The plebeians now began to study the faces of the patricians, to catch haply some gleam of liberty from the men from whom they had dreaded slavery and through that dread had brought the commonwealth into its present condition.
The leaders of the senate hated the decemvirs, and hated the plebs; they did not approve of what was going on, but they thought that the plebeians deserved all that they got,
and refused to help men who by rushing too eagerly after liberty had fallen into slavery.
They even increased the wrongs they suffered, that through their disgust
and impatience at the present conditions they might begin to long for
the former state of things and the two consuls of old. The greater part
of the year had now elapsed; two tables had been added to the ten of the
previous year; if these additional laws were passed by the “
Men were wondering how soon notice would be given of the election of consuls; the sole anxiety of the plebeians was as to the method by which they could reestablish that bulwark of their liberties, the power of the tribunes, which was now suspended.
Meantime nothing was said about any elections. At first the decemvirs had bid for popularity by appearing before the plebs, surrounded by ex-tribunes, but now they were accompanied
by an escort of young patricians, who crowded round the tribunals, maltreated the plebeians and plundered their property, and being the stronger, succeeded in getting whatever they had taken a fancy to.
They did not stop short of personal violence, some were scourged, others beheaded, and that this brutality might not be gratuitous, the punishment of the owner was followed by a grant of his effects. Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobility not only declined to oppose the lawlessness of the decemvirs, but they openly showed that they preferred their own freedom from all restraints to the general liberty.
The fifteenth of May arrived, the decemvirs' term of office expired, but no new magistrates were appointed. Though now only private citizens, the decemvirs came forward as determined as ever to enforce their authority and retain all the emblems of power.