§2.55.1sub hanc pessimi exempli victoriam dilectus edicitur, paventibusque tribunis sine intercessione ulla consules rem peragunt.
Immediately after this victory of the worst example, a levy was proclaimed, and with the tribunes trembling with fear, the consuls carried out the business without any intercession.
§2.55.2tum vero irasci plebs tribunorum magis silentio quam consulum imperio et dicere actum esse de libertate sua, rursus ad antiqua reditum; cum Genucio una mortuam ac sepultam tribuniciam potestatem.
Then indeed the plebs began to be angry more at the silence of the tribunes than at the command of the consuls, and to say that it was all over with their liberty, and that they had returned again to the ancient state; that the tribunician power had died and been buried along with Genucius.
aliud agendum ac cogitandum, quo modo resistatur patribus; §2.55.3id autem unum consilium esse, ut se ipsa plebs, quando aliud nihil auxilii habeat, defendat.
They must act and think of something else, in what way they should resist the patricians; and that this was the only counsel, that the plebs should defend itself, since it had no other help.
quattuor et viginti lictores apparere consulibus et eos ipsos plebis homines; nihil contemptius neque infirmius, si sint, qui contemnant; sibi quemque ea magna atque horrenda facere.
Twenty-four lictors attended the consuls, and they themselves were men of the plebs; nothing was more contemptible or weaker, if there were those who would contemn them; everyone made those things great and terrible for themselves.
§2.55.4his vocibus alii alios cum incitassent, ad Voleronem Publilium, de plebe hominem, quia, quod ordines duxisset, negaret se militem fieri debere, lictor missus est a consulibus.
When they had incited one another with these words, a lictor was sent by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man of the plebs, because he denied that he ought to become a common soldier, since he had been a centurion.
§2.55.5Volero appellat tribunos.
Volero appealed to the tribunes.
cum auxilio nemo esset, consules spoliari hominem et virgas expediri iubent.
When there was no one to help, the consuls ordered the man to be stripped and the rods to be made ready.
“provoco” inquit “ad populum” Volero, “quoniam tribuni civem Romanum in conspectu suo virgis caedi malunt quam ipsi in lecto suo a vobis trucidari. ” quo ferocius clamitabat, eo infestius circumscindere et spoliare lictor.
"I appeal," said Volero, "to the people, since the tribunes prefer to see a Roman citizen beaten with rods in their sight than to be slaughtered themselves by you in their beds." The more fiercely he kept crying out, the more hostilely the lictor began to tear his clothes and strip him.
§2.55.6tum Volero, et praevalens ipse et adiuvantibus advocatis repulso lictore, ubi indignantium pro se acerrimus erat clamor, eo se in turbam confertissimam recipit clamitans “provoco et fidem plebis inploro.
Then Volero, both being very strong himself and with his supporters helping to repel the lictor, where the shout of those indignant on his behalf was loudest, withdrew into the thickest of the crowd, crying out: "I appeal and implore the protection of the plebs.
§2.55.7adeste cives, adeste commilitones;
Help, citizens! Help, fellow-soldiers!
nihil est, quod expectetis tribunos, quibus ipsis vestro auxilio opus est. ” §2.55.8concitati homines veluti ad proelium se expediunt; apparebatque omne discrimen adesse, nihil cuiquam sanctum non publici fore, non privati iuris.
There is no reason why you should wait for the tribunes, who themselves stand in need of your aid." The excited men prepared themselves as if for battle; and it was clear that an extreme crisis was present, and that nothing, whether of public or private law, would be sacred to anyone.
huic tantae tempestati cum se consules obtulissent, §2.55.9facile experti sunt parum tutam maiestatem sine viribus esse.
When the consuls had offered themselves to this great tempest, they easily experienced that majesty without strength is insufficiently safe.
violatis lictoribus, fascibus fractis e foro in curiam conpelluntur, incerti, quatenus Volero exerceret victoriam.
Their lictors having been maltreated and their fasces broken, they were driven from the forum into the senate-house, uncertain how far Volero would push his victory.
§2.55.10conticiscente deinde tumultu cum in senatum vocari iussissent, queruntur iniurias suas, vim plebis, Voleronis audaciam.
The tumult then subsiding, when they had ordered the senate to be convoked, they complained of their injuries, the violence of the plebs, and the audacity of Volero.
§2.55.11multis ferociter dictis sententiis vicere seniores, quibus ira patrum adversus temeritatem plebis certari non placuit.
Although many fierce opinions were delivered, the elders won the day, to whom it did not seem good that the anger of the patricians should contend against the rashness of the plebs.