Liv. 3.37.1Circumspectāre tum patriciōrum vultūs plēbēī et inde lībertātis captāre auram, unde servitūtem timendō in eum statum rem pūblicam addūxerant.Then the plebeians began to look round at the faces of the patricians and to catch at a breath of liberty from the very quarter from which, in their fear of slavery, they had brought the state into its present condition. Liv. 3.37.2Prīmōrēs patrum ōdisse decemvirōs, ōdisse plēbem;The leading senators hated the decemvirs and hated the plebs; Liv. 3.37.2nec probāre, quae fierent, et crēdere haud indignīs accidere;they did not approve of what was being done, yet believed that it was happening to those who had deserved it; Liv. 3.37.2avidē ruendō ad lībertātem in servitūtem ēlāpsōs iuvāre nōlle, cumulārī quoque iniūriās, ut taediō praesentium cōnsulēs duo tandem et status prīstinus rērum in dēsīderium veniant.they were unwilling to help men who, rushing greedily towards liberty, had slipped into slavery; they even wanted the wrongs heaped up, so that through weariness of the present the two consuls and the former state of affairs might at last come to be longed for.
Liv. 3.37.4Iam et prōcesserat pars maior annī, et duae tabulae lēgum ad priōris annī decem tabulās erant adiectae, nec quicquam iam supererat, sī eae quoque lēgēs centuriātīs comitiīs perlātae essent, cūr eō magistrātū reī pūblicae opus esset.By now the greater part of the year had gone by, and two tablets of laws had been added to the ten tablets of the year before, and nothing was left, once these laws too had been carried in the centuriate assembly, to explain why the state should need that magistracy. Liv. 3.37.5Expectābant, quam mox cōnsulibus creandīs comitia ēdīcerentur.Men were waiting to see how soon elections would be proclaimed for the choice of consuls. Liv. 3.37.5Id modo plēbēs agitābat, quōnam modō tribūniciam potestātem, mūnīmentum lībertātī, rem intermissam reparārent, cum interim mentiō comitiōrum nūlla fierī.The plebs was considering only this, by what means they might restore the tribunes' power, the bulwark of liberty, a thing now in abeyance, while meanwhile no mention of elections was made. Liv. 3.37.6Et decemvirī, quī prīmō tribūniciōs hominēs, quia id populāre habēbātur, circum sē ostentāverant plēbēī, patriciīs iuvenibus saepserant latera.And the decemvirs, who at first had shown themselves to the plebs surrounded by former tribunes, because that was thought popular, had now fenced their flanks with young patricians.
Liv. 3.37.6Eōrum catervae tribūnālia obsēderant.Gangs of these had besieged the tribunals. Liv. 3.37.7Hī ferre agere plēbem plēbisque rēs, cum fortūna, quidquid cupītum foret, potentiōris esset.These men plundered the plebs and the plebs' goods, since fortune favoured the more powerful in whatever had been coveted. Liv. 3.37.8Et iam nē tergō quidem abstinēbātur: virgīs caedī, aliī secūrī subicī, et, nē grātuīta crūdēlitās esset, bonōrum dōnātiō sequī dominī supplicium.And by now not even backs were spared: some were beaten with rods, others put under the axe, and, so that the cruelty should not go unrewarded, the gift of the owner's goods followed his punishment. Liv. 3.37.8Hāc mercēde iuventūs nōbilis corrupta nōn modo nōn īre obviam iniūriae, sed prōpalam licentiam suam mālle quam omnium lībertātem.Corrupted by this payment, the young nobles not only failed to oppose wrongdoing, but openly preferred their own licence to the liberty of all.