Ab urbe condita

serve. This increased the exasperation of the plebs and the soldiers against the consul. The senate decreed him an “ovation,” and whilst he made his formal entry into the City, rude verses were bandied by

the soldiers with their accustomed licence in which the consul was abused and Menenius extolled in alternate couplets, whilst at every mention of the tribune the voices of the soldiers were drowned in the cheers and applause of the

bystanders. This latter circumstance occasioned more anxiety to the senate than the licence of the soldiers, which was almost a regular practice, and as there was no doubt that if Menenius became a candidate he would be elected as a consular tribune, he was shut out by the election of consuls.

The[*](The Plebeian Quaestors.) two who were elected were Cnaeus Cornelius Cossus and L. Furius Medullinus.

On no other occasion had the plebs been more indignant at not being allowed to elect consular tribunes. They showed their indignation in the election of quaestors, and they had their revenge, for that was the first time that plebeians were elected quaestors, and so far did they carry their resentment, that out of the four who were elected one place only was left open for a patrician, viz.,

Kaeso Fabius Ambustus. The three plebeians, Q. Silius, P. Aelius, and P. Pupius, were chosen in preference to scions of the most illustrious families.