted to deprive the commonwealth of such 
men. For his report, as Siccius foresaw, had drawn upon the consuls the hatred of all 
the citizens.  Indeed, not even the senate took the matter lightly; for it voted them 
neither a triumph nor any of the other honours usually bestowed for glorious 
engagements. As for Siccius, however, when the time for the elections came, the 
populace made him tribune, granting him the honour of which they had the disposal. 
These were the most important of the events at that time. 

[10,48] These consuls were succeeded the following year by Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus 
Terminius, who constantly courted the populace in all matters and in particular 
secured the preliminary decree of the senate for the measure of the tribunes; for they 
saw that the patricians reaped no advantage from their opposition, but, on the 
contrary, that the most zealous champions of their cause drew upon themselves envy 
and hatred, as well as private losses and calamities. But they were chiefly alarmed 
by the recent misfortune of the consuls of the preceding year, who had been severely 
treated by the populace and had been unable to get any help from the senate. For 
Siccius, who had destroyed the army of the Aequians, camp and all, and had now 
been made a tribune, as I stated, on the very first day of his magistracy, (p329) after 
offering the usual inaugural sacrifices and before transacting any other public 
business, had in a meeting of the assembly cited Titus Romilius to appear before the 
tribunal of the populace to make his defence against a charge of injuring the state; 
and he had set a day for his trial. And Lucius, who was then aedile and had been 
tribune the year before, had summoned Gaius Veturius, the other consul of the 
preceding year, to a similar trial. During the interval before the trial much partisan 
zeal and encouragement were shown to both of the accused, and they accordingly 
placed great hopes in the senate and made light of the danger, as both the older 
number younger senators promised them that they would not allow the trial to be 
carried out. But the tribunes, who had long been providing against all contingencies 
and paid no heed to either entreaties, threats or any danger, when the time for the 
trial came, called a meeting of the popular assembly. Even before this the crowd of 
day-labourers and husbandmen had flocked in from the country and, being added to 
the city throng, filled not only the Forum, but all the streets that led to it. 

[10,49] The first trial to be held was tombstone of Romilius. Siccius, coming forward, 
charged him with all the acts of violence he was reputed to have committed against 
the tribunes while he was consul, and then at the end related the plot which the 
general had formed against him and his cohort. He produced as witnesses to support 
his charges the most prominent men who had served with him in the campaign, not 
plebeians alone, but patricians as well. Among (p331) them there was a youth 
distinguished both for the rank of his family and for his own merit, and a most valiant 
soldier. His name was Spurius Verginius. This youth related that, desiring to get 
Marcus Icilius, the son of one of the men in the cohort of Siccius, a youth of his own 
age and friend, released from that expedition, since he believed that he with his father 
would be going out to his death, he had summoned Aulus Verginius, his uncle, who 
was a legate on that campaign, and with him had gone to the consuls asking that this 
favour be granted to them. And when the consuls refused, he said that he himself 
had wept and lamented in advance the misfortune of his friend, but that the young 
man for whom he had interceded, being informed of this, went to the consuls, and 
asking leave to speak, said that, while he was very grateful to those ho were 
interceding for him, he would not be content to accept a favour that would deprive 
him of the opportunity of showing his filial devotion, and that he would not desert his 
father, particularly when the other was going to his death, as everyone knew, but that 
he would go out with him, defend him to the utmost of his power and share the same 
fortune with him. After the young man had given this testimony, there was not a 
single person who did not feel some emotion at the fate of those men. And when the 
Icilii themselves, father and son, were called as witnesses and gave an account of their 
experience, most of the plebeians could no longer refrain from tears. Then, when 
Romilius made his defence and delivered a speech that was neither deferential nor 
suited to (p333) the occasion, but haughty and boastful of the irresponsible power of his 
magistracy, the majority were doubly confirmed in their resentment against him. 
And upon being permitted to give their votes, they found him so clearly guilty that he 
was condemned by the votes of all the tribes. The pun in his case was a fine, 
amounting to 10,000 asses.  Siccius, now, did not do this, it seems to me, without 
some purpose, but to end that the patricians, on the one hand, might be less zealous 
in Romilius' behalf and might commit no irregularities in connexion with the voting 
when they reflected that the condemned man would be punished with nothing more 
than a fine, and that the plebeians, on their side, were not going to deprive an ex-
consul of either his life or his country. A few days after the condemnation of 
Romilius, Veturius likewise was condemned; his punishment was also set down in the 
indictment as a fine, one-half as much again as the other. 

