1Directly after this victory, which set the worst of examples, a levy is proclaimed, and as the tribunes are cowed the consuls carry it through without any veto. 2Then indeed the plebs grew angry, more at the silence of the tribunes than at the command of the consuls, and said that it was all over with their liberty, that things had gone back to the old ways; 2the tribunician power had died and been buried with Genucius. 2Something else must be done and planned, some way of resisting the senators; 3and the one plan was this, that the plebs, since it had no other help, should defend itself. 3Twenty-four lictors attended the consuls, and these were themselves men of the plebs; 3nothing was more contemptible or weaker, if there were men to hold them in contempt; 3it was each man himself who made them great and terrible.
4When they had roused one another with such words, a lictor was sent by the consuls to Volero Publilius, a man of the plebs, because he said that, having been a centurion, he ought not to be enrolled as a common soldier. 5Volero appeals to the tribunes. 5When no one came to his help, the consuls order the man to be stripped and the rods to be made ready. 5'I appeal to the people,' said Volero, 'since the tribunes prefer to see a Roman citizen flogged with rods before their eyes than to be butchered by you in their own beds.' 5The more fiercely he shouted, the more violently the lictor tore at his clothes and stripped him.
6Then Volero, being himself very strong and helped by those who had come to his support, thrust back the lictor, and where the shouting of those indignant on his behalf was loudest, he retreated into the thickest of the crowd, crying: 'I appeal, and I implore the protection of the plebs. 7Stand by me, citizens, stand by me, fellow soldiers; 7there is no reason for you to wait for the tribunes, who themselves need your help.' 8The men, roused, make ready as if for battle; 8and it was clear that the whole crisis was at hand, that nothing would be sacred to anyone, neither public nor private right. 8When the consuls confronted this great storm, they readily found that majesty without strength is hardly safe.
9Their lictors manhandled, their fasces broken, they are driven from the Forum into the senate house, uncertain how far Volero would press his victory. 10Then, as the uproar died down, they had the senate summoned and complained of the wrongs done to them, the violence of the plebs, and Volero's audacity. 11Many fierce opinions were expressed, but the older men prevailed, who did not want the senators' anger to contend with the rashness of the plebs.