§4.43.1proximo anno Num. Fabio Vibulano, T. Quinctio Capitolini filio Capitolino consulibus ductu Fabi, cui sorte ea provincia evenerat, nihil dignum memoratu actum.
In the following year, when Numerius Fabius Vibulanus and Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, the son of Capitolinus, were consuls, under the leadership of Fabius, to whom that province had fallen by lot, nothing worthy of mention was done.
§4.43.2cum trepidam tantum ostendissent aciem Aequi, turpi fuga funduntur haud magno consulis decore.
Since the Aequi had shown only a trembling battle-line, they were routed in shameful flight, with no great glory to the consul.
itaque triumphus negatus, ceterum ob Sempronianae cladis levatam ignominiam, ut ovans urbem intraret, concessum est.
And so a triumph was denied; however, because the ignominy of the Sempronian disaster had been lightened, it was granted that he should enter the city celebrating an ovation.
§4.43.3quem ad modum bellum minore, quam timuerant, dimicatione erat perfectum, sic in urbe ex tranquillo necopinata moles discordiarum inter plebem ac patres exorta est coepta ab duplicando quaestorum numero.
Just as the war had been finished with less conflict than they had feared, so in the city, out of tranquility, an unexpected mass of discord arose between the plebs and the patricians, starting from the doubling of the number of quaestors.
quam rem — §4.43.4praeter duos urbanos quaestores ut crearentur duo, qui consulibus ad ministeria belli praesto essent — a consulibus relatam cum et patres summa ope adprobassent, tribuni plebi certamen intulerunt, ut pars quaestorum — nam ad id tempus patricii creati erant — ex plebe fieret.
This matter— —that besides the two city quaestors, two others should be elected to be at hand for the consuls for the duties of war—when it was brought forward by the consuls and the patricians had approved it with the greatest zeal, the tribunes of the plebs introduced a conflict, demanding that a part of the quaestors—for up to that time only patricians had been elected—should be chosen from the plebs.
§4.43.5adversus quam actionem primo et consules et patres summa ope adnisi sunt; concedendo deinde, ut, quem ad modum in tribunis consulari potestate creandis ius sissent adaequari, sic in quaestoribus liberum esset arbitrium populi, cum parum proficerent, totam rem de augendo quaestorum numero omittunt.
Against this proposal, at first both the consuls and the patricians strove with all their might; later, by conceding that, just as they had ordered equality to be established in the election of military tribunes with consular power, so in the case of the quaestors the choice of the people should be free, when they made little progress, they abandoned the whole matter of increasing the number of quaestors.
§4.43.6excipiunt omissam tribuni, aliaeque subinde, inter quas et agrariae legis, seditiosae actiones existunt.
The tribunes took up the abandoned issue, and immediately other seditious actions arose, among which was also that of the agrarian law.
propter quos motus cum senatus consules quam tribunos creari mallet neque posset per intercessiones tribunicias senatus consultum fieri, §4.43.7res publica a consulibus ad interregnum, neque id ipsum — nam coire patricios tribuni prohibebant — sine certamine ingenti, rediit.
On account of these disturbances, since the senate preferred consuls to be elected rather than tribunes, and a decree of the senate could not be passed because of the vetoes of the tribunes of the plebs, the state passed from the consuls to an interregnum, and not even this very transition—for the tribunes prevented the patricians from assembling—was accomplished without a huge struggle.
§4.43.8cum pars maior insequentis anni per novos tribunos plebi et aliquot interreges certaminibus extracta esset, modo prohibentibus tribunis patricios coire ad prodendum interregem, modo interregem interpellantibus, ne senatus consultum de comitiis consularibus faceret, §4.43.9postremo L. Papirius Mugillanus proditus interrex castigando nunc patres, nunc tribunos plebi desertam omissamque ab hominibus rem publicam deorum providentia curaque exceptam memorabat Ueientibus indutiis et cunctatione Aequorum stare.
When the greater part of the following year had been dragged out in conflicts by the new tribunes of the plebs and several interreges, now with the tribunes preventing the patricians from assembling to declare an interrex, now interrupting the interrex so that he should not pass a decree of the senate concerning the consular elections, Finally, Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, having been declared interrex, by chastising now the patricians, now the tribunes of the plebs, reminded them that the republic, deserted and abandoned by men, had been taken up by the providence and care of the gods, and was sustained by the Veientine truce and the hesitation of the Aequi.
§4.43.10unde si quid increpet terroris, sine patricio magistratu placere rem publicam opprimi?
If some terror should strike from that quarter, did they wish the republic to be overwhelmed without any patrician magistrate?
§4.43.11non exercitum, non ducem scribendo exercitui esse? an bello intestine bellum externum propulsaturos? quae si in unum conveniant, vix deorum opibus, quin obruatur Romana res, resisti posse.
Did they have neither an army nor a general for enrolling an army? Or were they going to ward off a foreign war by means of a domestic war? If these should combine, it could scarcely be resisted even by the power of the gods to prevent the Roman state from being overwhelmed.
quin illi remittendo de summa quisque iuris mediis copularent concordiam, §4.43.12patres patiendo tribunos militum pro consulibus fieri, tribuni plebi non intercedendo, quo minus quattuor quaestores promiscue de plebe ac patribus libero suffragio populi fierent.
Why did they not rather, by each relaxing somewhat from the full extent of his right, join in harmony by middle terms— the patricians by permitting military tribunes to be elected instead of consuls, and the tribunes of the plebs by not vetoing to prevent four quaestors from being chosen indiscriminately from both plebeians and patricians by the free vote of the people.