Etruscans; but at last the whole Etruscan army came against them,
showing only a small number at first to tempt them out to fight, then
falling on them with the whole force and killing the whole of them, so
that of the whole name there remained only one boy of fourteen who had
been left behind at Rome. And what was worse, the consul, Titus
Menenius, was so near the army that he could have saved the Fabii, but
for the hatred the patricians bore them as deserters from their cause.

[Illustration: VIEW OF A ROMAN HARBOR.]

However, the tribune Publilius gained for the plebeians that there
should be five tribunes instead of two, and made a change in the manner
of electing them which prevented the patricians from interfering. Also
it was decreed that to interrupt a tribune in a public speech deserved
death. But whenever an Appius Claudius was consul he took his revenge,
and was cruelly severe, especially in the camp, where the consul as
general had much more power than in Rome. Again the angry plebeians
would not fight, but threw down their arms in sight of the enemy.
Claudius scourged and beheaded; they endured grimly and silently,
knowing that when he returned to Rome and his consulate was over their
tribunes would call him to account. And so they did, and before all the
tribes of Rome summoned him to answer for his savage treatment of free
Roman citizens. He made a violent answer, but he saw how it would go
with him, and put himself to death to avoid the sentence. So were the
Romans proving again and again the truth of Agrippa's parable, that
nothing can go well with body or members unless each will be ready to
serve the other.

[Illustration]