[Footnote 70:  After the manner of animals about to be sacrificed.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 71:  This was probably the origin of the “clubs” of young patricians, to which so much of the later violance was due.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 72:  The lex sacrata, which declared their persons inviolate.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 73:  The assembly of the plebeians by tribes.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 74:  Of tribunes.]

[Footnote 75:  The consular year.]

[Footnote 76:  One of the rewards of good conduct was double rations.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 77:  That is, the contest to obtain the reform.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 78:  While the plebeians lost the dignity conferred on the assembly by the presence of distinguished patricians, they gained nothing, as, in the mere matter of votes, they already had a majority; and the patricians lost nothing, as the number of their votes would not be sufficient to render them of much importance.]

[Footnote 79:  There were other specific charges, but Livy confines himself to the spirit of the prosecution.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 80:  The port of Antium, now Nettuno.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 81:  Midnight.—­D.  O.]

[Footnote 82:  The rendering of the rest of this section is vague and unsatisfactory.—­D.  O.]

BOOK III

THE DECEMVIRATE

After the capture of Antium, Titus AEmilius and Quintus Fabius became consuls.  This was the Fabius who was the sole survivor of the family that had been annihilated at the Cremera.  AEmilius had already in his former consulship recommended the bestowal of land on the people.  Accordingly, in his second consulship also, both the advocates of the agrarian law encouraged themselves to hope for the passing of the measure, and the tribunes took it up, thinking that a result, that had been frequently attempted in opposition to the consuls, might be obtained now that at any rate one consul supported it:  the consul remained firm in his opinion.  The possessors of state land [1]—­and these a considerable part of the patricians—­transferred the odium of the entire affair from the tribunes to the consul, complaining that a man, who held the first office in the state, was busying himself with proposals more befitting the tribunes, and was gaining popularity by making presents out of other people’s property.  A violent contest was at hand; had not Fabius compromised the matter by a suggestion disagreeable to neither party.  That under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quinctius a considerable tract of land had been taken in the preceding year from the Volscians:  that a colony might be sent to Antium, a neighbouring and conveniently situated maritime city:  in this manner the commons would come in for lands without any complaints on the part of the present occupiers, and the state remain at peace.  This proposition was accepted.  He secured the appointment of Titus