ill be the first to
follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as I, a mortal, can follow a
god." Then, in concluding his speech, he said that he was ready to
take up arms, that he summoned every citizen of Rome to arms; if any
one should oppose, that he, heedless of the consular authority, the
tribunician power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an
enemy, whoever and wheresoever he might be, in the Capitol, or in the
forum. Let the tribunes order arms to be taken up against Publius
Valerius the consul, since they forbade it against Appius Herdonius;
that he would dare to act in the case of the tribunes, as the founder
of his family [26] had dared to act in the case of the kings. It was
now clear that matters would come to violent extremities, and that a
quarrel among Romans would be exhibited to the enemy. The law however
could neither be carried, nor could the consul proceed to the Capitol.
Night put an end to the struggle that had been begun; the tribunes
yielded to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls.[27] When the
ringleaders of the disturbances had been removed, the patricians went
about among the commons, and, mingling in their meetings, spread
statements suited to the occasion: they advised them to take heed into
what danger they were bringing the commonwealth: that the contest
was not one between patricians and commons, but that patricians and
commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods,
the guardian gods of the state and of private families, were being
delivered up to the enemy. While these measures were being taken in
the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls
in the meantime had retired to visit the gates and the walls, fearing
that the Sabines or the Veientine enemy might bestir themselves.

During the same night, messengers reached Tusculum with news of the
capture of the citadel, the seizure of the Capitol, and also of the
generally disturbed condition of the city. Lucius Mamilius was at that
time dictator at Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate
and introduced the messengers, earnestly advised, that they should not
wait until ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the
danger itself and importance of the crisis, the gods of allies, and
the good faith of treaties, demanded it; that the gods would never
afford them a like opportunity of obliging so powerful a state and so
near a neighbour. It was resolved that assi