[8,71] Εὐθὺς μὲν οὖν ἔτι λέγοντος αὐτοῦ θόρυβος ἦν πολύς, ἀχθομένων ἁπάντων καὶ οὐχ ὑπομενόντων τὸν λόγον. ἐπειδὴ δ´ ἐπαύσατο ὅ τε συνύπατος αὐτοῦ Οὐεργίνιος πολλὴν ἐποιήσατο κατηγορίαν ὡς στάσιν εἰσάγοντος, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων βουλευτῶν οἱ πρεσβύτατοί τε καὶ τιμιώτατοι, μάλιστα δ´ Ἄππιος Κλαύδιος· καὶ μέχρι πολλῆς ὥρας ἠγριωμένοι τε καὶ τὰ αἴσχιστα κατ´ ἀλλήλων ὀνείδη λέγοντες οὗτοι διετέλεσαν. ταῖς δὲ κατόπιν ἡμέραις ὁ μὲν Κάσσιος ἐκκλησίας συνεχεῖς ποιούμενος ἐξεδημαγώγει τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῆς κληρουχίας λόγους εἰσέφερε, καὶ πολὺς ἦν ἐν ταῖς κατηγορίαις τῶν ἀντιπραττόντων. ὁ δ´ Οὐεργίνιος τὴν βουλὴν ὁσημέραι συνάγων μετὰ κοινῆς γνώμης τῶν πατρικίων ἀντιπαρεσκευάζετο φυλακάς τε καὶ κωλύσεις νομίμους. καὶ ἦν στῖφος ἑκατέρῳ τῶν παρακολουθούντων τε καὶ φυλακὴν τῷ σώματι παρεχόντων πολύ· τὸ μὲν ἄπορον καὶ ῥυπαρὸν καὶ πάντα τολμᾶν πρόχειρον ὑπὸ τῷ Κασσίῳ τεταγμένον, τὸ δ´ εὐγενέστατόν τε καὶ καθαρώτατον ὑπὸ τῷ Οὐεργινίῳ. τέως μὲν οὖν τὸ χεῖρον ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ἐπεκράτει μακρῷ θατέρου προὔχον, ἔπειτα ἰσόρροπον ἐγένετο προσνειμάντων ἑαυτοὺς τῶν δημάρχων τῇ κρείττονι μοίρᾳ· τάχα μὲν καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ δοκεῖν ἄμεινον εἶναι τῇ πόλει δεκασμοῖς τ´ ἀργυρίου καὶ διανομαῖς τῶν δημοσίων διαφθειρόμενον τὸ πλῆθος ἀργὸν καὶ πονηρὸν εἶναι, τάχα δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸν φθόνον, ὅτι τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ταύτης οὐκ αὐτοὶ ἦρξαν οἱ τοῦ δήμου προεστηκότες, ἀλλ´ ἕτερος· οὐθὲν δὲ κωλύει καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸ δέος, ὃ πρὸς τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐλάμβανον μείζονα γενομένην ἢ τῇ πόλει συνέφερεν. ἀντέλεγον οὖν ἤδη κατὰ κράτος ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις οὗτοι πρὸς τοὺς εἰσφερομένους ὑπὸ τοῦ Κασσίου νόμους διδάσκοντες τὸν δῆμον, ὡς οὐκ εἴη δίκαιον, ἃ διὰ πολλῶν ἐκτήσατο πολέμων, ταῦτα μὴ Ῥωμαίους νείμασθαι μόνους, ἀλλὰ καὶ Λατίνους αὐτοῖς ἰσομοιρεῖν τοὺς μὴ παραγενομένους τοῖς πολέμοις, καὶ τοὺς νεωστὶ προσελθόντας πρὸς τὴν φιλίαν Ἕρνικας, οἷς ἀγαπητὸν ἦν πολέμῳ προσαχθεῖσι τὸ μὴ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀφαιρεθῆναι χώραν. ὁ δὲ δῆμος ἀκούων τοτὲ μὲν τοῖς τῶν δημάρχων προσετίθετο λόγοις ἐνθυμούμενος, ὅτι μικρόν τι καὶ οὐκ ἄξιον ἔσται λόγου τὸ ἐκ τῆς δημοσίας γῆς ἐσόμενον ἑκάστῳ λάχος, εἰ μεθ´ Ἑρνίκων τε καὶ Λατίνων αὐτὴν νεμήσονται, τοτὲ δ´ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κασσίου μετεπείθετο δημαγωγοῦντος, ὡς προδιδόντων αὐτοὺς τοῖς πατρικίοις τῶν δημάρχων καὶ πρόφασιν ποιουμένων τῆς κωλύσεως εὐπρεπῆ τὴν Ἑρνίκων τε καὶ Λατίνων ἰσομοιρίαν, ἣν αὐτὸς ἔφη νόμῳ περιλαβεῖν ἰσχύος τῶν πενήτων ἕνεκα καὶ εἴ τις ἀφαιρεῖσθαί ποτε αὐτοὺς ἀξιώσαι τὰ δοθέντα κωλῦσαι, κρεῖττον ἡγούμενος εἶναι καὶ ἀσφαλέστερον τοῖς πολλοῖς μικρὰ λαβοῦσιν ὁμοίως ἔχειν ἢ πολλὰ ἐλπίσασιν ἁπάντων ἀποτυχεῖν.

