with his countrymen than with the enemy:  that one man alone, as consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was doing its best to betray, as far as in it lay, from hatred of the consul.  For when the consul, in addition to his other military talents, of which he had exhibited abundant instances in his preparations for and in his conduct of war, had so drawn up his line that he routed the enemy’s army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue them when routed; nor, although the exhortation of their general, whom they hated, had no effect upon them, could even their own infamy, and the immediate public disgrace and subsequent danger likely to arise, if the enemy recovered their courage, induce them to quicken their pace, or even, if nothing else, to stand in order of battle.  Without orders they faced about, and with a sorrowful air (one would have thought them defeated) they returned to camp, execrating at one time their general, at another the vigour displayed by the cavalry.  Nor did the general know where to look for any remedies for so harmful a precedent:  so true is it that the most distinguished talents will be more likely found deficient in the art of managing a countryman, than in that of conquering an enemy.  The consul returned to Rome, not having so much increased his military glory as irritated and exasperated the hatred of his soldiers toward him.  The patricians, however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family.  They elected Marcus Fabius consul; Gnaeus Manlius was assigned as a colleague to Fabius.

This year also found a tribune to support an agrarian law.  This was Tiberius Pontificius, who, pursuing the same tactics, as if it had succeeded in the case of Spurius Licinius, obstructed the levy for a little time.  The patricians being once more perplexed, Appius Claudius declared that the tribunician power had been put down the year before, for the moment by the fact, for the future by the precedent established, since it was found that it could be rendered ineffective by its own strength; for that there never would be wanting a tribune who would both be willing to obtain a victory for himself over his colleague, and the good-will of the better party to on advancement of the public weal:  that more tribunes than one, if there were need of more than one, would be ready to assist the consuls:  and that in fact one would be sufficient even against all.[55] Only let the consuls and leading members of the senate take care to win over, if not all, at least some of the tribunes, to the side of the commonwealth and the senate.  The senators, instructed by the counsels of Appius, both collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and courtesy, and the men of consular rank, according as each possessed private personal influence over them individually, and, partly by conciliation, partly by authority, prevailed so far as to make them consent that the powers of the tribunician office should be