On hearing this the multitude comprehended that the abundance of the prosperous also supports the condition of the poor; therefore they showed greater mildness and accepted a reconciliation on being granted a release from their debts and from seizures therefor.  This then, was voted by the senate. (Mai, p.144.  Cp.  Zonaras 7, 14.) The account of John of Antioch, frag. 46 (Mueller, fr. hist gr.  IV, p.556) regarding this secession of the plebs seems to have been taken from intact books of Dio. (Cp.  Haupt, Hermes XIV, p.44, note 1; also G. Sotiriadis, Zur Kritik des Johannes von Antiochia, Supplem. annal. philol. vol.  XVI, p.50.)

6.  And it seemed to be most inconsistent with human conditions, and to many others also, some willingly, some unwillingly [lacuna]

¶Whenever many men gathered in a compact body seek their own advantage by violence, for the time being they have some equitable agreement and display boldness, but later they become separated and are punished on various pretexts. (Mai, p.146.  Cp.  Zonaras, 7, 15.)

7.  Through the tendency, natural to most persons, to differ with their fellows in office (it is always difficult for a number of men to attain harmony, especially in a position of any influence)—­through this natural tendency, then, all their power was dissipated and torn to shreds.  None of their resolutions was valid in case even one of them opposed it.  They had originally received their office for no other purpose than to resist such as were oppressing their fellow-citizens, and thus he who tried to prevent any measure from being carried into effect was sure to prove stronger than those who supported it. (Mai, ib.  Cp.  Zonaras 7, 15.)

[Frag.  XVII]

1.  For it is not easy for a man either to be strong at all points or to possess excellence in both departments,—­war and peace,—­at once.  Those who are physically strong are, as a rule, weak-minded and success that has come in unstinted measure generally does not luxuriate equally well everywhere.  This explains why after having first been exalted by the citizens to the foremost rank he was not much later exiled by them, and how it was that after making the city of the Volsci a slave to his country he with their aid brought his own land in turn into an extremity of danger. (Mai, p. 146.  Cp.  Zonaras 7,16.)

[Sidenote:  B.C. 491 (a.u. 263)] 2. ¶The same man wished to be made praetor, and upon failing to secure the office became angry at the populace; and in his displeasure at the great influence of the tribunes he employed greater frankness in speaking to that body than was attempted by others whose deeds entitled them to the same rank as himself.  A severe famine occurring at the same time that a town Norba needed colonizing, the multitude censured the powerful classes on both these points, maintaining that they were being deprived of food and were being purposely delivered into the hands of enemies for manifest