§2.54.1L. Furius inde et C. Manlius consules.
L. Furius and C. Manlius were the next consuls.
Manlio Veientes provincia evenit.
The Veientes fell to Manlius as his province.
non tamen bellatum; indutiae in annos quadraginta petentibus datae frumento stipendioque imperato.
Yet no war was waged; a truce for forty years was granted to them at their request, after corn and pay had been requisitioned.
§2.54.2paci externae confestim continuatur discordia domi.
To foreign peace domestic discord immediately succeeded.
agrariae legis tribuniciis stimulis plebs furebat.
The plebs were raging with the tribunician incitements regarding the agrarian law.
consules, nihil Meneni damnatione, nihil periculo deterriti Servilii, summa vi resistunt.
The consuls, deterred not at all by the condemnation of Menenius, nor at all by the danger of Servilius, resisted with the greatest force.
abeuntes magistratu Cn. Genucius tribunus plebis arripuit.
As they were leaving office, Gnaeus Genucius, tribune of the plebs, impeached them.
L. Aemilius et Opiter Verginius consulatum ineunt; §2.54.3Vopiscum Iulium pro Verginio in quibusdam annalibus consulem invenio.
L. Aemilius and Opiter Verginius entered upon the consulship; in some annals I find Vopiscus Iulius as consul instead of Verginius.
hoc anno — quoscumque consules habuit — rei ad populum Furius et Manlius circumeunt sordidati non plebem magis quam iuniores patrum.
In this year — whoever the consuls were — Furius and Manlius, as defendants before the people, went about in mourning garb, addressing not more the plebs than the younger of the patricians.
suadent, §2.54.4monent, honoribus et administratione rei publicae abstineant; consulares vero fasces, praetextam curulemque sellam nihil aliud quam pompam funeris putent; §2.54.5claris insignibus velut infulis velatos ad mortem destinari.
They urged them, they warned them to abstain from honors and the administration of the commonwealth; and to think that the consular fasces, the praetexta, and the curule chair were nothing other than the pomp of a funeral; that those covered with famous insignia, as if with fillets, were destined for death.
quod si consulatus tanta dulcedo sit, iam nunc ita in animum inducant, consulatum captum et oppressum ab tribunicia potestate esse; §2.54.6consuli, velut apparitori tribunicio, omnia ad nutum imperiumque tribuni agenda esse; si se commoverit, si respexerit patres, si aliud quam plebem esse in re publica crediderit, exilium Cn. Marci, Meneni damnationem et mortem sibi proponat ante oculos.
But if there were such sweetness in the consulship, they should even now make up their minds that the consulship had been captured and oppressed by the tribunician power; that the consul, like a tribunician apparitor, had to do everything at the beck and command of the tribune; if he stirred, if he looked back at the patricians, if he believed that there was anything else in the state besides the plebs, let him set before his eyes the exile of Gnaeus Marcius, and the condemnation and death of Menenius.
§2.54.7his accensi vocibus patres consilia inde non publica, sed in privato seductaque a plurium conscientia habuere.
Incensed by these words, the patricians from then on held councils, not public, but in private and removed from the knowledge of the many.
ubi cum id modo constaret, iure an iniuria eripiendos esse reos, atrocissima quaeque maxime placebat sententia, nec auctor quamvis audaci facinori de erat.
When it was agreed there only upon this, that the defendants must be rescued, whether by right or wrong, every most atrocious opinion was most pleasing, nor was there wanting an author for however bold a deed.
§2.54.8igitur iudicii die, cum plebs in foro erecta expectatione staret, mirari primo, quod non descenderet tribunus; dein, cum iam mora suspectior fieret, deterritum a primoribus credere et desertam ac proditam causam publicam queri; §2.54.9tandem, qui obversati vestibulo tribuni fuerant, nuntiant domi mortuum esse inventum.
Therefore, on the day of the trial, when the plebs stood in the forum on tiptoe with expectation, they wondered at first why the tribune did not come down; then, when the delay became more suspicious, they believed he had been deterred by the leading men, and complained that the public cause was deserted and betrayed; at last, those who had been waiting at the vestibule of the tribune reported that he had been found dead at home.
quod ubi in totam contionem pertulit rumor, sicut acies funditur duce occiso, ita dilapsi passim ali alio.
When the rumor carried this to the whole assembly, just as an army is routed when its general is slain, so they dispersed in all directions, some one way, some another.
praecipuus pavor tribunos invaserat, quam nihil auxilii sacratae leges haberent, morte collegae monitos.
A peculiar terror had seized the tribunes, warned by the death of their colleague how little protection the sacred laws possessed.
nec patres satis moderate ferre laetitiam; §2.54.10adeoque neminem noxiae paenitebat, ut etiam insontes fecisse videri vellent, palamque ferretur malo domandam tribuniciam potestatem.
Nor did the patricians contain their joy with sufficient moderation; and so little did anyone repent of the crime, that even the innocent wished to seem to have done it, and it was openly declared that the tribunician power must be tamed by adversity.