y the people, so that the praises which
he bestowed on those who had made that campaign with him only angered
the far greater number who had not done so. At last the people voted.
Marcius was condemned by a majority of the tribes, and was sentenced to
perpetual banishment. After sentence was passed, the people displayed
greater joy than if they had won a pitched battle, while the Senate was
downcast and filled with regret at not having run any risks rather than
allow the people to obtain so much power, and use it so insolently. Nor
was there any need for distinctions of dress or anything else to
distinguish the two parties, because a plebeian might be told at once by
his delight, a patrician by his sorrow.

[Footnote A: See the article "Comitia" in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of
Antiquities.]

XXI. Marcius himself, however, remained unmoved. Proud and haughty as
ever, he appeared not to be sorry for himself, and to be the only one of
the patricians who was not. This calmness, however, was not due to any
evenness of temper or any intention of bearing his wrongs meekly. It
arose from concentrated rage and fury, which many do not know to be an
expression of great grief. When the mind is inflamed with this passion,
it casts out all ideas of submission or of quiet. Hence an angry man is
courageous, just as a fever patient is hot, because of the inflamed
throbbing excitement of his mind. And Marcius soon showed that this was
his own condition. He went home, embraced his weeping wife and mother,
bade them bear this calamity with patience, and at once proceeded to the
city gates, escorted by the patricians in a body. Thence, taking nothing
with him, and asking no man for any thing, he went off, accompanied by
three or four of his clients. He remained for a few days at some farms
near the city, agitated deeply by conflicting passions. His anger
suggested no scheme by which he might benefit himself, but only how to
revenge himself on the Romans. At length he decided that he would raise
up a cruel war against them, and proceeded at once to make application
to the neighbouring nation of the Volscians, whom he knew to be rich and
powerful, and only to have suffered sufficiently by their late defeats
to make them desirous of renewing their quarrel with Rome.

XXII. There was a certain citizen of Antium named Tullus Aufidius, who,
from his wealth, courage, and noble birth, was regarded as the most
important man in the whole Volscian nati