inerva, because
Minerva is the goddess of numbers. But in the days of Manlius this
custom had been long since forgotten; and when it chanced that a
pestilence came upon the city and nothing else availed to stay it (for
besides other things stage players were brought from Etruria to make
a show that might appease the anger of the gods), certain old men
remembered that in former years such plagues had been stayed by the
appointing of a dictator to drive in a nail. This Manlius then was thus
appointed; but when he had done his office he conceived the purpose of
carrying on war against the Hernici, and would have levied an army but
that the tribunes of the Commons hindered him.

In the beginning of the next year one of the tribunes, Pomponius by
name, brought Manlius to trial, bringing sundry accusations against him.
For in the levy that he sought to make he had dealt cruelly with them
that answered not to their names, causing some to be beaten with rods
and casting others into prison. His surname also was proof sufficient
that he was of such a temper as could not be endured in a free state.
"And this temper," said the tribune, "he had shown not to strangers
only, but even to those that are of his own blood. His own son, a young
man uncondemned of any crime, he has banished from the city and from
his home, forbidding him to have any converse with his fellows, and
compelling him to work after the fashion of a slave. And for what fault
in the young man, think ye, that he hath done this thing? Because he is
not eloquent or ready of speech. But should not a father, if there be
any natural kindness in him, seek to apply remedies to such defects
rather than to punish them? Even the brute beasts, if their offspring
chance to be ill-shaped, are the more careful to nourish and cherish it.
But this Manlius has rather increased the affliction of his son, and
made his wits yet slower than they were, extinguishing such natural
power as he may have by causing him to dwell among the beasts of the
field."

This accusation stirred great anger against the father in all men save
only in the son himself. For when the young man knew that an accusation
had been made against his father on his account he was much troubled.
And that both gods and men might know that he desired to give help to
his father rather than to the enemies of his father, he conceived a plan
which indeed ill became a citizen and one who would be obedient to the
laws, yet st