226 The Republic. R O 
come forward and assist in quelling the popular tumult. 
Some of the patricians accordingly attended the consuls to 
the tribune. Here they began by calling on the people to 
enlist against the Sabines, They proceeded to call one of 
the ring-leaders of the faction by name, and desired him to 
enter the ranks. The man was silent ; and the consuls de¬ 
sired the lictors to lay hold of him. The enraged populace 
beat off the lictors, rescued their comrade, and the patri¬ 
cians themselves escaped with difficulty the fury of the mob. 
Complaints now came from the allies of Rome, that she 
deserted them to the fury of the Sabines, and the senate 
again assembled. The weak Virginius counselled a middle 
course; he was for remitting the debts of the victorious 
soldiers of the last campaign, and continuing the hard laws 
against others. Titus Lartius rejected this unjust division, 
and was for a general remission. 
The unbending Appius Claudius opposed all remissions of 
debts whatsoever. He partly grounded his objections on his 
own determination not to be guilty of inconsistency. “What 
will the world think of me,” Dionysius makes him say, “ if 
I lay aside those opinions which I maintained with danger 
in my consulate?" His other objections were far weightier, 
and shew in a striking point of view the injustice of the 
popular demand in its full extent. “ The contracts,” said 
he, “ made between creditors and their debtors have ever 
been in all places the main support of civil society.” “ All 
commerce depends on credit. And what Roman then would 
lend his money to a man, who had it in his power to take up 
arms, to prevent his repayment of it ? " But, it is said, the 
present business is that of appeasing the seditious, and pre¬ 
vailing on a. mutinous populace to assist their country in ex¬ 
tremity. And isthere then no way of bringing them to their 
duty but by violating the laws ? The nominating a Dictator 
is both as usual and an effectual remedy. Will the most 
mutinous hold it out against the authority of a man who is 
surrounded with lictors, and has power to punish the 
least act of disobedience with death, without appeal ?” The 
method Appius proposed was thought dangerous by the 
oldest senators; but he had got a majority on his side. 
The patricians being the richest persons in Rome, were 
almost all creditors to the commons. Private interest, 
therefore, prevailed over the most reasonable fears, and 
Manlius Valerius, the brother of Poplicola, an aged 
patrician of moderate opinions, was chosen dictator. He 
once more prevailed upon the people to march against the 
common enemy; having previously obtained assurances from 
the senate that their grievances should be redressed. The 
dictator took the command of the army that was sent agaipst 
the Sabines, the consuls of that sent against the Volsci and 
iEqui. Both were victorious, and marched to Rome, laden 
with spoils, and accompanied with numerous captives. The 
senate, expecting now to be called upon for the fulfilment 
of the dictator’s promises, and fearing the power of the 
soldiery, desired the consuls to lead the army again against 
the iEqui, under pretence of reducing some small villages, 
jThey obeyed, but the dictator, whose authority did not 
depend on the senate, disbanded his army, and declared his 
soldiers free from the oath which they had taken ; and as a 
further proof of his attachment to the plebeians, he chose out 
of that order 400, whom he invested with the dignity of 
knights. After this he claimed the accomplishment of the 
promises made by the senate: but instead of their performing 
them, he had the mortification to hear himself loaded with 
reproaches; on which he resigned his office as dictator, and 
acquainted the people with his inability to fulfil his engage¬ 
ments to them. No sooner were these transactions known 
in the army, than the soldiers, to a man, deserted the con¬ 
suls and other officers, and retired to a hill called afterwards 
Mons Sacer, three miles from Rome, where, however, they 
observed an exact discipline, and offered no sort of violence 
to any one. The senate, after taking proper measures for 
the defence of the city, sent a deputation to the malcontents; 
but it was answered with contempt. In short, all things 
tended to a civil war, when at last matters were compromised 
M E. ‘ The Republic. 
by the institution of Tribunes of the People. This was 
effected by the care of one Brutus, a vulgar but popular man, of 
much shrewdness and boldness, who reminded his fellows that 
the promises of the senate were not to be trusted, and that they 
must have security for the promises that were made. He, 
accordingly, proposed the election of five magistrates, 
always out of the plebeians, who should become the legal 
representatives of the popular interest. Sicinius, who had led 
the soldiers to Mons Sacer, and Brutus, were the first Tribunes 
they had; three more were added to them, and entered on their 
office in the ides of December, in the year of Rome 260. The 
tribunes had power to prevent the passing of any law that 
might be prejudicial to the people, and their persons were 
declared sacred, insomuch that whoever offered the least 
violence to the person of a tribune was declared accursed, his 
effects were to be consecrated to Ceres, and he himself might 
be killed with impunity; and all the Romans were to engage 
themselves, in their own name and that of their posterity, 
never to repeal this law. The people, after these regulations* 
erected an altar to Jupiter the Terrible, on the top of the 
hill where their camp had stood; and when they had offered 
sacrifices to the god, and consecrated the place of their 
retreat, they returned to Rome, led by their new magistrates 
and the deputies of the senate. 
The tribunes, immediately after their election, obtained 
permission from the senate to elect two persons as their 
ministers or assistants, who should ease them a little in the 
great multiplicity of their affairs. They were called plebeian 
sediles; and afterwards came to have the inspection of the 
public baths, aqueducts, with many other offices originally 
belonging to the consuls, after which they were called simply 
sediles. 
All opposition to the making of regular levies being now 
at an end, the consul Cominius led an army against the 
Volsci. He defeated, them in battle, and took lrom them 
Longula and Polusca; after which he besieged Corioli, a 
city strongly fortified, and which might be called their 
capital. He carried this place, and gained a victory over 
the Antiates, the same day, chiefly through the agency of 
Caius Marcius, an eminent patrician, who, when the troops 
detached by the consul to scale the walls of Corioli were 
repulsed in their first assault, rallied and led them on afresh to 
the charge, drove back the enemy within their wails, and, 
entering the city with them, made himself master of it. 
This exploit achieved, he with all expedition put himself in 
the foremost ranks of the consul’s main army, that was just 
going to engage with the Antiates, who were come to the 
relief of the place; and there he behaved with equal bravery, 
and had equal success. He received as a reward, the tenth 
of the spoil, and the surname of Coriolanus. 
A census and a lustrum closed the events of this memo¬ 
rable consulship. There appeared to be in Rome at this 
time no more than 110,000 men fit to bear arms; a number 
by many thousands less than at the last enrollment. Doubt¬ 
less great numbers had run away to avoid being slaves to 
their creditors. 
Under the following administration of T. Geganius and 
P. Minucius, Rome was terribly afflicted by a famine, 
occasioned chiefly by the neglect of ploughing and sowing 
during the late troubles; for the sedition had happened after 
the autumnal equinox, about sowing-time/and the accom¬ 
modation was not made till just before the winter solstice. 
The senate dispatched agents into Etruria, Campania, the 
country of the Volsci, and even into Sicily, to buy corn. 
Those who embarked for Sicily met with a tempest which 
retarded their arrival at Syracuse; where they 'were con¬ 
strained to pass the winter. At Cumae, the tyrant Aristo- 
demus seized the money brought by the commissaries ; and 
they themselves with difficulty saved their lives by flight. 
The Volsci, far from being disposed to succour the Romans, 
would have marched against them, if a sudden and most 
destructive pestilence had not defeated their purpose. In 
Etruria alone the Roman commissaries met with success. 
A considerable quantity of grain was sent from thence to 
Rome 
