Ab urbe condita

power. It was decided that, with a view to doing away with the abuses of canvassing, the tribunes should bring in a law forbidding any one to whiten his toga[*](The toga was the natural color of the wool of which it was made; those who sought election whitened their togas with chalk or some similar substance, and hence were called candidati (“dressed in white robes”).), when he appeared as a candidate. To us now the matter may appear trivial and hardly worth serious discussion, but it kindled a tremendous conflict between patricians and

plebeians. The tribunes, however, succeeded in carrying their law, and it was clear that, irritated as they were, the plebeians would support their own men. That they might not be free to do so, a resolution was passed in the senate that the forthcoming elections should be held for the appointment of consuls.

The[*](War with the Volscians and Aequi.) reason for this decision was the report sent in by the Latins and Hernicans of a sudden rising amongst the Volscians and Aequi.

T. Quinctius Cincinnatus —surnamed Poenus —the son of Lucius, and Gnaeus Julius Mento were made consuls. War very soon broke out.

After a levy had been raised under the Lex Sacrata[*](Lex Sacrata. —A law, the violation of which exposed the offender, his family and property, to be devoted (sacer) to some deity, and whoever killed him was held to have sacrificed him to that deity. Such was the Law of Publicola; as also that which secured the inviolability of the tribunes of the plebs and subsequently of other magistrates. In the present case everyone who refused to serve was so “devoted,” probably by a priest of Mars.), which was the most powerful means they possessed of compelling men to serve, the armies of both nations advanced and concentrated on Algidus, where they entrenched themselves, each in a separate

camp. Their generals showed greater care than on any previous occasion in the construction of their lines and the exercising of the troops. The reports of this increased the alarm in

Rome. In view of the fact that these two nations after their numerous defeats were now renewing the war with greater energy than they had ever done before, and, further, that a considerable number of the Romans fit for active service had been carried off by the epidemic, the senate decided upon the nomination of a

Dictator. But the greatest alarm was caused by the perverse obstinacy of the consuls and their incessant wranglings in the senate. Some authorities assent that these consuls fought an unsuccessful action at Algidus and that this was the reason why a Dictator was

nominated. It is at all events generally agreed that whilst at variance in other matters, they were at one in opposing the senate and preventing the appointment of a Dictator. At last, when each report that came in was more alarming than the last, and the consuls refused to accept the authority of the senate, Quintus Servilius Priscus, who had filled the highest offices in the State with distinction, said, “Tribunes of the

plebs! now that matters have come to extremities, the senate calls upon you in this crisis of the commonwealth, by virtue of the authority of your office, to compel the consuls to nominate a Dictator.” On hearing this appeal, the tribunes considered that a favourable opportunity presented itself for augmenting their authority, and they retired to

deliberate. Then they formally declared in the name of the whole college of tribunes that it was their determination that the consuls should bow to the will of the senate; if they offered any further opposition to the unanimous decision of that most august order, they, the tribunes, would order them to be thrown into