Ab urbe condita

servitude. If they showed courage, help would not be wanting, the tribunes were unanimous. There was no cause for alarm; no danger from abroad. The gods had taken care, the previous year, that their liberties should be safely protected.

[*](Quinctius Caeso's Opposition and Banishment.)Thus far the tribunes. The consuls at the other end of the Forum, however, placed their chairs in full view of the tribunes and proceeded with the levy. The tribunes ran to the spot, carrying the Assembly with them. A few were cited, apparently as an experiment, and a tumult arose at once.

As soon as any one was seized by the consuls' orders, a tribune ordered him to be released. None of them confined himself to his legal rights; trusting to their strength they were bent upon getting what they set their minds upon by main force.

The methods of the tribunes in preventing the enrolment were followed by the patricians in obstructing the Law, which was brought forward every day that the Assembly met.

The trouble began when the tribunes had ordered the people to proceed to vote —the patricians refused to withdraw.[*](The voting was conducted by the centuries, each voting as a unit. The vote of thecentury was determined by the majority of theindividuals composing it. To prepare for the voting, spaces were roped off in the Forum, one for each century; and the patricians, by keeping their places, prevented this necessary preparation from being made.) The older members of the order were generally absent from proceedings which were certain not to be controlled by reason, but given over to recklessness and licence;

the consuls, too, for the most part kept away, lest in the general disorder the dignity of their office might be exposed to insult.