, in the Capitol, when the leader of the exiles and slaves,
after profaning everything, took up his residence in the shrine of
Jupiter, best and greatest, arms were taken up at Tusculum sooner
than at Rome. It was a matter of doubt whether Lucius Mamilius, the
Tusculan leader, or Publius Valerius and Gaius Claudius, the consuls,
recovered the Roman citadel, and we, who formerly did not suffer the
Latins to touch arms, not even in their own defence, when they had the
enemy on their very frontiers, should have been taken and destroyed
now, had not the Latins taken up arms of their own accord. Tribunes,
is this bringing aid to the commons, to expose them in a defenceless
state to be butchered by the enemy? I suppose, if any one, even the
humblest individual of your commons--which portion you have as it were
broken off from the rest of the state, and created a country and a
commonwealth of your own--if any one of these were to bring you word
that his house was beset by an armed band of slaves, you would think
that assistance should be afforded him: was then Jupiter, best
and greatest, when hemmed in by the arms of exiles and of slaves,
deserving of no human aid? And do these persons claim to be considered
sacred and inviolable, to whom the gods themselves are neither sacred
nor inviolable? Well but, loaded as you are with crimes against both
gods and men, you proclaim that you will pass your law this year.
Verily then, on the day I was created consul, it was a disastrous act
of the state, much more so even than the day when Publius Valerius
the consul fell, if you shall pass it. Now, first of all," said he,
"Quirites, it is the intention of myself and of my colleague to march
the legions against the Volscians and the Aequans. I know not by what
fatality we find the gods more propitious when we are at war than in
peace. How great the danger from those states would have been, had
they known that the Capitol was besieged by exiles, it is better to
conjecture from what is past, than to learn by actual experience."

The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons: the
patricians, recovering their spirits, believed the state
re-established. The other consul, a more ardent partner than promoter
of a measure, readily allowing his colleague to take the lead in
measures of such importance, claimed to himself his share of the
consular duty in carrying these measures into execution. Then the
tribunes, mocking these declarations