te. Then, on the consul's laying before them
the demands of the tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate were
passed: that neither should the tribunes propose the law during that
year, nor should the consuls lead out the army from the city--that,
for the future, the senate decided that it was against the interests
of the commonwealth that the same magistrates should be continued
and the same tribunes be reappointed. The consuls conformed to
the authority of the senate: the tribunes were reappointed,
notwithstanding the remonstrance of the consuls. The patricians also,
that they might not yield to the commons in any particular, themselves
proposed to re-elect Lucius Quinctius consul. No address of the consul
was delivered with greater warmth during the entire year. "Can I be
surprised," said he, "if your authority with the people is held in
contempt, O conscript fathers? It is you yourselves who are weakening
it. Forsooth, because the commons have violated a decree of the
senate, by reappointing their magistrates, you yourselves also wish
it to be violated, that you may not be outdone by the populace in
rashness; as if greater power in the state consisted in the possession
of greater inconstancy and liberty of action; for it is certainly more
inconstant and greater folly to render null and void one's own decrees
and resolutions, than those of others. Do you, O conscript fathers,
imitate the unthinking multitude; and do you, who should be an example
to others, prefer to transgress by the example of others, rather
than that others should act rightly by yours, provided only I do not
imitate the tribunes, nor allow myself to be declared consul, contrary
to the decree of the senate. But as for you, Gaius Claudius, I
recommend that you, as well as myself, restrain the Roman people from
this licentious spirit, and that you be persuaded of this, as far as I
am concerned, that I shall take it in such a spirit, that I shall not
consider that my attainment of office has been obstructed by you, but
that the glory of having declined the honour has been augmented, and
the odium, which would threaten me if it were continued, lessened."
Thereupon they issued this order jointly: That no one should support
the election of Lucius Quinctius as consul: if any one should do so,
that they would not allow the vote.

The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus (for the third
time), and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. The census was taken