and such skill had the usurers made arrangements, so as to disappoint not only the people, but even the dictator himself.  For Valerius, after the return of the consul Vetusius, of all the measures brought before the senate, made that on behalf of the victorious people the first, and put the question, what it was their pleasure should be done with respect to the debtors.  And when his report was disallowed, he said:  “As a supporter of reconciliation, I am not approved of.  You will ere long wish, depend on it, that the commons of Rome had supporters like myself.  For my part, I will neither further disappoint my Fellow-citizens, nor will I be dictator to no purpose.  Intestine dissensions and foreign wars have caused the republic to stand in need of such a magistrate.  Peace has been secured abroad, it is impeded at home.  I will be a witness to the disturbance as a private citizen rather than as dictator.”  Accordingly, quitting the senate-house, he resigned his dictatorship.  The reason was clear to the people:  that he had resigned his office from indignation at their treatment.  Accordingly, as if his promise had been fully kept, since it had not been his fault that his word had not been made good, they escorted him on his return home with favouring shouts of acclamation.

Fear then seized the senators lest, if the army was disbanded, secret meetings and conspiracies would be renewed; accordingly, although the levy had been held by the dictator, yet, supposing that, as they had sworn obedience to the consuls, the soldiers were bound by their oath, they ordered the legions to be led out of the city, under the pretext of hostilities having been renewed by the Aequans.  By this course of action the sedition was accelerated.  And indeed it is said that it was at first contemplated to put the consuls to death, that the legions might be discharged from their oath:  but that, being afterward informed that no religious obligation could be rendered void by a criminal act, they, by the advice of one Sicinius, retired, without the orders of the consuls, to the Sacred Mount,[34] beyond the river Anio, three miles from the city:  this account is more commonly adopted than that which Piso[35] has given, that the secession was made to the Aventine.  There, without any leader, their camp being fortified with a rampart and trench, remaining quiet, taking nothing but what was necessary for subsistence, they remained for several days, neither molested nor molesting.  Great was the panic in the city, and through mutual fear all was in suspense.  The people, left by their fellows in the city, dreaded the violence of the senators:  the senators dreaded the people who remained in the city, not feeling sure whether they preferred them to stay or depart.  On the other hand, how long would the multitude which had seceded, remain quiet?  What would be the consequences hereafter, if, in the meantime, any foreign war should break out?  They certainly considered there was no hope left, save in