Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/62

 citizen gave a small piece of money toward the expenses of the funeral.   OMRADES, let us leave the city!”

“We will go at once!”

“There is plenty of air and water in Italy. We have no need to stay in Rome!”

“And we can die and be buried outside Rome!”

“Forward!”

And so the common folk, or plebeians, of Rome shouted to one another as they marched through the streets with their wives and children. They thought they were wrongly treated by the richer people, who were called patricians. They did the hard work of Rome—hewed the wood, drew the water, built the houses, tilled the land; and yet they were not allowed their fair share of the government of the city.

The old men of the senate were alarmed.

“We cannot do without the working-men,” they said. “We must fetch them back, or else they will found a new city.”

Several senators were chosen to follow after the plebeians, and persuade them to come back. The chief among these messengers was Agrippa, and he spoke very earnestly to the people: 