Patrician Monopoly of the Consulship and Plebeian Protests — Livy, History of Rome Book 7 (7.18.1–7.18.10), Latin & English

§7.18.1

Quadringentesimo anno quam urbs Romana condita erat,¹ quinto tricesimo quam a Gallis reciperata, ablato post undecimum annum a plebe consulatu patricii consules ambo ex interregno magistratum iniere, C. Sulpicius Peticus tertium M. Valerius Publicola.

In the four-hundredth year after the Roman city was founded, and the thirty-fifth after it was recovered from the Gauls, the consulship having been taken away from the plebs after the eleventh year, both patrician consuls entered upon their office from the interregnum, Gaius Sulpicius Peticus for the third time and Marcus Valerius Publicola.

§7.18.2

Empulum eo anno ex Tiburtibus haud memorando certamine captum, sive duorum consulum auspicio bellum ibi gestum est, ut scripsere quidam, seu per idem tempus Tarquiniensium quoque sunt vastati agri ab Sulpicio consule, quo Valerius adversus Tiburtes legiones duxit.

In that year, Empulum was captured from the Tiburtes in a battle hardly worth mentioning, whether the war was waged there under the auspices of both consuls, as some have written, or at the same time the fields of the Tarquinienses were also devastated by the consul Sulpicius, while Valerius led the legions against the Tiburtes.

§7.18.3

domi maius certamen consulibus cum plebe ac tribunis erat. fidei iam suae, non solum virtutis ducebant esse,² ut accepissent duo patricii consulatum, ita ambobus patriciis mandare:³

At home, there was a greater contest for the consuls with the plebs and the tribunes. They considered it to belong now to their trust, and not only to their courage, that as they had received the consulship as two patricians, so they should hand it over to two patricians;

§7.18.4

quin aut toto cedendum esse, ut plebeius iam magistratus consulatus fiat, aut totum possidendum, quam possessionem integram a patribus accepissent.

indeed, they must either yield entirely, so that the consulship should now become a plebeian magistracy, or possess it entirely, which possession they had received intact from their fathers.

§7.18.5

plebes contra fremit: quid se vivere, quid in parte civium censeri,⁴ si, quod duorum hominum virtute, L. Sexti ac C. Licini, partum sit, id obtinere universi non possint?

The plebs, on the other hand, muttered: why should they live, why should they be counted in the part of the citizens, if what had been acquired by the courage of two men, Lucius Sextius and Gaius Licinius, they could not, as a whole body, retain?

§7.18.6

vel reges, vel decemviros, vel si quod tristius sit imperii nomen, patiendum esse potius, quam ambos patricios consules videant, nec in vicem pareatur atque imperetur, sed pars altera in aeterno imperio locata plebem nusquam alio natam quam ad serviendum putet.

They should rather endure kings, or decemvirs, or if there was any harsher name of power, than to see both patrician consuls, and that there should not be a turn of obeying and ruling, but that one party, placed in eternal power, should think the plebs born for nothing else than to serve.

§7.18.8

non desunt tribuni auctores turbarum, sed inter concitatos per se omnes vix duces eminent.

There was no lack of tribunes to instigate disturbances, but among men who were all excited of themselves, leaders scarcely stood out.

§7.18.9

aliquotiens frustra in campum descensum cum esset multique per seditiones acti comitiales dies, postremo victae perseverantia consulum plebis eo dolor erupit, ut tribunos, actum esse de libertate vociferantes relinquendumque non campum iam solum sed etiam urbem, captam atque oppressam regno patriciorum, maesta plebs sequeretur.⁵

When they had gone down to the Campus several times in vain, and many election days had been spent in seditions, at last, the grief of the plebs, overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, broke out to such an extent that the sorrowful plebs followed the tribunes, who were crying out that liberty was done for, and that they must abandon now not only the Campus but also the city, captured and oppressed by the kingdom of the patricians.

§7.18.10

consules relicti a parte populi per infrequentiam comitia nihilo segnius perficiunt. creati consules ambo patricii, M. Fabius Ambustus tertium T. Quinctius. in quibusdam annalibus pro T. Quinctio M. Popilium consulem invenio.

The consuls, left behind by a part of the people, completed the elections none the less actively on account of the thin attendance. Both the consuls elected were patricians, Marcus Fabius Ambustus for the third time and Titus Quinctius. In some annals, I find Marcus Popilius as consul instead of Titus Quinctius.

Syntax notes5 items

7.18.1Quadringentesimo anno quam urbs Romana condita erat
quam is used here in the sense of postquam, where the comparative quam combines with a temporal noun (anno) to express "the ... year after".
7.18.3fidei iam suae, non solum virtutis ducebant esse
fidei and virtutis are genitives of characteristic/description, serving as the predicate of esse used impersonally. The subject is the following infinitive clause ut accepissent ... mandare.
7.18.3ut accepissent duo patricii consulatum, ita ambobus patriciis mandare
A correlative structure ut ... ita ... ("just as they had received ... so to hand over ..."). mandare is an infinitive serving as the object of ducebant (or the subject of fidei... esse).
7.18.5quid se vivere, quid in parte civium censeri
The infinitives vivere and censeri are accusative with infinitive constructions in a rhetorical question ("why should they live?"). In indirect speech (oratio obliqua), direct questions are expressed by the accusative and infinitive.
7.18.9eo dolor erupit, ut tribunos ... maesta plebs sequeretur
eo is an adverb of degree ("to such a point, to such an extent") which anticipates the following ut result clause (eo ... ut ... correlation).

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25)urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:7.18.1-7.18.10