2.44
This year also found a
tribune advocating the Agrarian Law. It was Tiberius
Pontificius. He adopted the same course as Sp.
Licinius and for a short time stopped the enrolment.
The senate were again perturbed, but Appius Claudius
told them that the power of the tribunes had been
overcome in the previous year, it was actually so at
the present moment, and the precedent thus set would
govern the future, since it had been discovered that
its very strength was breaking it down. For there
would never be wanting a tribune who would be glad
to triumph over his colleague and secure the favour
of the better party for the good of the State. If
more were needed, more were ready to come to the
assistance of the consuls, even one was sufficient,
against the rest. The consuls and leaders of the
senate had only to take the trouble to secure, if
not all, at least some of the tribunes on the side
of the commonwealth and the senate. The senators
followed this advice, and whilst, as a body, they
treated the tribunes with courtesy and kindness, the
men of consular rank, in each private suit which
they instituted, succeeded, partly by personal
influence, partly by the authority their rank gave
them. in getting the tribunes to exert their power
for the welfare of the State. Four of the tribunes
were opposed to the one who was a hindrance to the
public good; by their aid the consuls raised the
levy.
Then they set out for the campaign against
Veii. Succours had reached this city from all parts
of Etruria, not so much out of regard for the
Veientines as because hopes were entertained of the
possible dissolution of the Roman State through
intestine discord. In the public assemblies
throughout the cities of Etruria the chiefs were
loudly proclaiming that the Roman power would be
eternal unless its citizens fell into the madness of
mutual strife. This, they said, had proved to be the
one poison, the one bane in powerful states which
made great empires mortal. That mischief had been
for a long time checked, partly by the wise policy
of the senate, partly by the forbearance of the
plebs, but now things had reached extremities. The
one State had been severed into two, each with its
own magistrates and its own laws. At first the
enrolments were the cause of the quarrel, but when
actually on service the men obeyed their generals.
As long as military discipline was maintained the
evil could be arrested, whatever the state of
affairs in the City, but now the fashion of
disobedience to the magistrates was following the
Roman soldier even into the camp. During the last
war, in the battle itself, at the crisis of the
engagement, the victory was by the common action of
the whole army transferred to the vanquished Aequi,
the standards were abandoned, the commander left
alone on the field, the troops returned against
orders into camp. In fact, if matters were pressed,
Rome could be vanquished through her own soldiers,
nothing else was needful than a declaration of war,
a show of military activity, the Fates and the gods
would do the rest.