If the patricians had been wise, they ought to have been rejoiced at the result; at least, nobody could have deemed it to be a misfortune. From such a law it is not possible to retrograde; but instead of seeing this, the patricians were ever trying to undo what had been done, and to take revenge. The plebeians still continued to refuse obedience to the consul whom they had not elected. This was the plight in which Appius Claudius found himself, when he led an army against the Volscians. He began on the march ruthlessly to punish the soldiers for the most trifling offences,--to torture them--even, as Dionysius from old traditions very credibly relates. The plebeians opposed to him a dogged resistance, and let themselves rather be punished, than obey him. Immediately before the battle they resolved upon flight, and they fled into the camp, although the Volscians did not the less for this pursue and slay them: they even left the camp, and did not stop until they had reached the Roman territory. On this, Appius now did what might seem to us incredible, if it were not accounted for by the influence of the allies, the Hernicans and Latins, who were under his command. He decimated the army, and led the decimated troops back to Rome. For this he was impeached the year after by the tribunes before the _Plebes_. Livy’s masterly narrative of it we may consider as derived from an actual eye-witness of the event. Appius displays the greatest insolence and pride before the _Plebes_, disdaining to soothe it by prayers; even the tribunes allow themselves to be overawed by him. The two historians agree in stating that the tribunes granted him a respite that he might die by his own hand; and that he made use of it before the dawn of the following day, to save himself from a shameful death. Hereupon the home dissensions are at rest for a while, and the foreign wars acquire considerable importance. WARS WITH THE VOLSCIANS AND ÆQUIANS. PLAGUE. CINCINNATUS. CÆSO QUINCTIUS. CORIOLANUS.