Ab urbe condita

L.[*](The Assassination of Genucius.) Furius and C. Manlius were the next consuls. The Veientines fell to Manlius as his province. There was no war, however; a forty years' truce was granted on their request; they were ordered to furnish corn and pay for the troops.

Peace abroad was at once followed by discord at home. The tribunes employed the Agrarian Law to goad the plebs into a state of dangerous excitement. The consuls, nowise intimidated by the condemnation of Menenius or the danger in which Servilius had stood, resisted them with the utmost violence.

On their vacating office the tribune Genucius impeached them. They were succeeded by L. Aemilius and Opiter Verginius. I find in some annals Vopiscus Julius instead of Verginius. Whoever the consuls were, it was in this year that Furius and Manlius, who were to be tried before the people, went about in mourning garb amongst the younger members of the senate quite as much as amongst the plebs.

They urged them to keep clear of the high offices of state and to regard the consular “ fasces,” the “ praetexta,” and the curule chair as nothing but the pomp of death, for when invested with these insignia they were like victims adorned for sacrifice.

If the consulship possessed such attractions for them, they must clearly understand that this office had been captured and crushed by the tribunician power; the consul had to do every thing at the beck and call of the tribune just as if he were his apparitor.

If he took an active line, if he showed any regard for the patricians, if he thought that anything besides the plebs formed part of the commonwealth, he should keep before his eyes the banishment of Cn. Marcius, the condemnation and death of Menenius. Fired by these appeals the senators held meetings, not in the Senate-house but in private, only a few being invited.