without any number being anywhere specified, only enacted that tribunes who had been elected should be left to choose their colleagues and confirmed those chosen by them. He then went on to recite the formula of the law, in which it was laid down: "If I shall propose for election ten tribunes of the commons, if from any cause you shall elect this day less than ten tribunes of the people, then that those whom they may have chosen as colleagues for themselves, that these, I say, be legitimate tribunes of the people on the same conditions as those whom you shall on this day have elected tribunes of the people." When Duillius persevered to the last, stating that the republic could not have fifteen tribunes of the people, having baffled the ambition of his colleagues, he resigned office, equally approved of by patricians and commons. The new tribunes of the people, in electing their colleagues endeavoured to gratify the wishes of the patricians; they even elected two who were patricians,[68] and men of consular rank Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius. The consuls elected, Spurius Herminius, Titus Verginius Cælimontanus, not being specially inclined to the cause either of the patricians or commons, had perfect tranquillity both at home and abroad. Lucius Trebonius, tribune of the commons, incensed against the patricians, because, as he said, he had been imposed on by them in the matter of choosing tribunes, and betrayed by his colleagues, brought forward a proposal, that whoever proposed he election of tribunes of the people before the commons, should go on taking the votes, until he elected ten tribunes of the people; and he spent his tribuneship in worrying the patricians, whence the surname of Asper was given him. Next Marcus Geganius Macerinus, and Gaius Julius, being elected consuls, quieted some disputes that had arisen between the tribunes and the youth of the nobility, without displaying any harshness against that power, and at the same time preserving the dignity of the patricians. By proclaiming a levy for the war against the Volscians and Æquans, they kept the people from riots by keeping matters in abeyance, affirming that everything was also quiet abroad, owing to the harmony in the city, and that it was only through civil discord that foreign foes took courage. Their anxiety for peace abroad was also the cause of harmony at home. But notwithstanding, the one order ever attacked the moderation of the other. Acts of injustice began to be committed by the younger patricians on the commons, although the latter kept perfectly quiet. Where the tribunes assisted the more humble, in the first place it accomplished little: and thereafter they did not even themselves escape ill-treatment: particularly in the latter months, when injustice was committed through the combinations among the more powerful, and the power of the office became considerably weaker in the latter part of the year. And