Then silence being made, a crier cited Quintus Fabius, master of the horse, and as soon as, on the lower ground, he had approached the tribunal, the dictator said, "Quintus Fabius, I demand of you, when the authority of dictator is acknowledged to be supreme, and is submitted to by the consuls, officers endowed with regal power; and likewise by the praetors, created under the same auspices with consuls; whether or no you think it reasonable that it should not meet obedience from a master of the horse?
I also ask you whether, when I knew that I set out from home under uncertain auspices, the safety of the commonwealth ought to have been endangered by me, whilst the omens were confused, or whether the auspices ought to be newly taken, so that nothing might be done while the will of the gods remained doubtful?
And further, when a religious scruple was of such a nature as to hinder the dictator from acting, whether the master of the horse could be exempt from it and at liberty?
But why do I ask these questions, when, though I had gone without leaving any orders, your own judgment ought to have been regulated according to what you could discover of my intention?
Why do you not answer?
Did I not forbid you to act, in any respect, during my absence?
Did I not forbid you to engage the enemy?
Yet, in contempt of these my orders, while the auspices were uncertain, while the omens were confused, contrary to the practice of war, contrary to the discipline of our ancestors, and contrary to the authority of the gods, you dared to enter on the fight.

Answer to these questions proposed to you.

On any other matter utter not a word.

Lictor, draw near him." To each of these particulars, Fabius, finding it no easy matter to answer, at one time remonstrated against the same person acting as accuser and judge, in a cause which affected his very existence; at another, he asserted that his life should sooner be forced from him, than the glory of his past services; clearing himself and accusing the other by turns; so then Papirius' anger blazing out with fresh fury, he ordered the master of the horse to be stripped, and the rods and axes to be got ready.

Fabius, imploring the protection of the soldiers, while the lictors were tearing his garments, betook himself to the quarters of the veterans, who were already raising a commotion in the assembly: from them the uproar spread through the whole body; in one place the voice of supplication was heard; in another, menaces.