3. ¶It is natural for the majority of the human race to quarrel with any opposing force even beyond what is to its own advantage and upon those who yield to bestow a benefit in turn even beyond its power. (Mai, p.151.)
[Frag. XX]
[Sidenote: B.C. 477 (a.u. 277)] 1. ¶The Fabii, who on the basis of birth and wealth made pretensions equal with the noblest, very quickly indeed saw that they were dejected. For when persons involve themselves in many undertakings that are at the same time hard to manage, they can discover no device for confronting the multitude and array of dangers, and give up as hopeless quite easy projects: after which their sober judgments and, contrary to what one would expect, their very opinions cause them to lose heart and they voluntarily abandon matters in hand with the idea that their labor will be but vain; finally they surrender themselves to unforseen dispensations of Heaven and await whatever Chance may bring. (Mai, p.151. Zonaras 7,17.)
2. ¶The Fabii, three hundred and six in number, were killed, by the Etruscans. Thus the arrogance which arises from confidence in valor is ofttimes ruined by its very boldness, and the boastfulness which comes from good fortune runs mad and suffers a complete reverse. (Mai, ib. Zonaras 7, 17.)
3. For whom (plur.) the Romans grieved, both in private and with public demonstrations, to a greater degree than the number of the lost would seem to warrant. That number was not small, especially since it was composed entirely of patricians, but they further felt, when they stopped to consider the reputation and the resolute spirit of these men that all their strength had perished. For this reason they inscribed among the accursed days that one on which they had been destroyed and put under the ban the gates through which they had marched out, so that no magistrate might pass through them. And they condemned Titus Menenius the prætor,—it was in his year that the disaster took place,—when he was later accused before the people of not having assisted the unfortunates and of having been subsequently defeated in battle. (Valesius, p.578.)
[Frag. XXI]
1. ¶The patricians openly took scarcely any retaliatory measures, except in a few cases, where they adjured some one of the gods, but secretly slaughtered a number of the boldest spirits. Nine tribunes on one occasion were delivered to the flames by the populace. This did not, however, restrain the rest: on the contrary, those who in turn held the tribuneship after that occurrence were rather filled with hope in the matter of their own quarrels than with fear as a result of the fate of their predecessors. Hence, so far from being calmed, they were even the more emboldened by those very proceedings. For they put forward the torture of the former tribunes as a justification of the vengeance they would take really in their own behalf; and they got great pleasure out of the idea that they might possibly, contrary to expectation, survive without harm. The consequence was that some of the patricians, being unable to accomplish anything in the other way, transferred themselves to the ranks of the populace: they thought its humble condition far preferable, considered in the light of their desire for the tribunician power, to the weakness of their own ornamental titles,—especially so because many held the office a second and third and even greater number of times in succession, although there was a prohibition against any one's taking the position twice. (Mai, p. 152. Zonaras 7, 17.)
2. ¶ The populace was incited to this course by the patricians themselves. For the policy which the latter pursued with an eye to their own advantage, that of always having some wars in readiness for them, so that the people might be compelled by the dangers from without to practice moderation,—this policy, I say, only rendered the people bolder. By refusing to go on a campaign unless they obtained in each instance the objects of their striving and by contending listlessly whenever they did take the field, they accomplished all that they desired. Meanwhile, as a matter of fact, not a few of the neighboring tribes, relying on the dissension of their foes more than on their own power, kept revolting. (Mai, ib. Zonaras 7, 17.)
[Frag. XXII]
1. ¶The Æqui after capturing Tusculum and conquering Marcus [Footnote: Other accounts give his name as Lucius or Quintus.] Minucius became so proud that, in the case of the Roman ambassadors whom the latter people sent to chide them regarding the seizure of the place, they made no answer at all to the censure but after designating by the mouth of their general, Cloelius Gracchus, a certain oak, bade them speak to it, if they desired aught. (Ursinus, p.373. Zonaras 7, 17.)