3.69
Seldom if ever was speech
of popular tribune more favourably received by the
plebeians than that of this stern consul. The men of
military age who in similar emergencies had made
refusal to be enrolled their most effective weapon
against the senate, began now to turn their thoughts
to arms and war. The fugitives from the country
districts, those who had been plundered and wounded
in the fields, reported a more terrible state of
things than what was visible from the walls, and
filled the whole City with a thirst for vengeance.
When the senate met, all eyes fumed to Quinctius as
the one man who could uphold the majesty of Rome.
The leaders of the House declared his speech to be
worthy of the position he held as consul, worthy of
the many consulships he had previously held, worthy
of his whole life, rich as it was in honours, many
actually enjoyed, many more deserved. Other consuls,
they said, had either flattered the plebs by
betraying the authority and privileges of the
patricians, or, by insisting too harshly upon the
rights of their order, had intensified the
opposition of the masses, Titus Quinctius, in his
speech, had kept in view the authority of the
senate, the concord of the two orders, and, above
all, the circumstances of the hour. They begged him
and his colleague to take over the conduct of public
affairs, and appealed to the tribunes to be of one
mind with the consuls in wishing to see the war
rolled back from the walls of the City, and inducing
the plebs, at such a crisis, to yield to the
authority of the senate. Their common fatherland
was, they declared, calling on the tribunes and
imploring their aid now that their fields were
ravaged and the City all but attacked.
By universal consent a levy was decreed and
held. The consuls gave public notice that there was
no time for investigating claims for exemption, and
all the men liable for service were to present
themselves the next day in the Campus Martius. When
the war was over they would give time for inquiry
into the cases of those who had not given in their
names, and those who could not prove justification
would be held to be deserters. All who were liable
to serve appeared on the following day. Each of the
cohorts selected their own centurions, and two
senators were placed in command of each cohort. We
understand that these arrangements were so promptly
carried out that the standards, which had been taken
from the treasury and carried down to the Campus
Martius by the quaestors in the morning, left the
Campus at 10 o'clock that same day, and the army, a
newly-raised one with only a few cohorts of veterans
following as volunteers, halted at the tenth
milestone. The next day brought them within sight of
the enemy, and they entrenched their camp close to
the enemy's camp at Corbio. The Romans were fired by
anger and resentment; the enemy, conscious of their
guilt after so many revolts, despaired of pardon.
There was consequently no delay in bringing matters
to an issue.