Ab urbe condita

The growth of the City was not confined to private buildings. A substructure of squared stones was built beneath the Capitol during this year, which, even amidst the present magnificence of the City, is a conspicuous object.

Whilst[*](Domestic Affairs.) the citizens were taken up with their building, the tribunes of the plebs tried to make the meetings of the Assembly more attractive by bringing forward agrarian proposal.

They held out the prospect of acquiring the Pomptine territory, which, now that the Volscians had been reduced by Camillus, had become the indisputable possession of of Rome.

This territory, they alleged, was in much greater danger from the nobles than it had been from the Volscians, for the latter only made raids into it as long as they had

strength and weapons, but the nobles were putting themselves in possession of the public domain, and unless it was allotted before they appropriated everything there would be no room for plebeians

there. They did not produce much impression on the plebeians, who were busy with their building and only attended the Assembly in small numbers, and as their expenses had exhausted their means, they felt no interest in land which they were unable to develop owing to want of capital.

In a community devoted to religious observances, the recent disaster had filled the leading men with superstitious fears; in order, therefore, that the auspices might be taken afresh they fell back upon an interregnum. There were three interreges in, succession —M. Manlius Capitolinus, Ser.

Sulpicius Camerinus, and L. Valerius Potitus. The last of these conducted the election of consular tribunes. Those elected were: L. Papirius, C. Cornelius, C. Sergius, L. Aemilius (for the second time), L. Menenius, and L. Valerius Publicola (for the third time). They immediately entered office.

In this year the temple of Mars, which had been vowed in the Gaulish war, was dedicated by T. Quinctius, one of the two custodians of the Sibylline Books. The new citizens were formed into four additional tribes —the Stellatine, the Tromentine, the Sabatine, and the Arnian. These brought up the number of the tribes to twenty-five.

The[*](Wars with the Volscians and Etruscans.) question of the Pomptine territory was again raised by L. Sicinius, a tribune of the plebs, and the people attended the Assembly in greater numbers and showed a more eager desire for land than they had done.

In the senate the subject of the Latin and Hernican wars was mentioned, but owing to the concern felt about a more serious war, it was adjourned.

Etruria was in arms. They again fell back on Camillus He was made consular tribune, and five colleagues were assigned to him: Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis, Q. Servilius Fidenas (for the sixth time), L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, L. Horatius Pulvillus, and P. Valerius.

At the beginning of the year public anxiety was diverted from the Etruscan war by the arrival in the City of a body of fugitives from the Pomptine territory, who reported that the Antiates were in arms, and that the Latin cantons had sent their fighting men to assist them.

The latter explained in their defence that it was not in consequence of a formal act of their government; all they had done was to decline prohibiting any one from serving where he chose as a volunteer.

It was no longer the fashion to think lightly of any wars. The senate thanked heaven that Camillus was in office, for certainly had he been a private citizen he must have been nominated Dictator.

His colleagues admitted that when any alarm arose of threatened war the supreme direction of everything must be in one man's hands, and they had made up their minds to subordinate their powers to Camillus, feeling assured that to enhance his authority in no way derogated from their own.

This action of the consular tribunes met with the hearty approval of the senate, and Camillus, in modest confusion, returned thanks to them. He went on to say that a tremendous burden had been laid upon him by the people of Rome in making him practically Dictator for the fourth time; a heavy responsibility had been put upon him by the senate, who had passed such a flattering judgment upon him; heaviest of all by his colleagues in the honour they had done him.