Ab urbe condita

There was such a feeling of despair that the tribunes, followed by a gloomy and sullen plebs, exclaimed as they left the Campus that there was an end to all liberty, and that they must not only quit the Campus but must even abandon the City now that it was crushed and enslaved by the tyranny of the patricians.

The consuls, though deserted by the majority of the people, only a few voters remaining behind, proceeded none the less determinedly with the election. Both the consuls elected were patricians, M. Fabius Ambustus (for the third time) and T Quinctius. In some of the annalists I find M. Popilius given as consul instead of T. Quinctius.

[*](War with the Etruscans). Two wars were brought to a successful close this year. The Tiburtines were reduced to submission; the city of Sassula was taken from them and all their other towns would have shared the same fate had not the nation as a whole laid down their arms and made peace with the consul.

A triumph was celebrated over them, otherwise the victory was followed by mild treatment of the vanquished. The Tarquinians were visited with the utmost severity. A large number were killed in battle; of the prisoners, all those of noble birth to the number of 358 were sent to Rome, the rest were put to the sword.

Those who had been sent to Rome met with no gentler treatment from the people, they were all scourged and beheaded in the middle of the Forum This punishment was an act of retribution for the Romans who had been immolated in the forum of Tarquinii. These successes in war induced the Samnites to ask for a league of friendship.

Their envoys received a favourable reply from the senate and a treaty of alliance was concluded with them.

The plebs did not enjoy the same good fortune at home which they had met with in the field. In spite of the reduction in the rate of interest, which was now fixed at 8 and 1/3 per cent., the poor were unable to repay the capital, and were being made over to their creditors. Their personal distress left them little thought for public affairs and political struggles, elections, and patrician consuls; both consulships accordingly remained with the patricians.

The consuls elected were C. Sulpicius Peticus (for the fourth time) and M. Valerius Publicola (for the second). Rumours were brought that the people of Caere, out of sympathy with their co-nationalists, had sided with the Tarquinians. Whilst the minds of the citizens were in consequence filled with apprehensions of a war with Etruria, the arrival of envoys from Latium diverted their thoughts to the Volscians. They reported that an army had been raised and equipped and was now threatening their frontiers and intended to enter and ravage the Roman territory.

The senate thought that neither of these movements ought to be ignored; orders were issued for troops to be enrolled for both wars; the consuls were to draw lots for their respective commands.