Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/151

Rh well this principle may have been recognized, it surely had never been put into practice. For how could a nation have proceeded to such lengths of cruelty when it frequently granted to those convicted of some crime a refuge for their safety and allowed such as were thrust from the cliffs of the Capitoline to live in case they survived the experience?

Those who were owing debts took possession of a certain hill, and after placing one Gaius at their head, proceeded to secure their food from the country as from hostile territory, thereby demonstrating that laws were weaker than arms, and justice weaker than their desperation. The senators, fearing both that these men might become more estranged and that the neighbouring tribes might, in view of the crisis, attack them simultaneously, proposed terms to the seceders, offering everything that they hoped might please them. The latter at first maintained

a pitch of fury that many of the destitute abandoned the city or withdrew from the camp, and like enemies lived on the country.

When this situation had been brought about, since numbers came flocking to the side of the seceders, the senators, dreading both that the latter might become more estranged and that the neighbouring tribes might take advantage of the sedition and attack them simultaneously, proposed terms, in which they promised to do everything for them that they desired. But when the others displayed a