§6.38.1prius circumactus est annus, quam a Velitris reducerentur legiones.
The year came to an end before the legions were brought back from Velitrae.
ita suspensa de legibus res ad novos tribunos militum dilata; nam plebis tribunos eosdem, duos utique, qui legum latores erant, plebes reficiebat.
Thus, the matter concerning the laws, which had been suspended, was deferred to the new military tribunes; for the plebs re-elected the same tribunes of the plebs, at least the two who were the proposers of the laws.
§6.38.2tribuni militum creati T. Quinctius, Ser. Cornelius, Ser. Sulpicius, Sp. Servilius, L. Papirius, L. Veturius.
Titus Quinctius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, Spurius Servilius, Lucius Papirius, and Lucius Veturius were elected military tribunes.
§6.38.3principio statim anni ad ultimam dimicationem de legibus ventum; et cum tribus vocarentur nec intercessio collegarum latoribus obstaret, trepidi patres ad duo ultima auxilia, ad summum imperium summumque civem, decurrunt.
Right at the beginning of the year, they came to the ultimate struggle over the laws; and when the tribes were being summoned and the veto of their colleagues was no obstacle to the proposers, the alarmed patricians resorted to the last two resources—to the supreme command and the supreme citizen.
§6.38.4dictatorem dici placet; dicitur M. Furius Camillus, qui magistrum equitum L. Aemilium cooptat.
It was decided to name a dictator; Marcus Furius Camillus was named, who chose Lucius Aemilius as his master of the horse.
legum quoque latores adversus tantum apparatum adversariorum et ipsi causam plebis ingentibus animis armant concilioque plebis indicto tribus ad suffragium vocant.
The proposers of the laws, on their part, facing such great preparation by their adversaries, armed the cause of the plebs with high spirits, and having called an assembly of the plebs, they summoned the tribes to vote.
§6.38.5cum dictator, stipatus agmine patriciorum, plenus irae minarumque consedisset atque ageretur res solito primum certamine inter se tribunorum plebi ferentium legem intercedentiumque et, quanto iure potentior intercessio erat, tantum vinceretur favore legum ipsarum latorumque et “uti rogas” primae tribus dicerent, §6.38.6tum Camillus “quando quidem” inquit, “Quirites, iam vos tribunicia libido, non potestas regit et intercessionem secessione quondam plebis partam vobis eadem vi facitis inritam, qua peperistis, non rei publicae magis universae quam vestra causa dictator intercessioni adero eversumque vestrum auxilium imperio tutabor.
When the dictator, surrounded by a crowd of patricians, full of wrath and threats, had taken his seat, and the business was being conducted at first with the usual contest among the tribunes of the plebs themselves—some proposing the law, others vetoing it—and by as much as the veto was legally more powerful, by so much was it overcome by favor for the laws themselves and their proposers, and the first tribes began to say "as you request," then Camillus said: "Since, citizens, it is now tribunician license, not power, that rules you, and you render the veto—which was once acquired by the secession of the plebs—ineffective by the very same force with which you gave birth to it, I, as dictator, will support the veto, not more for the sake of the commonwealth as a whole than for your own sake, and I will defend with my command your ruined right of assistance.
§6.38.7itaque, si C. Licinius et L. Sextius intercessioni conlegarum cedunt, nihil patricium magistratum inseram concilio plebis; si adversus intercessionem tamquam captae civitati leges inponere tendent, vim tribuniciam a se ipsa dissolvi non patiar. ” §6.38.8aduersus ea cum contemptim tribuni plebis rem nihilo segnius peragerent, tum percitus ira Camillus lictores, qui de medio plebem emoverent, misit et addidit minas, si pergerent, sacramento omnes iuniores adacturum exercitumque extemplo ex urbe educturum.
Therefore, if Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius yield to the veto of their colleagues, I will not introduce a patrician magistracy into the assembly of the plebs; but if, against the veto, they strive to impose laws on you as if upon a captured city, I will not suffer the tribunician power to be dissolved by itself." When, in opposition to this, the tribunes of the plebs contemptuously proceeded with their business with no less vigor, then Camillus, incensed with anger, sent lictors to clear the plebs from the midst, and added threats that, if they persisted, he would bind all the younger men by military oath and immediately lead the army out of the city.
terrorem ingentem incusserat plebi; §6.38.9ducibus plebis accendit magis certamine animos quam minuit.
He had struck great terror into the plebs; but in the leaders of the plebs he inflamed their spirits by the contest rather than diminished them.
sed re neutro inclinata magistratu se abdicavit, seu quia vitio creatus erat, ut scripsere quidam, seu quia tribuni plebis tulerunt ad plebem, idque plebs scivit, ut, si M. Furius pro dictatore quid egisset, quingentum milium ei multa esset.
Yet, before the matter inclined to either side, he resigned his office, whether because he had been elected with some defect in the auspices, as some have written, or because the tribunes of the plebs brought a proposal to the plebs, and the plebs enacted it, that if Marcus Furius did anything in his capacity as dictator, he should be fined five hundred thousand asses.
§6.38.10sed auspiciis magis quam novi exempli rogatione deterritum ut potius credam, cum ipsius viri facit ingenium, tum quod ei suffectus est extemplo P. Manlius dictator — §6.38.11quem quid creari attinebat ad id certamen, quo M. Furius victus esset? — et quod eundem M. Furium dictatorem insequens annus habuit, haud sine pudore certe fractum priore anno in se imperium repetiturum; §6.38.12simul quod eo tempore, quo promulgatum de multa eius traditur, aut et huic rogationi, qua se in ordinem cogi videbat, obsistere potuit, aut ne illas quidem, propter quas et haec lata erat, §6.38.13inpedire, et quod usque ad memoriam nostram tribuniciis consularibusque certatum viribus est, dictaturae semper altius fastigium fuit.
But that I should rather believe he was deterred by the auspices than by a proposal of an unprecedented kind, is made likely both by the character of the man himself, and by the fact that Publius Manlius was immediately substituted for him as dictator— for what did it pertain to elect him for that contest in which Marcus Furius had been defeated?—and because the following year had the same Marcus Furius as dictator, who certainly would not without shame have sought again a command that had been broken in his person the year before; at the same time because, at that time when the proposal about his fine is said to have been published, he was either able to resist this law also, by which he saw himself reduced to the rank of a private citizen, or he could not even have been prevented from hindering those laws for the sake of which this one also had been proposed; and because, right up to our memory, the struggle was waged with tribunician and consular powers, but the height of the dictatorship was always superior.