ad been frequently attempted in opposition to the consuls, might be
obtained now that at any rate one consul supported it: the consul
remained firm in his opinion. The possessors of state land [1]--and
these a considerable part of the patricians--transferred the odium of
the entire affair from the tribunes to the consul, complaining that a
man, who held the first office in the state, was busying himself with
proposals more befitting the tribunes, and was gaining popularity by
making presents out of other people's property. A violent contest
was at hand; had not Fabius compromised the matter by a suggestion
disagreeable to neither party. That under the conduct and auspices of
Titus Quinctius a considerable tract of land had been taken in the
preceding year from the Volscians: that a colony might be sent to
Antium, a neighbouring and conveniently situated maritime city: in
this manner the commons would come in for lands without any complaints
on the part of the present occupiers, and the state remain at peace.
This proposition was accepted. He secured the appointment of Titus
Quinctius, Aulus Verginius, and Publius Furius as triumvirs for
distributing the land: such as wished to receive land were ordered to
give in their names. The attainment of their object created disgust
immediately, as usually happens, and so few gave in their names that
Volscian colonists were added to fill up the number: the rest of the
people preferred to ask for land in Rome, rather than to receive it
elsewhere. The Aequans sued for peace from Quintus Fabius (he had
gone thither with an army), and they themselves broke it by a sudden
incursion into Latin territory.

In the following year Quintus Servilius (for he was consul with
Spurius Postumius), being sent against the Aequans, pitched his camp
permanently in Latin territory: unavoidable inaction held the army in
check, since it was attacked by illness. The war was protracted to the
third year, when Quintus Fabius and Titus Quinctius were consuls. To
Fabius, because he, as conqueror, had granted peace to the Aequans
that sphere of action was assigned in an unusual manner.[2]He, setting
out with a sure hope that his name and renown would reduce the Aequans
to submission, sent ambassadors to the council of the nation, and
ordered them to announce that Quintus Fabius, the consul, stated that
he had brought peace to Rome from the Aequans, that from Rome he now
brought them war, with that same right