Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was, showing the
scars and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the
many conflicts in which he had signalized himself during a service
of seventeen years together, the people were affected at this
display of merit, and told one another that they ought in common
modesty to create him consul. But when the day of election had
come, and Marcius appeared in the forum with a pompous train of
senators attending him, and the patricians all seemed to be
exerting greater effort than they had ever done before on a
similar occasion, the commons then fell off again from the
kindness they had conceived for him, and in the place of their
late benevolence, began to feel something of indignation and envy;
passions assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of
such aristocratic temper, and so influential among the patricians,
should be invested with the power which that office would give
him, he might employ it to deprive the people of all that liberty
which was yet left them. In conclusion, they rejected Marcius. Two
other names were announced, to the great mortification of the
senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected rather upon
themselves than on Marcius.
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