§9.30.1itaque consules, qui eum annum secuti sunt, C. Iunius Bubulcus tertium et Q. Aemilius Barbula iterum, initio anni questi apud populum deformatum ordinem prava lectione senatus, §9.30.2qua potiores aliquot lectis praeteriti esseit, negaverunt eam lectionem se, quae sine recti pravique discrimine ad gratiam ac libidinem facta esset, observaturos et senatum extemplo citaverunt eo ordine, qui ante censores Ap. Claudium et C. Plautium fuerat.
And so the consuls who succeeded for that year, Gaius Iunius Bubulcus for the third time and Quintus Aemilius Barbula for the second, at the beginning of the year complained before the people that the order of the senate had been deformed by a corrupt selection, in which several men more worthy than those chosen had been passed over; they declared that they would not observe that selection which had been made without distinction between right and wrong according to favor and caprice, and immediately summoned the senate in that order which had existed before the censors Appius Claudius and Gaius Plautius.
§9.30.3et duo imperia eo anno dari coepta per populum, utraque pertinentia ad rem militarem: unum, ut tribuni militum seni deni in quattuor legiones a populo crearentur, quae antea perquam paucis suffragio populi relictis locis dictatorum et consulum ferme fuerant beneficia; tulere eam rogationem tribuni plebei L. Atilius, C. Marcius; §9.30.4alterum, ut duumviros navales classis ornandae reficiendaeque causa idem populus iuberet; lator huius plebi sciti fuit M. Decius tribunus plebis.
And two commands began to be given that year by the people, both pertaining to military matters: one, that sixteen military tribunes for the four legions should be created by the people, which previously, with very few places left to the vote of the people, had been almost entirely the patronage of dictators and consuls; the tribunes of the plebs Lucius Atilius and Gaius Marcius proposed this bill; the other, that the same people should order two commissioners for equipping and refitting the fleet; the proposer of this plebiscite was Marcus Decius, tribune of the plebs.
§9.30.5eiusdem anni rem dictu parvam praeterirem, ni ad religionem visa esset pertinere.
I should pass over a matter of that same year small to tell of, if it had not seemed to pertain to religion.
tibicines, quia prohibiti a proximis censoribus erant in aede Iovis vesci, quod traditum antiquitus erat, aegre passi Tibur uno agmine abierunt, adeo ut nemo in urbe esset, qui sacrificiis praecineret.
The flute-players, because they had been forbidden by the last censors to feast in the temple of Jupiter, a thing handed down from of old, taking it hard, went off in a body to Tibur, so that there was no one in the city to play before the sacrifices.
§9.30.6eius rei religio tenuit senatum, legatosque Tibur miserunt, ut darent operam, ut ii homines Romanis restituerentur.
Religious awe on account of this matter seized the senate, and they sent envoys to Tibur to take care that these men should be restored to the Romans.
§9.30.7Tiburtini benigne polliciti primum accitos eos in curiam hortati sunt, uti reverterentur Romam; postquam perpelli nequibant, consilio haud abhorrente ab ingeniis hominum eos adgrediuntur.
The Tiburtines, having kindly promised, first summoned them to the senate-house and exhorted them to return to Rome; when they could not be persuaded, they approached them with a plan not foreign to the character of these men.
§9.30.8die festo alii alios per speciem celebrandarum cantu epularum invitant et vino, cuius avidum ferme id genus est, §9.30.9oneratos sopiunt atque ita in plaustra somno vinctos coniciunt ac Romam deportant.
On a feast day, some invited others under the pretense of celebrating feasts with song, and with wine, of which that class of men is generally greedy, they put them to sleep, laden as they were, and thus bound by sleep threw them into wagons and carried them off to Rome.
nec prius sensere, quam plaustris in foro relictis plenos crapulae eos lux oppressit.
Nor did they perceive it until, the wagons having been left in the forum, light overtook them full of the effects of wine.
§9.30.10tunc concursus populi factus, impetratoque, ut manerent, datum, ut triduum quotannis ornati cum cantu atque hac, quae nunc sollemnis est, licentia per urbem vagarentur, restitutumque in aede vescendi ius iis, qui sacris praecinerent.
Then a gathering of the people took place, and permission having been obtained for them to remain, it was granted that for three days every year, adorned, with song and this freedom which is now customary, they should wander through the city, and the right of feasting in the temple was restored to those who played before the sacrifices.
haec inter duorum ingentium bellorum curam gerebantur.
These things were done amidst the care of two huge wars.