operation of the Tribunes, and having introduced some propositions of dividing lands and relieving debts amongst the poor.22 A Dictator was then appointed in the person of Cornelius Cossus, an extreme Patrician, with the ostensible charge of repelling the united forces of several hostile nations; but no one doubted, least of all Manlius, that the power of the Dictator was to be mainly employed, as it had often been under similar circumstances, at home. The moderate Patricians do not appear on either side. Manlius, however, went on from words to deeds; one day, saving a Centurion from imprisonment by paying the debts for which the man had been arrested, and then, delighted by the gratitude of the people, continuing his kind offices by parting with the bulk of his patrimony in order to relieve the miserable.

The motives of Manlius, even in respect to these acts of benevolence, were represented as vilely selfish, and even treacherous to the public interests. He was thought to be a more dangerous enemy than the combined armies in the field; and Cornelius Cossus was summoned to return against him. On being ordered to appear before the Dictator, Manlius obeyed, not only without evasion, but with some eagerness to show that he was supported, as his enemies would say, and able to brave the highest authority of the Commonwealth; but his readiness to come forward may, with equal propriety, be interpreted as the con

22 Appian., De Reb. Ital., IX.

sciousness of innocence, though not, it is probable, of any charity towards his adversaries. His followers, of whom a goodly number attended him, to the great dissatisfaction of his opponents, do not seem to have had any instruction from him, or any intent of their own, to defend him by force; and when, on being charged with holding meetings by night, and engaging in various disorderly practices, he failed to satisfy the Dictator, he was committed to prison, without any other resistance than an appeal to the deities of the Capitol, that they would protect their soldier and defender.23

The greater part of the Plebeians, as the story ran, assumed the signs of mourning and even of seditious indignation. Two thousand of their number were promised lands in one of the newly conquered towns; but the boon was too small to satisfy them, whether they were traitors or friends to their fallen benefacCossus retired from the dictatorship, probably on account of its term having expired; and the clamor of the people increasing on the disappearance of him and his twenty-four lictors, the Senate were obliged to release their prisoner, lest the crowds increasing round the prison night and day should effect his liberation by their own means.

Even if Manlius had been truly generous in his intentions, before the outrage he must have considered himself as having suffered in his confinement, he would nevertheless come forth from prison with

23 Liv., VI. 16.

more desire to humble his opponents than to benefit his inferiors or his followers. Forgiveness of inju

ries was not a Roman virtue, and Manlius abandoned himself to the bitter hatred and vindictiveness that were accounted by most men blameworthy only when failing of being gratified. The secret meetings concerning which he had been before accused were soon renewed, with the very designs that had then been falsely urged as the reasons for his arrest and imprisonment. Yet the only treason of which he appears capable was against the authority, or, at most, the safety, of those who had proved their hostility to him by means as treasonable, if we read of them correctly, as any he now sought to use.

Not long after the liberation of Manlius, and probably before he had done much to organize his plans, defensive or aggressive, his old enemy, Camillus, was chosen, for the fifth time, to the consular tribunate.2 24 The contrast between the triumph of his rival and his own shame would act like fiery poison upon a soul like that of Manlius; especially at a moment of resolution such as had now arrived. Some charge, perhaps that of aspiring after royalty, was made in relation to him before the Senate, who straightway authorized the magistrates to take any measures, legal or illegal, as they pleased, against him, as an enemy of the public safety; at which two Tribunes of the Plebeians summoned him to stand his trial before the Centuries. But when, on the day

24 A. C. 382. Liv., VI. 18.

appointed, he appeared, surrounded by a throng of citizens who owed him their lives or their liberties, his wounds bared and his arms outstretched to the Capitol, there was not one of the five classes, nor one, perhaps, of all the Centuries, to believe Manlius guilty of treachery to his country or his countrymen. His adversaries in office, as violent against him as he could possibly have been against them, adjourned the trial to another place, from which there was no prospect towards the Capitol,25 and assigned a day before which they would have more time for preparing their assault than Manlius for securing his defence. It is reported, and on good authority,26 that Camillus was named Dictator to conduct the prosecution against his unfortunate antagonist, over whom he certainly triumphed; though it does not appear certain whether Manlius submitted to a second trial, or whether, resisting it, he seized the Capitol, and there perished in endeavouring to defend himself by force. He died abjured by his family and branded by his foes as if he had been an outlaw.27

Thus fell another martyr to the highest cause it was then possible for a Roman to espouse. Even this, though not the cause of the whole nation, much less of its perfect liberty, but simply that of justice or generosity, as it might be called, to the mass of the Plebeians, would have none but martyrs for its advocates, until there were men to support it

25 Plut., Cam., 36. Liv., VI. 20. 26 Zonaras, VII. 24.

27 Liv., VI. 20. Dion Cass., Frag. Peiresc., XXXI.

first and themselves last, if the inducement to supporting it must still be the support they thus could give themselves. Cassius was slain for want of able, Manlius for want of willing defenders; but Manlius, maddened by even worse contumely than befell the others, yet wanting neither ready nor capable followers, was in a great degree his own destroyer. Wars followed, as if his requiem were the clash of swords or the groans of dying men; and the fearful notes were caught up within the very streets of Rome, amongst those whom pestilence smote or bondage crushed with chains. They who, meanwhile, like Camillus perhaps, rejoiced that Manlius was fallen, or the battle won, or the wretched humbled, were not the men whom God long suffers, even where He has doomed them to walk in darkness. A new leaf may be turned in our history. The contests amongst Patricians to give or to refuse the right are virtually told; and we shall begin anew to read how much the willingness of the higher classes to grant was surpassed by the energy of the lower to win the extension of liberty in Rome.