, go about in suppliant garb not more to the commons
than to the younger patricians; they advise, they caution them "to keep
themselves from honours and the administration of public affairs, and
that they would consider the consular fasces, the praetexta and curule
chair, as nothing else than the decorations of a funeral; that when
covered with these fine insignia, as with fillets, they were doomed to
death. But if the charms of the consulate were so great, they should
rest satisfied that the consulate was held in captivity and crushed by
the tribunitian power; that every thing was to be done at the nod and
command of the tribune by the consul, as if he were a tribune's beadle.
If he stir, if he have reference to the patricians, if he should think
for a moment that there existed any other party in the state but the
commons, let him place before his eyes the banishment of Caius Marcius,
the condemnation and death of Menenius." Fired by these discourses, the
patricians from that time held their consultations not in public, but in
private, and withdrawn from the knowledge of the many; where when this
one point was agreed on, that the accused must be rescued whether by
just or unjust means, every proposition that was most desperate was most
approved; nor was an actor wanted for any deed however daring.
Accordingly on the day of trial, when the people stood in the forum in
anxious expectation, they at first began to feel surprised that the
tribune did not come down; then when the delay was now becoming more
suspicious, they considered that he was deterred by the nobles, and they
complained that the public cause was abandoned and betrayed. At length
those who had been waiting before the gate of the tribune's residence,
bring word that he was found dead in his house. As soon as rumour spread
this through the whole assembly, just as an army disperses on the fall
of its general, so did they separate in different directions. The
principal panic seized the tribunes, now warned by their colleague's
death what little aid the devoting laws afforded them. Nor did the
patricians bear their joy with sufficient moderation; and so far was any
of them from feeling compunction at the guilty act, that even those who
were innocent wished to be considered to have perpetrated it, and it was
openly declared that the tribunitian power should be subdued by
chastisement.

55. Immediately after this victory of a most ruinous precedent a levy is
proc