1Lucretius returned with enormous plunder and much greater glory. 1And on his arrival he increased his glory by setting out all the plunder on the Campus Martius, so that for three days each man might recognise and take away his own. 1The rest, for which no owners came forward, was sold. 2A triumph was owed to the consul by universal consent, but the matter was put off while the tribune was pressing his law; 2that was of greater importance to the consul. 3For several days the matter was debated both in the senate and before the people. 4At last the tribune gave way to the majesty of the consul and desisted.
4Then the commander and the army were given their due honour; 4he triumphed over the Volscians and Aequi, and his own legions followed him in his triumph. 4The other consul was granted the right to enter the city in an ovation without his soldiers. 5Then, the following year, the Terentilian law, brought forward by the whole college, assailed the new consuls; 6the consuls were Publius Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius. 6That year the sky was seen to blaze, and the earth was shaken by a huge earthquake. 6That an ox had spoken, a thing which had not been believed the year before, was now believed. 6Among other prodigies it even rained flesh, and a huge number of birds is said to have snatched up this shower by flying in among it; 6what fell to the ground lay scattered for several days in such a way that its smell did not change at all.
7The books were consulted by the two commissioners for sacred rites; 7dangers were foretold from a gathering of foreigners, lest attacks should be made on the highest places of the city and bloodshed result; 7among other things a warning was given that they should refrain from sedition. 7The tribunes charged that this had been done to obstruct the law, and a great struggle was at hand. 8Look: so that the same cycle might come round year after year, the Hernici reported that the Volscians and Aequi, although their strength had been cut down, were rebuilding their armies; 8that the centre of the enterprise lay at Antium, and that the colonists of Antium were openly holding councils at Ecetra; 8that this was the head, these the strength of the war.
9As soon as this was said in the senate, a levy was proclaimed. 9The consuls were ordered to divide the conduct of the war between them, so that one should have the Volscians as his command, the other the Aequi. 10The tribunes loudly declared to their faces in the Forum that the Volscian war was a made-up story, and that the Hernici had been prepared to play their parts. 10Now the liberty of the Roman people was not even overpowered by courage, but cheated by craft. 11Because it was no longer believable that the Volscians and Aequi, all but annihilated, could take up arms of their own accord, new enemies were being sought; 11a loyal colony, a neighbouring one, was being defamed.
12War was being declared on the innocent people of Antium, but waged against the Roman plebs, whom they meant to drive out of the city in headlong march, loaded with arms, taking vengeance on the tribunes by the exile and banishment of citizens. 13Thus — let them not think anything else had been achieved — the law had been defeated, unless, while the matter was still undecided, while they were at home, while they were in their togas, they took care not to be driven from possession of the city, not to accept the yoke. 14If they had courage, help would not be lacking; 14all the tribunes were agreed. 14There was no foreign terror, no danger; 14the gods had seen to it the year before that liberty could be defended in safety.
14So spoke the tribunes.