5.25
This discussion was
attended by disgraceful quarrels, for the senate had
drawn over a section of the tribunes of the plebs to
their view, and the only thing that restrained the
plebeians from offering personal violence was the
use which the patricians made of their personal
influence. Whenever shouts were raised to get up a
brawl, the leaders of the senate were the first to
go into the crowd and tell them to vent their rage
on them, to beat and kill them. The mob shrank from
offering violence to men of their age and rank and
distinction, and this feeling prevented them from
attacking the other patricians. Camillus went about
delivering harangues everywhere, and saying that it
was no wonder that the citizens had gone mad, for
though bound by a vow, they showed more anxiety
about everything than about discharging their
religious obligations. He would say nothing about
the contribution, which was really a sacred offering
rather than a tithe, and since each individual bound
himself to a tenth, the State, as such, was free
from the obligation. But his conscience would not
allow him to keep silence about the assertion that
the tenth only applied to movables, and that no
mention was made of the city and its territory,
which were also really included in the vow. As the
senate considered the question a difficult one to
decide, they referred it to the pontiffs, and
Camillus was invited to discuss it with them. They
decided that of all that had belonged to the
Veientines before the vow was uttered and had
subsequently passed into the power of Rome, a tenth
part was sacred to Apollo. Thus the city and
territory came into the estimate. The money was
drawn from the treasury, and the consular tribunes
were commissioned to purchase gold with it. As there
was not a sufficient supply, the matrons, after
meeting to talk the matter over, made themselves by
common consent responsible to the tribunes for the
gold, and sent all their trinkets to the treasury.
The senate were in the highest degree grateful for
this, and the tradition goes that in return for this
munificence the matrons had conferred upon them the
honour of driving to sacred festivals and games in a
carriage, and on holy days and work days in a
two-wheeled car. The gold received from each was
appraised in order that the proper amount of money
might be paid for it, and it was decided that a
golden bowl should be made and carried to Delphi as
a gift to Apollo. When the religious question no
longer claimed their attention, the tribunes of the
plebs renewed their agitation; the passions of the
populace were aroused against all the leading men,
most of all against Camillus. They said that by
devoting the spoils of Veii to the State and to the
gods he had reduced them to nothing. They attacked
the senators furiously in their absence; when they
were present and confronted their rage, shame kept
them silent. As soon as the plebeians saw that the
matter would be carried over into the following
year, they reappointed the supporters of the
proposal as their tribunes; the patricians devoted
themselves to securing the same support for those
who had vetoed the proposal. Consequently, nearly
all the same tribunes of the plebs were re-elected.