Ab urbe condita

He declared his intention of adhering to his purpose, he would not abate a single jot of the punishment due to the man who had fought in defiance of his injunctions, while the auspices were doubtful and the religious sanction withheld.

Whether the supreme authority of the Dictator was to remain unimpaired did not depend on him; he, L. Papirius, would do nothing to weaken its power.

He sincerely hoped that the tribunes would not use their authority, itself inviolable, to violate by their interference the sovereignty of the Roman government, and that the people to whom the appeal had been made would not extinguish in his case especially Dictator and Dictatorship alike.