r now that it had once come into their possession.

The plebeians then began narrowly to watch the countenances of the
patricians, and to strive to catch a glimpse of liberty from that
quarter, by apprehending slavery from which they had brought the
republic into its present condition. The leading members of the senate
detested the decemvirs, detested the commons; they neither approved of
what was going on, and they considered that what befell the latter was
not undeserved. They were unwilling to assist men who, by rushing too
eagerly toward liberty, had fallen into slavery: they even heaped
injuries on them, that, from disgust at the present state of things,
two consuls and the former constitution might at length be regretted.
By this time the greater part of the year had passed, and two tables
of laws had been added to the ten tables of the former year; and if
these laws also had been passed in the assembly of the centuries,
there would now have remained no reason why the republic should
require that form of government. They were anxiously waiting to see
how long it would be before the assembly would be proclaimed for the
election of consuls. The only thing that troubled the commons was
by what means they should re-establish the tribunician power, that
bulwark of their liberty, now so long discontinued, no mention in the
meantime being made of the elections. Further, the decemvirs, who
had at first exhibited themselves to the people surrounded by men
of tribunician rank, because that was deemed popular, now guarded
themselves by bands of young patricians: crowds of these beset the
tribunals. They harried the commons, and plundered their effects: when
fortune was on the side of the more powerful individual in regard to
whatever was coveted. And now they spared not even their persons: some
were beaten with rods, others had to submit to the axe; and, that such
cruelty might not go unrewarded, a grant of his effects followed the
punishment of the owner. Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobles
not only made no opposition to oppression, but openly avowed a
preference for their own selfish gratification rather than for the
liberty of all.

The ides of May came round. Without any magistrates being elected
in place of those retiring, private persons [45]came forward as
decemvirs, without any abatement either in their determination to
enforce their authority, or any alteration in the insignia displayed
as outward signs of