1The plebs were calmed by Quinctius with difficulty, the other consul with much greater difficulty by the senators. 2When the assembly of the plebs had at last been dismissed, the consuls hold a meeting of the senate. 2There, though fear and anger by turns had varied their opinions, the more they were drawn by the interval of time from impulse to deliberation, the more their minds recoiled from conflict, so much so that they thanked Quinctius because the discord had been calmed by his efforts. 3Appius is asked to be content that the consular majesty should be as great as it could be in a harmonious state. 3While tribunes and consuls each dragged everything towards themselves, no strength was left in the middle; 3the state had been torn apart and mangled; 3the question was in whose hands it should be rather than how it should be safe.
4Appius, on the other hand, called gods and men to witness that the state was being betrayed and abandoned through fear, that it was not the consul who was failing the senate, but the senate the consul; 4that harsher terms were being accepted than had been accepted on the Sacred Mount. 4Overcome, however, by the senators' unanimity, he held his peace. 4The law is carried without opposition.