es, if they should come there, would, among the rest of the
crowd, be subjected to the consular authority." These matters alarmed
them; but the greatest terror which acted on their minds was, that
Quintius frequently said, "that he would not hold an election of
consuls. That the state was affected with such a disease, as could not
be stopped by the ordinary remedies. That the commonwealth required a
dictator, so that whoever should stir a step to disturb the peace of the
state, might feel that the dictatorship was without appeal."

21. The senate was assembled in the Capitol. Thither the tribunes come
with the commons in great consternation: the populace, with loud
clamours, implore the protection now of the consuls, now of the
patricians: nor could they make the consul recede from his
determination, until the tribunes promised that they would be under the
direction of the patricians. Then on the consul's laying before them the
demands of the tribunes and commons, decrees of the senate are passed,
"That neither the tribunes should propose the law during that year, and
that the consuls should not lead the army from the city--that for the
time to come, the senate decided that it was to the injury of the
commonwealth, that the same magistrates should be continued, and the
same tribunes be re-appointed." The consuls conformed to the authority
of the senate, the tribunes were re-appointed notwithstanding the
remonstrances of the consuls. The patricians also, that they might not
yield to the commons in any particular, re-elected Lucius Quintius
consul. No proceeding of the consul was urged with more warmth during
the entire year. "Can I be surprised," says he, "if your authority is of
little weight, conscript fathers? yourselves are disparaging it.
Forsooth, because the commons have violated a decree of the senate, by
re-appointing their magistrates, you yourselves also wish it to be
violated, lest ye should yield to the populace in rashness; as if to
possess greater power in the state consisted in having more of
inconstancy and irregularity; for it is certainly more inconstant and
greater folly, to do away with one's own decrees and resolutions, than
those of others. Imitate, conscript fathers, the inconsiderate
multitude; and ye, who should be an example to others, transgress by the
example of others, rather than others should act correctly by yours,
provided I imitate not the tribunes, nor suffer myself to be re-elected
co