The methods of the tribunes in preventing the enrolment were followed by the patricians in obstructing the Law, which was brought forward every day that the Assembly met.

The trouble began when the tribunes had ordered the people to proceed to vote —the patricians refused to withdraw.The voting was conducted by the centuries, each voting as a unit. The vote of thecentury was determined by the majority of theindividuals composing it. To prepare for the voting, spaces were roped off in the Forum, one for each century; and the patricians, by keeping their places, prevented this necessary preparation from being made. The older members of the order were generally absent from proceedings which were certain not to be controlled by reason, but given over to recklessness and licence;

the consuls, too, for the most part kept away, lest in the general disorder the dignity of their office might be exposed to insult.

Caeso was a member of the Quinctian house, and his noble descent and great bodily strength and stature made him a daring and intrepid young man. To these gifts of the gods he added brilliant military qualities and eloquence as a public speaker, so that no one in the State was held to surpass him either in speech or action.

When he took his stand in the middle of a group of patricians, conspicuous amongst them all, carrying as it were in his voice and personal strength all dictatorships and consulships combined, he was the one to withstand the attacks of the tribunes and the storms of popular indignation.

Under his leadership the tribunes were often driven from the Forum, the plebeians routed and chased away, anybody who stood in his way went off stripped and beaten. It became quite clear that if this sort of thing were allowed to go on, the Law would be defeated.