5.14
These were the
occurrences of the year. And now the time for the
election of consular tribunes was approaching. The
senate was almost more anxious about this than about
the war, for they recognised that they were not
simply sharing the supreme power with the plebs, but
had almost completely lost it. An understanding was
come to by which their most distinguished members
were to come forward as candidates; they believed
that for very shame they would not be passed over.
Besides this, they resorted to every expedient, just
as if they were every one of them candidates, and
called to their aid not men alone, but even the
gods. They made a religious question of the last two
elections. In the former year, they said, an
intolerably severe winter had occurred which seemed
to be a divine warning; in the last year they had
not warnings only but the judgments themselves. The
pestilence which had visited the country districts
and the City was undoubtedly a mark of the divine
displeasure, for it had been found in the Books of
Fate that to avert that scourge the gods must be
appeased. The auspices were taken before an
election, and the gods deemed it an insult that the
highest offices should be made common and the
distinction of classes thrown into confusion. Men
were awestruck not only by the dignity and rank of
the candidates, but by the religious aspect of the
question, and they elected all the consular tribunes
from the patricians, the great majority being all
men of high distinction. Those elected were L.
Valerius Potitus -for the fifth time -M. Valerius
Maximus, M. Furius Camillus -for the second time -L. Furius Medullinus -for the third time -Q.
Servilius Fidenates -for the second time -and Q.
Sulpicius Camerinus -for the second time. During
their year of office nothing of any importance was
done at Veii; their whole activity was confined to
raids. Two of the commanders-in-chief carried off an
enormous quantity of plunder -Potitus from Falerii
and Camillus from Capenae. They left nothing behind
which fire or sword could destroy.
