Livy's History of Rome - Table of Contents

Romans that it was impossible either for the senate to take the matter into formal consideration, or for a favourable reply to
be given to those who were commencing hostilities, since they were themselves taking up arms to repel them. They
marched to Aricia; not far from there they engaged the Auruncans and in one battle finished the war.
[2.27]After the defeat of the Auruncans, the Romans, who had, within a few days, fought so many successful wars, were
expecting the fulfilment of the promises which the consul had made on the authority of the senate. Appius, partly from his
innate love of tyranny and partly to undermine the confidence felt in his colleague, gave the harshest sentences he could
when debtors were brought before him. One after another those who had before pledged their persons as security were now
handed over to their creditors, and others were compelled to give such security. A soldier to whom this happened appealed
to the colleague of Appius. A crowd gathered round Servilius, they reminded him of his promises, upbraided him with
their services in war and the scars they had received, and demanded that he should either get an ordinance passed by the
senate, or, as consul, protect his people; as commander, his soldiers. The consul sympathised with them, but under the
circumstances he was compelled to temporise; the opposite policy was so recklessly insisted on not only by his colleague
but by the entire party of the nobility. By taking a middle course he did not escape the odium of the plebs nor did he win
the favour of the patricians. These regarded him as a weak popularity-hunting consul, the plebeians considered him false,
and it soon became apparent that he was as much detested as Appius.
A dispute had arisen between the consuls as to which of them should dedicate the temple of Mercury. The senate referred
the question to the people, and issued orders that the one to whom the dedication was assigned by the people should
preside over the corn-market and form a guild of merchants and discharge functions in the presence of the Pontifex
Maximus. The people assigned the dedication of the temple to M. Laetorius, the first centurion of the legion, a choice
obviously made not so much to honour the man, by conferring upon him an office so far above his station, as to bring
discredit on the consuls. One of them, at all events, was excessively angry, as were the senate, but the courage of the plebs
had risen, and they went to work in a very different method from that which they had adopted at first. For as any prospect
of help from the consuls or the senate was hopeless, they took matters into their own hands, and whenever they saw a
debtor brought before the court, they rushed there from all sides, and by their shouts and uproar prevented the consul's
sentence from being heard, and when it was pronounced no one obeyed it. They resorted to violence, and all the fear and
danger to personal liberty was transferred from the debtors to the creditors, who were roughly handled before the eyes of
the consul. In addition to all this there were growing apprehensions of a Sabine war. A levy was decreed, but no one gave
in his name. Appius was furious; he accused his colleague of courting the favour of the people, denounced him as a traitor
to the commonwealth because he refused to give sentence where debtors were brought before him, and moreover he
refused to raise troops after the senate had ordered a levy. Still, he declared, the ship of State was not entirely deserted nor
the consular authority thrown to the winds; he, single-handed, would vindicate his own dignity and that of the senate.
Whilst the usual daily crowd were standing round him, growing ever bolder in licence, he ordered one conspicuous leader
of the agitation to be arrested. As he was being dragged away by the lictors, he appealed. There was no doubt as to what
judgment the people would give, and he would not have allowed the appeal had not his obstinacy been with great difficulty
overcome more by the prudence and authority of the senate than by the clamour of the people, so determined was he to
brave the popular odium. From that time the mischief became more serious every day, not only through open clamour but,
what was far more dangerous, through secession and secret meetings. At length the consuls, detested as they were by the
plebs, went out of office - Servilius equally hated by both orders, Appius in wonderful favour with the patricians.
[2.28]Then A. Verginius and T. Vetusius took office. As the plebeians were doubtful as to what sort of consuls they would
have, and were anxious to avoid any precipitate and ill-considered action which might result from hastily adopted
resolutions in the Forum, they began to hold meetings at night, some on the Esquiline and others on the Aventine. The
consuls considered this state of things to be fraught with danger, as it really was, and made a formal report to the senate.
But any orderly discussion of their report was out of the question, owing to the excitement and clamour with which the
senators received it, and the indignation they felt at the consuls throwing upon them the odium of measures which they
ought to have carried on their own authority as consuls. "Surely," it was said, "if there were really magistrates in the State,
there would have been no meetings in Rome beyond the public Assembly; now the State was broken up into a thousand
senates and assemblies, since some councils were being held on the Esquiline and others on the Aventine. Why, one man
like Appius Claudius, who was worth more than a consul, would have dispersed these gatherings in a moment." When the
consuls, after being thus censured, asked what they wished them to do, as they were prepared to act with all the energy and
determination that the senate desired, a decree was passed that the levy should be raised as speedily as possible, for the
plebs was waxing wanton through idleness. After dismissing the senate, the consuls ascended the tribunal and called out