The character of the Romans--Traits of the kings--Insignificance of Latin territory--Occupations--Art backward--A narrow religion--Who were the _populus Romanus?_--Patricians oppress the people--Wrongs of Roman money-lending--How a debtor flaunted his rags to good purpose-- Appius Claudius defied--A secession to the Anio--Apologue of the body and its members--Laws of Valerius re-affirmed--Tribunes of the people appointed--Peace by the treaty of the Sacred Mount. VII. HOW THE HEROES FOUGHT FOR A HUNDRED YEARS Coriolanus fights bravely--He enrages the plebeians--Women melt the strong man's heart--Plebeians gain ground--Agrarian laws begin to be made--Cassius, who makes the first, undermined--The family of the Fabii support the commons--A black day on the Cremara--Cincinnatus called from his plow--The Æquians subjugated--What a conquest meant in those days--The Aventine Hill given to the commons--The ten men make ten laws and afterwards twelve--The ten men become arrogant--How Virginia was killed--Appius Claudius cursed--The second secession of the plebeians-- The third secession--The commons make gains--Censors chosen--The wonderful siege of Veii--How a tunnel brings victory--Camillus the second founder of Rome--How the territory was increased, but ill omens threaten. VIII. A BLAST FROM BEYOND THE NORTH WIND What the Greeks thought when they shivered--A warlike people come into notice--Brennus leads the barbarians to victory--A voice from the temple of Vesta--Tearful Allia--The city alarmed and Camillus called for--How the sacred geese chattered to a purpose--Brennus successful, but defeated at last--A historical game of scandal--Camillus sets to work to make a new city--Camillus honored as the second founder of Rome--Manlius less fortunate--Poor debtors protected by a law of Stolo --A plague comes to Rome, and priests order stage-plays to be performed--The floods of the Tiber come into the circus. IX. HOW THE REPUBLIC OVERCAME ITS NEIGHBORS Alexander the Great strides over Persia--Suppose he had attacked Rome? --The man with a chain, and the man helped by a crow--How the Samnites came into Campania--The memorable battle of Mount Gaurus--How Carthage thought best to congratulate Rome--Debts become heavy again--How Decius Mus sacrificed himself for the army--Misfortune at the Caudine Forks--A general muddle, in which another Mus sacrifices himself--Another secession of the commons--An agrarian law and an abolition of debts-- What the wild waves washed up--Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, takes a lofty model--How Cineas asked hard questions--Blind Appius Claudius stirs up the people--Maleventum gets a better name--Ptolemy Philadelphus thinks best to congratulate Rome--How the Romans made roads--The classes of citizens. X. AN AFRICAN SIROCCO