ce?

SECTION II.

Like rigid Cincinnatus, nobly poor.--_Thomson_.

1. The year following, the two consuls of the former year, Man'lius
and Fa'bius, were cited by the tribunes to appear before the people.
The Agra'rian law, which had been proposed some time before, for
equally dividing the lands of the commonwealth among the people, was
the object invariably pursued, and they were accused of having made
unjustifiable delays in putting it off.

2. The Agra'rian law was a grant the senate could not think of making
to the people. The consuls, therefore, made many delays and excuses,
till at length they were once more obliged to have recourse to a
dictator; and they fixed upon Quintus Cincinna'tus, a man who had for
some time, given up all views of ambition, and retired to his little
farm, where the deputies of the senate found him holding the plough,
and dressed in the mean attire of a labouring husbandman. 3. He
appeared but little elevated with the addresses of ceremony, and the
pompous habits they brought him; and, upon declaring to him the
senate's pleasure, he testified rather a concern that his aid should
be wanted. He naturally preferred the charms of a country retirement
to the fatiguing splendors of office, and only said to his wife,
as they were leading him away, "I fear, my Atti'lia, that for this
year our little fields must remain unsown." 4. Then, taking a tender
leave, he departed for the city, where both parties were strongly
inflamed against each other. However, he resolved to side with
neither; but, by a strict attention to the interests of his country,
instead of gaining the confidence of faction, to seize the esteem of
all. 5. Thus, by threats and well-timed submission, he prevailed upon
the tribunes to put off their law for a time, and conducted himself so
as to be a terror to the multitude whenever they refused to enlist,
and their greatest encourager whenever their submission deserved it.
6. Having, by these means, restored that tranquillity to the people
which he so much loved himself, he again gave up the splendors of
ambition, to enjoy it with a greater relish on his little farm.

[Sidenote: U.C. 295.] 7. Cincinna'tus had not long retired from his
office, when a fresh exigence of the state once more required his
assistance; and the AE'qui and the Vol'sci, who, although always
worsted, were still for renewing the war, made new inroads into the
territories of Rome. 8. Minu'tius, one of the con