1Then Titus Geganius and Publius Minucius were made consuls. 1In that year, when everything was quiet abroad from war and the discord at home had been healed, another and much graver evil fell upon the state: first a dearness of grain, because the fields had gone untilled during the secession of the plebs, and then famine, such as besieged people usually suffer. 3And it would have come to the death of the slaves at any rate, and of the plebs, had the consuls not taken measures by sending men everywhere to buy up grain, not only to Etruria along the coast to the right of Ostia, and on the left by sea past the Volsci as far as Cumae, but to Sicily too; 3so far had the hatred of their neighbours forced them to need help from far away.
4When grain had been bought at Cumae, the ships were held back by the tyrant Aristodemus, who was the Tarquins' heir, in lieu of the Tarquins' property; 4among the Volsci and in the Pomptine country it could not even be bought; 4there was danger also to the grain-buyers themselves from attacks by the inhabitants; 5from the Etruscans grain came down the Tiber; 5by this the plebs were kept alive. 5They would have been harassed by an untimely war while supplies were so tight, had not a great plague attacked the Volsci just as they were taking up arms. 6Since the enemy's spirits were so terrified by this disaster that, even when it had abated, they were held by a certain dread, the Romans both increased the number of colonists at Velitrae and sent a new colony into the mountains at Norba, to be a citadel in the Pomptine country.
6Then, in the consulship of Marcus Minucius and Aulus Sempronius, a great quantity of grain was brought from Sicily, and it was debated in the senate at what price it should be given to the plebs. 8Many thought the time had come to put pressure on the plebs and to recover the rights which had been wrung from the senators by the secession and by force. 9Foremost among them Marcius Coriolanus, an enemy of the tribunes' power, said, 'If they want the old price of grain, let them give back to the senators their former rights. 9Why do I see plebeian magistrates, why do I see Sicinius in power, I who have been sent under the yoke, as if ransomed from brigands?
10Shall I endure these indignities longer than I must? 10I, who would not put up with King Tarquin, am I to put up with Sicinius? 10Let him secede now, let him call the plebs away; 10the road lies open to the Sacred Mount and to other hills. 10Let them seize the grain from our fields, as they seized it two years ago; 10let them enjoy the scarcity which they made by their own madness. 11I dare to say that, tamed by this misfortune, they will themselves become tillers of the fields rather than, under arms, prevent them from being tilled by seceding.' 12It is not so easy to say whether it ought to have been done as I think it could have been done, that the senators, on terms of lowering the price of grain, should rid themselves of both the tribunes' power and all the rights imposed on them against their will.