ey received the city on a surrender. A triumph
was had over the Privernatians. Nothing worth mentioning was achieved by
the other consul, except that he, by an unusual precedent, holding an
assembly of the tribes in the camp at Sutrium, he passed a law regarding
the twentieth part of the value of those set free by manumission. As by
this law no small revenue was added to the treasury, now low, the senate
gave it their sanction. But the tribunes of the commons, influenced not
so much by the law as by the precedent, passed a law, making it a
capital offence for any one in future to summon an assembly of the
people at a distance from the city; for if that were allowed, there was
nothing, no matter how destructive to the people, that might not he done
by soldiers, who had sworn allegiance to their consul. The same year
Caius Licinius Stolo was condemned in a fine of ten thousand _asses_, on
his own law, by Marcus Popillius Laenas, because he possessed in
conjunction with his son a thousand acres of land, and because he had
attempted to evade the law by emancipating his son.

17. The next two consuls, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a second time, and
Marcus Popillius Laenas a second time, had two wars on their hands. The
one with the Tiburtians was easy, which Licinius managed, who drove the
enemy into their city, and laid waste their lands. The Faliscians and
Tarquinians routed the other consul in the commencement of the fight.
From these parties the utmost terror was raised, in consequence of their
priests, who, by carrying before them lighted torches and the figures of
serpents, and advancing with the gait of furies, disconcerted the Roman
soldiers by their extraordinary appearance; and then indeed they ran
back to their entrenchments, in all the hurry of trepidation, as if
frenzied or thunderstruck; and then when the consul, and
lieutenant-generals, and tribunes began to ridicule and chide them for
being frightened like children at mere sights, shame suddenly changed
their minds; and they rushed, as if blindfold, on those very objects
from which they had fled. Having, therefore, dissipated the idle
contrivance of the enemy, having attacked those who were in arms, they
drove their whole line before them, and having got possession of the
camp also on that day, and obtained great booty, they returned
victorious, uttering military jests, both on the stratagem of the enemy
as also on their own panic. Then the whole Etruscan nation is