2.27
After the defeat of the
Auruncans, the Romans, who had, within a few days,
fought so many successful wars, were expecting the
fulfilment of the promises which the consul had made
on the authority of the senate. Appius, partly from
his innate love of tyranny and partly to undermine
the confidence felt in his colleague, gave the
harshest sentences he could when debtors were
brought before him. One after another those who had
before pledged their persons as security were now
handed over to their creditors, and others were
compelled to give such security. A soldier to whom
this happened appealed to the colleague of Appius. A
crowd gathered round Servilius, they reminded him of
his promises, upbraided him with their services in
war and the scars they had received, and demanded
that he should either get an ordinance passed by the
senate, or, as consul, protect his people; as
commander, his soldiers. The consul sympathised with
them, but under the circumstances he was compelled
to temporise; the opposite policy was so recklessly
insisted on not only by his colleague but by the
entire party of the nobility. By taking a middle
course he did not escape the odium of the plebs nor
did he win the favour of the patricians. These
regarded him as a weak popularity-hunting consul,
the plebeians considered him false, and it soon
became apparent that he was as much detested as
Appius.
A dispute had arisen between the consuls as
to which of them should dedicate the temple of
Mercury. The senate referred the question to the
people, and issued orders that the one to whom the
dedication was assigned by the people should preside
over the corn-market and form a guild of merchants
and discharge functions in the presence of the
Pontifex Maximus. The people assigned the dedication
of the temple to M. Laetorius, the first centurion
of the legion, a choice obviously made not so much
to honour the man, by conferring upon him an office
so far above his station, as to bring discredit on
the consuls. One of them, at all events, was
excessively angry, as were the senate, but the
courage of the plebs had risen, and they went to
work in a very different method from that which they
had adopted at first. For as any prospect of help
from the consuls or the senate was hopeless, they
took matters into their own hands, and whenever they
saw a debtor brought before the court, they rushed
there from all sides, and by their shouts and uproar
prevented the consul's sentence from being heard,
and when it was pronounced no one obeyed it. They
resorted to violence, and all the fear and danger to
personal liberty was transferred from the debtors to
the creditors, who were roughly handled before the
eyes of the consul. In addition to all this there
were growing apprehensions of a Sabine war. A levy
was decreed, but no one gave in his name. Appius was
furious; he accused his colleague of courting the
favour of the people, denounced him as a traitor to
the commonwealth because he refused to give sentence
where debtors were brought before him, and moreover
he refused to raise troops after the senate had
ordered a levy. Still, he declared, the ship of
State was not entirely deserted nor the consular
authority thrown to the winds; he, single-handed,
would vindicate his own dignity and that of the
senate. Whilst the usual daily crowd were standing
round him, growing ever bolder in licence, he
ordered one conspicuous leader of the agitation to
be arrested. As he was being dragged away by the
lictors, he appealed. There was no doubt as to what
judgment the people would give, and he would not
have allowed the appeal had not his obstinacy been
with great difficulty overcome more by the prudence
and authority of the senate than by the clamour of
the people, so determined was he to brave the
popular odium. From that time the mischief became
more serious every day, not only through open
clamour but, what was far more dangerous, through
secession and secret meetings. At length the
consuls, detested as they were by the plebs, went
out of office -Servilius equally hated by both
orders, Appius in wonderful favour with the
patricians.