Ab urbe condita

the cause of the senate, and so win the favour not only of the leaders but of the whole order. His views met with universal approval; Q. Servilius Priscus was the first to congratulate the youth on his not having degenerated from the old Claudian stock.

The leaders of the senate were charged to persuade as many tribunes as they could to interpose their veto. After the close of the sitting they canvassed the tribunes. By the use of persuasion, warning, and promises, they showed how acceptable that action would be to them individually and to the whole senate.

They succeeded in bringing over six. The next day, in accordance with a previous understanding, the attention of the senate was drawn to the agitation which Maecilius and Metilius were causing by proposing a bribe of the worst possible type.

Speeches were delivered by the leaders of the senate, each in turn declaring that he was unable to suggest any course of action, and saw no other resource but the assistance of the tribunes. To the protection of that power the State in its embarrassment, like a private citizen in his helplessness, fled for succour.

It was the glory of the tribunes and of the authority they wielded that they possessed as much strength to withstand evil-minded colleagues as to harass the senate and create dissension between the two orders.

Cheers arose from the whole senate and the tribunes were appealed to from every quarter of the House. When silence was restored, those tribunes who had been won over made it clear that since the senate was of opinion that the proposed measure tended to the break-up of the republic, they should interpose their veto on it.

They were formally thanked by the senate. The proposers of the measure convened a meeting in which they showered abuse on their colleagues, calling them “traitors to the interests of the plebs” and “slaves of the consulars,” with other insulting epithets. Then they dropped all further proceedings.

The[*](Capture of Bolae —Assassination of Postumius.) consular tribunes for the following year were P. Cornelius Cossus, C. Valerius Potitus, Q. Quinctius Cincinnatus, and Numerius Fabius Vibulanus. There would have been two wars this year if the Veientine leaders had not deferred hostilities owing to religious scruples. Their lands had suffered from an inundation of the Tiber chiefly through the destruction of their farm

buildings. The Bolani, a people of the same nationality as the Aequi, had made incursions into the adjoining territory of Labici and attacked the newly-settled colonists, in the hope of averting the consequences by receiving the unanimous support of the

Aequi. But the defeat they had sustained three years before made them disinclined to render

assistance; the Bolani, abandoned by their friends, lost both town and territory after a siege and one trifling engagement in a war which is not even worth

recording. An attempt was made by L. Sextius, a tribune of the plebs, to carry a measure providing that colonists should be sent to Bolae as they had been to Labici, but it was defeated by the intervention of his colleagues, who made it clear that they would not allow any resolution of the plebs to take effect except on the authorisation of the senate. The consular tribunes for the following year were Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus, L. Valerius Potitus, Q. Fabius Vibulanus-for the second time-and M. Postumius

Regillensis. The Aequi recaptured Bolae and strengthened the town by introducing fresh colonists. The war against the Aequi was entrusted to Postumius, a man of violent and obstinate temper, which, however, he displayed more in the hour of victory than during the war. After marching with his hastily-raised army to Bolae and crushing the spirit of the Aequi in some insignificant actions, he at length forced his way into the town. Then he diverted the contest from the enemy to his own