laimed; and the tribunes being now overawed, the consuls accomplish
the matter without any opposition. Then indeed the commons became
enraged more on account of the silence of the tribunes than the command
of the consuls: and they said "there was an end of their liberty; that
they were come back again to the old condition of things; that the
tribunitian power had died along with Genucius and was buried with him;
that other means must be devised and practised, by which to resist the
patricians; and that the only method for that was that the people should
defend themselves, since they now had no other aid. That four-and-twenty
lictors waited on the consuls; and that these very individuals were from
among the commons; that nothing could be more despicable, nor weaker, if
there were only persons who could despise them; that each person
magnified those things and made them objects of terror to himself." When
they had excited each other by these discourses, a lictor was despatched
by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man belonging to the commons,
because he stated, that having been a centurion he ought not to be made
a common soldier. Volero appeals to the tribunes. When one came to his
assistance, the consuls order the man to be stripped and the rods to be
got ready. "I appeal to the people," says Volero, "since tribunes had
rather see a Roman citizen scourged before their eyes, than themselves
be butchered by you in their bed." The more vehemently he cried out, the
more violently did the lictor tear off his clothes and strip him. Then
Volero, being both himself of great bodily strength, and being aided by
his partisans, having repulsed the lictor, when the shouts of those
indignant in his behalf became very intense, betook himself into the
thickest part of the crowd, crying out, "I appeal, and implore the
protection of the commons; assist me, fellow citizens; assist me, fellow
soldiers; there is no use in waiting for the tribunes, who themselves
stand in need of your aid." The men, being much excited, prepare as it
were for battle; and it became manifest that there was urgent danger,
that nothing would be held sacred by any one, that there would no longer
exist any public or private right. When the consuls faced this so
violent storm, they soon experienced that majesty without strength had
but little security; the lictors being maltreated, the fasces broken,
they are driven from the forum into the senate-house, uncertain how