alerius protected the plebeians against
their creditors while they were at war, and promised them relief when
war was over. But when the danger was gone by, Appius again prevailed;
the senate refused to listen to Valerius, and the dictator laid down his
office, calling gods and men to witness that he was not responsible for
his breach of faith.

The plebeians whom Valerius had led forth were still under arms, still
bound by their military oath, and Appius, with the violent patricians,
refused to disband them. The army, therefore, having lost Valerius,
their proper general chose two of themselves, L. Junius Brutus and L.
Sicinius Bellutus by name, and under their command they marched
northward and occupied the hill which commands the junction of the Tiber
and the Anio. Here, at a distance of about two miles from Rome, they
determined to settle and form a new city, leaving Rome to the patricians
and their clients. But the latter were not willing to lose the best of
their soldiery, the cultivators of the greater part of the Roman
territory, and they sent repeated embassies to persuade the seceders to
return. They, however, turned a deaf ear to all promises, for they had
too often been deceived. Appius now urged the senate and patricians to
leave the plebeians to themselves. The nobles and their clients, he
said, could well maintain themselves in the city without such base aid.

But wiser sentiments prevailed. T. Lartius, and M. Valerius, both of whom
had been dictators, with Menenius Agrippa, an old patrician of popular
character, were empowered to treat with the people. Still their leaders
were unwilling to listen, till old Menenius addressed them in the famous
fable of the "Belly and the Members":

"In times of old," said he, "when every member of the body could think
for itself, and each had a separate will of its own, they all, with one
consent, resolved to revolt against the belly. They knew no reason, they
said, why they should toil from morning till night in its service, while
the belly lay at its ease in the midst of all, and indolently grew fat
upon their labors. Accordingly they agreed to support it no more. The
feet vowed they would carry it no longer; the hands that they would do
no more work; the teeth that they would not chew a morsel of meat, even
were it placed between them. Thus resolved, the members for a time
showed their spirit and kept their resolution; but soon they found that
instead of mortifying