Titus Latinius, a plebeian, had a dream, in which Jupiter appeared to him and said that the person who danced before the games had displeased him; unless those games were renewed on a splendid scale, danger would threaten the city:  let him go and announce this to the consuls.  Though his mind was not altogether free from religious awe, his reverence for the dignity of the magistrates, lest he might become a subject for ridicule in the mouths of all, overcame his religious fear.  This delay cost him dear, for he lost his son within a few days; and, that there might be no doubt about the cause of this sudden calamity, the same vision, presenting itself to him in the midst of his sorrow of heart, seemed to ask him, whether he had been sufficiently requited for his contempt of the deity; that a still heavier penalty threatened him, unless he went immediately and delivered the message to the consuls.  The matter was now still more urgent.  While, however, he still delayed and kept putting it off, he was attacked by a severe stroke of disease, a sudden paralysis.  Then indeed the anger of the gods frightened him.  Wearied out therefore by his past sufferings and by those that threatened him, he convened a meeting of his friends and relatives, and, after he had detailed to them all he had seen and heard, and the fact of Jupiter having so often presented himself to him in his sleep, and the threats and anger of Heaven speedily fulfilled in his own calamities, he was, with the unhesitating assent of all who were present, conveyed in a litter into the forum to the presence of the consuls.  From the forum, by order of the consuls, he was carried into the senate-house, and, after he had recounted the same story to the senators, to the great surprise of all, behold another miracle:  he who had been carried into the senate-house deprived of the use of all his limbs, is reported to have returned home on his own feet, after he had discharged his duty.

The senate decreed that the games should be celebrated on as magnificent a scale as possible.  To those games a great number of Volscians came at the suggestion of Attius Tullius.  Before the games had commenced, Tullius, as had been arranged privately with Marcius, approached the consuls, and said that there were certain matters concerning the common-wealth about which he wished to treat with them in private.  When all witnesses had been ordered to retire, he said:  “I am reluctant to say anything of my countrymen that may seem disparaging.  I do not, however, come to accuse them of any crime actually committed by them, but to see to it that they do not commit one.  The minds of our people are far more fickle than I could wish.  We have learned that by many disasters; seeing that we are still preserved, not through our own merits, but thanks to your forbearance.  There is now here a great multitude of Volscians; the games are going on:  the city will be intent on the exhibition.  I remember what was done in this