er them up, if it pleased them that they should be
delivered up; or that they should be subjected to punishment, if [they
desired] that they should be punished. That Caere, the sanctuary of the
Roman people, the harbourer of its priests, the receptacle of the sacred
utensils of Rome, they should suffer to escape, in regard to the ties of
hospitality contracted with the vestals, and in regard to the religious
devotion paid to their gods, intact and unstained with the charge of
hostilities committed." The people were influenced not so much by [the
merits of] the present case, as by their former deserts, so as to be
unmindful rather of the injury than of the kindness. Peace was therefore
granted to the people of Caere, and it was resolved that the making of a
truce for one hundred years should be referred to a decree of the
senate. Against the Faliscians, implicated in the same charge, the force
of the war was turned; but the enemy was no where found. Though their
territories were visited in all directions with devastation, they
refrained from besieging the towns; and the legions being brought back
to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in repairing the walls and
the towers, and the temple of Apollo was dedicated.

21. At the close of the year a dispute between the patricians and
commons suspended the consular elections, the tribunes refusing to allow
the elections to be held, unless they were held conformably to the
Licinian law; the dictator being determined to do away with the
consulate altogether from the state, rather than to make it common to
the patricians and the commons. Accordingly when, the elections being
repeatedly adjourned, the dictator resigned his office, matters came to
an interregnum. Upon this, when the interreges found the commons
incensed against the fathers, the contest was carried on by various
disturbances to the eleventh interrex. The tribunes held out as their
plea, the protection of the Licinian law. The people had the painful
sense of the increasing weight of interest nearer to their hearts; and
their private troubles became predominant amid the public contests.
Through the wearisome effects of which the patricians ordered Lucius
Cornelius Scipio, the interrex, for peace' sake to observe the Licinian
law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, Caius
Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was assigned as a colleague. Once their
minds were disposed to concord, the new consuls, setti