all things that were alleged against him the most grievous was the accusation brought by a certain Volscius that had once been tribune of the Commons; for Volscius bare this witness against him: "Not many days after the plague had ceased from the city, I, with others in my company, fell in with certain young men, of whom this Kaeso was one, disporting themselves in the street. These fell out with us, and Kaeso smote my elder brother with the fist, so that he fell fainting to the ground, being then not wholly recovered from the plague. And being carried home, he died by noon, as I doubt not, of this blow. But when I would have brought Kaeso to judgment for this offence, the Consuls would not suffer it." At the hearing of this tale the wrath of the Commons waxed so hot that they could scarcely be kept from falling on Kaeso and slaying him. At the last, after much debate between the nobles and the tribunes, it was agreed that the young man should appear the next day to make his answer to these accusations, giving sureties in the meanwhile lest he should fail to do so. Ten sureties he gave, and each was bound in three thousand pounds of copper. So being suffered to depart from the market-place, he departed that same night from Rome, going into banishment among the Etrurians. As for his sureties, the money was exacted from his father to the uttermost farthing, so that he was compelled to sell all his goods, and to dwell in a mean cottage on the other side of the Tiber. It came to pass in the third year after these things that the AEquians brake the treaty of peace which they had made with Rome, and, taking one Gracchus Cloelius for their leader, marched into the land of Tusculum; and when they had plundered the country thereabouts, and had gathered together much booty, they pitched their camp on Mount AEgidus. To them the Romans sent three ambassadors, who should complain of the wrong done, and seek redress. But when they would have fulfilled their errand, Gracchus the AEquian spake, saying, "If ye have any message from the Senate of Rome, tell it to this oak, for I have other business to do;" for it chanced that there was a great oak that stood hard by, and made a shadow over the general's tent. Then one of the ambassadors, as he turned to depart, made reply, "Yes, let this sacred oak and all the gods that are in heaven hear how ye have wrongfully broken the treaty of peace; and let them that hear help us also in the day of battle, when we shall avenge on you the laws both of gods and of men that ye have set at nought."