At the expiration of the truce, which was made for one year only, the Latins took the field with a powerful army. Aulus Posthumius was created dictator by the Romans, and a decisive battle was fought near the lake Regillus, in which the Romans were completely victors. Sextus Tarquin was killed upon the spot, and old Tarquin the father died soon after. As soon as this war was ended, the senate, regardless of their promise, ordered all those suits for debt to be determined according to law, which had been suspended during the war. This faithless proceeding raised such violent commotions amongst the people, that a foreign war was judged the best expedient to divert the storm which threatened the aristocracy. The haughty Appius Claudius, and Publius Servilius, a man of a very different character, were nominated consuls by Posthumius and his colleague, which seems a manifest invasion of the rights of the people.[252] A war was resolved upon against the Volscians, but the Plebeians again refused to obey the summons for enlisting. Servilius adhered to the maxims of Valerius, and advised an immediate decree for the abolition of the debts. But he was furiously opposed by the inexorable Appius,[253] who called him a flatterer of the people, and declared that it would be giving up the government to the people when they had it in their power to live under an aristocracy. After much time was spent in these debates, Servilius, who was a popular man, prevailed upon the Plebeians, by his entreaties, and raised an army of volunteers, with which he marched against the enemy. The Volscians, who placed their chief dependance upon the disunion which prevailed amongst the Romans, submitted to whatever terms the consul should think proper to impose, and delivered three hundred hostages chosen out of their principal families, as a security for their behaviour. But this submission was far from real, and was calculated only to amuse the Romans and gain time for their military preparations. War was once more decreed against the Volscians; but whilst the senate was deliberating about the number of the forces proper to be employed, a man advanced in years appeared in the forum and implored the assistance of the people. Famine sat pictured in his pale and meagre face,[254] and the squalid hue of his dress indicated the extremes of poverty and wretchedness. This man, who was not unknown to the people, and, according to report, had borne a command in the army, first showed several honourable scars in his breast, remains of the wounds he had received in the service of his country, and then informed them: “that he had been present in eight and twenty battles, and frequently received rewards bestowed only upon superior bravery: that in the Sabine war his cattle were driven off by the enemy, his estate plundered, and his house reduced to ashes: that under these unhappy circumstances he was compelled to borrow money to pay the