4.16
So far the Dictator. He
then gave orders for the house to be forthwith razed
to the ground, that the place where it stood might
be a perpetual reminder of impious hopes crushed. It
was afterwards called the Aequimaelium. L. Minucius
was presented with the Image of a golden ox set up
outside the Trigeminan gate. As he distributed the
corn which had belonged to Maelius at the price of
one "as" per bushel, the plebs raised no objection
to his being thus honoured. I find it stated in some
authorities that this Minucius went over from the
patricians to the plebeians and after being co-opted
as an eleventh tribune quelled a disturbance which
arose in consequence of the death of Maelius. It is,
however, hardly credible that the senate would have
allowed this increase in the number of the tribunes,
or that such a precedent, above all others, should
have been introduced by a patrician, or that if that
concession had been once made, the plebs should not
have adhered to it, or at all events tried to do so.
But the most conclusive refutation of the lying
inscription on his image is to be found in a
provision of the law passed a few years previously
that it should not be lawful for tribunes to co-opt
a colleague. Q. Caecilius, Q. Junius, and Sex.
Titinius were the only members of the college of
tribunes who did not support the proposal to honour
Minucius, and they never ceased to attack Minucius
and Servilius in turn before the Assembly and charge
them with the undeserved death of Maelius. They
succeeded in securing the creation of military
tribunes instead of consuls at the next election,
for they felt no doubt that for the six vacancies -that number could now be elected -some of the
plebeians, by giving out that they would avenge the
death of Maelius, would be elected. But in spite of
the excitement amongst the plebeians owing to the
numerous commotions through the year, they did not
create more than three tribunes with consular
powers; amongst them L. Quinctius the son of the
Cincinnatus who as Dictator incurred such odium that
it was made the pretext for disturbances. Mam.
Aemilius polled the highest number of votes, L.
Julius came in third.