pitol were driven
away by dogs, and that on account of that prodigy the Capitol was
purified. Such were the transactions of that year.

Quintus Minucius and Gaius Horatius Pulvillus were the next consuls.
At the beginning of this year, when there was peace abroad, the same
tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and matters
would have proceeded further--so highly were men's minds inflamed-had
not news been brought, as if for the very purpose, that by a night
attack of the AEquans the garrison at Corbio had been cut off. The
consuls convened the senate: they were ordered to raise a hasty levy
and to lead it to Algidum. Then, the struggle about the law being
abandoned, a new dispute arose regarding the levy. The consular
authority was on the point of being overpowered by tribunician
influence, when an additional cause of alarm arose: that the Sabine
army had made a descent upon Roman territory to commit depredations
and from thence was advancing toward the city. This fear influenced
the tribunes to allow the soldiers to be enrolled, not without a
stipulation, however, that since they themselves had been foiled for
five years, and as the present college was but inadequate protection
for the commons, ten tribunes of the people should henceforward be
elected. Necessity extorted this concession from the patricians: they
only exacted this proviso, that they should not hereafter see the same
men tribunes. The election for the tribunes was held immediately, lest
that measure also, like others, might remain unfulfilled after the
war. In the thirty-sixth year after the first tribunes, ten were
elected, two from each class; and provision was made that they should
be elected in this manner for the future. The levy being then held,
Minucius marched out against the Sabines, but found no enemy.
Horatius, when the AEquans, having put the garrison at Corbio to the
sword, had taken Ortona also, fought a battle at Algidum, in which he
slew a great number of the enemy and drove them not only from Algidum,
but from Corbio and Ortona. He also razed Corbio to the ground for
having betrayed the garrison.

Marcus Valerius and Spurius Verginius were next elected consuls.
Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. The people were distressed for
provisions on account of the excessive rains. A law was proposed to
make Mount Aventine public property. [39] The same tribunes of the
people were re-elected. In the following year, Titus Romi