Livy

“ Even if you have deprived us of the two bulwarks of our liberty - the aid of our tribunes and the right of appeal to the Roman plebs - that has given you no right to our wives and children, the victims of your lust. Vent your cruelty upon our backs and necks; let female honour at least be safe. If violence is offered to this girl, I shall invoke the aid of the Quirites here for my betrothed, Verginius that of the soldiers for his only daughter; we shall all invoke the aid of gods and men, and you shall not carry out that judgment except at the cost of our lives. ”

“ Is our State never to enjoy any respite from punishments inflicted either by the patricians on the Roman plebs, or by the plebs on the patricians? You need the shield rather than the sword. He is humble enough who lives in the State under equal laws, neither inflicting nor suffering injury. Even if the time should come when you will make yourselves formidable, when, after recovering your magistrates and your laws, you will have judicial power over our lives and property - even then you will decide each case on its merits, it is enough now that your liberties are won back. ”

“ The envoys, addressing the multitude as an Assembly, said, "Prosperity, fortune, and happiness to you and to the State! Return to your fatherland, your homes, your wives, and your children! But carry into the City the same self-control which you have exhibited here, where no man's land has been damaged, notwithstanding the need of so many things necessary for so large a multitude. Go to the Aventine, whence you came; there, on the auspicious spot where you laid the beginnings of your liberty, you will appoint your tribunes; the Pontifex Maximus will be present to hold the election." ”

“ I should only be too glad, Quirites, to give you pleasure, but I would very much rather have you safe, however you may feel towards me for the future. Nature has so ordered matters that the man who addresses the multitude for his own private ends is much more popular than the man who thinks of nothing but the public good. Possibly, you imagine that it is in your interest that those demagogues who flatter the plebs and do not suffer you either to take up arms or live in peace, excite you and make you restless. ”

“ If the meanest member of your order, which you have as it were severed from the rest of the people and made into a province, a State of your own - if such an one, I say, were to report to you that his house was beset by armed slaves, you would, I presume, think that you ought to render him assistance; was not Jupiter Optimus Maximus, when shut in by armed slaves and exiles, worthy to receive any human aid? Do these fellows demand that their persons shall be sacred and inviolable, when the very gods themselves are neither sacred nor inviolable in their eyes? ”

“ What they most dreaded was a rising of the slaves, when every man would have an enemy in his own house, whom it would be alike unsafe to trust and not to trust, since by withdrawing confidence he might be made a more determined enemy. Such threatening and overwhelming dangers could only be surmounted by unity and concord, and no fears were felt as to the tribunes or the plebs. ”

“ Who was it that those most dastardly foes felt contempt for, us consuls, or you Quirites? If the fault is in us, strip us of an office which we are unworthy to hold, and if that is not enough, visit us with punishment. If the fault is in you, may there be no one, either god or man, who will punish your sins; may you repent of them! It was not your cowardice that provoked their contempt, nor their velour that gave them confidence; they have been too often defeated, put to flight, driven out of their entrenchments, deprived of their territory, not to know themselves and you. ”

“ It is undoubtedly a more idle and foolish thing to do away with one's own resolutions and decrees than with those of others. Imitate, Conscript Fathers, the inconsiderate multitude; sin after the example of others, you who ought to be an example to others, rather than that others should act rightly after your example, as long as I do not imitate the tribunes or allow myself to be returned as consul in defiance of the resolution of the senate. ”

“ Now was the opportunity for destroying these wolves blinded by the madness of mutual hatred. With their united forces they first completely desolated the Latin territory; then, meeting with none to check their depredations, they actually approached the walls of Rome, to the great delight of those who had fomented the war. Extending their ravages in the direction of the Esquiline gate, they plundered and harried, through sheer insolence, in the sight of the City. After they had marched back unmolested with their plunder to Corbio, the consul Quinctius convoked the people to an Assembly. ”

