Book 3, The Patricians at Bay: Chapter 2, Rome and the Patricians, Part 2 Summary and Analysis

This section begins with more inner strife than had been the case during most of the times of the Kings. There was an established tradition of enmity between the Aequins, Volscians: both tended to set against Rome just as a hundred years earlier the enemy was normally the Etruscans and the Sabines.

Caeso Quinctius was a young nobleman who grew into great prominence in Rome surrounded by this particular controversy. He defended the present status and rights of the consuls in the face of the tribunes. He became a political enemy of the public with respect to the need for representation of the common people and lawful containment of the consuls. It might be aptly said that the situation accurately represented...