THE plebeians
1 and Senate
of
Rome [in the olden time] were
often at strife with each other concerning the enactment of laws, the
cancelling of debts, the division of lands, or the election of magistrates.
Internal discord did not bring them to blows, however; these were
dissensions merely and contests within the law, which they composed by
making mutual concessions, and with much respect for
each other. Once when the
plebeians were going to a war
they fell into such a
controversy, but they did not use the weapons in their hands, but withdrew
to the hill, which from this time on was called the Sacred Mount.
2 Even
then no violence was done, but they created a magistrate for their
protection and called him the tribune of the plebs, to serve especially as a
check upon the consuls, who were chosen by the Senate, so that the political
power should not be exclusively in their hands. Whence arose still greater
bitterness, and the magistrates were arrayed in stronger animosity to each
other after this event, and the Senate and plebeians took sides with them,
each believing that it would prevail over the other by augmenting the power
of its own magistrates. In the midst of contests of this kind Marcius
Coriolanus, having been banished contrary
to justice, took refuge with the Volsci and
levied war
against his country.