[8,71] At once, while he was still speaking, a great tumult arose, the senators to a man disliking his proposal and refusing to countenance it. And when he had done, not only his colleague Verginius, but the oldest and the most honoured of the senators as well, particularly Appius Claudius, inveighed against him vehemently for attempting to stir up a sedition; and until a late hour these men continued to be beside themselves with rage and to utter the severest reproaches against one another. During the following days Cassius assembled the populace continually and attempted to win them over by his harangues, introducing the arguments in favour of the allotment of the land and laying himself out in invectives against his opponents. Verginius, for his part, assembled the senate every day and in concert with the patricians prepared legal safeguards and hindrances against the other's designs. Each of the consuls had a strong body of men attending him and guarding his person; the needy and the unwashed and such as were prepared for any daring enterprise were ranged under Cassius, and those of the noblest birth and the most immaculate under Verginius. For some time the baser element prevailed in the assemblies, being far more numerous than the others; then they became evenly balanced when the tribunes joined the better element. This change of front on the part of the tribunes was due perhaps to their feeling that it was not best for the commonwealth (p215) that the multitude should be corrupted by bribes of money and distributions of the public lands and so be idle and depraved, and perhaps also to envy, since it was not they themselves, the leaders of the populace, who had been the authors of this liberality, but someone else; however, there is no reason why their action was not due also to the fear they felt at the increase in Cassius' power, which had grown greater than was to the interest of the commonwealth. At any rate, these men in the meetings of the assembly now began to oppose with all their power the laws which Cassius was introducing, showing the people that it was not fair if the possessions which they had acquired in the course of many wars were not to be distributed among the Romans alone, but were to be shared equally not only by the Latins, who had not been present in those wars, but also by the Hernicans, who had but lately entered into friendship with them, and having been brought to it by war, would be content not to be deprived of their own territory. The people, as they listened, would now assent to the representations of the tribunes, when they recalled that the portion of the public land which would fall to the lot of each man would be small and inconsiderable if they shared it with the Hernicans and the Latins, and again would change their minds as Cassius in his harangues charged that the tribunes were betraying them to the patricians and using his proposal to give an equal share of the land to the Hernicans and the Latins as a specious pretence for their opposition; whereas, he said, he had included these (p217) peoples in his law with a view to adding strength to the poor and of hindering any attempt that might thereafter be made to deprive them of what had been once granted to them since he regarded it as better and safer for the masses to get little, but to keep that little undiminished, than to expect a great deal and to be disappointed of everything.