hed, (as completely,
indeed, as if that leader's own singular talents had been employed in
the matter,) he yet threatens the master of the horse with punishment?
Nor is he more incensed against the master of the horse, than against
the military tribunes, the centurions, and the soldiers. On all, he
would vent his rage if he could; and because that is not in his power,
he vents it on one. Envy, like flame, soars upwards; aims at the summit;
that he makes his attack on the head of the business, on the leader. If
he could put him out of the way, together with the glory of the service
performed, he would then lord it, like a conqueror over vanquished
troops; and, without scruple, practise against the soldiers what he had
been allowed to act against their commander. That they should,
therefore, in his cause, support the general liberty of all. If the
dictator perceived among the troops the same unanimity in justifying
their victory that they had displayed in the battle, and that all
interested themselves in the safety of one, it would bend his temper to
milder counsels. In fine," he told them, "that he committed his life,
and all his interests, to their honour and to their courage."

32. His speech was received with the loudest acclamations from every
part of the assembly, bidding him "have courage; for while the Roman
legions were in being, no man should offer him violence." Not long
after, the dictator arrived, and instantly summoned an assembly by sound
of trumpet. Then silence being made, a crier cited Quintus Fabius,
master of the horse, and as soon as, on the lower ground, he had
approached the tribunal, the dictator said, "Quintus Fabius, I demand of
you, when the authority of dictator is acknowledged to be supreme, and
is submitted to by the consuls, officers endowed with regal power; and
likewise by the praetors, created under the same auspices with consuls;
whether or no you think it reasonable that it should not meet obedience
from a master of the horse? I also ask you whether, when I knew that I
set out from home under uncertain auspices, the safety of the
commonwealth ought to have been endangered by me, whilst the omens were
confused, or whether the auspices ought to be newly taken, so that
nothing might be done while the will of the gods remained doubtful? And
further, when a religious scruple was of such a nature as to hinder the
dictator from acting, whether the master of the horse could be exempt
from it an