n by C.
Servilius Ahala by order of Quintius Cincinnatus, dictator.
Cornelius Cossus, having killed Tolumnius, king of the Veientes,
offers the second_ spolia opima. _Duration of the censorship,
originally five years, limited to one year and a half. Fidenae
reduced, and a colony settled there. The colonists destroyed by the
Fidenatians, who are subsequently conquered by Mamercus AEmilius,
dictator. A conspiracy of the slaves put down. Postumius, a
military tribune, slain by the army for his cruelties. Pay from the
treasury first given to the soldiers. Operations against the
Volscians, Fidenatians, and Faliscians._

1. Marcus Genucius and Caius Curtius followed these as consuls. The year
was disturbed both at home and abroad. For at the commencement of the
year Caius Canuleius, tribune of the people, proposed a law concerning
the intermarriage of the patricians and commons; by which the patricians
considered that their blood would be contaminated, and the privileges of
birth would be confounded; and a hint at first lightly suggested by the
tribunes, that it should be lawful that one of the consuls should be
elected from the commons, afterwards proceeded so far, that the nine
tribunes proposed a bill, "that the people should have the power of
electing the consuls, whether they wished, from the commons or the
patricians. But they thought that if that were done, the supreme
authority would not only be shared with the lowest ranks, but be wholly
transferred from the nobility to the commons. With joy therefore the
patricians heard that the people of Ardea had revolted in consequence of
the injustice of the taking away their land, and that the Veientians had
laid waste the frontiers of the Roman territory, and that the Volscians
and AEquans murmured on account of the fortifying of Verrago; so much did
they prefer an unsuccessful war to an ignominious peace." These tidings
therefore being received and with exaggerations, in order that during
the din of so many wars the tribunitian proceedings might be suspended,
they order the levies to be held, preparations to be made for war and
arms with the utmost activity; with more energy, if possible, than had
been used in the consulship of Titus Quintius. Then Caius Canuleius
declared aloud in brief terms in the senate, that "the consuls wished in
vain to divert the commons from attention to the new laws; that they
never should hold a