e case is this,) either we must not have
the commons, or they must have their tribunes. We would sooner dispense
with our patrician magistrates, than they with their plebeian. That
power, when new and untried, they wrested from our fathers; much less
will they, now that they have tested the sweets of it, endure its loss:
more especially since we make not a moderate use of our power, so that
they may not stand in need of (tribunitian) aid." When these arguments
were thrown out from every quarter, the decemvirs, overpowered by the
united opinions of all, declare that, since such seems to be the
feeling, they would submit to the authority of the patricians. All they
ask is, that they may be protected from popular rage; they give a
warning, that they should not through shedding their blood habituate the
people to inflict punishment on the patricians.

53. Then Valerius and Horatius, having been sent to bring back the
people on such terms as might seem fit, and to adjust all differences,
are directed to make provision also for the decemvirs from the
resentment and violence of the multitude. They set forward and are
received into the camp with great joy by the people, as being their
liberators beyond all doubt, both at the commencement of the disturbance
and at the termination of the matter. In consideration of these things,
thanks were returned to them on their arrival. Icilius speaks in the
name of the people. When the terms came to be considered, the
ambassadors inquiring what were the demands of the people, the same
individual, having already concerted the plan before the arrival of the
ambassadors, stated demands of such a nature, that it became evident,
that more hope was placed in the justice of their case than in arms. For
they demanded back the tribunitian office and the right of appeal,
which, before the appointment of decemvirs, had been the props of the
people, and that it should not be visited with injury to any one, to
have instigated the soldiers or the commons to seek back their liberty
by a secession. Concerning the punishment only of the decemvirs was
their demand immoderate; for they thought it but just that they should
be delivered up to them; and they threatened that they would burn them
alive. In answer the ambassadors say, the demands which have been the
result of deliberation are so reasonable, that they should be
voluntarily offered to you; for you seek them as safeguards to your
liberty, not as means