1This trial and the proposed law kept the state busy; 1from foreign wars there was respite. 2When the tribunes, like victors, believed that the law was all but carried now that the patricians had been shaken by Caeso's exile, and, as far as the older patricians were concerned, the senators had given up possession of the state, the younger men, above all those who had been Caeso's comrades, increased their anger against the plebs and did not lessen their spirit; 3but they made most progress in this, that they moderated their attacks in a certain way. 4When the law first began to be brought forward after Caeso's exile, drawn up and ready, with a huge army of clients, they so attacked the tribunes, as soon as these gave them a pretext by trying to move them aside, that no single man carried home from there any special share of glory or of odium, and the plebs complained that a thousand Caesos had sprung up in place of one.
4On the days between, when the tribunes were not pressing the law, nothing was gentler or more peaceable than those same men: they greeted plebeians kindly, talked with them, invited them home, attended them in the Forum, allowed the tribunes themselves to hold other assemblies without interruption, and were never harsh to anyone either in public or in private, except when proceedings on the law had begun; 6elsewhere the young men were friends of the people. 6And not only did the tribunes carry through their other business peacefully, but they were also re-elected for the following year. 6Without even an offensive word, much less any violence, by gradually soothing and handling the plebs they had tamed them.
6By these arts the law was evaded throughout the whole year.