the concord of the citizens:  that this must be restored to the state at any price.  Under these circumstances it was resolved that Agrippa Menenius, an eloquent man, and a favourite with the people, because he was sprung from them, should be sent to negotiate with them.  Being admitted into the camp, he is said to have simply related to them the following story in an old-fashioned and unpolished style:  “At the time when the parts of the human body did not, as now, all agree together, but the several members had each their own counsel, and their own language, the other parts were indignant that, while everything was provided for the gratification of the belly by their labour and service, the belly, resting calmly in their midst, did nothing but enjoy the pleasures afforded it.  They accordingly entered into a conspiracy, that neither should the hands convey food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it when presented, nor the teeth have anything to chew:  while desiring, under the influence of this indignation, to starve out the belly, the individual members themselves and the entire body were reduced to the last degree of emaciation.  Thence it became apparent that the office of the belly as well was no idle one, that it did not receive more nourishment than it supplied, sending, as it did, to all parts of the body that blood from which we derive life and vigour, distributed equally through the veins when perfected by the digestion of the food.” [36] By drawing a comparison from this, how like was the internal sedition of the body to the resentment of the people against the senators, he succeeded in persuading the minds of the multitude.

Then the question of reconciliation began to be discussed, and a compromise was effected on certain conditions:  that the commons should have magistrates of their own, whose persons should be inviolable, who should have the power of rendering assistance against the consuls, and that no patrician should be permitted to hold that office.  Accordingly, two tribunes of the commons were created, Gaius Licinius and Lucius Albinus.  These created three colleagues for themselves.  It is clear that among these was Sicinius, the ring-leader of the sedition; with respect to the other two, there is less agreement who they were.  There are some who say that only two tribunes were elected on the Sacred Mount and that there the lex sacrata [37] was passed.

During the secession of the commons, Spurius Cassius and Postumus Cominius entered on the consulship.  During their consulate, a treaty was concluded with the Latin states.  To ratify this, one of the consuls remained at Rome:  the other, who was sent to take command in the Volscian war, routed and put to flight the Volscians of Antium,[38] and pursuing them till they had been driven into the town of Longula, took possession of the walls.  Next he took Polusca, also a city of the Volscians:  he then attacked Corioli [39] with great violence.  There was at