e, or because they
did not wish him to return by favour of the people; or it may be because
they themselves were now angry with him for having shown himself the
enemy of all classes alike, although he had only been injured by one,
and for having become the avowed enemy of his country, in which he knew
that the best and noblest all sympathised with him, and had suffered
along with him. When this resolution was made known to the people, they
were unable to proceed to vote or to pass any bill on the subject,
without a previous decree of the Senate.

XXX. Marcius when he heard of this was more exasperated than ever. He
raised his siege of Lavinium, marched straight upon Rome, and pitched
his camp five miles from the city, at the place called _Fossae
Cluiliae_. The appearance of his army caused much terror and
disturbance, but nevertheless put an end to sedition, for no magistrate
or patrician dared any longer oppose the people's desire to recall him.
When they beheld the women running distractedly through the city, the
old men weeping and praying at the altars, and no one able to take
courage and form any plan of defence, it was agreed that the people had
been right in wishing to come to terms with Marcius, and that the Senate
had committed a fatal error in inflicting a new outrage upon him, just
at the time when all unkindness might have been buried. It was
determined, therefore, by the whole city that an embassy should be
despatched to Marcius, to offer him restoration to his own country, and
to beg of him to make peace. Those of the Senate who were sent were
relations of Marcius, and expected to be warmly welcomed by a man who
was their near relation and personal friend. Nothing of the kind,
however, happened. They were conducted through the enemy's camp, and
found him seated, and displaying insufferable pride and arrogance, with
the chiefs of the Volscians standing round him. He bade the ambassadors
deliver their message; and after they had, in a supplicatory fashion,
pronounced a conciliatory oration, he answered them, dwelling with
bitterness on his own unjust treatment; and then in his capacity of
general-in-chief of the Volscians, he bade them restore the cities and
territory which they had conquered in the late war, and to grant the
franchise to the Volscians on the same terms as enjoyed by the Latins.
These, he said, were the only conditions on which a just and lasting
peace could be made. He allowed them a space