who favoured the people, calling them demagogues and
betrayers of their own order, alleging that by such
gratification they did but cherish that spirit of
boldness and arrogance which had been spread among
the people against the patricians, which they would
have done well to crush upon its first appearance,
and not suffer the plebeians to grow so strong by
giving so much power to the tribunes of the people.
Now, he urged, they had become formidable because
every demand they made had been agreed to, and nothing
done against their wishes; they contemned the authority
of the consuls, and lived in defiance of the constitution,
governed only by their own seditious ringleaders, to
whom they gave the title of tribunes. For the
Senate to sit and decree largesses of corn to the
populace, as is done in the most democratic States
in Greece, would merely be to pay them for their disobedience,
to the common ruin of all classes. “They
cannot,” he went on to say, “consider this
largess of corn to be a reward for the campaign in
which they have refused to serve, or for the secession
by which they betrayed their country, or the scandals
which they have been so willing to believe against
the Senate. As they cannot be said to deserve
this bounty, they will imagine that it has been bestowed
upon them by you because you fear them, and wish to
pay your court to them. In this case there will
be no bounds to their insubordination, and they never
will cease from riots and disorders. To give
it them is clearly an insane proceeding; nay, we ought
rather, if we are wise, to take away from them this
privilege of the tribuneship, which is a distinct
subversion of the consulate, and a cause of dissension
in the city, which now is no longer one, as before,
but is rent asunder in such a manner that there is
no prospect of our ever being reunited, and ceasing
to be divided into two hostile factions.”
XVII. With much talk to this effect Marcius excited
the young men, with whom he was influential, and nearly
all the richer classes, who loudly declared that he
was the only man in the State who was insensible both
to force and to flattery. Some of the elders,
however, opposed him, foreseeing what would be the
result of his policy. Indeed, no good resulted
from it. The tribunes of the people, as soon as
they heard that Marcius had carried his point, rushed
down into the forum and called loudly upon the people
to assemble and stand by them. A disorderly assembly
took place, and on a report being made of Marcius’s
speech, the fury of the people was so great that it
was proposed to break into the senate house; but the
tribunes turned all the blame upon Marcius alone,
and sent for him to come and speak in his own defence.
As this demand was insolently refused, the tribunes
themselves, together with the aediles, went to bring
him by force, and actually laid hands upon him.
However, the patricians rallied round him, thrust away
the tribunes of the people, and even beat the aediles,