6.27
After
thus distinguishing himself by his skill and courage in the Volscian war and
bringing the expedition against Tusculum to such a happy termination, and
on both occasions treating his colleague with singular consideration and
forbearance, Camillus went out of office. The consular tribunes for the next
year were: Lucius Valerius (for the fifth time) and Publius (for the third
time), C. Sergius (also for the third time), L. Menenius (for the second time),
P. Papirius, and Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis. This year it was found
necessary to appoint censors, mainly owing to the vague rumours which
were afloat about the burden of debt. The plebeian tribunes, in order to stir
up ill-feeling exaggerated the amount, while it was underestimated by those
whose interest it was to represent the difficulty as due to the unwillingness
rather than the inability of the debtor to pay. The censors appointed were C.
Sulpicius Camerinius and Sp. Postumius Regillensis. They commenced a
fresh assessment, but the work was interrupted by the death of Postumius,
because it was doubtful whether the co-optation of a colleague, in the case
of the censors, was permissible. Sulpicius accordingly resigned, and fresh
magistrates were appointed, but owing to some flaw in their election did not
act. Religious fears deterred them from proceeding to a third election; it
seemed as though the gods would not allow a censorship for that year. The
tribunes declared that such mockery was intolerable. "The senate," according
to them, "dreaded the publication of the assessment lists, which supplied
information as to every man's property, because they did not wish the
amount of the debtor to be brought to light, for it would show how one half
of the community was being ruined by the other half, while the
debt-burdened plebs were all the time being exposed to one enemy after
another. Excuses for war were being sought indiscriminately in every
direction; the legions were marched from Antium to Satricum, from
Satricum to Velitrae, from there to Tusculum. And now the Latins, the
Hernici, and the Praenestines were being threatened with hostilities in order
that the patricians might wreak their vengeance on their fellow-citizens more
even than upon the enemy. They were wearing out the plebs by keeping
them under arms and not allowing them any breathing time in the City or any
leisure for thoughts of liberty, or any possibility for taking their place in the
Assembly, where they might listen to the voice of a tribune urging the
reduction of interest and the redress of other grievances. Why, if the plebs
had spirit enough to recall to mind the liberties which their fathers won, they
would never suffer a Roman citizen to be made over to his creditors, nor
would they permit an army to be raised until an account was taken of the
existing debt and some method of reducing it discovered, so that each man
might know what he actually owed, and what was left for himself -whether
his person was free or whether that, too, was due to the stocks." The
premium thus put upon sedition made it at once more active. Many cases
were occurring of men being made over to their creditors, and in view of a
war with Praeneste, the senate had resolved that fresh legions should be
enrolled, but both these proceedings were arrested by the intervention of the
tribunes, supported by the whole body of the plebs. The tribunes refused to
allow the judgment debtors to be carried off; the men whose names were
called for enrolment refused to answer. The senate was less concerned to
insist upon the rights of creditors than to carry out the enlistment, for
information had been received that the enemy had advanced from Praeneste
and were encamped in the district of Gabii. This intelligence, however,
instead of deterring the plebeian tribunes from opposition, only made them
more determined, and nothing availed to quiet the agitation in the City but
the approach of war to its very walls.