es, rather to comply
with the general practice, than in hope of succeeding; and when he saw
that one party, his own personal enemies, another party, the friends
of his colleague, refused him the triumph, the latter to console a
similar refusal, some on the plea that he had been rather tardy in
taking his departure from the city; others, that he had passed from
Samnium into Etruria without orders from the senate; he said,
"Conscript fathers, I shall not be so far mindful of your dignity, as
to forget that I am consul. By the same right of office by which I
conducted the war, I shall now have a triumph, when this war has been
brought to a happy conclusion, Samnium and Etruria being subdued, and
victory and peace procured. With these words he left the senate." On
this arose a contention between the plebeian tribunes; some of them
declaring that they would protest against his triumphing in a manner
unprecedented; others, that they would support his pretensions, in
opposition to their colleagues. The affair came at length to be
discussed before the people, and the consul being summoned to attend,
when he represented, that Marcus Horatius and Lucius Valerius, when
consuls, and lately Caius Marcus Rutilus, father of the present
censor, had triumphed, not by direction of the senate, but by that of
the people; he then added that "he would in like manner have laid his
request before the public, had he not known that some plebeian
tribunes, the abject slaves of the nobles, would have obstructed the
law. That the universal approbation and will of the people were and
should be with him equivalent to any order whatsoever." Accordingly,
on the day following, by the support of three plebeian tribunes, in
opposition to the protest of the other seven, and the declared
judgment of the senate, he triumphed; and the people paid every honour
to the day. The historical accounts regarding this year are by no
means consistent; Claudius asserts, that Postumius, after having taken
several cities in Samnium, was defeated and put to flight in Apulia;
and that, being wounded himself, he was driven, with a few attendants,
into Luceria. That the war in Etruria was conducted by Atilius, and
that it was he who triumphed. Fabius writes, that the two consuls
acted in conjunction, both in Samnium and at Luceria; that an army was
led over into Etruria, but by which of the consuls he has not
mentioned; that at Luceria, great numbers were slain on both sides;