ing that he had been elected by the senators, not as
consul, but as executioner, to harass and torture the people; his rude
tongue, he being a military man, was not sufficient to express the
freedom of his sentiments. Language therefore failing him, he says,
"Romans, since I do not speak with as much readiness as I make good what
I have spoken, attend here to-morrow. I will either die here before your
eyes, or will carry the law." On the following day the tribunes take
possession of the temple; the consuls and the nobility take their places
in the assembly to obstruct the law. Laetorius orders all persons to be
removed, except those going to vote; the young nobles kept their places,
paying no regard to the officer; then Laetorius orders some of them to be
seized. The consul Appius insisted "that the tribune had no jurisdiction
over any one except a plebeian; for that he was not a magistrate of the
people in general, but only of the commons; for that even he himself
could not, according to the usage of their ancestors, by virtue of his
authority remove any person; because the words run thus, _if ye think
proper, depart, Romans_." He was able to disconcert Laetorius by arguing
fluently and contemptuously concerning the right. The tribune therefore,
burning with rage, sends his beadle to the consul; the consul sends his
lictor to the tribune, exclaiming that he was a private individual,
without power and without magistracy; and the tribune would have been
roughly treated, had not both the entire assembly risen up with great
warmth in behalf of the tribune against the consul, and a rush of
persons belonging to the multitude, which was now much excited, taken
place from the entire city into the forum. Appius, however, withstood
so great a storm with obstinacy, and the contest would have ended in a
battle, not without blood, had not Quintius, the other consul, after
giving it in charge to the men of consular dignity to remove his
colleague from the forum by force, if they could not do it otherwise,
himself assuaged the enraged people by entreaties, and implored the
tribunes to dismiss the assembly. "That they should give their passion
time to cool; that delay would not deprive them of their power, but
would add prudence to strength; and that the senators would be under the
control of the people, and the consul under that of the senators."

57. With difficulty the people were pacified by Quintius: with much more
difficulty was