[10,50] As they thought about these trials the consuls then in office were in no little fear, 
and they took good care to avoid suffering the same fate at the hands of the populace 
after the expiration of their consulship; hence they no longer concealed their 
purposes but openly directed all their measures in the interest of the populace. First, 
then, they got a law ratified by the centuriate assembly permitting all the magistrates 
to fine any persons who were guilty of disrespectful conduct or illegal attempts 
against their authority. For until then none but the consuls possessed (p335) this power. 
They did not leave the amount of the fine, however, to the discretion of those who 
should impose it, but limited the sum themselves, making the maximum fine two 
oxen and thirty sheep. This law long continued in force among the Romans. In the 
next place, they referred to the consideration of the senate the laws which the 
tribunes pressed to have drawn up, that should bind all the Romans alike and be 
observed forever. Many speeches were made on both sides by the best men, some 
tending to persuade the senate to grant the request and some to oppose it. But the 
opinion that prevailed was that of Titus Romilius, which supported the interest of the 
populace against that of the oligarchy, both patricians and plebeians. For they 
supposed that a man who had recently been condemned by the populace would both 
think and say everything that was opposed to the plebeians. But he, when it was the 
proper time for him to speak, that is, when he was called upon to deliver his opinion 
in his turn — he was of the middle rank in point of both dignity and age — rose up 
and said: 

[10,51] "I should be wearisome to you, senators, if I related what I have suffered at the 
hands of the populace and showed that it is not because of any wrongdoing on my 
part but because of my attachment to you, when you yourselves know the facts so 
well. I am forced, however, to mention these matters in order that you may know that 
in what I am going to say I am not condescending to flattery of the populace, which is 
hostile to me, but stating from the best of motives what is to the advantage of the 
commonwealth. (p337) Let no one wonder, if I, who was of a different opinion both 
earlier upon many occasions and when I was consul, have now suddenly changed; 
and do not imagine either that my sentiments were then ill grounded or that I am 
now altering them without good reason. For as long as I thought your party strong, 
senators, I exalted the aristocracy, as was my duty, and despised the plebeians; but 
having been chastised by my own misfortunes and having learned at great cost that 
your power is less than your will and that, yielding to necessity, you have already 
permitted many who undertook the struggle in your behalf to be snatched away to 
destruction by the populace, I no longer entertain the same sentiments. I could have 
wished that, if possible, those misfortunes for which you all show your sympathy with 
us had not happened either to myself or to my colleague; but since our misadventure 
is over and you have it in your power to correct what lies in the future and to see to it 
that others do not suffer the same misfortunes, I urge you, both all in common and 
each one by himself, to make good use of the present situation. For that state is best 
governed which adapts itself to circumstances, and that man is the best counsellor 
who expresses his opinion without regard to personal enmity or favour but with a 
view to the public advantage; and those persons deliberate best concerning the future 
who take past events as examples of those that are to come. As for you, senators, it 
has happened that whenever a dispute or contention has arisen with the populace you 
have always come off at a disadvantage, sometimes having evil spoken of (p339) you and 
sometimes being punished by the death, the abuse and the banishment of illustrious 
men. And yet what greater misfortune could happen to a state than to have its best 
men lopped off, and that undeservedly? I advise you to spare these men and not to 
have to repent of first exposing to manifest danger and then deserting in the moment 
of peril either the present magistrates or anyone else who is of the slightest value to 
the commonwealth. The substance of my advice is that you choose ambassadors and 
send some of them to the Greek cities in Italy and others to Athens, to ask the Greeks 
for their best laws and such as are most suited to our ways of life, and then to bring 
these laws here. And when they return, that the consuls then in office shall propose 
for the consideration of the senate what men to choose as lawgivers, what magistracy 
they shall hold and for how long a time, and to determine everything else in such a 
manner as they shall think expedient; and that you contend no longer with the 
plebeians nor add calamities to your calamities, particularly by quarrelling over laws 
which, if nothing else, have at least a respectable reputation for dignity." 

