XXXII He then hurried from the senate to his own house; and then, after much reflection with himself, thinking that, as his plots against the consul had been unsuccessful, and as he knew the city to be secured from fire by the watch, his best course would be to augment his army, and make provision for the war before the legions could be raised, he set out in the dead of night, and with a few attendants, to the camp of Manlius. But he left in charge to Lentulus and Cethegus, and others of whose prompt determination he was assured, to strengthen the interests of their party in every possible way, to forward the plots against the consul, and to make arrangements for a massacre, for firing the city, and for other destructive operations of war; promising that he himself would shortly advance on the city with a large army. During the course of these proceedings at Rome, Caius Manlius dispatched some of his followers as deputies to Quintus Marcius Rex, with directions to address him[164] to the following effect: XXXIII. "We call gods and men to witness, general, that we have taken up arms neither to injure our country, nor to occasion peril to any one, but to defend our own persons from harm; who, wretched and in want, have been deprived most of us, of our homes, and all of us of our character and property, by the oppression and cruelty of usurers; nor has any one of us been allowed, according to the usage of our ancestors, to have the benefit of the law,[165] or, when our property was lost to keep our persons free. Such has been the inhumanity of the usurers and of the praetor.[166] Often have your forefathers, taking compassion on the commonalty at Rome, relieved their distress by decrees;[167] and very lately, within our own memory, silver, by reason of the pressure of debt, and with the consent of all respectable citizens, was paid with brass.[168] Often too, we must own, have the commonalty themselves, driven by desire of power, or by the arrogance of their rulers, seceded[169] under arms from the patricians. But at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with life. We therefore conjure you and the senate to befriend your unhappy fellow-citizens; to restore us the protection of the law, which the injustice of the praetor has taken from us; and not to lay on us the necessity of considering how we may perish, so as best to avenge our blood." XXXIV. To this address Quintus Marcius replied, that, "if they wished to make any petition to the senate, they must lay down their arms, and proceed as suppliants to Rome;" adding, that "such had always been the kindness[170] and humanity of the Roman senate and people, that none had ever asked help of them in vain."