I think it might have been done; whether it would
have been right to do so, it is not so easy to decide. Livy means to say
that it was possible enough for the senators, by lowering the price of
corn, to get rid of the tribunes, &c. Such a judgment is easily formed;
it is not, however, he says, so easy to determine, whether it would have
been expedient to follow the advice of Coriolanus.]

35. This proposal both appeared to the senate too harsh, and from
exasperation well nigh drove the people to arms: "that they were now
assailed with famine, as if enemies, that they were defrauded of food
and sustenance, that the foreign corn, the only support which fortune
unexpectedly furnished to them, was being snatched from their mouth,
unless the tribunes were given up in chains to C. Marcius, unless he
glut his rage on the backs of the commons of Rome. That in him a new
executioner had started up, who ordered them to die or be slaves." An
assault would have been made on him as he left the senate-house, had not
the tribunes very opportunely appointed him a day for trial; by this
their rage was suppressed, every one saw himself become the judge, the
arbiter of the life and death of his foe. At first Marcius heard the
threats of the tribunes with contempt.--"That the right to afford aid,
not to inflict punishment, had been granted to that office; that they
were tribunes of the commons and not of the senators." But the commons
had risen with such violent determination, that the senators were
obliged to extricate themselves from danger by the punishment of
one.[90] They resisted however, in spite of popular odium, and employed,
each individual his own powers, and all those of the entire order. And
first, the trial was made whether they could upset the affair, by
posting their clients (in several places), by deterring individuals from
attending meetings and cabals. Then they all proceeded in a body (you
would suppose that all the senators were on their trial) earnestly
entreating the commons, that if they would not acquit as innocent, they
would at least pardon as guilty, one citizen, one senator. As he did not
attend on the day appointed, they persevered in their resentment. Being
condemned in his absence, he went into exile to the Volsci, threatening
his country, and even then breathing all the resentment of an enemy. The
Volsci received him kindly on his arrival, and treated him still more
kindly every day in proportion as his resen