been military tribune with consular power at Veii, is condemned in a
fine of ten thousand _asses_ in weight, of brass. His colleague, Titus
Quintius, who endeavoured to shift the entire blame of that period on
his previously condemned colleague, was acquitted by all the tribes,
because both in the country of the Volscians, when consul, he had
conducted business successfully under the auspices of the dictator,
Postumius Tubertus, and also at Fidenæ, as lieutenant-general of another
dictator, Mamercus Æmilius. The memory of his father, Cincinnatus, a man
highly deserving of veneration, is said to have been serviceable to him,
as also Capitolinus Quintius, now advanced in years, humbly entreating
that they would not suffer him who had so short a time to live to be the
bearer of such dismal tidings to Cincinnatus.
42. The commons elected as tribunes of the people, though absent, Sextus
Tempanius, Aulus Sellius, Sextus Antistius, and Spurius Icilius, whom
the horsemen by the advice of Tempanius had appointed to command them as
centurions. The senate, inasmuch as the name of consuls was now becoming
displeasing through the hatred felt towards Sempronius, ordered that
military tribunes with consular power should be elected. Those elected
were Lucius Manlius Capitolinus, Quintus Antonius Merenda, Lucius
Papirius Mugillanus. At the very commencement of the year, Lucius
Hortensius, a tribune of the people, appointed a day of trial for Caius
Sempronius, a consul of the preceding year, and when his four
colleagues, in sight of the Roman people, entreated him that he would
not involve in vexation their unoffending general, in whose case
nothing but fortune could be blamed, Hortensius took offence, thinking
it to be a trying of his perseverance, and that the accused depended not
on the entreaties of the tribunes, which were merely used for show, but
on their protection. Therefore now turning to him, he asked, "Where were
those patrician airs, where the spirit supported and confiding in
conscious innocence; that a man of consular dignity took shelter under
the shade of the tribunes?" Another time to his colleagues, "What do you
intend doing, if I go on with the prosecution; will you wrest their
jurisdiction from the people and overturn the tribunitian authority?"
When they said that, "both with respect to Sempronius and all others,
the power of the Roman people was supreme; that they had neither the
will nor the power to do away with the judgment of the people; but if
their entreaties for their commander, who was to them in the light of a
parent, were to prove of no avail, that they would change their apparel
along with him:" then Hortensius says, "The commons of Rome shall not
see their tribunes in the garb of culprits. To Caius Sempronius I have
nothing more to say, since when in office he has attained this good
fortune, to be so dear to his soldiers." Nor was the dutiful attachment
of the four tribunes more grateful alike to the commons and patricians,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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