Texte grec :
| [6,23] Παραλαμβάνουσι δὴ ὕπατοι πάλιν τὴν ἐνιαύσιόν
τε καὶ νόμιμον ἀρχὴν Ἄππιος Κλαύδιος Σαβῖνος καὶ Πόπλιος
Σερουίλιος Πρίσκος· οἳ τὸ μὲν
ἀνωτάτω συμφέρον εἶδον ὀρθῶς, ὅτι δεῖ περισπᾶν τὸν
ἐντὸς τείχους θόρυβον ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔξω πολέμους· καὶ
παρεσκευάζοντο κατὰ τοῦ Οὐολούσκων ἔθνους τὸν ἕτερον
σφῶν ἐξάγειν στρατιάν, τιμωρήσασθαί τ´ αὐτοὺς
προαιρούμενοι τῆς ἀποσταλείσης κατὰ Ῥωμαίων Λατίνοις
συμμαχίας καὶ προκαταλαβεῖν τὰς παρασκευὰς
αὐτῶν ἔτι συνεσταλμένας. ἠγγέλλοντο γὰρ κἀκεῖνοι
δυνάμεις ἤδη καταγράφειν ἁπάσῃ σπουδῇ καὶ εἰς τὰ
πλησίον ἔθνη πρεσβεύεσθαι παρακαλοῦντες ἐπὶ τὴν
συμμαχίαν, πυθόμενοι τοὺς δημοτικοὺς ἀφεστηκέναι
τῶν πατρικίων καὶ νομίσαντες οὐ χαλεπὸν εἶναι πόλιν
οἰκείῳ πολέμῳ νοσοῦσαν ἄρασθαι. ἐπὶ τούτους δὴ
στρατιὰν ἐξάγειν βουλευσάμενοι καὶ δόξαντες ἅπασι
τοῖς συνέδροις ὀρθῶς βεβουλεῦσθαι προεῖπον ἥκειν
ἅπασι τοῖς ἐν ἀκμῇ χρόνον ὁρίσαντες, ἐν ᾧ τὴν καταγραφὴν
τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἔμελλον ποιεῖσθαι. ὡς δ´ οὐχ
ὑπήκουον αὐτοῖς οἱ δημοτικοὶ καλούμενοι πολλάκις ἐπὶ
τὸν στρατιωτικὸν ὅρκον, οὐκέτι τὴν αὐτὴν ἑκάτερος
εἶχε γνώμην, ἀλλ´ ἔνθεν ἀρξάμενοι διεστήκεσάν τε καὶ
τἀναντία πράττοντες ἀλλήλοις παρὰ πάντα τὸν τῆς
ἀρχῆς χρόνον διετέλεσαν. Σερουιλίῳ μὲν γὰρ ἐδόκει
τὴν ἐπιεικεστέραν τῶν ὁδῶν πορεύεσθαι τῇ Μανίου
Οὐαλερίου γνώμῃ τοῦ δημοτικωτάτου προσθεμένῳ, ὃς
ἠξίου τὴν ἀρχὴν ἰάσεσθαι τῆς στάσεως μάλιστα μὲν
ἄφεσιν ἢ μείωσιν τῶν χρεῶν ψηφισαμένους, εἰ δὲ μή γε
κώλυσιν τῆς ἀπαγωγῆς τῶν ὑπερημέρων κατὰ τὸ παρόν,
παρακλήσει τε μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνάγκῃ τοὺς πένητας
ἐπὶ τὸν στρατιωτικὸν ὅρκον ἄγειν καὶ τὰς τιμωρίας
κατὰ τῶν ἀπειθούντων μὴ χαλεπὰς ποιεῖσθαι καὶ
ἀπαραιτήτους, ὡς ἐν ὁμονοούσῃ πόλει, μετρίας δέ τινας
καὶ ἐπιεικεῖς· κίνδυνον γὰρ ἂν εἶναι, μὴ πρὸς ἀπόνοιαν
τράπωνται συνελθόντες εἰς ταὐτὸν ἄνθρωποι τῶν καθ´ ἡμέραν
ἐνδεεῖς ἀναγκαζόμενοι στρατεύεσθαι τέλεσιν οἰκείοις.
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Traduction française :
| [6,23] The consuls who next took over the (p309) annual and legal magistracy were
Appius Claudius Sabinus and Publius Servilius Priscus. They saw, rightly, that to
render the highest service to the state they must divert the uproar in the city to
foreign wars; and they were arranging that one of them should lead an expedition
against the Volscian nation, with the purpose both of taking revenge on them for the
aid they had sent to the Latins against the Romans and of forestalling their
preparations, which as yet were not far advanced. For they too were reported to be
enrolling an army with the greatest diligence and sending ambassadors to the
neighbouring nations to invite them to enter into alliance with them, since they had
learned that the plebeians were standing aloof from the patricians and thought that it
would not be difficult to captured a city suffering from civil war. The consuls,
therefore, having resolved to lead an expedition against this people, and their
resolution being approved of by the whole senate, they ordered all the men of military
age to present themselves on the day they had appointed for making the levies of
troops. But when the plebeians, though repeatedly summoned to take the military
oath, would not obey the consuls, these were no longer both of the same mind, but
beginning from this point, they were divided and continued to oppose one another
during the whole time of their magistracy. For Servilius thought they ought to take
the milder course, thereby adhering to the opinion of Manius Valerius, the most
democratic of the senators, who advised them to cure the cause of the sedition,
preferably by decreeing an abolition or diminution of the debts, or, failing that, by
forbidding (p311) for the time being the haling to prison of the debtors whose obligations
were overdue, and advised them to encourage rather than compel the poor to take the
military oath, and not to make the penalties against the disobedient severe and
inexorable, but moderate and mild. For there was danger, he said, that men in want
of the daily necessities of life, if compelled to serve at their own expense, might get
together and adopt some desperate course.
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