§2.41.1Sp. Cassius deinde et Proculus Verginius consules facti.
Thereupon Spurius Cassius and Proculus Verginius were made consuls.
cum Hernicis foedus ictum; agri partes duae ademptae.
A treaty was concluded with the Hernici; two-thirds of their land was taken away.
inde dimidium Latinis, dimidium plebi divisurus consul Cassius erat.
Of this, the consul Cassius intended to distribute half to the Latins, and half to the plebs.
§2.41.2adiciebat huic muneri agri aliquantum, quem publicum possideri a privatis criminabatur.
To this bounty he was adding a considerable amount of land which he charged was being possessed as public land by private individuals.
id multos quidem patrum, ipsos possessores, periculo rerum suarum terrebat; sed et publica patribus sollicitudo inerat, largitione consulem periculosas libertati opes struere.
This indeed terrified many of the patricians, who were themselves the possessors, with danger to their own property; but there was also a public concern in the minds of the patricians, that the consul by his distribution was building up a power dangerous to liberty.
§2.41.3tum primum lex agraria promulgata est, numquam deinde usaue ad hanc memoriam sine maximis motibus rerum agitata.
Then for the first time an agrarian law was proposed, which from that time down to our own memory was never discussed without the greatest political disturbances.
§2.41.4consul alter largitioni resistebat auctoribus patribus nec omni plebe adversante, quae primo coeperat fastidire munus vulgatum: §2.41.5a civibus abisse in socios; saepe deinde et Verginium consulem in contionibus velut vaticinantem audiebat, pestilens collegae munus esse, agros illos servitutem iis, qui acceperint, laturos, regno viam fieri.
The other consul resisted the distribution, with the patricians as his supporters, and not even the plebs being entirely opposed to him; for at first they had begun to disdain a gift made common: that it had departed from citizens to allies; and then they often heard the consul Verginius in the public assemblies, as if prophesying, that his colleague's gift was pestilential, that those lands would bring slavery upon those who received them, and that a way was being paved to tyranny.
quid ita enim adsumi socios et nomen Latinum?
For why indeed were the allies and the Latin name being included?
§2.41.6quid attinuisse Hernicis, paulo ante hostibus, capti agri partem tertiam reddi, nisi ut eae gentes pro Coriolano ducem Cassium habeant? popularis iam esse dissuasor
What was the point of returning a third part of the captured land to the Hernici, who shortly before had been enemies, unless so that those nations might have Cassius as their leader instead of Coriolanus?
§2.41.7et intercessor legis agrariae coeperat.
The opponent and intercessor against the agrarian law had now begun to be popular.
uterque deinde consul certatim plebi indulgere.
Then each consul eagerly strove to indulge the plebs.
Verginius dicere passurum se adsignari agros, dum ne cui nisi civi Romano adsignentur; §2.41.8Cassius, quia in agraria largitione ambitiosus in socios eoque civibus vilior erat, ut alio munere sibi reconciliaret civium animos, iubere pro Siculo frumento pecuniam acceptam retribui populo.
Verginius said that he would allow the lands to be assigned, provided they were not assigned to anyone except a Roman citizen; Cassius, because in his agrarian bounty he had courted the allies and was therefore less esteemed by the citizens, in order to win back the minds of the citizens to himself by another gift, ordered that the money received for the Sicilian grain be returned to the people.
§2.41.9id vero haud secus quam praesentem mercedem regni aspernata plebes; adeo propter suspicionem insitam animis hominum regni, velut abundarent omnia, munera eius respuebantur.
But the plebs rejected this indeed no differently than as an immediate bribe for tyranny; so thoroughly, because of the suspicion of tyranny implanted in the minds of men, were his gifts spurned, as if they had an abundance of everything.
§2.41.10quem, ubi primum magistratu abiit, damnatum necatumque constat.
It is well established that as soon as he retired from office, he was condemned and put to death.
sunt, qui patrem auctorem eius supplicii ferant: eum cognita domi causa verberasse ac necasse peculiumque filii Cereri consecravisse; signum inde factum esse et inscriptum “ex Cassia familia datum. ” §2.41.11invenio apud quosdam, idque propius fidem est, a quaestoribus Caesone Fabio et L. Valerio diem dictam perduellionis, damnatumque populi iudicio, dirutas publice aedes.
There are those who report that his father was the author of that punishment: that he, having investigated the case at home, scourged and killed him, and consecrated his son's private property to Ceres; that a statue was made from it and inscribed "given from the Cassian family." I find in some authors—and this is closer to the truth—that a day for trial was set for high treason by the quaestors Kaeso Fabius and Lucius Valerius, and that he, condemned by the judgment of the people, had his house demolished by public authority.
ea est area ante Telluris aedem.
That is the open space before the temple of Tellus.
ceterum, §2.41.12sive illud domesticum sive publicum fuit iudicium, damnatur Ser. Cornelio Q. Fabio consulibus.
But, whether that judgment was domestic or public, he was condemned in the consulship of Servius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius.