Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/139

Rh To a large extent success is the result of planning secretly, acting at the opportune moment, following one's own counsel, and having no chance to fall

that the rest withdrew. After this Spurius Cassius and Opiter Verginius, as consuls, made peace with the Sabines. And capturing the city of Camerium, they slew most of the inhabitants; the remnant they took alive and sold, and razed the city to the ground.

Postumius Cominius and Titus Lartius arrested and put to death some slaves who were conspiring to seize the Capitoline. Servius Sulpicius and Marcus Tullius in their turn anticipated a second conspiracy composed of slaves and some others who had joined them; for it was reported to the consuls by certain men privy to the plot. They surrounded and hemmed in the conspirators and then cut them down. To the informants citizenship and other rewards were given.

When a new war was stirred up on the part of the Latins against Rome, the populace demanded that there should be a cancellation of debts, and refused to take up arms. Therefore the nobles then for the first time established a new office to have jurisdiction over both classes. Dictator was the name given to the man honoured with this position, and he possessed power equal in all respects to that of the kings. People hated the name of king on account of the Tarquins, but desiring the benefit to be derived from sole leadership, which seemed to exert a potent influence amid conditions of war and revolution, they chose it under another name. Hence the dictatorship was, as has been said, so far as its authority went, equivalent to the kingship, except that the dictator might not ride on horseback unless