4.2
The consuls began to rouse
the senate to take action against the tribunes, and
at the same time the tribunes were getting up an
agitation against the consuls. The consuls declared
that the revolutionary proceedings of the tribunes
could no longer be tolerated, matters had come to a
crisis, there was a more bitter war going on at home
than abroad. This was not the fault of the plebs so
much as of the senate, nor of the tribunes more than
of the consuls. Those things in a State which attain
the highest development are those which are
encouraged by rewards; it is thus that men become
good citizens in times of peace, good soldiers in
times of war. In Rome the greatest rewards are won
by seditious agitations, these have always brought
honour to men both individually and in the mass.
Those present should reflect upon the greatness and
dignity of the senate as they had received it from
their fathers, and consider what they were going to
hand on to their children, in order that they might
be able to feel pride in the extension and growth of
its influence, as the plebs felt pride in theirs.
There was no final settlement in sight, nor would
there be as long as agitators were honoured in
proportion to the success of their agitation. What
enormous questions had C. Canuleius raised! He was
advocating the breaking up of the houses, tampering
with the auspices, both those of the State and those
of individuals, so that nothing would be pure,
nothing free from contamination, and in the effacing
of all distinctions of rank, no one would know
either himself or his kindred. What other result
would mixed marriages have except to make unions
between patricians and plebeians almost like the
promiscuous association of animals? The offspring of
such marriages would not know whose blood flowed in
his veins, what sacred rites he might perform; half
of him patrician, half plebeian, he would not even
be in harmony with himself. And as though it were a
small matter for all things human and divine to be
thrown into confusion, the disturbers of the people
were now making an onslaught on the consulship. At
first the question of one consul being elected from
the plebs was only mooted in private conversations,
now a measure was brought forward giving the people
power to elect consuls from either patricians or
plebeians as they chose. And there was no shadow of
doubt that they would elect all the most dangerous
revolutionaries in the plebs; the Canuleii and the
Icilii would be consuls. Might Jupiter Optimus
Maximus never allow a power truly royal in its
majesty to sink so low! They would rather die a
thousand deaths than suffer such an ignominy to be
perpetrated. Could their ancestors have divined that
all their concessions only served to make the plebs
more exacting, not more friendly, since their first
success only emboldened them to make more and more
urgent demands, it was quite certain that they would
have gone any lengths in resistance sooner than
allow these laws to be forced upon them. Because a
concession was once made in the matter of tribunes,
it had been made again; there was no end to it.
Tribunes of the plebs and the senate could not exist
in the same State, either that office or this order
(i.e. the nobility) must go. Their insolence and
recklessness must be opposed, and better late than
never. Were they to be allowed with impunity to stir
up our neighbours to war by sowing the seeds of
discord and then prevent the State from arming in
its defence against those whom they had stirred up,
and after all but summoning the enemy not allow
armies to be enrolled against the enemy? Was
Canuleius, forsooth, to have the audacity to give
out before the senate that unless it was prepared to
accept his conditions, like those of a conqueror, he
would stop a levy being held? What else was that but
threatening to betray his country and allowing it to
be attacked and captured ? What courage would his
words inspire, not in the Roman plebs but in the
Volscians and Aequi and Veientines! Would they not
hope, with Canuleius as their leader, to be able to
scale the Capitol and the Citadel, if the tribunes,
after stripping the senate of its rights and its
authority, deprived it also of its courage? The
consuls were ready to be their leaders against
criminal citizens before they led them against the
enemy in arms.