schools; of the people, such as were tradesmen, he found in their
workshops, busied about their several employments, and the better sort
of citizens walking in the public places in their ordinary dress; the
magistrates hurried about to provide quarters for the Romans, as if they
stood in fear of no danger and were conscious of no fault. Which arts,
though they could not dispossess Camillus of the conviction he had of
their treason, yet induced some compassion for their repentance; he
commanded them to go to the senate and deprecate their anger, and
joined himself as an intercessor in their behalf, so that their city was
acquitted of all guilt and admitted to Roman citizenship. These were the
most memorable actions of his sixth tribuneship.
After these things, Licinius Stolo raised a great sedition in the city,
and brought the people to dissension with the senate, contending, that
of two consuls one should be chosen out of the commons, and not both out
of the patricians. Tribunes of the people were chosen, but the election
of consuls was interrupted and prevented by the people. And as this
absence of any supreme magistrate was leading to yet further confusion,
Camillus was the fourth time created dictator by the senate, sorely
against the people's will, and not altogether in accordance with his
own; he had little desire for a conflict with men whose past services
entitles them to tell him that he had achieved far greater actions in
war along with them than in politics with the patricians, who, indeed,
had only put him forward now out of envy; that, if successful, he might
crush the people, or, failing, be crushed himself. However, to provide
as good a remedy as he could for the present, knowing the day on which
the tribunes of the people intended to prefer the law, he appointed it
by proclamation for a general muster, and called the people from the
forum into the Campus, threatening to set heavy fines upon such as
should not obey. On the other side, the tribunes of the people met
his threats by solemnly protesting they would fine him fifty thousand
drachmas of silver, if he persisted in obstructing the people from
giving their suffrages for the law. Whether it were, then, that he
feared another banishment or condemnation, which would ill become his
age and past great actions, or found himself unable to stem the current
of the multitude, which ran strong and violent, he betook himself,
for the present, to his house, and
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