[10,52] After Romilius had spoken to this effect, both consuls supported his opinion in 
long and carefully prepared speeches, and so did many other senators; and those who 
espoused this opinion were in the majority. When the preliminary decree was about 
to be drawn up, the tribune Siccius, who had brought Romilius to trial, rising up, 
made a long (p341) speech in his behalf, praising him for changing his opinion and for 
not preferring his private grudges to the public good, but delivering with sincerity the 
advice that was advantageous. "In consideration of which," he said, "I offer him this 
honour and this favour: I remit the fine imposed on him at the trial and reconcile 
myself with him for the future. For he has overcome us by his probity." The rest of 
tribunes came forward and made the same agreement. Romilius, however, would not 
consent to accept this favour, but having thanked the tribunes for their goodwill, he 
said he would pay the fine, because it was already consecrated to the gods and he 
should be doing something unjust and unholy if he deprived the gods of what the law 
gives them. And he acted accordingly. The preliminary decree having been drawn up 
and afterwards confirmed by the populace, the ambassadors who were to get the laws 
from the Greeks were chosen, namely, Spurius Postumius, Servius Sulpicius and 
Aulus Manlius; and they were furnished with triremes at the public expense and with 
such other appointments as were sufficient to display the dignity of the Roman 
empire. And thus the year ended. 

[10,53] In the eighty-second Olympiad (the one at which Lycus of Larissa in Thessaly 
won the foot-race), Chaerephanes being archon at Athens, when three hundred years 
were completed since the founding of Rome, and Publius Horatius and Sextus 
Quintilius had succeeded to the consulship, Rome was afflicted (p343) with a pestilence 
more severe than any of those recorded from past time. Almost all the slaves were 
carried off by it and about one half of the citizens, as neither the physicians were able 
any longer to alleviate their sufferings nor did their servants and friends supply them 
with the necessaries. For those who were willing to relieve the calamities of others, 
by touching the bodies of the diseased and continuing with them, contracted the same 
diseases, with the result that many entire households perished for want of people to 
attend the sick. Not the least of the evils the city suffered, and the reason why the 
pestilence did not quickly abate, was the way in which they cast out the dead bodies. 
For though at first, both from a sense of shame and because of the plenty they had 
of everything necessary for burials, they burned the bodies and committed them to 
earth, at the last, either through a disregard of decency or from a lack of the necessary 
equipment, they threw many of the dead into the sewers under the streets and cast far 
more of them into the river; and from these they received the most harm. For when 
the bodies were cast up by the waves upon the banks and beaches, a grievous and 
terrible stench, carried by the wind, smote those also who were still in health and 
produced a quick change in their bodies; and the water brought from the river was no 
longer fit to drink, partly because of its vile odour and partly by causing 
(p345) indigestion. These calamities occurred not only in the city, but in the country as 
well; in particular, the husbandmen were infected with the contagion, since they were 
constantly with their sheep and the other animals. As long as most people had any 
hopes that Heaven would assist them, they all had recourse to sacrifices and 
expiations; and many innovations were then made by the Romans and unseemly 
practices not customary with them were introduced into the worship of the gods. 
But when they found that the gods showed no regard or compassion for them, they 
abandoned even the observance of religious rites. During this calamity Sextus 
Quintilius, one of the consuls, died; also Spurius Furius, who had been appointed to 
succeeded him, and likewise four of the tribunes and many worthy senators.  While 
the city was afflicted by the pestilence, the Aequians undertook to lead out an army 
against the Romans; and they sent envoys to all the other nations that were hostile to 
the Romans, urging them to make war. But they did not have time to lead their forces 
out of their cities; for while they were still making their preparations, the same 
pestilence fell upon their cities. 8 It spread not only over the country of the Aequians, 
but also over those of the Volscians and the Sabines, and grievously afflicted the 
inhabitants. In consequence, the land was left uncultivated and famine was added to 
the plague. Under these consuls, then, by reason of the pestilence nothing was done 
by the Romans, either in war or at home, worthy of being recorded in history. 

