§4.51.1Q. Fabio Vibulano interrege comitia habente consules creati sunt A. Cornelius Cossus, L. Furius Medullinus.
While Quintus Fabius Vibulanus as interrex was holding the elections, Aulus Cornelius Cossus and Lucius Furius Medullinus were elected consuls.
§4.51.2his consulibus principio anni senatus consultum factum est, ut de quaestione Postumianae caedis tribuni primo quoque tempore ad plebem ferrent plebesque praeficeret quaestioni, quem vellet.
At the beginning of the year of these consuls, a decree of the senate was made that, concerning the inquiry into the murder of Postumius, the tribunes should propose to the plebs at the very first opportunity, and that the plebs should put whom they wished in charge of the inquiry.
a plebe consensu consulibus negotium mandatur; §4.51.3qui summa moderatione ac lenitate per paucorum supplicium, quos sibimet ipsos conscisse mortem satis creditum est, transacta re nequivere tamen consequi, ut non aegerrime id plebs ferret: §4.51.4iacere tam diu inritas actiones, quae de suis commodis ferrentur, cum interim de sanguine ac supplicio suo latam legem confestim exerceri et tantam vim habere.
By the consensus of the plebs, the task was committed to the consuls; who, having settled the matter with the greatest moderation and leniency through the punishment of a few, who were fully believed to have brought death upon themselves, could not, however, prevent the plebs from bearing it with the greatest indignation: namely, that measures proposed for their own benefit lay ineffective for so long, while in the meantime a law passed concerning their own blood and punishment was immediately put into execution and held such great power.
§4.51.5aptissimum tempus fuerat vindicatis seditionibus delenimentum animis Bolani agri divisionem obici, quo facto minuissent desiderium agrariae legis, quae possesso per iniuriam agro publico patres pellebat; §4.51.6tunc haec ipsa indignitas angebat animos: non in retinendis modo publicis agris, quos iam teneret, pertinacem nobilitatem esse, sed ne vacuum quidem agrum nuper ex hostibus captum plebi dividere, mox paucis, ut cetera, futurum praedae.
Now that the mutinies had been punished, it would have been the most suitable time for a division of the Bolan land to be offered as a soothing balm to their minds; by doing which they would have lessened the desire for the agrarian law, which was driving the patricians from the public land possessed through injustice; at that time, this very indignity vexed their minds: that the nobility were not only obstinate in retaining the public lands which they already held, but would not even divide among the plebs the vacant land recently taken from the enemy, which would soon, like the rest, become the plunder of a few.
§4.51.7eodem anno adversus Volscos populantes Hernicorum fines legiones ductae a Furio consule, cum hostem ibi non invenissent, Ferentinum, quo magna multitudo Volscorum se contulerat, cepere.
In the same year, legions were led by the consul Furius against the Volscians who were devastating the territories of the Hernicians; since they did not find the enemy there, they captured Ferentinum, to which a great multitude of the Volscians had betaken themselves.
§4.51.8minus praedae, quam speraverant, fuit, quod Volsci, postquam spes tuendi exigua erat, sublatis rebus nocte oppidum reliquerant; postero die prope desertum capitur.
There was less plunder than they had hoped, because the Volscians, after their hope of defending it was small, had removed their property and left the town by night; on the following day, it was captured almost deserted.
Hernicis ipsum agerque dono datus.
The town itself and its land were given as a gift to the Hernicians.