the tribunes of the
commons also became objects of public resentment; as well those who were
elected, as those who had elected them; then three of the college,
Publius Curiatius, Marcus Metilius, and Marcus Minucius, alarmed for
their interests, make an attack on Sergius and Virginius, military
tribunes of the former year; they turn away the resentment of the
commons, and public odium from themselves on them, by appointing a day
of trial for them. They observe that "those persons by whom the levy,
the tribute, the long service, and the distant seat of the war was felt
as a grievance, those who lamented the calamity sustained at Veii; such
as had their houses in mourning through the loss of children, brothers,
relatives, and kinsmen, had now through their means the right and power
of avenging the public and private sorrow on the two guilty causes. For
that the sources of all their sufferings were centred in Sergius and
Virginius: nor did the prosecutor advance that charge more
satisfactorily than the accused acknowledged it; who, both guilty, threw
the blame from one to the other, Virginius charging Sergius with running
away, Sergius charging Virginius with treachery. The folly of whose
conduct was so incredible, that it is much more probable that the affair
had been contrived by concert, and by the common artifice of the
patricians. That by them also an opportunity was formerly given to the
Veientians to burn the works for the sake of protracting the war; and
that now the army was betrayed, and the Roman camp delivered up to the
Faliscians. That every thing was done that the young men should grow old
before Veii, and that the tribunes should not be able to consult the
people either regarding the lands or the other interests of the commons,
and to give weight to their measures by a numerous attendance [of
citizens], and to make head against the conspiracy of the patricians.
That a previous judgment had been already passed on the accused both by
the senate and the Roman people and by their own colleagues. For that by
a decree of the senate they had been removed from the administration of
affairs, and when they refused to resign their office they had been
forced into it by their colleagues; and that the Roman people had
elected tribunes, who were to enter on their office not on the ides of
December, the usual day, but instantly on the calends of October,
because the republic could no longer subsist, these persons remaining i