1With the Aurunci routed, the Roman people, victorious in so many wars within a few days, was waiting for the consul's promises and the senate's pledge to be kept, when Appius, both from the arrogance inborn in his character and to make his colleague's pledge worthless, began to give judgment on debts as harshly as he could. 1From then on those who had been bondsmen before were handed over to their creditors, and others were made bondsmen. 2Whenever this befell a soldier, he appealed to the other consul. 2There was a rush to Servilius; 2they kept throwing his promises in his face; 2they reproached him, each with his own services in war and the scars he had received.
2They demanded that he either refer the matter to the senate or come to the help of his fellow citizens as consul and of his soldiers as commander. 2These things moved the consul, but the situation forced him to evade the issue; 3so headlong for the other side were not only his colleague but the whole faction of the nobles. 3So by taking a middle course he neither escaped the hatred of the plebs nor won favour with the senators. 4The senators thought the consul weak and a courter of popularity, the plebs thought him false; 4and it soon became clear that he had come to be as hated as Appius.
4A dispute had arisen between the consuls as to which of them should dedicate the temple of Mercury. 5The senate passed the matter from itself to the people: whichever of them was given the dedication by order of the people, him it ordered to preside over the grain supply, establish a guild of merchants, and perform the rites in place of the pontiff. 6The people give the dedication of the temple to Marcus Laetorius, a chief centurion, so that it was easy to see that this was done not so much to honour him, to whom a charge above his rank had been given, as to disgrace the consuls. 7From then on one of the consuls in particular, and the senators, raged; 7but the plebs' spirits had risen, and they were going about it in a very different way from the one they had first adopted.
8For, despairing of help from the consuls and the senate, whenever they saw a debtor being led into court they would come flying together from every side. 8Neither could the consul's decision be heard for the din and shouting, nor, when he had given it, did anyone obey. 9Force prevailed, and all the fear and danger, since in the consul's sight individuals were being roughly handled by numbers, had passed from the debtors to the creditors. 9On top of this came the fear of a Sabine war; 10and when a levy was decreed no one gave in his name, while Appius raged and attacked his colleague's courting of popularity, saying that he was betraying the state by a demagogue's silence and, on top of not giving judgment on debts, was not even holding a levy as the senate had decreed: yet the state was not wholly deserted, nor the consular authority thrown away; 11he alone would be the champion of both his own majesty and the senators'.
11When the daily crowd, inflamed by licence, stood around him, he ordered one conspicuous ringleader of the disturbances to be seized. 12When the man was already being dragged off by the lictors, he appealed; 12and the consul would not have yielded to the appeal, since the people's verdict was not in doubt, had his obstinacy not been overcome with difficulty, by the advice and influence of the leading men rather than by the clamour of the people; 12so much spirit did he have to spare for withstanding hatred. 13From then on the evil grew day by day, not only through open outcries but, what was far more dangerous, through withdrawal and secret meetings.
13At last the consuls, hated by the plebs, leave office, Servilius liked by neither side, Appius remarkably popular with the senators.