2.54
L. Furius and C. Manlius
were the next consuls. The Veientines fell to
Manlius as his province. There was no war, however;
a forty years' truce was granted on their request;
they were ordered to furnish corn and pay for the
troops. Peace abroad was at once followed by discord
at home. The tribunes employed the Agrarian Law to
goad the plebs into a state of dangerous excitement.
The consuls, nowise intimidated by the condemnation
of Menenius or the danger in which Servilius had
stood, resisted them with the utmost violence. On
their vacating office the tribune Genucius impeached
them. They were succeeded by L. Aemilius and Opiter
Verginius. I find in some annals Vopiscus Julius
instead of Verginius. Whoever the consuls were, it
was in this year that Furius and Manlius, who were
to be tried before the people, went about in
mourning garb amongst the younger members of the
senate quite as much as amongst the plebs. They
urged them to keep clear of the high offices of
State and the administration of affairs, and to
regard the consular "fasces," the "praetexta," and
the curule chair as nothing but the pomp of death,
for when invested with these insignia they were like
victims adorned for sacrifice. If the consulship
possessed such attractions for them, they must
clearly understand that this office had been
captured and crushed by the tribunician power; the
consul had to do everything at the beck and call of
the tribune just as if he were his apparitor. If he
took an active line, if he showed any regard for the
patricians, if he thought that anything besides the
plebs formed part of the commonwealth, he should
keep before his eyes the banishment of Cn. Marcius,
the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by
these appeals the senators held meetings not in the
Senate-house but in private, only a few being
invited. As the one point on which they were agreed
was that the two who were impeached were to be
rescued, by lawful or unlawful means, the most
desperate plan was the most acceptable, and men were
found who advocated the most daring crime.
Accordingly, on the day of the trial, whilst the
plebs were standing in the Forum on the tiptoe of
expectation, they were surprised that the tribune
did not come down to them. Further delay made them
suspicious; they believed that he had been
intimidated by the leaders of the senate, and they
complained that the cause of the people had been
abandoned and betrayed. At last some who had been
waiting in the vestibule of the tribune's house sent
word that he had been found dead in his house. As
this news spread throughout the assembly, they at
once dispersed in all directions, like a routed army
that has lost its general. The tribunes especially
were alarmed, for they were warned by their
colleague's death how absolutely ineffective the
Sacred Laws were for their protection. The
patricians, on the other hand, showed extravagant
delight; so far was any one of them from regretting
the crime, that even those who had taken no part in
it were anxious to appear as though they had, and it
was openly asserted that the tribunitian power must
be chastised into submission.