hip of Aulus Cornelius were entirely free
from war, in consequence of a pestilence and a scarcity of grain; so
that some annals, as if in mourning, present nothing but the names of
the consuls. The third year from the consulship of Cossus has him as
military tribune with consular power; in the same year as master of the
horse, in which office he fought another distinguished horse battle.
Conjecture is open on the matter; but, as I think, idle surmises may be
turned to support any opinion: when the hero of the fight, having placed
the recent spoils in the sacred repository, having before him Jove
himself, to whom they were consecrated, and Romulus, no contemptible
witnesses in case of a false inscription, entitled himself Aulus
Cornelius Cossus consul.

21. Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis and Lucius Papirius Crassus being
consuls, the armies were led into the territories of the Veientians and
Faliscians; numbers of men and cattle were driven off as spoil; the
enemy was no where to be found on the land, and no opportunity of
fighting was afforded; the cities however were not attacked, because a
pestilential disorder ran through the people. Disturbances were also
sought at home, but not actually excited, however, by Spurius Maelius,
tribune of the people; who thinking that he might create some tumult
through the popularity of his name, had both appointed a day of trial
for Minucius, and had also proposed a law for confiscating the property
of Servilius Ahala: alleging that Maelius had been circumvented through
false impeachments by Minucius, charging Servilius with the killing of a
citizen on whom no sentence had been passed; charges which, when brought
before the people, proved to be more idle than the author himself. But
the virulence of the disease now becoming worse, was more an object of
concern to them, as also the terrors and prodigies, more especially
because accounts were being brought, that houses were falling throughout
the country, in consequence of frequent earthquakes. A supplication was
therefore performed by the people, according to the form dictated by the
decemvirs.[153] The year being still more pestilential, Caius Julius a
second time and Lucius Virginius being consuls, occasioned such dread of
desolation through the city and country, that not only no one left the
Roman territory for the purpose of committing depredations, and not only
did none of the patricians or commons entertain an idea of commencing