§6.27.1Camillus, consilio et virtute in Volsco bello, felicitate in Tusculana expeditione, utrobique singulari adversus collegam patientia et moderatione insignis, §6.27.2magistratu abiit creatis tribunis militaribus in insequentem annum L. et P. Valeriis, Lucio quintum, Publio tertium, et C. Sergio tertium, L. Menenio iterum, P. Papirio, Ser. Cornelio Maluginense.
Camillus, distinguished by his wisdom and courage in the Volscian war, by his good fortune in the Tusculan expedition, and in both by his singular patience and moderation towards his colleague, resigned his office, after military tribunes for the following year had been elected: Lucius and Publius Valerius (Lucius for the fifth time, Publius for the third), Gaius Sergius (for the third time), Lucius Menenius (for the second time), Publius Papirius, and Servius Cornelius Maluginensis.
§6.27.3censoribus quoque eguit annus maxime propter incertam famam aeris alieni, adgravantibus summam etiam invidiosius tribunis plebis, cum ab iis elevaretur, quibus fide magis quam fortuna debentium laborare creditum videri expediebat.
The year also stood in need of censors, chiefly on account of the uncertain rumors about debt, with the tribunes of the plebs exaggerating the total sum to stir up even greater odium, while it was minimized by those to whom it seemed expedient to appear to believe that the debtors were struggling through bad faith rather than bad fortune.
§6.27.4creati censores C. Sulpicius Camerinus Sp. Postumius Regillensis, coeptaque iam res morte Postumi, quia collegam suffici censori religio erat, interpellata est.
Gaius Sulpicius Camerinus and Spurius Postumius Regillensis were elected censors, and the business, which had already begun, was interrupted by the death of Postumius, because it was a religious taboo for a colleague to be substituted for a censor.
§6.27.5igitur cum Sulpicius abdicasset se magistratu, censores alii vitio creati non gesserunt magistratum; tertios creari velut dis non accipientibus in eum annum censuram religiosum fuit.
Therefore, when Sulpicius had resigned his office, other censors were elected, but because of a defect in the auspices (vitio), they did not hold office; to elect a third set was deemed a religious impediment, as if the gods were not accepting the censorship for that year.
§6.27.6Eam vero ludificationem plebis tribuni ferendam negabant: fugere senatum testes tabulas publicas census cuiusque, quia nolint conspici summam aeris alieni, quae indicatura sit demersam partem a parte civitatis, cum interim obaeratam plebem obiectari aliis atque aliis hostibus.
But the tribunes declared that this mockery of the plebs was not to be tolerated: they asserted that the senate was fleeing from the public registers of each citizen's census, which were witnesses, because they were unwilling for the total sum of debt to be seen, which would show one part of the state submerged by the other part, while in the meantime the debt-burdened plebs was being exposed to one enemy after another.
§6.27.7passim iam sine ullo discrimine bella quaeri: ab Antio Satricum, ab Satrico Velitras, inde Tusculum legiones ductas; Latinis, Hernicis, Praenestinis iam intentari arma civium magis quam hostium odio, ut in armis terant plebem nec respirare in urbe aut per otium libertatis meminisse sinant aut consistere in contione, ubi aliquando audiant vocem tribuniciam de levando faenore et fine aliarum iniuriarum agentem.
They said that wars were now being sought everywhere without any distinction: legions had been led from Antium to Satricum, from Satricum to Velitrae, and thence to Tusculum; arms were now being threatened against the Latins, the Hernici, and the Praenestines, more out of hatred for their fellow-citizens than for the enemy, so that they might wear out the plebeians in arms, and not allow them to breathe in the city, or to remember liberty in leisure, or to stand in the assembly, where they might at length hear the voice of a tribune discussing the reduction of interest and the end of other wrongs.
§6.27.8quod si sit animus plebi memor patrum libertatis, se nec addici quemquam civem Romanum ob creditam pecuniam passuros neque dilectum haberi, donec inspecto aere alieno initaque ratione minuendi eius sciat unus quisque, quid sui, quid alieni sit, supersit sibi liberum corpus an id quoque nervo debeatur.
But if the plebs had a spirit mindful of their fathers' liberty, they would not suffer any Roman citizen to be assigned to a creditor for borrowed money, nor a levy to be held, until the debt had been examined and a method of reducing it established, so that every single person might know what was his own and what was another's, and whether his body remained free to himself or that too was due to the shackle.
§6.27.9merces seditionis proposita confestim seditionem excitavit.
The reward proposed for sedition immediately excited sedition.
nam et addicebantur multi, et ad Praenestini famam belli novas legiones scribendas patres censuerant; quae utraque simul auxilio tribunicio et consensu plebis inpediri coepta;
For many were being assigned to creditors, and the patricians had decreed that new legions should be enrolled because of the rumor of war with Praeneste; both of these began to be obstructed at the same time by the aid of the tribunes and the consensus of the plebs.
§6.27.10nam neque duci addictos tribuni sinebant neque iuniores nomina dabant.
For the tribunes would not allow those assigned to be led away, nor did the younger men give their names.
cum patribus minor in praesens cura creditae pecuniae iuris exsequendi quam dilectus esset — quippe iam a Praeneste profectos hostes in agro Gabino consedisse nuntiabatur — §6.27.11, interim tribunos plebis fama ea ipsa inritaverat magis ad susceptum certamen quam deterruerat; neque aliud ad seditionem extinguendam in urbe quam prope inlatum moenibus ipsis bellum valuit.
Since the patricians had less concern for the moment about enforcing the law on loaned money than about the levy—for indeed it was reported that the enemy, having set out from Praeneste, had settled in the Gabian territory— meanwhile, that very rumor had irritated the tribunes of the plebs more towards the contest they had undertaken than deterred them; and nothing else availed to extinguish the sedition in the city but a war brought almost to the very walls.