d of the commons
or the treachery of the slaves: they tried to quiet the disturbances,
and while trying to do so they sometimes aroused them; for the
populace, panic-stricken and terrified, could not be directed by
authority. They gave out arms, however, but not indiscriminately; only
so that, as it was yet uncertain who the enemy were, there might be
a protection sufficiently reliable to meet all emergencies. The
remainder of the night they passed in posting guards in suitable
places throughout the city, anxious and uncertain who the enemy were,
and how great their number. Daylight subsequently disclosed the war
and its leader. Appius Herdonius summoned the slaves to liberty from
the Capitol, saying, that he had espoused the cause of all the most
unfortunate, in order to bring back to their country those who had
been exiled and driven out by wrong, and to remove the grievous yoke
from the slaves: that he had rather that were done under the authority
of the Roman people. If there were no hope in that quarter, he would
rouse the Volscians and Aequans, and would try even the most desperate
remedies.

The whole affair now began to be clearer to the patricians and
consuls; besides the news, however, which was officially announced,
they dreaded lest this might be a scheme of the Veientines or Sabines;
and, further, as there were so many of the enemy in the city, lest
the Sabine and Etruscan troops might presently come up according to
a concerted plan, and their inveterate enemies, the Volscians and
Aequans should come, not to ravage their territories, as before, but
even to the gates of the city, as being already in part taken. Many
and various were their fears, the most prominent among which was their
dread of the slaves, lest each should harbour an enemy in his own
house, one whom it was neither sufficiently safe to trust, nor, by
distrusting, to pronounce unworthy of confidence, lest he might prove
a more deadly foe. And it scarcely seemed that the evil could be
resisted by harmony: no one had any fear of tribunes or commons, while
other troubles so predominated and threatened to swamp the state: that
fear seemed an evil of a mild nature, and one that always arose during
the cessation of other ills, and then appeared to be lulled to rest
by external alarm. Yet at the present time that, almost more than
anything else, weighed heavily on their sinking fortunes: for such
madness took possession of the tribunes, that contend