same
stubbornness in his looks, the same spirit of pride in his language:
so that a great part of the commons felt no less awe of Appius when on
his trial than they had felt for him when consul. He pleaded his cause
only once, and in the same haughty style of an accuser which he had
been accustomed to adopt on all occasions: and he so astounded both
the tribunes and the commons by his intrepidity, that, of their own
accord, they postponed the day of trial, and then allowed the matter
to die out. No long interval elapsed: before, however, the appointed
day came, he died of some disease; and when the tribunes of the people
endeavoured to put a stop to his funeral panegyric, the commons would
not allow the burial day of so great a man to be defrauded of the
customary honours: and they listened to his eulogy when dead as
patiently as they had listened to the charges brought against him when
living, and attended his obsequies in vast numbers.

In the same year the consul Valerius, having marched with an army
against the Aequans, and being unable to draw out the enemy to an
engagement, proceeded to attack their camp. A dreadful storm coming
down from heaven accompanied by thunder and hail prevented him. Then,
on a signal for a retreat being given, their surprise was excited
by the return of such fair weather, that they felt scruples about
attacking a second time a camp which was defended as it were by some
divine power: all the violence of the war was directed to plundering
the country. The other consul, Aemilius, conducted the war in Sabine
territory. There also, because the enemy confined themselves within
their walls, the lands were laid waste. Then the Sabines, roused by
the burning not only of the farms, but of the villages also, which
were thickly inhabited, after they had fallen in with the raiders
retired from an engagement the issue of which was left undecided, and
on the following day removed their camp into a safer situation. This
seemed a sufficient reason to the consul why he should leave the
enemy as conquered, and depart thence, although the war was as yet
unfinished.

During these wars, while dissensions still continued at home, Titus
Numicius Priscus and Aulus Verginius were elected consuls. The commons
appeared determined no longer to brook the delay in accepting the
agrarian law, and extreme violence was on the point of being resorted
to, when it became known by the smoke from the burning farms and
the f