2.33
Negotiations were then
entered upon for a reconciliation. An agreement was
arrived at, the terms being that the plebs should
have its own magistrates, whose persons were to be
inviolable, and who should have the right of
affording protection against the consuls. And
further, no patrician should be allowed to hold that
office. Two "tribunes of the plebs" were elected, C.
Licinius and L. Albinus. These chose three
colleagues. It is generally agreed that Sicinius,
the instigator of the secession, was amongst them,
but who the other two were is not settled. Some say
that only two tribunes were created on the Sacred
Hill and that it was there that the lex sacrata was
passed. During the secession of the plebs Sp.
Cassius and Postumius Cominius entered on their
consulship. In their year of office a treaty was
concluded with the Latin towns, and one of the
consuls remained in Rome for the purpose. The other
was sent to the Volscian war. He routed a force of
Volscians from Antium, and pursued them to Longula,
which he gained possession of. Then he advanced to
Polusca, also belonging to the Volscians, which he
captured, after which he attacked Corioli in great
force.
Amongst the most distinguished of the young
soldiers in the camp at that time was Cnaeus
Marcius, a young man prompt in counsel and action,
who afterwards received the epithet of Coriolanus.
During the progress of the siege, while the Roman
army was devoting its whole attention to the
townspeople whom it had shut up within their walls,
and not in the least apprehending any danger from
hostile movements without, it was suddenly attacked
by Volscian legions who had marched from Antium. At
the same moment a sortie was made from the town.
Marcius happened to be on guard, and with a picked
body of men not only repelled the sortie but made a
bold dash through the open gate, and after cutting
down many in the part of the city nearest to him,
seized some fire and hurled it on the buildings
which abutted on the walls. The shouts of the
townsmen mingled with the shrieks of the terrified
women and children encouraged the Romans and
dismayed the Volscians, who thought that the city
which they had come to assist was already captured.
So the troops from Antium were routed and Corioli
taken. The renown which Marcius won so completely
eclipsed that of the consul, that, had not the
treaty with the Latins -which owing to his
colleague's absence had been concluded by Sp.
Cassius alone -been inscribed on a brazen column,
and so permanently recorded, all memory of Postumius
Cominius having carried on a war with the Volscians
would have perished. In the same year Agrippa
Menenius died, a man who all through his life was
equally beloved by the patricians and the plebeians,
and made himself still more endeared to the
plebeians after their secession. Yet he, the
negotiator and arbitrator of the reconciliation, who
acted as the ambassador of the patricians to the
plebs, and brought them back to the City, did not
possess money enough to defray the cost of his
funeral. He was interred by the plebeians, each man
contributing a sextans towards the expense.