§9.33.1Q. Fabius, insequentis anni consul, bellum ad Sutrium excepit, collega Fabio C. Marcius Rutilus datus est.
Quintus Fabius, the consul of the following year, took over the war at Sutrium; Gaius Marcius Rutilus was given to Fabius as his colleague.
§9.33.2ceterum et Fabius supplementum ab Roma adduxit et novus exercitus domo accitus Etruscis venit.
Moreover, Fabius brought a reinforcement from Rome, and a new army, summoned from home, came to the Etruscans.
permulti anni iam erant, §9.33.3cum inter patricios magistratus tribunosque nulla certamina fuerant, cum ex ea familia, quae velut fatales cum tribunis ac plebe simultates exercebat, certamen oritur.
Many years had already passed, during which there had been no contests between the patrician magistrates and the tribunes, when a contest arose from that family which, as if by fate, maintained feuds with the tribunes and the plebs.
§9.33.4Appi Claudius censor circumactis decem et octo mensibus, quod Aemilia lege finitum censurae spatium temporis erat, cum C. Plautius, collega eius, magistratu se abdicasset, nulla vi conpelli, ut abdicaret, potuit.
Appius Claudius the censor, although eighteen months had elapsed—the period of the censorship having been limited by the Aemilian law—and although Gaius Plautius, his colleague, had abdicated his office, could not be compelled by any force to abdicate.
§9.33.5P. Sempronius erat tribunus plebis, qui finiendae censurae intra legitimum tempus actionem susceperat, non popularem magis quam iustam nec in vulgus quam optimo cuique gratiorem.
Publius Sempronius was a tribune of the plebs, who had undertaken the action of ending the censorship within the lawful time—an action not more popular than it was just, and not more pleasing to the multitude than to all the best men.
§9.33.6is cum identidem legem Aemiliam recitaret auctoremque eius Mam. Aemilium dictatorem laudibus ferret, qui quinquennalem ante censuram et longinquitate potestatis dominantem intra sex mensum et anni coegisset spatium, §9.33.7“dic agedum” inquit, “Appi Claudi, quidnam facturus fueris, si eo tempore, quo C. Furius et M. Geganius censores fuerunt, censor fuisses. ” §9.33.8negare Appius interrogationem tribuni magno opere ad causam pertinere suam; §9.33.9nam etsi tenuerit lex Aemilia eos censores, quorum in magistratu lata esset, quia post illos censores creatos eam legem populus iussisset quodque postremum iussisset, id ius ratumque esset, non tamen aut se aut eorum quemquam, qui post eam legem latam creati censores essent, teneri ea lege potuisse.
Since he repeatedly read out the Aemilian law and praised its author, the dictator Mamercus Aemilius, who had forced the censorship, which had previously lasted five years and was tyrannical due to the duration of its power, within the space of a year and six months, "Come, tell me," he said, "Appius Claudius, what would you have done if you had been censor at the time when Gaius Furius and Marcus Geganius were censors?" Appius denied that the tribune's question had any great relevance to his case; for even if the Aemilian law had bound those censors during whose magistracy it was passed—because the people had ordered that law after those censors had been appointed, and what the people had ordered last was the valid law—yet neither he himself nor any of those who had been appointed censors after that law was passed could have been bound by that law.