They soon grew to a very numerous body, and nothing was wanting to give it the form of a regular army except a general. They moved on into the Alban district, plundering as they went, and entrenched themselves in a camp under the hill of Alba Longa.
After completing their entrenchments they spent the rest of the day in arguing about the choice of a leader, as they had not sufficient confidence in any one amongst themselves. But who could be invited from Rome?
Which of the patricians or plebeians would expose himself to such peril, or to whom could the cause of an army maddened by injustice be safely committed? The next day found them still engaged in the discussion, when some of those who had been dispersed in the marauding expedition brought back the
information that Titus Quinctius was cultivating a farm in the neighbourhood and had lost all interest in his City and the honourable distinctions he had won.
This man belonged to a patrician house, and after achieving great reputation as a soldier, had his military career cut short by a wound which made him lame in one of his feet, and he betook himself to a rural life, far from the Forum and its party struggles.
On hearing his name mentioned they recalled the man to mind, and hoping that all might turn out well they ordered an invitation to be sent to him. They hardly expected that he would come voluntarily, and prepared to intimidate him into compliance.
The messengers accordingly entered his farmhouse in the dead of night and woke him up from a sound sleep, and after telling him that there was no alternative, it must either be authority and rank or, if he resisted, death, they carried him off to the camp.
On his arrival he was saluted as their commander, and all dismayed as he was by the strangeness and suddenness of the affair, the insignia of his office were brought to him and he was peremptorily told to lead them to the City.
Acting on their own impulse rather than their leader's advice they plucked up their standards and marched in hostile array as far as the eighth milestone on what is now the Appian Way.
They would have gone on at once to the City had they not received word that an army was on its march, and that M. Valerius Corvus had been nominated Dictator, with L. Aemilius Mamercus as his Master of the Horse, to act against them.
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They had not yet been hardened to the sight of civic bloodshed, they knew of no wars but those against foreign foes, and secession from their own countrymen began to be looked upon as the last degree of madness. First the leaders then the men on both sides sought an opening for negotiations.
Quinctius, who had had enough of fighting for his country and was the last man to fight against it, and Corvus, who was devoted to all his countrymen, especially to the soldiers and above all to his own army, came forward to a colloquy.
When the latter was recognised, his opponents showed as much respect for him as his own men by the silence with which they prepared to listen to him. He addressed them as follows: “Soldiers! When I left the City I offered up prayers to the immortal gods who watch over our State, your State and mine, that they would of their goodness grant me, not a victory over you, but the glory of bringing about a reconciliation.
There have been and there will be abundant opportunities for winning glory in war, and this occasion we must seek for peace.
That which I implored of the immortal gods, when I offered up my prayers, you have it in your power now to grant me if you will please to remember that you are encamped not in Samnium, not amongst the Volscians, but on Roman soil. Those hills which you see are the hills of your City; I, your consul, am the man under whose auspices and leadership you twice defeated the legions of the Samnites a year ago and twice captured their camp.
I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, soldiers, a patrician it is true, but my nobility has shown itself in benefits to you, not in wrongs; I have never been the author of any law bearing harshly on you or of any oppressive enactment of the senate; in all my commands I have been stricter with myself than with you.