History of Rome, Book 3

Book 3 of Livy's history of Rome, written in the 20s BC, covers about twenty years from 467 to 446 BC. Its central subject is the struggle between patricians and plebeians over the limits of the consuls' power, which led to Rome's first written law code.

The book opens with a colony at Antium, wars against the Aequi and Volsci, and a plague. The tribune Terentilius proposes a law to curb the consuls, and the young patrician Caeso Quinctius bullies the tribunes until he is tried and goes into exile. The Sabine Appius Herdonius seizes the Capitol with exiles and slaves and is dislodged. When the Aequi trap a consular army on Mount Algidus, the senate's envoys find Caeso's father Cincinnatus ploughing his small farm across the Tiber; made dictator, he rescues the army, sends the enemy under the yoke and resigns within sixteen days. Envoys go to Athens to study Greek law, and ten men, the decemvirs, are appointed in 451 to write the laws, producing the Ten Tables. The second board, led by Appius Claudius, becomes a tyranny: the veteran Siccius is murdered, and Appius' attempt to seize the girl Verginia ends when her father kills her rather than see her enslaved. The plebs secede again, the decemvirs fall, and the Valerio-Horatian laws restore the tribunes before the book closes with victory at Corbio and a disputed land judgement.

The Verginia story and Cincinnatus at the plough are among Livy's most famous scenes, and the book is essential for early Roman law and politics.