[10,54] For the following year Lucius Menenius (p347) were chosen consuls; and the 
pestilence finally ceased. After that public sacrifices of thanksgiving were performed 
to the gods and magnificent games celebrated at great expense; and the people were 
engaged in rejoicings and festivals, as may be imagined. Indeed the whole winter 
season was thus spent. In the beginning of spring a large quantity of corn was 
brought in from many places; most of it was purchased with the public money, but 
some was imported by private merchants. For not least of the people' hardships was 
the dearth of provisions, the land having lain uncultivated by reason of the pestilence 
and the death of the husbandmen. 
At the same time the ambassadors arrived from Athens and the Greek cities in Italy, 
bringing with them the laws. Thereupon the tribunes went to the consuls and asked 
them to appoint the lawgivers pursuant to the senate's decree. The consuls did not 
know how to get rid of their solicitations and importunities, but as they disliked the 
business and were unwilling for the aristocracy to be overthrown during their 
consulship, they resorted to a specious excuse, saying that the time for the election of 
magistrates was at hand and, as it was their duty first to name the new consuls, they 
would do so soon, and when these were appointed, they would in conjunction with 
them refer the matter of the lawgivers to the senate for its consideration. When the 
tribunes consented to this, they appointed the election much (p349) earlier than had 
been the custom with past elections, and nominated Appius Claudius and Titus 
Genucius for consuls; then, laying aside all thought for the public business, as if it 
were now the concern of others, they no longer paid any heed to the tribunes, but 
determined to pass the remaining time of their consulship in evasion of their duty. 
It chanced that one of them, Menenius, was seized with a chronic illness; indeed, 
some said that a wasting disease, which had come upon him because of grief and 
despondency, had made his malady hard to be cured. Sestius, availing himself of this 
additional excuse and pretending that he could do nothing alone, kept rejecting the 
pleas of the tribunes and advising them to apply to the new consuls.  Thus the 
tribunes, since there was nothing else they could do, were forced to have recourse to 
Appius and his colleague, who had not yet entered upon their magistracy, and would 
now plead with them in the meetings of the assembly and now in private conferences. 
And at last they overcame these men by holding out to them great hopes of honour 
and power if they would espouse the cause of the populace.  For Appius was seized 
with a desire to be invested with an alien magistracy, to establish laws for the 
fatherland and to set an example to his fellow citizens of harmony and peace and the 
recognition by them all of the unity of the commonwealth. Nevertheless, when he had 
been honoured with this great magistracy, he did not preserve his probity but, 
corrupted by the greatness of his authority, succumbed to an irresistible passion for 
holding office and came very near to (p351) running into tyranny; all which I shall relate 
at the proper time. 

