Ab urbe condita

On his arrival he was universally welcomed.

As to the way Appius treated him, I think that if he had a clear conscience in the matter, that is, if he had written nothing, his anger was justifiable, but if he had really stood in need of help he showed a disingenuous and ungrateful spirit in concealing the fact.

When he went out to meet his colleague, almost before they had had time to exchange mutual greetings, he asked: “Is all well, Volumnius? How are things going in Samnium? What induced you to leave your allotted province?”

Volumnius replied that all was going on satisfactorily and that he had come because he had been asked to do so by letter. If it was a forgery and there was nothing for him to do in Etruria he would at once countermarch his troops and depart.

“Well then,” said Appius, “go, let nobody keep you here for it is by no means right that whilst perhaps you are hardly able to cope with your own war you should boast of having come to the assistance of others.”

“May Hercules guide all for the best,” replied Volumnius. “I would rather have taken all this trouble in vain than that anything should happen which would make one consular army insufficient for Etruria.”

As the consuls were parting from each other, the staffofficers and military tribunes stood round them; some of them implored their own commander not to reject the assistance of his colleague, assistance which he himself ought to have invited and which was now spontaneously offered;

many of the others tried to stop Volumnius as he was leaving and appealed to him not to betray the safety of the republic through a wretched quarrel with his colleague.

They urged that if any disaster occurred the responsibility for it would fall on the one who abandoned the other, not on the other who was abandoned; it came to this —all the glory of success and all the disgrace of failure in Etruria was transferred to Volumnius.

People would not inquire what words Appius had used, but what fortune the army was meeting with; he may have been dismissed by Appius, but his presence was demanded by the republic and by the army.

He had only to test the feelings of the soldiers to find this out for himself. Amidst appeals and warnings of this character they almost dragged the reluctant consuls into a council of war.