ace. 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 the past, than to
feel from actual experience."

[Footnote 125: The consuls under ordinary circumstances used to commence
their office at this time on the Calends of August.]

[Footnote 126: _Neque sacri neque sancti_. Whatever is consecrated by
religion is said to be _sacrum_; whilst _sanctum_ is said of that which
the law states to be inviolable.]

20. The consul's harangue had a great effect on the commons; the
patricians, recovering their spirits, considered the state as
re-established. The other consul, more eager as a seconder than as the
first mover (of a measure), readily suffering his colleague to take the
first lead in a matter of so much importance, claimed to himself his
share of the consular duty in executing the plan. Then the tribunes,
mocking these declarations as empty, went on inquiring "by what means
the consuls would lead out the army, as no one would allow them to hold
a levy?" "But," says Quintius, "we have no occasion for a levy; since at
the time Publius Valerius gave arms to the commons to recover the
Capitol, they all took an oath to him, that they would assemble on an
order from the consul, and would not depart without an order. We
therefore publish our order that all of you, who have sworn, attend
to-morrow under arms at the lake Regillus." The tribunes then began to
cavil, and wished to absolve the people from their obligation; that
Quintius was a private person at the time at which they were bound by
the oath. But that disregard of the gods which prevails in the present
age had not yet arrived; nor did every one, by his own interpretation,
accommodate oaths and laws to his own purposes, but rather adapted his
conduct to them. Wherefore the tribunes, as there was no hope of
obstructing the matter, attempted to delay the departure (of the army)
the more earnestly on this account, because a report had gone out "both
that the augurs had been ordered to attend at the lake Regillus, and to
consecrate a place, where business might be transacted with the people
with the benefit of auspices; that whatever had been passed at Rome by
tribunitian violence, might be repealed there in an assembly. That all
would agree to that which the consuls wished; for that there was no
appeal at a distance greater than that of a mile from the city: and that
the tribun