§4.1.1hos secuti M. Genucius et C. Curtius consules.
These were succeeded by the consuls Marcus Genucius and Gaius Curtius.
fuit annus domi forisque infestus.
It was a year of hostility both at home and abroad.
nam principio anni et de conubio patrum et plebis C. Canuleius tribunus plebis rogationem promulgavit, §4.1.2qua contaminari sanguinem suum patres confundique iura gentium rebantur, et mentio primo sensim inlata a tribunis, ut alterum ex plebe consulem liceret fieri, eo processit deinde, ut rogationem novem tribuni promulgarent, ut populo potestas esset, seu de plebe seu de patribus vellet, consules faciendi;
For at the beginning of the year, Gaius Canuleius, a tribune of the plebs, promulgated a bill concerning the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, by which the patricians believed their blood would be contaminated and the rights of the gentes confounded; and a suggestion, at first gradually introduced by the tribunes, that it should be lawful for one of the consuls to be chosen from the plebs, later advanced to the point that nine tribunes promulgated a bill to the effect that the people should have the power of making consuls whether they wished from the plebs or from the patricians.
§4.1.3id vero si fieret, non vulgari modo cum infimis, sed prorsus auferri a primoribus ad plebem summum imperium credebant.
If indeed this were to happen, they believed that the supreme power would not merely be shared in a common fashion with the lowest classes, but would be completely snatched away from the leading men to the plebs.
§4.1.4laeti ergo audiere patres Ardeatium populum ob iniuriam agri abiudicati descisse et Veientes depopulatos extrema agri Romani et Volscos Aequosque ob communitam Verruginem fremere; adeo vel infelix bellum ignominiosae paci praeferebant.
Therefore, the patricians were glad to hear that the people of Ardea had revolted because of the injustice of the confiscated land, that the Veientes had plundered the borders of the Roman territory, and that the Volscians and Aequians were raging because of the fortification of Verrugo; so much did they prefer even an unsuccessful war to an ignominious peace.
§4.1.5his itaque in maius etiam acceptis, ut inter strepitum tot bellorum conticiscerent actiones tribuniciae, dilectus haberi, bellum armaque vi summa apparari iubent, si quo intentius possit, quam T. Quinctio consule apparatum sit.
Accordingly, having received these reports with even greater exaggeration so that, amidst the noise of so many wars, the tribunician actions might be silenced, they ordered a levy to be held and war and arms to be prepared with the utmost force, to see if it could be prepared even more vigorously than when Titus Quinctius was consul.
§4.1.6tum C. Canuleius pauca in senatu vociferatus: nequiquam territando consules avertere plebem a cura novarum legum; numquam eos se vivo dilectum habituros, antequam ea, quae promulgata ab se collegisque essent, plebes scivisset, confestim ad contionem advocavit.
Then Gaius Canuleius, having shouted a few words in the senate—that the consuls were in vain trying to turn the plebs away from their concern for the new laws by frightening them, and that they would never hold a levy as long as he lived, before the plebs had enacted what had been promulgated by himself and his colleagues—immediately summoned them to an assembly.