The consuls accordingly resigned office in compliance with a resolution of the senate, and M. Furius Camillus was appointed interrex. He appointed P. Cornelius Scipio as his successor, and Scipio appointed L. Valerius Potitus.
The last named appointed six consular tribunes, so that if any of them became incapacitated through illness there might still be a sufficiency of magistrates to administer the republic.
These were L. Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, M. Aemilius, L. Furius Medullinus —for the seventh time —Agrippa Furius, and C. Aemilius —for the second time. They entered upon office on the 1st of July.
L. Lucretius and C. Aemilius were charged with the campaign against the Volsinians; Agrippa Furius and Servius Sulpicius with the one against the Salpinates.
The first action took place with the Volsinians; an immense number of the enemy were engaged, but the fighting was by no means severe. Their line was scattered at the first shock; 8000 who were surrounded by the cavalry laid down their arms and surrendered.
On hearing of this battle the Salpinates would not trust themselves to a regular engagement in the field, but sought the protection of their walls. The Romans carried off plunder in all directions from both the Salpinate and Volsinian territories without meeting any resistance.
At last the Volsinians, tired of the war, obtained a truce for twenty
years on condition that they paid an indemnity for their previous raid
and supplied the year's pay for the army. It
was in the Via Nova where the chapel now stands, above the temple of Vesta, he heard in the silence of the night a voice more powerful than any human voice bidding the magistrates be told that the Gauls were approaching.
No notice was taken of this, partly owing to the humble rank of the informant, and partly because the Gauls were a distant and therefore an unknown nation. It was not the monitions of the gods only that were set at nought in face of the coming doom. The one human aid which they had against it, M. Furius Camillus, was removed from the City.
He was impeached by the plebeian tribune L. Apuleius for his action with reference to the spoils of Veii, and at the time had just been bereaved of his son. He invited the members of his tribe and his clients, who formed a considerable part of the plebs, to his house and sounded their feelings towards him. They told him that they would pay whatever fine was imposed, but it was impossible for them to acquit him.
Thereupon he went into exile, after offering up a prayer to the immortal
gods that if he were suffering wrongfully as an innocent man, they would
make his ungrateful citizens very soon feel the need of him. He was
condemned in his absence to pay a fine of15,000 “