THE LATIN WAR, B.C. 340-338.--The Latins had, as already stated, renewed their league with Rome in B.C. 356, and consequently their troops had fought along with the Romans in the war against the Samnites. But the increasing power of Rome excited their alarm; and it became evident to them that, though nominally on a footing of equality, they were, in reality, becoming subject to Rome. This feeling was confirmed by the treaty of alliance which the Romans had formed with the Samnites. The Latins, therefore, determined to bring matters to a crisis, and sent two Praetors, who were their chief magistrates, to propose to the Romans that the two nations should henceforth form one state; that half of the state should consist of Latins, and that one of the two Consuls should be chosen from Latium. These requests excited the greatest indignation at Rome, and were rejected with the utmost scorn. The Senate met in the Temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, to receive the Latin deputation, and, after hearing their proposals, the Consul, T. Manlius Torquatus, the same who had slain the Gaul in single combat, declared that, if the Republic should cowardly yield to these demands, he would come into the senate-house sword in hand and cut down the first Latin he saw there. The tale goes on to say that in the discussion which followed, when both parties were excited by anger, the Latin Praetor defied the Roman Jupiter; that thereupon an awful peal of thunder shook the building; and that, as the impious man hurried down the steps from the temple, he fell from top to bottom, and lay there a corpse.