1That was the end of Appius playing a part not his own; 1from then on he began to live according to his own nature and to mould his new colleagues to his own ways, even before they entered office. 2Every day they met with no witnesses present; 2then, armed with unbridled plans which they concocted in secret apart from others, no longer hiding their arrogance, seldom approachable and hard to talk to, they spun matters out until the Ides of May. 3The Ides of May was at that time the customary day for entering office. 3So, on entering office, they marked the first day of their magistracy by a threat of tremendous terror.
3For whereas the previous decemvirs had kept the rule that one man held the fasces and that this emblem of royalty passed round them all, each in his turn, suddenly they all came forth with twelve fasces each. 4A hundred and twenty lictors had filled the forum and carried before them axes bound up with the rods; 4and they explained that there was no point in the axe being removed, since they had been elected without appeal. 5It looked like ten kings, and the terror was multiplied, not only among the lowest but among the leading senators, who thought that a pretext and starting point for bloodshed was being sought, so that, if anyone let fall a word mindful of liberty, either in the senate or before the people, the rods and axes would at once be made ready, to frighten the rest as well.
6For besides the fact that there was no protection in the people, since appeal had been abolished, they had also by mutual agreement abolished intervention, whereas the previous decemvirs had allowed judgments given by themselves to be corrected by appeal to a colleague, and had referred to the people certain matters which might have seemed to fall within their own jurisdiction. 6For some time the terror was shared equally among all; 7little by little it began to turn wholly against the plebs. 7The senators were left alone; 7against the humbler sort measures were taken wantonly and cruelly. 7They were wholly for persons, not for causes, as men in whose eyes influence had the force of justice.
8They hammered out their judgments at home and pronounced them in the forum. 8If anyone appealed to a colleague, he came away from the one he had gone to in such a state that he regretted not having abided by the first one's decree. 9A belief had also got abroad, though no one vouched for it, that they had conspired not only in injustice for the present time, but that a secret pact had been struck among them under oath not to hold elections, and by a perpetual decemvirate to keep the power they had once seized.