now the commons placed some hopes in the tribuneship, if only they could get tribunes like Icilius: for the last two years they declared that they had only had mere names. On the other hand, the elder members of the patrician order, though they considered their young men to be too overbearing, yet preferred, if bounds were to be exceeded, that a superabundance of spirit should be exhibited by their own order rather than by their adversaries. So difficult a thing is moderation in maintaining liberty, while every one, by pretending to desire equality, exalts himself in such a manner as to put down another, and men, by their very precautions against fear, cause themselves to become objects of dread: and we saddle on others injustice repudiated on our own account, as if it were absolutely necessary either to commit injustice or to submit to it. Titus Quinctius Capitolinus for the fourth time and Agrippa Furius being then elected consuls, found neither disturbance at home nor war abroad; both, however, were impending. The discord of the citizens could now no longer be checked, both tribunes and commons being exasperated against the patricians, while, if a day of trial was appointed for any of the nobility, it always embroiled the assemblies in new struggles. On the first report of these the Æquans and Volscians, as if they had received a signal, took up arms; also because their leaders, eager for plunder, had persuaded them that the levy proclaimed two years previously could not be proceeded with, as the commons now refused obedience to military authority: that for that reason no armies had been sent against them; that military discipline was subverted by licentiousness, and that Rome was no longer considered a common country for its citizens; that whatever resentment and animosity they might have entertained against foreigners, was now directed against themselves; that now an opportunity offered itself for destroying wolves blinded by intestine rage. Having united their forces, they first utterly laid waste the Latin territory: when none met them to avenge the wrong, then indeed, to the great exultation of the advisers of the war, they approached the very walls of Rome, carrying their depredations into the district around the Esquiline gate[69] pointing out to the city in mocking insult the devastation of the land. When they marched back thence to Corbio unmolested and driving their booty before them, Quinctius the consul summoned the people to an assembly.