d so drawn up his line that he routed the enemy's
army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue
them when routed; nor, although the exhortation of their general, whom
they hated, had no effect upon them, could even their own infamy, and
the immediate public disgrace and subsequent danger likely to arise,
if the enemy recovered their courage, induce them to quicken their
pace, or even, if nothing else, to stand in order of battle. Without
orders they faced about, and with a sorrowful air (one would have
thought them defeated) they returned to camp, execrating at one time
their general, at another the vigour displayed by the cavalry. Nor
did the general know where to look for any remedies for so harmful a
precedent: so true is it that the most distinguished talents will be
more likely found deficient in the art of managing a countryman, than
in that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to Rome, not
having so much increased his military glory as irritated and
exasperated the hatred of his soldiers toward him. The patricians,
however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family.
They elected Marcus Fabius consul; Gnaeus Manlius was assigned as a
colleague to Fabius.

This year also found a tribune to support an agrarian law. This was
Tiberius Pontificius, who, pursuing the same tactics, as if it had
succeeded in the case of Spurius Licinius, obstructed the levy for a
little time. The patricians being once more perplexed, Appius Claudius
declared that the tribunician power had been put down the year
before, for the moment by the fact, for the future by the precedent
established, since it was found that it could be rendered ineffective
by its own strength; for that there never would be wanting a tribune
who would both be willing to obtain a victory for himself over his
colleague, and the good-will of the better party to on advancement of
the public weal: that more tribunes than one, if there were need of
more than one, would be ready to assist the consuls: and that in fact
one would be sufficient even against all.[55] Only let the consuls and
leading members of the senate take care to win over, if not all, at
least some of the tribunes, to the side of the commonwealth and the
senate. The senators, instructed by the counsels of Appius, both
collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and courtesy, and
the men of consular rank, according as each possessed private personal
infl