y would not in
any respect deprive them of their power, but would add prudence to
strength; and the senators would be under the control of the people,
and the consul under that of the senators.

The people were with difficulty pacified by Quinctius; the other
consul with much more difficulty by the patricians. The assembly of
the people having been at length dismissed, the consuls convened the
senate; in which, though fear and resentment by turns had produced a
diversity of opinions, the more their minds were called off, by lapse
of time, from passion to reflection, the more adverse did they become
to contentiousness, so that they returned thanks to Quinctius, because
it was owing to his exertions that the disturbance had been quieted.
Appius was requested to give his consent that the consular dignity
should be merely so great as it could be in a state if it was to be
united: it was declared that, as long as the tribunes and consuls
claimed all power, each for his own side, no strength was left
between: that the commonwealth was distracted and torn asunder: that
the object aimed at was rather to whom it should belong, than that
it should be safe. Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to
witness that the commonwealth was being betrayed and abandoned through
cowardice; that it was not the consul who had failed to support the
senate, but the senate the consul: that more oppressive conditions
were now being submitted to than had been submitted to on the Sacred
Mount. Overcome, however, by the unanimous feeling of the senators, he
desisted: the law was carried without opposition.

Then for the first time the tribunes were elected in the comita
tributa. Piso is the authority for the statement that three were added
to the number, as if there had been only two before. He also gives
the names of the tribunes, Gnaeus Siccius, Lucius Numitorius, Marcus
Duellius, Spurius Icilius, Lucius Mecilius. During the disturbance
at Rome, a war broke out with the Volscians and AEquans, who had laid
waste the country, so that, if any secession of the people took place,
they might find a refuge with them. Afterward, when matters were
settled, they moved back their camp. Appius Claudius was sent against
the Volscians; the AEquans fell to Quinctius as his province. Appius
exhibited the same severity in war as at home, only more unrestrained,
because it was free from the control of the tribunes. He hated the
commons with a hatred greater