Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 2
Rev. Canon Roberts, Ed.

58. ¹. —During the disturbances in Rome, the war with the Volscians and Aequi broke out afresh. They had laid waste the fields, in order that if there were a secession of the plebs they might find refuge with them. [2] When quiet had been restored they moved their camp further away. [3] Appius Claudius was sent against the Volscians, the Aequi were left for Quinctius to deal with. Appius displayed the same savage temper in the field that he had shown at home, only it was more unrestrained because he was not now fettered by the tribunes. [4] He hated the commons with a more intense hatred than his father had felt, for they had got the better of him and had carried their Law though he had been elected consul as being the one man who could thwart the tribunitian power —a [5] Law, too, which former consuls, from whom the senate expected less than from him, had obstructed with less trouble. Anger and indignation at all this goaded his imperious nature into harassing his army by ruthless discipline. [6] No violent measures, however, could subdue them, such was the spirit of opposition with which they were filled. They did everything in a perfunctory, leisurely, careless, defiant way; no feeling of shame or fear restrained them. [7] If he wished the column to move more quickly they deliberately marched more slowly, if he came up to urge them on in their work they all relaxed the energy they had been previously exerting of their own accord; [8] in his presence they cast their eyes down to the ground, when he passed by they silently cursed him, so that the courage which had not quailed before the hatred of the plebs was sometimes shaken. [9] After vainly employing harsh measures of every kind, he abstained from any further intercourse with his soldiers, said that the army had been corrupted by the centurions, and sometimes called them, in jeering tones, tribunes of the plebs, and Voleros.