ce of the law, than if they were to be
passed over through their own want of merit."

36. Harangues of this kind, listened to with approbation, induced some
persons to stand for the military tribuneship, each avowing that if in
office he would propose something to the advantage of the commons. Hopes
were held out of a distribution of the public land, of colonies to be
planted, and of money to be raised for the pay of the soldiers, by a tax
imposed on the proprietors of estates. Then an opportunity was laid
hold of by the military tribunes, so that during the absence of most
persons from the city, when the patricians who were to be recalled by a
private intimation were to attend on a certain day, a decree of the
senate might be passed in the absence of the tribunes of the commons;
that a report existed that the Volscians had gone forth into the lands
of Hernici to commit depredations, the military tribunes were to set out
to examine into the matter, and that an assembly should be held for the
election of consuls. Having set out, they leave Appius Claudius, son of
the decemvir, as prefect of the city, a young man of great energy, and
one who had ever from his cradle imbibed a hatred of the tribunes and
the commons. The tribunes of the commons had nothing for which they
should contend, either with those persons now absent, who had procured
the decree of the senate, nor with Appius, the matter being now all
over.

37. Caius Sempronius Atratinus, Quintus Fabius Vibulanus were elected
consuls. An affair in a foreign country, but one deserving of record, is
stated to have happened in that year. Vulturnum, a city of the
Etrurians, which is now Capua, was taken by the Samnites; and was called
Capua from their leader, Capys, or, what is more probable, from its
champaign grounds. But they took possession of it, after having been
admitted into a share of the city and its lands, when the Etrurians had
been previously much harassed in war; afterwards the new-comers attacked
and massacred during the night the old inhabitants, when on a festival
day they had become heavy with wine and sleep. After those transactions
the consuls whom we have mentioned entered on office on the ides of
December. Now not only those who had been expressly sent, reported that
a Volscian war was impending; but ambassadors also from the Latins and
Hernicians brought word, "that never at any former period were the
Volscians more intent either in selecting comm