Though I am not conscious, O Romans, of any crime by me committed, it is yet with the utmost shame and confusion that I appear in your assembly.  You have seen it—­posterity will know it.  In the fourth consulship of Titus Quinctius, the AEqui and Volsci, (scarce a match for the Hernici alone) came in arms to the very gates of Rome, and went away unchastised!  The course of our manners, indeed, and the state of our affairs, have long been such, that I had no reason to presage much good:  But could I have imagined that so great an ignominy would have befallen me this year, I would by death; or banishment (if all other means had failed) have avoided the station I am now in.  What! might Rome then have been taken, if those men who were at our gates had not wanted courage for the attempt!—­Rome taken while I was consul—­Of honours I had sufficient,—­of life enough—­more than enough.—­I should have died in my third consulate.  But who are they that our dastardly enemies thus despise?  The consuls, or you Romans?  If we are in the fault, depose us, or punish us yet more severely.  If you are to blame, may neither God nor man punish your faults! only may you repent.  No, Romans, the confidence of our enemies is not owing to their courage, or to the belief of your cowardice.  They have been too often vanquished, not to know both themselves and you.  Discord, discord is the ruin of this city.  The eternal disputes between the senate and the people, are the sole cause of our misfortunes.  While we set no bounds to our dominion, nor you to your liberty:  While you patiently endure Patrician magistrates, and we Plebeian, our enemies take heart, grow elated and presumptuous.  In the name of the immortal gods, what is it, Romans, you would have?  You desired tribunes; for the sake of peace we granted them.  You were eager to have decemvirs; we consented to their creation.  You grew weary of these decemvirs; we obliged them to abdicate.  Your hatred pursued them when reduced to private men; and we suffered you to put to death, or banish, Patricians of the first rank in the republic.  You insisted upon the restoration of the tribuneship; we yielded; we quietly saw consuls of your faction elected.  You have the protection of your tribunes, and the privilege of appeal:  the Patricians are subjected to the decrees of the commons.  Under pretence of equal and impartial laws, you have invaded our rights, and we have suffered it, and we still suffer it.  When shall we see an end of discord?  When shall we have one interest and one common country?  Victorious and triumphant, you shew less temper than we under defeat.  When you are to contend with us, you seize the Aventine hill, you can possess yourselves of the Mons Sacer.