Appius, however, withstood so great a storm with obstinacy, and the contest would have ended in a battle, not without blood, had not Quintius, the other consul, after giving it in charge to the men of consular dignity to remove his colleague from the forum by force, if they could not do it otherwise, himself assuaged the enraged people by entreaties, and implored the tribunes to dismiss the assembly.

"That they should give their passion time to cool; that delay would not deprive them of their power, but would add prudence to strength; and that the senators would be under the control of the people, and the consul under that of the senators." 57.

With difficulty the people were pacified by Quintius: with much more difficulty was the other consul by the patricians.

The assembly of the people being at length dismissed, the consuls convene the senate; where, though fear and resentment by turns had produced a diversity of opinions, the more they were recalled, after the lapse of time, from violence to reflection, the more averse did they become to a continuance of the dispute, so that they returned thanks to Quintius, because by his exertions the disturbance had been quieted.

Appius is requested "to consent that the consular dignity should be merely so great as it could be in a peaceably conducted state; that as long as the tribune and consuls were drawing all power, each to his own side, no strength was left between; that the object aimed at was in whose hands the commonwealth should be, distracted and torn as it was, rather than that it should be safe." Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to witness that "the commonwealth was betrayed and abandoned through cowardice; that it was not the consul that was wanting to the senate, but the senate to the consul; that more oppressive laws were now being submitted to than were sanctioned on the sacred mount." Overcome however by the unanimous feeling of the senators, he desisted: the law is carried without opposition.
58.