d ye have? You coveted tribunes of the commons; we conceded them for
the sake of concord. Ye longed for decemvirs; we suffered them to be
created. Ye became weary of decemvirs; we compelled them to resign the
office. Your resentment against these same persons when they became
private citizens still continuing, we suffered men of the highest
families and rank to die or go into exile. Ye wished again to create
tribunes of the commons; ye created them. Though we saw that it was
unjust to the patricians to create consuls in your own interest, we have
even seen a patrician magistracy conceded as an offering to the people.
The aid of tribunes, right of appeal to the people, the acts of the
commons made binding on the patricians under the pretext of equalizing
the laws, the subversion of our privileges, we have borne and still
bear. What termination is there to be to our dissensions? when shall it
be allowed us to have a united city? when to have one common country?
When defeated we submit with more resignation than you when victorious.
Is it enough for you, that you are objects of terror to us? The Aventine
is taken against us; against us the Sacred mount is seized. When the
Esquiliae is almost taken by the enemy, and when the Volscian foe is
scaling your rampart, there is no one to dislodge him: against us ye
are men, against us ye take up arms.

68. "Come, when ye have blockaded the senate-house here, and have made
the forum the seat of war, and filled the prison with the leading men of
the state, march forth through the Esquiline gate, with that same
determined spirit; or if ye do not even venture thus far, behold from
your walls the lands laid waste with fire and sword, booty driven off,
the houses set on fire in every direction and smoking. But (I may be
told) it is the public weal that is in a worse condition through these
results: the land is burned, the city is besieged, all the glory of the
war is centred in the enemy. What in the name of heaven? in what state
is your own private interest? just now his own private losses were
announced to each of you from the lands. What, pray, is there at home,
whence you may recruit them? Will the tribunes restore and compensate
you for what ye have lost? Of sound and words they will heap on you as
much as ye please, and of charges against the leading men, and laws one
upon another, and of public meetings. But from these meetings never has
one of you returned home more increased in