XXXI.  With great difficulty the sites of the temples were cleared of rubbish by the zeal of Camillus and the labour of the priests; but as the city was utterly destroyed, and required to be entirely rebuilt, the people became disheartened at so great an undertaking.  Men who had lost their all were inclined to wait, and indeed required rest after their misfortunes, rather than labours and toils, which neither their bodies nor their purses were able to endure.  And thus it came to pass that they turned their thoughts a second time towards Veii, a city which stood quite ready to be inhabited.  This gave opportunities to their mob orators to make speeches, as usual, which they knew would be pleasing to the people, in which Camillus was disrespectfully spoken of as depriving them of a city which stood ready to receive them, for his own prviate ambition, and was said to be compelling them to live encamped in the midst of ruins, and re-erect their houses in that vast heap of ashes, all in order that he might be called, not merely the leader and general of Rome, but might usurp the place of Romulus and be called her founder.  Fearing disturbances, the Senate would not permit Camillus to lay down his dictatorship for a year, although he wished to do so, and although no dictator before this had ever remained in office for more than six months.  In the meantime the senators themselves encouraged and consoled the people by personal appeals, pointing to the tombs and monuments of their ancestors, and recalling to their minds the temples and holy places which Romulus and Numa and the other kings had consecrated and left in charge to them.  More especially they dwelt upon the omen of the newly severed head which had been found when the foundations of the Capitol were dug, by which it was proved that that spot was fated to become the head of Italy, and the fire of Vesta which the virgins had relighted after the war, and which it would be a disgrace for them to extinguish, and to abandon the city, whether they were to see it inhabited by foreigners or turned into fields for cattle to feed in.  While persistently urging these considerations both in public speeches and in private interviews with the people, they were much affected by the lamentations of the poor over their helpless condition.  The people begged that, as they had, like people after a shipwreck, saved their lives and nothing else, they might not, in addition to this misfortune, be compelled to put together the ruins of a city which had been utterly destroyed, while another was standing ready to receive them.

XXXII.  Under these circumstances, Camillus determined to debate the question publicly.  He himself made a long appeal on behalf of his native place, and many other speeches were delivered.  Finally he rose, and bade Lucius Lucretius, whose privilege it was, to vote first, and then after him the rest in order.  Silence was enforced, and Lucretius was just on the point of voting when a centurion in command of a detachment