Liv. 3.71.1Victōriam honestam ex hostibus partam turpe domī dē fīnibus sociōrum iūdicium populī dēfōrmāvit.A victory honourably won over the enemy was disfigured at home by a shameful judgment of the people about the boundaries of allies. Liv. 3.71.2Arīcīnī atque Ardeātēs dē ambiguō agrō cum saepe bellō certāssent, multīs in vicem clādibus fessī iūdicem populum Rōmānum cēpēre.The people of Aricia and Ardea, having often contended in war over disputed land, and worn out by many disasters on both sides, took the Roman people as arbiter. Liv. 3.71.3Cum ad causam ōrandam vēnissent, conciliō populī ā magistrātibus datō magnā contentiōne āctum.When they had come to plead their case, and an assembly of the people had been granted by the magistrates, it was argued with great vehemence. Liv. 3.71.3Iamque ēditīs testibus cum tribūs vocārī et populum inīre suffrāgium oportēret, cōnsurgit P. Scaptius dē plēbe magnō nātū et "sī licet" inquit, "cōnsulēs, dē rē pūblicā dīcere, errāre ego populum in hāc causā nōn patiar."And when the witnesses had been produced and the tribes should have been called and the people should have proceeded to vote, Publius Scaptius, a plebeian of great age, rose and said: 'Consuls, if I may speak about the commonwealth, I will not allow the people to go wrong in this case.' Liv. 3.71.4Cum ut vānum eum negārent cōnsulēs audiendum esse vōciferantemque prōdī pūblicam causam submovērī iussissent, tribūnōs appellat.When the consuls said he should not be heard, as an idle talker, and ordered him to be removed as he shouted that the public cause was being betrayed, he appealed to the tribunes.
Liv. 3.71.5Tribūnī, ut ferē semper reguntur ā multitūdine magis quam regunt, dedēre cupidae audiendī plēbī, ut, quae vellet, Scaptius dīceret.The tribunes, as they are almost always ruled by the multitude rather than ruling it, yielded to the plebs, eager to hear, and let Scaptius say what he wished. Liv. 3.71.6Ibi īnfit annum sē tertium et octōgēsimum agere et in eō agrō, dē quō agitur, mīlitāsse, nōn iuvenem, vīcēsima iam stīpendia merentem, cum ad Coriolōs sit bellātum.Then he began: he was in his eighty-third year and had served as a soldier in the very land in question, not as a young man, for he was already serving his twentieth campaign, when the war was fought at Corioli. Liv. 3.71.6Eō rem sē vetustāte oblitterātam, cēterum suae memoriae īnfīxam adferre, agrum, dē quō ambigitur, fīnium Coriolānōrum fuisse captīsque Coriolīs iūre bellī pūblicum populī Rōmānī factum.So he brought forward a matter forgotten through lapse of time but fixed in his own memory: the land in dispute had belonged to the territory of Corioli, and when Corioli was captured it had become by right of war the public property of the Roman people.
Liv. 3.71.7Mīrārī sē, quōnam ōre Ardeātēs Arīcīnīque, cuius agrī iūs numquam ūsurpāverint incolumī Coriolānā rē, eum sē ā populō Rōmānō, quem prō dominō iūdicem fēcerint, interceptūrōs spērent.He wondered with what face the people of Ardea and Aricia, who had never claimed rights over the land while Corioli still stood, hoped to snatch it from the Roman people, whom they had made judge instead of owner. Liv. 3.71.8Sibi exiguum vītae tempus superesse;He had little time of life left; Liv. 3.71.8nōn potuisse sē tamen indūcere in animum, quīn, quem agrum mīles prō parte virīlī manū cēpisset, eum senex quoque vōce, quā ūnā posset, vindicāret.yet he had not been able to bring himself not to claim, now as an old man, with his voice, the only means he could, the land which as a soldier he had helped to capture with his hand, doing his part. Liv. 3.71.8Magnopere sē suādēre populō, nē inūtilī pudōre suam ipse causam damnāret.He strongly urged the people not to condemn its own cause through a useless sense of shame.