tribunal, before which the people were yet standing; and the
Consuls having generally required names in vain, to put it to something,
required the name of one that was in their eye particularly; on whom,
when he moved not, they commanded a lictor to lay hands, but the people,
thronging about the party summoned, forbade the lictor, who durst not
touch him; at which the hotspurs that came with the consuls, enraged by
the affront, descended from the throne to the aid of the lictor;
from whom in so doing they turned the indignation of the people upon
themselves with such heat that the Consuls interposing, thought fit, by
remitting the assembly, to appease the tumult; in which, nevertheless,
there had been nothing but noise. Nor was there less in the Senate,
being suddenly rallied upon this occasion, where they that received the
repulse, with others whose heads were as addled as their own, fell
upon the business as if it had been to be determined by clamor till
the Consuls, upbraiding the Senate that it differed not from the
market-place, reduced the house to orders.

"And the fathers, having been consulted accordingly, there were three
opinions: Publius Virginius conceived that the consideration to be
had upon the matter in question, or aid of the indebted and imprisoned
people, was not to be further extended than to such as had engaged upon
the promise made by Servilius; Titus Largius, that it was no time to
think it enough, if men's merits were acknowledged, while the whole
people, sunk under the weight of their debts, could not emerge without
some common aid, which to restrain, by putting some into a better
condition than others, would rather more inflame the discord than
extinguish it; Appius Claudius (still upon the old haunt) would have it
that the people were rather wanton than fierce; it was not oppression
that necessitated, but their power that invited them to these freaks;
the empire of the Consuls since the appeal to the people (whereby a
plebeian might ask his fellows if he were a thief) being but a mere
scarecrow. 'Go to,' says he, 'let us create the dictator, from whom
there is no appeal, and then let me see more of this work, or him that
shall forbid my lictor.'

"The advice of Appius was abhorred by many; and to introduce a general
recision of debts with Largius, was to violate all faith; that of
Virginius, as the most moderate, would have passed best, but that
there were private interests, that constant ba