reigners, was now
turned against each other; that now an occasion offered for destroying
those wolves blinded by intestine rage. Having united their forces, they
first laid waste the Latin territory: when no resistance was found
there, then indeed, to the great exultation of the advisers of the war,
they approached the very walls of Rome, carrying their depredations into
the district around the Esquiline gate, pointing out to the city the
devastation of the land by way of insult. Whence when they marched back
to Corbio unmolested, and driving the prey before them, Quintius the
consul summoned the people to an assembly.

67. There I find that he spoke to this purport: "Though I am conscious
to myself of no fault, Romans, yet with the greatest shame I have come
forward to your assembly. That you should know this; that this should be
handed down on record to posterity, that the AEquans and Volscians, a
short time since scarcely a match for the Hernicians, have with impunity
come with arms in their hands to the walls of Rome, in the fourth
consulate of Titus Quintius. Had I known that this ignominy was reserved
for this particular year, (though we are now long living in such a
manner, such is the state of affairs, that my mind could augur nothing
good,) I would have avoided this honour either by exile or by death, if
there were no other means of escaping it. Then if men of courage had
those arms, which were at our gates, could Rome be taken in my
consulate? I have had sufficient honours, enough and more than enough of
life: I should have died in my third consulate. Whom did these most
dastardly enemies despise? us, consuls, or you, citizens? If the fault
is in us, take away the command from us as unworthy persons; and if that
is insufficient, further inflict punishment on us. If in you, may there
be none of gods or men who will punish your offences; do you only repent
of them. It is not your cowardice they have despised, nor their own
valour they have confided in; for having been so often routed and put to
flight, stripped of their camp, amerced in their land, sent under the
yoke, they know both themselves and you. The discord among the several
orders is the bane of this city; the contests of the patricians and
commons have raised their spirits; whilst we have neither bounds in the
pursuit of power, nor you in that of liberty, whilst you are tired of
patrician, these of plebeian magistrates. In the name of heaven, what
woul