§6.39.1inter priorem dictaturam abdicatam novamque a Manlio initam ab tribunis velut per interregnum concilio plebis habito apparuit, quae ex promulgatis plebi, quae latoribus gratiora essent.
Between the abdication of the former dictatorship and the entry upon the new one by Manlius, an assembly of the plebs was held by the tribunes, as if during an interregnum; and it became clear which of the promulgated measures were more pleasing to the plebs, and which to the proposers.
§6.39.2nam de faenore atque agro rogationes iubebant, de plebeio consule antiquabant; et perfecta utraque res esset, ni tribuni se in omnia simul consulere plebem dixissent.
For they were voting for the proposals concerning interest and land, but rejecting the one about the plebeian consul; and both matters would have been carried through, had not the tribunes declared that they were putting the question to the plebs on all the measures together.
§6.39.3P. Manlius deinde dictator rem in causam plebis inclinavit C. Licinio, qui tribunus militum fuerat, magistro equitum de plebe dicto.
Then Publius Manlius, as dictator, inclined the matter in favor of the plebs' cause by naming Gaius Licinius, who had been a military tribune, as master of the horse from the plebs.
§6.39.4id aegre patres passos accipio; dictatorem propinqua cognatione Licini se apud patres excusare solitum, simul negantem magistri equitum maius quam tribuni consularis imperium esse.
I understand that the patricians bore this with difficulty; and that the dictator was accustomed to excuse himself to the patricians on the ground of his close relationship with Licinius, while at the same time denying that the command of a master of the horse was greater than that of a consular tribune.
§6.39.5Licinius Sextiusque, cum tribunorum plebi creandorum indicta comitia essent, ita se gerere, ut negando iam sibi velle continuari honorem acerrime accenderent ad id, quod dissimulando petebant, plebem: §6.39.6nonum se annum iam velut in acie adversus optumates maximo privatim periculo, nullo publice emolumento stare. consenuisse iam secum et rogationes promulgatas et vim omnem tribuniciae potestatis.
Licinius and Sextius, when the elections for creating tribunes of the plebs had been announced, behaved in such a way that, by denying that they now wished their office to be continued, they most fiercely inflamed the plebs toward that which they were seeking by dissembling: they argued that they had now been standing for nine years, as if in a battle line against the aristocrats, at the greatest private risk and with no public reward; and that both the promulgated bills and the whole power of the tribunician authority had now grown old along with them.
§6.39.7primo intercessione collegarum in leges suas pugnatum esse, deinde ablegatione iuventutis ad Veliternum bellum, postremo dictatorium fulmen in se intentatum.
At first, their laws had been fought against by the veto of their colleagues, then by the sending away of the youth to the Velitrian war, and finally the dictatorial thunderbolt had been aimed against them.
§6.39.8iam nec collegas nec bellum nec dictatorem obstare, quippe qui etiam omen plebeio consuli magistro equitum ex plebe dicendo dederit: se ipsam plebem et commoda morari sua.
Now, neither colleagues, nor war, nor a dictator stood in the way, since he had even given an omen for a plebeian consul by naming a master of the horse from the plebs; it was the plebs itself and its own advantages that were delaying.
§6.39.9liberam urbem ac forum a creditoribus, liberos agros ab iniustis possessoribus extemplo, §6.39.10si velit, habere posse.
They could immediately have a city and forum free from creditors, and lands free from unjust possessors, if they wished.
quae munera quando tandem satis grato animo aestimaturos, si inter accipiendas de suis commodis rogationes spem honoris latoribus earum incidant? non esse modestiae populi Romani id postulare, ut ipse faenore levetur et in agrum iniuria possessum a potentibus inducatur, per quos ea consecutus sit, senes tribunicios non sine honore tantum sed etiam sine spe honoris relinquat.
At what time, pray, would they estimate these gifts with a sufficiently grateful mind, if, while accepting the bills concerning their own advantages, they cut off the hope of honor from their proposers? It was not in keeping with the modesty of the Roman people to demand this: that they themselves should be relieved of debt and introduced into land unjustly possessed by the powerful, while they left those through whom they had obtained these things, now old in the tribuneship, not only without honor but even without hope of honor.
§6.39.11proinde ipsi primum statuerent apud animos, quid vellent, deinde comitiis tribuniciis declararent voluntatem.
Therefore, let them first determine in their own minds what they wanted, and then let them declare their will at the tribunician elections.
si coniuncte ferri ab se promulgatas rogationes vellent, esse, quod eosdem reficerent tribunos plebis; perlaturos enim, quae promulgaverint; §6.39.12sin, quod cuique privatim opus sit, id modo accipi velint, opus esse nihil invidiosa continuatione honoris; nec se tribunatum nec illos ea, quae promulgata sint, habituros.
If they wanted the bills they promulgated to be passed together, there was reason why they should re-elect the same tribunes of the plebs; for they would carry through what they had promulgated; but if they wished only that to be accepted which was necessary for each one privately, there was no need for an invidious continuation of office; and neither would they have the tribuneship, nor would those have the things which had been promulgated.