ut before signing them they exposed
them publicly, that every one might read and consider them, and if any
defect were discovered in them, it might be corrected before they
were finally passed. At this juncture Appius caused it to be notified
throughout the city that were two other tables added to these ten, the
laws would be complete; hoping that under this belief the people would
consent to continue the decemvirate for another year. This consent the
people willingly gave, partly to prevent the consuls being reinstated,
and partly because they thought they could hold their ground without the
aid of the tribunes, who, as has already been said, were the judges in
criminal cases.

On it being resolved to reappoint the decemvirate, all the nobles set to
canvass for the office, Appius among the foremost; and such cordiality
did he display towards the commons while seeking their votes, that
the other candidates, "_unable to persuade themselves that so much
affability on the part of so proud a man was wholly disinterested,_"
began to suspect him; but fearing to oppose him openly, sought to
circumvent him, by putting him forward, though the youngest of them all,
to declare to the people the names of the proposed decemvirs; thinking
that he would not venture to name himself, that being an unusual course
in Rome, and held discreditable. "_But what they meant as a hindrance,
he turned to account,_" by proposing, to the surprise and displeasure of
the whole nobility, his own name first, and then nominating nine others
on whose support he thought he could depend.

The new appointments, which were to last for a year, having been made,
Appius soon let both commons and nobles know the mistake they had
committed, for throwing off the mask, he allowed his innate arrogance to
appear, and speedily infected his colleagues with the same spirit;
who, to overawe the people and the senate, instead of twelve lictors,
appointed one hundred and twenty. For a time their measures were
directed against high and low alike; but presently they began to
intrigue with the senate, and to attack the commons; and if any of the
latter, on being harshly used by one decemvir, ventured to appeal to
another, he was worse handled on the appeal than in the first instance.
The commons, on discovering their error, began in their despair to turn
their eyes towards the nobles, "_and to look for a breeze of freedom
from that very quarter whence fearing slavery they ha