which had been dispersed in different directions, to Eretum, where they pitched their camp, grounding their hopes on the dissensions at Rome, which they expected would prove an obstruction to the levy.  Not only the couriers, but also the flight of the country people through the city inspired them with alarm.  The decemvirs, left in a dilemma between the hatred of the patricians and people, took counsel what was to be done.  Fortune, moreover, brought an additional cause of alarm.  The AEquans on the opposite side pitched their camp at Algidum, and by raids from there ravaged Tusculan territory.  News of this was brought by ambassadors from Tusculum imploring assistance.  The panic thereby occasioned urged the decemvirs to consult the senate, now that two wars at once threatened the city.  They ordered the patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well aware what a storm of resentment was ready to break upon them; they felt that all would heap upon them the blame for the devastation of their territory, and for the dangers that threatened; and that that would give them an opportunity of endeavouring to abolish their office, if they did not unite in resisting, and by enforcing their authority with severity on a few who showed an intractable spirit repress the attempts of others.  When the voice of the crier was heard in the forum summoning the senators into the senate-house to the presence of the decemvirs, this proceeding, as altogether new, because they had long since given up the custom of consulting the senate, attracted the attention of the people, who, full of surprise, wanted to know what had happened, and why, after so long an interval they were reviving a custom that had fallen into abeyance:  stating that they ought to thank the enemy and the war, that any of the customs of a free state were complied with.  They looked around for a senator through all parts of the forum, and seldom recognised one anywhere:  they then directed their attention to the senate-house, and to the solitude around the decemvirs, who both themselves judged that their power was universally detested, while the commons were of opinion that the senators refused to assemble because the decemvirs, now reduced to the rank of private citizens, had no authority to convene them:  that a nucleus was now formed of those who would help them to recover their liberty, if the commons would but side with the senate, and if, as the patricians, when summoned, refused to attend the senate, so also the commons would refuse to enlist.  Thus the commons grumbled.  There was hardly one of the patricians in the forum, and but very few in the city.  In disgust at the state of affairs, they had retired into the country, and busied themselves only with their private affairs, giving up all thought of state concerns, considering that they themselves were out of reach of ill-treatment in proportion as they removed themselves from the meeting and converse of their imperious masters.  When those who had been summoned did not assemble,