4.1
The
consuls who succeeded were M. Genucius and C.
Curtius. The year was a troubled one both at home
and abroad. In the beginning of the year C.
Canuleius, a tribune of the plebs, introduced a law
with regard to the intermarriage of patricians and
plebeians. The patricians considered that their
blood would be contaminated by it and the special
rights of the houses thrown into confusion. Then the
tribunes began to throw out hints about one consul
being elected from the plebs, and matters advanced
so far that nine tribunes brought in a measure
empowering the people to elect consuls from the
plebeians or the patricians as they chose. The
patricians believed that, if this were carried, the
supreme power would not only be degraded by being
shared with the lowest of the people, but would
entirely pass away from the chief men in the State
into the hands of the plebs. The senate were not
sorry, therefore, to hear that Ardea had revolted as
a consequence of the unjust decision about the
territory, that the Veientines had ravaged the
districts on the Roman frontier, and that the
Volscians and Aequi were protesting against the
fortifying of Verrugo; so much did they prefer war,
even when unsuccessful, to an ignominious peace. On
receiving these reports -which were somewhat
exaggerated -the senate tried to drown the voice of
the tribunes in the uproar of so many wars by
ordering a levy to be made and all preparations for
war pushed on with the utmost vigour, more so, if
possible, than during the consulship of T.
Quinctius. Thereupon C. Canuleius addressed the
senate in a short and angry speech. It was, he said,
useless for the consuls to hold out threats in the
hope of distracting the attention of the plebs from
the proposed law; as long as he was alive they
should never hold a levy until the plebs had adopted
the measures brought forward by himself and his
colleagues. He at once convened an Assembly.