“ They were bringing up the question of the Sabine war as if the Roman people had any more serious war to wage than one against men who, appointed to draw up laws, left no vestige of law or justice in the State; who had abolished the elections, the annual magistrates, the regular succession of rulers, which formed the sole guarantee of equal liberty for all; who, though simple citizens, still retained the fasces and the power of despotic monarchs. After the expulsion of the kings, the magistrates were patricians; after the secession of the plebs, plebeian magistrates were appointed. ”

“ Then the people remarked to one another that there were gods after all who did not neglect the affairs of men; arrogance and cruelty were visited by punishments which, though lingering, were not light; that man was appealing who had taken away the power of appeal; that man was imploring the protection of the people who had trampled underfoot all their rights; he was losing his own liberty and being carried off to prison who had sentenced a free person to slavery. Amidst the murmur of the Assembly the voice of Appius himself was heard imploring "the protection of the Roman people." ”

“ It is the dissensions between the two orders, the quarrels between patricians and plebeians that is poisoning the life of this City. As long as our power respects no limits, and your liberty acknowledges no restraints, as long as you are impatient of patrician, we of plebeian magistrates, so long has the courage of our enemies been rising. What in heaven's name do you want? You set your hearts on having tribunes of the plebs, we yielded, for the sake of peace. You yearned for decemvirs, we consented to their appointment ”

“ Are you not ashamed to see a greater number of lictors in the Forum than of all other citizens put together? What will you do if the enemy approach the City? What if the plebs, seeing that their secession has no effect, come shortly against us in arms? Do you want to end your power by the fall of the City? Either you will have to do without the plebeians or you will have to accept their tribunes; sooner than they will go without their magistrates, we shall have to go without ours. ”

“ But, steeped as you are in crimes against gods and men, you give out that you will carry your Law this year. Then, most assuredly, if you do carry it; the day when I was made consul will be a far worse day for the State than that on which P. Valerius perished. Now I give you notice, Quirites, the very first thing that my colleague and myself intend to do is to march the legions against the Volscians and Aequi. By some strange fatality, we find the gods more propitious when we are at war than when we are at peace. ”

“ L. Mamilius was at that time Dictator of Tusculum. After hurriedly convening the senate and introducing the messengers, he strongly urged the senators not to wait until envoys arrived from Rome begging for help; the fact of the danger and the seriousness of the crisis, the gods who watched over alliances, and loyalty to treaties, all demanded instant action. Never again would the gods vouchsafe so favourable an opportunity for conferring an obligation on so powerful a State or one so close to their own doors. ”

“ For nothing was less to be feared than that an enemy who had been defeated and almost surrounded in his camp should think of predatory incursions, whilst the panic-stricken country people, pouring in at the gates and exaggerating everything in their wild alarm, exclaimed that they were not mere raids or small bodies of plunderers, entire armies of the enemy were near, preparing to swoop down on the City in force. Those who were nearest carried what they heard to others, and the vague rumours became still more exaggerated and false. The running and clamour of men shouting "To arms!" ”

“ It was for themselves that they would conquer, the fruits of their victory would not go to decemvirs. The battle was not being fought under an Appius, but under their consul Valerius, a descendant of the liberators of the Roman people, and a liberator himself. They must show that it was owing to the generals, not to the soldiers, that they had failed to conquer in former battles; it would be a disgrace if they showed more courage against their own citizens than against a foreign foe, or dreaded slavery at home more than abroad. ”

“ Many wild speeches and exploits of the younger patricians were fastened on Caeso to strengthen the suspicions against him. Still the opposition to the Law was kept up. A. Verginius frequently said to the plebeians, "Are you now aware, Quirites, that you cannot have the Law which you desire, and Caeso as a citizen, together? Yet, why do I talk of the Law? He is a foe to liberty, he surpasses all the Tarquins in tyranny. Wait till you see the man who now, in private station, acts the king in audacity and violence - wait till you see him made consul, or dictator." ”