Appius Claudius was a candidate, a man of consular rank, daring and ambitious; and as he wished not more ardently for the attainment of that honour for himself, than he did that the patricians might recover the possession of both places in the consulship, he laboured, with all his own power, supported by that of the whole body of the nobility, to prevail on them to appoint him consul along with Quintus Fabius.

To this Fabius objected, giving, at first, the same reasons which he had advanced the year before.

The nobles then all gathered round his seat, and besought him to raise up the consulship out of the plebeian mire, and to restore both to the office itself, and to the patrician rank, their original dignity.

Fabius then, procuring silence, allayed their warmth by a qualifying speech, declaring, that "he would have so managed, as to have received the names of two patricians, if he had seen an intention of appointing any other than himself to the consulship.

As things now stood, he would not set so bad a precedent as to admit his own name among the candidates; such a proceeding being contrary to the laws." Whereupon Appius Claudius, and Lucius Volumnius, a plebeian, who had likewise been colleagues in that office before, were elected consuls.