Camillus, however, whether puffed up with the greatness of his
achievement in conquering a city that was the rival of Rome, and held
out a ten years' siege, or exalted with the felicitations of those that
were about him, assumed to himself more than became a civil and legal
magistrate; among other things, in the pride and haughtiness of triumph,
driving through Rome in a chariot drawn with four white horses, which no
general either before or since ever did; for the Romans consider such a
mode of conveyance to be sacred and specially set apart to the king and
father of the gods. This alienated the hearts of his fellow-citizens,
who were not accustomed to such pomp and display.
The second pique they had against him was his opposing the law by which
the city was to be divided; for the tribunes of the people brought
forward a motion that the people and senate should be divided into two
parts, one of which should remain at home, the other, as the lot should
decide, remove to the new-taken city. By which means they should
not only have much more room, but, by the advantage of two great and
magnificent cities, be better able to maintain their territories and
their fortunes in general. The people, therefore, who were numerous and
indigent, greedily embraced it, and crowded continually to the forum,
with tumultuous demands to have it put to the vote. But the senate and
the noblest citizens, judging the proceedings of the tribunes to tend
rather to a destruction than a division of Rome, greatly averse to it,
went to Camillus for assistance, who, fearing the result if it came to a
direct contest, contrived to occupy the people with other business, and
so staved it off. He thus became unpopular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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