ce of the death of his brother Quintus Fabius, and the
commonwealth in some degree bereaved by the loss of one of her
consuls, he would not accept the laurel disfigured by public and
private grief. The triumph thus declined was more illustrious than
any triumph actually enjoyed; so true it is, that glory refused at
a fitting moment sometimes returns with accumulated lustre. He next
celebrated the two funerals of his colleague and brother, one after
the other, himself delivering the funeral oration over both, wherein,
by yielding up to them the praise that was his own due, he himself
obtained the greatest share of it; and, not unmindful of that which
he had determined upon at the beginning of his consulate, namely, the
regaining the affection of the people, he distributed the wounded
soldiers among the patricians to be attended to. Most of them were
given to the Fabii: nor were they treated with greater attention
anywhere else. From this time the Fabii began to be popular, and that
not by aught save such conduct as was beneficial to the state.

Accordingly, Caeso Fabius, having been elected consul with Titus
Verginius not more with the good-will of the senators than of the
commons, gave no attention either to wars, or levies, or anything else
in preference, until, the hope of concord being now in some measure
assured, the feelings of the commons should be united with those
of the senators at the earliest opportunity. Accordingly, at the
beginning of the year he proposed that before any tribune should stand
forth as a supporter of the agrarian law, the patricians themselves
should be beforehand in bestowing the gift unasked and making it their
own: that they should distribute among the commons the land taken from
the enemy in as equal a proportion as possible; that it was but just
that those should enjoy it by whose blood and labour it had been won.
The patricians rejected the proposal with scorn: some even complained
that the once vigorous spirit of Caeso was running riot, and decaying
through a surfeit of glory. There were afterward no party struggles in
the city. The Latins, however, were harassed by the incursions of
the Aequans. Caeso being sent thither with an army, crossed into the
territory of the Aequans themselves to lay it waste. The Aequans
retired into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that
account no battle worth mentioning was fought.

However, a reverse was sustained at the hands of the