and greatest?  O Father Romulus!  Do thou inspire thy progeny with that determination of thine, by which thou didst formerly recover from these same Sabines this citadel, when captured by gold.  Order them to pursue this same path, which thou, as leader, and thy army, pursued.  Lo!  I as consul will be the first to follow thee and thy footsteps, as far as I, a mortal, can follow a god.”  Then, in concluding his speech, he said that he was ready to take up arms, that he summoned every citizen of Rome to arms; if any one should oppose, that he, heedless of the consular authority, the tribunician power, and the devoting laws, would consider him as an enemy, whoever and wheresoever he might be, in the Capitol, or in the forum.  Let the tribunes order arms to be taken up against Publius Valerius the consul, since they forbade it against Appius Herdonius; that he would dare to act in the case of the tribunes, as the founder of his family [26] had dared to act in the case of the kings.  It was now clear that matters would come to violent extremities, and that a quarrel among Romans would be exhibited to the enemy.  The law however could neither be carried, nor could the consul proceed to the Capitol.  Night put an end to the struggle that had been begun; the tribunes yielded to the night, dreading the arms of the consuls.[27] When the ringleaders of the disturbances had been removed, the patricians went about among the commons, and, mingling in their meetings, spread statements suited to the occasion:  they advised them to take heed into what danger they were bringing the commonwealth:  that the contest was not one between patricians and commons, but that patricians and commons together, the fortress of the city, the temples of the gods, the guardian gods of the state and of private families, were being delivered up to the enemy.  While these measures were being taken in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls in the meantime had retired to visit the gates and the walls, fearing that the Sabines or the Veientine enemy might bestir themselves.

During the same night, messengers reached Tusculum with news of the capture of the citadel, the seizure of the Capitol, and also of the generally disturbed condition of the city.  Lucius Mamilius was at that time dictator at Tusculum; he, having immediately convoked the senate and introduced the messengers, earnestly advised, that they should not wait until ambassadors came from Rome, suing for assistance; that the danger itself and importance of the crisis, the gods of allies, and the good faith of treaties, demanded it; that the gods would never afford them a like opportunity of obliging so powerful a state and so near a neighbour.  It was resolved that assistance should be sent the young men were enrolled, and arms given them.  On their way to Rome at break of day, at a distance they exhibited the appearance of enemies.  The AEquans or Volscians were thought to be coming.