Ab urbe condita

Just the opposite state of things prevailed in the army campaigning amongst the Aequi, where the consul and his soldiers vied with each other in acts of kindness and comrade-ship. Quinctius was naturally milder, and the unfortunate severity of his colleague made him all the more inclined to follow the bent of his gentle disposition.

The Aequi did not venture to meet an army where such harmony prevailed between the general and his men, and they allowed their enemy to ravage their territory in all directions. In no previous war had plunder been gathered from a wider area.

The whole of it was given to the soldiers, and with it those words of praise which, no less than material rewards, delight the soldier's heart. The army returned home on better terms with their general, and through him with the patricians; they said that whilst the senate had given them a father it had given the other army a tyrant.

The year, which had been passed in varying fortunes of war and furious dissensions both at home and abroad, was chiefly memorable for the Assembly of Tribes, which were important rather for the victory won in a prolonged contest than for any real advantage gained.

For through the withdrawal of the patricians from their council the Assembly lost more in dignity than either the plebs gamed, or the patricians lost, in strength.

[*](Impeachment of Appius Claudius.)L. Valerius and T. Aemilius were consuls for the next year, which was a still stormier one, owing, m the first place, to the struggle between the two orders over the Agrarian Law, and secondly to the prosecution of Appius Claudius.

He was impeached by the tribunes, M. Duellius and Cn. Siccius, on the ground of his determined opposition to the Law, and also because

he defended the cause of the occupiers of the public land, as if he were a third consul.

Never before had any one been brought to trial before the people whom the plebs so thoroughly detested, both on his own and his father's account. For hardly any one had the patricians exerted themselves more than for him whom they regarded as the champion of the senate and the vindicator of its authority, the stout bulwark against disturbances of tribunes or plebs, and now saw exposed to the rage of the plebeians simply for having gone too far in the struggle.

Appius Claudius himself alone of all the patricians, looked upon the tribunes, the plebs, and his own trial as of no account. Neither the threats of the plebeians nor the entreaties of the senate could induce him —I will not say to change his attire and accost men as a suppliant, but —even to soften and subdue to some extent his wonted asperity of language when he had to make his defence before the people.

There was the same expression, the same defiant look, the same proud tones of speech, so that a large number of the plebeians were no less afraid of Appius on his trial than they had been when he was consul.