During this consulate of Marcus Valerius and Quintus Appulcius, affairs abroad wore a very peaceable aspect.

Their losses sustained in war, together with the truce, kept the Etrurians quiet.

The Samnites, depressed by the misfortunes of many years, had not yet become dissatisfied with their new alliance.

At Rome, also, the carrying away of such multitudes to colonies, rendered the commons tranquil, and lightened their burthens.

But, that things might not be tranquil on all sides, a contention was excited between the principal persons in the commonwealth, patricians on one hand, and plebeians on the other, by the two Ogulnii, Quintus and Cneius, plebeian tribunes, who, seeking every where occasions of criminating the patricians in the hearing of the people, and having found other attempts fruitless, set on foot a proceeding by which they might inflame, not the lowest class of the commons, but their chief men, the plebeians of consular and triumphal rank, to the completion of whose honours nothing was now wanting but the offices of the priesthood, which were not yet laid open to them.