Of all he adversaries and enviers of his glory, Marcus Manlius was
the most distinguished, he who first drove back the Gauls when
they made their night attack upon the Capitol, and who for that
reason had been named Capitolinus. This man, affecting the first
place in the commonwealth, and not able by noble ways to outdo
Camillus's reputation, took that ordinary course toward usurpation
of absolute power, namely, to gain the multitude, those of them
especially that were in debt; defending some by pleading their
causes against their creditors, rescuing others by force, and not
suffering the law to proceed against them; insomuch that in a
short time he got great numbers of indigent people about him,
whose tumults and uproars in the forum struck terror into the
principal citizens. After that Quintius Capitolinus, who was made
dictator to suppress these disorders, had committed Manlius to
prison, the people immediately changed their apparel, a thing
never done but in great and public calamities, and the senate,
fearing some tumult, ordered him to be released. He, however,when
set at liberty, changed not his course, but was rather the more
insolent in his proceedings,filling the whole city with faction
and sedition.
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