[10,55] At any rate, at the time in question he took this resolution with the best of motives 
and prevailed upon his colleague to do the same; and since the tribunes repeatedly 
invited him to appear before the assembly, he came forward and spoke many words 
of goodwill. The substance of his speech was as follows: That both he and his 
colleague held it to be a matter of the first importance that the lawgivers should be 
appointed and that the citizens should cease quarrelling over equal rights; and they 
were declaring their opinion openly. But for the appointing of the lawgivers they 
themselves had no authority, since they had not yet entered upon their magistracy; 
however, not only would they not oppose Menenius and his colleague in carrying out 
the decree of the senate, but they would actually assist them and be very grateful to 
them. If the others, however, should decline to carry out the decree, using the new 
magistracy as an excuse, claiming that it was not lawful for them, now that new 
consuls had been confirmed, to create other magistrates who would receive consular 
power, they said that so far as they themselves were concerned there would be 
nothing to prevent the present consuls from acting. For they would willingly resign 
the consulship to such magistrates as should be appointed in their steady, provided 
the senate too should approve of it. The populace praising them for their goodwill 
and rushing in a body to the senate-house, Sestius was forced to assemble the senate 
alone, Menenius being unable to attend by reason of his illness, and proposed to 
them the consideration of the laws. (p353) Many speeches were made on this occasion 
also both by those who contended that the commonwealth ought to be governed by 
laws and by those who advised adhering to the customs of their ancestors. The 
motion that carried was made by the men who were to serve as consuls for the next 
year; it was delivered by Appius Claudius, who was first called upon, and was as 
follows: That ten persons be chosen, the most distinguished members of the senate, 
and that these govern for a year from the day of their appointment, possessing the 
same authority over all the affairs of the commonwealth as the consuls and, before 
them, the kings had enjoyed; that all the other magistracies be abrogated for as long a 
time as the decemvirs held office; that these men select both from the Roman usages 
and from the Greek laws brought back by the ambassadors the best institutions and 
such as were suitable to the Roman commonwealth, and form them into a body of 
laws; that the laws drawn up by the decemvirs, if approved by the senate and 
confirmed by the people, should be valid for all time, and that all future magistrates 
should determine private contracts and administer the affairs of the public according 
to these laws. 

[10,56] The tribunes, having received this decree, went to the assembly and after reading 
it before the populace, bestowed much praise upon the senate and upon Appius, who 
had proposed it. And when the time came for the election of magistrates, the tribunes 
called an assembly and asked the consuls-elect to come and fulfil their promises to 
the populace; (p355) and they, appearing, resigned their magistracy. The populace kept 
praising and admiring them, and when they were to vote for lawgivers, made them 
their first choice. Those chosen at the election by the centuriate assembly were 
Appius Claudius and Titus Genucius, who were to have been consuls for the following 
year; Publius Sestius, consul of that year; the three who had brought the laws from 
the Greeks, Spurius Postumius, Servius Sulpicius and Aulus Manlius; one of the 
consuls of the preceding year, Titus Romilius, the man who had been condemned 
when tried before the populace on a charge brought by Siccius and was now chosen 
because he was thought to have offered a motion favourable to the populace;61 and, 
from among the other senators, Gaius Julius, Titus Veturius and Publius Horatius, all 
ex-consuls. At the same time the offices of the tribunes, aediles, quaestors and any 
other traditional Roman magistrates were abrogated. 

[10,57] The next year the lawgivers took over the administration of affairs and 
established a form of government of the following general description. One of them 
had the rods and the other insignia of the consular power, assembled the senate, 
certified its decrees, and performed all the other functions belonging to the head of 
the state; while the others, by way of reducing the invidious character of their office to 
the more democratic level, differed in appearance but little from the mass of citizens. 
Then another of them in turn was vested with this authority, (p357) and thus it went on 
in rotation for a year, each one in succession receiving the command for a certain 
number of days as agreed upon. But all of them sat from early morning arbitrating 
cases involving private and public contracts in which complaints might arise between 
citizens and the subjects and allies of the Romans and peoples of doubtful allegiance 
to Rome, examining each case with complete fairness and justice. That year the 
Roman commonwealth seemed to be exceedingly well governed by the decemvirs. 
Above all they were commended for their care of the plebeians and for opposing, in 
defence of the weaker parties, every kind of violence; and it was said by many that the 
commonwealth would have no further need of champions of the populace or any of 
the other magistracies so long as a single wise leadership was directing all the affairs 
of the state. Of this rιgime Appius was looked upon as the head, and all the praise 
that belonged to the whole decemvirate was given by the populace to him. For he 
gained a reputation for probity not only by those things which he did in concert with 
his colleagues from the best motives, but much more by the manner in which he 
conducted himself personally, as in the matter of greetings, friendly conversation and 
other kindly courtesies toward the poor. 
These decemvirs, having formed a body of laws both from those of the Greeks and 
from their own unwritten usages, set them forth on ten tables to be examined by any 
who wished, welcoming every amendment suggested by private persons and 
endeavouring (p359) to correct them in such a manner as to give general satisfaction. 
For a long time they continued to consult in public with the best men and to make the 
strictest scrutiny of their code of laws.  When they were satisfied with what was 
written, they first convened the senate and, no fresh objection being made to the 
laws, they got a preliminary decree passed concerning them. Then, having summoned 
the people to the centuriate assembly, the pontiffs, the augurs and the other priests 
being present and having directed the performance of the religious rites according to 
custom, they gave the centuries their ballots.  And when the people too had ratified 
the laws, they caused them to be engraved on bronze pillars and set them up in order 
in the Forum, choosing the most conspicuous place. Then, as the remaining time of 
their magistracy was short, they assembled the senators and proposed for their 
consideration what kind of magistrates should be chosen at the next election. 

