1Meanwhile came another, greater alarm: Latin horsemen gallop in with the startling news that the Volsci were coming with a hostile army to attack the city. 1This news — so far had discord made two states out of one — affected the senators and the plebs very differently. 2The plebs exulted with joy and said the gods were at hand to avenge the senators' arrogance; 2they urged one another not to give in their names: better to perish together with everyone than alone; 2let the senators serve, let the senators take up arms, so that the dangers of war might lie with those who had its rewards. 3But the senate, gloomy and alarmed by a double fear, of citizen and of enemy, begged the consul Servilius, whose temperament was more popular, to rescue the state, beset as it was by such terrors.
4Then the consul, having dismissed the senate, comes forward to address the assembly. 4There he shows that the senators were concerned that the plebs should be looked after; 4but that their deliberation about a part of the state, the greatest part indeed, but still a part, had been interrupted by fear for the commonwealth as a whole. 4Nor could anything take precedence over the war when the enemy were almost at the gates; nor, even if there were some respite, would it be honourable for the plebs to have refused to take up arms for their country unless they had first received payment, nor fitting enough for the senators to have relieved the distressed fortunes of their fellow citizens out of fear rather than afterwards of their own free will.
6He then confirmed his speech with an edict, in which he decreed that no one should keep a Roman citizen in chains or under lock so as to prevent him from giving his name to the consuls, and that no one should seize or sell the goods of a soldier while he was in camp, or detain his children or grandchildren. 7When this edict had been posted, the bondsmen who were present at once gave in their names, and from all over the city men broke out of private custody, since the creditor had no right to hold them, and rushed into the forum to take the military oath. 8That was a large band, and no others showed more conspicuous courage and effort in the Volscian war.
8The consul leads his forces out against the enemy; 8he pitches camp with only a small distance between them.