secession was made to the
Aventine. There, without any leader, their camp being fortified with
a rampart and trench, remaining quiet, taking nothing but what was
necessary for subsistence, they remained for several days, neither
molested nor molesting. Great was the panic in the city, and through
mutual fear all was in suspense. The people, left by their fellows in
the city, dreaded the violence of the senators: the senators dreaded
the people who remained in the city, not feeling sure whether they
preferred them to stay or depart. On the other hand, how long would
the multitude which had seceded, remain quiet? What would be the
consequences hereafter, if, in the meantime, any foreign war should
break out? They certainly considered there was no hope left, save in
the concord of the citizens: that this must be restored to the state
at any price. Under these circumstances it was resolved that Agrippa
Menenius, an eloquent man, and a favourite with the people, because
he was sprung from them, should be sent to negotiate with them. Being
admitted into the camp, he is said to have simply related to them the
following story in an old-fashioned and unpolished style: "At the time
when the parts of the human body did not, as now, all agree together,
but the several members had each their own counsel, and their own
language, the other parts were indignant that, while everything was
provided for the gratification of the belly by their labour and
service, the belly, resting calmly in their midst, did nothing but
enjoy the pleasures afforded it. They accordingly entered into a
conspiracy, that neither should the hands convey food to the mouth,
nor the mouth receive it when presented, nor the teeth have anything
to chew: while desiring, under the influence of this indignation, to
starve out the belly, the individual members themselves and the entire
body were reduced to the last degree of emaciation. Thence it became
apparent that the office of the belly as well was no idle one, that it
did not receive more nourishment than it supplied, sending, as it did,
to all parts of the body that blood from which we derive life and
vigour, distributed equally through the veins when perfected by the
digestion of the food." [36] By drawing a comparison from this, how
like was the internal sedition of the body to the resentment of the
people against the senators, he succeeded in persuading the minds of
the multitude.

Then the question of reconci