r and of his
father, that he would hold in recollection the civil society in which he
had been born rather than the confederacy nefariously entered into with
his colleagues; that he besought this much more on Appius's own account,
than for the sake of the commonwealth. For that the commonwealth would
assert its rights in spite of them, if it could not obtain them with
their consent. But that from great contests great animosities arise; the
result of the latter he dreads." Though the decemvirs forbad them to
speak on any other subject than that which they had submitted to them,
they felt too much respect for Claudius to interrupt him. He therefore
concluded his address by moving that it was their wish that no decree of
the senate should be passed. And all understood the matter thus, that
they were judged by Claudius to be private citizens; and many of the men
of consular standing expressed their assent. Another measure proposed,
more harsh in appearance, possessed much less efficacy; one which
ordered the patricians to assemble to elect an interrex; for by passing
any resolution they judged, that those persons who convened the senate
were magistrates of some kind or other, whilst the person who
recommended that no decree of the senate should be passed, had thereby
declared them private citizens. When the cause of the decemvirs was now
sinking, Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis, brother of Marcus Cornelius the
decemvir, having been purposely reserved from among the consular men to
close the debate, by affecting an anxiety about the war, defended his
brother and his colleagues thus: saying, "he wondered by what fatality
it had occurred, that those who had been candidates for the decemvirate,
should attack the decemvirs, either as secondaries,[145] or as
principals: or when no one disputed for so many months whilst the state
was disengaged, whether legal magistrates had the management of affairs,
why do they now sow discord, when the enemies are nearly at the gate;
unless that in a state of confusion they think that what they are aiming
at will be less seen through." But that it was not just that any one
should prejudice so important a cause, whilst our minds are occupied
with a more momentous concern. It was his opinion, that the point which
Valerius and Horatius urged, viz. that the decemvirs had gone out of
office before the ides of May, should be discussed in the senate, when
the wars which are now impending are over, and the