That, however, the people spurned as nothing else than a ready money bribe for regal authority:  so uncompromisingly were his gifts rejected, as if there was abundance of everything, in consequence of their inveterate suspicion that he was aiming at sovereign power.  As soon as he went out of office, it is certain that he was condemned and put to death.  There are some who represent that his father was the person who carried out the punishment:  that he, having tried the case at home, scourged him and put him to death, and consecrated his son’s private property to Ceres; that out of this a statue was set up and inscribed, “Presented out of the property of the Cassian family.”  In some authors I find it stated, which is more probable, that a day was assigned him to stand his trial for high treason, by the quaestors,[50] Caeso Fabius and Lucius Valerius, and that he was condemned by the decision of the people; that his house was demolished by a public decree:  this is the spot where there is now an open space before the Temple of Tellus.[51] However, whether the trial was held in private or public, he was condemned in the consulship of Servius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius.

The resentment of the people against Cassius was not lasting.  The charm of the agrarian law, now that its proposer was removed, of itself entered their minds:  and their desire of it was further kindled by the meanness of the senators, who, after the Volscians and AEquans had been completely defeated in that year, defrauded the soldiers of their share of the booty; whatever was taken from the enemy, was sold by the consul Fabius, and the proceeds lodged in the public treasury.  All who bore the name of Fabius became odious to the commons on account of the last consul:  the patricians, however, succeeded in getting Caeso Fabius elected consul with Lucius AEmilius.  The commons, still further aggravated at this, provoked war abroad by exciting disturbance at home;[52] in consequence of the war civil dissensions were then discontinued.  Patricians and commons uniting, under the command of AEmilius, overcame the Volscians and AEquans, who renewed hostilities, in a successful engagement.  The retreat, however, destroyed more of the enemy than the battle; so perseveringly did the cavalry pursue them when routed.  During the same year, on the ides of July,[53]the Temple of Castor was dedicated:  it had been vowed during the Latin war in the dictatorship of Postumius:  his son, who was elected duumvir for that special purpose, dedicated it.

In that year, also, the minds of the people were excited by the allurements of the agrarian law.  The tribunes of the people endeavoured to enhance their authority, in itself agreeable to the people, by promoting a popular law.  The patricians, considering that there was enough and more than enough frenzy in the multitude without any additional incitement, viewed with horror largesses and all inducements to ill-considered action:  the patricians found in the consuls most