resume the modes of
acting practised by your forefathers, and formerly by yourselves, I
submit to any punishment, if I do not rout and put to flight, and strip
of their camp, those ravagers of our lands, and transfer from our gates
and walls to their cities this terror of war, by which you are now
thrown into consternation."

69. Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more acceptable to
the commons, than was this of a most strict consul on that occasion. The
young men also, who during such alarming emergencies had been accustomed
to employ the refusal to enlist as the sharpest weapon against the
patricians, began to direct their thoughts to war and arms: and the
flight of the rustics, and those who had been robbed on the lands and
wounded, announcing matters more revolting even than what was exhibited
to view, filled the whole city with a spirit of vengeance. When the
senate assembled, these all turning to Quintius, looked on him as the
only champion of Roman majesty; and the leading senators declared "his
harangue to be worthy of the consular authority, worthy of so many
consulships formerly borne by him, worthy of his whole life, which was
full of honours frequently enjoyed, more frequently deserved. That
other consuls had either flattered the commons by betraying the dignity
of the patricians, or by harshly maintaining the rights of their order,
had rendered the multitude more difficult to subdue: that Titus Quintius
had delivered a speech mindful of the dignity of the patricians, of the
concord of the different orders, and above all, of the times. They
entreated him and his colleague to take up the interest of the
commonwealth; they entreated the tribunes, that by acting in concert
with the consuls they would join in repelling the war from the city and
the walls, and that they would induce the commons to be obedient to the
senate in so perilous a conjuncture: that, their lands being devastated,
and their city in a manner besieged, their common country appealed to
them as tribunes, and implored their aid." By universal consent the levy
is decreed and held. When the consuls gave public notice "that there was
no time for examining into excuses, that all the young men should attend
on the following morning at the first dawn in the Campus Martius; that
when the war was over, they should afford time for inquiring into the
excuses of those who had not given in their names; that the man should
be held as a deser