§6.37.1haec indigna miserandaque auditu cum apud timentes sibimet ipsos maiore audientium indignatione quam sua increpuissent, §6.37.2atqui nec agros occupandi modum nec faenore trucidandi plebem alium patribus umquam fore adfirmabant, nisi alterum ex plebe consulem, custodem suae libertatis, plebes fecisset.
When they had denounced these things, shameful and pitiful to hear, before those who were fearful for themselves, with greater indignation on the part of the hearers than their own, yet they asserted that there would never be any other limit for the patricians, either in occupying lands or in destroying the plebs with interest, unless the plebs made one of the consuls from the plebs, as a guardian of their own liberty.
§6.37.3contemni iam tribunos plebis, quippe quae potestas iam suam ipsa vim frangat intercedendo.
The tribunes of the plebs, they said, were already despised, since that very power now broke its own strength by exercising the veto.
§6.37.4non posse aequo iure agi, ubi imperium penes illos, penes se auxilium tantum sit; nisi imperio communicato numquam plebem in parte pari rei publicae fore.
Affairs could not be conducted on equal terms where the supreme command was in the hands of those men, and only the power of assistance in their own; unless the command were shared, the plebs would never have an equal share in the commonwealth.
nec esse, quod quisquam satis putet, si plebeiorum ratio comitiis consularibus habeatur; nisi alterum consulem utique ex plebe fieri necesse sit, neminem fore.
Nor was there any reason why anyone should think it enough if account of plebeians were taken in the consular elections; unless it were made absolutely necessary that one consul be from the plebs, no one would be elected.
§6.37.5an iam memoria exisse, cum tribunos militum idcirco potius quam consules creari placuisset, ut et plebeis pateret summus honos, quattuor et quadraginta annis neminem ex plebe tribunum militum creatum esse? quid crederent?
Had it already slipped from memory that, when it had been decided to elect military tribunes rather than consuls for the very purpose that the highest honor might be open to plebeians as well, for forty-four years not a single plebeian was elected military tribune? What were they to believe?
§6.37.6duobusne in locis sua voluntate impertituros plebi honorem, qui octona loca tribunis militum creandis occupare soliti sint, et ad consulatum viam fieri passuros, qui tribunatum saeptum tam diu habuerint?
Would they of their own free will impart honor to the plebs in two places, who were accustomed to occupy eight places for electing military tribunes, and would they suffer a path to be made to the consulship, who had kept the military tribunate closed for so long?
§6.37.7lege obtinendum esse, quod comitiis per gratiam nequeat, et seponendum extra certamen alterum consulatum, ad quem plebi sit aditus, quoniam in certamine relictus praemium semper potentioris futurus sit.
What could not be obtained by favor in the elections must be secured by law, and one consulship must be set aside outside the contest, to which the plebs might have access, since, if left in the contest, it would always be the prize of the more powerful.
§6.37.8nec iam posse dici id, quod antea iactare soliti sint, non esse in plebeis idoneos viros ad curules magistratus; numquid enim socordius aut segnius rem publicam administrari post P. Licini Calvi tribunatum, qui primus ex plebe creatus sit, quam per eos annos gesta sit, quibus praeter patricios nemo tribunus militum fuerit? quin contra patricios aliquot damnatos post tribunatum; , neminem plebeium.
Nor could that now be said which they used to boast before, that there were no men among the plebeians fit for the curule magistracies; for had the commonwealth been administered any more sluggishly or slackly after the tribunate of Publius Licinius Calvus, who was the first elected from the plebs, than it had been conducted during those years in which no one but patricians was a military tribune? Nay, on the contrary, several patricians were condemned after their tribunate, but no plebeian.
§6.37.9quaestores quoque, sicut tribunos militum, paucis ante annis ex plebe coeptos creari, nec ullius eorum populum Romanum paenituisse.
The quaestors also, just like the military tribunes, had begun to be elected from the plebs a few years before, and the Roman people had not regretted any of them.
§6.37.10consulatum superesse plebeis; eam esse arcem libertatis, id columen.
The consulship remained for the plebeians; that was the citadel of liberty, that the pillar.
si eo perventum sit, tum populum Romanum vere exactos ex urbe reges et stabilem libertatem suam existimaturum; §6.37.11quippe ex illa die in plebem ventura omnia, quibus patricii excellant, imperium atque honorem, gloriam belli, genus, nobilitatem, magna ipsis fruenda, maiora liberis relinquenda.
If they should reach that point, then the Roman people would consider that the kings had been truly expelled from the city and their liberty made stable; for from that day onward all things in which the patricians excelled would come to the plebs—command and honor, military glory, birth, and nobility, great things for themselves to enjoy, and greater things to leave to their children.
§6.37.12huius generis orationes ubi accipi videre, novam rogationem promulgant, ut pro duumviris sacris faciundis decemviri creentur ita, ut pars ex plebe, pars ex patribus fiat; omniumque earum rogationum comitia in adventum eius exercitus differunt, qui Velitras obsidebat.
When they saw that speeches of this kind were well received, they proposed a new law: that instead of the two commissioners for performing sacred rites, a board of ten should be elected in such a way that a part be from the plebs and a part from the patricians; and they postponed the assembly for all these laws until the arrival of that army which was besieging Velitrae.