carry into the city the same moderation which
you observed here, where in spite of the pressing need of so many
things necessary for so large a number of persons, no man's field has
been injured. Go to the Aventine, whence you set out. There, in that
auspicious place, where you laid the first beginnings of your liberty,
you shall elect tribunes of the people. The chief pontiff will be at
hand to hold the elections." Great was their approval and joy, as
evinced in their assent to every measure. They then pulled up their
standards, and having set out for Rome, vied in exultation with all
they met. Silently, under arms, they marched through the city and
reached the Aventine. There, the chief pontiff holding the meeting
for the elections, they immediately elected as their tribunes of
the people, first of all Lucius Verginius, then Lucius Icilius, and
Publius Numitorius, the uncle of Verginius, who had recommended the
secession: then Gaius Sicinius, the offspring of him who is recorded
to have been elected first tribune of the commons on the Sacred Mount;
and Marcus Duillius, who had held a distinguished tribuneship before
the appointment of the decemvirs, and never failed the commons in
their contests with the decemvirs. Marcus Titinius, Marcus Pomponius,
Gaius Apronius, Appius Villius, and Gaius Oppius, were elected more
from hope entertained of them than from any actual services. When he
entered on his tribuneship, Lucius Icilius immediately brought before
the people, and the people enacted, that the secession from the
decemvirs which had taken place should not prove detrimental to any
individual. Immediately after Duillius carried a proposition for
electing consuls, with right of appeal[59]. All these things were
transacted in an assembly of the commons in the Flaminian meadows,
which are now called the Flaminian Circus.[60]

Then, through an interrex, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius were
elected consuls, and immediately entered on their office; their
consulship, agreeable to the people, although it did no injury to
the patricians, was not, however, without giving them offence; for
whatever measures were taken to secure the liberty of the people, they
considered to be a diminution of their own power. First of all, when
it was as it were a disputed point of law, whether patricians were
bound by regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, they
proposed a law in the assembly of the centuries, that whatever the