History of Rome

​The impending war, which the Latins and Hernici had reported from the side of the Aequi and Volsci, was the cause (for holding elections).

​Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus, son of Lucius—to whom the cognomen Poenus is also added—and Gnaeus Julius Mento were made consuls. Nor was the terror of war delayed any further.

​A levy having been held under the sacred law, which was the greatest force among them for compelling military service, powerful armies set out from both sides and assembled on Mount Algidus; and there, the Aequi separately, ​and the Volsci separately, fortified their camps. The generals had a more intense care than ever before for fortifying the camp and training the soldiers.

​On this account, the messengers brought even more terror to Rome. It pleased the senate that a dictator should be named, because the peoples, although often defeated, had nevertheless rebelled with a greater effort than at any other time, and a considerable part of the Roman youth had been carried off by the disease.

​Above all, the unfitness of the consuls, their discord with one another, and their contentions in all councils were terrifying. There are those who are authorities that a bad battle was fought by these consuls on Algidus, and that this was the cause of creating a dictator.

​This is sufficiently well established: though discordant on other matters, they agreed on one thing against the will of the patricians, namely, not to name a dictator, until, while one terrifying news after another was brought and the consuls were not under the authority of the senate, Quintus Servilius Priscus, having excellently held the highest honors, said: “You, tribunes of the plebs, ​since things have come to the extreme, the senate appeals to you, so that in such a great crisis of the republic you may compel the consuls by your power to name a dictator.”

​Having heard this speech, the tribunes, thinking that an opportunity was offered to increase their power, withdrew, and on behalf of their college declared that it was pleasing that the consuls should be obedient to the word of the senate; if they should strive further against the consensus of the most honorable order, they would order them to be led into chains.

​The consuls preferred to be conquered by the tribunes rather than by the senate, complaining that the right of supreme power had been betrayed by the patricians and the consulship had been sent under the yoke of the tribunician power, if indeed consuls could be compelled in anything by a tribune by virtue of his power and—what further would a private citizen have to fear?—even led into chains.

​The lot to name a dictator—for not even this had been agreed upon between the colleagues—fell to Titus Quinctius. He named Aulus Postumius Tubertus, his father-in-law, a man of most severe authority, as dictator; by him, Lucius Julius was named master of the horse.

​At the same time, a levy and a cessation of public business were proclaimed, and nothing else was done in the whole city than preparing for war. The hearing of those seeking exemption from military service was postponed until after the war. Thus, those who had been hesitant also inclined to give their names. Soldiers were also demanded from the Hernici and Latins; on both sides, the dictator was zealously obeyed.