to perform military service also, and to serve the commonwealth. The tribunes of the commons, by their seditious harangues, caused these things, grievous in themselves, to seem more exasperating, by their asserting, "that pay was established for the soldiers with this view, that they might wear out one half of the commons by military service, the other half by the tax. That a single war was being waged now for the third year, on purpose that they may have a longer time to wage it. That armies had been raised at one levy for four different wars, and that boys even and old men were dragged from home. That neither summer nor winter now made any difference, so that there may never be any respite for the unfortunate commons, who were now even at last made to pay a tax; so that after they brought home their bodies wasted by hardship, wounds, and eventually by age, and found their properties at home neglected by the absence of the proprietors, had to pay a tax out of their impaired fortunes, and to refund to the state in a manifold proportion the military pay which had been as it were received on interest." Between the levy and the tax, and their minds being taken up by more important concerns, the number of plebeian tribunes could not be filled up at the elections. A struggle was afterwards made that patricians should be elected into the vacant places. When this could not be carried, still, for the purpose of weakening the Trebonian law, it was managed that Caius Lacerius and Marcus Acutius should be admitted as tribunes of the commons, no doubt through the influence of the patricians.
11
Chance so directed it, that this year Cneius Trebonius was tribune of the commons, and he considered that he undertook the patronage of the Trebonian law as a debt due to his name and family. He crying out aloud, "that a point which some patricians had aimed at, though baffled in their first attempt, had yet been carried by the military tribunes; that the Trebonian law had been subverted, and tribunes of the commons had been elected not by the suffrages of the people but by the mandate of the patricians; and that the thing was now come to this, that either patricians or dependants of patricians were to be had for tribunes of the commons; that the devoting laws were taken away, the tribunitian power wrested from them; he alleged that this was effected by some artifice of the patricians, by the villany and treachery of his colleagues." While not only the patricians, but 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 in office. And yet these individuals, overwhelmed and already condemned by so many decisions against them, presented themselves for trial before the people; and thought that they were done with the matter, and had suffered sufficient punishment, because they were reduced to the state of private citizens two months sooner (than ordinary): and did not consider that the power of doing mischief any longer was then taken from them, that punishment was not inflicted; for that the official power of their colleagues also had been taken from them who certainly had committed no fault. That the Roman citizens should resume those sentiments which they had when the recent disaster was sustained, when they beheld the army flying in consternation, covered with wounds, and in dismay pouring into the gates, accusing not fortune nor any of the gods, but these their commanders. They were certain, that there was not a man present in the assembly who did not execrate and detest the persons, families, and fortunes of Lucius Virginius and Manius Sergius. That it was by no means consistent that now, when it was lawful and their duty, they should not exert their power against persons, on whom they had severally imprecated the vengeance of the gods. That the gods themselves never laid hands on the guilty; it was enough if they armed the injured with the means of taking revenge."
12
Urged on by these discourses the commons condemn the accused (in a fine) of ten thousand asses in weight, Sergius in vain throwing the blame on fortune and the common chance of war, Virginius entreating that he might not be more unfortunate at home than he had been in the field. The resentment of the people being turned against them, obliterated the remembrance of the assumption of the tribunes and of the fraud committed against the Trebonian law. The victorious tribunes, in order that the people might reap an immediate benefit from the trial, publish a form of an agrarian law, and prevent the tax from being contributed, since there was need of pay for so great a number of troops, and the enterprises of the service were conducted with success in such a manner, that in none of the wars did they reach the consummation of their hope. At Veii the camp which had been lost was recovered and strengthened with forts and a garrison. Here M. Æmilius and Kæso Fabius, military tribunes, commanded. None of the enemy were found outside the walls by Marcus Furius in the Falisean territory, and Cneius Cornelius in the Capenatian district: spoil was driven off, and the country laid waste by burning of the houses and the fruits of the earth: the towns were neither assaulted nor besieged. But among the Volscians, their territory being depopulated, Anxur, which was situate on an eminence, was assaulted, but to no purpose; and when force was ineffectual, they commenced to surround it with a rampart and a trench. The province of the Volscians had fallen (to the lot of) Valerius Potitus. In this state of military affairs an intestine disturbance broke out with greater violence than the wars were proceeded with. And when it was rendered impossible by the tribunes to have the tax paid, and the payment (of the army) was not remitted to the generals, and the soldiers became importunate for their pay, the camp also was well nigh being involved in the contagion of the sedition in the city. Amid this resentment of the commons against the patricians, though the tribunes asserted that now was the time for establishing liberty, and transferring the sovereign dignity from the Sergii and Virginii to plebeians, men of fortitude and energy, still they proceeded no further than the election of one of the commons, Publius Licinius Calvus, military tribune with consular power for the purpose of establishing their right by precedent: the others elected were patricians, Publius Mænius, Lucius Titinius, Publius Mælius, Lucius Furius Medullinus, Lucius Publius Volscus. The commons themselves were surprised at having gained so important a point, and not merely he who had been elected, being a person who had filled no post of honour before, being only a senator of long standing, and now weighed down with years. Nor does it sufficiently appear, why he was elected first and in preference to any one else to taste the sweets of the new dignity. Some think that he was raised to so high a dignity through the influence of his brother, Cneius Cornelius, who had been military tribune on the preceding year, and had given triple pay to the cavalry. Others say that he had himself delivered a seasonable address equally acceptable to the patricians and commons,