[10,58] After a long debate the opinion of those prevailed who favoured choosing a 
decemvirate again to be the supreme power in the state. For not only was their code 
of laws manifestly incomplete, in view of the short time in which it had been 
compiled, but in the case of the laws already ratified some magistracy absolute in 
power seemed necessary in order that willingly or unwillingly people might abide by 
them. But the chief motive that induced the senate to give the preference to the 
decemvirate was the suppression of the tribunician power, which they desired above 
everything. This was the result of their public deliberations; but in private the 
leading men of the senate resolved to canvass for this magistracy, (p361) fearing that 
certain turbulent spirits, if they gained such power, might cause some great mischief. 
The popular assembly having gladly received the resolution of the senate and 
confirmed it with the greatest enthusiasm, the decemvirs themselves appointed the 
time for the election; and those among the patricians who were most distinguished 
for both their dignity and age stood candidates for the magistracy. Upon this 
occasion Appius, who was the chief of that decemvirate, received great praise from 
everybody and the whole crowd of plebeians desired to continue him in the 
magistracy, believing that no one else would govern better. He at first pretended to 
refuse it and asked them to excuse him from a service that was both troublesome and 
invidious; but at last, when they all pressed him, he not only consented to seek the 
office himself, but also, accusing the best of the rival candidates of being ill disposed 
toward him through envy, openly espoused the candidacy of his friends. Thus he 
was again chosen in the centuriate assembly as a lawgiver, for the second time, and 
with him Quintus Fabius, surnamed Vibulanus, who had been thrice consul, a man 
adorned with every virtue and without reproach up to that time. From among the 
other patricians those favoured by Appius and chosen were Marcus Cornelius, 
Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minucius, Titus Antonius and Manius Rabuleius, men of no 
great distinction; and from among the plebeians, Quintus Poetelius, Caeso Duilius 
and Spurius Oppius. For these also were taken in by (p363) Appius in order to flatter the 
plebeians; he pointed out that, as only one magistracy was appointed to govern all the 
citizens, it was just that the populace also should be represented in it. Thus Appius, 
who was in great repute for all these actions and was looked upon as superior to both 
their kings and the annual magistrates who had governed the state, assumed the 
magistracy again for the following year. These were the things done by the Romans 
during that decemvirate, and there was nothing else worth relating. 

[10,59] The following year64 Appius Claudius and the other decemvirs, having received the 
consular power on the ides of May (for the Romans reckoned their months by the 
course of the moon, and the full moon fell on the ides), first of all took a solemn 
oath, without the knowledge of the populace, and made a compact among themselves 
not to oppose one another in anything, but that whatever was approved by any one of 
them should be ratified by all the others; and they agreed that they would hold their 
magistracy for life and admit no other person into the government, that they would 
all enjoy the same honours and possess the same power, and that they would rarely 
make use of the votes of the senate or populace and then only in absolutely necessary 
cases, but would do almost everything on their own authority. When the day came 
on which they were to enter upon their magistracy, after they had offered the usual 
initial sacrifices to the gods (for the Romans look upon this day as holy and 
particularly make it a point of religion neither to hear nor to see anything 
disagreeable during its course), the decemvirs set out early in the morning, each one 
accompanied by (p365) the insignia of royalty. When the people saw that they no 
longer preserved the same democratic and modest form of leadership or passed on 
the insignia of royalty from one to another, as before, they fell into great despair and 
dejection. They were terrified by the axes attached to the bundles of rods which were 
borne by the lictors, twelve of whom preceded each of the decemvirs and with blows 
forced the throng back from the streets, as had been the practice formerly under the 
kings. This custom, however, had been abolished, immediately after the expulsion of 
the kings, by Publius Valerius, a friend of the populace, who succeeded to their 
power, and all the consuls after him, following the good example he was felt to have 
set, no longer attached the axes to the bundles of rods except when they went out of 
the city either upon military expeditions or upon other occasions;  but when they set 
out on a foreign war or inspected the affairs of their subjects, they then added the 
axes to the rods. This was in order that the terrifying sight, as one employed against 
their enemies or slaves, might give as little offence as possible to the citizens. 

[10,60] When, therefore, they all saw this token, which was considered to be a mark of 
the kingly power, they were in great fear, as I said, believing that they had lost their 
liberty and chosen ten kings instead of one. The decemvirs having by this means 
struck terror into the masses and made up their mind that they must rule them by 
fear thereafter, each of them formed a faction, choosing from among the youth those 
who were most daring and most attached to their persons. Now the fact that most 
p367men of no means and low condition showed themselves flatterers of a tyrannical 
power and preferred their private advantages to the public good, was neither 
extraordinary nor surprising; but that there were found many even of the patricians 
who, though they had some reason, on the basis of either wealth or birth, to feel great 
pride, nevertheless consented to join with the decemvirs in destroying the liberty of 
their country, that seemed an amazing thing to everybody. But the decemvirs, by 
humouring people with all the pleasures that are calculated to subdue mankind, 
governed the commonwealth with great ease, holding the senate and people in no 
account, but becoming themselves both the lawgivers and the judges in all matters, 
putting many of the citizens to death and stripping others of their estates unjustly. 
In order, however, that their acts, illegal and cruel as they were, might have a 
specious appearance and seem to be carried out in accordance with justice, they 
appointed courts to try every matter; but the accusers, chosen from among the 
instruments of their tyranny, were suborned by the decemvirs themselves and the 
courts filled with men of their factions, who gratified one another by turns in 
rendering their decisions. Many complaints, and those not the ones of least 
importance, the decemvirs decided by themselves. Hence the litigants who had less 
right on their side were under the necessity of attaching themselves to the factions, 
since they could not otherwise be sure of success; and in time the corrupted and 
infected element in the city became more numerous than the sound element. For 
those to whom the doings of the decemvirs (p369) were obnoxious would not consent 
even to remain any longer within the city's walls, but retired to the country while 
awaiting the time for the election of magistrates, in the expectation that the 
decemvirs would resign their power after completing their year's term and would 
appoint other magistrates. As for Appius and his colleagues, they caused the 
remaining laws to be inscribed on two tables and added them to those they had 
published before. Among these new laws was this one, that it should not be lawful for 
the patricians to contract marriages with the plebeians — a law made for no other 
reason, in my opinion, than to prevent the two orders from coming together in 
harmony when once blended together by intermarriages and ties of affinity.  And 
when the time for the election of magistrates was at hand, the decemvirs bade a 
hearty farewell to both the ancestral customs and the newly-written laws, and without 
asking for a vote of either senate or people, continued in the same magistracy. 

[10,61] In the eighty-third Olympiad (the one at which Criso of Himera gained the prize),
Philiscus being archon at Athens, the Romans abolished the decemvirate 
which had governed the commonwealth for three years.